Prince William and Kate Middleton just broke royal protocol, leaving King Charles and Queen Camilla to play catch up on an important day in the family’s calendar. The Prince and Princess of Wales are gaining more and more responsibility and power within the Royal Family as time goes on.
With both Charles and Kate out for the count for much of 2024 due to their cancer diagnoses, William became the face of the Royals last year, providing a preview for his eventual ascension to the throne. Meanwhile, Kate’s popularity has only skyrocketed since she began returning to her duties over the past few months.
That being said, William and Kate aren’t king and queen yet, so when they decided to kick off the festivities on a family birthday they may have been breaching the proper Royal code. Somebody’s about to get a stern talking to!
Oops! William and Kate make royal announcement before King Charles gets the chance

Monday, Jan. 20 is a time of celebration for the Royal Family as it marks the 60th birthday of Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh. As the wife of Prince Edward, Charles’ youngest sibling, she is sister-in-law to the king and aunt by marriage to Prince William. The Waleses must be pretty close to Sophie, it seems, as the couple couldn’t wait to wish her a happy birthday, sharing a celebratory message at 8:58 am GMT.
“Wishing The Duchess of Edinburgh a very happy 60th birthday today!” reads the tweet from the official Prince and Princess of Wales X account.
The thing is, though, this is strictly speaking a breach of royal rules as it is protocol for the official Royal Family account, essentially the king’s X account, to make announcements like this one first before any other affiliated Royal accounts join in. On this occasion, however, the early rising of the Wales’ account meant Charles and Camilla’s page had to hastily scramble to get out its own message to mark Sophie’s birthday. A tweet from the account ultimately followed at 9:22am.
“Wishing The Duchess of Edinburgh a very happy 60th birthday today!” reads the Royal Family account’s message. “To learn more about Her Royal Highness’s work, visit: https://royal.uk/duchess-edinburgh.”
Of course, it’s all-important to note here that we know this is not some extremely subtle, underhanded way for the Waleses to show they’re really running the show these days. The fact is William and Kate’s message does not include a sign-off with their initials, which is their practice when they post a personalized tweet. So this appears to have been a mere scheduling snafu from their social media manager rather than a sneaky coup for the crown.
Royal watchers can no doubt expect to hear more from Duchess Sophie, typically one of the less likely members of the family to hog the spotlight, in the years to come. Reports indicate that William believes his aunt has what it takes to shoulder a bigger and more public role and he plans to reward her reliability and stability when he eventually becomes king himself. That hasn’t happened yet, though, despite what his X activity might suggest.
Published: Jan 20, 2025 10:05 am