I always expected Prince William to be given the title reserved for the heir faster than his father was bestowed the title, but I think I can speak for most people when I say that just how fast it happened was a huge surprise. Hearing William be called The Prince of Wales, followed by Catherine being referred to as The Princess of Wales, was something I always wondered what would be like that became a reality so quickly.

A year on, and so much has happened…

A New Princess

It is no secret that the title of “Princess of Wales” was heavily associated with Prince William’s late mother, Diana. Upon her marriage to The Prince of Wales in 1981, Diana became “Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales.” Once her and Charles’s divorce was finalized, she not only lost the HRH in her title but also the THE, which distinguished her as the heir’s wife. Therefore, from 1996 until her death in August 1997, she was simply known as “Diana, Princess of Wales.”

Eight years later, in 2005, when Charles was set to “controversially” remarry his longtime love, Camilla, multiple aspects of their marriage and wedding were up for debate, including the question of what she would be called. It was decided that Camilla would forego the “Princess of Wales” title out of respect for Diana and instead use the second highest title as the wife of an heir: “The Duchess of Cornwall.” They also said Camilla would go by “Princess Consort” when the time came for Charles to be King, but we all know that did not happen. (Thankfully, because “Princess Consort” is not a title and, she still would have legally been “The Queen.”)

Since Camilla did not use the title, some people have wondered if Catherine would too. To me, this has always been a non-question. It was sort of understandable why Camilla did not use the title, but who better to revive the title than Diana’s own daughter-in-law? Besides, it is not like The Royal Family were going to retire a historical title because of one person. Diana was not the first and clearly not the last “Princess of Wales.”

Although the passing of Queen Elizabeth II was undoubtedly sad, hearing King Charles declare William and Catherine “The Prince and Princess of Wales” was extraordinarily exciting and indeed signaled, to me at least, the start of a new era. For the first time in 26 years, someone would be called “The Princess of Wales.” And more selfishly, as a longtime William and Kate fan, I loved the fact that I would now be able to officially call her a princess (even though she has legally been “Princess William” since her marriage).

I can not imagine the type of pressure Catherine must have felt since her wedding to Prince William but, particularly when the title switch happened. Being compared to your dead mother-in-law, who, yes, was an icon of her time but you never got to meet, must be a strange sensation. Nevertheless, if there is one thing about the current Princess of Wales, it is that she has never tried to be Diana despite how people strangely try to find even the most minuscule similarities.

Better yet, Prince William never tried to marry his mother and has assured from the very beginning that Catherine is her own person. Catherine made this very clear from the moment it was announced that she was The Princess of Wales in a statement released by Kensington Palace which stated:

“The new Princess of Wales appreciates the history associated with this role but will understandably want to look to the fure as she creates her own path.”

Overall, there was not a huge shift in Catherine from “The Duchess of Cambridge” to “The Princess of Wales.” She remained the same enthusiastic and caring woman who did not abandon any of her initiatives or passions. However, what has been notably different is her confidence level, which seems to have tripled since becoming “The Princess of Wales.” I have mentioned this many times, but William and Catherine were always in a bit of a sticky situation, especially with The King’s recorded issues with sharing the spotlight, because of the fact that in the British monarchy’s history, very few times has an heir had an adult heir trying to find their own place and role in the institution.

Now that that is no longer an issue, Catherine has seemingly shown that she is not afraid to show up and show out. Take, for example, the Coronation, where tiaras were put on the back burner, but The Princess of Wales showed up in a beautiful and intricate headpiece that undoubtedly stole the show. I believe, and hope, that The King and the institution as a whole have recognized this star power that she only possesses. Catherine, The Princess of Wales, makes the Royal Family look good, and they should use that to their advantage.

Hard Act To Follow

His Majesty King Charles III was the longest-serving “Prince of Wales,” having held the title for over 64 years. Diana may have been the “icon,” but I always knew that the now King would be the hard act to follow for Prince William. The King accomplished a lot during his time as heir, and he has six decades on William, who will likely not be the heir for even half that time.

The comparisons, in my opinion, have been unfair. How people expected William to completely emulate his father or change his way of doing things is beyond me. Firstly, The King was and is a workaholic. Sure, that may look nice at the end of the year when the media and royal watchers start to count up the engagements and write about who the “hardest working royal” was that year. However, he was quite absent in his sons’ lives when they were young children and even a few years ago when Prince William was recounting how he’d see his father asleep on top of papers on his desk while also adding they were working on having Charles be a more present grandfather.

Although frustrating at times, Prince William’s dedication and putting his children first is something that has not changed this past year.

Another thing I’d like to note is that I have the sense that Prince William has been compared to his father in the role he performed in the last decade. Since around Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee in 2012, Charles wasn’t just a future King but a shadow King. As the years went on and the late Queen approached the last few years of life, King Charles III took on more of her responsibilities. I do not see how it is fair to compare Prince William when he has yet to reach that point. Perhaps there will be a time when King Charles will entrust those responsibilities, but that is not right now.

Overall, I think William has done a great job during his first year as heir. We’ve seen him step up and take on a more statesman-like role reserved for the heir. He traveled to Poland for a 48-hour visit supporting U.K. troops and meeting with different heads of state who flew into London for the coronation in May. All while not giving up his own passion and initiative. Before the summer break, The Prince of Wales launched his innovative Homewards initiative.

Of course, there is room for improvement. Both William and Catherine need to improve their engagement numbers. They should do some more “bread and butter” royal engagements, which we know they seemingly avoid in favor of their initiatives and own interests. I’m still unsure as to why this year they did not have a foreign tour, but that should be their priority going into their second year as the Prince and Princess of Wales. (Oh, and selfishly, I want to see The Princess, with The King’s permission, reach more into the jewel vault!)

Royal Roundup

Since the kids returned to school on Wednesday, we all knew that William and Catherine’s return to work was imminent. And it happened much quicker than I thought! On Thursday, September 7th, Prince William visited Bournemouth to meet with eight national and local businesses pledging their support to The Prince’s ‘Hoemwards’ initiative. His first stop of the day was a visit to Pret-A-Manager’s store to hear more about the work they are doing to help break the cycle of homelessness before stopping by AFC Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium to hear about the club’s work to support those at risk of homelessness and their commitment to extend this support over the next five years as part of the initiative.

Yesterday, September 8th, marked the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing and His Majesty The King’s ascension. While the latter marked the day more privately, attending a small service at Crathie Kirk church near Balmoral Castle, The Prince and Princess of Wales were deployed to be the public face of the family.

William and Catherine attended a small service at St. David’s Cathedral in Wales to commemorate the life of the late Queen before meeting people who had met Queen Elizabeth II during her lifetime and greeting the crowds who has gathered outside the Cathedral.

After the service, The Prince and Princess of Wales visited Câr-Y-Môr Seaweed Farm – the first 'regenerative ocean farm' in Wales.

In a special surprise, The Prince and Princess of Wales appeared alongside The Princess Royal on her son-in-law’s rugby podcast to mark the start of the Rugby World Cup. All three royals will be repping Scotland, England, and Wales in their individual official roles starting this weekend!

Having engagements again and the summer break finally being over has been amazing! Can’t wait to see how their fall schedule looks like!

In honor of that upcoming milestone, I thought we’d take a look at the schools the children have attended thus far. As we discover the values and missions for each school, I hope the time of upbringing and education The Prince and Princess want for their children becomes evident!

So Far…

When it was time to send their first baby to nursery school in early 2016, William and Catherine chose Westacre Montessori School near their Norfolk home, Anmer Hall, for two-and-a-half-year-old Prince George! Maria Montessori, the founder of the teaching method which bears her name, once said: “The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six.”

Sound familiar? Almost like something The Princess of Wales would say, right? The Montessori way of teaching,

“Puts the child first and treats every child as the unique and dynamic learner that they are. Montessori allows children to develop at their own pace and in their own way by letting the child lead the way, and by respecting their independence and creativity.”

Along with an introductory to Maths and Language, children at Westacre Montessori School, with their teachers who act more like guides than instructors, also learn practical life skills. The kids are taught and encouraged to wash dishes, polish surfaces, and cut fruit for the snack table.

Ultimately, Prince George’s first school aimed to “provide a safe, happy, and secure environment; develop physical, social, and practical skills; encourage him to develop a lively enquiring mind; and much more!”

By the time Princess Charlotte was old enough to go to nursery school, the family were already living full-time in London, so they chose Willcocks Nursery School, which is just a short drive, even a walk, from their Kensington Palace apartment. At Willcocks Nursery, Charlotte, and later Prince Louis, who followed his sister's footsteps in 2021, saw their education focus on personal social and emotional development, physical development, and communication and language.

The nursery, located in the church hall of Holy Trinity Church since 1984, follows the Early Years Foundation stage statutory curriculum and says that they:

“Teach lifelong learning behaviours: kindness, collaboration, independence and personal discovery and aim for high standards, excellence and good manners.”

During their time at Willcocks Nursery, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis were “encouraged and supported as they developed key skills that prepare them for the next stage of their developmental journey by the nurturing of their inquisitive minds and fostering a love of learning.”

In 2017, William and Catherine surprised the speculating press when they announced that they would be sending their eldest son to Thomas’s Battersea instead of his father’s pre-predatory school, Wetherby. Prince George, who was later joined at the school by his little sister Princess Charlotte in 2019, learned a multitude of essential qualities that Thomas’s characterizes as their values:

“Kindness, courtesy, honesty, respect, perseverance, independence, confidence, leadership, and humility.”

During George and Charlotte’s time at Thomas’s Battersea, the siblings, particularly George, were often seen participating in sports events while their parents were also heavily involved in the school community.

Prince William began attending boarding school at the age of 8, so speculation began in 2021 regarding what Prince George’s next steps would be. He didn’t go to boarding school as some media outlets suggested, but his parents did start looking around for a new school, making it apparent that Prince Louis would not be joining his siblings at Thomas’s Battersea.

Multiple reporters started writing about a move to Windsor by the family months before Kensington Palace finally confirmed in August 2022 that Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis would be attending Lambrook School near the Royal Family’s Windsor estate. Again, another surprising choice according to the media.

Lambrook School aims to find the perfect balance between giving children an education that will form the basis of their lives while also prioritizing the happy period of childhood. The school looks to inspire, nurture, provide, prepare, and equip its children.

Undoubtedly, the fact that the school is located on 52 acres of grounds and prioritizes getting kids out into nature, something The Princess of Wales’s work has a heavy focus on, was a huge plus for the couple when choosing the school.

This is where George, Charlotte, and Louis will be returning next week!

Looking Towards The Future

On Prince William’s 42nd birthday a few months ago, he was seen with Catherine and Prince George visiting his old school, Eton College. The site of the young prince, still in his Lambrook uniform, of course, began speculation regarding his future steps. At ten, he is still too young to begin attending Eton College, which enrolls students at the age of thirteen. However, I was informed that the application process takes about three years, so right now is the perfect time to start if they are, in fact, planning on sending George to Eton. (Side Note: I have no doubt he would be admitted if William and Catherine tried to send him there a week before classes started, but I am glad they are doing the entire process if that is the case.)

After King Charles’s less than satisfactory education experience attending Gordounstoun in Scotland, he and his former wife Diana decided to send 13-year-old Prince William to her family’s school of choice as both her father and brother attended Eton College. The school is known for educating the elite and has a long list of notable alumni, including Tom Hiddleston, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, and other Windsors.

Eton College, where William boarded all week and sheltered him from the tumulate of his parent’s broken marriage, is located just a bridge away from Windsor Castle. Prince William famously used to walk over the bridge to have tea and what some people have described as “King lessons” with his late grandmother at the castle. Some have speculated that William and Catherine have already made the move to Windsor so that when/if George boards at Eton College, they will be very nearby.

However, the public’s view of Eton College is one of elitism. I confess that when I saw the picture of Prince George with his parents visiting the all-boys boarding school, I was slightly surprised. Because of their previous schooling choices, I genuinely (and naively) thought that they would not even be seriously considering it, especially because of the public perception of the school. I thought they would go for something more like The Princess of Wales’s alma mater, Malborough College.

Catherine Middleton arrived at Malbrough College a semester later than most students there. She had begun attending Downe House in the fall of 1995, but because of bullying, she switched schools. Reportedly arriving at Malborough College a bit shy, Catherine thrived over the next four years. She was an avid sportswoman who made lifelong friends, most of whom are now her children’s godmothers.

Malbrough College was initially a school meant for the education of the sons of the Church of England clergy but is now co-educational. That is probably the main reason why I was surprised at the choice of Eton for George; it would mean he and Charlotte would have to be separated.

Nevertheless, the visit to Eton does not mean The Prince and Princess of Wales have decided where their young son will be going. Moreover, ultimately, I trust George, Charlotte, and Louis’ parents’ judgment regarding their kid’s education!

Royal Roundup

Last Sunday, we got our first glimpse of The Prince and Princess of Wales as they made their way home from Crathie Kirk church near the Balmoral Estate. Of course the initial excitement was killed when another photo emerged, apparently as they travelled to the church, of the disgraced Duke of York being driven by The Prince as The Princess sat in the back. I knew immediately that there was something strange about the fact that William and Catherine were so tone deaf enough to be seen with him in such an intimate capacity.

Let me remind you all that William was the one threatening not to attend the 2022 Order of the Garter service if Prince Andrew was allowed to participate. So why was he suddenly alllowing himself, because the royal family know they always geet photographed on the way to church, to be seen with his uncle he was never particularly close to? And then The Mirror published an exclusive where they claimed:

“The monarch has made it clear to the senior royals that Prince Andrew would not be shut out any longer and suggested the Prince of Wales would be the one to drive him to church in Scotland last Sunday […] One insider said that while William may have attended private functions with his uncle, namely last Christmas at Sandringham aside from the Queen’s funeral and King’s Coronation, he had absolutely no desire to be seen with the Duke in public. ‘It appears he may have had his wings clipped somewhat.’”

This made far more sense to me and I don’t just say that as an avid Wales fan trying to explain this decision away. It was a dumb move, but the reasoning given makes more sense and is more consistent with William’s previous stance when it comes to his uncle. Moreover, it is easy to think, like I initially did, that this was a Kensington Palace leak trying to cover for William and Catheirne. But the more I read the article, the more I began to believe this was a camp York leak.

Take for instance, the quote saying that Andrew being driven by the future king and queen in full view of photographers was “more than he (Andrew) could have wished for.” Plus, the addition at the end of how Sarah Fergunson has been the “life and soul” at Balmoral and has been seen speaking to The Prince of Wales and The King on “several seperate occasions.” Does that sound like it came from KP? No.

Looking ahead, we’re almost at the finish line! As this whole newsletter referenced, the Wales children will return to school next week, which means a return to royal duties for their parents. Last year, we got photos and a video of George, Charlotte, and Louis arriving at school, but that only happened because it was a new school, so of course, that will not be happening this year.

However, when Prince George started school in 2017 and Princess Charlotte followed in 2019, in addition to the mini photocall, William and Catherine also released an official photo of them before they left for school. I suspect that would have been the case last year if the children’s first day of school did not unfortunately also happen to be the day their great-grandmother, and Queen for seven decades, passed away. I think it would be nice if KP released the supposed photo taken last year and never released or if they shared a photo of the kids heading to school this year (although I understand the fear that people could try to set an expectation for them to do so every year).

It likely won’t happen, but just something I’ve been thinking of…

Finally, we may be just six days from William and Catherine’s return! The Mirror reported last week that The Prince and Princess of Wales will be in South Wales on the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing. Supposedly, their visit will include a stop at St. David’s Cathedral for a service remembering the late Queen. Although The Prince will not speak during the service, he is expected to lead the tributes with a message that will “strongly look to the future.”

Their visit to South Wales, which will also be poignant because it will mark 264 days since William and Catherine became The Prince and Princess of Wales, will supposedly see them visiting other communities, including a coastal site attached to the company Nopla, one of the 2022 Earthshot Prize winners. We shall see in due time if this story is true…

I suspect this will (finally) be an exciting week! Next weekend, we’ll dive into William and Catherine’s first full year as The Prince and Princess of Wales. Until then!

The fact that this question was at the forefront of (then) 4-year-old Prince Louis’ mind showed not only how many memories the young Prince had already made at The Royal Family’s Scottish estate but just how connected Queen Elizabeth II was to Balmoral Castle. In today’s newsletter, we’ll consider what exactly it is about the estate that draws the entire extended royal family to it’s grounds every summer and how different it will look now with a new host.

The History

If I were to ask, “What is the royal family’s official residence in Scotland?” chances are that even as a seasoned royal watcher, the first residence to pop into your mind would be Balmoral Castle. Even though Holyrood Palace is the family’s official residence in Scotland, they rarely ever spend any time there except for official events. Instead, when they are in Scotland for downtime, The Royal Family spend weeks, for some even months, enjoying the privacy granted to them by the Balmoral Estate.

Although she was also the reigning monarch of the country, Queen Victoria made her first visit to Scotland at the age of 23, five years after she ascended to the throne when she was just 18 years old. In the Autumn of 1942, Queen Victoria and her husband of 2.5 years, Prince Albert, visited Edinburgh and Perthshire, where they stayed at Taymouth Castle. Following subsequent visits to Scotland in 1844 and 1847, Prince Albert made a move in February 1848 to acquire the remaining lease of the Balmoral Estate in Aberdeenshire following the death of the previous leaser.

The thing is, neither Prince Albert nor Queen Victoria had seen the estate nor the accompanying castle before the Prince signed the lease. When they arrived seven months later, in September 1848, to see the property, they were delighted as Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: “All seemed to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils.”

There was just one issue … they found the original castle too small for their growing family. Negotiations began in 1949 for the purchase of the estate, but the sale (which also included the nearby Birkhall estate) would not be completed until June 1852. In the meantime, Prince Albert commissioned the building of separate cottages and buildings across the estate.

On September 28th, 1853, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for the new castle marking the official beginning of construction of the new building designed by William Smith. Construction was finished three years later, in 1856, and the old castle was soon demolished. Built using granite, Balmoral Castle was structured into different blocks built around a center courtyard. One of the most notable features of the new castle is the 80-foot-tall clock tower at the southeast end of the building.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert certainly left their mark on the Balmoral Estate; in many ways, but particularly a physical mark. Across the estate, there are multiple statues and monuments, including sixteen stone cairns erected to mark special moments in the Royal Family’s lives. The most notable and largest cairn, which looks like a huge pyramid, was commissioned by Queen Victoria to mark the death of her beloved Albert. The most recent cairn was erected and unveiled in August 2012 to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee.

Balmoral Today

Unlike the likes of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and Kensington Palace, Balmoral Castle is privately owned by the Royal Family, meaning that whoever possesses the property could technically pass it on to whomever they wish. Nevertheless, since Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s time, Balmoral Castle has been passed down from monarch to monarch, meaning multiple generations of The Royal Family have been able to enjoy the idyllic scenery and privacy of the grounds.

Queen Elizabeth II, who owned the estate for over seventy years of her life, used to arrive in Scotland with The Duke of Edinburgh towards the end of July. The couple would stay at Craigowan Lodge (which you can see a bit more of in the background of this video from King Charles’ infamous 1994 interview) on the Balmoral Estate for a few days before moving into the main castle after the tourist season, when the castle is open to the public, ended. They then would usually remain in Scotland until October.

King Charles and Queen Camilla have followed a similar schedule, arriving earlier this month and staying at their Scottish home, Birkhall. The opportunity to visit the castle ended this past Wednesday, but it is to be seen if King Charles will take up full-time residence at the main house or remain at his beloved Birkhall nor if he will stay in Scotland as long as the late Queen did. I would not be surprised if he uses Balmoral Castle in a more official capacity, such as the traditional visit from the Prime Minister and for the wider family.

What exactly do The Royal Family do during their time on the Balmoral Estate? I’ve always imagined that their Scotland getaway is when the royals can act more like a family than anywhere else. They go on strolls, have game night, go fishing, and host barbecues. It all truly sounds so ideallyic. One of my favorite photos, taken by The Princess of Wales on the Balmoral Estate, is the one below of Mia Tindall with her great-grandfather, Prince Philip, enjoying a snack.

As I’ve already mentioned, the family also gets a lot of privacy on the estate. We only get a handful of paparazzi photos, and as the years have gone by, they have been less and less. Usually, we could count on photos of royals going to a church nearby or the occasional photo of them driving around, but other than that, they are left pretty much alone.

Like all “blood” members of The Royal Family, trips to Balmoral during the summer is something they look forward to all year. Just recently, new pictures of Prince William at just three months old with his parents on the Estate were published. Prince William has spoken fondly of growing up visiting Balmoral and particularly the time he would get to spend playing with his cousins. In a 2016 interview to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Prince William revealed just a bit of what the royal cousins got up to:

“Peter, my cousin, and I were on a quad bike at Balmoral and we were chasing Zara around who was on a go-cart, and Peter and I managed to herd Zara into a lamppost. And the lamppost came down and nearly squashed her, and I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral running across the lawn in her kilt. (She) came charging over and gave us the most almighty bollocking, and that sort of stuck in my mind from that moment on."

As Prince William noted during his speech opening the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2021, Scotland, and by extension, Balmoral, was a place not only full of happy memories but also sad ones. It was in late August 1997 when Prince William was getting ready to return to London from Scotland to spend the last leg of his summer holiday with his mother when his father awoke him to the news that his mum had been killed in a car crash. I am sure that is one memory he never forgets while visiting Balmoral…

Nevertheless, following that devastating event, Balmoral once again became a happy place for the Prince. We all know that William and Catherine met while attending the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, but the Balmoral Estate provided the privacy for their friendship to blossom into a full-fledged romance. It is no secret that the couple would frequently make weekend trips from St. Andrews to Balmoral.

You may have heard people say William and Catherine have “four homes,” and when they say this, they are referring to Tam-Na-Ghar Cottage on the Balmoral Estate. It is said that Prince William inherited the three-bedroom cottage from his late great-grandmother, The Queen Mother, after she passed in 2002. I am unconvinced that William and Catherine still use the cottage (as it may be too small for their family now), but they sure did use it back then. One of my favorite stories is that for Catherine’s 27th birthday, her Prince prepared a candle-lit dinner near the river just behind the cottage they would frequent together.

And now it is Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis’ turn to make memories on the Balmoral Estate, and we know they already have! George and Charlotte’s first ever flights and Louis’ second flight of his life (as it is rumored the family traveled to Mustique in the summer of 2018) was to Balmoral. They have gone every single year except 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Princess of Wales took the majority of the photos of Queen Elizabeth II with her great-grandchildren at Balmoral Castle. I am sure they must have taken a photo with the late Queen every year (even though we’ve only officially seen two or three, if you want to count a blurry image in the background). It will undoubtedly be very strange for the wider royal family to head to Balmoral knowing that she is no longer there.

As I said, we should not expect any photos or pictures from their time on the estate. In 2019 and 2022, we got videos of the Wales Family traveling to Scotland since they usually take a commercial flight, so that may happen again, although I wouldn’t count on it. As I mentioned earlier, we could usually expect to see photos of William and Catherine heading to the nearby church, Crathie Kirk, but that has not happened since 2019. Fingers crossed, we do see them going to church, perhaps with The King and Queen, this year!

Royal Roundup

We are still in the thick of the annual summer royal drought, but I can just see the light at the end of the tunnel. September will be here in no time! There have been a few notable stories over the last few days. Firstly, the story of The Princess of Wales attending a “24-hour rave.” To clarify, by all accounts, she was having dinner at Houghton Hall when her dinner party group decided to venture to another restaurant on the estate, where a music festival was occurring, for drinks.

Only one photo of her evening out has emerged, and in the photo, you can see her speaking to The Marquess of Cholmondeley while his wife, The Marchioness, can be slightly seen right behind Catherine. That’s right… she was hanging out with Rose and David. Rose and David, the couple that some people have been trying so hard for years to push their own narratives, and yet here Catherine is, publicly hanging out with them. Adding this to the long list of reasons why the story spread by those people has always, in fact, been false.

Moving on…. the Lionesses have made the Women’s World Cup Final! So happy for them (and for myself because I’ve been rooting and betting on their win from the beginning). The match will take place tomorrow in Australia. Lots hasbeen made by the fact that it has been confirmed that The Prince of Wales, the President of the Football Association, will not be attending the final. In my opinion, this is disappointing, but I also understand that it is a lose-lose situation.

I think for me it is hard to imagine that had it been the Men’s team who made the final, Prince William would have at least tried to make it, but by a comment made by the CEO of the FA, Mark Bullingham, it seems like his lack of attendance was expected from the start. Last year, multiple reporters noted that Prince William was considering going to Qatar if the English men made it to the finals despite the controversy surrounding the Men’s World Cup location. Nevertheless, Bullingham did note that Prince William has been sending the team continual messages of support throughout the tournament.

However, I am able to recognize how people would criticize him if he were to attend. The carbon footprint, something that people are always watching because of Prince William’s heavy focus on the environment, would be substantial to travel that far for a singular football match. This is why I always thought the Wales Family should have done a tour of Australia and New Zealand while the tournament was going on, but I also understand that it should be King Charles to be the first one to visit those two countries (more on that at a later day).

As the Lionesses play in the final tomorrow, I really hope Prince William makes up for his lack of attendance with something more than just a tweet. Back in 2021, before the Euros, Kensington Palace released a video of William and his only daughter, Princess Charlotte, cheering the ladies on. I hope they do something similar to that but with the whole Wales Family tomorrow and all wearing Lioness gear. Alternatively, perhaps a photo taken by The Princess of Wales of The Prince with hischildren in front of the television watching the match.

The possibilities and opportunities are before them. Now the question is if they will take it…

I am officially back, so prepare yourselves for more newsletters in the coming weeks. I have some exciting ones planned starting next week with a look into Catherine’s closet and sharing some of my repeat hopes and wishes. 

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Until next week!

For today’s newsletter, I wanted to go beyond just recounting the young Prince’s life thus far. Along with that, I wanted to dwell upon how Prince George has enjoyed a childhood far different from other future kings in the past, including his own father.

A Childhood Fit For a 21st Century [Future] King

After the “Wedding of the Century,” on April 29th, 2011, the speculation turned from all things royal wedding to when the newly-minted Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would be adding a royal baby to their family. Thirty years earlier, Charles and Diana wasted no time “producing an heir.” By November 1981, merely four months after their wedding, the palace announced that the couple was expecting their first child, and William was born before their first anniversary the following year.

Diana attributed many of her issues to the combination of having to adjust to both royal life and motherhood at the same time, often saying things would have been much different if she had been given time to acclimate. It should have been no surprise that when it came time for Prince William, who frequently talked about “learning from the past,” to start a family, he and Catherine, a vastly different couple and vastly different people compared to Charles and Diana, would do so on their terms.

Although one tabloid or another would claim that Catherine was pregnant every month, it was not until December 2012 that the palace confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. That was 20 months after their wedding, a time when they enjoyed the bliss of the newly-married life, added a fur baby to their family, and embarked on two foreign tours. The Duchess of Cambridge also had time to settle into her new role in one of the most famous families in the world and develop her charitable work, which has proven to have laid the groundwork for her lifelong passion.

Unfortunately, the pregnancy announcement did not go as William and Catherine planned. Prince William rushed his wife to the King Edward VII Hospital because her morning sickness was not improving. She was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum, an acute morning sickness condition she would go on to experience in her following two pregnancies. Catherine stayed in the hospital for two days, receiving visits from her family and even Queen Elizabeth II.

Catherine would later tell Giovanna Fletcher on her Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast that she felt “rotten” during her pregnancy and really sick, having been unable to eat the things she should have been, among other symptoms. She revealed it was also hard for Prince William watching her suffer during that time and feeling like he couldn’t do much to help her. Catherine went as far as to say she enjoyed labor more than pregnancy because at least she knew there was an end to the former!

After the first few tricky days passed and Catherine returned to regular engagements as she got better, the excitement was palpable, and the speculation began. Would it be a prince or princess? What would the baby be named? Where would Catherine give birth? Even the royal parents, who decided not to find out the gender before the baby was born, couldn’t help but guess as Catherine told one Irish Guardsman at the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade that she would like to have a boy while William was hoping for a girl!

Nevertheless, steps were taken before the baby’s birth to ensure that regardless of gender, the baby would be William’s heir. The bill proposed to end male primogeniture was first introduced in October 2011 but published days after Catherine’s pregnancy announcement, and it received royal assent, making it law in April 2013. A new Letters Patent was also issued in December 2012, assuring that if the baby was a girl, she would be entitled to the styling of “HRH Princess X of Cambridge.”

However, come July 22nd, 2013, a particularly hot summer day, another future King was born! The Duchess of Cambridge, with The Duke by her side, safely gave birth to a son, weighing 8lbs 6oz, at 4:24 p.m. The baby was born third-in-line to the throne, behind his father, grandfather, and great-grandmother.

Catherine described the moment she held her firstborn in her arms as “amazing,” describing her son as “very sweet” and saying she was relieved that he was a happy, healthy boy. She also marveled at how “utterly extraordinary” the human body is to go through something like birth. One of the most special parts to Catherine was seeing the “pure joy” on William’s face when their baby boy entered the world.

