One of the biggest “tells” of the Rose Hanbury story is that Prince William’s defenders are still desperate, five years later, to pretend that the whole thing started on social media, or that the rumors were only spread by “Sussex Squad” people with an agenda. While we might not be able to provide evidence of an affair between the Marchioness of Cholmondeley and Prince William, there is ample evidence that the affair rumors spread like wildfire in aristocratic society in 2018-19, and that William’s people have done the most to cover up any speculation, even sending out legal threats to British outlets. Which makes Stephen Colbert’s jokes last week even funnier. All it took was a three-minute segment on The Late Show for a careful, five-year coverup to get blown to smithereens. While the British media is still treading carefully, the story cannot be contained internationally. I’m curious to see if the British media even picks this up as well – Rose’s lawyer denied the rumors on the record to Business Insider.

Rose Hanbury would very much like to be excluded from any Princess Kate Middleton narrative, it seems. Hanbury (whose full name is Sarah Rose Hanbury), 40, reportedly denied rumors that Middleton’s public absence is due to an affair with Prince William after Stephen Colbert brought the idea to the masses.

“The rumors are completely false,” Hanbury’s lawyers allegedly told Business Insider on Saturday, March 16, days after the Marchioness of Cholmondeley was name-dropped on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. (Us Weekly has reached out to Hanbury for comment.)

[From Us Weekly]

So, a flat denial. What’s interesting is that I think this is the first time Rose’s lawyer has ever gone on the record? Before now, it’s always been “sources close to Rose” or “sources close to William.” Plus, it’s easier to deny something which hasn’t been happening for years, by my guess. I doubt William is still playing hide-the-salami in rose bushes. There were rumors, a few years back, that there’s another woman, someone London-based.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty.

Last week, in the middle of the Princess of Wales’s Mother’s Day photo fiasco, a Daily Mail columnist started making sense. The columnist was Liz Jones and she wrote several scathing pieces about how Kensington Palace is probably lying about everything and Prince William was “ungentlemanly” for shoving Kate under the bus to protect himself from the photo fallout. It was great! Well, Liz Jones has a new column and it’s in the same vein. Other people have caught up to it too – this weekend’s “sighting” of Kate at a Windsor garden store is yet another weird moment in a series of very weird moments. Now Jones and her ilk are publicly begging Huevo and Buttons to get their acts together. (Note: Liz Jones wrote this before the garden shop video was published.)

Kate still hasn’t been photographed: “We are informed that William and Catherine were spotted at the Windsor farm shop on Saturday and the next day went to watch their children play sport. Yet, in this age of smart phones, no one – just no one – took a photo. I was on the phone to three girlfriends yesterday when we heard the rumour that a big announcement was impending. We were terrified. In tears. To then hear, a few hours later, that the Royal couple had been spotted out relaxing was like a kick in the teeth. We felt foolish. And we’re still not convinced. In fact, we feel royally shafted. If the Royal Family is all about respect, about doing the right thing, I for one feel completely disrespected. Have we spent all these days worried sick for nothing?”

The Kate speculation is not bullying: I am tired of commentators saying that all this speculation is bullying or mere time wasting. One Sunday paper tried to dismiss the online concern for Kate as ‘prurient’, a cruel theatre, both ‘degrading and infantilising’. Really? I agree with Earl Spencer when he said that the attention focused on his sister Diana was far more dangerous than the current online scrutiny of Kate. The fact is that we play detective because we care. So, stop trying to downplay the doctored Mother’s Day photo. A source close to the Waleses has been quoted saying that Kate’s not a ‘show pony’. But, in the nicest possible way, that’s EXACTLY what she is. Ninety-nine point nine percent of us will only ever know the Princess of Wales through the lens of a camera. The late Queen once said that monarchy must be seen to be believed. Now? We don’t believe what we are seeing.

Image is everything: If she wants to be ‘amateur’ about her pictures, as she put it, then she’s in the wrong job. Because Kate matters. She could be Queen in a few short years. As long as she’s okay, we’re okay. We need her to be stable, happy, smiling in a world that is very far from that. And we need her to accept that a portrait of a film star or model in a magazine – possibly ‘tweaked’ – is completely different to an eagerly awaited news photograph. Reputable picture agencies cannot be party to any distortion in this age of artificial intelligence. Most newspaper reports and television bulletins are still patting us on the head as if we’re children, acting as if everything is going to plan.

