For years now, the principal actors at the heart of the British monarchy have signaled frustration that they are not taken seriously enough as global actors. King Charles III has spent decades positioning himself as a credible voice on climate and sustainability. Now, his new documentary has him “telling us that he saw environmental collapse coming as long ago as the 60s, and interviewees pointing out that ‘people dismissed him as crazy.’”

And Prince William is regularly framed as a current/future statesman—someone meant to represent continuity, seriousness, and moral authority on the international stage. His “landmark” speech at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco last summer was described as having it all: “a call to action, a little personal reflection and just the right amount of oomph.”

In short, the heir wants to be taken seriously as someone who belings in the rooms where sh*t happens…despite knowing that he’s mostly there by virtue of his birth. But sometimes, the mask slips. Last fall, the Daily Beast described Prince William as “hurt and angry” that his Earthshot Prize was overshadowed by King Charles III staging a headline-grabbing knighthood ceremony for David Beckham at the same moment.

Sources framed the timing not as an unfortunate coincidence but as a deliberate snub, all of which fuelled William’s frustration that the initiative he has spent five years building is still not treated as a serious or singular platform: “Of all weeks,” a friend told The Royalist, “this was the one week he needed the family to be supporting him. Instead, it felt like they were working against him. He was left hurt and angry.”

Whether that interpretation is fair or not, the through-line is revealing: a deep concern within the institution about recognition, legitimacy, and being taken seriously on the world stage.

Their initiatives are presented, by the monarchy’s supporters, as evidence that the institution still has relevance and influence beyond mere ceremony. That the whole of the institution is worth more than the sum of its more frivolous parts: the tiaras, the cutlery, the velvet ropes, the helicopters.

But that gripe becomes difficult to sustain when set against the ongoing fallout from, and palace response to, the Epstein files.