The new heir-to-the-throne made a late entry and had the media waiting for his arrival since late June. Even the baby’s great-grandmother, a.k.a. The Queen, told a group of children five days before his birth that she didn’t mind whether he was a boy or girl but very much would like if he would hurry up as she was about to go on holiday! As she gave birth in the afternoon, Catherine, and William, stayed at the hospital overnight. The new mum did not get much sleep because of a thunderstorm that night, but she was thankful that for his very first night, her baby son did get some rest.

The following day, after visits from both his maternal and paternal grandparents, the little prince left the hospital with his parents. Before being tucked into the car seat, the new family of three appeared on the steps of the Lindo Wing in front of the world’s media, and hundreds of people lined up to get a glimpse. Much has been made about the photocall, particularly Catherine’s seemingly flawless appearance.

To me and many others, seeing a closely accurate representation of a woman’s appearance after giving birth meant a lot. Media formats such as film and tv programs really made it seem like women give birth, and then, suddenly, their bumps are gone. Yes, unlike most mums, she had her hair professionally done and a little bit of makeup. But also unlike most mums, she had cameras directed right at her. So, for her to not hide her post-birth bump in a huge baggy dress was very notable.

Catherine recounted that experience on the podcast, saying:

“It was slightly terrifying, I’m not going to lie. Everyone had been so supportive and both William and I were really conscious that this was something that everyone was excited about and you know we’re hugely grateful for the support that the public had shown us, and actually for us to be able to share that joy and appreciation with the public, I felt was really important. But equally it was coupled with a new-born baby, and inexperienced parents, and the uncertainty of what that held, so there were all sorts of mixed emotions.”

Prince William echoed Catherine’s sentiment in an interview with CNN shortly after he became a father, saying:

“I was on such a high anyway, and so was Catherine about George that really we were happy to show him off to whoever wanted to see him. As any new parent knows, you’re only too happy to show off your new child and, you know, proclaim that he is the best looking or the best everything.”

Unlike Charles and Diana, once the range rover driven by Prince William arrived at Kensington Palace, there was no night nurse or nanny waiting to take over and help out. In fact, by the time the palace announced that the new parents had named their son George Alexander Louis (HRH Prince George of Cambridge officially), they were all miles and miles away from London, preferring to enjoy those newborn snuggles in the comfort of the Middleton Family home in Buckelbury.

Newspaper columns were dedicated to picking apart the fact they took up residence with the Middletons, the fact that it was Michael Middleton who took the first portraits of the family of three, and instead of a nanny, they had grandma Carole and grandpa Mike on hand to help. Of course, there was the usual snobbery: articles dwelling on whether the middle-classness would rub on the future king and what the then-Prince Charles thought about being “cut off” from his first grandchild. Nevertheless, William and Catherine did not care. They would be doing things their way.

After two weeks of bliss, Prince William returned to Anglesey, Wales, as his paternity leave came to an end. Catherine, baby George, and Grandma Carole made their way to join William just a few days later. Carole stuck around to help her eldest daughter settle into a routine, and then she returned home. And then they were alone, just the three of them (and Lupo!)…

Back in 2020, during a visit to a children’s centre in Cardiff, Wales, Catherine opened up about those first few days in Angelesey alone:

“It was so isolated, so cut off, I didn't have my family around me; he was doing night shifts, so if only I'd had a center like this at a certain time.”

So, in September 2013, as they were preparing to make the move from Anglesey back to London and Catherine was starting to return to royal duties gradually, Prince William asked his old nanny, Jessie Webb, to come out of retirement and help them look after Prince George. Jessie, who was William’s nanny in the 1990s, did and stayed with the family on a part-time basis.

William and Catherine only came to terms with the fact that they needed more help when they decided they would be taking Prince George along on their two-week tour of Australia and New Zealand. They hired Norland College graduate Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo as a full-time, live-in nanny. Nanny Maria has remained the one and only nanny for all three of William and Catherine’s children.

Still, with a nanny, compared to the two to three William grew up having at a time, William and Catherine have been very hands-on, as have Michael and Carole. Many times when William and Catherine would have to leave the kids at home for tours and visits, the kids would head to granny and grandpa’s house.

As Prince George continues to grow up, many things have exemplified how he is enjoying a unique upbringing for a boy who will one day be King. However, there are three main ones that I would like to focus on.

Firstly: Prince George’s home life.

King Charles was born at Buckingham Palace, lived at Clarence House for a few years before his mother became Queen, and then it was back to Buckingham Palace. Although he and his family had endless access to homes around the country, his life revolved around London. The same thing could be said about Prince William’s early childhood. He lived at Kensington Palace, and even as he grew older, he would spend the week in London before heading to his father’s country home, Highgrove, for the weekend.

Meanwhile, The Princess of Wales grew up in Berkshire, miles away from the city. She enjoyed the fresh air of the countryside on a daily basis. It is no secret that William and Catherine have strived to replicate her childhood for their children instead of William’s. So, after leaving Anglesey in late 2013, they decided to take up full-time residence at Anmer Hall, the ten-bedroom home on the Sandringham Estate given to them by Queen Elizabeth II (either as a wedding gift in 2011 or a thirtieth birthday present in 2012).

Prince William’s position as an air ambulance pilot allowed the family to stay in Norfolk from late 2014 to mid-2017. By then, Prince George needed to start school, and William and Catherine knew it was time to take up full-time royal duties. Still, the family would make frequent weekend trips back to Anmer Hall, and it is where they spend all of the children’s school breaks. To them, Anmer is home.

We’ve gotten some glimpses here and there, most notably in the video released to mark William and Catherine’s 10th Wedding Anniversary, of their life in Norfolk, but I think one of Catherine’s comments on Giovanna Fletcher’s podcast perfectly exemplifies how they spend their days at Anmer Hall:

“Someone did ask me the other day, what would you want your children to remember about their childhood? […] Is it that I’m sitting down trying to do their maths and spelling homework over the weekend? Or is it the fact that we’ve gone out and lit a bonfire and sat around trying to cook sausages that hasn’t worked because it’s too wet?

That’s what I would want them to remember, those moments with me as a mother, but also the family going to the beach, getting soaking wet, filling our boots full of water, those are what I would want them to remember. Not a stressful household where you’re trying to do everything and not really succeeding at one thing.”

Nevertheless, Prince George’s home life is different beyond just the location. King Charles would go months without seeing his parents as a child, and even when they were “home,” the nursery and the main area were kept very separate, both physically and theoretically. His main caretakers were his nannies. When it came time for him to be a parent, King Charles was far more present, enjoying bathtime and changing nappies. But still, he was not very present in the day-to-day upbringing of his sons, as he was unwilling to fit his schedule around his children’s lives, which undoubtedly caused tension as they grew up.

Meanwhile, Prince George has parents who do exactly that. William and Catherine, semi-controversially, construct their schedule with their children in mind. They make sure that one of them is there to drop them off and pick them up from schools, so much so that there have been multiple tours where they schedule their departure after having time to either do the drop-off or pick-up. They attend the children’s sports days, practices, games, etc.

Their overt involvement in their children’s life is something that was normal for Catherine. It is interesting to note that when asked about what her childhood was like, she didn’t really mention tangible objects or things that could be bought but instead noted the strong presence of her parents in her life:

“I had a very happy childhood. It was great fun – I’m very lucky, I’ve come from a very strong family – my parents were hugely dedicated to us – my siblings. I really appreciate now as a parent how much they sacrificed for us […] they would come to every sports match – I was very keen on sport – they came to every sports match, they’d be the ones on the side-line shouting, and we’d always have our family holidays together.

This was, of course, something that Prince William did not have much experience with, having grown up in a home with, sure, present parents to a certain extent, but with rampant instability. His family life was not a happy one witnessing his parents fighting, watching his mother cry, and going days on end, not seeing his father, whether that was because of work or just that he was at another home since his parents lived apart far before any formal separation.

William’s childhood is exactly why he emphasized to Nicholas Witchell in a 2016 BBC interview when prompted about being dubbed a reluctant royal that his priority was giving the time to his children to bring them up as good people with duty and service to others instilled in them. He expanded on this thought in his 2017 GQ Magazine interview:

“I couldn't do my job without the stability of the family. Stability at home is so important to me. I want to bring up my children in a happy, stable, secure world, and that is so important to both of us as parents.”

The second notable difference in Prince George’s upbringing has been his education. Unexpectedly, the education of future monarchs has evolved with the times, but George’s education thus far has demonstrated more than an evolution but also his parents’ desires for their family.

King Charles III began his education at the age of five, tucked away in Buckingham Palace with a governess. In 1956, His Majesty became the first heir-apparent to actually attend school as he continued his education at Hill House School in London before boarding at Cheam School at the age of eight. Then he was off to Gordonstoun in Scotland in 1962.

We discussed a bit about The King’s unhappy childhood in the newsletter sent out on William’s birthday, but much of his unhappiness stemmed from his parent’s choice of schooling. Having married Diana, who was determined that her kids would not be brought up behind palace walls, King Charles was able to do things differently with his sons.

Prince William became the first heir-apparent to attend nursery school and pre-preparatory as he went to Jane Mynors’ Nursery and then Wetherby School in London. However, The King continued the convention of sending royal kids off to boarding school as young, as William was only eight years old when he arrived at his boarding school, Ludgrove.

Reports from that time suggest that the young Prince William was homesick and isolated during his first term, and pictures of him and his mother when he returned home for the holidays that year show that he was missing her and home. Nevertheless, by the time he was sent to live at Eton College at the age of thirteen, he had learned to enjoy the stability and structure boarding school provided him, away from his warring parents.

In 2016, six months before his third birthday, Prince George began attending a nursery school in Norfolk that employs the Montessori teaching method, which focuses on “child-led learning.” When the entire then-Cambridge family made the move from Norfolk to London full-time in 2017, commentators were expecting George to be enrolled at Wetherby School like his father. Instead, William and Catherine chose Thomas’s Battersea, a school with values that include kindness, respect, humility, leadership, and independence, for their four-year-old son.

As he approached his eighth birthday in 2021, speculation began on whether he would be sent off to boarding school, like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather did before him. In true William and Catherine form, they went against the “tradition” that had been set for three generations. Prince George stayed at Thomas’s Battersea until 2022, when the entire family moved from London to Windsor so that all three children could attend Lambrook School together! The move demonstrated William and Catherine’s desire to keep their family together for as long as possible, along with their wish to raise them outside the “fishbowl” that is London.

Additionally, it once again was another demonstration of the two of them following Catherine’s childhood as she only began boarding in her latter years at St. Andrew’s School in Pangbourne before fully boarding at Malborough College at the age of thirteen. Recently, Prince George was seen visiting Eton College with his parents. Although it is no guarantee that he will attend the school, it isn’t a reach to assume there is a high chance he will and will begin boarding at the same age as his mother was but five years older than his father when he began that journey.

Nevertheless, if Prince George goes to Eton, Charlotte and Louis will still be at Lambrook school, meaning he will only have to cross a bridge to see his family on the Windsor Estate making the same journey his father made many years earlier while attending Eton College!

Lastly, the media access to Prince George has been wholly different than what his father experienced. Prince William was subjected to multiple photocalls as a young child. While the photos were adorable, one could never dismiss his perplexed face at seeing, for example, at least 15 cameras in his Kensington Palace home garden photographing his first steps. Wherever he went, it seemed like a block full of photographers and reporters were present. It wasn’t until after his mother passed away that the palace cracked down on paparazzi photos being taken and sold, but William was already 15 at that point.

As Prince George is their first child, this was something that William and Catherine had to establish as he grew up. By the time their two younger children were born, William and Catherine had already set with the media how things should be conducted. This is why there are far more paparazzi photos of Prince George as a baby compared to his siblings. Moreover, the privacy of their eldest son was something they had to fight for. In late 2014, the parents sent a legal letter to a photographer they had accused of “placing Prince George under surveillance and monitoring his daily routines for a period of time.”

A year later, they had to appeal to the media and ask them to stop creating a market for paparazzi photos of children after a scary incident that saw police find a photographer in a rented car “concealed by darkened windows and sheets hung inside the vehicle where he created a hide stocked with food and drinks to get him through a full day of surveillance.” The letter to the media also included other ways photographers tried to get photos:

“On multiple occasions used long range lenses to capture images of The Duchess playing with Prince George in a number of private parks; Monitored the movements of Prince George and his nanny around London parks and monitored the movements of other household staff; Photographed the children of private individuals visiting The Duke and Duchess's home; Pursued cars leaving family homes; Used other children to draw Prince George into view around playgrounds; Been found hiding on private property in fields and woodland locations around The Duke and Duchess's home in Norfolk; Obscured themselves in sand dunes on a rural beach to take photos of Prince George playing with his grandmother; Placed locations near the Middleton family home in Berkshire under steady surveillance.”

The paparazzi pictures steadily stopped, and the few we still get only show up in foreign publications. Beyond unauthorized images, Prince William ensured that, at least while they are still kids, his children would not have to sit through those dreaded photocalls he did well into his 20s. Other than events where an extended media has to be present, such as tours and Royal Family events, William and Catherine have made it the standard that only one photographer, one videographer, and one reporter would be present for any engagements involving the kids.

This has been the case for all their first days of school and other events, such as the family’s visit to the Air Tattoo last week. Additionally, the family’s #1 photographer is Catherine. By releasing photos taken by her for their birthdays, William and Catherine have quenched the appetite for access to their children. Through these pictures and the carefully-controlled environment when they do appear for engagements, we have been able to see Prince George and his siblings grow up without the overwhelming nature of a dozen cameras trailing them.

It had become increasingly evident that when Prince William said in the engagement interview that he wanted to “learn from the past,” he, even if it was unbeknownst to him, clearly did not mean just in marriage. A reporter once said that the Wales children would be the most stable royal children, which has everything to do with how they are being brought up.

Although it has been a joy getting to see the children grow up, I am also glad that they are able to have as close to a normal childhood as possible, and that is the result of William learning from the negatives of his childhood and marrying someone like Catherine who admittedly had a very happy and stable childhood.

Ten Candles For George!

Earlier in the week, I made a hypothetical post for my Instagram subscribers (make sure to subscribe because I will be posting regularly over there during the summer break!) regarding what I would suggest, as a KP staff member, be released to Mark Prince George’s 10th birthday. Of course, Kensington Palace did not do anything I hoped for, and not even my “realistic expectation” came true!

Instead, The Prince and Princess of Wales released a singular portrait taken by Millie Pilkington, who has taken most of the photos they’ve released so far this year, at Windsor Castle earlier this month. Although I truly did not have high expectations, I was genuinely surprised that they decided to release only one photo of the Prince. Plus, I thought Buckingham Palace would use today to strike PR gold, a.k.a “Grandpa King Charles,” by releasing a new photo of Prince George and King Charles— a missed opportunity all around, in my opinion.

Nevertheless, we have seen quite a bit of Prince George recently (which I am sure played a significant role in the decision to release one photo). Millie’s photo of the now 10-year-old Prince (my heart broke typing that) is so charming and makes George look like a teenager more than anything. We are so close to his teenage years, but I don’t think anyone is ready for that…

Happy Birthday Prince George! Hoping that, more than anything, he has a beautiful day surrounded by those he loves the most! P.s. Happy ten years of being great parents William and Catherine!

Now that Prince George’s birthday has passed, I can’t tell you all when the next “exciting” thing will be as The Prince and Princess of Wales are on summer break with their children until early September. I do not expect to see them at all until then, but deep, deep down I’m hoping they surprise us.

Make sure to join my Instagram subscribers because I have some fun things scheduled for this break! Until next time!

I really enjoyed the conversation we had back in April when I published my first quarter numbers! I think it also put a lot of things into perspective and helped me gauge my expectations for the rest of the year. But now we’re in June, so it’s time to see if some of those expectations still hold.

Unlike the last analysis, all the numbers below do not include any tours, since The Prince and Princess of Wales have yet to embark on a full-length tour this year. Let’s jump right in…

By The Numbers

Beginning with an overview of their total numbers from the year’s second quarter (April to June). April has always been a slow month for the couple since Prince George started school, as the kids are off basically until the last week of April. During that month, The Prince of Wales completed seven (7) engagements, while The Princess tallied ten (10) engagements. Nevertheless, they were able to make up for lost time once they returned to duties.

In May, a particularly busy month because of the coronation, The Prince of Wales undertook twenty-one (21) engagements, shortly followed behind by Catherine with seventeen (17) engagements. June saw William complete twenty-seven engagements (27) while The Princess added nineteen (19) to the count. This brings The Prince of Wales’s second quarter total to 55 engagements and The Princess’s to 46 engagements.

A closer look at what was recorded in the Court Circular: 78.18% (43 out of 55) of The Prince of Wales’s engagements were public, while 21.82% (12 out of 55) were private. As for The Princess of Wales, she conducted 69.57% (32 out of 46) publicly, and 30.43% (14 out of 46) were done privately.

Now on to a comparative analysis. Below are Prince William’s second quarter engagement numbers starting in 2018, a.k.a William and Catherine’s first full years as full-time working royals. As we can see, 2023 is his second biggest year after 2021, but only slightly ahead of 2022. However, I think it is appropriate to note that in 2021 both William and Catherine had many meetings and Zoom calls recorded in the Court Circular during the first half of the year as they were still in lockdown due to the pandemic and slowly returning to in-person engagements.

Meanwhile, The Princess of Wales has had her busiest second quarter of the year and by a large margin beating out her previous record year, 2021. Another quick note: 2018 is so low because Catherine was conducting very few engagements at the time due to her maternity leave after giving birth to Prince Louis.

Taking a look at total numbers from January to June starting from 2018, it seems like Prince William is trailing behind past years. The only years below his current total are 2018 and 2022. Nevertheless, as I mentioned last post, a slower start doesn’t mean a slow end. In 2021, he had huge momentum in the year's first half before falling a bit following their fall break. So we shall see…

The Princess of Wales’s numbers are enjoying another high as she hits her record for her total first-half numbers. I am very pleased with particularly Catherine’s numbers. Not that Willliam’s aren’t fine, but I definitely think more improvement can be made in that area.

I will say that this year, more than any others that I’ve been tracking their engagements, I have seen far more engagements that we find out about later that were not recorded in the Court Circular. Also, recently there was an entry that stated the Princess had “meetings” at Windsor Castle with no mention of with whom or how many, which is not the norm. The wording caused much frustration because it means the numbers will be even more off than they should be. What’s the point of the Court Circular if not everything is being submitted?

Beyond The Numbers

As I always say, and which is perfectly illustrated by the fact that not everything The Prince and Princess of Wales do ends up in the Court Circular, engagements are not and should not just be about the count. When considering what the Royal Family do and what they contribute to society, impact should be included in the occasion.

In the year's second quarter, The Prince of Wales finally announced his homelessness initiative, which we now know has been in the works for two years. “Homewards” is a five-year locally led program that will demonstrate that together it is possible to end homelessness: making it rare, brief, and unrepeated.

The project will take a transformative approach to the issue of homelessness and put collaboration at its heart, giving six flagship locations new space, tools, and relationships to showcase what can be achieved through a collective effort focused on preventing homelessness in their areas. For the initiative's launch, The Prince visited the six across the United Kingdom locations which will benefit from Homewards. The locations include Lambeth, Bournemouth, Newport, Belfast, Aberdeen, and Sheffield.

Meanwhile, The Princess of Wales continued her early years work. In late May, she attended the first “Children’s Picnic” at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and was joined by children from ten different schools. The picnic is set to be an annual event and was inspired by talks The Princess had with the RHS back in 2019 when she designed the “Back To Nature Garden!”

Last month we learned that The Princess had been working closely with the team at the University of Copenhagen ever since visiting Denmark in February 2022 to bring the country’s Alarm Distress Baby Scale to the United Kingdom. It was revealed that The Royal Foundation provided a £50,000 grant for the study, which will trial and evaluate the use of the ADBB in the UK and is being run in partnership with the Institute of Health Visiting (HV) and the University of Oxford.

The pilot scheme will run until December at South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust and Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, and if successful, it is hoped that the trial will lead to a bigger study before the potential rollout of the tool to any NHS trust that wants to use it.

We’ve, of course, had a lot of very exciting events over the last three months! From the coronation to William and Catherine actually attending a royal wedding and the first trooping of the color of the new reign. It’s all been so much fun to follow, especially since we’re entering into a period of annual silence for the Royal Family.

Royal Roundup

This week The Prince and Princess of Wales were still out and about, although there has been a noticeable slowing down in their schedule as they approach their summer break. Nevertheless, on Tuesday, July 4th, The Princess of Wales, as Patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, attended her first day of Wimbledon this year! She first watched British number one Katie Boulter on one of the outer courts before heading to center court, where legend Roger Federer was honored, to watch Andy Murray play.

That same day, The Prince of Wales met with The Crown Prince of Bahrain at Windsor Castle. I’ve said this before, but one of the good things about William and Catherine’s move from Kensington Palace is their increased use of Windsor Castle to hold meetings. The rooms are so much more regal than the space at their KP apartments (which they still use).

On Wednesday, The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay, as William and Catherine are known in Scotland, headed to Scotland for His Majesty King Charles III’s National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication. This was no “second coronation,” as some in the media reported. It was simply a recognition that His Majesty is also The King of Scotland and the time to present him with the Honours of Scotland, which include the Crown (used to crown Queen Mary of Scots), the Sceptre, and the sword. Following the service at St. Giles’s Cathedral, the royal party returned to Edinburgh Castle, where they viewed a flypast.

Going to use this section to say that I am quite disappointed that William and Catherine had very minimal involvement in Holyrood Week. If I were on their team, I would have pushed back the polo match on Thursday to Friday and had the couple stay overnight in Scotland for a day of engagements, specifically in Rothesay, the next day. There really is no reason that The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay have yet to visit their namesake almost a year after gaining the new title. It was a missed opportunity, in my honest opinion.

Anyways, I do love a good polo day! On Thursday, The Prince of Wales played in a charity polo match that raised £1 million pound for charities close to their hearts. The Princess of Wales was present to meet representatives of the organizations, which included: SHOUT, Wales Air Ambulance, Centrepoint, The Passage, Mountain Rescue England & Wales, Foundling Museum, Forward Trust, East Anglia Children’s Hospices Baby Basics, Little Village, AberNecessities.

Prince William has been playing in this particular polo match to aid his charities, and the total amount raised through the years has been over £12 million! He used to play multiple polo matches each year, but as he continues to get older, it seems like this one will be the only one to remain on his schedule, which I’m glad because we always get some of the sweetest moments at polo events because of the relaxed environment. Hopefully, next year, they can schedule the match for a time the kids aren’t in school because they haven’t attended since 2019.

(Note: King Charles retired from playing polo at the age of 57, so we still have some years of Prince William enjoying the “Sport of Kings”)

Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis are off on their summer break. They only return to school on September 6th now. As usual, there is a very low chance we will be seeing The Prince and Princess of Wales during that time. I don’t mind this break as much just because this is usually the time other family members also pause their schedule of engagements, but it will be a very slow time until they return. Who knows, they may surprise us!

We do still have some events this week to look forward to! On Monday, The Prince of Wales will be in Cornwall for a rare engagement during the break.

Additionally, Wimbledon is still going, and The Princess of Wales has been handed the task of presenting the trophies, so I am 99.9% sure we will be seeing her next Saturday and Sunday. Last year she attended the Men’s Singles Final with Prince George and Prince William, so I’m hoping she may take Charlotte this year! She has recently been attending three days of Wimbledon, and although she already attended one earlier this week, I’m sure that was more because Roger Federer was being honored, so also hoping she may make an appearance during the week.

Finally, in exactly two weeks, Prince George turns 10 years old! We can look forward to some portraits as usual, but I am hoping that they do something different to mark his milestone birthday! We will know soon enough…

His eldest son, however, has enjoyed a popularity streak that others can only envy. Ever since the 90s and even today, people in the U.K. have said that they would have preferred Prince William to have been their next King. To most, he is the dutiful heir with the best qualities of, sure, his mother and father, but also his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. It is no secret that Her Late Majesty was whom he looked up to and respected the most.

There is a story, one of triumph, of how the next King of the United Kingdom went from “Bashful Wills” to “the People’s King.”

The Making of Prince

To evaluate the evolution of The Prince of Wales, one must begin by looking at the complexities of the two people who “raised” him. All the information below about Prince William’s parents came from their individual authorized biographies, “Prince of Wales: A Biography” by Jonathan Dimbleby and “Diana: Her True Story” by Andrew Morton, which they both contributed to.

Charles Philip Arthur George was born “Prince Charles of Edinburgh” on November 14th, 1948, to The Duke and Duchess (Princess Elizabeth) of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace. At the time of his birth, his maternal grandfather was King of the United Kingdom and the “Dominions” of the British Commonwealth. As soon as he was born, little Prince Charles was put into the care of two nurses who were “supported by a staff of maids and footmen.”

A strict day-to-day schedule plagued his early childhood:

1. The young prince’s curtains were opened at 7:00 a.m. each morning. He was then washed, dressed, and fed breakfast by one of his two nannies, Helen Lightbody or Mabel Anderson.

2. At 9:00 a.m., he was taken to his mother for a 30-minute “session” before returning to his nursery to play with his nannies until 10:30 a.m., where he would then go for a walk.

3. Only after 4:00 p.m. would he see his mother again, but she would

Queen Elizabeth II took on the top job when Prince Charles was just three years old. So, one does not need to imagine how much fewer of those “sessions” took place. He was not necessarily starved of affection, which he got lots of from his darling grandmother, The Queen Mother. However, the truth is it was inevitably the nursery staff who “taught him to play, witnessed his first steps, punished and rewarded him, and helped him put his first thoughts into words.”

Growing up, Prince Charles would go months at a time without seeing his parents, who were described as “detached” (The Queen) and “harsh” (Prince Philip). The latter relationship was one that was said to have struggled during those formative years. Prince Charles’ personality was described as sensitive, which was not handled well by his father and his forceful personality. Dimbleby claims that Prince Philip fired Nanny Lightbody because she favored Charles over Anne and indulged in the former’s “softness.”

At the age of 13, Prince Charles began attending Gordonstoun in Scotland. His disdain for his father’s former school, which he described at the time as a “prison sentence,” has been very well documented.

Thirteen years after Prince Charles was born, Diana Frances Spencer was born at Park House in Norfolk on July 1st, 1961. Born as the daughter of Viscount (later Earl Spencer in 1975) and Viscountess Althorp and growing up on the Sandringham Estate, Diana, whose earliest playmates were Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, and her family were always connected to the royals.

Having grown up close to her younger brother since her two older sisters were away at school, Diana was a child of a terrible divorce and a deeply broken home. She describes to Andrew Morton instances of seeing her father hit her mother and seeing her mother cry an awful amount. The biggest disruption in her life was when her mother left the family. Diana recalls the standard procedure of her mother crying on Saturday evening after a weekend with her children and responding, “I don’t want you to leave tomorrow,” when they inquired why she was so upset.

Unhappy and unstable were the two words that frequently popped up as Diana described her childhood to Morton. Her parents were “sorting themselves out” while she was experiencing the pain of a bitter separation plagued by people taking sides and not speaking to each other. She speaks of the fear of showing either of her parents favoritism and the trauma of going from one house to another. Additionally, like Prince Charles, Diana was also raised by a multitude of nannies. Unlike Charles, Diana’s nannies were constantly leaving and changing, which added to the unstableness in her life.

I always say that, besides Diana being far too young for Charles and the fact that they got married so quickly while barely knowing each other, one of the biggest issues of their relationship was that they were two troubled people who never sought to “face their demons” before they got married or tried to better themselves afterward. Their burdens not only carried over into their marriage but into their family life as well.

From the very beginning of their marriage, trouble was there. Diana was always questioning if he had begun an affair with Camilla (even though it would not be until years after Charles and Diana’s wedding that he and Camilla would rekindle their relationship). On the other hand, Charles had no idea how to help his wife, who was suffering from depression and bulimia, among other things. Additionally, Diana seemed wholly unprepared for royal life as she blamed the fact that she was not given time to adapt, one of the prevalent reasons their marriage failed. Charles’ lack of attentiveness and willingness to guide his new wife would prove to be detrimental.

Accompanying the current Prince and Princess of Wales and their work should mean that most of us have been exposed to data and statistics showing how crucial the first five years of a child’s life are to ensure they can grow into stable and healthy adults. So, how did Prince William turn out to be so well-rounded?

When his mother threw herself down the stairs while pregnant with him to get her husband’s attention, now looking back, anyone could tell that little William would have a rough childhood emotionally, mentally, and personally speaking. Diana called William’s conception a “godsend” and asserted that her and Charles’ marriage went down the drain following the birth of their second child in 1984. That means that he had less than two years of any semblance of a “normal” family, and there is little to no way he remembers any of that. A broken family is all he knew during his early life.

Years before any official separation was announced, William had already become accustomed to splitting time between his parents. Charles was a far more involved parent than both of his were when it came to raising him, as he “wanted to try and have a home life of some sort.” Although he initially loved the nursery life and would rush home to feed his babies, Diana stated that having a home life was just not something he knew how to do. Moreover, he was wholly unwilling to change his schedule to accommodate time for his sons (Diana’s induction to give birth to William was famously scheduled to fit into Charles’ polo season), which unsurprisingly caused a strain in their relationship as the boys grew up.

