While I’m worried about the Princess of Wales’s health and status and I genuinely hope she’s okay, it’s absolutely riveting to watch Buckingham Palace box in Kensington Palace. KP did the most to try to convince everyone that William was visiting Kate in the London Clinic and he just wasn’t being photographed. Then Camilla made it abundantly clear that photographers were outside the hospital as she repeatedly visited King Charles this weekend, drawing attention to William’s absence. Suddenly today, KP then announced that Kate had been discharged from the hospital and she had already returned home to Adelaide Cottage. Rebecca English at the Mail even underlined the fact that KP was telling her that Kate left the hospital TODAY. No photos, no videos, nothing. Then, hours later, King Charles was discharged from the same hospital – and he made sure the photographers waiting outside got plenty of pics. Wow.

King Charles III smiled and waved as was discharged from hospital today, three days after undergoing a successful procedure for an enlarged prostate.

Charles walked out of The London Clinic in Marylebone with Queen Camilla by his side following three nights under observation after being admitted last Friday morning at about 9am.

The King was twice visited by Queen Camilla yesterday, the third and fourth times she has been to see him at the private hospital since they arrived.

Camilla smiled as she arrived by car at midday yesterday, leaving again just over three hours later. She returned between 6pm and 7pm and was smiling as she left.

It is the same hospital where the Princess of Wales is being cared for after abdominal surgery on January 16. Kate today entered the 14th day of her hospital stay and was visited by her father-in-law Charles last Friday ahead of his operation.

[From The Daily Mail]

The Mail is pointing out that they’re perfectly capable of tracking the movements, arrivals and departures of the royals as they come and go from the London Clinic. Charles and Camilla also want to have it underlined – while Charles stayed in the hospital one more night than they were expecting, everything is fine and he’s back on his feet and there’s nothing to hide. Unlike some people.

And just to confirm, the princess left hospital today.

— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) January 29, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

In case you’re wondering how Prince William is doing these days with his wife’s weeks-long hospitalization, surgery and projected months-long recovery, the answer is “fine.” We actually haven’t seen much of William in January, and he’s only been photographed once outside the London Clinic. Reportedly, those in the Berkshire/Windsor community believe he will not be “fazed” at all:

Prince William ‘won’t be fazed’ by parenting Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis while the Princess of Wales recovers from her surgery, an insider has claimed. The Prince of Wales, 41, is said to be a ‘hands-on’ father and is regularly seen dropping off and picking up his children at Lambrook School in Berkshire.

Speaking to HELLO!, an insider has claimed that the news of Kate’s surgery had ‘shocked’ the ‘close knit’ community of parents. They said: ‘He is a regular at the school gate and events and he’s very hands-on as a dad, so being in charge while Kate is away won’t faze him. They often do things as a full family unit and he’s very confident looking after the kids.’

On top of this, the source said the parents at Lambrook will ‘rally around [William] to offer any help they can’ in coming weeks.

[From The Daily Mail]

Sure. I actually believe that during Kate’s hospitalization, William and Nanny Maria probably have most things covered when it comes to the kids. Still, it’s weird that this is the message seemingly coming out of KP – everything’s fine, William has it covered, he’s not fazed in the least. Especially since there’s also a movement to make it sound like Kate’s absence will be felt dramatically all across the UK.

Kate Middleton’s absence from royal life has been “felt so hugely” that she’s now seen as an “irreplaceable” member of the family. According to brand and PR expert Denise Palmer-Davies, Kate’s stint in hospital has only cemented her place in the family and shown her to be “the most valuable jewel in the crown.”

Denise, director of Borne Media, told Fabulous: “Kate’s commitment and dedication to royal life is unquestionable, so her absence will be felt so hugely. It would be impossible for anyone else to step into her shoes during this time because there isn’t anyone who can do what she does. She is irreplaceable. Her knowledge and dedication to early years, and her work in shaping our future generation, is so unique to her and such a personal project that there isn’t another family member who can take the reins or slip into that role.

“Kate also has this incredible aura – much like her late mother in law, Princess Diana – that cannot be replicated. She has always been held in high regard by the King, and the late Queen, but I think now senior members are really feeling it – they are missing the most valuable jewel in the crown.”

Talk TV’s royal editor Sarah Hewson agrees, saying her break from royal life “highlights how central she is in the family.”

