The reviews are in for the state visit to the United States by King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Critics were bowled over.
“The King delivered a diplomatic master-class on the trip, mixing praise for his host with subtle criticism,” stated Associated Press. “A regal exercise in damage limitation,” was the Guardian’s view.
And they weren’t impressed only by his address to Congress or speech during the state banquet but also by the more informal moments near the end of the tour: the King showing schoolkids how to feed lettuce to chickens at an urban farm, Queen Camilla buying Girl Scout cookies at a block party in Virginia (yummy Thin Mints, for the record). They even brought food to that community gathering – a coronation quiche and Victoria sponge cake. (Fun fact: the mayor of Front Royal, Virginia, deleted the original email from the British embassy, thinking it a hoax)
There’s also the shock from bystanders at Dulles airport when Queen Camilla strolled past passengers on her way home after the tour. She flew commercial while King Charles continued on to Bermuda in the British government jet.
What is also notable is the success of their videos. Let’s face it, we’re visual folk and most get their news from Instagram, YouTube etc. Royal staff know this and put a lot of thought into their choices of songs that accompany the visuals.
a) The block party video featured Darius Rucker’s song, “Wagon Wheel” (the singer loved it)
b) The travel video of the toy Roo getting to the New York Public Library, including a stint in Queen Camilla’s handbag) has the soundtrack of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”
The video tie-ins continued after they left the United States, with a nice bit of Canadian content. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen released a video talking about how he brought the King’s letter written to the Artemis crew with him into space and the impact of its focus on science and sustainability.
King Charles saw Hansen’s video while in Bermuda, during a visit to one of the five telescopes being installed worldwide to track space debris. And that moment was also put into its own video!
It’s all very meta.
On Monday, Buckingham Palace released a short press release:
PRINCESS EUGENIE AND MR JACK BROOKSBANK ARE EXPECTING THEIR THIRD CHILD
Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie and Mr Jack Brooksbank are very pleased to announce that they are expecting their third child together, due this summer.
August (aged 5) and Ernest (aged 2) are also very excited to have another sibling join the family.
His Majesty The King has been informed and is delighted with the news.
The news comes after a hard year for the couple, whose marriage has been buffetted by the Epstein scandal, including the effective exile of Eugenie’s parents, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson.
That the news of a third child on the way came via royal social media accounts is also a way for her Uncle Charles to emphasize that she and her sister are still loved members of his family. (Though is that enough for them to appear alongside other royals at Ascot and other group events? I’m doubtful.)
The Wales family also celebrated some big occasions in the past week. On April 29, the Prince and Princess of Wales marked 15 years of marriage by releasing an overhead shot of the entire family lying in the grass during their visit to Cornwall last month.
That day, the couple went to a learning centre charity that helps young people that received some of the money from their wedding gift fund (In 2011, they asked people to donate funds to a list of organizations, not send gifts to the palace.) Then, the couple went to lunch at the Goring Hotel, the grand hotel near Buckingham Palace where Kate spent the night before their wedding.
As well, photographer Andrew Parsons published a new image of William and Kate taken before the state banquet for the President of France at Windsor Castle in 2025.
On May 2, Kensington Palace marked the 11th birthday of Princess Charlotte in what is now an established 2026 birthday routine for the family:
That’s also what happened on April 23, when Louis turned 8: Photo and video
Write Royalty readers know I’m fond of royal jewellery, especially tiaras and brooches. So imagine my joy when royals from around the world gathered in Stockholm for the 80th birthday celebrations for King Carl XVI Gustaf. Not only were there sooooooooo many tiaras being worn by royal women, but there was one unexpected surprise: Queen Mary of Denmark reconfigured a historic piece of diamond jewellery into a tiara – which is the second time she’s done this quite fabulous trick.
As Trond Noren Isaksen explained on Instagram, it was originally a bracelet given to Princess Louise on her marriage to the future King Carl XV of Sweden and Norway in 1850. It ended up as part of the Danish Royal Property Trust, a foundation that passes historic treasures, including jewellery, from monarch to monarch. Queen Margrethe had mounted the bracelet on a ribbon to wear as a choker but her daughter-in-law, Queen Mary, went further and mounted it on a tiara frame. Earlier this year, she showcased another remounted treasure from the mid-1800s, a belt of massive diamonds also put on a tiara frame.
Best of all – there are still more Danish treasures that can be redesigned and reimagined.
What was notable about the coverage of the state visit were the three names that barely got any mention in the media: Diana, Harry, and Meghan.
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