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Prince Charles “terribly sad”
Former coronavirus patient Prince Charles finds it “terribly sad” to be disconnected from family and friends because of the pandemic lockdown. Charles told Sky News, “I haven’t seen my father (Prince Philip) for a long time. He’s going to be 99 next week, so yes, or my grandchildren or anything.”
Charles said he felt that telephone or video conversations weren’t the same. “You really want to give people a hug now and then,” he said.
“I totally understand so many people’s frustrations, difficulties, grief, and anguish,” Charles added. “And I mean I’m just trying to do my best to find and help and encourage ways to enable people to go on doing that, but in a way that doesn’t wreck everything at the same time around us.”
The queen’s mini-Trooping the Color
The show will kind of go on on June 13. The queen will have a mini-Trooping the Color at Windsor Castle, People reports. Instead of a fancy parade and the usual BuckPal flyover, “there will be a small, brief military ceremony at Windsor Castle to mark The Queen’s official birthday,” a Buckingham Palace spokesman tells People.
The magazine said that whether Prince Charles, Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their children would join the queen “in a socially-distanced manner” was still unknown.
Despite being billed as a bijou bash, it doesn’t sound that small-scale to us. The Mail reported, “The parade, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Llewelyn-Usher, will involve a small contingent of men from his regiment, the Welsh Guards, accompanied by a rather diminished group of the massed Bands of the Household Division.”
That sounds pretty fancy. And phew, “a Royal Salute to Her Majesty at 11am exactly” will still take place.
Andrew’s career-ending interview nominated for award
It probably won’t bring Prince Andrew any cheer, but BBC Newsnight anchor Emily Maitlis’ blockbuster interview with him—in which he came across terribly, and which led to the Feds’ really wanting to talk to him about Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the queen ending his royal life!—has been nominated for a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Awards) award in the category of Best News Coverage.
The bombshell 50-minute interview stands a good chance of winning. It is not only an example of deadly precise, meticulous interviewing. It also generated news story upon news story upon news story, and led to the effective withdrawal of a royal from public life.
The debacle also led to Andrew and his wife Sarah Ferguson seeing their earning power decimated, meaning they missed a final payment of £6.7 million ($8.5 million) owed to the former owner of their Swiss ski chalet in Verbier, Isabelle de Rouvre, whom they had agreed to pay in installments.
De Rouvre lost patience with the couple after they missed the final payment at New Year and issued legal proceedings to get the money, and Andrew and Fergie have now placed the property on the market for £18.3 million ($23 million), exactly what they are believed to have paid for it six years ago, according to the Mail on Sunday. Post-COVID, which particularly badly affected European ski resorts, one wonders if they’ll achieve that kind of money.
Comforting words
Prince William has been volunteering for a British text-message counseling service, he revealed this week. However, texters connected to William via the Shout 85258 service, which offers support via text message to people in personal crisis, will not know they are talking to a member of the Royal Family because, like Shout’s 2,000 other volunteers, William uses a pseudonym on the platform.
Also volunteering for (other) good works are the Cambridge children. The couple posted a new photograph this week of William with Prince George and Princess Charlotte volunteering for a care package service on the Sandringham Estate, taken by Kate.
This week in royal history
Happy 99th birthday, Prince Philip! Philip celebrates the big 9-9 on Wednesday. He was born on June 10, 1921 at Villa Mon Repos in Corfu, Greece. All eyes are on his health, especially in the wake of a hospital stay last Christmas. Whatever your view of Philip, his devotion to the queen—which The Crown has expertly deconstructed—is as admirable as it is intriguing.
Unanswered questions
Meghan Markle spoke powerfully about George Floyd and her thoughts about racism earlier this week to the graduating class of her old school, the Immaculate Heart High School, in Los Angeles.
Will we see more of her (and Prince Harry’s) presence in the debates around racism and social and cultural change in the days and weeks ahead?
