Prince Harry is back in the U.K. for four days of charity engagements. As usual, Meghan and the kids are staying in California.
According to Roya Nikkhah of the Sunday Times, his itinerary “will be covered by select media considered friendly towards the prince.” It will be interesting to compare the coverage with that of his brother, Prince William, who also has a busy week of public events ahead of him.
There is lots of speculation as to whether Prince Harry will meet his father, especially as the King is expected back in London for his weekly cancer treatment. It would be the first time they’ve seen each other since February 2024 when Charles revealed he had cancer.
It comes a few months after Harry lost the appeal of his security case against the government. After that judicial decision, Harry went on a bitter diatribe, calling the ruling by three judges on the Court of Appeals “a good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up” and blaming his father in language that is incendiary and even bullying. “Do you not want to ensure our safety?” he asked of his father. (My piece on the ruling and BBC interview is here.)
According to Nikkhah:
There is now an acknowledgment by the prince and his camp that pressing the nuclear button of a public battle with His Majesty’s government and courts was not the wisest idea, a case which is reported to have cost Harry more than £1 million. He will now pursue a quieter, under-the-radar approach — those close to the prince say the government should expect private “lobbying” from the prince on the matter to continue.
There is also a clock ticking: Will relations be cordial enough by 2027 that King Charles will join his son at the Invictus Games in Birmingham?
September 8 is the third anniversary of Elizabeth II’s death. As always, the King and Queen will spend it quietly at Balmoral in Scotland, where his mother died.
I still remember a feeling of foreboding after seeing that last image of a smiling yet frail Queen waiting to greet her new PM, Liz Truss, at Balmoral two days before her death. We knew the day was fast approaching, yet it was still a shock.
William and Kate were out at separate rugby matches on Saturday for the group round of the Women’s World Rugby Cup; she’s patron of the English Rugby Union while William is patron of the Welsh version. For the record, England thrashed Australia, while Wales lost a nailbiter to Fiji.
As images emerged of Kate with her hair pulled back in a half-up do, social media focused on the colour of her hair, speculating whether she’d already gotten rid of her new shade of light-brown hair that she debuted at the Natural History Museum two days earlier.
I’ve looked at way too many images of the princess to investigate her hair colour – yes, really! – and don’t think she’s toned it down but rather because the colour is on the top strands, it got hidden from the front when her hair was pulled back. When you look at images from the side or back, the new light-brown shade is still there.
And no, she wasn’t wearing a wig at the Natural History Museum, as some speculated. Kate’s hair is thick and curly, a combo that reacts to rainy weather by becoming thicker and curlier.
The Duchess of Kent, wife of the late Queen’s cousin, died on Thursday at the age of 92. She was a beloved member of the royal family who had stayed largely out of the public eye for nearly a quarter century.
Her granddaughter, Lady Marina Windsor, posted lovely images of her grandmother on Instagram
The duchess helped modernize the royal family:
She was the warm, hugging royal before Diana, Kate, or William
She was the first non-titled women to marry into the family since Tudor times
In 2002, she got the OK from the Queen to step away from her life as a working royal after four decades of service. Then, the duchess started working as a music teacher in a local primary school in Yorkshire, where the students only knew her as Mrs. Kent
(My post on the Duchess of Kent is here)
The family will wear somber colours or black armbands (as Queen Camilla did on the weekend) until after the Duchess of Kent’s funeral next Tuesday, September 16. As the duchess became a Catholic in 1994, the funeral will be held in the Catholic Westminster Cathedral in London.
The King, Queen, and members of the royal family will attend, marking the first Catholic funeral attended by a British monarch in the UK in modern history (Elizabeth II attended that of King Baudouin in Belgium in 1993).
The duchess will be buried in the royal graveyard at Frogmore on the Windsor estate.
The King’s sister-in-law, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh was in Alberta for four days as royal patron of Spruce Meadows, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. She’s involved with lots of sporting and outdoor organizations, so this is a great fit for her. And she looked like she was having a fabulous time as she went to a Calgary youth centre, and then to Spruce Meadows for the weekend. Notably, the visit is high-profile enough that the Press Association sent a photographer from London to document it.
And yes, her wardrobe shifted into dark hues after the announcement of the Duchess of Kent’s death. Yes, royals pack for such eventualities.
Answer: 8 kids and 1 queen consort
Queen Camilla was opening a children’s art-play garden at a museum and just had to ask the kids to help her stuff the iconic phone booth.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source writeroyalty.substack.com ’