The phone calls of support: One stated that the palace phones have been ‘ringing off the hook’ with good wishes from the public. I don’t believe that for one second. Who rings a landline these days when they can post online?

The solutions: The solution to all this speculation and ridicule is simple: don’t ignore us, as the Prince of Wales did when he arrived for his Earthshot speech on Thursday evening. When a reporter called out, ‘William, how’s Catherine? there was no acknowledgement at all, which just seemed clumsy, given the furore. William: we understand you want to protect your family, to have a private bubble. But Earthshot was a public moment. Why not smile and say she’s doing fine? Oh, and don’t take four weeks off over Easter leaving others to hold the fort. Kate: be seen smiling and waving for a few seconds. King Charles is doing it, valiantly, although he looks pasty. Hiding away makes a mockery of all your mental health initiatives, about how important it is to be open. The world is waiting, with bated breath. Yet no one can produce a photo from that farm shop trip, not even a blurry profile.

[From The Daily Mail]

Before the Mother’s Day photo furor, I was on the conspiracy bandwagon that the only reason they hadn’t released a photo of Kate is because they couldn’t – either she wasn’t conscious or she was in such a poor state, they didn’t want any lens on her. But now? After the events of the past two weeks? I think a huge part of what’s happening is stubbornness and arrogance on William and Kate’s part. Like, I still believe that some weird sh-t had happened in the past three months and we probably don’t know the half of it. But all of the media-management part of this, the communications part of it, is just a reflection of William and Kate’s arrogance, stupidity and incompetence, and their inability to hire effective, capable people to help them. What’s incredible is that people are starting to notice too. When the Mail is running multiple pieces calling them out, you know something has shifted in a big way.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

As I said in the earlier post, when I saw TMZ’s video of Prince William and the Princess of Wales walking out of the Windsor Farm Shop, I thought it was them but I also thought the whole thing was weird. The fact that there was a video all along, but the Sun ran the story without the video or photos for 24 hours. The fact that the woman in the video seems to have a completely different gait than the real Kate. The fact that there appears to be Christmas decorations up in the middle of March. The fact that Kate is carrying what looks like a somewhat heavy bag following her abdominal surgery. The fact that Kate is walking briskly and without aid following what we were told was major abdominal surgery. The fact that no one can seemingly get a clear photo or video of Kate and everything looks like the photos were taken with a potato. The fact that Kate’s face suddenly appears quite slim and un-puffy, after TMZ published blurry car photos two weeks ago where she looked sort of round-faced from steroids. It’s all just weird.

So, I don’t know what to believe anymore but I thought you guys would enjoy the theories and the social media. Next week will be the three-month anniversary of the last time Kate did an “event” – the walk to church in Sandringham. That was the last time anyone photographed her with a real camera. Things have gotten so nutty in three months. Kensington Palace has bungled all of this so badly, of course everyone questions whatever dumbass video they did in collusion with the Sun/TMZ. Of course we’ve got regular old celebrities and Twitter journalists commenting about their disbelief. All of this could have been stopped if KP had just released an unedited photo or video of Kate weeks ago. The fact that they’re still resorting to these increasingly bizarre stunts to provide “proof of life” is really telling.

That ain’t Kate….

— Andy Cohen (@Andy) March 19, 2024

I’ve unblurred two of the stills taken of Will and Kate at the farm shop using AI pic.twitter.com/3TzG27zoN9

— Lorraine King (@lorrainemking) March 18, 2024

This Kate Middleton story is crazy. I haven’t seen a coverup like this since the Secret Service deleted their text messages from January 6th.

— I Smoked The RNC (@BlackKnight10k) March 18, 2024

WHOMST?!

You mean to tell me that TMZ couldn’t get a closeup and they’re literally across the street?? Something ain’t right in the fish and chips. https://t.co/VUHNnDSlEx

— April (@ReignOfApril) March 18, 2024

“these Kate Middleton pics will silence internet critics” I don’t think u understand how badly you’ve fucked this. there are now people on the internet who could SHAKE HER HAND and still claim she’s four cats in a wig

— Smooth Dunk (@SmoothDunk) March 18, 2024

that’s fake Melania https://t.co/dQNn1VBshq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 18, 2024

TMZ: “Kate Middleton spotted out with Prince William.”

Twitter: “That is not Kate.”

pic.twitter.com/c96fZlaMBu

— NUFF (@nuffsaidny) March 18, 2024

A powerful reminder of the symbiotic relationship enjoyed by the royals and the media.