On her part, Diana was an overtly affectionate mother who showered her kids with love and spoiled them rotten. However, her own issues led her to become overbearing and recreate some aspects of her childhood that she hated in that of her sons’ in multiple ways. For example, her sons spent considerable time with their nannies, and in 1986, Diana let go of Nanny Barbara Barnes, whom four-year-old William was particularly close to, as the boys became too attached to her. She was not allowed to say goodbye or even send letters to the kids she taught how to walk and talk and comforted during their turbulent childhood. A peculiar move from someone who recounted the instability that a rotation of nannies caused to her own upbringing.

When Charles and Diana were under the same roof, fighting and arguing ensued. Witnessing such highly intense situations at such a young age can affect a child in many ways, such as their behavior. As a little boy, the tabloids gave William the nickname “Basher Wills” as stories about his troublesome behavior at school and home were published.

If the stories of Queen Elizabeth II declaring her young grandson “out of control” and those detailing his comments about punishing people when he becomes King are, in fact, true, one must wonder why the papers did not ask, “why?” What was the cause of his boisterous behavior? The answer can be found in the countless studies demonstrating that hostile parental conflict, which William was undoubtedly exposed to, can directly cause a child’s poor conduct.

Once William passed that earlier stage, his response to everything he was witnessing and experiencing was to quickly grow into a mature and pensive child. One of Diana’s friends described William to Andrew Morton as “a boy much older and more sensitive than his years.” I’m sure we’ve all read the stories about William comforting his mother by pushing tissues under the door when he noticed her crying and how she would call him “the man in my life” and “my little wise old man.” She relied upon and confided in him to give her advice on all situations ranging from her relationships to her charity work.

At first glance, one might find all of that sweet. However, the more you dwell on it, the more it should become apparent how wrong it was for William to be placed in that position. Diana should have been the one wiping his tears and giving him advice, not the other way around. I recently discovered a term attributed to William in other articles, which puts a lot about William into perspective. Whether she knew it or not, Diana parentified William.

According to Psychology Today, Parentification “comprises a series of role reversals, where a child is placed in the role of needing to care for a parent.” Parentified children tend to experience various difficulties in adulthood, including “difficulties with relationships, poor boundaries, anxiety.”

So, what did William do once he came into his own after a difficult childhood which also included tragically losing his mother and being forced by the public to display his grief? He set out determined to make his own way and, by his own admission, learn from past mistakes.

Born as the heir’s heir, Prince William’s life has been mapped out for him to a certain extent. I can’t imagine how frustrating it was constantly being told what he could or couldn’t do. So, step one of his mission was claiming his future. His decision to attend the University of St. Andrews shocked many people. Most expected him to follow his father’s footsteps and head to the University of Cambridge. Instead, he was set on enjoying his Uni years with privacy, and he would find exactly that in Scotland. Plus, the future King living in Scotland for an extended period did diplomatic wonders.

Post-graduation in 2005, Prince William began his training as the future Head of the Armed Forces. He joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an Officer Cadet in early 2006 and trained with them for 44 weeks. After completing his training, William joined the Household Cavalry (Blues and Royals) as a Second Lieutenant. Prince William was barred from fighting on the front lines as he wished, since he was second-in-line to the throne.

Despite that, William would still push to see some action. After his time with the Blues and Royals, he would go on to serve with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. He received his RAF Wings in 2008 from his father and served on the HMS Iron Duke with the Navy that same year. During this time, he realized how much he loved flying, so in 2009, he began training as a helicopter pilot with the RAF’s Search and Rescue Force. From January 2010 to September 2013, he served as a pilot and conducted over 150 rescue missions.

Nevertheless, the end of his time with the RAF did not signal the end of his flying career. Following a “transitional” year, which saw The Prince take a 10-week agricultural management course at the University of Cambridge to prepare him for the day he would inherit The Duchy of Cornwall, William started working as an air ambulance pilot in July 2015 at the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

William taking up a job caused a lot of grumbling among both the press and within the palace. Some courtiers thought it wasn’t wise for their Future King to be seen doing a “civilian” job. Meanwhile, the press hated that as William was off working, that meant less of him and Catherine undertaking royal engagements, and they were also not getting any access to Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Hence, the media began using the “Workshy Wills” moniker. This obviously upset William. A friend of his told Roya Nikkah in her piece about William for The Times:

“That pissed him off. He was leaving home at 5:30 a.m., getting home after dark, and saving lives in between, but people were still being critical of his commitment to his [other] job.”

To lessen the criticism, William could’ve done what his parents did with him and his brother many times throughout their life. It was no secret that Charles and, primarily, Diana would tip the paparazzi off whenever they were with the boys to have their photo taken in order to gain the upper hand in their battle against each other that was playing out for the world to see. Being deemed a better parent than Charles pleased Diana. Charles, however, is not innocent of using William either. The story of how William’s first meeting with Camilla went, along with other stories, such as him apparently inviting her to join the family on their vacation, were leaked to the press and public to help with Camilla’s image.

Returning to learning from past mistakes, Prince William refused to do the same with his children. It would have been so easy to give in to the press’s demands for a few more photos of the kids and Catherine in exchange for ultimately better coverage, but he didn’t do that, nor do I doubt that he ever will.

Learning to have a healthy, happy, and functional family and relationship must have been like working from the ground up for William. He had no immediate role models for either of those things. His parents were the face of dysfunctionality. Sure, you can say, “He had The Queen and Prince Philip!” but although their story is a sweet one of love and duty, I don’t think that would be something he would go to them for, nor something they could help him with.

I avidly believe that one of the things that naturally happens when you are learning is making mistakes. That is why I can’t take people seriously when they start making silly narratives about William and Catherine’s relationship during their dating years. I already touched on this back in February while debunking many things people get wrong about their story, but is it really a surprise that William, who witnessed all that he did and was “parentified,” which one of the consequences manifests itself in difficulty with relationships, floundered a bit?

Maybe it is just the way my brain is wired, but it has always been evident to me that the reasons for their two very brief splits during their seven years of dating had far more to do with issues resulting from his upbringing than his being undecided about Kate herself or whatever people love to say. She was his very first serious girlfriend, whom he dated for more than a few weeks, and so he was learning about commitment, dedication, and all that entails a relationship with Catherine. And he did very much learn from his mistakes. Following their 2007 breakup, William was, according to an acquaintance, “more devoted and loving.” They added: “In fact, whenever I see them at parties together, he is almost sickeningly into her.”

So, while Charles and Diana got married mere months after they began “dating,” and Diana was not given enough time to acclimate to her changing reality, William did the opposite. He really got to know Catherine during their various years together. He did not give in to the snobbery in the palace and his social circles, who openly talked about how she was not fit enough for the royal family (funny since now she and William together are the Royal Family’s greatest assets).

Ultimately, he also gave Catherine, and her family, time to get a peek behind the curtains and let her decide if that was something she was willing to become a part of for him. There is something so heartbreakingly beautiful about William’s admission in their engagement interview that one of the reasons he took his time to propose was to “give her a chance to see in and to back out if she needed to before it all got too much […] (he) wanted to give her the best chance to settle in and to see what happens on the other side.”

It takes a real man, a real partner, who had clearly learned from the past, to say he was willing to let someone he loved and wanted to be with go if that was what they wanted.

After getting married, it was time for William to start a family. It became evident very quickly that his children would have a childhood far different from his own. Of course, this was likely the result of William recognizing what he did not want to replicate but marrying someone like Catherine, who enjoyed a normal home life and was raised solely by her parents, undoubtedly helped when it came to giving their kids a stable home.

He got rid of those awkwardly staged photocalls he was subjected to growing up and replaced those with sweetly personal photos taken by Catherine released by their own hand. All of their schedules and decisions revolve around their children. The decision to base themselves in Norfolk during George and Charlotte’s earliest years and now up and moving to Windsor so the kids could go to school with more privacy is all in their benefit.

The couple do the school run basically every day, which is something William’s parents, even his mother, despite appearances, did not do all too often. Additionally, William and Catherine (controversially?) schedule their engagements around their kids’ school break so they can spend as much time with them as possible.

I always recall this quote from his 2017 GQ cover interview:

“I couldn't do my job without the stability of the family. Stability at home is so important to me. I want to bring up my children in a happy, stable, secure world, and that is so important to both of us as parents.”

Furthermore, this effort is clearly paying off! One look at the family’s most recent appearance together on the balcony of Trooping the Colour this past Saturday shows how close they all are. Princess Charlotte sweetly grabbing her father’s hand, pulling him closer to her, and the way Prince George and Prince Louis discussed the flypast with their father gave us a glimpse into their home life. It seems to be everything William did not have growing up…

Lastly, in an interview to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday in 2016, William said the following in response to criticism calling him a “reluctant royal”:

“I think royal duty is extremely important. It’s part of the fabric of what the royal family and any future monarch has . . . I take my responsibilities very seriously. But it’s about finding your own way at the right time and if you’re not careful duty can sort of weigh you down an awful lot at a very early age, and I think you’ve got to develop into the duty role.”

He was, of course, very right. Prince William will be doing this “royal” thing for the rest of his life. While other members of the Royal Family may have the liberty to retire from public life at some point, he will not. He recognized this and decided to spend his early 30s focused on serving in another way, as an air ambulance pilot and raising his young family.

William added in that same interview, “When the Queen decides she’s going to hand down more responsibilities, I’ll be the first person to accept them.” This is exactly what he did in 2017 when his grandfather, Prince Philip, retired from royal duties. However, even before his full focus was on royal engagements and prior to becoming a full-time working royal, he was already making his mark on the world.

In 2014, Prince William and The Royal Foundation founded United for Wildlife, which “fosters global collaboration in the private sector to stop the trafficking of wildlife products.” Through two task forces, a Financial Taskforce and a Transport Taskforce, the organization “brings together some of the world’s largest businesses in the transport and financial sectors to break the chains of the illegal wildlife trade.

A few years later, after also participating in and co-founding the successful “Heads Together “campaign, Prince William announced the plans for his new ambitious initiative, the Earthshot Prize, in 2020. A year later, the first of the ten planned awards ceremonies took place in London. Not only do each of the five ceremony winners receive £1 million to turn their ideas into reality, but they also receive exposure and remain in contact with the Earthshot Prize team, who help the winners make other connections. This is a really nice interview detailing the Earshot Prize’s impact on one of last year’s winners.

What’s next for The Prince of Wales as he heads into his 41st year? We are awaiting the announcement regarding the homelessness project William has been working on for a while now. Having visited homeless shelters as a child, this has long been an area William has wanted to make a lasting impact. In an interview published over the weekend with The Times, his only newspaper interview ever, we learned that we will find out details about the “really big project” later this month.

He said that the incoming announcement is “nerve-racking” but then added, “I’m really excited […] I’ve been waiting for the right time to do this.” William’s passion for helping the homeless and tackling the issue of homelessness is not fake. Mick Clarke, chief executive of The Passage, which William is patron of, said:

"William does an awful lot where there aren’t cameras. That’s what he enjoys the most, because he’s meeting real people, hearing real stories, it’s what has formulated his plans. When he comes here, nothing’s sugar-coated, nothing is sanitised. People on the streets are very good about knowing whether someone is authentic or not within a second. He is very authentic.”

Additionally, Mick added that William made several visits to the Passage charity, masked up, during the pandemic, where he prepared food with the volunteers, washed up, and even delivered food to someone in need staying at a hotel.

During the interview, Prince William conceded that there are plans to utilize the Duchy of Cornwall now that it is under his possession, saying, “There is. Absolutely. Social housing. You’ll see that when it’s ready. I’m no policy expert, but I push it where I can.” However, according to William, the project coming later this month will have a “tangible impact” and provide “living conditions up and down the country that improve people’s lives who need that first rung of the ladder.”

Further proving that he isn’t doing all of this for the show, Prince William added:

“I try and do these things subtly, when there’s no media and no one else knows about it […] It’s very hard to make it not about me — [that’s] what I don’t want to do. That was about promoting homelessness. If you’re doing to go and do genuine gestures, you do them privately, you don’t do them with an audience.”

Can’t wait to hear much more about this, probably in the next week or so! Happy Birthday, William … we are so glad you are the next King and proud of how you dealt with all the challenges your early life presented you to now be this incredibly dedicated family man.

The History

The ceremonial aspects of Trooping the Colour have practical roots. According to the Household Division, the name Colours historically describe the flags the British Army would use as they displayed the different uniform colours and insignia used by soldiers from different units. The main role of a regiments colours was to “provide a rallying point on the battlefield, which was important because, without modern communications, it was all too easy for troops to become disoriented and separated from their unit during the conflict.”

The word Trooping comes into place because in order for the troops to be able to recognize their regiment’s colours, they had to be regularly displayed. So, the army designed a ceremony where “young officers marched in between the ranks of troops formed up in lines with the Colours held high.” Put that together, and now we have Trooping the Colour.

Trooping the Colour as we know it is said to have begun in the 18th century during the reign of King Charles II, which is ironic because next week, we will be witnessing King Charles III participating in his first Trooping as the sovereign. It was not until almost a century after Charles II’s reign ended that it was decided that the military parade would officially mark the birthday of the sovereign. Still, it would take King George III’s reign in 1760 for it to become an annual event.

Whenever I mention that the parade marks the monarch’s official birthday, I get the usual message: “How can that be? X or Y’s birthday is in Z month.” I know, I know, it can be confusing! The late Queen’s birthday was in April, and King Charles III’s is in November. But, since King Edward VII’s reign in the early 20th century, the annual event has been left to happen in the summer (it used to be either May or June but has been exclusively in June for a while now) because of a higher probability of good weather.

The current ceremony, which features over 1400 parading soldiers, 200 horses, and 400 musicians, usually follows the same format. The Royal Family, in carriages and on horseback, leave Buckingham Palace for Horse Guard's Parade, where the actual ceremony happens. Upon arrival...

The sovereign is greeted by a Royal salute and carriesout an inspection of the troops, who are fully trained and operational soldiers wearing the ceremonial uniform of red tunics and bearskin hats.

After the military bands have performed, the escorted Regimental Colour, or flag, is processed down the ranks of soldiers. Over one hundred words of command are used by the Officer in Command of the Parade to direct the several hundred soldiers.

Once the Foot Guards have marched past the Sovereign, they ride back to Buckingham Palace at the head of the soldiers, before taking the salute again at the Palace from a dais.

Once the Royal Family are gathered at Buckingham Palace, they make their only annual appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch a fly-past by the Royal Air Force. This is usually the highlight of the day and was a sorely missed component of the stripped-down version, due to the pandemic, of the parade, performed for Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in 2020 and 2021.

Five Foot Guards regiments rotate each year and get to troop their colours through the ranked guards. Last year it was the Irish Guards; this year, it is the Welsh Guards’ turn to troop their colour. This is why The Prince of Wales has participated in two “reviews” (basically rehearsals), as he was Colonel of the former last year but is now Colonel of the latter.

By the time you read this, Prince William would have already participated in the last rehearsal at Horse Guard’s Parade before next week’s big day. The reviews are identical to the actual ceremony with the “exception that some additional mounted officers ride when His Majesty The King is present.”

Today’s review done by Prince William was the third one, all of which have been open to the public. Because of that, we’ve got videos of the processions, which have revealed some interesting things about this year’s ceremony. I made a whole post for my Instagram subscribers about what I and many others have noted. Subscribe to read about that, but it will be interesting to see in seven days if we are right!

The Wales Family x Trooping Through The Years

One of the most rewarding things about Trooping the Colour being an annual event is watching everyone grow up and older! Prince William made his Trooping debut shortly before his second birthday in 1984. Tucked safely in his father’s arms, the little prince, wearing a sky-blue romper, seemed curious and a bit skeptical at what he was seeing.

In a perfect picture of continuity, Prince George wore the same exact outfit that his father did for his own Trooping debut in 2015! George was also a few weeks from turning two and had just become a big brother the month before. The little prince had rarely been seen in the U.K.; this was only his third public appearance after the hospital following his birth and going to the same hospital to meet his new little sister.

Prince William continued to make the yearly appearance in his earlier years, where he definitely delivered the entertainment factor. That is why when people comment under videos and photos of Prince Louis saying, “He is so much like [blank],” I just have to laugh because, indeed, those people have not seen or do not recall videos of William at the same age. He was a very mischievous little boy who had to be reprimanded by his aunt Anne a few times, haha!

William made his carriage debut at the age of five in 1987, riding in a carriage with his mother and great-grandmother, The Queen Mother. The new Wales children were eight (Prince George), seven (Princess Charlotte), and four (Prince Louis) when they all rode in the carriage together for the first time. Just as the COVID-19 pandemic robbed us of two Trooping the Colours (2020 and 2021), I believe it also took from us George and Charlotte riding in the carriages a little earlier. However, I do think it is sweet and fitting that all three kids experienced that together for the first time!

Following 1990, Prince William did not attend Trooping the Colour for 13 whole years! It was not until 2003 that the Prince, who was almost eight years old when he last attended the event, emerged from the palace in a carriage and then appeared on the balcony just seven days short from his 21st birthday. I am sure you can imagine how loud the crowds were when he appeared! Following 2003, Prince William only skipped the 2004 and 2006 parades but has attended every year since then.

2011 was a very big year! Less than two months after they were the stars of the balcony, Prince William appeared on the balcony for his very first Trooping the Colour as a married man! With his hand on her waist throughout the events, William guided Catherine and seemingly explained to her what was going on. It was also a significant year because it was Prince William’s first time riding on horseback and participating in the review as Queen Elizabeth II made him Colonel of the Irish Guards just a few months before they got married.

For her Trooping the Colour debut, the new Duchess of Cambridge, who made the crowd go crazy as she appeared on the balcony, wore Alexander McQueen’s Cotton and Wool Blend Pique Coat which features a pleated and tired skirt, collar, padded shoulders, a double-breasted front, and lapels. I, for one, would love to see this coat again, which she paired with Lock & Co. Hat in 2011, but it may be too short for her current wardrobe (@ Kate, we want you to #FreeTheKnees in 2023).

In 2016, another royal joined the family, this time a little Princess! Charlotte made her balcony debut just a month after her first birthday. She matched her mum’s pink ensemble with a sweet little dress and bow of the same color. Looking like she had just woken up from a nap, we saw her very first royal wave, which was prompted by her parents. This was also the year we got that famous and widely shared video of Queen Elizabeth II telling Prince William, who had bent down to talk to George, to get up, haha!

Three years after his big sister’s debut, Prince Louis joined the craziness of the ever-growing balcony members at around the same age as Princess Charlotte. He was, however, certainly more enthusiastic than her! Demonstrating that he had the royal wave down, Louis showed off his seriously impressive skills to the point that he almost knocked off Queen Camilla’s hat! It was also adorable to see him reach for William since we tend to see the babies of the family with Catherine in their early public appearances. Additionally, I believe that Louis was the only one of the three siblings to publicly suck his thumb, as he did on the balcony, much to his parent’s dismay, haha!

Last year was the very last Trooping the Colour with Queen Elizabeth II. So much was already different. Firstly, the balcony had been downsized to just “working royal,” which I understand and agree with, since it is the most practical option. But as we go forward with the same format, I will miss seeing the extended family, especially the younger cousins, on the balcony.

Additionally, it just showed how much the kids had grown from their last appearance three years prior. You may be saying, “duh,” but when one looks at all the pictures side to side, it is a huge jump from George wearing the same style shirt he practically wore for years straight to him in a suit and Charlotte gradually letting go of her floral dresses. Obviously, the biggest difference was in Prince Louis, who was just a baby when he appeared on the balcony for the first time, compared to the second one when he was already a little boy wearing his father’s same outfit from 1985.

I can’t wait for this year’s Trooping the Colour! I honestly never get tired of it and look forward to the parade every year. Make sure to follow my backup Instagram account, @tea.wales, because I’ll be posting more fun stuff about the Wales Family’s trooping appearances through the years!

Royal Roundup

Following their quick trip to Jordan during the children’s school break, The Prince and Princess of Wales swiftly return to their duties. On Tuesday, The Princess of Wales visited the Windsor Family Hub to hear about the important work the organization carries out to provide support to families across Windsor, Maidenhead, and the surrounding areas. I said this on my Instagram story, but I really do love that William and Catherine have been supporting the Windsor community to a greater extent ever since they moved there in September 2022!

The next day, The Princess spent time at the Maidenhead Rugby Club, where she met local and national male players to discuss the “Shaping Us” campaign, hear more about their own childhood experiences, and speak about the role that community settings can play in supporting children and parents. Two weeks ago, we saw her focus on the role “non-traditional” caregivers play in a child’s early years, and now she honed in on fatherhood. I have been very impressed and thankful that Shaping Us has taken steps to acknowledge the roles in a child’s life beyond that of motherhood!

Also, at the rugby club, Catherine was given a pair of earrings by one of the coaches designed to honor her daughter, who had taken her life just last week. The Princess was clearly very moved, hugging the grieving mum, and promised to wear the star-shaped earrings one day. The proceeds from the earrings sold will go to the mental health charity “Brave Mind,” so I hope Catherine decides to wear them at some big event with lots of exposure!

Meanwhile, The Prince of Wales attended an engagement with one of my favorite organizations he is involved with, the Royal Marsden Hospital! Prince William has been President of the Royal Marsden since 2007, a role that once belonged to his mother from 1989 to 1996, and he also underwent a “work placement” at the hospital following his graduation from university in 2005.

Thursday’s engagement was specifically for the official opening of the Oak Cancer Centre – a new state-of-the-art research and treatment facility! The Oak Cancer Centre, funded by the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, will help accelerate the development of new treatments and enable clinicians to diagnose more cancers at an earlier stage. It has been designed to create a bright and peaceful environment that will help to enhance patients’ experience while undergoing treatment.

As mentioned earlier, today, The Prince of Wales carried out the Colonel’s Review, the final evaluation of the parade, ahead of The King’s Birthday Parade next week!

Lastly, it was revealed this week that The Prince and Princess of Wales offered to replace all the food stolen from a food bank located at St. Thomas Church in Swansea, Wales. William and Catherine visited the church last year during their first trip to Wales after becoming “The Prince and Princess of Wales.” Reverend Steven Bunting of the church confirmed that they had reached out to offer their love and support and talk about replacing the food.

I am glad that the couple took this course of action, and I hope they are able to find the person/people who did such an abhorrent act. Stealing from a food bank…how low can one go?

The palace has confirmed that The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay (William and Catherine’s Scottish titles) will be in Scotland in early July for the annual “Royal Week.” We do not know what events or engagements they will be attending, but I hope (and expect) to see them at the events marking King Charles III’s coronation, such as the Service of Thanksgiving at St. Giles’ Cathedral. At least we finally have confirmation on that!

Other than Trooping the Colour, the couple have no (publicly) announced engagements as of right now for the next week. Fingers crossed for an “away day” since it has been a while since they’ve done one of those!

P.s. No newsletter next Saturday! I’m still deciding when it will go out since it’s all about Prince William as we mark his 41st birthday, but I’ll keep you all updated!

My hopes at the possibility of one of the Waleses attending definitely went up, but I was still very wary, considering their track record. The plane landed in Jordan, and we still had no word of who was on it, which made me even more suspicious. By the time the Court Circular was published and made no mention of any royal taking a flight to Jordan, which they usually include 99.9% of the time for official travel, I concluded that it was Prince William, but he would most definitely be going solo since the kids are on break.

That night, around 11:15 p.m. my time, just as I was about to put my phone down for the day, I received a video of The Prince and Princess arriving at their hotel in Amman, Jordan. I thought I was delusional and sleep-deprived and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. William and Kate traveling during the half-term break? For a wedding?! I posted the video of their arrival and then fell asleep, but as soon as I woke up, I had to double-check and make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

And so began a very exciting day of Royal Watching…

The Royal Wedding of The Year

At around 4:30 p.m. local time, the anticipation to see The Prince and Princess of Wales attend their first foreign royal event came to an end as they stepped out of their car at Zahran Palace for the wedding ceremony of The Crown Prince of Jordan and Rajwa Al Saif. Before this joyful event, the only times we have seen William and Catherine with royals from other countries was when the latter visited/attended events in the U.K. or when the couple occasionally visited countries with monarchies. So, this was a very exciting first!

The Prince and Princess were greeted at the entrance by Their Majesties, King Abdullah II, and Queen Rania. I thought that was a lovely touch and not something we tend to see at other royal weddings! William and Catherine greeted the King and Queen with kisses and bows/curtsies and chatted for quite some time to the point that William looked to the side and realized they had to go because the next royal couple had arrived!

The dress code for the service itself was business suits for the men and gowns for the women. Certainly, an interesting combination since the style of dresses worn by the ladies is usually reserved for black-tie events. The Princess of Wales looked stunning in a pale pink floral embroidered Elie Saab gown. If you know me, you know I love Elie Saab and have always wanted Catherine to wear more of the brand. This is only her second Saab outfit, with the first being the blue outfit she recently repeated at a garden party, but I hope she continues collaborating with them and one day wears one of their gorgeous gowns.

The Princess paired her dress, which is from the brand’s 2017 collection (so it is possible that this is a dress she’s had in her closet for years!), with her huge mystery Pink Diamond earrings that she debuted in 2011 and last wore in 2018 for The King’s 70th birthday dinner party at Buckingham Palace. She carried her Wilbur and Gussie ‘Charlie’ Gold Glitter Clutch and wore her Prada Scalloped Sandals for the late afternoon event.

In what I am sure was a complete coincidence, the bride’s dress was also designed by Elie Saab! I am not too sure how I feel about the dress, although I do like the back far more than the front. Nevertheless, all that matters is that the bride herself liked the dress, and she looked absolutely gorgeous. The happiness of the couple was very evident. I chuckled when the Crown Prince arrived at the venue and walked so quickly to the front, haha!

Rajwa was walked down the aisle by the groom’s eighteen-year-old brother, Prince Hashem, as her father was already up front, ready for his role in the ceremony. The bride’s soon-to-be sisters-in-law, Princess Iman, and Princess Salma, served as her bridesmaids, helping with her very long veil! It was very adorable and funny, seeing how seriously they took their jobs as they attentively watched the veil and fixed any imperfection.

The ceremony itself was very short, and of course, I did not understand much, but their smiles told me everything I needed to know. Crown Prince Hussein sweetly wrote on his Instagram following their marriage:

“God has blessed me with Rajwa, the light of my life and my lifelong companion. May our marriage bring us both peace and warmth. I pray that God continues to bless us. Once again, my deepest thanks to everyone who celebrated with us from our beloved Jordan, as well as our family and loved ones from around the world. I could not be more thankful to God for the countless blessings He has granted me today, and to Rajwa for everything she is to me.”

The photo below shows The Prince and Princess of Wales sitting in the last row to the left. Of course, the usual suspects took this seating placement and started saying, “They aren’t important!” Although I’m perplexed as to why a group of people who call for the end to royalty (even though the people they follow are only relevant because of royalty), I would like to show them what common sense and logic are, qualities I know they lack.

The seating arrangement went like this: monarchs ranked by longest reign to shortest reign, heads of states or spouses of heads of states, and then heirs also seated from the longest time being heir to shortest. Hence why William and Catherine are in the last row, considering they’ve been the “heir couple” for nine months.

Anyways, back to the important stuff. The bride and groom exited their venue but stayed to greet all of their guests as they left! The two heirs greeted each other with a very warm hug and kisses on the cheek for the bride. They chatted quite a bit, and we saw Prince William talking about Rajwa’s dress. Ever so chatty, it seemed like William told Catherine, who has said before that the Royal Family jokes about how long she takes talking to people, to hurry up a bit since they were holding up the line (or he may have been saying something else because his hand motions mimicked Catherine’s). People also took an issue with this, but when do people not take an issue with everything William does!

Following their wedding ceremony, the Royal Hashemite Court announced that a decree had been issued to create the bride: “Her Royal Highness Princess Rajwa Al Hussein.” Unlike other monarchies, the HRH styling and “Princess” title aren’t automatic in Jordan. They’re a bit different in all aspects; for example, Hussein didn’t even become his father’s heir until he was 15! I’m no expert on the Jordanian monarchy, but I know one can imagine the drama behind succession that’s not necessarily hereditary. If you want to know more, I suggest looking it up!

Crown Prince Hussein and Princess Rajwa traveled from Zahran Palace to Al Husseiniya Palace in a motorcade procession for their multiple receptions. The couple rode in a Range Rover that was specifically designed for Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Jordan in 1984! (Another fun fact: King Abdullah II is half-British. His mother was born “Toni Avril Gardener” in Suffolk, England, but changed her name to “Muna” when she married the King’s father)

While the wedding ceremony was small, with around 140 guests, the first reception at Al Husseiniya Palace had over 1,5000 attendees. The couple were welcomed to the party with loud music, dancing, and joyful celebration. To the surprise of many, The Princess of Wales’s mother, sister, and brother-in-law were spotted in the crowd! As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, the Middleton Family lived in Jordan from 1982 to 1984 because of Michael Middleton’s job. Mr. Middleton was supposedly not in attendance, so I am just going to tell myself he stayed back to help out with not only the Wales kids but Pippa and James Matthews’s three children as well.

After the first reception came the big event most royal watchers were waiting for! It was not reported until earlier this week that the festivities would include a tiara event, making me more desperate to see The Prince and Princess of Wales in Jordan. The banquet dinner at the same palace as the first was attended by the foreign royals and dignitaries invited to the ceremony, plus others who were not!

