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After three or four days of relative silence from the royal family, it was royal Newsmageddon today as senior figures across the House of Windsor re-emerged in a coordinated bombardment of photo opportunities and media moments that screamed: IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL!!!!
In Jordan, Meghan Markle must have thought she was a slam dunk for some serious media coverage with her Princess Diana tribute tour.
Accompanied by Prince Harry, who looked on with a reassuring scowl at all times, Meghan visited wounded children in hospitals, holding hands, smiling, hugging patients and children, posing for photographs and even taking part in football games at a refugee camp.
She moved from looking serious and concerned to relaxed and playful, dressed in crumpled dresses and at one point going full Diana in a white tweed blazer, right down to the slow, careful hospital walk and the extended hugs with patients.
Not to be outdone, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, was in Somalia, where she spent two days on a Foreign Office-backed visit in the capital, Mogadishu.
Her program focused on drawing attention to violence against women, including meetings with survivors, local organizations and staff at the British embassy (Meghan also got a welcome from the British ambassador in Jordan, leading to dark whispers that the establishment has been ordered to play nice with the exiles).
Palace aides stressed the importance of her work in a fragile security environment, while the images of Sophie in headscarf, listening intently, added another layer to the royal media saturation.
Back in London, Prince William also joined the day’s royal roll-out. According to the Daily Mail, he was met with cheers—yes, cheers! not yells of what-did-your-dad-know-and-when-did-he-know-it for a change as he arrived at the Francis Crick Institute, a major biomedical research center in central London.
During his visit he asked researchers whether their work could help with “emotional regulation.” You keep getting the feeling that William really, really wants to say something, don’t you?
By mid-afternoon, the royals were flooding the zone in a cornucopia of causes and cameras. Yet even with Meghan’s Diana revival, Sophie’s hard-edged diplomacy and William’s science-and-mental-health pitch, all of them I predict, will be knocked off the front pages tomorrow by what unfolded at Clarence house shortly after lunch.
The day belonged to Queen Camilla, formerly Camilla Parker Bowles, who obliterated the competition by hosting Paddington Bear at her London residence as part of her longstanding literacy campaign.
The images of the Queen Consort sharing tea, books and smiles with the children’s bear better known for his association with another Queen, are now dominating news sites and social media feeds, eclipsing the more earnest humanitarian and scientific engagements elsewhere.
And that, in the end, is the modern monarchy, isn’t it? A carefully choreographed battle for attention in which even war zones, cutting-edge labs and serious campaigns against violence can be upstaged by a well-timed photo call with a beloved storybook bear.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source theroyalist.substack.com ’
