Kate Middleton is unquestionably one of the most beloved and obsessed-over royals in recent history.
But most of the press coverage centering around the Duchess of Cambridge focuses on her style, her charm, and her home life.
Obviously, that’s been the case with most of her predecessors, as well, but there are those who feel that the role of royals in the 21st Century should be to serve as their nation’s most high-profile philanthropists.
Many also feel that in that respect, Kate simply isn’t doing enough.
Is it Kate’s fault that the media chooses to focus so much on her appearance?
Certainly not, and there may be little she can do to change that.
However, a common criticism these days is that Kate is little to shift the public’s attention to more important matters, and now there are numbers to support that argument.
The royals are intensely scrutinized by the British media, as probably should be the case with a group of people whose lavish lifestyle is supported by taxpayers.
As a result, media outlets in the UK compile an annual list of how much actual work (humanitarian campaigns, royal tours and engagements, etc.) each member of the royal family puts in each year.
As 2016 comes to a close, many are expressing astonishment over the fact that, according to the Daily Mail, Kate only worked a total of 63 days.
For comparison, her husband, Prince William, worked 80 days, while his brother, Prince Harry, worked 86 days.
Princess Anne was once again the busiest royal, putting in 179 days of work.
Prince Charles worked 139 days, the Earl of Wessex worked 118 days and the Duke of York worked 112 days, all of them trouncing Kate by a considerable margin.
Other media outlets chose to report the royal workload in terms of the number of engagements undertaken by the members of the Windsor-Mountbatten clan, and those numbers tell a very similar story:
Kate carried out 115 engagements, while he husband notched 204, and her brother-in-law tallied 166.
Here again, Princess Anne has offered a master class in work ethic, carrying out more than 500 engagements in 2016, despite battling a bad illness in September.
90-year-old Queen Elizabeth undertook 385 engagements, while her husband, Prince Philip, carried out 336.
It’s worth noting, of course, that Kate is a mother of two, and she was on maternity leave for the first months of 2016.
However, it’s also worth pointing out that this is the sixth year in a row that she’s been determined to be the least busy member of the royal family.
There may be a perfectly good reason for why Kate participates in far fewer engagements than the rest of the royals.
But as long as that reason remains a secret, reports like this will likely lead to further rumors about Kate feuding with the Queen and the rest of her in-laws.