It is always lovely to see royals “royalling” with each other. They are not your average person, and it is okay to show that occasionally. To most people, royalty equals “tiaras and gowns,” so what’s the point of keeping those gorgeous pieces in the royal vaults to collect dust? Moreover, the foreign royals have shown up and shown out the past few months for the British Royal Family, which is one of the reasons why it was very important for even just Prince William to be there. I am glad the BRF have finally learned a thing or two about repaying the respect they’ve been shown.

For the glittery evening, The Princess of Wales wore Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara, her most worn tiara. I definitely was not expecting her to wear something new from the vaults, but I was hoping, at least for the Lotus Flower Tiara, which she wore for the first time in nine years in December 2022. But I keep telling myself that her new tiara moment is coming; just have to be a bit more patient.

She did pull something else new out of, now, King Charles’s jewel vault: the Greville Chandelier Earrings. This piece was a wedding gift from The Queen Mother to her daughter, then Princess Elizabeth, in 1947. It quickly became one of her favorite pieces as she wore it many times until retiring, what I am sure is a heavy pair of earrings, in 2010. By my research, it does not seem that she ever loaned the earrings out to any other royal women, so the fact that it is now in the hands of The Princess of Wales is extra special!

Adorning her Jenny Packham dress, which I knew was Packham at first glance, was Catherine’s Royal Victorian Order sash and star along with Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Family Order. I am very surprised that we have yet to see The King’s Royal Family Order, as Queen Elizabeth II’s Order was ready for the world to see by her coronation. But, I think I mentioned this before, I believe King Charles may be waiting for the women to debut his family order when Queen Camilla will be able to first wear it (as she was not wearing any orders at the coronation).

Can’t forget about the Prince! William looked dapper in his white-tie tailcoat with his Order of the Garter sash and star and the star of the Order of the Thistle. For the first time, we can see The Prince wearing the miniature version of the Coronation Medal alongside his Golden, Diamond, and Platinum Jubilee medals. He was wearing the Coronation Medal ribbon at one of the investitures days after the coronation, but this is the first time we’ve seen the medal itself!

Overall, it was such a fun and lovely day doing some classic royal watching. I caught myself saying, “Now THIS is royal watching.” Dare I say I enjoyed it a bit more than the coronation? That may just be because I was watching along from the comfort of my home and not in the cold rain (which I will NEVER regret).

I hope this marks the beginning of closer relations between William and Catherine and foreign royals and that it was not just a one-off considering the closer connection the couple has to the country and its Royal Family. Fingers crossed for the future!

Let the Royal Summer Begin!

It is officially June, which means the start of one of the most exciting months in the British Royal Family’s calendar! We have back-to-back exciting events to look forward to. Starting with Trooping the Color! Although the event itself is on June 17th, The Prince of Wales will attend the “Review,” which is basically like the rehearsal, a week before on the 10th. This will be the second year in a row that Prince William will be presiding over a review. Last year, as Colonel of the Irish Guards and this year, as Colonel of the Welsh Guards.

Come June 17th, everything will be ready for The King to review for the very first time. Trooping the Color has marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign for over 260 years. So, even though his birthday is in November, festivities will be marked five months before in June (which will be very convenient when Prince William’s time comes to ascend the throne). We can expect the usual: cute kids in the carriages and on the balcony! However, this year will of course be monumental as it is The King’s first Trooping the Color.

Right after Trooping, on June 19th, St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle will host the annual Order of the Garter service. As a member of the Order, The Prince of Wales attends the service and luncheon annually with The Princess by his side. The service is a very special event because, back in 2008, it was one of the first official royal events Catherine attended while dating her Prince as he was installed as the 1000th Knight of the Garter.

That same week, from the 20th to the 24th, Royal Ascot will take place. Although they’re not huge fans of horse racing like some other family members, The Prince and Princess of Wales have been attending consistently since 2016, barring 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I think it is safe to say we will see them attending at least one day.

On the personal front, Father’s Day is June 19th, which means we will hopefully get a new photo or photos of The Prince of Wales with his three children! Unlike for Mother’s Day, Kensington Palace has published new photos of The Prince and his brood every year since 2020. They have set precedence, so I hope they continue to deliver.

On June 21st, Prince William will be turning 41 years old! Last year on his milestone 40th birthday, William let the day come and go with very little fanfare, preferring that the spotlight be kept on his collaboration with “The Big Issue.” However, I hope they do a bit more for his first birthday as “The Prince of Wales.” Perhaps a new solo Coronation Portrait or military promotion. One thing I have been waiting for is for him to be appointed as Great Master of the Order of the Bath, a position held by The King from 1975 until he ascended the throne but is now vacant. Fingers crossed that this is another aspect that they listen to me on…

Thankfully, the children’s week break from school wasn’t as dreadful as it usually is, haha! The Prince and Princess of Wales arrived back in Norfolk from Jordan on Friday afternoon to enjoy the children’s last three days at home.

Probably as you’re reading this, The Prince of Wales is attending the FA Cup Final in his role as President of the Football Association. Kensington Palace has also announced that on Thursday, June 8th, The Prince of Wales will officially open Royal Marsden’s Oak Cancer Centre!

No engagements have been announced yet for The Princess, but I hope that the couple can both make their way to Scotland this week. If not in the coming days, it should be done this month. It really shouldn’t have taken them this long to visit their new namesake, Rothesay, at least!

I’ll be here… still hoping and wishing!

It is the perfect time to discuss this topic because next week there will be a Royal Wedding in Jordan and we still do not know who, if anyone, from The British Royal Family will attend. I know exactly who should be sent but more on that later. Firstly…

The Grandmother of Europe

Some of you may be asking yourselves, “Where did this come from?’ The truth is, if you do not follow other royal families and their big events, you would not be able to catch the strange sense that the British Royal Family have isolated itself from other royals. Then you may ask, “Well do you expect the BRF to be best buds with the 20+ monarchies out there?” No, not necessarily, but I don’t understand the thought process behind not wanting a good relationship with some of the few people who understand what they go through.

After all, most of their counterparts across nearby Europe are actually family and blood-related. Queen Victoria was called the “Grandmother of Europe” because her nine children and then 40+ grandchildren married into different European monarchies. Most of today’s reigning monarchies in Europe are still related to Queen Victoria:

• King Charles III of the United Kingdom: great-great-great-grandson

• King Harald V of Norway: great-great-grandson

• Queen Margrethe II of Denmark: great-great-granddaughter

• King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden: great-great-grandson

• King Felipe of Spain: great-great-great-grandson

Additionally, King Charles is “double related” to the Kings of Spain and Norway and the Queen of Denmark through King Christian IX of Denmark, who was called the “Father-in-law of Europe.” Through King Christian’s line, we can also add King Philippe of the Belgians and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg to the list of current monarchs to whom The King is related.

Nevertheless, if you look at how the other European monarchies interact, you will see a stark contrast. I usually follow along the state visits of other monarchies when it is between another country with a monarchy, and most of the time, they are really jovial, whereas things seem more serious and merely cordial when they meet up with their British counterparts. Why? Because the other royal families talk and keep up with each other as much as possible. Many of the foreign royals also serve as godparents to each other’s kids. (One of my favorite recent moments was when King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands made a state visit to Sweden, and during the photo call, he said, “I want my goddaughter next to me” as he brought Princess Estelle closer to him.)

This caring nature went beyond just among the European Royal Families. The story that immediately popped into my mind occurred in 2006, two years after Crown Princess Masako of Japan was diagnosed with a “stress-induced adjustment disorder.” The Queen of the Netherlands at the time invited the Crown Princess, along with her husband and daughter, to spend two weeks at her private home with her family. A few years later, in 2013, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands personally met with the Crown Princess to invite her to her husband’s inauguration after hearing that she was reluctant to make the journey. And Masako did show up!

There was a time when the British Royals had foreign royals become their children’s godparents and had a similarly close relationship. When did the distance begin? I’m not entirely sure, but I do know that with every generation that has passed, the distance has grown increasingly. Queen Elizabeth II was acquainted with Queen Margarethe, and I read once that they would meet privately for tea once a year.

Undoubtedly the “royals” the British are close to in current times are the former Greek royal house. This is, of course, because the late Duke of Edinburgh was born a Prince of Greece. The last King of that Country was chosen to be one of Prince William’s godfathers, while King Charles became the godfather to Prince Nikolaos of Greece. Prince William’s first godchild was Prince Constantine Alexios of Greece.

This closeness extended to the Spanish Royal Family because Queen Sofia, like Prince Philip, was born a Princess of Greece. That’s why we would frequently see those photos of the former Wales Family vacationing in Spain with their royals. But now we have Prince William who wasn’t and isn’t necessarily close to any royals!

The distance to me became all the more apparent in the last few months as the British Royal Family have had multiple significant events. We have seen as the other monarchs have pulled out their big guns and had Kings and Queens attending the funeral and the coronation. I don’t think there was any royal whose status went below “heir” at these events. However, the same can’t be said for the British Royals when it comes to big events for the foreign royals. Furthermore, this isn’t something recent. While doing research, I was shocked to find out that The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were sent to the wedding of the King of Sweden when Charles, the heir, was already 28 and able to go if Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t available.

Charles did start going to more events and attended the weddings of some heirs, but in the early 2000s, that too changed, and the BRF started sending the then Earl and Countess of Wessex to basically all the royal events (minus the inauguration of The King of the Netherlands in 2013 which was rightfully attended by the current King and Queen of the U.K.).

I know that some who report on and primarily follow other Royal Families have viewed the BRF’s attitude as conceited and stuck up. It is no secret that they are the world’s most known and most famous Royal Family. However, does that fact influence their lack of interaction with other royal families? And do other royal families also feel like they have been snubbed through the years because of the BRF’s growing exclusivity?

Just some things to think about! Now the question holds if, with the new reign, some changes in this area will be made…

Jordanian Royal Wedding 2023

This convo has once again emerged among royal watchers because next week, there will be a royal wedding in Jordan! On Thursday, June 1st, Crown Prince Hussein, the eldest son of The King and Queen of Jordan, will marry Rajwa Al Saif at the Zahran Palace in Amman. I don’t know too much about the Jordanian Royal Family other than the surface level and some…unfavorable…things I’ve heard, but Rajwa is gorgeous, and I can’t wait to see her on her big day. (P.s. I just started following this account, and I think you should too!)

As Hussein is the heir to the Jordanian throne, it is no surprise that foreign royalty have been invited to attend. Royals who have confirmed their presence include:

• The Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark

• Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden

• The Crown Prince of Norway

• King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, and Princess Catharina-Amalia, The Princess of Orange

• King Philippe of the Belgians and Princess Elisabeth, The Duchess of Brabant

• Prince Sebastien of Luxembourg

• Princess Hisako and Princess Tsuguko of Japan

The British Royal Family is (of course) among the few royal households to not have confirmed, at least publicly, who, if anyone, will attend.

But, we all know that it should be The Prince and Princess of Wales for a few reasons…

1. Prince William is Heir

This is pretty self-explanatory. As I explained, the British Royal Family does not have the best track record at sending the top guns to foreign royal events, while other royal families do send Kings, Queens, and heirs to participate in British Royal events. However, as mentioned above, there was a time when His Majesty King Charles, while heir, would attend events that had to do with other heirs. Here’s a list of Royal Weddings he has attended:

• 1999: The Duke of Brabant (title of the heir to the Belgian throne) and Jonkvrouw Mathilde d’Udekem d’Acoz; now the King and Queen of the Belgians.

• 2001: The Crown Prince of Norway and Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby

• 2002: The Prince of Orange (title of the heir to the Dutch throne) and Máxima Zorreguieta; now The King and Queen of the Netherlands

• 2004: The Prince of Asturias (title of the heir to the Spanish throne) and Letizia Ortiz; now the King and Queen of Spain.

However, in 2001 Charles began bringing along his youngest brother and sister-in-law, the then Earl and Countess of Wessex, to events but from 2004 onwards, the couple became the designated attendees whenever the BRF got invited to other royal events. Below is a list of royal weddings *of heirs* that Edward and Sophie have attended, but they also got sent to other royal weddings, official events, and birthday parties:

• 2001: The Crown Prince of Norway and Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby

• 2002: The Prince of Orange (title of the heir to the Dutch throne) and Máxima Zorreguieta; now The King and Queen of the Netherlands

• 2004: The Crown Prince of Denmark and Mary Donaldson

• 2010: The Crown Princess of Sweden and Daniel Westling

• (Along with Prince and Princess Michael of Kent for some reason) 2011: Prince Albert II (the reigning Prince) of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock

• 2012: Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Countess Stephanie de Lannoy

Do not get me wrong; there is nothing inherently wrong with Edward and Sophie, but when other royal families are sending their top players to BRF events, and they get sent royals that are falling down the pecking order more and more as time goes on, I would not blame anyone for feeling a bit snubbed.

In short, as heir and the heir's wife, William and Catherine should attend the wedding of the Jordanian throne's heir and focus on building a friendly relationship with their counterparts worldwide.

2. The Connection

The Prince and Princess of Wales attending the wedding would be far from them attending some random person’s wedding. Sure, they aren’t close, but they’ve met Hussein and the Jordanian Royal Family many times through the years. Back in 2018, during Prince William’s tour of Jordan, Crown Prince Hussein stepped in for his parents, who were not in the country, and accompanied William to many engagements. Some of my favorite “royal crossover” photos are of the two Princes watching the England vs. Panama World Cup match, which Hussein had taped to watch with William, who had avoided seeing the score before he could watch the match when he landed!

We also can’t forget that in 2021, Prince William picked Queen Rania of Jordan to join the Earthshot Prize Council. She has attended multiple Earthshot events and has repeatedly spoken highly about both The Prince and Princess. While in the U.K. for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral last September, Queen Rania said about The Princess in an interview with CNN:

“Princess Catherine, you know, when she talks about her work, her face lights up. She does it out of a sense of duty but more importantly she does it because she absolutely cares. So, when she talks about her work, she’ll say, ‘I’m just lucky to be doing this, I have the privelege of doing that.’ She gives from her heart. And again, there is a sense of sincerity, and of love in everything that she does.”

Queen Rania’s words reminded me of another all-important connection: The Princess of Wales lived in Jordan from the ages of two to four with her parents and younger sister! The Middleton Family moved to the country in the mid-1980s because of Michael’s job. Catherine attended nursery in Jordan and is said to have learned “happy birthday” in Arabic before English! During his solo tour in 2018, Prince William noted:

“She is very sorry she cannot be here with me so soon after the birth of our son Louis, but her family remembers very fondly the almost three years she spent here as a child when her father worked for British Airways in Amman."

William and Catherine returned to Jordan with their three children during their fall break from school in 2021! They took some snaps, which they released for their 2021 Christmas card photo and one of just William and his kiddos for Father’s day last year.

3. The Invites

Lastly, I have very good reason to believe that all invites were name specific and not just, “We would like one of you to attend!” The Japanese court confirmed that their Crown Prince and Princess had been the ones to be invited, but, because of a prior engagement, they would not be able to attend, and instead, they are sending two other princesses to represent Japan.

One look at the list of confirmed royal attendees shows that most of them are heirs to the throne besides Japan and Luxembourg, but the latter can be explained because the Prince attending went to and graduated from Sandhurst with Crown Prince Hussein.

Additionally, the heirs to the Dutch and Belgian throne are attending but alongside their parents as they are still young and “learning the ropes.” I suspect that is also why the Spanish royals, the only other house besides the British who have not confirmed their attendance, haven’t revealed who will be going since their heir is 17, and they might be contemplating if she will go (probably with her parents) or if they will send someone else.

This all tells me that there is a very high chance that the invite delivered to the British Royal Family was specifically addressed to “The Prince and Princess of Wales.”

Now will they attend? I am personally going to remain pessimistic and believe they won’t. Unless they finally woke up and realized that these relationships need to be nurtured, I don’t see why they wouldn’t just send Edward and Sophie (and they better send someone). I mainly don’t think it’s going to happen because the kids are on break, and we know how William and Catherine are when it comes to that.

Deep down, I hope they’ve realized that they took an almost long break recently to be with the kids, and leaving them for three days tops during this upcoming break won’t do anything to them. The only thing that gives me a sliver of hope is the silence from the palace, and that could be for security reasons, which usually means it’s William and Catherine, or the BRF just really love being different.

We shall see, but I have very little hope…

Royal Roundup

This week, The Prince and Princess of Wales continued their work, focusing on their individual areas and initiatives. On Monday, May 22nd, The Princess of Wales made an unannounced visit (which caused a lot of noise and think pieces about her “stealing the limelight) to the Chelsea Flower Show! She attended the Royal Horticulture Society’s first “Children’s Picnic,” which resulted from discussions the organization had with The Princess back in 2019 when she designed the “Back To Nature Garden.”

Along with joining the children for lunch and a bug hunt through the gardens, Catherine was questioned by some schoolkids about life as part of The Royal Family. One young girl asked The Princess what would be the first thing she would do when she becomes Queen and true to form, Catherine responded: “Help the kids.” Another sweet moment is when she bumped into some Chelsea Pensioners and asked them what they were having for lunch, to which one of them (smoothly) replied: “The peas are forgettable, you are not.”

The next day, Tuesday, May 23rd, The Prince of Wales visited Earthshot Prize winner and sustainable packaging start-up, Notpla, to see how the business has scaled up its production since winning the Prize last December! During his visit, Prince William took a tour of the headquarters with the business's co-founders, where he saw a showcase of Notpla's product portfolio, which has replaced almost 3 million units of single-use plastic from entering the environment.

Earlier this month, Notpla hydrated runners at the Göteborgsvarvet in Sweden, one of the biggest half marathons in the world, and the company is currently in conversation with multiple prospective sporting partners to bring their sustainable packaging to stadiums across the U.K. (which would be incredible). I am mesmerized by their products and am rooting for them to keep growing more and more!

On Thursday, The Princess of Wales continued her Early Years work with multiple engagements in London. The engagements focused on the importance of relationships in early childhood, specifically, those outside the “traditional” parent and child setting. Her first stop was the Foundling Museum, which she has been a patron of since 2019! The museum tells the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity which was founded in 1739 as a home for children whose mothers couldn’t keep or care for them.

Next, during a support group session, she met a group of kinship carers who have been supported by Kinship, a leading charity, and who are at different stages of their kinship care journey, with some very early on in the process and others who have been caring for a much longer period of time. The Princess was joined by Shaping Us champion Professor Green for both engagements as he was raised by his grandmother.

The rapper appeared on Good Morning Britain on Friday, where he talked about how excited his grandmother was to meet the Princess, but what I found most interesting was that not only the presenter but also Professor Green did not know what “kinship carer” meant until recently. It just goes to show how important these visits truly are! I’m also delighted Catherine has brought attention to and included the fact that not all children have their biological parents as primary caretakers in her work.

Finally, to end the week (and what will likely be the last time we see the Wales couple for a little more than a week), The Prince of Wales continued to keep his promise to support the Grenfell community after a fire tragically killed 72 people in June 2017. Prince William, as well as Catherine, have extended their support many times through the years, which you can see in this post I made.

Yesterday, before the sixth anniversary of the tragedy next month, The Prince of Wales visited the Queens Park Rangers Football Stadium to hear how the club has provided invaluable support in the immediate aftermath and the years since the fire. While at the club, William sat down with the CEO of the QPR in the Community Trust and heard him talk about how he helped build the Trust’s community response before meeting with community and youth workers who have been carrying out work in the local area to support those affected by the fire, funded by the Trust.

To conclude his visit, The Prince spent time with survivors, bereaved family members, and local residents who have been involved in organizing and participating in football matches such as Game 4 Grenfell and the Grenfell Memorial Cup.

It was a very good week for The Prince and Princess of Wales! This is kind of what I was talking about a while ago when I said that if they want to take breaks, they need to be visible enough so that it doesn’t seem like they are doing nothing at all. They’ll most likely be off next week, but they appeared a lot this week, and that should level things a bit. Plus, their May engagement numbers are decent (it has been, unsurprisingly, their busiest month).

Until next week when I will talk about who knows what! Hopefully, if we are really, really lucky, I’ll be writing up a newsletter about The Prince and Princess of Wales attending the Jordanian Royal Wedding…

I am really interested in this topic and hearing your thoughts too! I’ll be opening a discussion on Monday for my Subscribers on Instagram (been a while since we’ve done one of those), so if you’d like to join the conversation, make sure to subscribe!

The Evident Evolution

I want to preface by saying that when I talk about their public presentation, I do not mean that what we see of them in public is wholly fake. In fact, I believe that each stage of William and Catherine’s public evolution has perfectly aligned with not only their positions within the royal family but also their personal lives. The way in which the private has transpired into the public is not fake but thoroughly genuine. For instance…

2011 to 2014: Prince William of Wales finally marries Catherine Middleton in a fairytale wedding ceremony watched by countless people worldwide and is seen as heralding in a new age for the monarchy! What did the Royal Family’s newest and youngest star couple do right after their wedding? Return to their quiet, idyllic, and private life in Anglesey, Wales, where Prince William worked as a Search and Rescue pilot. They were not exactly the glamorous couple the press were hoping for, but it was fine because it showed how “natural, modern, and frivolous” they were.

Plus, it’s not like anyone within the institution managing other royals were going to complain. Shortly after the royal wedding, Queen Elizabeth II made a crucial and historic state visit to the Republic of Ireland, so it was good that the excitement had died down. Additionally, (now I know some of The King’s fans who have been trying to change history may be bothered by this assertion) William and Catherine’s wedding was only six years after Queen Camilla married into the family, and her image was undergoing an ongoing revamp.

We know from beyond The King’s youngest son that he can be quite jealous regarding the spotlight and attention, so William and Catherine’s desire to live a quieter life would have undoubtedly been very welcomed. Nevertheless, living a quiet life is what they did as William wrapped up his time with the RAF, Catherine got used to royal life, and they started their family in July 2013.

2014 to 2017: Now the Cambridge Four! In 2015, William and Catherine welcomed their second child and moved to Norfolk for a few more years away from the city life that London would entrap them in. Their image, one of a growing family enjoying time in the countryside, during this time, reflected what was actually happening in their lives. However, something started to shift…

The press were getting increasingly frustrated at not only the lack of access they were receiving to Prince George and Princess Charlotte but also at The Duchess of Cambridge remaining in the background. You can’t slap someone on the front page who was living her life off in Norfolk and not appearing nearly as much as they wanted. They retaliated by branding Prince William “Work-shy Wills” and started a campaign of onslaught criticism about his work ethic as if he wasn’t doing his royal duties while raising a family and having a civilian job as an Air Ambulance Pilot.

William could have easily obliged and appeared more with Catherine or released more pictures of the children, but as we know, and thanks to William’s younger brother’s book for confirmation, he refused. Nevertheless, this time period was also significant for them as they started planting the seeds for their future work.

September 2017 to 2022: In the summer of 2017, The Duke of Edinburgh retired from royal duties at the age of 96 after more than sixty years serving his country. The then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge smartly recognized that the time had come for them to take up full-time royal duties. They enrolled Prince George at Thomas’s Battersea and moved their full-time residence from Anmer Hall in Norfolk to Kensington Palace in London.

After Prince William left his job at the East Anglia Air Ambulance, they went from the Country Cambridges to the Working Cambridges. There was a clear difference in how William and Catherine approached their work as they stepped up to the plate. During those (exact) five years since they moved back to London, we saw the development of multiple personal projects and, particularly, William’s elevation on the global stage.

However, they were in a weird position. William was not the heir. He was the heir’s heir and was not required nor expected to attend many of the events his father did at the same age. The last time an heir had an adult heir was in the late 18th century…

September 2022 to Present: Those five years were crucial as they increasingly took a more and more prominent position within the family. The time had come for William and Catherine to embrace the role they had been on the sideline for. Although the passing of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was very sad, on a personal level for the couple as well, she had lived a very long and successful life.

The new King declared the couple “The Prince and Princess of Wales” far sooner than most, including myself, anticipated. Not only did they have a new role, but they had some big shoes to fill. However, if there is one thing that has been very evident these last few months is that William and Catherine have a deep understanding of what they need to do.

That was no more clear than during the Coronation Weekend. There were multiple instances where I was like, “See, they get it!” Firstly, the working royal women were asked not to wear tiaras (for some reason). So, The Princess of Wales did the next best thing. She wore a custom three-dimensional headpiece. It may have as well been a tiara, even though it was completely embroidery.

Having not been born into nor around the institution while growing up, I think Catherine has an interesting perspective when it comes to these big events. She knew what we wanted to see, she knew the importance of making a statement, and then she delivered.

Another marking moment was when The Prince of Wales gave a speech at the Coronation Concert. After paying homage to his father at the service the day before and honoring his father in his speech, Prince William took time to make his own personal commitment to “King, country, and commonwealth.” Although I’m sure he was dedicated to all of the above basically his entire life, this was the first time he made that vow, and the message was clear: “I am the Heir, and I am at your service.”

Additionally, I often get asked why we’ve seen Prince Louis a bit more than we did when his siblings were his age. Sometimes the question treads into asking if William and Catherine are “using” their children more. That is not the case. We’ve seen the kids more because they are older, and it also reflects William and Catherine’s growing roles. Of course, we weren’t going to see George and Charlotte often when they were off living in Norfolk and Anglesey while their parents weren’t full-time working royals. Plus, there have been more big events recently, which gives the impression that we’ve seen them far more.

Ultimately, The Waleses are the monarchy’s stars. And by the way, they’ve carried themselves in the last eight months, I would bet they know it too. To deny the obvious would be extraordinarily foolish. I hope and wish that people recognize their power and the goodwill towards them and let them shine and not try to diminish the light as I believe, and am almost certain, they have in the past.

Social Media Rebirth

One of the things many people have noticed recently regarding William and Catherine is the change in their social media approach. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’d know that their social media has been a great source of frustration. There was a period between 2018 to 2020 when they had a man named Christian Jones on their team, which was a decent time for their online presence. However, following 2020, I do not know what happened, but it just became awful.

It is almost as if the people they were employing and William and Catherine themselves were unaware of just how important social media had become for getting your message across. So we got blurry photos, lackluster captions, and slow updates. I think there were very, very few times where I said, “ok, this is all right,” but most of the time, I was just comparing it to their better years.

However, there was a clear difference as they returned from their extended break in April this year and got back to engagements. Their updates were more timely, their content was more interesting, and the captions were still lacking but improved. As we would later learn, this was the result of them hiring a new digital content creator and head of digital social media.

Their new approach came right in time for the coronation and all the celebrations. Joining the team for the weekend were Will Warr and Matt Porteous, who captured the family at the coronation events and put together beautiful videos and photos for them to share across the web. Matt has been William and Catherine’s go-to family photographer for nearly five years now, and Will also worked with the couple on their 10th Wedding Anniversary video back in 2021.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when Kensington Palace posted the first set of reels edited by Mr. Warr. Were William and Catherine actually sharing stuff behind the scenes with us? And each video following just got better and better until the last full-length video was published to the couple’s YouTube channel a week after the coronation. The video was trending at #1 in the United Kingdom and has quickly become their most-watched YouTube video, having amassed over a million views.

I was afraid that things would just take ten steps backward once the coronation was over, but thankfully, they have (so far) not. I am particularly very pleased with KP’s reel usage. They have every right to be concerned with the younger generations’ lack of enthusiasm for the monarchy compared to their older counterparts. Because of the short-video format, young people’s attention span has been lessening. Hence, it is good that their media team is taking advantage of the reels to get the message of each charity across and show what exactly William and Catherine are up to.

The captions have improved slightly, but they still need some work. Hopefully, that is the next thing they address, but I’m overall happy with the direction they are going in.

(Note: Rebecca English for the Daily Mail said recently that there have been talks, but currently no plans, of William and Kate having a TikTok. I am fully against this. The comments would be very nasty because, unfortunately, common sense does not exist on that app).

Congratulations, Kensington Palace! Now keep it up…

Royal Roundup

This past week was the first full week after the coronation, where the entire royal family returned to their regular programmed duties. The Princess of Wales conducted multiple engagements for Mental Health Awareness Week to recognize the week. Firstly, on Tuesday, The Princess of Wales traveled to Bath to visit the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust and meet some of the young people the charity supports with their belief that every young person needs a champion.

The following day, Catherine privately met with Family Action. The fact that the meeting took place and the contents of the meeting, the impact of the pandemic, and the cost of the living crisis on families, were shared by the charity on Twitter and retweeted by the couple’s official account. However, the meeting was frustratingly not included in the day’s Court Circular, but I am still going to count it in my count.

Finally, on Thursday, The Princess of Wales headed to the Anne Freud Centre in London, where she joined a series of roundtable discussions alongside sector experts and then met with a group of secondary school students who have been taking part in interactive activities that explore how they deal with their own anxious feelings. Kensington Palace shared a very nice video of The Princess discussing mental health and the charity’s new “Talking About Anxiety’ toolkit.

The only public engagement The Prince of Wales conducted last week was attending the Women’s FA Cup Final, which he attended in his role as President of the Football Association. Prince William is President of the entire FA, not just for the men, and he’s recently come under some (warranted) criticism for his lack of enthusiasm regarding the Women’s teams. No one is saying he needs to be their biggest fan privately; at this point, it would not seem genuine, but as President of the FA, he should be championing both men and women equally while in an official capacity. So, it was good that he was able to make it to the Women’s Final!

