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Home and away
Prince Harry is unlikely to come back to the U.K. this year, and will miss an important fundraiser which traditionally sees him and his brother William square off against each other on horseback, the King Power Royal Charity Polo Day.
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This annual event is an important feature on the royal calendar as it is one of the few occasions when the press are permitted to photograph the royals in somewhat relaxed circumstances. The idea is to project an informal image of normality; but the plan went awry last year when pictures from the event showed Meghan and Kate looking decidedly frosty and Harry and William were reported to have had a furious row even before the first chukka.
Hardly surprising then that a source tells the Mail on Sunday that Harry “can’t make the polo this year” as he “won’t come back to Britain unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
William, the paper claims, is “still desperate for this year’s event to go ahead as planned at the end of September” even though coronavirus mitigation rules would reduce the crowd to just 48 spectators instead of the 400 or so celebrities who usually attend, potentially impacting the huge amounts the event usually raises for the brothers’ charities.
This polo no-show, of course, raises the question of just when we might expect Harry and Meghan to make an appearance in Britain. Omid Scobie, one of the authors of Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, claimed in a recent episode of the “heirpod” podcast that the couple were “likely” to spend an “extended period of time in the U.K. next year” in order to attend the Trooping the Color ceremony and the unveiling of the new Princess Diana statue (more on which below).
While the Royalist rather doubts that Meghan will be spending a second longer in Blighty than she has to, Harry did this week speak of his regret at not having been able to nip back home in the past few months.
Speaking during a Zoom call with staff and volunteers from the Rugby Football League to mark the sport’s 125th birthday, Harry said, “We’ve got a whole Rugby League World Cup coming next year. I definitely plan on coming back. I would have been back already had it not been for COVID.”
Diana’s statue brings Harry and William together
After their rift was laid very bare in Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, Princes William and Harry issued a joint statement Friday to announce a statue to honor their mom, Princess Diana, will be unveiled next summer to mark what would have been her 60th birthday.
The statue will be in the garden of Diana’s former home, Kensington Palace, now William and Kate’s London home. “Our mother touched so many lives. We hope the statue will help all those who visit Kensington Palace to reflect on her life and her legacy,” William and Harry said in the statement. The boys were 15 and 12 respectively when their mother died.
The statue will be designed by Ian Rank-Broadley, who created the image of the queen that has been used on all British coins since 1998.
The statue was commissioned in 2017, to mark the twentieth anniversary of Diana’s death and—Friday’s statement read—would “recognize her positive impact in the UK and around the world.”
The statement added: “The statue will be installed in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace on July 1, 2021, marking the Princess’ 60th birthday.” Its installation has been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Moving on
Meghan Markle’s ex-husband has become a dad. Trevor Engelson, 43, took to Instagram on Thursday to reveal his wife Tracey Kurland had given birth to a daughter, their first child. The couple have named the baby Ford Grace Engelson.
Trevor and Meghan married in 2011, having dated for seven years, but divorced two years later, after Meghan effectively moved to Toronto, where Suits was being filmed.
The new royal pop star
Hello! magazine this week revealed a new royal music star: Lady Gabriella Windsor, daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, is making her debut as a singer-songwriter, while raising awareness for the musical non-profit Playing for Change Foundation.
“It’s a little daunting, but exciting too,” the pop star known as Ella Windsor told Hello! “I’ve always loved music, but never imagined I would become involved with it like this—releasing my own songs.”
Her first two songs, “Out of Blue” and “Bam Bam” are apparently inspired by Brazilian bossa nova, and Ella sang “Out of Blue” at her own wedding reception (she married financier Thomas Kingston in 2019).
“Throughout the evening a few of us hopped up on stage to sing with the band. It was late and I’m not sure I sounded my best, but one of the singers added some backing, so I hope that made it better. It was a day of so many nerve-racking moments that I thought: ‘I might as well throw this in, too!’”
This week in royal history
Tomorrow, August 31, marks the 23rd anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, aged 36, in a car crash in Paris. Brits will remember waking up to the news that Sunday morning; Americans, up late that Saturday, heard the news breaking late at night.
Her sons, for all their differences, are joined in their love for her, their dedication to causes she would have been proud to support too, and their determination to protect from their own wives and families from an intrusive media.
Unanswered questions
Will Meghan Markle support the Biden Harris campaign by name? How overtly political will her presidential election campaigning become?
