I genuinely believed that Prince William would cancel his appearance at today’s Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey, but he did not. He turned up, having blamed his wife on his and his office’s photo-editing clownery, and he put in an appearance beside Queen Camilla, the side chick. Camilla once again looked like the cat who got the cream – she’s never happier than when her stepson is up to his neck in melodrama, lies and obfuscation. And right now, William is a huge part of one of the weirdest royal soap operas most of us have ever witnessed. I guess he didn’t feel like he could cancel today – not after he canceled his appearance at his godfather’s memorial service two weeks ago, which was the beginning of the current global drama.

We’ll have more coverage tomorrow, it’s been a really long 24-hours, with all of this and the Oscars on top of it. I just wanted people to see that William showed up. This is actually his first time making an appearance with his extended family since Christmas Day at Sandringham.

Meanwhile, as William left his “home” in Windsor, his staff set up a photo of William and “Kate” in the car together, and the Daily Mail was dutifully informed that William was dropping Kate off at a “private appointment.” They couldn’t even convince “Kate” to turn her face towards the camera she knew was there. Which just adds yet another conspiracy onto the pile.

lmaohttps://t.co/pQ0dAwqPvy

— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) March 11, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Over the course of 36 hours, Kensington Palace completely lost credibility with the national and international media and they proved yet again, for the millionth time, that they cannot crisis-manage their way out of a wet paper bag. To recap, KP released a photo of the Princess of Wales and her three children for Mother’s Day in the UK. The photo was released early Sunday morning, in the hope that the proof of life would quell some of the speculation about Kate’s health status and whereabouts. As soon as the photo was released, people could not stop pointing out how weirdly Photoshopped and bizarre the whole thing looked, and others commented that it didn’t even look like a recent photo. By Sunday evening, AFP, Reuters, Getty and Associated Press all “killed” the image, meaning they wouldn’t distribute it or publish such a “manipulated” photo. Monday morning, the Press Association joined the kill order too.

For about 14 hours, Kensington Palace stayed silent, refusing to answer calls from journalists and refusing to speak to the photo agencies requesting clarification on the image. Then, finally, a statement, allegedly from Kate, where “she” said that she edited the photo which was allegedly taken by William. In the NYT’s coverage of this mess, they noted that Kensington Palace was insisting that William “had taken the photo last week in Windsor” and that “A palace official said Catherine made minor adjustments in what was meant to be an informal picture of the family together for Mother’s Day. The official reiterated that William had taken the photo, though Catherine edited it.” Just lies on top of lies. And now this – Kensington Palace is flatly refusing to release an unedited version of the photo.

Kensington Palace has refused to release the original Mother’s Day portrait of the Princess of Wales and her children – after Kate publicly took the blame for editing the family photograph.

The Palace had come under mounting pressure to reveal the truth behind the photo after the world’s top picture agencies – including the Press Association – ‘killed’ the image over claims it had been digitally manipulated.

Kate this morning admitted that she had edited the photograph and issued a personal apology ‘for any confusion’ it had caused. The photo of the mother-of-three beaming with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis was the first official picture released of the princess since she underwent ‘planned abdominal surgery’ in January.

Despite calls for the original to be published, Kensington Palace said it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.

[From The Daily Mail]

Why wouldn’t the palace just release an unedited photo, one might ask. It couldn’t have been that bad, right? Except I’m really starting to wonder if the whole thing is a lie. Like, I kind of believed that it was probably an older photo which they repurposed for this, and William stupidly took credit for taking the pic, and palace dumbasses did a sh-tty job of editing it. But now I wonder if there even is an “original photo” which could conceivably be released.

The Telegraph did a surprisingly thorough breakdown of all of the inconsistencies in the photo too – you can go here to read. They call it “significantly doctored.” There’s even a suggestion (quickly denied by their expert) that they used AI.

Omid Scobie has done some good tweets too. I keep thinking about how William’s new private secretary started about one month ago. This is what happens when you surround yourself with Tory yes-men.

Update: They hustled Kate into a car with William and arranged for shadowy photos.

It’s fair to say that most photos released by the offices of public figures have been retouched in some way, so *if* this was an isolated incident then it would just be an unfortunate error. But with the Palace’s long history of lying, covering up, and even issuing statements on…

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) March 11, 2024

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.