The Prince did continue working this week behind the scenes! On Monday, as The Duke of Cornwall, he held two meetings at Buckingham Gate before a meeting with the Earthshot Prize finalists in Hertfordshire. On Tuesday, The Prince received his former equerry, a lieutenant commander of the Royal Navy, in preparation to meet submariners who rowed across the Atlantic in HMS OARDACIOUS the next day.

We would find out that this engagement was tied to Mental Health Awareness Week, and a video was recorded to be released tomorrow to mark the end of the week.

Oh and we also learned this week that the Earthshot Prize is heading to Singapore in November! Very exciting and can’t wait to learn more!

Make sure to subscribe to me on Instagram if you want to keep the conversation going! Nothing has been announced for The Prince and Princess of Wales next week but given that the children will enter (another) week-long break next Friday, I hope they have an away day, preferably in Scotland! We shall see…

In this weekend’s newsletter, I’ll be sharing my experience during the week leading up to the Coronation and then the big day itself before a recap of The Prince and Princess of Wales’s events recently because I feel like I did not adequately cover them while I was abroad.

For more details and a full look into my travels (including which Royals I was able to see), make sure to subscribe to me on Instagram to access all of the stories saved to my “England” highlight.

The Coronation on The Ground

I arrived in London on May 1st, just five days before the coronation. My flight from the United States got delayed multiple times, so I landed a few hours later than planned. Although I was exhausted, I refused to retire to where I was staying for the week and instead decided to get the adventure started. I headed to Piccadilly Circus for lunch before beginning my walk to Buckingham Palace.

When I came upon Trafalgar Square and saw a glimpse of The Mall through Admiralty Arch, it started to hit me that I was actually in London about to witness such a historical event. I got very lucky and am glad that I decided to visit Buckingham Palace earlier in the week because as it went on, the roads were closed more and more.

I got to Buckingham Palace in all its glory as the sun was setting. It was also really cool to see the press tents up close, along with other coronation preparations.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I did most of the big things that could be done in London: The Tower of London, Kensington Palace, the Natural History Museum, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. I loved getting to go inside the places that I had been so accustomed to seeing in pictures or videos. Everything exceeded my expectations!

A highlight was getting to see Westminster Abbey. I walked there from Big Ben on Tuesday and noticed lots of commotion. Just a few minutes after I left, they closed the roads for a late-night rehearsal. Having been worried about how much the preparations would affect my trip, I feel like I got so fortunate throughout many moments during my time there!

I am a huge Jane Austen fan, so of course, a day trip to Bath was on the itinerary! If I lived in London, I would be making frequent day trips to Bath. It is such a charming and gorgeous place. I absolutely loved it! My trip to Bath was also very timely because the first King of England, Edgar, was crowned in Bath in a ceremony bearing the first semblance of a coronation.

The eve of the Coronation saw me in Windsor. It is such a shame that pictures are not allowed to be taken inside Windsor Castle because words cannot suffice for all the beauty of the rooms I was able to see. One of my favorite rooms was one where they keep gifts The Royal Family have received during State Visits!

I also got to visit St. George’s Chapel, where I got to see Queen Elizabeth II’s final resting place with her husband, parents, and sister. It was a very surreal moment and one I never thought I would experience.

After my trip to Windsor ended in the early afternoon, I decided to head to the processional route to scope out the best spot and see how things were. When I arrived, I was absolutely shocked at how many people were already there, sleeping along the route. I knew that people did that all the time, but I just was not expected to see the amount of tents that I did. It is accurate to say I knew I was in trouble…

Come May 6th, I arrived via the Green Park tube station around 6:30 a.m. and walked no less than 45 minutes trying to find a spot where I could possibly see a little bit. Unfortunately, I could not. So I gave up and headed to the St. James’s Park screening site to watch the ceremony. Although I was initially bummed that I wouldn’t be able to see the procession, watching the ceremony itself with so many people around me was so much fun.

Two things that really struck me: 1) As an American, the media here, especially social media, can really convince you that the majority in the U.K. feel apathy towards the British Monarchy and the Royal Family. Having been there and experienced it all myself, I can clearly see that isn’t the case. I was taken aback by the amount of respect I saw for the King and their country. Something that isn’t that common in the USA…

Secondly, I love William and Catherine. I know through polls, crowds, and the media that they are extremely popular. However, to get see that popularity play out was a whole other thing. When I tell you that the crowd would go wild any time the Wales Family appeared on the screen, I mean it.

When The King and Queen were seen leaving their carriage to start the procession, I heard a ton of people asking where William and Catherine were. There were no louder yells and cheers for anyone else than as soon as the two of them popped up on the screen. It was a very heartwarming experience to see the two of them receiving the love they deserve.

When the service ended, I left the screening site as the royal party was halfway down the abbey to try and see if I could get lucky enough to find a spot to see the procession back to Buckingham Palace. Of course, I did not… well, at least not on the ground. I spotted some people standing on railings and decided to join them. I was able to catch a glimpse of the carriages going by, but that was more than enough for me. <3

I didn’t get to catch the balcony appearance because I was starving and very wet, but on the way back to the tube (I ended up taking a taxi because everything got closed down), I saw the flypast above me, which was really cool. After many years of watching Trooping the Color, I got to see those colors in the sky!

Overall, it was an amazing experience. One that I will never forget! I definitely have learned a thing or two for the next time I head across the pond for a big royal event…

Coronation Week Recap

While I did my best to keep you all updated on all the events going on during the week, I was trying to enjoy my time there. Consequentially, I feel like I didn’t give the best updates nor really share my thoughts and opinions. So, join me as we quickly relive the Coronation week!

Festivities for The Prince and Princess of Wales kicked off on Thursday, May 4th, as they hopped on the tube, the Elizabeth Line to be exact, to head to the Dog and Duck Pub in Soho, where they heard how the pub was preparing for the Coronation weekend. Following, they met countless well-wishers that gathered outside.

Unfortunately, I was in Bath that day. This is my only complaint for the week: I wish Kensington Palace had announced William and Catherine’s events beforehand so I could have planned accordingly. However, I also completely understand that they didn’t share details, likely due to security concerns.

For the engagement, The Princess of Wales wore a complete repeat outfit with her Suzannah London dress and bright orange Eponine London coat.

Friday, May 3rd, was a hectic day for the couple as the coronation countdown reached just mere hours. In the early afternoon, His Majesty The King held a luncheon at Buckingham Palace for Prime Ministers and Governor Generals from his overseas realms. Later in the evening, The Royal Family received Heads of State and members of foreign Royal Families for another event.

The Prince and Princess joined The King on the Mall between the receptions to greet the wellwishers who had been sleeping along the processional route for days. (And trust me, there were lots of them).

For the first reception, Catherine wore a new bespoke Jenny Packham dress that is similar to one she wore back in 2014. In the evening, The Princess of Wales debuted a new sapphire blue Self-Portrait dress, which I really hope we see in full sometime soon! To both receptions, she Aquazzura heels.

May 6th: The big day finally arrived! A lot had been speculated about the day, particularly the dress code was of utmost importance to royal watchers. There was a sense of disappointment as some, including myself, had seen the invitations to members of the congregation AND foreign royals, which designated day dresses and morning suits. It seemed like all hope for jewels and glamour was lost. Especially since Valentine Lowe for The Times, usually one of the most reliable royal commentators, reported Catherine had exchanged a tiara for a “flower crown.”

However, as The Prince and Princess of Wales emerged from their car (which was right on time despite what some have reported), gasps echoed across Green Park as the family looked more regal than ever. I really was not expecting them to wear robes, but I was ecstatic to see The Prince in his Garter robes and, for the first time, The Princess wearing the Royal Victorian Order mantle.

Underneath their robes, Prince William wore his Welsh Guards uniform reflecting his recent promotion to Colonel. Meanwhile, one thing that everyone guessed correctly was that Alexander McQueen would be the Princess’s choice for the big day. Her ivory gown by the brand that crafted her wedding dress twelve years prior was embroidered with roses, thistles, daffodils, and shamrocks, representing the four nations of the United Kingdom.

There were, unfortunately, no tiaras for the event, but The Princess of Wales found the best loophole. She and Princess Charlotte matched in Alexander McQueen and Jess Collett’s collaboration headpieces which featured three-dimensional leaf embroidery.

I was very excited to say for the very first time that Princess Charlotte also had a custom Alexander McQueen dress! Her adorable cape dress was designed to sweetly emulate her mother’s gown. Prince George wore the scarlet tunic traditionally worn by Pages of Honour as he conducted his role, while Prince Louis wore a Hainsworth Garter Blue Doeskin Tunic.

Even though it was not exactly how I envisioned everything, I was very pleased with how it all turned out. The Princess of Wales truly understood the assignment and, unsurprisingly, she was the star of the show. Indeed the entire Wales Family were. There are no better representatives of the future than those people. It was a massive success for them and had many people pondering what their day will look like in the future.

I need to quickly talk about The Middletons because I love seeing them at these significant royal events! I was really only expecting Michael and Carole Middleton to have been invited, as they were last year at Her Late Majesty’s state funeral and committal service, so I was surprised but thrilled to see Pippa and James also in attendance!

As we all know, King Charles had a very limited number of invitations he was personally allowed to give out, to the point that many of his godchildren and children of his cousins weren’t invited. So, the fact that the entire Middleton clan was invited, albeit James and Pippa did attend without their spouses (which I was little bummed about because I always love seeing Alizee Middleton), and they sat in the same section as The Royal Family, speaks volumes.

Michael and Carole Middleton along with Pippa and her husband James were also present at the Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle the night after the main event.

The day following the Coronation, which I am sure all members of The Royal Family welcomed with great relief, The Prince and Princess of Wales attended a Coronation Big Lunch on The Long Walk at Windsor Castle before being joined by Prince George and Princess Charlotte later in the evening for the Coronation Concert where The Prince gave a speech paying tribute to his father.

The Coronation Weekend ended on Monday with the Big Help Out. In an absolutely perfect engagement, the entire Wales Family headed to the 3rd Upton Scouts group in Slough to renovate their scout hut! The Princess is Joint President of The Scouts with The Duke of Kent, so getting the children involved was the best thing to do!

We got to see a lot of their family dynamic, and one can see that that environment, digging and archery, is one they are very used to. Plus, I found out that for this engagement, it was very similar to how William and Catherine have handled the children’s first day of school: one photographer, one videographer, and one reporter to capture the event.

I guess I would consider the Garden Party at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, May 9th, to celebrate the Coronation the end of all of the events. The Prince and Princess of Wales hosted the garden party as The King and Queen were off resting. I love Garden party season! It’s always a highlight in the annual calendar.

The Princess of Wales rewore a gorgeous Elie Saab ensemble she debuted back in 2019 for the Royal Ascot. This has always been one of my favorite pieces, paired with a Philip Treacy hat, so I am glad it got a proper re-wear! I do wonder how the outfit would look without a hat…

Coronation Portraits

The Royal Family has so far released six official portraits taken by Hugo Burnand (Fun Fact: he also took William and Catherine’s official wedding photos) at Buckingham Palace following the Royal Family’s balcony appearance. The first set of four were released on Monday as the coronation weekend came to an end. The photos included one with the working members of The Royal Family, solo shots of The King and Queen, and one of them together.

My honest opinion on these portraits: Something felt off. I don’t have the slightest clue about camera work or photography, but perhaps it was something in that area? I also feel like there was a lack of…regalness. I think The King and Queen’s posture in their photos did not translate well. Plus, maybe King Charles should have gone with wearing his uniform, as some were speculating, instead of the garment he was wearing as it came off as too costumey. Take note, William.

Yesterday evening, the palace released the shot most of us were waiting for: The King and his two heirs! Photos like that one have been customary throughout history to show the line of success and continuity of the monarchy. I was bummed when it wasn’t included in the first batch, but thankfully, they did end up releasing it!

The second photo released yesterday was one of the entire coronation party. I love this picture simply because of Prince George’s smile, one that says, “I’ve been doing these my entire life!” Additionally, whoever had the idea to put Prince George encircled by The King and Queen’s robes, thank you for your vision because it was a nice touch and recognition of his position.

I’m still hoping we get some more portraits in due time, preferably of The King and the Wales Family, and some solo Wales shots.

It’s a little sad now that all the anticipation is seemingly gone. We’ve had so many significant events back to back, the jubilee, funeral, and now coronation; it is weird that it’s all over.

However, we do have exciting dates in the royal family’s annual summer calendar. We have Trooping the Color, Royal Ascot, and Garter Day, among other events, coming up. Plus, Prince George’s 10th birthday in July, and I’m hoping for some tour/visit news soon.

All this to say, there is still so much more to come!

ON THE SCHEDULE:

• May 14th: The Prince of Wales will attend the Women’s FA Cup Final

• May 16th: The Princess of Wales will carry out an engagement to mark Mental Health Awareness Week (details not announced).

• May 18th: The Princess of Wales will visit Anne Freud’s London Home

However, I did not want to let Princess Charlotte’s big day pass by without recognizing it as I did for Prince Louis! The truth is, at just eight years old, the only daughter in the Wales Family has already made her mark.

Through The Years

On September 8th, 2014, less than 14 months after welcoming their first child in July 2013, the palace announced that The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were expecting their second child! Like her first pregnancy, The Duchess was less than 12 weeks pregnant at the time of the announcement, and she was once again suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum. She had to cancel her appearance in Oxford on the day of the announcement, but Prince William went ahead and gave an update on his wife’s health while leaving the engagement:

“She is feeling OK, thanks, it has been a tricky few days, week or so, but obviously we are immensely thrilled. It is great news, early days, but I am hoping that things settle down and she feels a bit better […] I am going to go back and look after her now.”

Just a week before their happy news was announced, William and Kate were seen on a date night at a pub in Norfolk, where they had traveled for the weekend to put the final touches on their new home, Anmer Hall. Knowing that Catherine was already pregnant at that time, perhaps they were celebrating the soon-to-be new addition to their family!

In the early hours of May 2nd, 2015, The Duke of Cambridge drove The Duchess of Cambridge to nearby St. Mary’s Hospital’s Lindo Wing from Kensington Palace. Around 1:30 p.m. local time, Kensington Palace announced:

“Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a daughter at 8.34am. The baby weighs 8lbs 3oz. The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth.”

The whole country, as well as both William and Catherine’s family, were pleased at the prospect of a new princess in the Royal Family! Grandpa Charles was particularly happy as he always wanted a daughter, and he declared later that his granddaughter meant there was someone to look after him.

The little princess’s first visitor was her big brother Prince George who was a little over two months from his second birthday. Fun fact, this was actually the first time Prince George had been seen in public in the U.K. in such a way since his birth!

Having given birth earlier in the morning and feeling fine, The Duchess of Cambridge was cleared to go home with her little baby girl that same evening. William and Catherine appeared on the steps of the Lindo Wing with their new baby daughter before disappearing back into the hospital to place her in her car seat and head home to Kensington Palace.

Two days after her birth, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced that they named their princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. Her name is absolutely perfect, and I think my favorite combination out of all three kids:

• Charlotte: The feminine version of Charles, a.k.a her grandfather’s name; also her maternal aunt’s middle name.

• Elizabeth: In honor of her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II but also her mother and maternal grandmother’s middle name.

• Diana: In honor of her late grandmother, who passed away 18 years before her birth.

After their return to Kensington Palace, Princess Charlotte met many more of her family members before the new family of four left London and headed to Norfolk to truly begin a new life. In June of that year, Prince William began his new role as a pilot at the nearby East Anglian Air Ambulance. Norfolk would be where Princess Charlotte would call home for the first two years of her life!

After making her public debut on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the 2016 Trooping the Color, where she gave the sweetest waves, Princess Charlotte joined her family in Canada in the Fall of 2016 for an official Royal Tour. The princess conducted her first “official duty” during the tour as she attended a party for military families and displayed her fondness for balloons.

In the Summer of 2017, Princess Charlotte once again went overseas, this time to Germany and Poland. While arriving in Germany, she was sweetly given her own mini bouquet of flowers to match her mum’s, and she made sure to shake one gentleman part of the armed forces’ hand.

The princess continued to grow into a beautiful little girl! As she and Prince George are close in age, they have done most of their public appearances together. However, in August 2022, Princess Charlotte conducted her first “solo” engagement with her parents as they attended the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

One of my favorite things about William and Catherine’s “royal parenting” is that they introduce their kids to their royal duties in a way that is fun to them. Charlotte revealed that her favorite sport is gymnastics, and she got to watch rhythm gymnastics with her parents!

2022 was overall a big year for Princess Charlotte, where we got to see a bit more of her personality. Years ago, I want to say either 2017 or early 2018, the late Queen told someone at an engagement that Charlotte “bossed” George around, and we got to see a little bit of that throughout last year’s events. However, I don’t think it is the case of her being “bossy,” a stereotype that is often attributed to girls.

You can tell Princess Charlotte is very diligent to detail and listen’s to her parent’s instructions. From a very young age, we’ve seen how she observes the seasoned royals around her and takes their cue. During Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, Charlotte was seen asking her mum something, and then she relayed the directions to her older brother, making sure he knew when to bow.

A Princess’s Future

Princess Charlotte is in a very unique position. The British Royal Family has not had a princess in the direct line since Princess Anne, who was born in 1950. In The Princess Royal, a title reserved for the monarch's eldest daughter and which Charlotte will likely be the next to hold, the eight-year-old Princess has a great role model. It is not a reach to say that Anne is one of the people King Charles III trust and values the most.

She has led her life, working hard, breaking barriers that were later attributed to other female royals, and supporting her older brother without complaining. And now, not only do Charles and Anne continue to share a close relationship, but so do their children and grandchild. As they grow up side by side, with George getting closer to his destiny, Charlotte will likely be the Anne to his Charles! <3

Although Anne and Elizabeth before her were daughters of a monarch, the moment Charlotte’s full title changed from “of Cambridge” to “of Wales,” she became the first Princess born into the royal family to hold the latter title in 121 years! As a female heir, Queen Elizabeth II never held the “Princess of Wales” title, so her children were never “of Wales.” Similarly, the late Queen’s father had no time to become “The Prince of Wales” as he went straight from “Duke of York” to “King.”

So, the last Princess of a “Wales Family” was Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood, who shares many parallels to the young Princess Charlotte of Wales. Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary was born on April 25th, 1987, during the reign of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, just like Charlotte Elizabeth Diana was born during the reign of her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Princess Mary was born 5th in line to the throne, while Princess Charlotte was born 4th in line. Both Mary and Charlotte were the only daughters in their families as the former had two older brothers and three younger ones while Charlotte has an older and younger brother.

Now here is where the most significant difference occurs: as Princess Mary’s younger brothers were born, she gradually moved down the line of succession. This did not happen to Princess Charlotte, as she made history in 2018 when she became the first princess not to be pushed down the line by a younger brother!

Charlotte Elizabeth Diana is also the second “Princess Charlotte of Wales.” We know the current Princess Charlotte will have a much better fate than the first one, thanks to modern medicine. As the only child of King George IV while he was “Prince of Wales,” Charlotte Augusta, born on January 17th, 1796, was meant to be Queen. Her marriage to Prince Leopold of Belgium, who would later become the first King of the Belgians, on May 2nd, 1816 (exactly 199 years before the current Princess Charlotte of Wales was born), and subsequent pregnancy were of grand celebration to the people since she was expected to be their Queen.

Unfortunately, hours after delivering a stillborn baby boy on November 5th, 1987, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales passed away due to complications at the age of 21. The entire Kingdom mourned the Princess and the future she was not able to have. Her death also triggered a succession crisis as she was the only legitimate grandchild of her grandfather, King George III.

So, Princess Charlotte’s uncle, Prince Edward, who was King George III’s fourth son, rushed to the altar and married Charlotte’s sister-in-law, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Edward and Victoria had one child, a daughter named after her mother, who would later become the great Queen Victoria.

Although the first Princess Charlotte of Wales had a very short life with a sad ending, everything happens for a reason! Had she survived, the Royal Family would not look like it does today, and we would not have the current Princess Charlotte of Wales.

Can’t wait to continue to watch Princess Charlotte grow up into the iconic princess she already is! By the time you’ve received this, Kensington Palace should have released the portraits to mark Princess Charlotte’s 8th birthday! I am sure they are lovely pictures (were they taken by the same photographer as Louis’ as I am guessing they will be?). 

Make sure to join my Instagram subscribers to keep up with my adventure in the United Kingdom! I am here for another six days, so you have more than enough time! Very exciting few days ahead of us coming to an end soon, so let’s enjoy it together! Until next time…

Kensington Palace surpsed us this year by releasing a photo of the couple taken by Matt Porteous last summer in Norfolk! This is only the second year they’ve marked the day with something new but I believe every year is a reason to celebrate and rewatch a beautiful wedding. I don’t think I will every get tired of watching the Wedding of the Century!

I think some of the more minuscule details have gone unnoticed through the years, so sit back and grab a cup of tea, preferably with their wedding on in the background, and let’s dive into everything leading up to and shortly after the Royal Wedding of the Century!

The Planning

On November 16th, 2010, Clarence House, then the office of King Charles III as Prince of Wales, finally announced what had been under constant speculation for over six years: Prince William was engaged to be married to his long-time love, Catherine Middleton. If you’ve been subscribed for a few months now, you probably remember my newsletter all about their engagement! Click here to read that quick roundup of that momentous day that kicked off the royal wedding excitement.

Following the engagement announcement, the questions of where, when, what dress, and who would be invited all started. On November 17th, a day after the announcement, Miss Middleton was seen visiting Westminster Abbey with Prince William’s private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, and other courtiers and church officials. Six days later, on November 23rd, the palace announced that the wedding would take place at Westminster Abbey on Friday, April 29th, 2011. Downing Street also confirmed that the day would be a bank holiday.

Jamie, who would be chosen as one of Prince George’s godfathers a few years later, told reporters about the decision to get married at the Abbey and the ongoing planning:

“The venue has long associations with the Royal Family - it is in many ways the Royal Family’s church - and, of course, with Prince William personally. For Miss Middleton, the associations she has with the abbey are quite simply the same as any British person would have for such a glorious holy place.

They are now getting stuck into organizing their wedding. They are very much in charge of the arrangements of the big day. They’re giving us and the household office very fim direction indeed. I have never seen two happier people. They are on cloud nine like any other newly engaged couple.”

On Valentine’s Day 2011, the palace announced who Prince William and Catherine had asked to be part of their bridal party. In a break of tradition, Prince William asked his younger brother to be his (“public”) best man while Catherine had her younger sister, Philippa Middleton, by her side as maid of honour. Additionally, the couple chose Lady Louis Windsor (William’s paternal cousin), The Honourable Margarita Armstrong-Jones (the late Princess Margaret’s granddaughter), Eliza Lopes (the daughter of William’s step-sister), and Grace Van Cutsem (William’s goddaughter) to be their little bridesmaids. Prince William’s godson, Tom Pettifier, and Mr. Lowther-Pinkerton’s son, William, were asked to be pageboys.

A few days later, Buckingham Palace confirmed that invitations in the name of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had been issued to around 1,900 people, which included members and friends of both families, friends of the couple, members of Foreign Royal Families, and members and representatives of the British and Commonwealth governments along with the Chruch and other faiths. As a future king but not yet heir, Prince William’s wedding was a semi-state occasion. Years later, the Prince talked about his grandmother understanding the frustration at being handed a list of people the couple did not know to invite:

“I went to her (the Queen) and said, ‘Listen, I’ve got this list, not one person I know — what do I do?’ and she went, ‘Get rid of it. Start from your friends and then we’ll add those we need to in due course. It’s your day.”

As they planned their wedding, the couple were also setting in motion what life would be like after they got married. During their engagement, Prince William and Catherine undertook a mini “tour” of the United Kingdom. Their first stop was a lifeboat christening in Anglesey, Wales, where they were living at the time of their engagement and the first few years of their marriage. Then they headed to the place they met, St. Andrews, for their Scotland stop before a visit to Northern Ireland for some pancake flipping. They concluded their national visits with a day of engagements in Lancashire.

In February 2011, the palace revealed that “Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton have accepted an invitation from the Government of Canada to undertake a Royal Tour of Canada.” The tour would go on to take place from June 30th to July 8th of that year.

As they were not aristocrats and with just ten days to go until the big wedding, on April 19th, 2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II granted Michael Middleton a Coat of Arms. The Middleton Family worked very closely with the College of Arms in London to create a design that was “personal to them and visually identified them as a family.”

This included three gold acorns to represent the three Middleton children and the fact that they were brought up in West Berkshire, which is surrounded by oak trees. The gold chevron at the center of the design represents Carole Middleton since her maiden name was ‘Goldsmith,’ while the two thinner chevrons “allude to hills and mountains and represent outdoor pursuits that the family enjoy together.”

Catherine Middleton’s pre-marriage Coat of Arms was suspended from a blue ribbon to indicate that she was an unmarried daughter. After her marriage, her Coat of Arms was joined with her husband’s to create a new design that was last updated in 2019 when she became a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. (P.s William and Catherine are due for an update to their Coat of Arms to reflect their new positions)

On April 21st, 2011, in accordance to a law that dated back to the 18th century, Royal Marriages Act 1772, stipulating that all descendants of King George II must obtain the Sovereign's agreement before they wed, Queen Elizabeth II gave her formal consent for her grandson to get married. (The 1772 act was replaced by a new act in 2013 which now requires only the first six in line to the throne to get permission from the Sovereign to marry)

In a beautifully decorated document, Queen Elizabeth II signed to consent to the union of

"Our Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince William Arthur Philip Louis of Wales, K.G. and Our Trusty and Well-beloved Catherine Elizabeth Middleton."

The Instrument of Consent has a white lily to represent St. Catherine of Siena, whose feast day falls on April 29th and who the bride-to-be shares a name with. Additionally, there is also a Welsh leek surrounded by Prince William’s white three-pronged second in line to the throne label, a tiny red escallop from the Spencer family Arms, a red dragon (the heraldic symbol of Wales), the UK’s floral emblems (the rose, thistle, and shamrock), the couple’s joint monogram, and Prince William’s blue and gold Order of the Garter belt.

With all the planning, announcements, and rehearsals done, Catherine Middleton arrived at the Goring Hotel in London with her mother and sister for what would be her last night as a “commoner” before she joined one of the most famous families in the world in a wedding watched by billions!

The Wedding

The world’s media flew into London. The stage was set. The world was finally about to witness the wedding they had anticipated for years. Westminster Abbey was all decorated and ready to go. London-based floral designer Shane Connolly took the lead in decorating the Abbey with floral displays that included blossoms, azaleas, rhododendron, euphorbias, beech, wisteria, and lilac to pay tribute to the Language of Flowers.

Shane Conolly is known for his sustainable approach to floristry, which “incorporates as much as possible the use of growing, rather than cut, plants and trees.” So, part of the decoration included eight 20-foot high trees, which were grown in planters designed by Connolly and made by craftsmen at William’s father’s country estate, Highgrove.

William and Catherine can walk down memory lane as six of those trees were planted at Llwynywermod estate in Carmarthenshire, Wales, after the wedding. The estate was bought in 2007 by The Duchy of Cornwall by Prince William’s father, meaning that as the new owner of the Duchy, the estate is now William’s.

Early in the morning, another piece of information that had been subjected to much speculation was finally confirmed. In a statement released by the late Queen’s office, they confirmed what the couple’s new titles would be:

“The Queen has today been pleased to confer a Dukedom on Prince William of Wales. His titles will be Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus. Prince William thus becomes His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge and Miss Catherine Middleton on marriage will become Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge.”

Prince William emerged as The Duke of Cambridge for the first time as he made his way from Clarence House to Westminster Abbey with his best man. For his big day, The Queen told William to wear the uniform of Colonel of the Irish Guards, of which he had been made just a few months earlier. The uniform features a gold and crimson sash, and gold sword slings. He also wore the Garter Sash with the wings of the Royal Air Force, the Garter Star, and the Golden Jubilee Medal.

After all the guests arrived and were seated in the Abbey, then came the sweet wedding party. Maid of honor Pippa Middleton got a lot of attention for her Alexander McQueen dress which was “of a heavy, ivory satin-based crepe, with a cowl front and with the same button detail and lace trims as the Bride’s dress.”

The mini-bridesmaids wore gorgeous dresses designed and handmade by Nicki Macfarlane and her daughter straight from their homes. The bridesmaid dresses had a “ballerina-length, full, box pleated skirt” with a layering of ivory over white satin gazar adding depth of color.” Echoing the bride’s dress, they were all hand-finished with delicate English Cluny lace and the same button details. The sashes across their dress and tied neatly in a bow in the back were made of pale gold, wild silk.

Sweetly, each of the bridesmaid’s names were hand-embroidered into the lining of their dresses. Their floral bouquets and headpieces, inspired by Carole Middleton’s 1981 wedding headdress, were also designed by Shane Connolly. Something that most people don’t know the bridesmaids’s outfits also included, because only two of them wore it on the carriage back to the palace, were waist-length capes made from ivory Yorkshire wool! You can see Lady Louise Windsor and Eliza Lopes wearing the capes as they arrive at Buckingham Palace following the wedding in the picture in the bottom right below.

