bitchy | Prince William & Kate are going to Scotland next week to avoid Prince Harry

Yesterday, Kensington Palace confirmed some Scottish events for the Prince and Princess of Wales next week. I didn’t think anything of it, beyond a random, fleeting thought of “that’s weird, they usually don’t take a day trip to Scotland in the dead of winter most years.” Thankfully, People Magazine pointed out the hilarious significance of Willy and Kate’s big Scotland itinerary.

Prince Harry returns to London next week, but most of his family will be out of town. The Duke of Sussex, 41, will be back in the U.K. for the opening of his High Court trial, the final legal step in his series of lawsuits against Associated Newspapers.

However, on Jan. 21, Prince William, 43, and Kate Middleton, 44, have a joint engagement in Scotland, taking them hundreds of miles from the English capital.

The royal couple will first visit the National Curling Academy in Stirling to meet with Great Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic curling teams ahead of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic Games.

They will then visit Radical Weavers in Stirling, a working handweaving studio that doubles as a charity where patrons learn about the heritage of Scottish tartan and benefit from the therapeutic qualities of weaving while creating blankets and textiles to give back to those in need.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry is expected to be in court for most of the week, as he joins several high-profile figures, including pop star Elton John, actress Elizabeth Hurley and Jude Law’s ex-wife Sadie Frost, in suing Associated Newspapers (ANL) — the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday — for alleged illegal information gathering. Associated Newspapers has “vigorously” denied the allegations, the BBC previously reported.

Harry is also not expected to see his father, King Charles, while he is in London.

[From People]

We’ve known for more than a week that King Charles would be up in Scotland, which is “his thing” now – after Christmas, he and Camilla go up to Birkhall and/or Castle of Mey for several weeks. But I didn’t realize that William and Kate would run the same play they’ve been running for years: “We have to look busy when Harry’s in town, quick, schedule some last-minute events and throw on a blonde wig!” Last September, when Harry was in England for four days, William threw together a last-minute, half-assed schedule of events in an attempt to look too busy to meet with Harry. Plus, William wants to compete with Harry’s headlines. It was sad, because Harry got wall-to-wall coverage, and barely anyone paid attention to the Scooter King’s pitiful busywork. The “William is having a nervous breakdown” stories started right after that too. Good times. Well, you know what that means for next week.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.