She said: “She’s one of its most popular members, she certainly is the most photographed. But it’s not about the number of engagements that she does, it’s about the impact that they have, and that she’s able to have, because when she does something, it gets noticed. As the late Queen said ‘We need to be seen to be believed’ so when Kate isn’t there, you really do notice it. She brings the star dust, and that’s really essential to a monarchy that needs to reach out to a younger generation. They are certainly missing her sparkle.”

Sarah added that had “things had been handled differently” by Prince Harry and Prince William, Harry and Meghan could have stepped up into Kate’s shoes.

“I think they could have been invaluable,” Sarah said. “They could have helped to relieve some of the burden and sprinkled the stardust where it’s needed.’

[From The Sun]

Kate is the jewel in the crown, the most valuable royal, the most important asset to the monarchy, and also William is doing fine without Kate around and he barely visiting her. Who is actually making the calls at Kensington Palace? I’m flabbergasted by the weeks of extremely strange messaging from William’s office. Also: all of this is going down before William hired a CEO to take over Kensington Palace. I keep going back and forth about whether this is just another instance where “royals can’t manage their way out of a wet paper bag” or something else entirely.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

I think Austin Butler must frame the events in his life as BE and AE — Before Elvis and After Elvis. And look, I appreciate that he’s been working for decades and this was his big break. Even so, Austin has been pretty extra in his interviews, in whichever accent he was donning at the time. His approach was straight out of The Lady Gaga School of Method Acting & Oscar Campaigning™. But now it’s a new year, and Austin has a new prestige project to promote, Masters of the Air on Apple TV+, so he can put all the Elvis accent talk behind— What’s that now? He’s still talking about the accent? Oh for the love of Tupelo…

Austin Butler got caught in an Elvis Presley trap.

The Elvis actor revealed that he needed some professional help to get rid of the music legend’s accent before shooting his new TV show, Masters of the Air, premiering on Apple TV+ Jan. 26.

“I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis,” Butler admitted in a Jan. 24 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “It was a whole thing.”

In fact, the Golden Globe winner had to put in more work than simply dropping the accent, considering he practiced method acting for three years to prepare for his titular role in the 2022 Baz Luhrmann-directed biopic.

“I was just trying to remember who I was,” Butler continued. “I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years.”

Butler credited his Elvis costar Tom Hanks with convincing him to dive head-first into playing Major Gale Cleven in Masters of the Air, a World War II drama series that also stars Callum Turner and Barry Keoghan.

“I was having dinner with Tom Hanks in Australia,” the 32-year-old recalled. “He was sort of joking, saying, ‘You’re gonna lose your mind when you finish this three years of your life focused on this one thing. You’re gonna have to find something else to jump right into afterward.”

Hanks, who’s a producer on Masters of the Air, already had the Apple TV+ show in the works.

“I started a week after,” the Dune: Part Two actor said. “I had a week off after Elvis. It was almost too fast.”

Butler’s struggle to shake off his Elvis character has drawn a lot of attention from fans, but the Carrie Diaries star doesn’t let the scrutiny get to him.

“If I was trying to sound like Elvis, I would sound very different right now,” he told the Los Angeles Times in January 2022. “I think it’s sort of amusing to me how much people want to focus on this one thing.”

[From E! News]

“I think it’s sort of amusing to me how much people want to focus on this one thing.” Oh really, that’s how you want to play it, Mr. Butler? Ok then, at this point I need a chart, a graph, some kind of visual aid to assist in the timeline of his accent. Just one year ago Austin was denying he was still doing the accent, then walked it back when the rest of the world was like, “Dude, we have ears.” And now he’s saying that he engaged professional help to unlearn the accent in the one week he had off between finishing Elvis and starting Masters of the Air, which the interwebs tell me happened in 2021. Poor boy, I think he really is lost in his own narrative. And I find it hilarious that he’s still plowing full steam ahead with talking about his uber method acting. “I was just trying to remember who I was,” was particularly precious, especially since only a few months ago he was praising Tom Hardy for knowing how to drop into character during filming, instead of maintaining it all the time.

Last note: a shout out to the E! News reporter who, out of everything Academy Award nominee Austin Butler has been in, identified him as the “Carrie Diaries star.” That one had me chuckling, uh huh uh huh.