Meanwhile, the two pageboys wore uniforms in “the style of that worn by a Foot Guards officer at the time of the Regency,” drawing its insignia from the Irish Guards. The uniforms were designed by the Royal Household and were created by Kashket and Partners, while the Royal School of Needlework created their collars and cuffs.

Finally, months of speculation about who would be given the honor of designing one of the most historic wedding dresses ended. As Catherine Middleton stepped out of the car upon arrival at Westminster Abbey, the palace confirmed that Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen designed the wedding dress. Catherine chose McQueen because of the “beauty of its craftsmanship and its respect for traditional workmanship and the technical construction of clothing,” as she wished to combine tradition and modernity.

The gorgeous dress’s lace applique for the bodice and skirt was hand-made by the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace with floral embroidery that paid tribute to each nation part of the United Kingdom’s national flower: rose, thistle, daffodil, and shamrock. The entire dress was made with ivory and white satin gazar. Meant to echo an opening flower, the skirt was made with white satin gazar arches and pleats. As a hallmark of Alexander McQueen’s designs, narrowed at the waist and padded at the hips, the ivory bodice Victorian tradition of corsetry. To finish it all off, the back has 58 gazar and organza-covered buttons fastened by Rouleau loops.

Catherine’s shoes were also hand-made by the Alexander McQueen team and are made of ivory satin with lace.

Held in place by the Cartier Halo tiara, which was loaned to her by The Queen, Catherine’s veil was made of layers of soft, ivory silk tulle with a trim of hand-embroidered flowers. Catherine’s earrings were a gift from her parents and were designed by Robinson Pelham. Drawing inspiration from the Middleton Family’s coat of arms, the earrings featured diamond-set stylized oak leaves with a pear-shaped diamond set drop and a pavé set diamond acorn suspended in the center.

The bride’s bouquet, which was later placed on the grave of the unknown soldier in Westminster Abbey following the tradition started by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, in 1923, was designed by Shane Connolly to reflect significant flowers to the Royal Family, the Middletons, and the couple themselves. The shield-shaped wired bouquet included:

• Myrtle: the emblem of marriage; love

• Lily of the Valley: return of happiness

• Sweet William: gallantry

• Hyacinth: constancy of love

• Ivy: fidelity; marriage; wedded love; friendship; affection

And so began a beautiful wedding mixed with traditional and personal components. Along with choosing some of their favorite hymns, including the glorious “Jerusalem” by Sir Charles Parry, Westminster Abbey commissioned a new anthem, “This is the day which the Lord hath made,” composed by John Rutter, as a wedding gift to the couple. The performance of the anthem by the Choir of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal Choir is always a highlight for me!

While her younger sister had a role in the wedding party, Catherine didn’t forget about her younger brother James. He read the one and only lesson during the service from Romans 12: 1, 2, 9-18. James has dyslexia, and he revealed a few years after the Wedding that he memorized the entire passage as he did not want to mess up.

Additionally, William and Catherine wrote their own prayer, which sweetly read:

“God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage. In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy. Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Following their wedding, which was watched by millions of people worldwide, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge returned to Buckingham Palace in the 1902 State Landau carriage, with their families right behind them, to begin the multiple festivities!

The Receptions

Upon their return to the palace, the couple took official portraits, which were snapped by Hugo Burnand, and then briefly appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with both sides of their family and their bridal party. Afterwards, it was straight to business as they greeted some of the 6oo guests invited to the lunchtime reception at the palace by The Queen. Those among the guests included friends but also government officials and members of foreign royal families.

Along with lunch, the guests were served pieces of William and Catherine’s eight-tier, three-foot, and 220-pound wedding cake. The fruit cake was decorated with the couple’s monogram as well as a different floral design of lily of the valley, Irish shamrock, English rose, Scottish thistle, and Welsh daffodil were used on each tier. The baker, Fiona Cairns, later revealed that 17 different flowers and leaves were incorporated into the design, and each of the 900 or so details were crafted by hand. The fact that the cake was placed in Buckingham Palace’s Picture Gallery also played a role in the design, as Catherine requested that the cake reflect the architecture and detailing of the room.

At the lunchtime reception, Prince William’s father, the then Prince of Wales, gave speech to the 600-plus guests where he declared how lucky the family was to have Catherine and allegedly described her as the daughter he never had. He made jokes about William’s bald spot and lack of driving skills before assuring that he was “incredibly happy” his son had found his soulmate. To top it all, the groom's father gave a toast, wishing the bride and groom a lifetime of happiness together.

Prince William also gave a short speech where he spoke highly about the wonderful girl whom he was in love with and the importance of family. The newly married couple then left Buckingham Palace to Clarence House before another party in the Prince’s father’s Aston Martin which was decorated specially for the couple.

After some downtime, William and Catherine emerged from Clarence House with Charles and Camilla to head back to Buckingham Palace for a reception for 300 of their closest friends and family. The bride’s second dress of the day was also by Alexander McQueen. The satin gown featured a wide skirt and sweetheart neckline tied together by a bejeweled belt. While heading to the party, she used a furry coverup, but I’d like to think she removed it once the dancing got underway!

Guests were seated at tables that were labeled with places special to the couple and their relationships, such as St. Andrews and villages near Anglesey, and then were served a three-course meal. On the menu was Marinated South Uist salmon and Lyme Bay crab for the first course, Saddle of North Highland organic lamb with Highgrove vegetables for the second course, and Berkshire honey ice cream, sherry trifle, and chocolate parfait for dessert.

Prince William stepped into the spotlight once again to give another speech, this time to their intimate group of friends, where he intruded his wife as “Mrs. Wales” before describing her as his “rock” and thanking her for providing the security and stability he had always so desperately craved. After him came a speech by Michael Middleton, who allegedly declared:

“I knew things were getting serious when I found a helicopter in my garden. I thought, Gosh, he must like my daughter. I did wonder how William was going to top this if they ever got engaged. I just thought, What will he do?

Prince William’s younger brother stepped up to the mic for a short speech to introduce William’s “real” best men, Thomas Van Staubenzee and James Meade. The younger brother told the couple that their love inspired him and assured him their late mother would be proud of his older brother and new wife. He also noted, before impersonating the way his brother calls Kate “babykins,” that:

“William didn’t have a romantic bone in his body before he met Kate, so I knew it was serious when William suddenly started cooing down the phone at Kate.”

After all the speeches were said and done, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge headed to the dance floor for their first dance, which was performed to Ellie Goulding singing “Your Song” live. The couple also supposedly broke out dancing and pointing at each other while “You’re The One That I Want” played in the background.

The Honeymoon

After a full day of celebration and partying well into the early hours of the morning, William and Catherine retired to the Belgian Suite in Buckingham Palace, which is usually reserved for visiting royals. The next morning, the couple left Buckingham Palace for a weekend’s rest at an undisclosed location in the United Kingdom (most likely Balmoral in Scotland) before the Prince returned to work as a Search and Rescue pilot in Wales on the following Monday.

Postponing their honeymoon to a later day meant that the excitement died down, and when they did head to their destination, the Seychelles, in early May, the press was relatively unaware (some photos emerged but not too many and only in foreign publications).

Royal Roundup

The Prince and Princess of Wales had a very busy week, catching up on their time away! Along with multiple private engagements recorded in the Court Circular, they were out and about a lot this week (more than usual). On Monday, The Princess visited The Baby Banks in Windsor to hear about the crucial work the organization carries out to support families in need from Maidenhead, Slough, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and the surrounding areas.

The next morning, Prince William got a very early start to his day as he attended the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at the Australia Memorial Hyde Park Corner to mark the national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, which commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who have served and died in the war. In London, there is usually this event and then one at the Cenotaph, which is followed by a service at Westminster Abbey. This year, The Duke of Gloucester did the latter two, but last year, he did the Dawn Service while Prince William took on the Cenotaph and Abbey service. It seems like we may see some alternating going on.

On Thursday and Friday, The Prince and Princess of Wales headed to Mid-Wales and South Wales Valley for multiple engagements. Their trip saw them mark the 60th anniversary of the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team. The Prince, who is patron of Mountain Rescue England and Wales, and the Princess joined the team for some exercises on the mountain before heading to the Dowlaid Rugby Club for some pizza with volunteers, supporters, and local community members.

The next day, William and Catherine made their first visit to the Abernfan Memorial garden, which sits on the site of Pantglas School, which was tragically destroyed in a coal-tip landslide in October 1966. The disaster killed 144 people, 116 of whom were children. The Memorial Garden was opened in 1974 by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Happy Anniversary William and Kate! I love rewatching and remembering the details of that beautiful day. I’ll never get over it!

We are officially a week away from the coronation, and I travel to London tomorrow, which is actually bizarre! Everything happened so quickly, which means it will all happen so fast. I say we enjoy everything this coming week because it’ll be a while before something this exciting happens again.

Make sure you’re subscribed to me on Instagram to follow along on my trip to the U.K.! You guys have no idea how excited I am. No newsletter next week for obvious reasons, but keep an eye out for your inbox on Tuesday for a quick newsletter to mark Princess Charlotte’s 8th birthday!

Let the coronation week begin…

Time for a trip down memory lane…

From 0 to 5

Royal baby speculation can seem never-ending. From the moment William and Catherine said “I do” at the altar to today, people ponder the possibility of another prince or princess. If we were to go off of what the American tabloids (because yes, we do have those ;) ) have said, I think William and Kate would have more than 40 children by now!

Nevertheless, as Princess Charlotte turned two and Prince George celebrated his fourth birthday in 2017, the speculation about whether The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would be adding another member to their family picked up again. After all, anyone could see how much William and Catherine loved their two children, and Kate herself came from a close family with three kids. To some, it seemed like more of a question of “when,” not “if.”

Speculation regarding a third Cambridge baby reached fever pitch when The Duchess said, “We’ll just have to have more babies,” as she was handed a gift for a newborn during the family’s first day in Poland on their July 2017 tour. Based on when their third little one was born, it is very clear that adding to their family was on their mind.

And so, the whispers continued… I remember back then, a foreign magazine (can’t remember which one) published that William had rushed Kate to the hospital in Scotland while the family was enjoying their annual holiday to Balmoral Castle in mid-August. The British press did not immediately share the story, probably knowing that an announcement was soon to come, but former Royal Reporter for The Sun Emily Andrews did confirm, once an official announcement was posted, that a hospital visit was the case.

However, Catherine got a bit better, and upon their return from holiday, she was well enough to accompany Prince William on a visit to the White Garden at Kensington Palace, which was planted to mark the 20th Anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. William and Kate may have thought to themselves that perhaps this time they would finally be able to announce their exciting news on their terms.

Unfortunately, this would not be the case. On September 4th, 2017, royal reporters and photographers arrived at the Hornsey Road Children’s Centre to cover The Duchess of Cambridge’s pre-announced engagement, but they were quickly turned away. Soon after, the official announcement they had been anticipating came from Kensington Palace:

“Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting their third child.”

Along with the happy news came the news that explained her engagement cancellation and lack of appearances for the next month or so. The Duchess of Cambridge was, once again, suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum, which is considered far more severe than morning sickness. Her condition was so bad that she had no option but to miss Prince George’s first day of school just three days after the announcement.

Prince William was overheard telling someone at an engagement the day after the announcement:

“It’s very good news. We need Catherine to get over this first bit and then we can start celebrating. It’s always a bit anxious to start with but she’s well. There’s not much sleep going on at the moment.

Catherine’s return to royal duties was, of course, for a cause very close to her heart. With her concerned husband by her side and a little baby bump already showing, The Duchess of Cambridge attended a World Mental Health Day reception on October 10th at Buckingham Palace. A week later, Kensington Palace confirmed that their new bundle of joy was expected to make his or her arrival in April!

As she began making appearances, including conducting the engagements she had to cancel, the Great Kate Wait part three was fully underway. During her third pregnancy, The Duchess of Cambridge traveled to Norway and Sweden for an official tour (which was supposedly meant to include Finland as well, but Prince William went ahead and did that one solo in the Fall of 2017 since it couldn’t be pushed back) and planted the seeds for her Early Years work.

Meanwhile, the British people were doing one of my favorite things, which I’ve never seen be done in the United States: placing bets. They gave their guesses for gender and names, with Alice, Mary, Victoria, and Elizabeth being frontrunners for a girl. A week before the new royal was born, one bookmaker had to stop accepting bets after an influx of people predicting the baby would be a boy named “Arthur.” Would they be correct?

In early April, security and crowd control provisions started being set up outside the Lindo Wing at St. Mary’s Hospital. However, The Duchess of Cambridge’s appearance at the Royal Family’s traditional Easter Sunday service at St. George’s Chapel on April 1st hinted at a longer wait to come. I had guessed an early to mid-April birth but this appearance threw that prediction out the window. So we waited…and waited… and waited…

Finally, in the early hours of April 23rd, Kensington Palace announced that The Duke of Cambridge had driven his wife to the hospital as she was in the “early stages of labour.” The third Great Kate Wait was quickly coming to an end. A few hours later, William and Catherine’s personal assistant, Natasha Archer (who is married to the incredible royal photographer Chris Jackson), was seen leaving St. Mary Hospital, presumably dropping off some clothes. Which could only mean one thing…

At 1:03 p.m. GMT, after two hours of private time, Kensington Palace announced the big news:

“Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 1101hrs. The baby weighs 8lbs 7oz. The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth. Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well.

Soon after, the proud Papa of three emerged with a massive smile on his face to head to Kensington Palace and check on his two older kiddos. He returned to the hospital with a tired-looking Prince George, who had just gotten home from school, and an enthusiastic Prince Charlotte, who captured the hearts of the press by turning around and waving to them before heading in to meet her baby brother.

At last, the new family of five were all together inside the hospital walls hidden from everyone else. As the world watched those Lindo Wing doors, the Cambridges got to have an intimate moment away from it all. Less than seven hours after giving birth, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge emerged on those steps for the third and final time with their new baby.

They both looked so happy, content, and relaxed. It’s as if all the puzzle pieces fell together, and they knew their newborn son had been the missing piece. The Duchess in particular looked amazing in a Jenny Packham dress that was red and white, most likely because of the fact that the little Prince was born on St. George’s Day.

After the quick photocall, they returned to the hospital to place the baby Prince in his car seat before appearing again to head home and begin their new life together. As he placed his boy into the car, Prince William told onlookers that they were “very happy and delighted” and made sure to add that it was “thrice worry now.”

Now that we all knew it was a boy, anticipation for what the new prince would be called grew. We had to wait a little longer to find out his name compared to when the announcement regarding his older siblings’ names was posted.

Nevertheless, on April 27th, four days after he was born, and two days after Prince William was seen almost falling asleep at Westminster Abbey, Kensington Palace announced that:

“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their son Louis Arthur Charles.”

At the time of his birth, he was known as “His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge.” Now, as a reflection of his parents’ new titles, he is “HRH Prince Louis of Wales.” Here is a name breakdown:

• Louis: A family name that became common because of how close King Charles was to his late uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten; also one of Prince William and Prince George’s middle names.

• Arthur: Another family name that can be found in both his father's and paternal grandfather’s names.

• Charles: In honor of his grandfather, the now King Charles III.

It would be a few months until we properly saw Prince Louis again. On July 9th, 2018, the Archbishop of Canterbury christened the two-month-old Prince in an intimate service at the Chapel Royal located in St. James’s Palace. Guests attending the service consisted of family members and the six godparents chosen to help guide him through life. These included their close friends, Guy Pelly, Harry Aubrey-Fletcher, Nicholas Van Cutsem, Hannah Carter, Lady Laura Meade, and Catherine’s cousin Lucy Middleton.

For the service, William and Catherine chose two hymns, two lessons, and two anthems. Reading the lessons from Mark 10:13-16 and Ephesians 3: 14-19 were Lucy Middleton and Guy Pelly, respectively. Additionally, one of the anthems was “This is the day, which the Lord hath made,”  which was composed specially for the couple’s wedding day in 2011.

After the christening, where Prince Louis wore the handmade replica of the Royal Christening Robe and was baptized with water from the Jordan River in the Lily Font, William, and Catherine hosted afternoon tea at Clarence House. They served pieces of “Christening Cake,” which is a tier of their wedding cake frozen and preserved.

Later that year, we saw the first hints of a particularly close relationship between Prince Louis and his paternal grandfather. As the then Prince Charles celebrated his 70th birthday, the palace released multiple family photos, including two solo ones of the family's youngest member at the time and his Grandpa Wales.

Camilla said of that photo shoot at the time:

“We had a picture the other day wit Louis pulling on his hair, and he’snot one of those people who says ‘take your hand away.’ He loves it.”

Shortly after celebrating his first birthday in April 2019, Prince Louis stole the show while visiting his mother’s “Back to Nature Garden” at the Chelsea Flower Show as he debuted and showed off his walking skills. The family released a video and photos of the children seeing what their mother had been working on. It was a very sweet event, especially watching Prince Louis try to keep up with his older siblings!

In June 2019, Prince Louis took the crown of the best royal waver as he made his Buckingham Palace debut at the annual Trooping the Color. He waved very, very enthusiastically to the point that he almost knocked off Camilla’s hat! The waving didn’t stop when the event ended because he was seen clapping and waving at his Grandpa as the royal family left the balcony.

Prince Louis was two in 2020 when the whole world shut down and threw us all into unprecedented times. Although he certainly didn’t notice much of a difference other than having his siblings home with him more often, COVID-19 did rob us of some more sweet moments. We did not get to see him on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for three years, and I’ve convinced myself that we were robbed of a tour with the entire Cambridge family.

Nevertheless, we still saw the little Prince in early 2020 joining his family on two occasions to thank NHS workers for all they were doing! In December 2020, Prince Louis attended his first official engagement in the U.K. at a much younger age than both his siblings were when they accomplished the same milestone. Louis, along with his older siblings and parents, spent the evening at the London Palladium Theatre for a special pantomime performance designated to thank essential workers and their families for their efforts in 2020.

As the pandemic continued in 2021, Prince Louis did not make any public appearances, but come 2022, we would officially meet William and Catherine’s youngest child and his beautiful personality. As the son of a future King, the four-year-old Prince had a prominent role in the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee! Although he did not join his parents and siblings for a trip to Wales, he did attend the annual Trooping the Color, where all three children made their carriage debut, and the Jubilee Pageant, which culminated in an appearance by Her Late Majesty with her main line.

Prince Louis went viral for his antics at the Jubilee. Unfortunately, although most could recognize that he was acting like any four-year-old child at a very lengthy event, he has been exposed to the vitriol of people who have probably never been around children for long periods of time. These people hyper-fixated on him misbehaving for two minutes and overlooked the adorable videos of him hugging and kissing his mum and running to his Pa and grandfather.

Nevertheless, Prince Louis was on his best behavior, showing how children mature at a crazy rate at this age, when the Royal Family headed to church on Christmas day. He was seen sweetly running to his sister Princess Charlotte to hand her flowers, and every time I watch that video, I can’t help but melt. Another heartwarming moment was when he was asked for a picture of Paddington, which the family had been gifted from a wellwisher, from the King’s equerry attending to them, which he then passed on to his mum to show a little girl she was talking to!

The last time we saw Prince Louis as a four-year-old was at another church service but this time at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor for Easter Sunday. He looked adorable in his blazer and tie, which had bicycles printed on it!

A Portrait of a Prince

Along with the public appearances through the years, we’ve gotten many official photos of the little Prince, usually taken by his mum! The first set of personal photos taken by Catherine and released by Kensington Palace came almost two weeks after his birth. We got a solo shot of the little Prince and a picture of him being held by his big sister Princess Charlotte, emulating similar photos of Prince George holding a baby Charlotte three years prior!

For his christening in July, the palace released 4 official photos taken by Matt Holyoak. The pictures include one with the little Prince’s maternal and paternal family, another with just The Royal Family, one of the family of five, and a photo of mummy Catherine gazing down at her baby boy. My favorite photo of the day was the one Matt Porteous took for the family’s private photo album, but they decided to release a day after the other photos. I started calling Louis “angel baby” when the photo below of the Prince laughing at something in the distance blessed our timelines.

Released in April 2021 after the death of The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Louis’ great-grandpa, whom Louis assured his mum was now with the late-Queen Elizabeth II, the sweet family photo of the proud great-grandparents with their then seven-great children was taken by Catherine and featured Prince Louis being held by one of the most iconic women to have ever lived.

Most recently, we got the sweetest photo of Prince Louis being held by his mummy released by Kensington Palace to mark Mother’s Day in the U.K. in mid-March!

The best part of getting pictures of the children on their birthday every year is looking back at the previous ones and seeing how much they’ve grown! These photos will, after all be in the history books one day, and what better person to capture their true selves than their mum? Below, Prince Louis pictured from the ages of one to four.

This year we were in for a surprise! For the first time, The Princess of Wales did not take the photos released last night to mark his fifth birthday. Instead, the two lovely portraits, which were taken earlier this month at their home in Windsor, were snapped by Millie Pilkington.

Initially, the photographer’s name wasn’t familiar to me, but once I looked her up on Google, I immediately recognized her as William and Catherine’s personal wedding photographer! While watching the wedding (which we should all be doing sometime this week!), you can see Millie taking photos of Catherine as she leaves the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she took photos of the wider Wales family, which we may see soon…

Happy 5th Birthday sweet Louis!

Royal Roundup

The Prince and Princess of Wales returned to royal duties after their Easter break with the children on Thursday, April 20th! The royal couple conducted multiple engagements in Birmingham to celebrate the city’s diverse culture and heritage. Thousands of people greeted them as they arrived to begin their engagements! For all the details, head to my Instagram posts.

To mark what would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 97th birthday on Friday, April 21st, Kensington Palace released a photo of Her Late Majesty with eight of her twelve great-grandchildren and her two youngest grandchildren. The Royal Family’s designated photographer, a.k.a The Princess of Wales, took the photo during their annual stay at Balmoral Castle with The Queen.

This photo reminded me of how The Princess of Wales revealed last year that Prince Louis asked following his GanGan’s death:

“Do you think we can still play these games when we go to Balmoral and things like that, cause she's not going to be there?”

That says a lot about the type of memories he had already made with The Queen at Balmoral! Based on the video of Catherine arriving in Scotland with Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on August 22nd, 2022, the photo was taken at most 2.5 weeks before Queen Elizabeth II passed away.

The children will grow up knowing that they saw their great-grandma just before she left this earth and have lovely memories of her in the highlands, where she was the most relaxed. <3

We didn’t get any substantial coronation announcements this week other than a recipe for Coronation Quiche and confirmation that The Prince of Wales will being paying homage to The King during the service. Hopefully, with just 13 days to go, we get some more of the good stuff (by that, I mean…tell me if the women are wearing tiaras or not) this week!

I start packing for my trip to the U.K. this week, and I am SO excited. Make sure to join my Instagram subscribers to follow along on my journey! Until Saturday with a newsletter all about the Wedding of the Century…

Announced engagements this week:

• April 25th: The Prince of Wales will attend the Anzac Day Dawn service at the Australia Memorial at Hyde Park Corner.

• Aril 27th to 28th: The Prince and Princess of Wales visit the South Wales Valleys and Mid Wales.

Easter Sunday

As expected, The Prince and Princess of Wales attended the Easter Sunday service at St. George’s Chapel with their three children. For the first time in decades, King Charles, who usually spends Easter in Scotland, led the family to church with Queen Camilla by his side. She left after about 15 minutes for a “private engagement,” which was probably going to spend the rest of the day with her family.

Also in attendance: Princess Anne, her husband, her two children, and Zara and Mike’s daughters (Savannah and Isla were probably with Autumn, and it reminded me of her absence and her and Peter’s sad divorce). Prince Andrew was there for some reason (if he wanted to attend, did he really have to walk with the family so publicly?) along with his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and their husbands. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh attended with their son, James, marking the first time he’s been seen since becoming Earl of Wessex. Finally, it is always so lovely to see Princess Margaret’s daughter, Lady Sarah Chatto, attend family events with her husband!

Every time I see the kids, it seems like they have grown so much, especially since it’s been almost four months since their last public appearance. Prince George is SO tall at only nine, almost ten, years old. I was looking at some photos of Prince William around the same age, and I believe he is taller than him in comparison. Going to call it already, George will end up taller than his 6’3 father.

The same goes for Princess Charlotte! Her legs are already so long at seven, very soon to be eight. I told a friend that she is the epitome of a young princess. The way she copies William and, particularly, Catherine on these outings and looks to them for what to do is the sweetest thing. She indeed has the best role models to look up to when her time comes to be a full-fledged member of the firm.

Also, the growth in confidence in the two young royals from last year to this year is heartwarming to see. Prince George led his family, and they both did not have to be told to shake any hands; they just did it. They are certainly getting the hang of this royal thing.

The Princess of Wales repeated a sapphire blue Catherine Walker coat she debuted last year at the Commonwealth Day Service as she donned red painted nails, which was heavily talked about (Note: she sported red toenails to an official engagement in 2017, so not necessarily the first time). We were speculating on my backup account which repeat she would choose as she has consistently repeated for this appearance, but I do not think anyone suggested this coat dress! I still have hope for some of the ones that were brought…

I think I liked this outing of the outfit more than the first time, but that may just have been because of the sweet boy by her side as she arrived! Prince Louis looked adorable in his blue shorts, jacket, and a sweet tie with bicycles printed on it. This will very likely be the last time we see the little Prince before he turns five in just eight days (can you hear my heart breaking from wherever in the world you’re reading this from?). I saw a post comparing George and Louis at the age of days from turning five, and it seems like Louis is taller, so imagine when he gets to George’s age— the blessing of having two tall parents.

P.s. I know many people feel the same way, but I do not love the jokes about Louis having to be “held on to so he doesn’t run away” or having his parents talk to him sternly to be on his best behavior. Mind you, these comments are all based on a few minutes of an hours-long appearance last June. Not only did Mike Tindall admit that the children all had too much candy before the Jubilee pageant, but Louis had turned four less than two months before. Kids mature at a crazy rate at this age.

I think some of you have forgotten how George and Charlotte acted at the same age. So, I say we let him grow into his own person without labeling him the “wild child,” especially because, at the end of the day, we don’t know the kids’ personalities apart from the little tidbits we hear from William and Kate.

Anyways, I love this annual appearance and can’t wait to be able to look back at this year’s photos next year! Plus, St. George’s Chapel is gorgeous. I can’t wait to visit it during my trip to the U.K. ;)

Coronation Updates

Very soon after I sent out my newsletter last week about the Coronation, where I hoped for more information, the Palace released quite a bit. Firstly, they finally announced details regarding the procession to and from Westminster Abbey. This is a crucial piece of information I know many of us who are planning to be along the route have been waiting for!

Buckingham Palace revealed that The King and Queen will leave Buckingham Palace, in what is being called The King’s Procession, in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach, which was created for Queen Elizabeth II to mark her Diamond Jubilee in 2012. The procession will

“depart Buckingham Palace through the Centre Gate, and proceed down The Mall, passing through Admiralty Arch and south of King Charles I Island, down Whitehall and along Parliament Street […] travel around the east and south sides of Parliament Square to Broad Sanctuary to arrive at the Sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, where the Coronation Service will begin at 11 o’clock.”

The procession back to the Palace will see the newly crowned King and Queen hitch a ride on the Gold State Coach, which is notorious for being rather uncomfortable. The Coronation Procession following the service will follow the same path in reverse and be…

“much larger in scale […] including med Forces from across the Commonwealth and the British Overseas Territories, and all Services of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, alongside The Sovereign’s Bodyguard and Royal Watermen.”

We have no confirmation on what carriages the Other Members of The Royal Family will use. Plans seen by media outlets such as The Times revealed that The Prince and Princess of Wales, along with their three children, will be in a carriage behind The King and Queen’s for The Coronation Procession. However, I have not seen any details about The King’s Procession on the way to the Abbey, so there may be a chance that other members will arrive by car.

Additionally, the Palace also confirmed which of the many regalia will be used during the coronation! The Coronation Regalia’s permanent home is The Tower of London, and part of their Crown Jewels display, which I am visiting days before the coronation! I hope I’m able to see some of these pieces, but I’m not sure how early they are removing everything for the big day. Fingers crossed, though!

For information on all the regalia and its symbolism (including three swords!) that will be used during the service, click here.

This week we’ve seen an onslaught of attendance confirmations from invited guests from all around the world. Of course, I am more interested in which foreign royals we can expect to see. So far, these are some of the royals who have confirmed their presence:

• King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain

• King Phillippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium

• Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg

• King Carl Gustaf and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden

• Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marrit of Norway

• Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko of Japan

• Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark

• Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco

As you can see, unlike coronations of the past, where organizers wanted to supposedly ensured the monarch being crowned was the most senior royal in the room, Kings and Queens will be in attendance. The King will also host a reception for Heads of State the evening before the coronation, which will be lovely because who doesn’t love a good royal crossover?

Of course, I have to mention that Prince Harry, who earlier this year had much to say about the Royal Family and institution of the Monarchy, will be attending the coronation solo despite not getting an apology nor a summit from his father and brother. The epitome of not being able to put his money where his mouth is. So, congrats Harry!