A clear breach of privacy.

Kensington Palace is silent. pic.twitter.com/9Ok0Y77pFw

— Peter Hunt (@_PeterHunt) March 19, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, cover courtesy of The Sun.

If there’s one thing the Buckingham Palace courtiers love to do, it’s mess with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s profiles on royal.uk, the official website of the British royal family. In previous years, BP webmasters have played stupid games with vanishing and reappearing royal titles and HRHs. Let’s not forget the seven-weeks-long delay in adding Princess Lilibet to the line of succession list online, nor the delay in adding Lili and Archie’s titles last year. All of the updates and games were always very stupid and petty, and a very obvious effort to “create a story” of the Windsors snubbing the Sussexes, especially their children.

So, I thought this latest story would be another dumbf–k “let’s focus on how Buckingham Palace is snubbing the Sussexes on royal.uk again” deflection from the Waleses’ sh-tshow. But no, it’s not like that at all? While royal.uk merged Harry and Meghan’s profiles into one page (they used to have individual pages), the palace webmaster added flattering photos of Harry & Meghan and added the palace’s statements about Harry and Meghan “stepping back” from being working royals. Even more fascinating is that royal.uk now links to sussex.com, with this statement: “Information about the current work of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex can be found on their official website: sussex.com.”

Also notable: the palace webmaster isn’t playing fast and loose with their titles. The page notes, “The Duke and Duchess were given their titles by Queen Elizabeth II on the day of their marriage.” The palace clarifies that Harry is “The Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton and Baron Kilkeel. He was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2015.” Meghan is “The Duchess of Sussex, Countess of Dumbarton and Baroness Kilkeel.” While there should be HRHs attached, once again, Harry and Meghan have “voluntarily” decided not to use them.

Again, while all of this is being promoted in the British media as a snub, it doesn’t actually look that way to me? Harry and Meghan’s bios/pages were merged, as if the palace has made their peace with the fact that the Sussex marriage is fine and Meghan can’t be “removed.” They linked to sussex.com, almost like sussex.com has the king’s stamp of approval? It’s a hell of a thing. Super-curious.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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We all knew it was just a matter of time before Taylor Swift started impacting the fields of seismology and geology. Last July a Seattle Eras Tour stop set off enough tremors that the concert showed up on a seismograph. This prompted the California Institute of Technology to put sensors in place at LA’s SoFi Stadium in time for Swift’s August dates for further research into her earth-shattering capabilities, being dubbed “SwiftQuakes.” Was it the instruments? Was it the amps? Was it Swift herself, bearing the voice of a prophetess equal parts lyrical and powerful? Nope, it was all the fans jumping up and down. Here’s more of the science behind the results:

Gabrielle Tepp, author and amateur bass guitarist, said that the harmonics of the “concert tremor” that was recorded look a lot like those from volcanoes or trains, not quakes. They were low frequency and not heard by the human ear. Large music festivals and stadium concerts produce similar vibration signals that resemble a harmonic tremor.

The biggest bang came when Swift sang “Shake It Off.” The tremor was equivalent to about a magnitude 2 quake. Instead of using magnitude, which is energy given off in a moment, scientists measured radiant energy, which is given off over time, for example, during a song. Tepp dubbed it “song strength.”

After conversions done based on an American Geophysical Union study, these are the top five energy-releasing songs from Swift:

1. Shake It Off — about magnitude 1.798.
2. You Belong With Me — about magnitude 1.796.
3. Love Story — about magnitude 1.76.
4. Cruel Summer — about magnitude 1.71.
5. 22 — about magnitude 1.64.

“Keep in mind this energy was released over a few minutes compared to a second for an earthquake of that size,” Tepp said in a news release. “Based on the maximum strength of shaking, the strongest tremor was equivalent to a magnitude 2 earthquake.”

She could identify 43 of 45 songs just by looking at the spectrograms — a graph of the strength of various signal frequencies overtime. The other two songs did not register.

“My gut feeling was that if you have a harmonic signal that is nice like these, it had to be from the music or the instruments or something,” Tepp said, admitting that her initial thoughts were wrong.

She was so surprised that she set up her own trial, playing Swift’s music over a PA next to a motion sensor. Then she grabbed her own guitar and rocked out to her own version of “Love Story.” It was not her bass beats that triggered the motion sensor.

