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Kate and William launch magazine legal action
Kate Middleton and Prince William are taking legal action against Tatler magazine, which is a fixture in the homes of British landowners, after it published an article which claimed that Kate blamed Meghan for ruining her family’s life by deserting the royal firm, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Kate and William have reportedly sent legal letters to the magazine demanding its profile of the duchess—headlined “Catherine the Great” but actually a sly and sneering take-down of Kate’s middle-class roots—be removed from the internet.
Kensington Palace has already said the piece contains a “swathe of inaccuracies and false representations” about Kate.
The article garnered worldwide attention after it rehashed details of an alleged feud between Kate and Meghan, although most informed sources say the real heart of the rift between the Sussex and Cambridge clans lies with their husbands.
The palace is said to be particularly “furious” about claims that Kate feels “exhausted and trapped” by her increased workload following Harry and Meghan’s decision to leave their roles as working royals. Kate and William are also said to be upset about criticism of her family, her children, and her weight.
The article, said: “Kate has become perilously thin, just like—some point out—Princess Diana.”
A royal source told the Mail on Sunday: “That is such an extremely cruel and wounding barb. It’s disgusting. It’s sexist and woman-shaming at its very worst.”
The profile also slates Kate’s taste and her family, describing the Cambridges’ Anmer Hall home in Norfolk as “very Buckinghamshire.”
“Carole has put her stamp on Anmer decor-wise,” Tatler claims. “Far from being a typical aristo abode, with threadbare rugs and dog hair everywhere, like, say, Windsor and Balmoral, it is, according to a visitor, ‘like a gleaming five-star hotel, with cushions plumped and candles lit.’”
Tatler calls Carole ‘a terrible snob’ (well, it takes one to know one) says Kate’s younger sister Pippa is “too regal and try-hard... A bit lost now and is struggling to find her place.”
Tatler said that the Cambridges feel very tired because they have been forced to take on more royal duties with a source saying: “Kate is furious about the larger workload… She feels exhausted and trapped. She’s working as hard as a top CEO, who has to be wheeled out all the time, without the benefits of boundaries and plenty of holidays.”
The article suggested she was enraged that she would no longer be able to do the school run and felt her family and kids had been “thrown under a bus” by Harry and Meghan.
The Mail quotes a palace insider as saying: “The piece is full of lies. There is no truth to their claim that the Duchess feels overwhelmed with work, nor that the Duke is obsessed with Carole Middleton. It’s preposterous and downright wrong.
“The whole thing is class snobbery at its very worst. The stuff about [Kate’s sister] Pippa is horrible. Tatler may think it’s immune from action as it’s read by the royals and on every coffee table in every smart home, but it makes no difference.
“It’s ironic that the royals’ favorite magazine is being trashed by them. The duchess is a naturally shy woman who is doing her best.”
The Mail on Sunday also claims that sources have denied claims that Meghan and Kate argued about whether or not Princess Charlotte and the other young bridesmaids should wear tights.
Instead, the Mail on Sunday says that the fall-out was over Meghan’s reaction to Kate’s request that the hem of Charlotte’s dress be lengthened. The resulting row reportedly left Kate in tears.
Tatler has, so far, said it stands by the piece.
Prince Andrew to be “faded out” of royal life
Prince Andrew, who said he was stepping back from public life last year “for the foreseeable future,” will never resume official duties, it was reported Sunday.
The Sunday Times says that the royal family has “no plans to review” his position and the queen is “resigned” to her son’s permanent removal from public life, following his disastrous television interview about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew had wished to return to public life at some point, but his cause has not been helped by revelations that his charitable trust is being investigated by Britain’s Charity Commission about the payment of $420,000 over a five-year period to the duke’s former private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, who was once a trustee.
The prince’s household repaid the funds to the trust and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Thirsk.
Andrew’s ejection from the royal family has seen the income of himself and his wife Sarah Ferguson collapse. The pair are being sued by a former friend for some $8 million still owed for a ski chalet in the Swiss resort of Verbier, which they bought in 2014 for about $16 million.
Indeed, the one bit of potentially good news for Andrew this weekend comes courtesy of Air Mail, which says that the queen has decided to step in and pay off the chalet debt. “Otherwise it’s going to court, and things will get really bad.” Andrew’s camp have briefed that the chalet will be sold and the proceeds used to clear the debt, either way, this is one more Andrew-related problem the royals need to be shot of.
Andrew will likely be “faded out” of his last few military roles over the next few years and will not take part in any further public royal events, the Sunday Times report says.
They Don’t. Yet.
Friday should have been Princess Beatrice’s wedding day to fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. But: coronavirus, lockdown, etc. So, no wedding—the only upside being, where the hell to position dad Prince Andrew, still scandal-scarred over Jeffrey Epstein—and now apparently cast into the darkness of eternal expulsion from frontline royal duties (more on this below).
There is no news on when the new wedding date is, or whether the ceremony will still take place at the Chapel Royal, St James’ Palace.
On Friday, Beatrice’s mom, Sarah Ferguson, sent two lovely messages to her daughter to cheer her up.
“Love you my darling Beatrice. You have given me more joy than I could ever wish for. I am so excited to celebrate yours and Edo’s love when we all are out of lockdown.”
In a second tweet, Fergie wrote: “The most important thing is health and love and today I send it to you and all the other people that were getting married during this time .. so proud of you all @yorkiebea.”
The queen helps Boris keep fit
Quite why the queen is allowing the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to exercise in the grounds of Buckingham Palace is a mystery. He is wealthy and runs the nation; one presumes he has enough room and means to keep fit.
“It’s obviously important that the prime minister is able to take exercise,” a Whitehall source told the Times of London, in a great example of non-explanation absurdity—and this in the same week as Johnson and his ministers also extremely absurdly sought to defend top aide Dominic Cummings from flouting the very lockdown rules he helped write and the rest of the nation was observing.
“Mr. Johnson was photographed getting out of a Range Rover in his running shorts outside a side entrance to the palace. The grounds include a large garden as well as a tennis court,” the Times said. Somehow, Johnson—who survived a battle with coronavirus that saw him hospitalized in the ICU—has also convinced the Archbishop of Canterbury let him use Lambeth Palace’s grounds, too.
For all his trashing of elites, Johnson seems to be revealing how well they take care of their own.
Modern family
The Sunday Times features an interview with Lord Ivar Mountbatten, a cousin of both the queen and her husband (don’t ask) and his husband James Coyle. Mountbatten says that he was, “the first member of the extended family to come out as gay,” adding, “I didn’t feel the need to discuss my sexuality with the royals because it’s such a non-issue. It’s amazing how people are so nonplussed about that kind of thing nowadays.”
Mountbatten’s ex-wife Penny emerges as the hero of the piece: “Penny and James get along incredibly well,” Ivar says, “When they first went to yoga together, the class assumed that he was Penny’s new man. She loved saying, ‘No, this is my ex-husband’s boyfriend.’ It’s fun to subvert expectations. When Penny lived nearby, if I couldn’t find James I knew he’d be having a coffee with her, bitching about me.”
Coyle concurs, adding: “Penny, is the glue that held it all together—she even gave him away at our wedding.”
This week in royal history
Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey. She was 25 at the time, and it was the first British coronation to be fully televised—and therefore set the standard for the required levels of visual pomp and hullabaloo of every televised royal occasion since.
Unanswered questions
When will Harry and Meghan launch the next phase of their philanthropic careers? Insiders are increasingly talking up their big plans for the future and, with the coronavirus pandemic showing some signs of abating, could Harry and Meghan’s long-delayed relaunch come sooner rather than later?
