{"id":2440985,"date":"2026-06-01T23:20:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T23:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2440985"},"modified":"2026-06-01T23:20:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T23:20:05","slug":"catching-up-with-the-royals-june-1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/catching-up-with-the-royals-june-1-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching up with the royals (June 1, 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div class=\"captioned-image-container\">\n<figure><a target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!ybHP!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5d1297fe-3d60-4041-90a2-d2531fc530de_3508x1973.jpeg\" data-component-name=\"Image2ToDOM\" class=\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image2-inset\"><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!ybHP!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5d1297fe-3d60-4041-90a2-d2531fc530de_3508x1973.jpeg 424w, https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!ybHP!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5d1297fe-3d60-4041-90a2-d2531fc530de_3508x1973.jpeg 848w, https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!ybHP!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5d1297fe-3d60-4041-90a2-d2531fc530de_3508x1973.jpeg 1272w, https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!ybHP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5d1297fe-3d60-4041-90a2-d2531fc530de_3508x1973.jpeg 1456w\" sizes=\"100vw\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p><\/a><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">The new Venus Garden at Windsor Castle (Photo: \u00a9 Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2026 | Royal Collection Trust)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>King Charles III has finished a complete redesign of the East Terrace Garden of Windsor Castle. His parents weren\u2019t keen gardeners, meaning the existing gardens were good but not truly inspired. Since Charles came to the throne, he\u2019s undertaken renovations of the grounds of Sandringham, Balmoral and now Windsor.<\/p>\n<p>The new look comes with a new name: The Venus Garden. That\u2019s because gardeners traced the orbit of Venus over eight years to create the pattern for the garden, which features new beds of flowers and hedges. There\u2019s also the return of historic sculptures from the Royal Collection, including four bronzes made for King Charles I in the 1630s and installed in the garden during the reign of King George IV. <\/p>\n<p>And in keeping with King Charles III\u2019s program of opening previously closed areas of royal residences to the public \u2013 such as the East Wing of Buckingham Palace \u2013 this usually off-limits of Windsor Castle will be part of the summer tour of the castle, starting on July 16.<\/p>\n<p><iframe srcdoc=\"&lt;!doctype html&gt;&#10;&lt;html&gt;&#10;  &lt;head&gt;&#10;    &lt;meta charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; \/&gt;&#10;    &lt;meta name=&quot;viewport&quot; content=&quot;width=device-width,initial-scale=1&quot; \/&gt;&#10;    &lt;style&gt;&#10;      html, body {&#10;        margin: 0;&#10;        padding: 0;&#10;        overflow: hidden;&#10;        background: transparent;&#10;      }&#10;&#10;      .instagram-media {&#10;        margin: 1px auto 0 !important;&#10;      }&#10;    &lt;\/style&gt;&#10;  &lt;\/head&gt;&#10;  &lt;body&gt;&#10;    &lt;blockquote&#10;      class=&quot;instagram-media&quot;&#10;      data-instgrm-captioned&#10;      data-instgrm-permalink=&quot;https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/DY4GQYgjHme\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading&quot;&#10;      data-instgrm-version=&quot;14&quot;&#10;      style=&quot;background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:none; margin:1px auto 0; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:calc(100% - 2px);&quot;&#10;    &gt;&lt;\/blockquote&gt;&#10;    &lt;script async src=&quot;https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js&quot;&gt;&lt;\/script&gt;&#10;    &lt;script&gt;(function() {&#10;    const postHeight = () =&gt; {&#10;      const body = document.body;&#10;      const doc = document.documentElement;&#10;      const height = Math.ceil(Math.max(&#10;        body ? body.scrollHeight : 0,&#10;        body ? body.offsetHeight : 0,&#10;        doc ? doc.scrollHeight : 0,&#10;        doc ? doc.offsetHeight : 0&#10;      ));&#10;      if (height &gt; 0) {&#10;        parent.postMessage({ type: 'substack-instagram-embed-resize', height }, '*');&#10;      }&#10;    };&#10;    const scheduleMeasure = () =&gt; {&#10;      window.requestAnimationFrame(() =&gt; { window.setTimeout(postHeight, 50); });&#10;    };&#10;    window.addEventListener('load', scheduleMeasure);&#10;    window.setTimeout(scheduleMeasure, 250);&#10;    window.setTimeout(scheduleMeasure, 1000);&#10;    const root = document.documentElement || document.body;&#10;    if (root &amp;&amp; typeof MutationObserver !== 'undefined') {&#10;      const observer = new MutationObserver(scheduleMeasure);&#10;      observer.observe(root, { attributes: true, childList: true, subtree: true, characterData: true });&#10;    }&#10;    if (document.body &amp;&amp; typeof ResizeObserver !== 'undefined') {&#10;      new ResizeObserver(scheduleMeasure).observe(document.body);&#10;    }&#10;  })();&lt;\/script&gt;&#10;  &lt;\/body&gt;&#10;&lt;\/html&gt;\" title=\"Instagram post\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" style=\"height:520px;width:100%;border:0px;display:block;background:transparent;\" class=\"instagram-embed-frame\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Cast your mind back to July 29, 1994. Charles and Diana are separated. That evening, in a major TV interview, he will acknowledge that he committed adultery after their marriage had broken down.