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Photos credit: Lee Floyd / Avalon, JPI Studios / Avalon and Getty

Jonny Lee Miller is currently in London, doing a West End play called A Mirror. The play has gotten great reviews and everyone’s like “wow, Jonny should do more stage work.” It’s also a little bit funny to see JLM do so much promotion for this play, much more than he did for The Crown (where he played John Major). Jonny’s latest interview in the Independent is actually the first time he’s addressed Angelina Jolie’s comments that she told Jonny about Harvey Weinstein assaulting her back in the 1990s. Jolie has said, in a couple of interviews, that after Weinstein assaulted her, she told Jonny and some other industry people to stay away from Weinstein.. In 2021, Jolie told the Guardian: “It was beyond a pass, it was something I had to escape. I stayed away and warned people about him. I remember telling Jonny, my first husband, who was great about it, to spread the word to other guys – don’t let girls go alone with him. I was asked to do The Aviator, but I said no because he was involved. I never associated or worked with him again. It was hard for me when Brad did.” Jonny finally spoke about it and he’s also speaking about his twelfth year of sobriety. Some highlights:

He was a nightmare in his 20s: “I was a nightmare! I got sent on all these meetings and auditions, and I was just not good at any of it. God, I had a very embarrassing audition for Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. I didn’t get that I was supposed to be, like, prepared about Shakespeare…. It still makes me cringe. It’s just the way it went down. But here we are. F*** it! It’s whatever, man.”

He flailed around while his friends (Jude Law, Ewan McGregor) became movie stars: “I was young and foolish. I suppose I had a certain amount of arrogance, where I was like… ‘This is bulls***!’ So I ran away from my life and hid in LA for a couple of years, not taking advantage of career opportunities. But that’s just how life is sometimes. I wasn’t really smart about stuff.”

On Angelina Jolie telling him about Harvey Weinstein: “My memory is a bit hazy, but I remember feeling fury. I actually wanted to be more proactive about it, but it was 100 per cent her decision and you have to swallow your male bulls***. I was gonna hire someone to f***ing…” He trails off. “But I didn’t. I had some connections.” I laugh, nervously. Miller does not. And Jolie told him not to? “Yeah. Because it would mean it becomes about you, right? And you wanting to prove how much you care – ‘No one’s going to f***ing do that to my people.’ But what you need to do is listen to your partner. Amazingly, that was the one thing I was able to get right. You know, I was raised by women. I have three sisters. And [Jolie] is a very smart lady. She knows what’s best for her.”

Living with Jude Law in the early days. He says he was the messier of the two – he remembers Law being an early “nester”, someone stylish and resourceful, while he was more scatterbrained. When Miller got Hackers and the pair moved to nicer digs in Primrose Hill, it was Law who carefully boxed up all of his belongings for him while he was overseas filming.

He’s never felt particularly creative. “I’m imaginative, but I’m not creative. My sisters are creative. They can draw and paint. But I don’t, and can’t, and don’t have a desire to. Acting is more observational, I suppose. You’re fulfilling someone else’s vision, so you’re just a small part of it.”

Coparenting his 15-year-old son Buster with his ex Michele Hicks. “Again, it comes back to swallowing your pride. You’ve got to remember who the most important person in any given situation is.” He’s relieved that his son appears to have absolutely no interest in acting. “I think that might be quite healthy. I feel like wanting to express yourself when you’re little might be to do with things not being great at home. You’re wanting to be heard. And mine and Michele’s whole f***ing vibe is that he’s heard.”

He’s more than 12 years sober: During a podcast appearance in December, he said he had spent much of the aftermath of Trainspotting in a haze: he was addicted to heroin for several years, before replacing it with alcohol and cocaine. In 2012, he got sober. “I’d never talked about it for a number of reasons, partly out of worry about getting insured for work. But f*** that, you know? You never know who needs to hear a positive story.” He tells me he’s reluctant to go into too much detail about his struggles today, having already “spilled his guts” on the aforementioned podcast. “But getting sober was the best thing I’ve ever done. Oddly, Elementary came along when I’d been sober for about six months. And honestly it was a gift.”

