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Miles apart
To miss one opportunity to crush rift rumors by positioning Meghan and Harry next to William and Kate may be a misfortune, to do so twice in two days looks very like carelessness.
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Yet, on Sunday morning, Harry and Meghan stood on a separate balcony to William and Kate as they joined the royals for the major event of Remembrance Sunday, the laying of wreaths at London’s Cenotaph memorial to Britain’s war dead.
This morning’s clunky choreography followed an equally inept bit of royal choreography on Saturday evening, when Harry, Meghan, William and Kate all appeared at the same memorial event on Saturday night—but were seated as far apart as humanly possible in the royal box of London venue the Albert Hall.
The two engagements represent the first joint outings for the fractured four since Prince Harry said on camera that he and his brother were drifting apart, and his wife Meghan Markle suggested she had received little support as she struggled with her new role. William’s camp hit back saying they were concerned about the mental health of “fragile” Harry, and the Sussexes then promptly claimed they had “singlehandedly” modernized the monarchy and that the palace were making a mess of harnessing their amazing potential.
The apparent failure of the two sides in the new royal civil war to manage to visually telegraph a truce at a series of ceremonies for fallen servicemen marks a fresh failure by royal spinners to draw a line under the hugely damaging narrative of fraternal enmity that has done so much to harm the royals over the past year.
The palace was keen to try to push a message that nothing should be read into the seating locations, with a source telling the Daily Mail: “Members of the Royal Family attended the event to respect and recognize the contributions of those who made the ultimate sacrifice and not to be pictured together.”
Media were also briefed that the fact they were standing on separate balconies at the Cenotaph was merely an accident of precedent.
Of course, one might argue that the best way for the young royals to honor the spirit of the nation’s most important veteran’s event would be to chuck such precedent in the bin and put on a brave face and sit together.
Crown jewels
More trouble from those mischievous geniuses behind The Crown. This time, the program is under attack on the front page of today’s U.K. The Sunday Times for dramatizing the long running rumor that Her Majesty had a fling with her best friend, her horse racing manager, Lord “Porchie” Porchester. In one hour-long episode, after she has spent a month visiting stud farms in France and America accompanied by Porchie, Prince Philip aggressively questions her on her return. The Queen fires back: “If you have something to say, say it now. Otherwise, if you don’t mind, I’m busy.” Prince Philip, it should be noted, has no further questions.
Her Majesty is unlikely to be overly perturbed by renewed chatter over the alleged affair that once lit up British drawing rooms and dinner party tables. Donal McCabe, the Queen’s communications secretary, has been pretty clear that Buckingham Palace views the program as “fiction” and has said the palace “is not complicit in interpretations made by the program ... and would never express a view as to the program’s accuracy”.
The Queen remained close pals with Porchie until his death in 2001. Serious commentators believe there is little evidence that they were more than extraordinarily deep and trusted friends but defenders of The Crown will point out this doesn’t mean Philip took such a sanguine view.
Just like us
One of the more belabored sub-narratives of recent weeks has been the extraordinary normality of Kate Middleton. From being spotted buying her kids Halloween costumes in the local supermarket to going for a drink with other mums at her kid’s school at a local pub (albeit one with a secret back entrance allegedly beloved of Prince Harry in a former era), Kate is now officially the emblem of Royal relatability.
Just in case anyone missed the message, the newsstand issue of this week’s celebrity-loving Hello! magazine carried a front page exclusive on how Kate “is mixing fun with formality to raise her family” adding that, “In her children’s eyes she is just mummy.”
The palace couldn’t have put it any better themselves!
Equality
From next month, nominees receiving honors from the Monarch will be asked for their socio-economic background, their gender, ethnicity, sexuality and whether they have a disability as part of a move to make sure that awards and knighthoods are properly reflecting the diversity of the United Kingdom, The Sunday Times reports (while not missing the opportunity to append a bizarre and transphobic headline to the piece—which does a good job of demonstrating exactly why these kinds of initiatives are needed).
While providing such information will be an entirely voluntary matter, it is expected that most nominees will be happy to help: Lord Cashman, a former actor in British soap EastEnders, whose father was a dock worker and whose mother cleaned offices, told The Sunday Times: “I don’t see many from my background who have been as fortunate as me to get an honor.”
This week in royal history
Happy birthday, Prince Charles! The Queen’s oldest child, and heir to the throne, turns 71 on Thursday—just in time for the new series of The Crown starting on Netflix next weekend, in which the randy Charles of the 70s, pre-Diana, is sketched (as played by Josh O’Connor). This year also marks the 50th year of his investiture of the Prince of Wales. And he is still waiting to be king…
Royal fashion watch
Kate Middleton wore a pair of ear-rings that belonged to Princess Diana at the launch of the National Emergencies Trust in London this week, which she attended with Prince William. A navy dress by Emilia Wickstead and Jimmy Choo pumps were topped off by the legacy jewelry: sapphire and diamond ear-rings that belonged to Diana. “Although they featured a double sapphire drop when worn by Diana, Kate has modernized the pieces by opting to use just one of the blue jewels,” reported People.
Unanswered questions
Could Kate Middleton be following Harry and Meghan into the TV production game? She met with BBC chairman Lord Hall on Thursday, though the Mail reported that “Kensington Palace points out that the Duchess met Lord Hall in her capacity as patron of the Royal Foundation, so any project would be for charity.”
Obviously, any program Kate made for the BBC would be a ratings and publicity blockbuster, so keep the remote near.
