Forget the Everlasting Gobstopper. The failed Willy Wonka Experience is about to become the Everlasting Showstopper. As you may remember, in late February, Willy’s Chocolate Experience, which was marketed as an “immersive experience” into Willy Wonka’s world of pure imagination, ended up being a complete nightmare. Ads were AI images and families were charged more than $40 per ticket to enter a warehouse with low-budget decorations, sad-looking performers, a Chat GPT script, and no chocolate! Attendees were so upset that they ended up calling the police.

Well, the Internet has once again done what it does best, and that’s create a parody musical based on the whole debacle. TikToker Daniel Mertzlufft, who created 2021’s “Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical” found himself inspired to write “Willy’s Candy Spectacular” and it very randomly stars John Stamos! So far, four demo songs have been released, with new songs forthcoming every Sunday until its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest from August 9-26.

Willy’s Candy Spectacular is sharing the next taste of the highly anticipated spoof musical!

The parody production, based around the events of the infamous Glasgow Wonka experience, revealed a fourth demo track from the musical, called “The Unknown.” The song was penned by Daniel Mertzlufft, the creative mind behind the viral sensation Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, which became a hit on TikTok in 2021.

“As an avid TikTok addict, the Glasgow fiasco was my entire FYP for a solid week, and nothing was more intriguing than The Unknown! Who is he? Where did he come from?” said Daniel in a statement.

“I never thought my obsession over these questions would lead to writing a horror song for puppets about The Unknown starting the apocalypse, but that’s the fun of Willy’s Candy Spectacular! When else do you have the ability to truly just explore the unknown!?”

Additional demo songs will arrive every Sunday, leading to the debut of a staged reading of the musical at the Pleasance King Dome from August 9 to 26 during Edinburgh Fringe Fest 2024. For all the latest details, head to willyscandyspectacular.com.

[From JustJared]

I watched the teaser trailer plus all four of the videos that have been released to date via their YouTube channel and OMFG. There are not enough LMFAO emojis. There are so many words I could use to describe it that I’m having trouble picking just one. Amazing. Ridiculous. Brilliant. Stupid. Utterly wild. Candy-licious. That song that Stamos does to set it all up, described as a ”’a post-apocalyptic’ opening number that traces the downfall of civilization back to the disastrous event in Glasgow” is stubbornly stuck in my head now. The song by the evil chocolate maker character The Unknown, which is supposed to be ”Sweeny Todd meets [the] Muppets” is chaotic camp. “Where Dreams Go To Fly,” co-written by Emmy winners Doug Rockwell and Tova Litvin, is a banger, not gonna lie. Oh, and in a wonderfully meta twist, Sad Oompa Loompa Kirsty Paterson herself even plays herself.

This looks so funny. I wonder how on earth they got John Stamos, though. Like, was he a big fan of “Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical” or did he just tell his agent to book him something that will make people forget his memoir? What other events from that day should they parody and in what manner? Will it end as a tragedy when it all falls apart or will Mertzlufft take it further with some sort of epilogue? I have no idea if it will actually be any good when all is said and done, but I’m really looking forward to the finished product. I think at the very least, it will be good for a lot of laughs.

Sabrina Carpenter slams people who hate Pride. I’m also including her new music video for “Please Please Please,” which stars her boyfriend Barry Keoghan. [Just Jared]
Lana del Rey: Taylor Swift wants her career more than anyone. [Hollywood Life]
Lukas Gage & Chris Appleton reached a divorce settlement. [Socialite Life]
Rave reviews for The Acolyte. [Pajiba]
I’m so glad Kim Cattrall is living her best life. [Go Fug Yourself]
Pec-grooming ASMR. [OMG Blog]
Matt Bomer looks sooo good here. [RCFA]
Beyonce wore hot pants & a cowboy hat. [Seriously OMG]
Seeking Sister Wife star has a Tindr profile. [Starcasm]
Secrets people will never tell their partners. [Buzzfeed]

