Reports: William and Kate Won't Have Servants

(CBS)  Prince William may be second-in-line to the British throne, but right now, he's just a working man, on active duty as a search and rescue pilot.

Off-shift, he goes back to the rented cottage he and finance Kate Middleton share near the sea on an island in Wales.

They don't have any servants.

But how long, in their public royal roles, will they be able to cook, clean and do their own shopping?

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"I think," says Roya Nikkhah, royal correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph, a British newspaper, "the image they are trying to portray is that these are the new, modern, young royals who don't need a coitterie of staff to help them get on with their daily lives."

William's father, Prince Charles, is reported to have 149 staffers -- 25 of them personal servants, like valets and butlers.

And at Buckingham Palace, armies of servants have their work cut out for them: It takes three days just to lay the table for a state banquet, notes CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.

"It probably has a little bit to do with a lifestyle decision and a security decision," Nikkhah says. " … Prince William will be very aware of breaches of trust experienced by members of the royal family over the years."

William may have learned a lesson from his mother, Princess Diana, who learned the hard way that good staff can be hard to find, Palmer observes.

Her butler, Paul Burrell, betrayed her -- and made millions selling a line of tacky souvenirs.

Then there was the tabloid reporter who went undercover and got a job as a palace footman.

But Kate and William are said to want minimal staff for one simple reason: to guard their privacy in this celebrity-obsessed world.

[cat54mom]

Bet William and Kate will have hired help though. Can't see Kate or William scrubbing toilets on a regular basis. (I wouldn't if I had the money to hire it done!)

[lirocky]

I live pretty good without any servants (except for the stripper maid) so I don't think they will have any problems.

[samXXkiley]

coucou,
coquin!

au revoir

[YrWrongAgain]

But there was never a monarch, a warlord, a mystic, a President-for-Life that the CBS News Loser Squad didn't didn't like, provided the thug lived in the Near East.

[Gor_Gor]

Let them eat cake.

[GaPeeche]

Sorry, I don't believe it. I don't think Kate will be cleaning toilets. Never has, never will. BS story.

[bradkt1]

What's the fun of being royalty with no servants? William and Kate can send some of their servants to do my work around my house and I won't complain.

[Jaylah54]

It does sometimes seem as thought it would be nice, doesn't it?

But then, when you consider that both William and Kate will be engaged in hundreds of public activities every year, I can also see where it would be really necessary to be able to have a place (home) where you were not "on display."

I mean, even if you had staff that you could trust implicitly not to go around blabbing what they heard or saw, we all tend to behave at least a bit differently when we know there are others around.

Don't you tend to wait until you're both at home alone together to have cross words with your spouse? Or what if you've had a really, really, really bad "day at the office" and you can't wait to get home by yourself to rant about your stupid boss and the outrageous demands of your job. If you're royalty, don't you suppose that a housekeeper might think you were being pretty ungrateful if you did that in their hearing?

As much as I hate housework, I would never want servants/staff in my house non-stop.

I'm guessing that William and Kate will have a small housekeeping staff that will come in and do the "heavy work" for them. Kate will certainly have to have at least a part-time "dresser" to take care of making sure her clothing she wears for official events gets properly pressed before wearing, and is properly cleaned after, etc.

But I can certainly understand why the two of them would prefer to start their marriage in a home of their own, where they can be alone, rather than in a glass cage.

Given Williams birthright, the glass cage will come soon enough. I think they are both wise to want this time and this lifestyle while they still can. When they're both 80 years old, they'll look back on this fondly and remind each other, "Remember when we went out to the kitchen and made ourselves omelets for dinner, and then did our own washing up?"

[jxknowles]

Well if anything happens, we'll know the butler didn't do it. Good for them for putting an end to the pomposity of the Royal Family. It's a joke to non-Britains, just like Kim Jong IL.

[ToolMangler1]

The future royal couple just gained stature in my eyes.
"Salud"

[samXXkiley]

coucou,
William & Kate, auront des serviteurs plus ****, c'est sur.
============================

149 serviteurs rien que ?a.
c'est par l? que le plan d'aust?rit? de David Cameron aurait du commencer
apparemment, prince Charles, ne fait rien de ses deux mains.
le travail n'a jamais tu? personne , majest?
===========
149 servants, no less.
Apparently, Prince Charles, does nothing with his hands.
it is also there, as the austerity plan, should have started.
the work never killed anyone Majesty! au revoir

[JavMD]

'traditions' are interesting... hard to believe they still have 'royality' after all these years.

and no servants.. yeah.. during the recession I had to let mine go, but kept the upstairs maid !