Welcome to our Oscars Open Post for 2024, the finale of an awards season which felt like it was eight months long. The Oscars start early this year – 7 pm EST, on ABC. For non-Americans, check your listings (IDK). We’ll be updating this post with the acting winners, plus the Best Director & Best Picture winners, plus if something interesting or scandalous happens in the middle of the ceremony (ahem, like a slap on the Oscar stage), we’ll update this post too.

Our Open Post is hosted by Messi the dog, who played Snoop in Anatomy of a Fall. Snoop was such a vital character in the story and Messi is such a great actor! Neon actually flew Messi out to LA for some of the awards-season events, like the Oscar luncheon, and as it turns out, some Oscar nominees and producers were super-salty about it. The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reported that Messi didn’t fly into LA for the Oscars, but he will enjoy watching from his home in France. THR also mentioned that “Multiple companies with nominated films complained to the Academy that allowing him to attend the [Oscars luncheon] event gave Anatomy of a Fall an advantage during the voting window, according to a source with knowledge of the complaints.” People were mad that a cute dog came to the luncheon, even though Messi was part of an Oscar-nominated film!!

Most of this year’s winners are sure things, but I’m expecting one or two big surprises, probably in the screenplay categories and Best Actress. You can follow us on Twitter at @Celebitchy and @KaiseratCB.

Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers. From CB: Lupita Nyong’o gave the introduction for Da’Vine in the lead up to the announcement of the winner. All of the introductions were moving and incredible. Lupita brought Da’Vine to tears when she mentioned that that Da’Vine wore her grandmother’s glasses in the movie. In her acceptance speech Da’Vine said that she wasn’t sure she would be an actress as she started as a singer. She thanked her mom for telling her to go across the street to the theater to pursue acting. She said “for so long I thought I wanted to be different, but I realized I just needed to be myself. Thank you all for seeing me.” She also gave a shout out to her publicist. Congratulations to Da’Vine!

Screenplays (by Kaiser): Anatomy of a Fall won Original Screenplay and American Fiction won Adapted Screenplay. Such great wins, two of the best scripts of the year!

Photos courtesy of Neon’s Instagram.

Well, at the very last minute, Prince William did some “work” last week. He worked on March 1st (St. David’s Day) by doing some events in Wales, then he did f–k all until March 9th, when he stepped out in London. He went to the Kia Oval Cricket Ground and checked in an Earthshot Prize winner, Notpla. Notpla is newly contracted to provide sustainable food packaging to over 50 sporting venues, including the Kia Oval Cricket Ground. Enjoy these photos of William looking awkward and grim on a cricket pitch and inside the venue, which has some brutal overhead lighting. Just shows you that the Kensington Palace team is so incompetent, they can’t even get some basic staging right.

Last week, in William’s absence, there were two very interesting and related stories. One story was about William’s anger that Queen Camilla jetted off on holiday, so he was on some kind of sympathy strike too, because he was mad that Camilla got to jet off somewhere. The second story was that William was incandescent that Camilla was being “given” all of the plum assignments and that King Charles had not asked William, the heir, to step in for him. I personally don’t believe that – I think William has been asked to do more and he has consistently refused, and that’s why Camilla is taking over. Now a royal expert claims that William is just fine with Camilla taking on events which should have gone to the heir:

Prince William will ‘welcome’ Queen Camilla’s help in carrying out royal duties amid health battles faced by his father King Charles and wife Kate, an expert said today. Camilla has taken on a number of duties for the King in recent weeks, and will lead the Royal Family at a Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on Monday. She was also the most senior royal at a memorial service for King Constantine of Greece at Windsor Castle last week after William pulled out at the last minute. Provisional plans are said to have been made for Camilla to represent the royals at the Chelsea Flower Show in May, as well as at four events in June – the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations, Garter Day, Royal Ascot and Trooping the Colour.

Former BBC court correspondent Michael Cole insisted to MailOnline today that the Prince of Wales ‘won’t worry about who does what in the Royal Family’. He added that William would not be jealous of Camilla’s more prominent role – and would be ‘only too glad to see the responsibility for keeping the royal show on the road shared out between a suddenly reduced number of available working royals.’