“Even though I was not great at staying in the same place, I ended up jumping around in a small circle, like at a concert,” Tepp said. “I was surprised at how clear the signal came out.”

She said bass beats are rounder on the spectrogram, while jumping creates spikes.

Now, imagine the 70,000 Swifties all jumping together to “Shake It Off.”

“The structural response of the stadium showed nearly equal shaking intensifies in the vertical and horizontal directions at frequencies that match the seismic signals recorded outside the stadium,” the study said. “All evidence considered, we interpret the signal source as primarily crowd motion in response to the music.”

[From NY Post]

Well, duh, I could’ve told you the results would show that “nearly equal shaking intensifies in the vertical and horizontal directions at frequencies that match the seismic signals recorded outside the stadium.” Come on, it’s not rocket science — it’s rock n roll science! (Dad Joke #1.) At the very least, I could’ve told you that a bunch of people jumping has a reaction. I grew up in San Francisco and remember having many earthquake drills in school. My parents even had to pack me an in-case-of-the-apocalypse lunch bag that was kept in the classroom. I peeked inside once and read the note my mother had written on a napkin, with the opening lines: “Dear Kismet, If you’re reading this we are having an earthquake. Either that, or your father is jumping up and down on the bed.”

I hope this study inspires young minds out there to get into science. Just think about it, kids: your job as an adult could be to record the results of you rocking out on a guitar. Or to watch for when the lines on a graph go nuts to different pop songs, thus giving you the intellectual authority to say “‘Shake It Off?’ More like ‘Quake It Off!’” (Dad Joke #2 and I’ll stop now.)

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Photos credit: Backgrid, Getty and via Instagram

On Saturday, the Daily Mail published an “interesting” piece by Richard Kay, one of their relatively old-guard royal reporters/commentators. Kay reflected on last week’s royal catastrophes and lies, mostly coming from Kensington Palace’s in-house clowns. Kay’s piece is called, “If the Royal family is not quite at the 11th hour… it is perilously close: An impassioned warning from RICHARD KAY that can’t be ignored.” As Omid Scobie tweeted, “One might even say we have reached the endgame…” LOL. Just FYI, the Mail littered the piece with photos of Prince Harry and Meghan, two people who have not lived in the UK in over four years and who have nothing to do with the current royal clownery. Still, Kay takes some real shots at Prince William and someone quite notable in King Charles’s inner circle. Some highlights from the Mail:

The Mother’s Day Frankenphoto debacle: Kate’s admission that she had doctored the photograph, and her apology for doing so, were the latest self-inflicted wound by the House of Windsor, for which trust and integrity are fundamental commodities… the overriding impression is bleak. The photograph issue, while small in itself, nevertheless exposed tensions that lie close to the surface in the family, as well as the fragility of an institution that for decades seemed impervious to any external threat.

Endgame: But if we are not quite at the 11th hour, we are ­perilously close. There still may be time for the high tide of public disapproval to recede, but the cost to the royal image and to individual reputations has been high. More concerning still, such crises no longer seem the exception, but the rule.

The power vacuum: Now, there is something of a power vacuum. When the King is unavailable, who is in charge? Is it Camilla or ­William? No one can truly say, maybe because everyone is waiting — or at least hoping — for the two stars of the show to rally and return. These unavoidable ­sabbaticals have presented the royal household with a shivering reality test.

William’s absence at King Constantine’s memorial: William’s own, sudden absence from that service for his late godfather — at which he was due to give a reading — remains a mystery. For a prince, who two years ago indicated in reports that he intended to break with the royal convention of ‘never complain, never explain’, he has proved remarkably reticent. It is also unlikely that his father, let alone his grandmother, would have made such a clumsy intervention in the Gaza conflict as William did last month, earning a stinging rebuke for appearing to ignore Israeli losses. Older courtiers also ­shudder at the memory of his hastily authorised denunciation of racism that saw his godmother Lady Susan Hussey resigning as a Lady of the Household in 2022.

Questions about the Duchy of Cornwall??? Closer to home, there have been questions about the Duchy of Cornwall, the vast property and land empire which generated profits of £24million last year. Because he became Prince of Wales half-way through the financial year, he is thought to have taken only a ­portion of the income. Even so, courtiers have asked what he spends the money on — or even if he has the faintest idea what to do with it. ‘His father had his huge staff at St James’s Palace, the gardens and farm at Highgrove and for many years his polo expenses. He was also paying William and Kate’s running costs and, for a time, Harry and Meghan’s. ­William has only his own family bills to meet.’