In July 2022, Sophia Bush married Grant Hughes in Tulsa, with a wedding that showcased Tulsa’s rich and complex history. Thirteen months later, Sophia filed for divorce. It felt like something big happened behind the scenes, and soon enough, we learned what happened. Sophia left her husband for a married woman – soccer star Ashlyn Harris. Ashlyn filed for divorce from Ali Krieger in September 2023, just a month after Sophia left Grant Hughes. The lesbian community and the women’s soccer community were torn up about all of this drama. While Sophia tried to put a bow on it – while also claiming that she and Ashlyn did nothing wrong – there was definitely a lot going on behind the scenes. So, treat this like Sophia’s second attempt to reframe what happened and perhaps tell her side of things. She covers the latest issue of Glamour and this is her big coming out.

Her wedding & first anniversary with Grant Hughes: “In April of 2022 I was close to calling off my wedding. Instead of running away, I doubled down on being a model wife. In 2023 my now ex-husband posted a lovely tribute to our first anniversary on Instagram. When I saw it, I felt the blood drain from my face. Fans and friends were telling me how exciting this milestone was and how happy I looked. I felt nothing. Things hadn’t been easy at home, but everyone says marriage is hard, right?

She really didn’t want to marry that guy: “Maybe it’s just cold feet, I told myself. Maybe I was too sensitive. Maybe this was the feeling you get when you settle down later in life and have to make space for another person. There have been moments in my life when it feels like the universe is screaming at me to pay attention. This was one of them, but I didn’t listen. I kept repeating the adages we all know so well: Relationships are hard. Marriage takes compromise. You know the rest. And so I got married. We threw one of the greatest wedding weekends ever. We had an amazing time with our closest friends and family. It was truly one of the best parties I’ve ever been to, and we raised a ton of money for charity. I don’t regret any of that.”

On experiencing fertility difficulties: “But after the wedding I found myself in the depths and heartbreak of the fertility process, which was the most clarifying experience of my life. It feels like society is finally making space for brutally honest conversations about how hard and painful any fertility journey is, but I kept mine private. I was trying to get through months of endless ultrasounds, hormone shots, so many blood draws that I have scar tissue in my veins, and retrieval after retrieval, while simultaneously realizing the person I had chosen to be my partner didn’t necessarily speak the same emotional language I did.”

When she knew she made a mistake: “As I lost track of how many examination tables I had lain on alone, I felt something in me seismically shift. Six months into that journey, I think I knew deep down that I absolutely had made a mistake. It would take my head and heart a while longer to understand what my bones already knew.

On falling in love with Ashlyn Harris: “I didn’t expect to find love in this support system. I don’t know how else to say it other than: I didn’t see it until I saw it. And I think it’s very easy not to see something that’s been in front of your face for a long time when you’d never looked at it as an option and you had never been looked at as an option. What I saw was a friend with her big, happy life. And now I know she thought the same thing about me.”

On being judged for her relationship with Ashlyn Harris: “People looking in from the outside weren’t privy to just how much time it took, how many painful conversations were had. A lot of effort was made to be graceful with other people’s processing, their time and obligations, and their feelings. What felt like seconds after I started to see what was in front of me, the online rumor mill began to spit in the ugliest ways. There were blatant lies. Violent threats. There were the accusations of being a home-wrecker. The ones who said I’d left my ex because I suddenly realized I wanted to be with women—my partners have known what I’m into for as long as I have (so that’s not it, y’all, sorry!).”

Coming out: “I sort of hate the notion of having to come out in 2024. But I’m deeply aware that we are having this conversation in a year when we’re seeing the most aggressive attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community in modern history. There were more than 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills proposed in state legislatures in 2023, so for that reason I want to give the act of coming out the respect and honor it deserves. I’ve experienced so much safety, respect, and love in the queer community, as an ally all of my life, that, as I came into myself, I already felt it was my home. I think I’ve always known that my sexuality exists on a spectrum. Right now I think the word that best defines it is queer. I can’t say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great.