Mr Cole said today: ‘It is right, proper and in accord with protocol for the Queen Consort should take up some of the duties of her husband while he is unable to preside at public-facing events and ceremonies. Prince William has shown nothing but good judgment in recent years, especially while dealing with tricky situations, not least the continuing fall-out from the self-imposed exile to California of his younger brother, Prince Harry.’

‘He has shown great wisdom in strictly limiting his reaction to cruel and unjustified jibes and barbs from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, or those purportedly acting and writing on their behalf, even though the attacks on his wife, the Princess of Wales, have been especially hard for him to bear. All of that coming as Prince William confronts the real possibility of his future role as king much earlier in his father’s reign than would have been hoped, adds to his burden.’

Mr Cole also said that William has ‘nothing to fear from the Queen taking a more prominent role in the coming days’.

He continued: ‘He is a Prince of the royal blood. His father’s royal lineage dates back to Alfred the Great, his mother’s antecedents to the Stuart King Charles II four centuries ago. His destiny is assured. In due course, if destiny does not decide otherwise, he will become King William V. Being fair-minded, kind and compassionate – characteristics inherited in full from his mother – he will know that Camilla would have been content to remain his father’s mistress, as she loved her first husband Andrew Parker Bowles who remains a close friend to her. She accepted that the King’s instance that she become Queen even though that had expressly been ruled out by Buckingham Palace ahead of their marriage in Windsor Register Office in April 2005. Queen Camilla has no personal ambitions. She is just doing very well in a role she did not seek and she is proving to be rather good at it. Prince William will have welcomed that, rather than resented her success, knowing the truth – if all members of the royal family shine, then that reflects a lustre on the very institution of a constitutional monarchy that has served this country so well and for so long.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Side-stepping the weirdness of reciting William’s ancestry like his bloodline will polish the turd we see before us, this guy is smoking his own product – Camilla loves being queen, she fought to be queen for decades, this was all absolutely her endgame and she has many plans for her stepson Huevo too. Speaking of, “Prince William will have welcomed that, rather than resented her success, knowing the truth – if all members of the royal family shine, then that reflects a lustre on the very institution.” William absolutely does NOT know that. Neither does Camilla, neither does Charles. It drives me up the wall – they believe everything about royalty is zero-sum, that only one of them can get attention or succeed, and that if someone else is successful, that takes away from everyone else. That’s how they’ve always operated, because they’re inbred idiots.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Gary Goldsmith entered the Celebrity Big Brother house last weekend, and he only got to spend five days “in the house.” He was the first “celebrity” evicted, which is just… *chef’s kiss*. Either way it went, it would have been horrible news for the Windsors, the Middletons and the royalists. All they really wanted was to use the Princess of Wales’s uncle to parrot some of their unhinged talking points about the Sussexes. Instead, ITV paid six figures to a broke-ass domestic abuser, all so he could make an ass out of himself, the Middletons and the Windsors. Every second he was on CBB was further evidence that everything about the Middleton-Windsor clan is tacky, cheap, disreputable and low-class.

The Princess of Wales’s uncle has become the first person to be evicted from Celebrity Big Brother. The 58-year-old businessman was voted out by the public after just four nights. Kensington Palace aides were thought to be relieved that his time on the ITV1 show had ended after he used the platform to speak extensively about the Royal family.

After leaving the house, Mr Goldsmith admitted it had taken him a while to acclimatise. He said he felt as though he had been walking around with a target on his back after being nominated for eviction by fellow housemate Sharon Osborne. He also said he had been asked repeatedly about the Royal family because the housemates didn’t know what else to ask him.

Mr Goldsmith, wearing a denim shirt, said in his first exit interview: “This is the first television programme that I have ever done, my comfort zone is back in Slough, it took me a while to acclimatise.” He said he was “self-doubting” when he joined the ITV show, and he should have been “more authentic”. “I could have been way more gregarious,” he said.

Speaking about his many references to the royal family, he said: “People were asking me a lot of questions specifically about that because they didn’t know what to ask me. And I did volunteer it a lot. First time on TV and I cried like a baby, twice,” he said about his experience.