William’s other missteps: William has also made several ­missteps, for example not ­supporting in person the ­Lionesses when they reached the final of the Women’s World Cup in ­Sydney last August. Many felt that, as President of the Football Association, he should have attended. Then there was last week’s ­confusion over an announcement, made in error it seems, about Kate’s attendance at June’s Trooping the Colour ceremony. It saw the Army hastily removing the claim from its website.

Worrying Wales dysfunction: Moreover, why was it left to Kate to take the rap for the farce over the Mother’s Day photograph? The fallout from the debacle has seen a frenzy of online speculation about the state of her marriage, underscored by the curious absence of Kate’s ­wedding and engagement rings in the picture. Might not a joint statement have helped to reinforce the ­couple’s unity and the security of the institution? Cumulatively, these episodes speak of worrying dysfunction.

Huevo vs Harry: One matter above all represents the gravest threat to the future of the monarchy: the feud between William and his brother that ­poisons the House of Windsor. At the heart of the discord lies the allegation that Kate (as well as the King) were the alleged ‘royal racists’ who dared to speculate about Harry and ­Meghan’s son Archie and the colour of his skin. William rightly feels his wife has been cruelly smeared by the innuendo — and for now, the rift is total.

William is profoundly incapable, huh: William —with Kate, all being well — will likely be on the throne for ­decades. It therefore poses a question: what can they do today to give us confidence that they will be ­anywhere near as effective as monarch and consort as the Queen and Prince Philip were? Can they steady the royal ship, even in the squalls and storms of social media comment and untamed ­foreign reporting? William’s priority, understand­ably, has been his wife’s health and the welfare of their three ­children. But even before this ­crisis, he had drawn sharp ­boundaries to ensure that royal duty does not encroach on family time. This has earned him the ­nickname among those in the King’s circle as the ’10am to 4pm’ prince, because outside those hours he is off-duty. Meanwhile, there is a Palace view that William’s stubborn nature, which can be helpful to royalty — not least when dealing with government ministers — is contributing to the current sense of aimlessness. For the King, the ­frustrations must be deeper still. He has been moved by Camilla’s willingness to lead, although whether she is ­having to do so because of ­William’s absence is unclear.

People hate the king’s private secretary, it seems: A change [might be needed] at the top in the King’s private office, for example. Observers have been disappointed that there has been no settlement of the many patronages and ­charity roles held by the late Queen. Whitehall blames Charles’s ­private secretary, ex-Foreign Office operative Sir Clive ­Alderton, 56, for what is being called a ‘lack of grip’ — and for not managing the institution in the absence of its chief in the way it needs to be. ‘He was fine as aide to the Prince of Wales but it is a different ball game running the Sovereign,’ says one source. At Clarence House, Alderton was known as ‘wet-wipe’ because he was always on hand to ‘wipe the boss’s a***’.

[From The Daily Mail]

The Clive Alderton thing, while hilarious, feels out of nowhere – let’s face it, King Charles’s office has at least passed a baseline competency test, while I’m not sure William’s staffers could find their asses with two hands and a map. The swipe at William’s running of the Duchy of Cornwall is curious too – there’s almost an insinuation that William is mishandling Duchy funds, but then the quotes are just like “wtf does he spend his money on?” I mean, the hunt for the Kensington Palace CEO rages on, which is why those two things are very curious to me – clearly, it’s KP that needs to bring in competent managers for a series of boneheaded crises, while BP’s courtiers just need to work a bit faster.

In the first part of Kay’s piece – which I didn’t excerpt for space – he’s melting down because European and American media are “mocking” the Windsors… and then he goes on to say that they all have a point. And he devotes a significant part of the column to criticizing William specifically for all of his bungling, failures, aimlessness and laziness. “This has earned him the ­nickname among those in the King’s circle as the ’10am to 4pm’ prince…” You know how happy people would be if William worked from 10am to 4pm every day though? Instead, it’s more like “he only works noon to 3 pm once a week.” Seriously though, I’ve never seen or heard of William doing an event at 10 am. It just doesn’t even happen. Anyway, Happy Endgame Week!