<\/p>\n<p>That same evening, Diana goes to a fundraiser in Kensington Gardens, near the palace. She dons a daring off-the-shoulder evening dress designed by Christina Stambolian that is known simply as the \u201crevenge dress.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>At that event, she got out of an equally sleek and sexy Jaguar, a new addition to the royal fleet. That 1994 car was sold in 1997, shortly before her death.<\/p>\n<p><span>Now, the Jaguar is up <\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themarket.co.uk\/listings\/jaguar\/xj40-sovereign\/8b70a424-a96b-4d2d-a3d8-758adf069371\">for auction on The Market auction site<\/a><span>. It has only 72,000 km on it and is in good shape. Normally a Jag in that state would be worth around $10,000 but who knows with this provenance. Notably, the same auction firm previously sold the Queen\u2019s  2001 personal Daimler for around $200,000.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As for the \u201crevenge dress,\u201d it was sold at Diana\u2019s charity auction just before her death. Now, it\u2019s likely worth at least $1 million. Here is an explanation of the impact of that dress <\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xOlfIpi-npY\">from the Sunday Times<\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"youtube2-xOlfIpi-npY\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;xOlfIpi-npY&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}\" data-component-name=\"Youtube2ToDOM\" class=\"youtube-wrap\">\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/xOlfIpi-npY?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowautoplay=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"728\" height=\"409\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>FYI: Last week, there was no sign of the Prince and Princess of Wales as the kids were on a school break.<\/p>\n<p><span>On Saturday, the BBC\u2019s royal correspondent revealed that, in 2020, <\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cy02j5pl98no\">the palace was given an archive of 30,000 emails<\/a><span> that had been taken from a personal business contact of the former Prince Andrew in a legal dispute and that those emails would have shown that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was sharing confidential government information while a trade envoy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because one of the persons involved in that legal dispute also came up in the Epstein files, which showed how entwined Andrew was in their financial affairs. The emails were handed over to the Lord Chamberlain, who is head of the royal household.<\/p>\n<p>What happened to them after that point is not known, however given the timing \u2013 months after Andrew\u2019s explosive interview about Epstein, and nine years after he stood down as trade envoy \u2013 one would have hoped that someone was ordered to go through them.<\/p>\n<p>We just don\u2019t know. At least not yet. <\/p>\n<p><span>The princess has quietly left her mentorship role in the \u201c35 under 35\u201d initiative of her uncle\u2019s charity, the King\u2019s Foundation. She was in the role for a year. <\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hellomagazine.com\/royalty\/904382\/princess-eugenie-leaves-role-king-charles-foundation\/\">Reports vary as to whether<\/a><span> it was always a short-term position or whether she left due to the Epstein scandal fallout. Regardless, it\u2019s another instance of distancing between the princess and the rest of her family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to figure out which royal crisis takes top billing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><span>Crown Princess Mette-Marit\u2019s health has deteriorated to the point that <\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/crown-prince-haakon-norway-cuts-japan-trip-short-due-to-wifes-health-11986313\">her husband is cutting short <\/a><span>his June trip to Japan while her daughter is coming home from university in Australia. Mette-Marit has pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disease that damages lung tissue and which usually requires a lung transplant after other treatments cease to be effective. She now gets supplemental oxygen at events.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><span>Queen Sonja, 88, <\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/queen-sonja-norway-hospitalized-following-heart-failure-diagnosis-11985013\">was hospitalized for several days<\/a><span> and is being treated for heart failure and atrial fibrillation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>On June 15, a court will hand down its verdict in the trial of Mette Marit\u2019s son by a previous marriage. He is charged with sexual assault and other crimes.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>If that weren\u2019t enough, the health of King Harald isn\u2019t that good. Indeed, a lot of duties and responsibilities are ending up with Crown Prince Haakon. Likely his children, Ingrid and Sverre Magnus, will have to interrupt their education to help out with royal duties for there\u2019s literally <\/span><em>no one else available<\/em><span>. It\u2019s a peril inherent in reducing the number of working royals to a small core group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DY5K_fHk1aK\/?hl=en&amp;img_index=6\">King Philippe and Queen Mathilde were proud parents<\/a><span> as their eldest child, Crown Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, graduated from Harvard with a Master\u2019s in Public Policy. She also did some media interviews, in which she talked about a rather fascinating change about to occur \u2013 in the next decades, there will be queens on the