God help us all. To be clear, I’m only writing this up in a separate post because I wrote twice about the Duke of Cambridge’s Verbier trip and fair is fair. Today, Emily Andrews at The Sun reported that that same weekend the Duchess was in Meribel, France skiing with her sister, Pippa, and friends as part of a pre-wedding “hen party.”

The two groups actually shared the same private jet out of the UK and then split up. A “friend” shared with the paper that:

“Pippa loves skiing so it was her first choice for a hen weekend. They stayed in a really exclusive catered chalet with maids and chef, who ensured that they were totally spoilt. The owners also wanted to impress their royal guests so the girls were showered with gifts. They were given Swatch watches, Ugg slippers, leather-bound notebooks and bespoke fragrances. It was a very small, private party and they had an amazing time.

“Apparently the girls on Pippa’s hen were giggling as Kate told them that William had had to be escorted down from the mountain for being too drunk after that lunch on the Sunday. All the girls thought it was hilarious. He wasn’t allowed to ski as he’d had too much to drink. The staff didn’t want him to get hurt. At first Kate thought it was very funny. But she wasn’t too impressed when she saw the photos of him dancing with that Australian girl.”

First of all, sounds like a fun party. Now, what makes this different from what William did? Well, public intoxication for starters. We don’t have photos of Kate drunk dancing in a club or chatting up a group of much younger men, though to be honest, that sounds hilarious and I’d be the first one to give her a pass. She hasn’t put a foot wrong in a decade and in my mind, it’s astonishing she breezed through her early to mid-20s with as little incident as she did given the unrelenting press attention.

But, Kate missed Commonwealth Day too and she’s the future queen consort. Maybe it’s unfair, but this genuinely doesn’t bother me. She’s not the future monarch, William is. In an ideal scenario they would have both returned from their weekends and showed up in London that Monday, but they didn’t. And frankly William’s absence is the more glaring one, particularly in light of what came out about his trip.

Though to play devil’s advocate, it’s very possible (if not likely) that the reaction to the Verbier trip would have been significantly tempered had it not broken when it did. The juxtaposition of William lunching with young women, skiing and dancing against images of the rest of his family greeting well wishers outside Westminster wasn’t a good look.

You know what else isn’t a good look? Being so drunk you have to get escorted off the mountain. That would be embarrassing and kind of bush league at 24, but William is 34 and married with children. I actually don’t find that funny at all. Being drunk is one thing, but being so drunk people are worried about your safety? Not ideal. I’m trying to think of a scenario in which if I were Kate I would land on amusement and the only thing that comes to me is if this situation is so out of character as to be ridiculous. And hopefully it is.

Sometimes you have a bit too much to drink. It happens. But it’s one thing in the context of a late night in a bar out with your friends, and quite another in the middle of the day when it precludes you from partaking in the activity at hand. Particularly when you have a spouse and children. Especially if you are a public figure and being caught in this scenario would potentially embarrass your extended family.

Not for nothing, but that is the second quote now that has indicated Kate was less than pleased by the weekend’s events. If there was any domestic fallout from the trip, I doubt it was serious, but it does make their weekend with the Irish Guards and all of Paris all the more impressive.

Now, as for this friend…this is a long quote, isn’t it? Based on the wording, it’s clear that this “friend” wasn’t actually on the trip, but is ostensibly close enough to someone in the group to get the details. Which isn’t out of the question, I suppose. But I find the timing of it all odd. Considering part of the criticism of William from some corners was the idea that he behaved the way he did while Kate was home with their children it makes me think that either someone made the executive decision to let William take a public flogging for a while, or this story may have been planted.

If you’re in Kate’s corner, so to speak, then this coming to light now doesn’t run the risk of her being hit by the same backlash as William was. We’re far enough away from Commonwealth Day I doubt she’ll get the same dilettante edit as her husband. But let’s say you know this trip went down and you don’t want it to come out when it would once again be bad timing – well, getting out ahead of it right about now would be ideal.

It’s also interesting in light of the paparazzi shots a few days ago that caught William and Kate leaving Pippa’s home after a dinner party, particularly given how rarely that occurs.

If this was planted, I highly doubt it came from Kate or Kensington Palace due to the details about William, not to mention the Cambridges’ attitude about the press. That he had to be escorted off the mountain is new information and not exactly flattering, but Kate does come off looking good in this story. She sounds independent, fun and pretty chill about her husband off without her, but also responsible enough that she kept herself in check and was less than pleased that William didn’t.

This may very well be a fluke of timing and a very chatty friend of a friend, but all told, I would say Kate is lucky in how this story broke. And my God, William can’t really catch a break here, can he?