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

In December 2022, Netflix dropped the first trailer for the Harry & Meghan docuseries in the middle of Prince William and Kate’s big, dumb trip to Boston. William literally spent an entire day holed up in a hotel room, screaming down the phone to his favorite reporters, all about how much William hates the Sussexes and thinks that they’re “like the Kardashians.” It was meant as a pejorative, to compare the Sussexes to a rich, well-connected LA family who are probably the most successful reality stars of all time. Throughout 2023, there were random reports that the Sussexes and Kardashians sometimes talked or hung out. Even more hilarious is that William was reportedly raging about that too – royal sources were “gobsmacked” that Harry would deign to be friendly with a billionaire like Kim Kardashian! In addition to that, Doria Ragland attended a charity event for This Is About Humanity in LA last summer, and she posed with Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner too. Well, here’s something new:

Prince Harry has taken to skiing with a Kardashian’s beau – as the Sussexes continue with their attempts to nudge their way into LA’s elites following Meghan’s ‘calculated’ launch of her new lifestyle brand on Instagram.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, is understood to have been enjoying the glories of Aspen, America’s swankiest ski resort in Colorado, in the company of business executive Corey Gamble, 43. Gamble is the man in the life of Kris Jenner, the 68-year-old mother of U.S. television royalty Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian.

A source said that Harry had been hitting the slopes with Gamble, as well as Bumble dating app billionaire Whitney Wolfe, 34, and her husband Michael Herd, whom she met on a previous skiing trip.

However, there has been no sign of Meghan on the pistes: she has been too busy relaunching herself as an online guru with cookery and lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard.

[From The Daily Mail]

Meghan was just on a ski holiday with some friends several weeks ago, and now Harry is skiing in Aspen with Corey Gamble and Whitney Wolfe? My guess is that it’s not just a friendly, relaxing holiday, there probably is some business being done. We’ll probably find out what it is at some point. In the meantime, the Sun contacted that lunatic Angela Levin, who dutifully cried about how Harry is “desperate” to be “friends” with the Kardashians. Like… I get that people love to hate the Kardashians – for good reason, a lot of the time – but I find it so funny that the Brits are so openly contemptuous of an incredibly successful family. In a war between the Kardashians and Windsors, the Kardashians would rip those idiots to shreds.

The funniest sidenote to all of this is that Kim Kardashian made a “looking for Kate” joke on her Instagram:

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Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Kim’s IG.

Kensington Palace could not be any more obvious and stupid if they tried. It feels like all of the KP staffers are fighting over custody of the one brain cell they’re supposed to share. So, on Sunday, the Sun reported exclusively that the Princess of Wales had been “seen” in Windsor on Saturday, visiting a garden center with her husband. It sounded like KP called up the Sun and said “Kate was out, we promise, she went to a local shop, here are a few ‘quotes’ from bystanders.” That would have been good enough at any other time, and every other British outlet would have simply run the story as a straight report/sighting. But these are not normal times, and now we’re seeing the royalists question WTF is going on and why KP’s clowns can’t get their acts together.

The Princess of Wales’ surprise visit to her favourite farm shop on a busy spring Saturday only piles yet more pressure on the Palace to update the public on her health as bonkers conspiracy theories about her rage online, experts said today. Kate was spotted looking ‘happy, healthy and relaxed’ as she picked up goods from the independent store just a mile from her Adelaide Cottage home on Saturday. The future Queen was spotted by customers at the Windsor Farm Shop with Prince William after a morning of apparently watching their three children – George, 10, Charlotte, eight, and Louis, five, play sport.

Biographer Phil Dampier told MailOnline that while many will be happy to hear Kate is out and about, others will ‘now be saying if she is well enough to be seen by members of the public then why can’t we be told what is wrong with her?’

He said: ‘A report over the weekend said Kate will want to reveal her treatment when she is fully fit and back at work. That would probably be the best way but some will be impatient and want answers now’.

Royal expert and investigative journalist Tom Bower has said that Kate’s outing shows there is ‘panic at the Palace’, especially after the farrago of her edited Mother’s Day portrait. He said: ‘Her appearance suggests panic at the Palace. Just as last week’s furore has died down, they allowed her to reignite all the questions about her health which should remain private. Her advisors clearly can’t decide what their strategy should be, or agree it with the Wales’s. If they carry on like this – ducking and weaving – it will end badly’.

‘Yesterday’s unexpected “sighting” of Kate suggests that her Palace advisors have still not learnt their lesson’, Bower said.