[From The Independent]

Before his promotion for this play, I honestly didn’t know that he had spent years addicted to heroin, cocaine and alcohol, nor did I realize that he had started talking about his sobriety in recent months. It adds another layer to his performance and work in Elementary, which is (IMO) one of the best television shows about addiction and recovery, all of it beautifully and movingly acted by JLM. As for what he says about Jolie and Weinstein… from what Jolie has said, she really appreciated the fact that Jonny listened to her and believed her. I wonder if she knew that Jonny had a moment where he was going to organize a hit on Weinstein. And the way he still talks about Angie, never a bad word, full of praise – sob, they need to get back together.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Among social media’s most sinister elements — providing a platform for misinformation, encouraging trolling, setting unrealistic ideals — is the crime of foisting this Stanley cup fanaticism upon us. It was TikTok in particular that fanned the flames for a $45 40 oz stainless steel water bottle, anointing the Quencher model the one true cup. People ran amok at Target stores to snatch limited edition colors (red and pink) and a woman in California was recently arrested for stealing 65 Stanleys from a single store. Well, TikTok crowneth, and TikTok taketh away. Online videos have been popping up claiming that Stanley cups have lead in them, so many that reps for Stanley have responded with a formal statement:

Stanley’s Quencher cup has become a viral sensation over the past year — to the point that customers are door-busting department stores and stampeding down aisles to get their hands on limited-edition colors. However, safety concerns about the trendy tumblers have surfaced online, and Stanley sent a firm message regarding claims its cups contain lead.

A rep for Stanley recently dispelled speculation in a statement to WCNC Charlotte.

“Please rest assured that no lead is present on the surface of any Stanley product that comes in contact with you or the contents of your container,” the rep told the publication. “Every Stanley product meets all U.S. regulatory requirements, including California Proposition 65, which requires businesses to provide warnings to Californians about heavy metal and chemical exposure.”

The statement from Stanley comes after a number of videos on TikTok and other social media platforms claimed its cups have lead in them.

“So just confirmed that the Stanley is leaded,” one TikTok user captioned a video from March 2023. In the clip, she used a LeadCheck swab that turned pink after making contact with the bottom of a Stanley cup — indicating the lead present is bioavailable.

Similar videos showed tests with the same result, while others indicated no lead was present.

Thankfully, Stanley stans have nothing to worry about. Customers can continue enjoying and collecting their favorite lead-free beverage containers to their hearts’ content.

[From Parade]

I’ve watched a sampling of these TikTok videos now and have a few thoughts. Let’s start with the lead tests themselves — in the videos I saw, the test kits fly by too fast to ID them, nor are they tagged or identified by the creators. The particular test kit is worth noting because there are only three that the EPA recognizes, so I would want the kit confirmed up front. Another critical factor is what part of the cup is tested. Some people were swabbing inside the cups, a good place as the presence of lead there would obviously contaminate the beverage you’re drinking. That would be bad. But some people were testing a small spot on the bottom of the cup, and those tests confirmed the presence of lead. But it’s not the Aha! moment the Tiktokkers think it is. Because Stanley plainly states on their FAQ page that their bottles use “an industry standard pellet to seal the vacuum insulation at the base,” and that piece includes some lead. But the pellet is covered by stainless steel, meaning it truly is protected from touching your drink. And if for some reason the pellet does become exposed on the bottom, it can be replaced under Stanley’s lifetime warranty.

Apparently it’s an old manufacturing practice to use lead to solder the vacuum seal between the layers of an insulated cup. But plenty of companies are starting to use different methods to seal these cups because… lead is dangerous! If we don’t want it in paint on our walls, why would it be ok to have it so close to our drinking water? There are no safe levels of lead, and it’s considered even more toxic to children because lead stays and grows in the body. It’s good to hear that Stanley is confident in the strength of their seals, and that they’re willing to replace the seal should the pellet become exposed. Long term, though, I’d say it’s time (if not past it) for them to switch practices.

