LIZ JONES: The Kents put duties first and don’t stay with their grieving daughter Lady Gabriella. If only William had done the same, instead of letting the rumor mill get out of hand

Now I’m REALLY worried.

On Tuesday morning, with barely two hours to spare, the Prince of Wales announced he would not show up at the memorial service for the late ex-King Constantine II of Greece, none other than his godfather.

The reason given was ‘due to a personal matter’. Hmmm. He also forfeited the honor of giving a lecture.

All of this immediately made me and so many others worry about Kate.

Twitter caught fire (11,000 posts about William, 47,000 about Kate) with feverish speculation. This is despite the fact that the Palace almost in the same breath insisted that ‘the Princess of Wales is doing well’, which sounds rather lame.

It would almost tell us to keep our proletarian noses out.

Since then we have been assured of the death of Tom Kingston, husband of Lady Gabriella – daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent not the reason for William’s absence.

That sad announcement was made a few hours after the service, even though he was found dead on Sunday.

Bravely, and if necessary proof that the royals are nothing if not stoic, Gabriella’s parents chose to attend the memorial service.

It was all the more poignant because the venue was St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, where Gabriella and Tom had their wedding in 2019, attended by the late Queen.

Gabriella’s parents looked somber yesterday but gave nothing away. They were in the middle of a family tragedy, but they knew the show had to go on.

The temptation to stay with Ella and comfort her must have torn the Kents in two, but the royals always put duties first.

Which of course last night only fueled more speculation that if William didn’t show up, something must be terribly wrong.

He was raised with duty as his watchword. Even as a 15-year-old boy, he managed to keep it together and walk behind his mother’s coffin.

What on earth could have caused the dramatic last-minute no-show?

Although most of us have never heard of the late King Constantine, William’s decision not to appear is baffling. The king, who died just over a year ago, was a cousin of William’s grandfather, Prince Philip, and a senior European royal.

Guests included the King and Queen of Spain, as well as Queen Camilla and Princess Anne.

William’s absence has been confusing on so many levels and I wonder why the Palace is allowing the rumor mill to get out of hand by not giving us a good reason?

Desperate for news, like so many people, I go online. And there, oh dear, oh dear, is a montage that may not quite bring about the end of the monarchy, but one that suggests it will certainly become irrelevant.

The photos of the service were downright Victorian: so dark and gloomy and the protagonists – there is no other expression for that – as old as the hills.

Crumbling. No hint of glamour, no juice in those veins.

Of course it was a somber occasion, but didn’t the sight of the Princess of Wales in a black veil at Prince Philip’s funeral give hope for the future?

Unfortunately, the royal attendance consisted mainly of gray heads and wrinkles. And Prince Andrew, 64 – Prince Andrew! – who led the procession to the chapel. That certainly wouldn’t have happened if William had been present.

The Duchess and Duke of Gloucester, 77 and 79. Princess Alexandra was there at 87, Commander Tim Laurence, 68, alongside Princess Anne, 73.

And of course Queen Camilla, 76. The combined age of the royals in the front row was 581.

All this makes me long for William and Catherine: tall and elegant as reeds, far more glamorous than any movie stars.

Why on earth no one thought to get Princess Beatrice (row two), Zara (row three) in the best seats to increase style and youth numbers is beyond me.

And where is Lady Louise, Philip’s granddaughter?

Nor have I spied a single person of color in our royal ranks.

Royal courtiers will of course shout ‘protocol’.

Queen Camilla is holding down the fort, but even she must be thinking, “We’re really on our last legs.”

You can imagine the groans of relief as the congregation sits down.

Of course, age brings experience, gravitas, wisdom and devotion to duty – again, Gabriella’s parents did exactly what the late Queen Elizabeth would have done: straighten their backs and put their game face on.

But this doesn’t guarantee a future, let alone positive oohs and aahs from a waving crowd.

We have never seen William and Kate, or even Harry and Meghan, need such an acute need: they would be an HRT injection. It would be all, ‘What is she wearing?’ “Are the boys talking?” “How’s Harry’s hair?”

Instead we said, ‘The Duke just sat down, oh my God, will he ever come up again?’

Like it or not, the Royal Family is all about glamour, marketing and putting on a show. It shouldn’t look doom-like and smell like mothballs. Princess Michael herself has described the older royal family as ‘boring’ in the past.

The royal family looks very gloomy indeed. Bring back the Fab Four, or even a Fab One.

We really can’t bear any more bad news. Prince William must do his duty. Not only for his wife and children, but also for us.