[From The Telegraph]

Hilariously, CBB fans apparently think the fix was in because of Gary’s eviction – fans apparently tried to vote to “save” him but he was still evicted because there are new rules or something. I wonder if there’s a conspiracy/theory that the palace managed to get Gary evicted from the CBB house. I feel like that might genuinely be a thing too. Especially since every royal reporter is basically saying that the palace was watching Dodgy Uncle Gary very closely:

Buckingham Palace is keeping a ‘watchful eye’ on Gary Goldsmith during his stint on Celebrity Big Brother, according to a royal expert. While Kate’s ‘bad uncle’ claimed he did not need the Firm’s stamp of approval to appear on the show, it is said the Palace is watching his every move.

Jennie Bond told the Mirror: ‘I think they’ll completely ignore it unless he says something so completely outrageous that they feel they’ve been goaded into responding to a reality show. I hope [William and Kate] aren’t investing their precious time into something that will be deeply upsetting to watch. He thinks being in there he’s a knight in shining armour, but the Palace will be keeping a watchful eye.’

Speaking to MailOnline today, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams suggested the news [of Gary’s eviction] would come as a relief as the Middletons ‘will have pleaded with him not to go on Big Brother’, adding ‘I certainly wouldn’t want to be in his shoes when he and Carole Middleton next meet up! Good riddance to Uncle Gary. He thought he could trade on his royal connections, but the public will not have forgotten his conviction for assault in 2017 despite the hype surrounding his appearance. He had nothing to offer other than mumbled platitudes. These were, however, embarrassing, especially during this stressful period, for the royal family. However, the public sent him to the Tower early as he proved to be an abominable No-Man.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah, I don’t doubt that they were watching him and “monitoring” the situation, but I also wonder if Gary’s whole deal is reciting talking points from some Daily Mail loon. From his ghost-written Mail columns to his CBB appearance, it definitely feels like Gary has been bought and paid for. Similar vibes with Toxic Tom Markle, and if you told me it was all the same project, with the same people behind it, I would believe you.

Screencaps from CBB/ITV.

President Biden gave a barn-burner State of the Union address last night, and the official Republican response was done by Senator Katie Britt, who filmed from her beige kitchen and spoke absolute nonsense. Apparently, Republicans are freaking out about how badly Sen. Britt did and how well Biden did. [The Daily Beast]
Charlize Theron is a huge tennis fan (she has good taste in her faves as well) and she hosted a celeb tennis tournament for her foundation. [Just Jared]
I have a weakness for men with sleepy eyes. [Socialite Life]
Oscar predictions – will it be an Oppenheimer blowout? [LaineyGossip]
Whoopi Goldberg is out here dating 108-year-old dudes? [Pajiba]
Photos from Vanity Fair’s Young Hollywood party. [Go Fug Yourself]
Fiona Apple collaborated with Iron & Wine?!? [OMG Blog]
Hunter Schafer looks amazing in Prada. [RCFA]
The youths are learning about Alan Cumming! [Seriously OMG]
More Duggar family drama. [Starcasm]
All about this year’s Oscar presenters. [Hollywood Life]
Zendaya’s amazing denim look. [Buzzfeed]

Sen Katie Britt says sexual assault is the worst thing that can happen to a woman while encouraging Americans to vote for a convicted sexual predator.
pic.twitter.com/oKZdUZuy3u

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 8, 2024

Katie Britt supporting a rich, white rapist from her kitchen while scapegoating migrants and wearing a cross couldn’t be more on brand.

— Jen (@JenResistedAGN) March 8, 2024

“Into the late hours of the night, Rolling Stone was inundated with messages from GOP operatives, right-leaning pollsters, conservative Capitol Hill staff and members of Trump’s campaign absolutely torching Katie Britt’s absurdly over-dramatic rebuttal.” https://t.co/X3kWJIvg8T

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 8, 2024

Prince William might step out for events today, but as I’m writing this, I haven’t seen anything about any planned events. Which means that he really did take the week off in a sympathy strike with Queen Camilla. It’s hilarious. He hasn’t had any public or private events since last Friday, St. David’s Day, when he turned up in Wrexham and began doing shots in the middle of the day, then staggered over to an elementary school. He’s not beating the “will only show up for events involving alcohol and celebrities” allegations.

Meanwhile, here’s another curious story. On Monday, the Princess of Wales and Carole Middleton were photographed in an Audi, somewhere around Windsor. It was the first time Kate had been seen in 70 days, since her mysterious abdominal surgery. The British media freaked out and claimed that they would not publish the photo out of respect for Kate’s privacy, but it was more like Kensington Palace apparently badgered the British media to not buy the photos. They still wanted to discuss the photos though, which is why Rebecca English at the Mail assured everyone that while the photos were “not authorized by the palace,” Kate and Carole were photographed “shortly before 9am, suggesting the mother and daughter were returning from the school run.” A set-up photocall for the school run, you say?? Well, Prince Huevo clapped back: he’s been doing the school run this whole time!