thrones of Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Sweden<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Elisabeth revealed that she\u2019s<\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WDehandschutter\/status\/2059821622211543074?s=20\"> very close to the other young heiresses<\/a><span> to European thrones \u2013 in fact, Elisabeth, Amalia of the Netherlands, and Ingrid of Norway are in a group WhatApp chat. As Elisabeth explains, \u201cIn my generation, there are several women. You see a similar shift in other monarchies. We are all in the same situation. It\u2019s a hurdle we will face together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe srcdoc=\"&lt;!doctype html&gt;&#10;&lt;html&gt;&#10;  &lt;head&gt;&#10;    &lt;meta charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; \/&gt;&#10;    &lt;meta name=&quot;viewport&quot; content=&quot;width=device-width,initial-scale=1&quot; \/&gt;&#10;    &lt;style&gt;&#10;      html, body {&#10;        margin: 0;&#10;        padding: 0;&#10;        overflow: hidden;&#10;        background: transparent;&#10;      }&#10;&#10;      .instagram-media {&#10;        margin: 1px auto 0 !important;&#10;      }&#10;    &lt;\/style&gt;&#10;  &lt;\/head&gt;&#10;  &lt;body&gt;&#10;    &lt;blockquote&#10;      class=&quot;instagram-media&quot;&#10;      data-instgrm-captioned&#10;      data-instgrm-permalink=&quot;https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/DY7ToGVMx10\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading&quot;&#10;      data-instgrm-version=&quot;14&quot;&#10;      style=&quot;background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:none; margin:1px auto 0; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:calc(100% - 2px);&quot;&#10;    &gt;&lt;\/blockquote&gt;&#10;    &lt;script async src=&quot;https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js&quot;&gt;&lt;\/script&gt;&#10;    &lt;script&gt;(function() {&#10;    const postHeight = () =&gt; {&#10;      const body = document.body;&#10;      const doc = document.documentElement;&#10;      const height = Math.ceil(Math.max(&#10;        body ? body.scrollHeight : 0,&#10;        body ? body.offsetHeight : 0,&#10;        doc ? doc.scrollHeight : 0,&#10;        doc ? doc.offsetHeight : 0&#10;      ));&#10;      if (height &gt; 0) {&#10;        parent.postMessage({ type: 'substack-instagram-embed-resize', height }, '*');&#10;      }&#10;    };&#10;    const scheduleMeasure = () =&gt; {&#10;      window.requestAnimationFrame(() =&gt; { window.setTimeout(postHeight, 50); });&#10;    };&#10;    window.addEventListener('load', scheduleMeasure);&#10;    window.setTimeout(scheduleMeasure, 250);&#10;    window.setTimeout(scheduleMeasure, 1000);&#10;    const root = document.documentElement || document.body;&#10;    if (root &amp;&amp; typeof MutationObserver !== 'undefined') {&#10;      const observer = new MutationObserver(scheduleMeasure);&#10;      observer.observe(root, { attributes: true, childList: true, subtree: true, characterData: true });&#10;    }&#10;    if (document.body &amp;&amp; typeof ResizeObserver !== 'undefined') {&#10;      new ResizeObserver(scheduleMeasure).observe(document.body);&#10;    }&#10;  })();&lt;\/script&gt;&#10;  &lt;\/body&gt;&#10;&lt;\/html&gt;\" title=\"Instagram post\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" style=\"height:520px;width:100%;border:0px;display:block;background:transparent;\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"instagram-embed-frame\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span>Queen M\u00e1xima of the Netherlands completed the first phase of her training to become an army reservist. After taking part in a demanding 24-hour field exercise, she <\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hola.com\/us\/royals\/20260529904450\/princess-amalia-emotional-queen-maxima-milestone\/\">received her beret in a ceremony<\/a><span> watched by her husband, King Willem-Alexander and daughters, including Crown Princess Amalia, who completed her own basic training earlier this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>M\u00e1xima started the reservist program in February, becoming the latest in an unprecedented flood of European royal women taking up military duties as Europe rearms and prepares for conflict with Russia.<\/p>\n<p>There are multiple reports out of London that Frogmore Cottage, their sprawling Georgian home on the Windsor estate, is going to be turned back into multi-unit accommodation. The renovated five-bedroom house has been sitting empty since their lease wasn\u2019t renewed in 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source writeroyalty.substack.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new Venus Garden at Windsor Castle (Photo: \u00a9 Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2026 | Royal Collection Trust) King Charles III has finished a complete redesign of the East Terrace Garden of Windsor Castle. His parents weren\u2019t keen gardeners, meaning the existing gardens were good but not truly inspired. Since Charles came to the throne, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2440986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2440985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Catching-up-with-the-royals-June-1-2026.com2Fpublic2Fimages2F5d1297fe-3d60-4041-90a2-d2531.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2440985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2440987,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440985\/revisions\/2440987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2440986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2440985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2440985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2440985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}