[From Glamour]

She has a lot of smoke for “internet trolls” who accused her of homewrecking Ashlyn and Ali’s marriage, but she takes pains to say that Ali and Ashlyn were already separated when she and Ashlyn started seeing each other romantically. I still think the way everything went down was messy as hell, but I also think that Sophia became the face of it because she is the most famous one in the group. But she fell hard for Ashlyn and she had that moment of “I just know,” a moment she never had with the man she married. Oh well, life is complicated and from the sound of things, Ali is fine and feeling “free” post-divorce. All’s well that ends well.

Photos courtesy of Lauren Dukoff/Glamour, shared via Glamour’s promotional email.

Dollar Tree made the transition to start charging $1.25 for their products in locations around the US in 2021. At the same time, they launched a section called Plus, which has products costing up to $5, including slightly higher end decorative items. A few months ago they announced plans to charge up to $7 for items. They’re also soft launching $1.50 price points, making many people wonder when their inflation will end. In the meantime they’re closing some of their confusingly titled Family Dollar stores, which they also own, and have acquired 99 Cent Stores. (All of these stores are not to be confused with Dollar General, which is owned by a different company and has its own issues.) The maybe positive news is that Dollar Tree, Inc. has purchased 170 99 Cents Only stores, where I hope they’ll stick to the original intent of Dollar Tree with all items under a dollar.

Dollar Tree Inc. is acquiring 99 Cents Only Store’s intellectual property in North America as its competitor goes out of business. The dollar store acquired the IP alongside the designation rights of 170 99 Cents Only stores in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas.

The discount retailer said Thursday via email to sister site Retail Dive that the stores would be turned into Dollar Tree locations, but didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about what it plans to do with 99 Cents Only’s intellectual property. The deal also included the acquisition of select furniture, fixtures and equipment.

“Dollar Tree looks forward to welcoming customers from 99 Cents Only Stores as early as fall 2024,” the company said in a Wednesday announcement.

[From GroceryDive.com]

I’ve shopped at Dollar Tree for years and I love how you can get products that are several dollars more at stores like Home Depot, Lowes and CVS. The greeting cards at Dollar Tree are decent and you can save quite a bit of money if you check Dollar Tree first for cards. I often remind myself to check Dollar Tree for things I would typically get at another store. With the price changes, Dollar Tree is no longer competitive with Walmart for many items though.

The 25% price increase is not cost prohibitive for many people, but many others rely on Dollar Tree for their staple items and have felt the crunch. With the move to buy .99 Cent stores, maybe they’ll expand the offerings at those stores. It remains to be seen whether they’ll rebrand them and charge more, but of course that’s also a possibility. None of these companies are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and that’s understandable, but I wish they would reduce CEO compensation and pay more attention to employee wages and the needs of lower income consumers.

As I’ve mentioned before, I regularly watch Dollar Tree haul, organization and crafting videos on YouTube. One of my favorite recent videos is from Catherine from Do It on a Dime. She reorganized a very cluttered bathroom using Dollar Tree products, all while emphasizing that there’s no reason to feel shame or guilt around a messy space. If you struggle with being organized and/or keeping your home clean I highly recommend the book How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis. Catherine’s videos also have a lot of tips and tricks to getting your spaces organized.

Here’s what I wrote in November, 2021, about my favorite Dollar Tree channels:

Also I watch a lot of Dollar Tree shopping and DIY videos. I’m not particularly crafty but I find them soothing and I like seeing what people come up with. My favorites are Bargain Bethany, She So CraftDee, Glue Guns and Roses, Do It on a Dime, and ChicOnTheCheap. Sometimes I just like to watch women shopping because I also find that relaxing. PrettyNflawed is so great for that.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dollar Tree (@dollartree)

Photos are screenshots from Bargain Bethany and Do it on a Dime YouTube videos and via Instagram

Prince William has spent the past five days furiously briefing everyone that he is an “emerging statesman” and world-class diplomat following his appearance in Normandy last week. The man barely managed to avoid tripping over his d-ck and he’s begging for all of the gold stars now. What’s particularly amazing is that this new “Huevo is a for-real global statesman” campaign comes after he’s had one of the worst years of his life when it comes to his image and credibility. His wife has disappeared, his office has been caught up in several major lies, the international media publicly blasted William’s lack of credibility and he’s repeatedly stepped out to public events looking and acting drunk. It also doesn’t help that William has all of the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Behold, the latest keen statesman garbage.