[From The Daily Mail]

Again, this is all for show – in previous years, all of these people understood when they were being fed lies by the palace and they would still report those lies with zero commentary or call-outs. They’re not doing that anymore – read those quotes again. They’re coming dangerously close to saying it outright, that this “Kate sighting” is nothing more than another lie straight from Kensington Palace.

Additionally, Sarah Vine (another Mail columnist and a vile one at that) told GB News that William and Kate have “not been advised very well” and that the Windsors need to “get the situation under control” because the Waleses have “handled it really quite badly.” What ever do you mean? Their office made it perfectly clear that William and Kate will continue to behave with an arrogant contempt for their subjects, and whenever they get called out for lying, they’ll pour on the self-pity. What do these people not get?

‘What does William make of the coverage?’ – @susannareid100

Sunday Times Royal Editor @RoyaNikkhah says William feels he’s ‘seeing elements’ of the hounding his mother experienced with Kate amid the demand and interest over her medical privacy and ‘that’s hurting him.’ pic.twitter.com/zFJlLzeKs5

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 18, 2024

Front page of @TheSun on Monday.
Princess of Wales has been seen out and about in public this weekend – spending Saturday shopping and Sunday watching her children play sports in Windsor. Full story visit Sun Online and/or buy a paper pic.twitter.com/dHMx2Pd0JU

— Matt Wilkinson (@MattSunRoyal) March 17, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Throughout all of last week’s royal fiascos, there were next to no updates on or from King Charles and Buckingham Palace. He was photographed once at BP, doing official business (meeting with the Commonwealth Secretary General on March 13), but there were no stories saying “of course King Charles continues to do well” or “King Charles cannot believe how badly Kensington Palace has f–ked up and ruined the Windsors’ credibility entirely.” The lack of information came to a head over the weekend, as widespread rumors circulated on Twitter that Charles is not long for this world, or he perhaps even kicked the royal bucket on St. Patrick’s Day. None of that is true, from what I can see. My take is still: Charles’s cancer is much more serious than the palace has indicated and the cancer treatments have kicked his ass. Speaking of, the Mail got a big exclusive about how BP is making tentative plans for Charles to participate in some way in Trooping the Colour in June.

The King is determined to attend this year’s Trooping the Colour, his official birthday celebrations, if his health allows it. Aides are already exploring ways that Charles might be able to take part within the constraints of his ongoing cancer treatment. This could include watching the military spectacular from a podium instead of on horseback as usual, having been driven from Buckingham Palace in a carriage as his late mother used to.

No firm decision will be taken until nearer the time, given the nature of His Majesty’s condition, and it will be dependant on medical advice.

The event is due to be held in London on Saturday, June 15. But the Mail understands that planning for the occasion is moving ahead as scheduled, giving cause for optimism.

‘There are a number of key events His Majesty would love to attend coming up in the diary and this is at the top of the list,’ a source said. Dating from the 17th century, Trooping the Colour is one the biggest military ceremonial events of the year, involving more than 1,200 soldiers and musicians plus more than 200 horses.

As it stands, His Majesty has been advised by doctors not to attend events with large public gatherings after being diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer in January. He is currently undergoing outpatient treatment in London although he is continuing to work hard behind the scenes on state matters and makes a point of being seen in public or on camera whenever possible.

Two weeks ago there was widespread confusion after tickets for Trooping the Colour were put on sale by the Ministry of Defence advertising the presence of the King. Buckingham Palace said planning was under way but nothing could be confirmed. However the Mail understands that things have moved on somewhat and staff are now exploring various options to ensure that Charles can attend as long as he ‘gets the nod’ from his team. He would be keen to ride his horse, a black mare called Noble which was a gift from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

[From The Daily Mail]

King Charles is a 75 year old Scorpio who just received treatment for an enlarged prostate and he’s currently being treated for cancer and they want him to RIDE A HORSE? Are the king’s advisors really trying to kill him? The thing is, I never doubted that Charles would make it to Trooping somehow. It’s a parade for the monarch, it’s an important date on the calendar and Charles has only done ONE Trooping as king (and William stepped all over his Trooping weekend, remember?). I just assumed that the palace staff would figure out some arrangement where Charles would just ride in a carriage for a few minutes and then show up on the balcony and wave. Are there legitimate questions about whether Charles would even be able to do that?? That’s concerning.