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Four years later, and the British media can’t admit that they lost. Not only that, they can’t admit they have zero claim on Prince Harry and Meghan, that the work of two people living in America is none of their f–king business. The Windsors and their media handlers are singularly obsessed with all things Sussex, creating Sussex headlines out of thin air, having aides brief about the Sussexes, lying awake at night worrying about how the Sussexes are thriving outside of an increasingly isolated and delusional royal establishment. In this Sun story, they’re justifying their bonkers obsession with Harry & Meghan’s money by suggesting that if the Sussexes go broke, they’ll have to beg Charles for money. Some highlights from this infuriatingly stupid story:

The Jamaica trip: It was billed as a rare “date night” for the supposedly privacy-loving couple. But as Harry and Meghan glad-handed Hollywood executives on the red carpet this week, some royal aides are concerned there was something else at play. The question of what happens when the Sussexes run out of money is at the forefront of many minds — and their appearance at the premiere of Bob Marley movie One Love will have done little to calm nerves. The Sun understands that Meghan and Harry flew to Jamaica for the event as guests of Paramount Pictures, which is distributing the film, sharing a private jet with executives and staying at the same hotel. When they walked the red carpet, posing with Jamaican politicians — who are this year plotting to oust the King as the island’s Head of State — it secured global headlines that will make Paramount very happy indeed.

Royals for hire: And there is fear behind Palace walls that the couple could become “royals for hire” as they struggle to fund their expensive lifestyle amid floundering media deals. Insiders tell The Sun that although Paramount has yet to agree any formal collaboration with the Sussexes, a deal could be in the pipeline. And Harry and Meghan must be hoping Paramount has deep pockets. The couple are saddled with a $9.5million mortgage for their Montecito mansion and they are estimated to spend £3million a year on round-the-clock security.

The Sussexes’ income: Meanwhile, their income streams are drying up. Their $100million Netflix deal is due to expire next year and it is unlikely to be renewed after a lacklustre performance so far. In 2021 the Duke secured a £35million book deal which included an advance of £17.5million. But last year he had to submit his autobiography Spare more than once before the publishers accepted it — sparking rumours it had been “sexed up” after it emerged that Harry had begged pals and former girlfriends to speak to his ghost-writer for the book, JR Moehringer.

Harry’s inheritance: It is now four years since Megxit, when the couple moved to the States, and Harry revealed in his docuseries that they were only able to make the move because they had money left to him by Princess Diana, thought to be around £7million. The kitty could also have been bolstered by money from the late Queen’s will, but their expenses remain high, chiefly their mortgage and huge security costs.

They’re mad about the Sussexes’ bathrooms again: An insider revealed: “We said, ‘Why not just move to a smaller house and live quietly?’ but the answer was clear — they need security.” The pair employ a string of private security guards at their Montecito pile and they work closely with LA-based security experts TorchStone, using former US President Barack Obama’s ex bodyguard Christopher Sanchez, as well as Christopher Keenan, who worked for Hillary Clinton, and former Met Police royal protection bodyguard David Langdown. Their services do not come cheap.

Someone else is financing Harry’s media lawsuits? Instead he has been keeping himself busy with a string of expensive lawsuits in the UK — but last week threw in the towel on his libel case against the Mail on Sunday, costing him £750,000. He claimed to be “slaying dragons” after he celebrated victory in a phone-hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers. But according to The Spectator magazine, these cases are largely funded by former F1 supremo Max Mosley’s legacy money via anti-press campaign group Hacked Off.

William is rolling in duchy money: William is rolling in cash, buoyed by an annual £24million income from the Duchy of Cornwall. But given the severely strained relations between the two brothers, it seems unlikely that he could be relied upon to fund the Sussexes. So will a generous King be saddled with funding the life of someone who shows no interest in a royal life? Or will the fallen Prince find an even less appealing paymaster than Netflix?

[From The Sun]

“A less appealing paymaster than Netflix” – is that how we’re describing Paramount, a global film, television and media brand with billions in the bank? Paramount, whose CEO personally invited the Sussexes to attend a premiere in Jamaica and flew them out on a company jet? The British media also doesn’t understand how anything works, especially production deals. Even if, say, Netflix didn’t renew their contract with the Sussexes, the Sussexes still fulfilled their contract and thus, they will still have millions in the bank. The haphazard attempt to delegitimize Spare is also audaciously stupid – Harry got an eight-figure advance for Spare and Random House BROKE EVEN in the first week of publication because of the blockbuster sales. Which means Harry would have ended up making eight-figures on top of the advance. By my estimates, Harry easily pulled in $40 million-plus just from his memoir. Plus, BetterUp, plus Clevr Blends, plus plus plus. The Sussexes’ finances are totally fine, and even if they weren’t, the Sussexes have enough powerful friends that they’ll figure something out.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid.