The British monarchy is in good hands as Prince William has stepped into a more senior leadership role while his wife and father are being treated for cancer, a royal expert has told Newsweek. Since his accession to the title of Prince of Wales in September 2022, William has stepped into a more prominent role within the monarchy and British life, something Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal commentator, told Newsweek was a natural progression for him as an emerging statesman.

“William has long been regarded as the perfect diplomat,” Fitzwilliams said. “It was he who was chosen as the first royal to pay an official visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2018, which he carried out superbly. Last year he made a surprise visit to British troops on the border with Ukraine. He also made a plea for a permanent peace in Gaza in February.”

“He is a fine public speaker,” Fitzwilliams continued. “His address on Juno Beach, at the official Canadian celebrations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, was superb. At the international ceremony on Omaha Beach, where he represented his father, King Charles, who is undergoing cancer treatment, it was a significant moment for him, being alongside 24 world leaders.”

“He is used to lobbying at the top,” Fitzwilliams said. “Whether it is President Xi about the illegal ivory trade or President Biden when in the United States for the Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony. He and Catherine are the future of the monarchy. It must be a very difficult time for him whilst she fights serious illness, but it is in good hands with him as the future king,” the royal commentator continued.

[From Newsweek]

He thinks he can just make these pronouncements to reporters, the reporters will dutifully parrot his talking points and everyone will be like “yes, this checks out!” William has NEVER been regarded as “the perfect diplomat,” nor is he currently regarded as an emerging statesman. He’s almost 42 years old and he’s scared of doing royal tours because he’s incapable of behaving like anything other than a racist and a colonizer. His father has never trusted him to carry out international work or diplomacy, for good reason – William is at best a gaffe-machine and at worst, one of the dumbest royals ever.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Instar.

Here are some photos of Jennifer Lopez at Giorgio Baldi on Sunday night. I’ve seen some outlets claim that she was “dining alone,” but she was clearly out with a couple of girlfriends and one of those ladies drove J.Lo away from the restaurant. Giorgio Baldi is one of the most popular restaurants in LA and it’s become something of a celebrity hot-spot. During Rihanna’s pregnancies, she was there practically every week, sometimes multiple times a week. My point is that J.Lo knew she would be photographed and she either wanted to be seen or she didn’t care that she was seen. Considering the weekend was full of “imminent divorce” rumors, it feels like Jennifer wanted to be seen out and about. Is the message “I’m not hiding away?”

Notably, Jennifer is still wearing her wedding band and her green-diamond engagement ring. She’s been wearing her wedding ring this whole time, I think? Meanwhile, Ben has been seen recently without his ring at times, and wearing his ring at other times. You guys know I don’t put a lot of stock in Ring Watch, but I do think Jen is sending a message by getting pap’d this weekend with her rings. ET also confirmed that Jen and Ben are “quietly” trying to offload their $60.8 million Beverly Hills mansion, which seems to be the root of the divorce rumors in recent days. Maybe it’s just… selling a house which doesn’t work for them, but Ben and Jennifer are still working on their marriage?