The Prince of Wales has made a point of taking his children to and from Lambrook School in Berkshire every day since his wife the Princess of Wales fell ill, HELLO! has learnt. In this week’s issue of the magazine out now, we reveal the extent to which William, 41, has planned his diary around the children’s school pick up and drop off times. The hands-on dad has been determined to make his family a priority, now more than ever, and is fitting in royal visits and engagements around the school day.

Last week, he visited the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London, where he spoke about his concern about the rise in anti-Semitism. He spent time with Holocaust survivor Renee Salt, holding her hand as she quietly shared her experiences of living in a Nazi concentration camp.

The week before, William again travelled to London to visit the British Red Cross headquarters, where he spoke to aid workers and heard first-hand about their experience of working to help victims of the conflict in Gaza and the Middle East.

Both of these engagements, like many of William’s other scheduled appearances since his return to work in early February, were timed so that the father-of-three could drop off his children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis at Lambrook school first, before carrying out his royal duties.

[From Hello]

Coming after Carole and Kate’s “unauthorized” photo-op, this is quite pointed. It feels like… William and Kate aren’t even in daily communication? And if Kate and Carole weren’t doing the school run, why did Kate have to roll out of bed for the photo-op again? Also: if William’s argument is that the school drop-offs and pick-ups are so bloody sacrosanct, why was he day-drinking in Wrexham one week ago? Did he have a buzz when he picked up his children later that day? Or is this story just complete bullsh-t, another piece of clownish PR?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

We should really take Gary Goldsmith at his word and accept that he marched into the Celebrity Big Brother house with his Middleton-approved talking points. The sh-t he’s saying, it’s almost like a Mail columnist scripted it for him. From the very start of his stint on CBB, Gary could not keep Prince Harry and Meghan’s names out of his f–king mouth, which just shows that the Middletons and Waleses can’t keep the Sussexes’ names out of their mouths. Gary said that he believes Harry will one day “come back,” alone of course, without a wife or children. Gary also waxed rhapsodic about how great it was for Kate and William when Harry was their third wheel: “When they were a threesome – so Kate, William and Harry – they looked really comfortable together. Then suddenly there’s an extra dynamic that comes in, puts a stick in the spokes, and creates so much drama that I don’t genuinely think was there…”

This has been said a million times in a million different ways: they never wanted Harry to get married, and everything they’ve done since he met Meghan is an attempt to force them to split. For Kate, it was especially bad to see the handsome, charismatic brother fall in love with a beautiful American actress, and that’s why Kate went out of her way to devise such nasty, racist attacks and smears on Meghan. I was thinking of all of this as I glanced through Us Weekly’s exclusive, all about how Harry and Kate were once so close.

While Princess Kate and Prince Harry once had a close bond, their now rocky relationship may be beyond repair.

“I think there was once a relationship, a friendship, a very close one between Harry and Kate,” royal expert Christopher Andersen exclusively tells Us Weekly. “I’m sure he’s concerned about her as well, but I know that she wants to have nothing to do with them.”

Andersen, who’s the best-selling author of books including The King: The Life of Charles III and William and Kate: A Royal Love Story, notes that the Princess of Wales, 42, has “her own problems now.”

Kate was spotted for the first time since undergoing surgery on Monday, March 4. In the photos obtained by TMZ, she sat in the passenger seat of a car alongside her mother, Carole Middleton, while wearing sunglasses. As for whether Harry, 38, has reached out to Kate amid her recovery, Andersen doesn’t think he’s extended an olive branch.

“My understanding is he hasn’t, and it is a stalemate,” he says. “They’re both on opposite sides of this wall and nobody has the courage to leap over it and really make an honest attempt.”

Andersen claims that Harry hasn’t exactly been given the warmest welcome when he’s traveled across the pond on several occasions.

“Every time he’s gone there, he’s been given the cold shoulder and he’s aware of that,” Andersen says. “I think he fears it’ll just be the same situation all over.”