Additionally, some (I’m looking at you, Omid Scobie, who called this decision "rather cruel") have made a big deal about Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, supposedly not being invited to the coronation. Why people are acting shocked is beyond me. Sarah has not been a member of the Royal Family for closer to three decades.

Recently, she has also been on a press tour for her new novel but has spent much of her air time speaking about The Royal Family, and we know how much they hate that. Not to mention that she got sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to pay off her debts and is one of Prince Andrew’s biggest defenders… She will not be missed.

Coming Up…

As mentioned earlier, the Wales kids are finally (finally!) back to school next week after what feels like an eternity. This means that The Prince and Princess of Wales will (or at least should) be returning to royal duties as well.

If I were part of William and Catherine’s team (unfortunately, I am not), I would schedule multiple engagements on the very day the kids get back to school. Or even better, a two-day trip to Scotland, specifically Rothesay, which they have yet to visit since becoming The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay.

Nevertheless, I hope we see them this week, and they don’t wait another week to return to duties. It has been far too long…

I am sure we will be getting more Coronation news as we get closer and closer to the big day. I’m planning to dedicate a section of my next newsletters (only two Saturdays until the Coronation!) to include any updates so you all can find them easily. Moreover, I’ve been sharing any exclusives I’ve gotten from trusted sources to my Instagram subscribers, so make sure to join to not miss anything!

Other than the Coronation… we have some very exciting dates coming up back to back. Prince Louis celebrates his 5th birthday on Sunday, April 23rd, while Princess Charlotte turns 8 on May 2nd, just days before the Coronation. We can expect some lovely images, most likely taken by their mum, to be published to mark those significant dates.

On Saturday, April 29th, William and Kate will celebrate their 12th Wedding Anniversary <3 The only time Kensington Palace has marked the day in a special way was their tenth anniversary in 2021. We got two sweet new portraits and the most adorable video of the then-Cambridge family running around Anmer Hall. I re-watch that video on loop to this day.

So, don’t expect them to give us anything new. I hope at least a tweet which they didn’t even do last year. But it’s always such a great time for us to revisit and re-watch together, sharing our memories and favorite moments from the Wedding of the Century. I will send out a newsletter that day with every little detail and quote about the wedding, which I don’t think I’ve ever gone to in deft about. Can’t wait!

The next few weeks are going to be nonstop excitement, and I can’t wait to continue sharing it all with you guys!

Before diving into what has so far been announced about the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III’s coronation (hint: we know very little), we’ll first look at the history of coronations and how the service has traditionally been formatted. I’ll finish with my (many) thoughts on some of the stories floating around and what a coronation in the 21st century should look like.

Also very happy to officially say that I will be in London for the coronation! This trip is a dream come true and one I have been waiting years to embark on. What better time than to see history play out before my eyes? If you have any advice on London travels or have attended such events (like Trooping The Color or Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral), please feel free to message me on Instagram. Plus, I will be sharing my trip with my Instagram subscribers, so if you want to follow along, make sure to subscribe!

The History

Quick note before starting: I got most of the information in this section from this fantastic piece of research, so if you are interested in reading a more comprehensive recounting of history and other details, I highly recommend reading that guide!

A service to officially mark the ascension and anoint a new monarch can be found as far back as the seventh and eighth centuries. These events were particularly important because there was no automatic succession back then, so the coronation would essentially be a monarch’s first day on the job.

In England, King Edgar’s crowning in 973 at Bath Abbey was the first to constitute some of the primary components of what we are familiar with as a coronation. However, King William I, a.k.a William the Conqueror, was the first to be crowned at Westminster Abbey and essentially set that precedence.

As history tells us, England and Scotland remained separate, distinct kingdoms, including retaining their own parliaments and established churches, after the Union of The Crowns when James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. It was King James who began introducing the possibility of one kingdom, but his efforts were ultimately dismissed. James’ son, King Charles I, was crowned both at Westminster Abbey in England (1626) and in Scotland (1633).

Two coronations would have likely continued to be the convention if it weren’t for the Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1639 - 1653, which saw the execution of King Charles I and the establishment of a republic in England. As the war continued, Scotland crowned Charles I’s son in a coronation ceremony on new year’s day in 1651 which would be the last of such service in the country. Just a few months after being crowned, King Charles II fled to France as England, led by Oliver Cromwell, persisted in conquering territory in Scotland.

In October 1651, the English government announced that England and Scotland would become one Commonwealth from the following year forward. The Acts of Union were officially ratified in 1657 and saw the dissolving of Scotland’s own parliament. However, once Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 and his son, Richard, took over, republicanism in the Commonwealth of England failed.

Two years after Cromwell’s death, the government made way for the restoration of the monarchy, and the Commonwealth of England was officially dissolved. King Charles II returned to London on his 30th birthday and was crowned England’s King at Westminster Abbey in 1661.

Charles II had no legitimate heirs, so upon his death in 1685, his younger brother became James VII of Scotland and James II of England. He was crowned at a service at Westminster Abbey on April 23rd, 1685, alongside his second wife, Mary. Issues began to become evident at this service as King James and Queen Mary did not take communion because they were both avid Roman Catholics. Concerns grew when three years later, Mary gave birth to a son, James’s heir, and the idea of a Roman Catholic dynasty became more of a reality.

English nobles contacted the then Prince of Orange, William, who was married to King James’s eldest daughter, Mary, from his first marriage to Anne Hyde, and asked him to take the English throne. William agreed, landed in England from the Dutch Republic, and successfully defeated his father-in-law, who fled to France. In January 1689, a Convention Parliament took James II’s escape as a sign of abdication and offered both William and Mary joint rule of England.

Therefore, William and Mary became King William III and II and Queen Mary II of England and Scotland respectively. Their coronation at Westminster Abbey in April 1689 was the first and only time two monarchs have been jointly crowned!

Additionally, since the former King James did not take Scotland’s Coronation Oath, Scotland declared that he had “acted irregularly” and “forfeited the Right to the Crown,” making the throne vacant and allowing Scotland to invite William and Mary to occupy it. There was no coronation in Scotland, but the King and Queen were presented a physical copy of the offer and signed a parchment of the Coronation Oath in London on May 11th, 1689.

Queen Mary died childless at the age of 32 because of smallpox, leaving behind a succession crisis. Next in line was her younger sister, Anne, but, having been married to Prince George of Denmark in 1684, was unable to produce an heir after multiple miscarriages and the sad loss of her only surviving child, Prince William, when he was eleven. The thought of Mary and Anne’s half-brother from their father’s second marriage claiming to have a Right to the Throne and consequentially bringing back Roman Catholicism into the dynasty led to the passing of the Act of Settlement 1701.

Among other things, the Act dictated that the “throne would pass to the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James VI and I and a niece of Charles I, and her Protestant descendants only” and “those who were Roman Catholics and who married Roman Catholics were barred from ascending the throne.” (P.s. It took over 300 years but in 2015 an amendment was passed that stated royals could marry Catholics but they still cannot be Catholic themselves).

Additionally, King William III began pushing for the Union of England and Scotland as early as 1702, the same year he died. Following his death, his sister-in-law became Queen Anne of England and Scotland. The Queen was crowned at Westminster Abbey on April 23rd, 1702, and, like her sister and brother-in-law, also took the Scottish Coronation Oath, albeit without another coronation.

However, William's wish came true just five years into Queen Anne’s reign. In 1707, after many years of negotiations, the Acts of Union joined England and Scotland and created Great Britain! (It later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 once the latter formally joined and then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1922 when the union, except some northern counties, broke up).

Since then, every monarch (except Edward V and Edward VIII) has taken one statutory Coronation Oath at Westminster Abbey:

• His Majesty King George I; crowned October 20th, 1714

• His Majesty King George II; crowned October 11th, 1727

• His Majesty King George III; crowned September 22nd, 1761

• His Majesty King George IV; crowned July 19th, 1821

• His Majesty King William IV; crowned September 8th, 1831

• Her Majesty Queen Victoria; crowned June 28th, 1838

• His Majesty King Edward VII; crowned August 9th, 1902

• His Majesty King George V; crowned June 22nd, 1911

• His Majesty King George VI; crowned May 12th, 1937

• Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; crowned June 2nd, 1953

The Service

The coronation usually begins with the arrival of all of the guests and the beginning of the carriage procession, which has been tradition for a long time. At Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation, certain members of the British Royal Family and other foreign royals arrived at Westminster Abbey by car before the carriage procession started with “rulers of states under Her Majesty’s protection” and the Prime Ministers of Commonwealth Nations.

The “Blood Royal” princesses, princes, and Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, followed them. Then came Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh in the Golden State Coach drawn by eight grey horses, followed by representatives of the UK and Commonwealth Armed Forces. Their procession took them through the Mall, Admiralty Arch, the south side of Trafalgar Square, Northumberland Avenue, Victoria Embankment, Bridge Street, Parliament Square's north and west sides, and Broad Sanctuary in order for as many people to see them.

Upon their arrival at Westminster Abbey at exactly 11:00 a.m., The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh joined the procession down the Abby followed by Commonwealth standards, the Union Standard, that of the Principality of Wales, Standards of the Quarterings of the Royal Arms, and lastly the Royal Standard. Once she arrived at the Altar, Queen Elizabeth II made her private devotional and then sat in the chair of estate. After the choir sang “I Was Glad,” the peers tasked with carrying the regalia handed it to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who gave each piece to the Dean of Westminster to be placed on the Altar.

The first part of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation was The Recognition, where she was presented to her people. The Archbishop of Canterbury would present The Queen to each corner of the “theater” in the Abbey, while saying:

“I here present unto you, Queen ELIZABETH, your undoubted Queen: Wherefore all you who are come this day to do your homage and service, Are you willing to do the same?”

The congregation replied each time, “God Save Queen Elizabeth,” which was then followed by a bow from their Queen.

Next up is one of the most essential parts of the Coronation: the monarch taking the Oath. According to the Coronation Oath Act of 1688, the Oath is read to the monarch by the Archbishop of Canterbury (or York), which the monarch responds to and promises “to maintain the statute laws and customs of the country and of its inhabitants.” This is followed by The Queen kissing the Oath book and then signing a parchment copy. The Coronation Oath has been rightfully changed from monarch to monarch, so King Charles III will likely not be making the same Oath as his mother.

Another different aspect will be the Ascension Declaration Oath. The monarch is legally required to take this Oath at their first State Opening of the Parliament. Since this will only happen after The King’s Coronation (I believe the date I saw was May 10th), he will take the Ascension Declaration Oath, most likely after the Coronation Oath.

After all of the Oaths were said and done, The Quee removed all of her regalia, including her robe, jewels, and tiara, and she quickly changed into a plain white gown (you can see here at around 1:10:00 that the gown was made open in the back to make it easy to put on). Following the costume change, The Queen made her way to the Coronation Chair, where a canopy was placed over her for the anointing, which is considered sacred so it was not filmed.

Queen Elizabeth II then got up from the chair and removed the white gown before being invested with “the Colobium Sindonis (a loose linen-lawn garment), the Supertunica (a golden cloth robe), and finally the Girdle.” She was subsequently presented the Spurs, the Sword for the Offering, and golden bracelets representing sincerity and wisdom (Armill). The Queen once again arose as she was invested with the Stole and the Pallium. Finally, in the Coronation Chair, she had The Ring placed on the fourth finger of her right hand, along with the Sceptre and the Rod being delivered into her hands.

The service then enters the portion from which it gets its name: “coronation.” After saying the Benediction prayer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, accompanied by the Archbishop of York and other Bishops present, was handed the Crown by the Dean of Westminster and placed it on The Queen’s head while saying:

“O God the Crown of the faithful: Bless we beseech thee this Crown, and so sanctify thy servant ELIZABETH upon whose head this day thou dost place it for a sign of royal majesty, that she may be filled by thine abundant grace with all princely virtues: through the King Eternal Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Once the Crown sat on her head, the princes, princesses, peers, and peeresses placed their coronets on their heads while the Abbey broke out, saying, “GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.” The trumpets sounded, and guns at the Tower of London and in Hyde Park were fired. Now crowned, The Queen then made her way to the throne and sat there.

The final part of the service is the Homage. The Archbishop of Canterbury went first, placing his hands between hers and pronouncing his words of Fealty. Following the other Lords Spiritual (bishops who had seats in the House of Lords) were the peers of the realm. Prior to 1902, every single peer would pay Homage individually. I can only imagine how long those services were! From King Edward VII’s coronation onwards, only the highest rank peer in each peerage (highest ranking Duke, Earl, Viscounts, etc.) would pay Homage.

In 1953, the first one to do so was, of course, The Duke of Edinburgh, who “took off his coronet, ascended the steps of the Throne, knelt before the Queen, placed his hands between hers and pronounced his words of Homage […] arose, touched the Crown upon the Queen’s head, kissed her left cheek and withdrew.” Although they weren’t the highest in their peerage, The Dukes of Kent and Gloucester also paid Homage because they are royal dukes.

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh took communion before processing out of Westminster Abbery and getting back on the carriages for the procession returning to Buckingham Palace. Upon their return, the newly crowned Queen appeared on the balcony with her family, including her two young children, before heading back inside to take the official portraits. The Queen and Prince Philip also returned to the balcony later in the evening to turn on the ‘lights of London.’

A 21st Century Coronation

Thankfully, while I was writing this newsletter, the Palace made some more coronation announcements, yet what we know is still minimal. We know it will take place on May 6th, 2023, with a weekend of events planned, including the Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle, the Big Lunch, and the Big Help Out. We know King Charles will use St. Edward’s Crown and the Imperial State Crown during the service while Queen Camilla will be crowned with Queen Mary’s crown making it the first time in recent history that a consort has been crowned without commissioning a new piece.

The Palace announced details about the music for the coronation in February, while the official invite (tied together with “Queen Camilla” and no “Queen Consort”) was unveiled this week. You can read about the intricate details of the coronation invite here. Additionally, the Palace confirmed that The King’s eldest grandchild, Prince George of Wales, will be one of four page boys who will attend to His Majesty during the service, including carrying his robe during the procession. Queen Camilla will be attended by her three grandsons and her great-nephew.

I’ve already been asked, “what about Charlotte and Louis?” Firstly, they will most likely attend and be sitting next to their parents. Valentine Lowe for the Times got ahold of the coronation rehearsal plans, which revealed that all three children are meant to join the procession out of the Abbey with their parents and into the carriages back to the Palace. Secondly, they are all very young. In fact, Prince George will make history by becoming the youngest child to have such a role at the coronation. Multiple reports have stated that William and Catherine made the decision after “discussing it with him [George] in detail to ensure he was comfortable with carrying out such a public role.”

Additionally, a spokesperson for The Prince and Princess of Wales said:

“We’re all very excited about Prince George’s role in the Coronation. It will be an incredibly special moment”

Now to the part most people are wondering about: the dress code. If you are subscribed to me on Instagram, I talked about this there and am now comfortable sharing as others have posted about it as well. I have seen an invitation to the coronation, which I don’t have reason to doubt is a real version (even though I so hope I am wrong). Additionally, a foreign Queen (and I know who but won’t share due to confidentiality) shared with The Royal Watcher Blog confirming what I saw.

Guests have been told to wear uniform or morning coat/lounge suit for the men and day dresses, with the option of hats and gloves, for the women. Yes, you read that correctly. It seems foreign royals have been given the same dress code (and from what I’ve heard, some of them are not too happy about it). If you want to visualize the dress code, consider what people wore to William and Catherine’s wedding.

Don’t get me wrong. I never expected The King’s coronation to look like his mother’s 70 years ago. Times have changed. I was okay with the peers not wearing robes and coronets. I am okay with the wives of peers not wearing the family’s tiaras. However, how much “modernizing” is too much?

We, of course, do not have confirmation on what the British Royals will be wearing, but the possibility of them pulling out their tiaras is not looking so bright. Moreover, although I hope they do, what will that say about how the British royals view their other royal counterparts if they are the only ones decked out in their finery? The Windsors are not known to be close to other royals like many of the other royal families, and to some, it feels like they think they are superior to the other royals.

Moreover, does saying no to tiaras really make a huge difference? The King and Queen will have huge crowns physically put on their head, and they will be traveling to and from Westminster Abbey in a golden carriage. But other royals wearing tiaras is where the coronation committee drew the line? And let’s be honest, Catherine wearing a tiara would take some of the attention off of what people may consider to be a weird act in the 21st century (I do not, but of course, others do).

I’m also thinking of the official photos… Imagine what that would look like with The King and Queen wearing all their regalia and Prince George wearing the page of honor outfit, which includes a scarlet coat with gold trimmings. Then we have William and Catherine in their regular Westminster Abbey outfits, which look like they have a Garden Party right after, while Charlotte is wearing a floral dress and Louis in simple shorts and a shirt. It doesn’t make sense in my mind, and I really hope it will be different.

I think I will reserve the rest of my thoughts for any confirmation we get (if we even do get confirmation before the day of). However, this would be my ideal dress code for the first coronation in the U.K. in 70 years:

• Regular Congregation: Day dress and Morning Suit/Uniforms

• Peers: Parliamentary robes for those entitled to it. If they are not entitled, then they have the same dress code as the regular congregation.

• Foreign Royals: Since they are so set on no tiaras for them, court dressing similar to what they wore to the inauguration (not coronation) of The King and Queen of the Netherlands (as seen below). White-tie for the men, long dresses for the women with hats, and orders all around.

• British Royals: Full Regalia for the working members. If not a working member, then same dress code as the foreign royals. Tiaras for the working royal ladies. Robes only for The Prince and Princess of Wales.

If only all this could be reality…

Hopefully it doesn’t seem like I’m not excited for the coronation because I am! I’m also excited to be reporting from the ground and visiting a place I’ve dreamed so long of traveling to.

Coming Up:

• Kensington Palace (supposedly) confirmed that William and Catherine will attend the Easter Service at St. George’s Chapel tomorrow with Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis! Easter Sunday at Windsor Castle is one of the annual events where we get to see much of the extended family all together.

Finally, Happy Easter! I hope all who celebrate have a peaceful and relaxing weekend as we dwell on the sacrifice our savior made 2,000 years ago. The pain and beating Jesus Christ went through for us can be hurtful to remember but don’t forget… Sunday is coming, and that grave is empty!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” -1 Peter 1:3

I enjoyed numerically evaluating William and Catherine’s engagements for my “Quality over Quantity?” newsletter so much that I decided to take this time that the couple are on break from duties as their children are on break from school to look at how they are doing so far this year!

Hopefully, this can make way for a respectful discussion on what we hope to see in the next 3/4 of the year.

Note: I have been sharing my monthly engagement count to my Instagram subscribers section so if this, and daily Court Circular entries, is something you would like to keep up with, make sure to subscribe here!

By The Numbers

Let’s start with an overview of The Prince and Princess of Wales’s total numbers for the first three months of this year. In January, The Prince of Wales completed eleven (11) engagements; in February, he undertook thirteen (13) engagements; Finally, in March, Prince William conducted eighteen (18) engagements. This brings his total amount of engagements submitted to the Court Circular in the first quarter of the year to 42 engagements.

Meanwhile, The Princess of Wales saw twelve (12) engagements entered into the Court Circular in the month of January; twelve (12) in February as well; and lastly, Catherine completed ten (10) engagements in March. This puts The Princess’s cumulative engagement number at 34.

A closer look at what was recorded in the Court Circular: 71.43% (30 out of 42) of The Prince of Wales’s engagements were public, meaning that the press was present and invited, while 28.57% (12 out of 42) were done privately. Similarly, 67.65% (23 out of 34) of The Princess of Wales’s engagements were conducted publicly, leaving 32.35% (11 out of 34) done privately.

Now for a comparative analysis of William and Catherine’s numbers through the years in the months of January to March beginning in 2018, a.k.a. the first full year they became “full-time” royals. You will see in the following graphs that I made sure to make a distinction between the engagements done inside the U.K. and those outside.

It is important to remember that when they travel, they complete multiple engagements every day they are away, meaning that their numbers significantly increase. I just wanted to highlight that in order to make the difference, for example, in a year where they tour compared to one where they didn’t, more self-explanatory.

When looking at Prince William’s graph below, the following visits/tours should be taken into account:

• 2018 Official Tour to Sweden and Norway

• 2019 Visit to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum

• 2020 Official Visit to Ireland

• 2022 Official Tour of Caribbean Countries

• 2023 Visit to Poland to meet British troops and Ukrainian refugees

As we see below, Prince William has had a slow start compared to other years. This has seemingly been his slowest quarter-one ever since his first full year as a full-time royal in 2018. Not only has he completed his least amount of overall engagements, but also the least undertaken inside of the U.K.

Nevertheless, a slow start doesn’t mean it will be a slow end. For example, we see how The Prince completed 101 engagements in the first three months of 2021 (which was mainly due to the amount of private engagements undertaken because of the lockdown). However, his total for that year was 233 engagements meaning that he completed 132 engagements for the rest of the nine months.

The same criteria go for The Princess of Wales. The following visits/tour should be considered when looking at the graph below:

• 2018 Official Tour to Sweden and Norway

• 2020 Official Visit to Ireland

• 2022 Working Visit to Denmark

• 2022 Official Tour of Caribbean Countries

The Princess’s 2023 engagement numbers are on par with the other years when she did not travel abroad. There have been no significant changes. I was hoping to see an increase to match her increasing role, but I believe no change is better than a negative change.

Overall, I am not too concerned with these numbers. I think Prince William’s count is the one I’m a bit worried about, as there has been a negative decline. However, as I mentioned, the first quarter does not have to define the rest of the year, nor does it always set the pace.

I am still counting on two full tours for The Prince and Princess of Wales, which should significantly bump up their numbers. Additionally, I believe that these first few months have been consumed by the coronation, as we know that The Prince is on the planning committee, and none of those meetings have made it into the Court Circular.

Assuming that, like their predecessors, William and Catherine’s schedule is established six months in advance (although I have an inkling that is not the case), March would have seen the final fulfillment of any pre-planned engagements as “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.” Hopefully, if I do another breakdown like this halfway through the year, we will have seen some changes.

Beyond The Count

As I always make sure to mention, as do most people who count engagements, numbers are not everything, especially when it comes to William and Catherine. In the first quarter of the year, the couple have also made considerable progress in their own projects.

Within the first three months of 2023, The Princess of Wales launched two phases of her latest long-term campaign, “Shaping Us.”  To kick off the new campaign, a short film was screened across cinemas in the UK, as well as being displayed in Picadilly Square, and The Princess traveled to Liverpool on launch day to promote the initiative.

Initially, people started grumbling about yet another awareness campaign, but I wrote back in February that we should wait a while before giving full judgment. Just as I thought, the action phase was to come. On March 21st, The Princess of Wales launched the Business Taskforce for Early Childhood which is run by businesses for businesses and will play an essential role going forward in Catherine’s work to transform how society prioritizes and supports children and the ecosystems around them in their earliest years.

I hate how incompetent the Kensington Palace team is because their refusal to write proper captions leaves people without realizing how big of a deal this is. Catherine was able to bring together nine global firms, including Ikea, Aviva, Lego, and more, for the Business Taskforce. In her speech, The Princess urged business leaders to champion the social and emotional development of their employees. She wrote a piece for the Financial Times and released a video in discussion with the Executive Chairman of Iceland Foods.

Meanwhile, The Prince of Wales conducted multiple engagements focused on homelessness which will continue to be a central theme across his work this year. We are expecting an announcement on a project aimed at tackling homelessness sometime after the coronation. In January, The Prince visited Depaul UK’s London Hub to highlight the work they are doing to help young people experiencing homelessness or insecure housing, as well as preventing it from occurring in the first place.

A month later, in February, Prince William visited The Passage, a charity he had been visiting since he was a young child and officially became patron of in 2019, to open two new residential buildings officially. The new homes will together support approximately 225 people experiencing homelessness yearly.

We also saw The Prince and Princess of Wales smoothly step into the new roles King Charles III had given them at the end of 2022. On March 1st, The Prince and Princess of Wales visited the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards to attend the St. David’s Day parade for the first time since The Prince became the Colonel of the Regiment. Two weeks later, Prince William stood by The Princess’s side as she took the salute at the St. Patrick’s day parade as he turned over his position as Colonel of the Irish Guards to his wife:

“I may be stepping aside, but in Colonel Catherine you have committed, focused, and already incredibly loyal 11th Colonel.”

On the day before St. David's Day, The Prince and Princess of Wales traveled to Wales for a series of engagements, including the continuation of their new form of away days they had launched last year. During their first engagement, a visit to Brynawel Rehabilitation Centre, where they heard first-hand about the work they do to support those struggling with the effects of drug and alcohol addiction, it was announced that The Royal Foundation collaborated with social enterprise, Life No. 27, to help its scale up its mission to create therapy allotments and gardens that will provide mental health support for communities across South Wales.

That same day, as they visited the Headquarters of the Welsh Air Ambulance, the palace had announced that Prince William had become patron of the air ambulance services. It became his first Welsh patronage since receiving his new title.

Finally, we saw the return of The Prince of Wales as the great statesman that he is. Before heading on holiday with the children, The Prince traveled to Poland for two days to thank British and Polish troops involved in providing support to Ukraine. Prince William also met Ukranian refugees and had an official meeting with the President of Poland after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Royal Roundup

As mentioned, The Prince and Princess of Wales have been on a break with their kids this week. A royal reporter mentioned earlier this week that it was understood that they were not at Windsor for the break, which is not surprising. They usually spend term breaks in Norfolk at Anmer Hall. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went skiing this week or sometime soon because they have recently been taking this longer break to introduce the kids to one of their shared favorite past times.

P.s. On this day 19 years ago, on April 1st, 2004, The Sun broke an agreement with the palace which stated that the royals would appear for a prearranged photo call and then be left alone for the rest of their skiing holiday by publishing the first photo of Prince William and his girlfriend, Catherine Middleton on their front page with the headline, “Finally…Wills gets a girl.”

Prince William, his father, and the palace were said to be furious, but they issued no denial to the newspaper’s claim that his university roommate was his girlfriend. The Sun ended up being banned from such photocalls for awhile, and the rest is history…

Meanwhile, Their Majesties The King and Queen have completed their first state visit of the new reign and the first outgoing UK state visit since Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II retired from overseas travel in 2015. This video of the RAF Voyager being escorted to Germany by two of the country’s fighter jets is really cool! I too don’t recall ever seeing such a gesture.

Initially, The King and Queen were meant to travel to both France and Germany for back-to-back state visits, but the former visit was postponed due to protests in the country as a result of a controversial piece of legislation passed regarding retirement age and pension.

Unfortunately, still no engagements to be expected next week. We may see them out and about next weekend, but more on that soon.

Next Saturday’s newsletter will be marking the four-week countdown until the coronation. Currently doing lots of research to deliver a comprehensive breakdown, but I’m also hoping that we get some substantial announcements before then (anyone else feel like we barely know anything about the coronation?). I also may or may not have something exciting to announce from my side about that… Stay tuned!

The Inner Circle

No better place to start than with the Van Cutsems! In his youth, His Majesty King Charles III became friends with banker and landowner Hugh Van Cutsem. Their friendship grew as the two men began attending the University of Cambridge together. In June 1971, Hugh married Emilie Quarles van Ufford, and the couple went on to have four sons: Edward (b. 1973), Hugh (1974), Nicholas (b. 1977), and William (b. 1979).

Hugh’s eldest son, Edward, is The King’s godson and was a pageboy at his 1981 wedding. Unfortunately, Hugh passed away after a battle with an illness at the age of 72 in 2013. But the Van Cutsem and Windsor friendship continues through their sons.

Hugh and Emilie’s boys grew up closely with Charles’s boys. The big brothers that Prince William never had! This video shows the boys playing together at Balmoral in the 90s. Additionally, the Van Cutsems lived at Anmer Hall for a decade, and William would visit them often to escape his parents’ marital drama. Needless to say, his history with the home, which is now his family’s country getaway, stretches long back.

Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s first “public appearance” together was in 2005 at Hugh Jr.’s wedding to Rose Astor (just posted a cute photo of William and Kate I had never seen from that day). Hugh’s daughter, Grace, is William’s goddaughter and the little bridesmaid that caught the world’s attention at William and Catherine’s 2011 wedding.

In 2013, the youngest Van Cutsem brother, William, became Prince George’s godfather, and five years later, in 2018, William and Catherine asked Nicholas Van Cutsem to be Prince Louis’ godfather. Additionally, at the time of the Royal Wedding, Nicholas was serving with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment and was right behind William and Catherine on horseback, back to Buckingham Palace after the ceremony.

All four Van Cutsem siblings have many children around the Wales kids’ ages, so I am sure the friendship will continue onto the next generation!

Next, we have Thomas Van Straubenzee, who makes up one-half of Prince William’s actual best men ;)! Diana was close to Thomas’s uncle and was said to have been a nanny to his cousins shortly before she married His Majesty. However, Prince William’s friendship with Thomas is said to have begun when they both started attending Ludgrove School as young boys.

Thomas’s younger brother Henry tragically died in a car accident at the age of 18 in 2002. When his family established a charity in 2008, which supports education in Uganda, where Henry was set to teach during his gap year, in his memory a few years later, Prince William became a patron.

In 2005, shortly after graduating from The University of St. Andrews, Prince William was joined by Thomas on his very first official solo visit to New Zealand.