And finally, Meghan McCain recently said that when J.Lo appeared on The View, Jen was “deeply unpleasant” and “not a nice person.” Again, that’s coming from Meghan McCain, who is one of the biggest a–holes in the country.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Last month, I said that it felt like a major turning point when Prince Harry’s spokesperson issued a statement saying that his father is too busy to meet him. The statement itself was a turning point – it obviously came after King Charles and his courtiers were playing all sorts of foolish games with Harry – but the reaction from the palace also marked a turning point too. Buckingham Palace threw a full-on tantrum for two solid weeks, giving contradictory briefings to their media allies and making increasingly wild and bizarre claims about Harry. Ever since, Buckingham Palace has been trying to backtrack and play off their own craziness and go back to “business as usual.” Oh, of course Charles wants to see Harry, oh of course Charles wants a relationship with his Sussex children, of course Charles is a wonderful grandfather and not a spiteful, bitter and petty old man. Speaking of:

The King has committed himself to building a relationship with Prince Harry’s children and to be present in their lives, sources say. The monarch, who has been having treatment for cancer since February, has told friends he is not content with only seeing them on video calls after meeting Archie, five, only a handful of times and two-year-old Lilibet once. His decision to step up efforts to become more involved comes as it can be revealed he sent Lili a “heartfelt gift and card” on her birthday last week.

Sources close to the 75-year-old King, who was in Normandy last week for D-Day commemorations, say he is “keener than ever” to focus on his family and his duties and “make up for lost time” after being forced to scale back engagements after his diagnosis.

Those who know the King best say he has been in a reflective mood and considers his close bond with his son William’s three children a blessing. He is a “fantastic and enthusiastic grandpa” to Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, five, sources say. His wife Camilla, 76, is also ­understood to be a driving force behind his decision to ramp up efforts to see his other grandchildren.

A source said: “The King is absolutely committed to being present in all of his grandchildren’s lives. He values family above everything and whatever the course of his ­relationship with his son he would never be content with just seeing his grandchildren on the odd video call.”

Ingrid Seward, author of My Mother and I – The Inside Story of the King and Our Late Queen, said: “Family has always been important to the King. He remembers his own somewhat fragmented childhood as his parents were always busy doing their duty. It is a great sadness to him he doesn’t see more of Archie and Lilibet. That is why he will never break ties with Harry. He does not want a FaceTime relationship with his son’s children. He wants to know them and be involved with their lives while they are still young enough to be able to learn from his wisdom. His cancer has made it all the more poignant to him as he knows that he won’t be around for ever.”

A friend of Harry insisted: “There has never been an issue with the King being in their lives and there never would be. The door’s always open.”

[From The Daily Mirror]

Charles evicted his grandchildren from their British home, he initially planned to remove their royal titles, he vocalized his concerns about “how dark” they would be and he clearly has never cared about his grandkids’ security or Harry and Meghan’s security. He’s also shrugged off invitations to spend time with the kids in California AND England. He scheduled his coronation for Archie’s birthday, then forced Harry to “choose,” all while refusing to invite the children to England last year. Genuinely insane. Anyway, this business-as-usual briefing is falling flat, given the downright unhinged panic from the palace last month. Charles showed his whole ass and he’s never going to see Archie and Lili again unless HE makes some significant changes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Netflix.

In the days before Taylor Swift released The Tortured Poets Department, there were some album leaks and people could not believe their ears, especially when they figured out that there were references to Matt Healy all over the album. While Healy does not come across as a good guy in TTPD, he really hasn’t gotten the Full Taylor’s Ex Treatment. My opinion is that the Swifties aren’t pouring scorn on him now because they’re genuinely happy that Taylor and Healy are over and that she’s gotten all of it out of her system (hopefully). Over the past month, we’ve heard a little bit about how Healy feels to have so much of Taylor’s musical energy devoted to their rather short relationship. He was reportedly relieved because it could have been a lot worse, but he’s still “uncomfortable” with all of the attention, especially given that he’s also in a new relationship. Well, now that TTPD has been out for a month, does he feel differently? Apparently, he’s weirded out that Taylor’s lyrics are all about marriage and weddings and they really weren’t all that serious.

It’s been over one month since Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which many fans think was partially inspired by Matty Healy. The 1975 frontman, 35, has mixed feelings about the record, a friend of his reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.

“He loves the attention it’s brought to him, [but] he also thinks it’s hilarious because at no time [were they] ever serious,” the friend claims.