Here’s a new photo of Queen Camilla visiting her husband at the London Clinic on Sunday. That was her fourth trip to the hospital in the space of three days – she went with Charles when he checked in on Friday, then she returned during “tea time” on Friday following his procedure, then she visited him on Saturday and on Sunday too. No shade, I find it sweet – even if they mostly live separately, she wants to be there for him during his prostate issue. Most married couples would do the same. And that seems to be the other message from Cam – look at me, I actually give a sh-t about my hospitalized spouse, unlike some people.

Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace was initially a bit loosey-goosey for the king’s recovery timeline. While the king was praised for disclosing his prostate issue, they’ve played it by ear as to when Charles would be “back at work.” Now that the procedure has been completed and Charles is reportedly doing well, the palace is firming up a timeline: Charles will probably be MIA for a full month.

It is understood King Charles will not carry out any royal engagements for up to a month as he recovers from prostate surgery.

He will have a ‘period of recuperation’, Sky News reports, but will be able to attend to government papers once he is discharged.

Queen Camilla was [on Sunday] seen smiling as she visited her beloved husband and appeared to be in high spirits as she was snapped with a warm smile on her face. Wearing a teal-coloured top, smiled as she entered the hospital’s back entrance in a black Audi car at noon, followed by a Range Rover. The Queen’s visit was her third to the private hospital since she arrived with Charles on Friday morning ahead of the procedure. She stayed for three hours on Saturday at the London Clinic – the same hospital where the Princess of Wales is being cared for following abdominal surgery.

She told people inside the London Clinic on Friday that the King was ‘doing well’ after the procedure.

[From The Daily Mail]

I’ve heard some doctors speak on news programs and they basically said the same thing, that everyone is different but given Charles’s age, it would probably be four to five weeks before he would feel recovered enough to do events. He will probably just work from Clarence House or Highgrove, doing phone calls and reading. Get ready to see more of Camilla throughout all of February, she’s going to be the only senior royal doing events.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast got some interesting quotes from an unnamed friend of Prince William and Prince Harry. It’s probably the same “friend” who has provided endless quotes to Sykes about how William “absolutely f–king hates” his brother and sister-in-law, and how the next time William will speak to Harry will be at their father’s funeral. Even one month ago, these unnamed friends-of-Bill were insisting that William and Kate “will never reconcile” with the Sussexes, especially after Kate was outed as one of the racist royals. Now that Kate has a health crisis and the slimmed-down monarchy is under significant strain, suddenly friends-of-Bill are singing a different tune. Funny that. Some highlights from the Royalist column:

Kate will act as peacemaker, you guys: One old friend of Kate, William, and Harry, who went to school with the brothers but has not spoken regularly to Harry since he emigrated to America in 2020, told The Daily Beast: “Health problems do tend to put everything else in perspective. If Harry and Meghan have made an effort to reach out to Kate to offer their best wishes, Kate will reciprocate. William would quite happily never speak to either of them again, but Kate’s a peacemaker at heart. She would definitely be open to using this situation to build bridges. Never waste a good crisis, right?”

Harry & Kate used to be close? This friend said: “You have to remember that Kate and Harry were exceptionally close. He adored her, and she provided a sense of stability after the chaos of his youth. I actually can’t imagine a world in which he wouldn’t have sent her a note, despite everything. Everyone in the family has, frankly, had enough of the whole feud narrative. It’s way past time the whole thing was put to bed. Trust has been damaged, and I don’t think they are ever going to be calling each other for a heart to heart like the old days, but it’s time to move on.”

Charles would welcome his sons’ reconciliation: Kensington Palace did not respond to a request for comment on whether Kate had received a message from Harry and Meghan, and if she had responded or intended to. However, there is little doubt that King Charles would hugely welcome friendly overtures from William and Kate to his younger son, as he has shown himself keen to promulgate an image of family unity in recent months, most notably by including the once-disgraced Sarah Ferguson in the family group walk to church on Christmas Day last month.

William would be willing to reconcile with Harry for the good of his reign as king: Speaking to friends of the royals in recent months, it is quite clear that the extent of the breakdown in relations between William and his brother really cannot be underestimated. One friend previously told The Daily Beast that William “absolutely f–king hates” Harry. But William is also enormously conscious of his responsibilities to the institution. While he may have his reservations about his father’s policy of putting family unity before all else, he probably also knows that in the very long run, few people are going to regard a king who doesn’t speak to his own brother as a solid role model, or a unifying example of the best of British.