Two years after his own wedding, Prince William was one of Thomas’s ushers at his 2013 wedding to Lady Melissa Percy, which sadly ended in divorce three years later. In 2015, Thomas was given the honor of being one of Princess Charlote’s three godfathers.

Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, when Thomas got remarried in 2020 to Lucy Laningan-O’Keefe, who is said to be a teacher at George and Charlotte’s former school, plans were scrapped for William to serve as an usher again and for the little Princess to be a bridesmaid as the couple got married surrounded by a few family members at a courthouse.

Thomas and Lucy had a daughter, Mary Anna, in late 2020 and a son, Albert, in December 2022. I am sure Prince William is a godfather to one of his two kids!

James Meade was the second-half of the best men duo at the 2011 Royal Wedding. Prince William met James, the son of an Olympic gold-medalist equestrian, while attending Eton College from 1995 to 2000. Like Thomas, James can regularly be seen by William’s side, whether that was during their party days or attending important moments in William’s life, like his Sandhurst graduation and wedding.

James is also quite close to Catherine! He was often tasked with being by her side as they would leave parties to several waiting cameras. One of my favorite photos (and pre-marriage fashion moments) is the one in the top right below, where you can see James accompanying Catherine to the Badminton Horse Trials in May 2007 during William and Catherine’s short breakup.

Fun Fact: It was at James’s older brother’s wedding in 2010 that engagement rumors reached an all-time high because William and Catherine attended side by side in full view of the press. We would later find out that the couple were already secretly engaged!

A round of applause for The Prince of Wales’s two best men!

In 2013, James married Lady Laura Marsham, the daughter of the 8th Earl of Romney, with Prince William by his side. It quickly became evident that Lady Laura is also very close to William and Catherine. In 2015, James became one of Princess Charlotte’s godfathers, while Lady Laura was tasked with the role of godmother to Prince Louis in 2018.

Not much is known about James and Laura’s family, but from pictures from the 2018 polo match attended by the couple and William and Catherine’s family, they seem to have twin boys just few months older than Prince Louis!

Next, we have Guy Pelly. Mr. Pelly got a bad rep in the press in the 2000s for being quite the party boy. Having met The Prince during his teenage years through the Gloucestershire polo scene, club owner Guy was unfortunately accused of being the cause of William’s younger brother’s drug issues even though it was wholly untrue. It is said that some courtiers tried to oust him from the Princes’ inner circle. But he never complained and remained fiercely loyal.

Some have suggested that Kate didn’t like Guy at first, but if that were true, it quickly faded and turned into a mutual fondness (I found more pictures of Guy and Kate than of William and his old pal!). You can see Guy going to lead the way towards the end of this video with Catherine as paparazzi yelled despicable things at her through an airport.

Guy married American Elizabeth Wilson in 2014 and moved to the States a few years later, where he now resides in Virginia and owns a vineyard with his wife and three daughters: Willow, Clementine, and Maple. To the surprise of many in the media, Guy was chosen as one of Prince Louis’ three godfathers in 2018!

Harry Aubrey-Fletcher is another one of Prince William’s Etonian pals who was given the honor of being his youngest son’s godfather. Not only did they meet and become friends in school, but Harry’s father served as the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire from 2006 to 2020. Prince William was an usher at Harry’s wedding in January 2011, and Harry took on the same role at William’s wedding a few months later! (P.s. I included a photo of Kate at Harry’s wedding because it is one of my favorite “wedding guest” she has ever worn).

Like William, Catherine met most of her lifelong friends at school! She met Emilia Jardine-Paterson (nee D’erlanger) during their time at Malborough College together. During this time, Emilia was also in Prince William’s circle of friends and was funnily a suggested bride for him by the tabloids in 1999, but she was, in fact, just dating one of William’s Eton buddies.

Nevertheless, Emilia has been by Catherine’s side through thick and thin for over two decades! In 2013, Emilia was named one of Prince George’s godmothers. Married in 2010 to David Jardine-Paterson, who went to Eton with William, the couple have three children together: Leo (b. 2014), Alexander (b. 2016), and Lucia (b. 2020).

Another familiar face in many photos of Catherine before marriage is Trini Foyle. The two ladies also met at Malborough College and have remained friends ever since. The photo in the bottom right is of Trini and Catherine walking in Kensington Gardens in 2013 with Trini’s son while Catherine was pregnant with George!

Trini is definitely one of Catherine’s more lowkey friends. I always guessed she would be one of the children’s godparents, but it is certainly a possibility she turned down the offer in order to not have her name out there and the constant articles written.

Rounding off the trio closest to Catherine from Malbrough College is Hannah Carter (nee Gillingham)! Not much is known about Hannah other than she is Prince Louis’ godmother, got married on William and Kate’s first anniversary in 2012, and had a baby boy in 2013! Hannah and her family live in Norfolk, and you can see Prince George next to her son in one of the photos below as they attended an football match in late 2019.

Hannah’s husband, Robert Carter, is the brother of another one of Catherine’s friends: Sophie Carter! It is unclear when exactly Sophie and Catherine met (nothing suggests that she also attended Malborough), but the earliest photo I could find of the two ladies goes back to 2007. Sophie did date Thomas Van Straubenzee, so perhaps the two girls clicked as the girlfriends of two best friends and then became best friends in their own right!

Sophie was given a prime spot at William and Catherine’s wedding behind the Middleton Family and next to Trini and Emilia. For her own wedding in 2018, it seems that Catherine had some official role as she was seen posing with the family and bridal party after the wedding and wearing an outfit that matched the color scheme. Sweet photos also showed Sophie holding her goddaughter, Princess Charlotte, who served as a bridesmaid while Prince George was a pageboy.

Sophie and her husband, Robert Snuggs, live in Norfolk with their daughter, Amalia Rose Charlotte, who was born in 2019 and shares a June 21st birthday with Prince William!

People go to Uni and come out like William and Catherine, having met their future spouse and some lifelong friends. So, last but surely not least, we have Oliver Baker, who is undoubtedly the couple’s closest friend from their time at the University of St. Andrews! It is said that Oli was William and Catherine’s roommate when they moved to a cottage for their last two years at school.

Oliver married his own University sweetheart, Melissa Nicholson, at St. Andrews’s St. Salvatore Chapel, in 2010, with both William and Catherine in attendance. He was selected as one of Prince George’s godfathers, and Catherine became the godmother of his son, Henry, in early 2014.

It is always lovely to be able to identify some of these people at events where they show up to support their royal friends and remember that William and Catherine have such loyal people on their side. For example, in the (very blurry) picture below, we can see Sophie and Emilia attending Catherine’s Christmas Carol Service at Westminster Abbey just a few months ago in December 2022!

We usually could count on a bunch of their friends attending the church service in Norfolk on the Sunday falling closest to Catherine’s birthday with William and Catherine as that is typically when she would have them over to celebrate. I love this video where you can see their friends watching on us as William and Catherine greeted the well-wishers after the service!

I hope you all enjoyed learning more about William and Catherine’s *actual* best friends! Maybe next church service or polo event, you will be able to recognize some of the familiar faces from this piece!

Royal Roundup

Last week I told myself that I would start reserving a section of my newsletter for a recap of the engagements during the week, but because this newsletter has already run too long, I’ll just link my Instagram posts! Check out what William and Catherine got up to here, here, here, and here!

This morning, Kensington Palace released a video of The Princess of Wales speaking to the Executive Chairman of Iceland Foods about the “Shaping Us” campaign to coincide with her launch of the Business Taskforce for Early Childhood earlier this week. Additionally, The Princess has written a piece for the Financial Times. Make sure to support this initiative by watching and reading!

Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis are officially on school break as of yesterday until April 19th. Yes, that means there is a high chance we won’t see William and Catherine undertaking engagements for three weeks. Hopefully, that is not the case…

Next week’s newsletter will include lots of statistics and graphs as we take a look at some numbers from the first quarter of the year. Until then!

So, without further ado…

Catherine and Erdem

Erdem was founded in 2005 by Canadian-born Roberta Ridolfi Erdem Moralioglu. Vogue’s biography of the designer states: “After graduating from Ryeson University, Toronto, where he enrolled in 1995, Moralioglu began his career interning at Vivienne Westwood’s London office […] This lead to the designer traveling to New York to intern with Diane von Furstenburg in 2004. The following year saw the launch of Erdem, making a debut at London Fashion Week’s Fashion Fringe.”

Catherine displayed her innate sense of diplomatic dressing on her very first tour as “Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge” by arriving in Canada wearing Erdem’s Cecile dress. A few days later, during the couple’s visit to Quebec City, Catherine pulled out another Erdem design. This time it was the brand’s blue, pre-fall 2011 Jacquenta dress.

These dresses were not only pretty and simple, but they were also perfect for her first tour as she paid tribute to her host country. I have no complaints about these dresses. P.s. Catherine rewore the first lace dress in April 2012 for a friend’s wedding.

A year later, in June 2012, Catherine turned to Erdem to create a bespoke outfit for her to wear to Trooping The Color. She re-wore the same dress just a few months later to another friend’s wedding. That same year, while on the Diamond Jubilee Tour of Singapore, The Duchess of Cambridge donned Erdem for the first time during an evening engagement, wearing an altered version of their Meryl dress.

The latter dress is cute. I think it would be a nostalgic re-wear. I do not necessarily like the neckline for the bespoke Erdem outfit but nothing too bad yet.

Catherine wore Erdem once in 2013. In April of that year, she chose the Sophie dress to visit Willows Primary School in Manchester. The Duchess of Cambridge was just three months away from giving birth to her first child, and we see the struggle any first-time pregnant woman feels when trying to figure out something to wear. Not that this dress fitted badly or looked badly on her in any way! Just that it is not a maternity dress, and it is interesting to see how many more maternity-specific clothes she wore during her second and third pregnancies.

In 2014, The Duchess of Cambridge added a green Erdem coatdress to her vast coatdress collection. She first debuted the Allie coat during her and William’s tour of New Zealand in April before re-wearing it with different accessories in June of the same year. She pulled out the coatdress again in March 2016 before switching things up in October 2021 by wearing the Erdem piece as simply a coat over a blouse and trousers.

The Duchess of Cambridge wore Erdem twice in 2015: once in a private capacity and then in an official capacity. In March, while pregnant with Princess Charlotte, she wore the brand’s maternity dress from their resort 2013 collection. One must wonder if she had that in her closet from her first pregnancy or a piece she was able to source later.

Following her maternity leave, Catherine returned to the evening scene with a bang. She pulled out a new Erdem gown, their Alouette Tiered Silk dress. I recall many people hating this dress, and I never loved it, but now that I am looking at it again more closely, I don’t get the hate. It is a lovely dress! No, not close to the best ones she has worn, but I would not be upset if she decided to re-wear it again sometime soon. I think it would look super elegant with a nice updo and better makeup.

2016 was a good year for Erdem, even though The Duchess of Cambridge only wore two new pieces from them. Catherine wore a Bespoke coat for the Commonwealth Day service that year based on some of the brand’s pre-fall 2015 collection. I really liked this coat, although I did not love the pairing of the closed collar with the wide-brimmed hat. I feel like it covered too much, so I’d love to see how she could restyle it.

For an away day to Manchester in October 2016, The Duchess chose a pink and blue patterned Ederm coat from their 2016 Resort collection. All I have to say about this heavenly coat is… where is it, Kate?! Why haven’t we gotten a repeat yet, Kate?! This coat needs to see the light of day again, and hopefully soon.

2017 started with a bang and two new Erdem dresses. In mid-January, The Duchess chose the Evita dres from the brand’s pre-fall collection for a Heads Together event at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. A little over a month later, in February, Catherine wore the elegant Rhona Metallic Floral Lace dress by Erdem for a reception at Buckingham Palace. I love both of these pieces and they sit very high on my “need Kate to repeat” list.

One new Erdem piece Catherine debuted in 2017 that I wouldn’t mind not seeing for a long while are the seperate in the brand’s “Hurts Rose” pattern that she wore on a day of engagement’s during the royal tour of Poland in July. Once again, I don’t hate it but I don’t love it.

We have made it to the moment where the Erdem x Catherine history went completely downhill: the Scandinavia Tour of 2018. On their first night in Sweden, William and Catherine attended a black-tie dinner at the British Ambassador's official residence, where The Duchess of Cambridge wore a mustard Erdem dress from their Autumn/Winter 2017 Collection. Then, the very next day, still in Sweden, she wore the brand's Christina Blue Velvet Bell Sleeve dress to an event celebrating Swedish culture.

There is absolutely nothing that could redeem that mustard dress. I honestly hope she burned it when she got home or used it as a tablecloth. The blue velvet dress wasn't as bad because, let's be honest, nothing can be that bad, but it still wasn't good. Very rare fashion miss and back-to-back too. Very, very tragic.

People, including me, were so traumatized by those two dresses that they failed to realize Erdem quickly redeemed themselves! When The Duchess of Cambridge arrived at the Commonwealth Fashion Exchange reception in February 2018, I was scared when I read, before seeing any pictures, that she was wearing Erdem. However, Erdem’s Suzi guipure Lace dress became my favorite outfit of hers during her pregnancy with Prince Louis and maybe my all-time favorite maternity look from Catherine.

Then, in October 2018, The Duchess wore the brand’s Iman dress for an engagement at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In my opinion, there is nothing to not like about this look! I love the neckline. I love the gorgeous embellishments. This is another dress that is at the top of that re-wear list I mentioned.

Before Catherine retired Erdem for a few years, The Duchess wore their Sheba Floral Silk-Cotton piece to present her Chelsea Flower Show garden to Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the wider public in May 2019. I think it was the perfect dress for the occasion, although not one of my favorites. I can definitely see her wearing this one a few more times.

After that, we did not see Erdem appear fully on Catherine for almost four years. We got some hints of the brand when The Duchess of Cambridge purchased two of their striped cashmere jumpers. She wore the navy one in July 2022 and the ivory sweater in May 2021.

Erdem made its return on Monday, March 13th! For her first time wearing the brand as ‘The Princess of Wales,” Catherine chose Erdem’s Flared Ottoman Jacquard navy separates from the brand’s Pre-Fall 2023 for her engagement at Westminster Abbey. I loved everything about this look! From the moment she stepped out of the car, I knew I would love it, and I did even more as we got more and more photos.

It took the spot of my favorite outfit worn by The Princess at this annual event for many reasons but primarily because it was different from all of the coatdresses she wore every year before. I saw some people saying it aged her, but I do not see that at all. If anything, it made her look younger.

In conclusion, we can see that Erdem is really not bad. Those two dresses in Sweden just tainted things and makes people nervous whenever they hear that Catherine is wearing Erdem. Of her 14 Erdem pieces, 12/14 are good and not ugly, while I actually love 9/14 of those pieces!

P.s. Thank you to the incredible What Kate Wore blog for all of the fashion details!

Royal Roundup

The week started with the engagement that inspired this whole Newsletter! On March 13th, The Prince and Princess of Wales joined The King and Queen, The new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, The Princess Royal, and Sir Timothy Laurence at Westminster Abbey for the annual Commonwealth Day service. This year’s theme was “Forging a Sustainable and Peaceful Common Future,” highlighting the active commitment of the family of nations to support the promotion of peace, prosperity, and sustainability, especially through climate action, to secure a better future for young people and improve the lives of all Commonwealth citizens.

Later in the evening, The Prince of Wales attended the Commonwealth Day reception hosted by His Majesty at Buckingham Palace. If you are subscribed to me on Instagram, you would already know all my thoughts on Catherine not attending this event…

The days between Monday and Friday were made up of private engagements recorded in the Court Circular. On Tuesday, Prince William held a meeting related to the Royal Foundation, while that same day and Wednesday, Catherine held Early Years Meetings. All their meetings were held at Windsor Castle, which I will never stop loving because the rooms are infinitely more beautiful than their offices at Kensington Palace.

Note: If you’re interested in seeing daily updates of the Court Circular and monthly updates on William and Catherine’s engagement count, make sure to subscribe to my Instagram subscription!

Finally, The Prince and Princess of Wales attended a fan-favorite annual event: the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This year was particularly special because The Princess has taken on The Prince’s role as the Royal Colonel of the Irish Guards. For the first time, Catherine took the salute!

I wanted to quickly address one thing because I got far too many messages about it. An author named Tom Quinn, who is not a royal reporter (aka the people more likely to have actual info) and has no known connection to the royal or those around them, has been on what seems to be a press tour to promote his book. In an interview for Fox News, he claimed that William and Catherine’s marriage isn’t all sweetness, and they have “terrible rows” where they throw things at each other.

If someone thinks anyone’s marriage is perfect, they are incredibly naive. Nobody genuinely believes William and Catherine’s marriage is perfect, especially with their abnormal lives. To claim they throw things at each other is serious especially coming from an unreliable source, because then you have people like the “Sussex Squad” who go crazy (happily) over these stories and start screaming divorce.

I find it funny that they quickly take that as fact but refuse to read further where it says: “Kate is an appeaser by instinct and William always gives way as he had more than enough emotional turmoil, divorce and disruption as a child.” Additionally, the same author claimed to the same media outlet that Meghan “hated being a second-rate Princess.” However, their fans would never blindly believe that, now would they?

Just to show you the lack of “sources” this Tom Quinn guy has, he claims in his new book that Kate “wants to escape her middle-class childhood and dislikes burgers and chips and wouldn’t dream of taking her children to McDonald’s.” Below I present to you all a photo of Catherine and her family eating chips and burgers at a pub in September 2021:

Anyways, people have been getting way too used to drama playing out with the British Royal Family that they start creating more drama, and trying to bring up rumors with absolutely no basis that have been around for four years, and still, no proof has emerged. The amount of disgustingly fabricated stories I’ve seen this week is bizarre. Prince William perfectly put it way back in 2017:

“There is a certain element of Fleet Street getting fed up with nice stories about us. They want the past back again, soap, drama.”

Some of my favorite newsletters are the unplanned ones, and this one was a very fun one to write! Hopefully, I made a convincing argument for Erdem to the point that we can look forward to Catherine wearing pieces from the brand.

Coming Up: No engagements have been announced for next week, but that has been the norm since COVID-19 started. I, for one, am hoping for an away day, perhaps to Scotland, which they have yet to visit, before the children start yet another school break.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in the U.K., meaning that if we do not finally get a new photo of Catherine and all her kiddos as we have consistently gotten for father’s day for the last few years, you will surely be hearing from me.

Until then!

Let’s start with a quick overview of William and Catherine’s homes throughout their marriage. I know there has been quite a bit of misinformation about the number of homes they have, so hopefully, this will clear things up.

William and Catherine’s Homes

When Prince William moved to Anglesey in 2010 as he took up his role as an RAF Search and Rescue Pilot, his girlfriend Catherine Middleton soon left London and moved in with him. The couple lived in a farmhouse on the Bodorgan Estate in Wales from 2010 until 2013. It was their first marital home and the place that baby Prince George called home for the first three months of his life.

The farmhouse, which resides on the estate owned by Lord and Lady Meyrick, boasts four bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a cloakroom, and access to a private beach. During their time on the secluded island, where they paid £750 a month for rent, William and Catherine were able to live as close to a normal life as possible given their positions. They were often seen having lunch at their local pub, going for walks on the beach, and doing their own grocery shopping.

During their last engagement before leaving Anglesey in August 2013, which Catherine shortly came out of her maternity leave to attend, Prince William said in his speech:

“This island has been our first home together, and it will always be an immensely special place for us both. Catherine and I look forward to returning again and again over the coming years with our family. I know that I speak for Catherine when I say that I have never in my life known somewhere as beautiful and as welcoming as Anglesey.”

After leaving Wales, William, Catherine, and baby George moved into what had been their London residence since their marriage: Nottingham Cottage. Obviously, this home on the grounds of Kensington Palace has recently gotten lots of press attention because of complaints from its previous tenants.

The bottom line is that a home is a home. William and Catherine, who are 6’3” and 5’9”, respectively, used the two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage as their London residence and shortly full-time residence for 2.5 years.

In November 2011, the palace announced that the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would be taking up residence in Kensington Palace’s Apartment 1A, but the move would only happen in 2013. The 2014 Sovereign grant report revealed that £4.5 million had gone into renovating the home.

However, it is essential to note that Kensington Palace is owned by The Crown Estate and not the Royal Family. The four-story, over twenty room Apartment 1A, would always have to undergo extensive renovations regardless of whether William and Catherine moved in, as it is The Crown Estate’s responsibility to upkeep the palaces.

Apartment 1A was practically unlivable as no one moved in after Princess Margaret’s 2002 death, and the home had been lastly renovated before she moved in in the 60s. Before the royal couple could call the palace home in 2013, work had to be done on the heating and hot water systems and electrical wiring, along with removing large quantities of asbestos.

Renovations to the interior, such as the addition of a family kitchen and furnishing, were funded by the couple. It also includes a good-sized walled garden. Unfortunately, there are very few photos of the inside of Kensington Palace Apartment 1A (below: one of the few photos we do have), but what we have seen shows that Kate and alleged interior designer Ben Pentreath perfectly mixed the traditional and homey feels.

William and Catherine’s apartment at Kensington Palace is also convenient because it is just steps away from their offices which are located in Prince William’s childhood home, Apartment 1. Although they do not live at Apartment 1A full-time, their offices remain at Kensington Palace, where William and Catherine occasionally return to attend meetings.

Between their move out and return to London, William and Catherine took up full-time residence at Anmer Hall, which resided on the Sandringham Estate. The home was allegedly a wedding gift from the late Queen Elizabeth II and boasts ten bedrooms, a tennis court, a pool, and a walled garden. The Royal Family completely covered funds for Anmer Hall’s renovations as they own Sandringham Estate.

William and Catherine’s move in late 2014 was perfect timing for the arrival of Princess Charlotte the following spring and Prince William beginning his role as a pilot at the nearby East Anglia Anglian Air Ambulance. They only moved back to London in mid-2017 because Prince Philip had stepped down, driving William and Kate to step up, and Prince George was going to start school.

Anmer Hall is undoubtedly their favorite home. They got to spend ample time at the home again during the lockdown, which I am sure they were very happy about it! They still return to Norfolk during the school breaks, and they used to consistently travel there on the weekends when the kids attended school in London.

This whole skit filmed during the pandemic where the little family emerged from their home to clap for their carers was filmed at Anmer Hall.

Since September 2022, The Wales Family have been living at the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage on the grounds of Windsor Castle. I have already discussed the semi-controversial nature of this move in this newsletter. Ultimately, living in Windsor seems to be, so far, a good middle ground of living near London but also having a place where their children are free to run around with no intrusion.

Bonus: I see many people refer to “Tam-Na-Ghar” as their secret fourth home in Scotland. The cottage on the Balmoral estate was said to have been given to Prince William by The Queen Mother for use during his time at the University of St. Andrews. Nothing suggests that William and Catherine still use the cottage or consider it their fourth home.

I’ll be posting more photos, including very rarely seen interior photos, on Instagram under my subscriber section. So, make sure to subscribe if you have not!

What’s The Deal With The Homes Now?

Earlier this year, it was revealed that King Charles had allegedly “kicked” Prince Andrew out of his apartments at Buckingham Palace. Later another story came out claiming that The King had asked his younger brother to leave his 30-room home, which resides on the Windsor estate, Royal Lodge.

Then, about a week or two ago, The Sun broke the exclusive that Harry and Meghan had been “evicted” from Frogmore Cottage and their ten-room Windsor home had been offered to Prince Andrew. Differing reports have come out about how the Sussexes, whose spokesperson quickly confirmed the story, felt about this.

Their cheerleader and often mouthpiece, Omid Scobie, claimed they were blindsided and found the decision cruel. Meanwhile, Valentine Lowe, who stands by his stories from former staff members claiming bullying from the couple, claims that the couple weren’t surprised nor bemused by King Charles’ action.

Regardless of how they feel about losing the home, which they packed up and had been to around three times since moving to the United States, it has also been suggested that they were more shocked to find out that it had been offered to Prince Andrew. (Which is why I think this leak came from the Yorks, but you didn’t hear that from me…)

I think this was the right decision. The recently renovated Frogmore Cottage has been basically vacant other than being used by Princess Eugenie and her family whenever they are not in Portugal, where her husband’s job finds him. I’ve seen some people try to paint this as “punishing” the Sussexes while rewarding Andrew. By no means is that the case. Going from a 30-room home you’ve resided in for decades to a ten-bedroom one because your big brother asked you to is far from an award. Besides, it seems like Andrew has been putting up quite a fight.

Seeing people try and turn this on Prince William and say it was his fault and decision has been interesting. One of the narratives being thrown around is that William allegedly wants Frogmore Cottage or Royal Lodge for his family.

I seriously doubt this. Why would he want Frogmore Cottage? Some people have been writing that William wants something bigger. I believe it was Rebecca English for The Daily Mail who wrote something along the lines of how the Wales children go over to play dates at homes bigger than theirs.

Firstly, I do not think William, Kate, or the children care about that at all. If that were an issue, they would simply invite kids to play dates at Kensington Palace. Plain and simple. Secondly, when William and Catherine were looking at residences for their Windsor move, one of the options on the table was (the gorgeous) Fort Belvedere. The home is as big as Royal Lodge but has its own extensive garden and pool.

Nevertheless, the couple preferred the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage. So, I don’t know what there is to suggest that they suddenly want somewhere bigger. Besides, it has been reported from the start that they’ve always planned to move into Windsor Castle eventually. Now THAT I can see happening in due time. But, for now, they seem perfectly happy in a home big enough for just them five!

In Other News…

There is officially a Prince and Princess of Sussex. I’m not as bothered as some people are that the kids are using the titles they’ve been entitled to since Charles became King (we discussed this months ago). I do, however, find it all very amusing! Once again, Harry and Meghan have revealed their true intentions. They do not believe everything they pushed about the monarchy in their docuseries. Those two have always wanted the privilege without the responsibility.

The fact is that for them to continue to work, they NEED the connection to the Royal Family hence why they said that Oprah would be the last time they would talk about all of that, but as we know, they did not stop. After their recent projects failed to get a reaction out of the family and the realization that their initiatives that do not mention the royals barely make any noise, the next step was to accept the use of the Prince/ss titles for their kids.

Harry and Meghan are justifying this decision under the guize of “it is their birthright!” (Is birthright even the correct term for that? After all, they were not born with this right). I do not buy that one bit. If they actually cared about that, they would have followed Edward and Sophie’s lead and allowed their kids to decide at the age of 18.

All they have done is burden their kids. Did Harry not recently talk about how terribly being part of the institution affected him? I genuinely don’t understand the rationality of saying everything he has said about the monarchy and then accepting something that only exists because of the institution. Moreover, by giving them the titles, the Susexes have subjected the kids to more scrutiny. Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie got far more criticism and attention than their older cousins, Peter and Zara, received, and it is obviously because of their titles.

Harry had the opportunity to raise his children without any of that, and considering all he has said, one would think he would happily take it. Anyways, congrats Harry and Meghan! Now your kids will grow up with these titles that we know you two so desperately wanted. Titles from a country they do not live in, will not grow up in, will develop no affection towards, and have never been expected to serve. May I add titles from a man his children have no relationship with. They should not be surprised when people start demanding things from them, but perhaps that is what they have wanted all along…

On the other side of Title Land, His Majesty created his youngest brother, Prince Edward, The Duke of Edinburgh, yesterday and what was his 59th. People have felt very strongly about this since Queen Elizabeth II died, and the title reverted back to the Crown. It was established in 1999 when Sophie and Edward got married that he would eventually get the title after both his parents passed away and his brother became King.

I, once again, was not too bothered about the possibility that Edward did not get this title. Firstly because that “promise” had been made over twenty years ago, and things could have been discussed and changed without our knowledge. But most importantly, I was afraid that it would continue being a hereditary title meaning it would pass down through his descendants and cease being a royal dukedom. I think the title has far too much history for that to unfortunately happen.

Thankfully, it was confirmed that the title is a lifetime one, so it will revert back to the Crown for distribution after his death instead of going to his son. Speaking of his son, James is now Earl of Wessex, as that has become Edward’s lower title. Since he was born, James has used his father’s subsidiary title, which is why he has until now been known as Viscount Severn. Another example to illustrate this is the fact that Archie could have been known as Earl of Dumbarton, but that title was not enough, it seems!

Moving on, Louise remains Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, although she and James are technically and legally entitled to be HRH Prince/ss of Edinburgh.

Last thought on this: I do think it is notable how quickly the royal website was changed to reflect Edward, Sophie, and James’s title change, but it took over a day for the same to be done for Archie and Lilibet. Additionally, there was a comprehensive official press release regarding the former. It is almost like the palace was not expecting the news to be released in People Magazine of all places and reluctantly moved to make the changes.

Well, it has certainly been an interesting week on the royal news front. Also interesting as Catherine undertook her first engagement with the Irish Guards since becoming their royal colonel! Lots of great pictures from that event.

Coming up:

• Monday, March 13th: The annual Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey will take place with members of The Royal Family in attendance, including The Prince and Princess of Wales. Later that day, they will also attend the Commonwealth Day reception at Buckingham Palace.

• Friday, March 17th: Unconfirmed, but the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade will take place on Friday, and we may see The Princess of Wales take her first royal salute and not simply be the bystander. Hopefully, Prince William will accompany her as she did earlier this month.

Until next week!