Healy’s pal adds that the musician was “completely blindsided” by TTPD’s “lyrical content,” especially Swift’s allusions to her and a love interest discussing marriage and children.

“For her to be saying things about baby carriages … and living together — he says it had never even come up,” the friend says. “He’s taking it in stride.”

Swift, 34, sings about unfulfilled promises of domestic bliss on several TTPD songs. “You s–t-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles,” she sings on “Loml.”

On “The Manuscript,” which is seemingly about a relationship with an older man, Swift sings, “He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was, soon they’d be pushing strollers / But soon it was over.” In the title track, Swift recalls someone taking a ring off her middle finger and placing it back on “the one people put wedding rings on.”

While Swift is not one to confirm or deny who her songs are about, her fans have found lyrical clues suggesting that several TTPD songs are about her whirlwind 2023 romance with Healy on the heels of her split from Joe Alwyn. (Swift and Healy were first linked in 2014 but didn’t confirm the romance rumors at the time.)

“Was any of it true? Gazing at me starry-eyed in your Jehovah’s Witness suit,” Swift sings on “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” seemingly taking aim at the suit and tie Healy often performs in.

Swift also recalls public backlash to a relationship on TTPD, seemingly clapping back at those who criticized her for dating Healy after he made problematic comments about Ice Spice. (Ice Spice, 24, later told Billboard that Healy had apologized “a bunch of times” for his remarks.)

“God save the most judgmental creeps who say they want what’s best for me / Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see / Thinking they can change the beat of my heart when he touches me and counteract the chemistry,” she sings on “But Daddy I Love Him.”

[From Us Weekly]

I think two things concurrently. One, Taylor does this with all of her relationships, she turns them into this potential for a white-picket-fence fantasy even when the relationships are just a few months long and not all that serious. At least, that’s what she does lyrically as she’s analyzing her relationships, she makes mountains out of molehills (and Healy is absolutely a molehill of a man). Two, I also think she did a lot of conflating between her three relationships in 2023 – Joe Alwyn, Matt Healy and Travis Kelce. She clearly thought Joe would marry her, and she was clearly all-in with what was (frankly) an ill-conceived rebound/affair with Healy, and lyrically, she’s drawing from both of those relationships. Also, I totally believe that Healy was making some gestures to make Taylor think that they were soulmates or whatever and that’s just his “game.” That’s just his thing. She got conned by a charming douchebag. It happens.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, is 33 years old. His bride Olivia Henson, now the new Duchess of Westminster, is 31 years old. This has become more of a regular thing in the British aristocracy – titled toffs waiting until their 30s to marry, and marrying generational peers to boot. It feels like a very small accomplishment, that the Duke of Malarkey or the Lord Bumfuddle no longer seek virginal teenagers as their brides. Now, the same old expectations are there: Olivia, the new duchess, basically has to provide an heir as soon as possible. That’s the way all of this works. That’s primogeniture. “Duke of Westminster” is a hereditary title going to the firstborn son. With the title comes all of the loot, the $9 billion real estate fortune, the 11,000-acre Eaton Hall, the whole shebang. But as it turns out, if Olivia and Hugh have zero sons, a secondary/subsidiary title will be passed along to a distant relative. A distant relative of whom, you might ask. Well, funny story. The distant relative is related to both Hugh AND Olivia. Ah, the British aristocracy.

A 90-year-old academic living in Australia could become the saviour of the Duke of Westminster’s family title, first bestowed on his ancestors at William IV’s coronation in 1831.

If newlyweds Hugh Grosvenor and Olivia Henson do not have a son, the historic Duke of Westminster title will die with him. However, his subsidiary title, the Marquess of Westminster, will live on through the Earl of Wilton, his fourth cousin once removed.

The 8th Earl and heir presumptive also happens to be distantly related, through marriage, to Ms Henson, as her step-first cousin twice removed.