William might do something performatively: The Windsors have always been good—too good some might say—at putting duty before personal considerations. By making noises suggesting he would be open to reconciling with his brother, at least performatively, the ball is back in William’s court. The question will be whether William can subsume his personal anger and put his arm around his brother again—even if it is just for the cameras at first. William’s convalescing wife may be critical in helping him make that decision.

[From The Daily Beast]

It sounds like people around William are telling him that his childish incandescent rage towards Harry and Meghan is not a good look longterm. But is William listening? My guess is no. Plus, William and Kate are still desperately trying to put the onus on Harry – Harry must contact them, Harry must make the effort, Harry must do this or that so Kate can pretend to be the grand peacemaker. Harry made it pretty clear, in his own memoir, that he was never particularly close to Kate and that William assaulted him. William and Kate were both wildly disrespectful to Harry’s wife. We keep learning more sh-t about what went down in 2018-2020, to the point where it’s abundantly clear that the brothers’ estrangement was a long time coming and arguably the healthiest solution. Still, it’s incredibly “interesting” that someone wants this narrative out there – that William might need Harry around, that Kate’s hospitalization is some kind of game changer for the brothers’ relationship.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 29th, is the two-week anniversary of the Princess of Wales’s mysterious and “planned” abdominal surgery. We don’t know when Kate checked into the hospital and no one has seen her at all since Christmas Day, when she was photographed at Sandringham. As Queen Camilla’s repeated visits to the London Clinic have shown in the past three days, photographers and press were still waiting outside the clinic and hoping to get a glance of Prince William visiting his wife, or Carole and Michael Middleton visiting their daughter. It genuinely appeared as if William only visited Kate one time, on the 18th. And now Kate has apparently been moved from the London Clinic to Adelaide Cottage thirteen days after her surgery, and no one got any photos. Kensington Palace released this statement:

The Princess of Wales has returned home to Windsor to continue her recovery from surgery. She is making good progress.

The Prince and Princess wish to say a huge thank you to the entire team at The London Clinic, especially the dedicated nursing staff, for the care they have provided.

The Wales family continues to be grateful for the well wishes they have received from around the world.

[Via KP]

KP provided the timeline of Kate needing “ten to fourteen days” in the hospital, then months of recuperation at home. The lack of briefings and lack of disclosures has led to rampant speculation, none of which will end any time soon in this information vacuum. Just this weekend, Spanish outlets were openly speculating that Kate’s situation was dire. The British media isn’t touching any of that – there’s clearly a palace-enforced embargo on speculation, even if they would only be repeating what’s being said in the European press. In any case, this is starting to get very creepy and I’m genuinely worried about Kate and how little we know about her condition. KP still isn’t saying that Kate will make a full recovery, just that she’s “making good progress.”

A statement from Kensington Palace pic.twitter.com/DW6BOHuuRJ

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) January 29, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Would you believe that the Windsors and British press are all still talking about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s surprise appearance in Jamaica? Once the shock wore off, the Windsors and their media cohorts have spent much of the past week throwing a very loud tantrum. It was “insensitive,” you see, for Harry and Meghan to go to Jamaica while Charles’s prostate is enlarged and Kate is recovering from abdominal surgery. No, it wasn’t just insensitive – it was a diplomatic snafu, a slap in the face of the crown, because the Sussexes warmly greeted the Jamaican prime minister, the same man who fired William and Kate on camera in 2022, during W&K’s absolutely disastrous Caribbean Flop Tour. Please keep Will and Kate’s colonialist disaster tour in mind while reading these highlights from the Times of London – apparently, the palace is quite upset that Harry and Meghan would bungle diplomatic relations so badly. Harry and Meghan, who were greeted warmly and behaved impeccably, all without creating an international sh-tstorm of racist imagery wherever they went (unlike you-know-who).

The Sussexes flew on a private jet to Jamaica! It is understood that the Sussexes were flown to the island by private jet courtesy of Paramount Pictures, the production company behind the new biopic Bob Marley: One Love. The pair made a surprise appearance on the red carpet of the film’s world premiere.

