Samuel Chatto, 29 (the elder son of Lady Sarah and Daniel Chatto and the eldest grandchild of Princess Margaret) announced on Instagram earlier this week that he is engaged to Eleanor Ekserdjian, also 29. He proposed to his girlfriend of five years with a porcelain ring he made himself in the London studio where he works.
A palace spokesman confirmed to The Times that Sam’s parents and Ellie’s parents are delighted, and that the King was also informed and is “very happy” for them both. They plan to marry next spring.
That is the entire news item. But baked into the usual “royal-adjacent wedding” cake (Samuel is currently 30th in line to the British throne) is the added layer of a man who makes art objects for a living, making one of the most significant objects a person can receive by hand for the one he loves.
Within about six minutes, the internet had decided the story was actually about whether the ring would survive a dishwasher, I guess.
I’m surprised it’s taken the “bean soup” instinct this long to appear in online royal discourse. Coined after a viral 2023 TikTok video posted by @vibingranolamom, the phrase “bean soup theory” (or “what about me effect”) refers to reactions to the video, in which the creator shared a simple, high-iron vegan bean soup recipe. The video sparked widespread internet discussion because of comments including, “What if I don’t like beans?”
The compulsion to reroute every story, no matter how remote from our own life, through the narrowest possible channel of personal relevance means that our collective reading of any type of media has become not “what does this mean” but “what can I do with this?”
When considering Eleanor’s porcelain engagement ring, the “bean soup” commenter is the one that asks not, “who is this for, and why is it meaningful to her?” but “would I want it?”
So the commentary arrived in two flavors, and they were both actually the same flavor, but one was just packaged in something akin to a 2002 limited-edition movie tie-in merch box.
The first flavor: “it’s ugly.” From one photo, the ring was assessed as being too avant-garde, too plain, doesn’t sparkle, looks like something from a Year 9 art room.
The second came dressed up as practical concern: “it’ll break.” She’ll wash her hands and it’ll shatter. What happens when she’s carrying groceries. What happens in five years.
Both of these are the same sentence. Both of them are: I, personally, would not want this, therefore it is a mistake.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source mattaoffact.substack.com ’