These are the photos from March 13 – he’s lost weight, right?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

Introduction: Minutes 0 to 1:00
We were off due to the Oscars! You can listen below or on major platforms like YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Royals: Minutes 1:00 to 27:30
The way the royals mistreated Harry and Meghan is finally boomeranging back on them. It’s been obvious to us what’s happening but now the world is finally noticing. Harry and Meghan were explaining their situation to the casual royal watchers with their docuseries and with Spare.

It was about 70 days after we last saw Kate before we got the first alleged photo of her. That was the photo supposedly taken of her on Monday March 4th in an Audi with her mom, outside Windsor Castle. TMZ and other US outlets bought that exclusive photo. There were questions about its authenticity. Kensington Palace said it was not an authorized photo. KP also put a lot of pressure on British media to not publish the pic and it was mostly in the US outlets like TMZ. Assuming it was real, it really looks like Carole and the Middletons arranged it.

On March 8th, Meghan was in Austin at South by Southwest for a scheduled panel discussion. She made some really measured comments about the hate she got when she was pregnant. A lot of the negative stories about Meghan when she was pregnant were from William trying to deflect from his affair with Rose Hanbury. I think that the frankenphoto release on March 10th was to pull focus from Meghan’s comments at SXSW and Chandra says that it could have always been the plan.

We got a new photo supposedly of Kate and the kids on March 10th, Mother’s Day in the UK. Maybe that was a coincidence but I don’t think so. That photo was released by Kensington Palace and came out on Sunday March 10th, which was Mother’s Day in the UK. They claimed that William had taken the photo. The picture looked really janky. The news outlets noticed this and the Associated Press, Reuters, Getty and AFP issued a “kill order” for that photo as the Oscars were happening. The palace was asked to provide the original photo and they refused for hours on Sunday. I play a clip of AFP News director Phil Chetwynd talking about this. CNN has also announced that it’s reviewing all the photos issued from Kensington Palace. Here’s a link to the photo I mentioned of Prince Philip and The Queen in front of the castle.

The Palace then posted a tweet supposedly from Kate claiming that she was the one who edited the photo. This spawned so many memes and AI photos. Here’s a link to the AI photos I posted. Experts told major news outlets that the errors were due to a photo editing app. People showed that her head was cut and pasted into that photo from her 2016 British Vogue cover. Chandra thinks the original photo of Kate and the kids is from last fall.

The palace tried to double down and continue to blame Kate. They ran a story in The Times of London Tuesday claiming that Kate just wanted to release a nice picture, she feels bad about it, and she edited it because she just wanted her kids to look good.

We got a third photo supposedly of Kate on Monday March 11, in a car with William and looking away. That photo looks fake too! I even saw a video on Twitter where someone thinks they have the exact older image of Kate that was used. The photographer vouches for it though. Assuming the photo is real, we can’t even verify it’s her. Chandra think it’s someone else.

As this is making international news, Colbert did a segment on Tuesday night about William’s affair with Rose Hanbury. Remember that William tried to shut that story down back when it broke in March of 2019. Colbert even made a reference to William getting his mistress pregnant! Get the top 5 stories about William’s affair when you sign up for our mailing list.

We know that the palace is livid about this because the Telegraph ran a story about it and said The Late Show didn’t warn the palace that they were going to run that segment. The British media regularly does this when they cover the royals. The Guardian did a summary of Colbert’s opener and in their initial story they included Rose’s name but then they edited it out!

Even the royal-friendly journalists and outlets are calling William and Kensington Palace out about it! Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail is speculating that their marriage is in trouble. Liz Jones in the Daily Mail is saying that it was ungentlemanly of William to blame Kate for photogate and wondering whether they can trust anything that comes out of the palace. BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole told the Daily Mail that this is “the greatest failure in communication by the Royal Family I have ever witnessed.”

Camilla went on vacation last week, supposedly due to being under strain and fighting with William. Charles was seen on Wednesday at a photo op at Buckingham Palace. Chandra is surprised that Buckingham Palace hasn’t taken a side on this PR disaster either way. William is in no way ready or suitable to be king.

Comment of the Week: Minutes 27:30 to end
Chandra’s comment of the week is from Cerys on the post where the DM questions whether they can trust anything that comes out of Kensington Palace.

My comment of the week is from Little Penguin on the Best of the Oscars post.

https://t.co/H1tHW0YafW pic.twitter.com/sXmMZrpsWR

— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) March 12, 2024