The Jamaica trip blindsided the palace!! However, the fact that Meghan and Harry were in Jamaica at all came as something of a surprise at the Palace. With two senior members of the royal family recovering in The London Clinic, the Sussexes’ photocall with the prime minister of Jamaica was “not what you would call ideal”, according to one well-placed source.

William & Kate’s flop tour: It didn’t help that [the Sussexes] were happy to pose with Andrew Holness, who hosted the Prince and Princess of Wales in 2022. During an official visit to the Caribbean, William and Kate had a meeting with Holness. In an awkward moment, before his guests were even invited to sit down, the prime minister told them in no uncertain terms — and with the television cameras rolling — that his country was “moving on”. William pressed his lips together and nodded. The excruciating meeting with Holness aside, the trip attracted more criticism. During a trip to Trench Town, the former home of Bob Marley, the Waleses were seen shaking hands with locals through a wire fence. There was another colonial-era flashback when they travelled in an open-topped Land Rover during a ceremonial military parade.

The Sussexes’ trip was misguided!! The timing of the Sussexes’ high-profile visit as the guests of Brian Robbins, the chief executive of Paramount, was “not especially welcome back in London” according to one well-placed source, while another said that it was “misguided”. A source close to the King suggested that Harry may well have accepted the invitation because he is oblivious to the political or familial sensitivities of being pictured with the Jamaican prime minister. Those close to Prince William pointed out that he was “concerned with other matters”, not least his wife’s health after her surgery, which will require months of recuperation.

Jamaicans love Harry & Meghan: A well-informed source said: “Harry is beloved by the Jamaicans so they could have been a great asset to the Commonwealth if they had stayed in their royal roles.”

Fascinating and very telling lie: The late Queen saw the connection they had with the “family of nations” of which she was so fond. She awarded the Sussexes Commonwealth roles, with Harry and Meghan becoming the president and vice-president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust respectively. When it became clear that the Sussexes were not happy with their royal life in the UK, a plan was nearing completion for the couple to be stationed elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Ultimately, the offers were not sufficient to keep Harry and Meghan in the fold as working members of the royal family. They had hoped for something in between, to have the freedom to pursue their own projects while still representing Queen and country. But the late Queen decided that a “half-in, half-out” approach was not an option.

Freedom from raised eyebrows: Harry and Meghan stepped down from their official Commonwealth roles and the couple’s Netflix documentary series later described the group of countries as “Empire 2.0”. Now they are free to do as they choose, even if it raises eyebrows at the palace.

The Sussexes stayed in Jamaica after the premiere: And there may well be more to come. On Thursday night, locals on the island said that after a stop in Kingston the Sussexes moved to a luxury resort in the north of the island. However, bigger moves are expected in the US as the duchess is said to harbour political ambitions.

No coming back to the UK!! Back in the UK, there seems to be no way back for Harry and Meghan. Invitations to see the Waleses will not be forthcoming any time soon. Harry has also quietly been shelved as a counsellor of state — members of the royal family who can stand in for the King. When increasing the number of people who can carry out head of state duties to include the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Royal, the royal household also gave a written undertaking that non-working members would not be called on. Many in the Palace believe that relations between Harry and his brother William are irreparably damaged. “Given everything that has gone on, it’s hard to see how Harry could ever come back into the fold,” a well-placed source said.

[From The Times]

A few things: “When it became clear that the Sussexes were not happy with their royal life in the UK, a plan was nearing completion for the couple to be stationed elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Ultimately, the offers were not sufficient to keep Harry and Meghan in the fold” – Harry genuinely thought he would be offered that kind of “half-in” solution, where they could live abroad (in a Commonwealth country) and still work for the crown. That was rejected by WILLIAM. And Edward Young. They continue to make it sound like Harry & Meghan just decided one day that they hated living in the UK.

As for this: The trip was “misguided” and “a source close to the King suggested that Harry may well have accepted the invitation because he is oblivious to the political or familial sensitivities of being pictured with the Jamaican prime minister.” Instead of embracing the power of the Sussexes’ grace, charm and soft diplomacy, they’re pretending that Harry and Meghan did something wrong or “misguided” by simply going to a premiere and being gracious towards local government officials. It’s not like they wandered around in neo-colonialist cosplay or greeted children through a chainlink fence, you know. Talk about misguided! Talk about oblivious!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.