The Eton-educated academic, more commonly known as Francis Ebury, lives in Melbourne, where he settled after pursuing a career in the financial industry that took him from London to Hong Kong. He took a doctorate in Philosophy-Arts at Melbourne University, where he also taught, and served as a director of the city’s Victorian Opera until 2017.

[From The Telegraph]

Okay then. Update your copies of Debrett’s Peerage. What I don’t understand is how in the world the subsidiary title would pass to this super-distant relation of both Olivia and Hugh, all while Hugh has plenty of nieces and (more importantly) nephews. Hugh has three sisters, all of them married, and he has at least three nephews (I’m not doing a deep dive on this, don’t hate me). Why would a subsidiary title not pass to one of Hugh’s nephews in a situation where Hugh had no male heirs? Sigh… this page of Debrett’s is going to have a lot of annotations.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Roya Nikkhah at the Times of London got a big briefing from Kensington Palace over the weekend, all about how King Charles is no longer jealous of Prince William’s massive popularity or William’s gold-plated international statesmanship. As I said, it came straight from William’s camp and it was almost funny to watch as William desperately tries to bill himself as this global diplomat and immensely popular figure. Within that Times piece, there was a curious mention of Prince Harry and how Harry… wasn’t in Normandy for the D-Day anniversary. It’s been mentioned in several articles too, like “why wasn’t Harry there/Harry must be jealous of William’s statesmanship!” That too is coming straight from Kensington Palace. No one expected Harry to go to Normandy, and there’s absolutely no reason to even mention Harry’s name in the discussions of D-Day. And yet…

Prince Harry is to blame for missing commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day because he’s the one who burnt bridges with his family, a royal expert claims.

Katie Nicholl told The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show how it would’ve been a “hard” and “pretty stomach-clenching moment” for Harry to watch the two days of commemorations and know he wasn’t a part of it. Speaking to The Sun’s Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson, the royal commentator explains that Harry’s fought in Afghanistan and is the only member of Royal Family to have fought on the front line twice, so on another parallel universe, he would’ve been there.

“Every time we cover the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, if there’s anyone that’s earned the right to be there and to lay a wreath, it’s Prince Harry because he fought for his Queen and his country in Afghanistan twice,” she says. “And I can only imagine, and we was talking about how happy is out in Montecito and I believe he is, he’ll be watching those D-Day commemorations. He was a soldier for a big part of his life as we know through the Invictus community and I think it’s a pretty stomach-clenching moment for him where it’s that realisation that despite what he did, he wasn’t a part of this because he’s not a part of the working class Royal Family.”

Matt goes on to note how the reality of Prince Harry being absent for the D-Day commemorations is simply the repercussions of him burning bridges with the royal family, to which Nicholls agrees.

“They are, they are,” she says. “Currently, we don’t know whether he did anything in Montecito, but if he did, he didn’t do anything publicly. And you’ll remember that one Remembrance Sunday when him and Meghan were photographed laying a wreath and that backfired on them so badly. So I think they’ve learned from things like that so it must’ve been a hard moment for him to watch these two days of commemorations in Normandy and in Britain and know that just like being a solider, he wasn’t a part of it.”

[From The Sun]

“You’ll remember that one Remembrance Sunday when him and Meghan were photographed laying a wreath and that backfired on them so badly.” In 2020, he requested that a wreath made for him by The Poppy Factory be picked up and placed at the Cenotaph in his absence. The palace refused, they leaked their refusal and tried to humiliate him publicly. Harry and Meghan spent Remembrance Day 2020 at the LA National Cemetery, laying flowers on the graves of Commonwealth soldiers. It didn’t “backfire” on the Sussexes, it made the point that Harry will always find a way to honor the fallen. What has backfired on the Windsors is their unhinged campaign against a veteran who served two tours of duty. What has backfired is the Windsors’ refusal to acknowledge Invictus veterans or Harry’s work with the veterans community. Instead, they keep trying to claim that William suddenly has a special relationship with the veteran community. William really wants to carve Harry’s face off to wear it as his own.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.