Andersen adds that Kate “feels betrayed” the same way that William, 41, and King Charles III do by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. “That hasn’t changed,” he says.

[From Us Weekly]

Charles and William generally get “the blame” for how the Sussexes were pushed out and left in mortal danger, but let’s not forget that Kate did her part too. She was unnerved from the moment she met Meghan, and Kate worked with her mother and the palace machinery to make Meghan’s life a living hell. Then Kate told everyone that she was the keen peacemaker, that she could somehow convince Harry to come back and/or reconcile with William. That died with QEII. Nowadays, they don’t even pretend that Kate is anything but a vapid, racist Karen. Like, that’s explicitly her appeal for her fans and defenders. All of which to say, this is the second story this week where palace sources are like “Harry should have checked on poor Kate!” No, he’s good. I hope he blanks Kate forever.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Prince Harry and Meghan apparently arrived in Austin, Texas on Thursday, ahead of Meghan’s International Women’s Day keynote panel discussion. Last night, according to People Magazine’s exclusive, they dined at Soho House Austin. Famously, their first date was at the Soho House in London, and Meghan is close friends with several people in the Soho House infrastructure. People reports that M&H “dined at a corner table” and an onlooker said: “They were happy and in great spirits. Harry was very animated throughout the dinner. They were super low key and seemed happy to be around the upbeat vibes at the lively venue.”

Meanwhile, there’s a ton of weird, good and bad news about the Sussexes this week, some of which I’m covering separately. One piece of good news: Harry’s Spare has been nominated for two British Book Awards, one nomination is narration audiobook nonfiction (done by Harry) and one nom in non-fiction narrative. Meanwhile, here’s some weird/bad news – remember how the Heritage Foundation keeps bringing unhinged lawsuits against the DHS in an attempt to “get” Harry’s visa application? Well, the judge in the latest case has now ordered DHS to provide him (the judge) Harry’s visa paperwork so he can see it for himself:

A judge has ordered the US government to hand over Prince Harry’s visa application as he considers whether it should be made public. Judge Carl Nichols told the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) that its arguments were “insufficiently detailed” amid a court battle over the release of the documents, stemming from revelations about the Duke of Sussex’s use of illegal drugs.

He ordered the agency to set out the contents of the Duke’s immigration papers and explain the “particular harm” that would be caused by disclosing them, the Daily Mail reported.

The DHS is fighting to prevent the publication of the documents after the Duke revealed he had taken cannabis, cocaine and magic mushrooms in his memoir – in apparent violation of US visa rules. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, is seeking the release of his papers as part of a Freedom of Information request it submitted last year.

In an order filed to a court in Washington, Judge Nichols stated that the Freedom of Information law authorised him to review “declarations and/or contested records in camera” – meaning in private.

“Agency affidavits are insufficiently detailed to permit meaningful review of exemption claims… when the number of withheld documents is relatively small, and when the dispute turns on the contents of the withheld documents, and not the parties’ interpretations of those documents”, it said.

Judge Nichols gave the DHS until March 21 to detail “the records it is withholding and the particular harm that would arise from public disclosure of them”.

He said: “The court concludes that in camera review is necessary to determine whether the records in dispute come within the scope of the claimed exemptions’.

[From The Telegraph]

I take this to mean that the judge is (hopefully) just doing his due diligence and forcing DHS to explain legally why it would be a horrible precedent to release anyone’s visa/immigration paperwork whenever a rightwing think tank gets a bee up their bum. But who knows.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Because I truly do not follow Formula 1 gossip, I came at the Christian Horner story solely out of interest in his wife, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell (who now goes by Geri Horner). Basically, Geri and Christian Horner have been married since 2015, after she was the side-chick and he dumped his longtime partner FOR Geri. Horner is a big deal in the F1 franchise – he’s the “Principal of Red Bull Racing,” which is basically a chief-executive position. He’s also, reportedly, a pretty sleazy guy, especially when it comes to women. For weeks/months, there was an internal investigation into Horner’s texts/WhatsApp messages to a female member of the team (and a subordinate – Horner is this woman’s boss). The messages rise to the level of sexual harassment, but F1 tried to bury the situation last week, and Horner turned up at the Bahrain Grand Prix with his wife and they put on a show of a loving, happily-married couple. Since then, Red Bull Racing SUSPENDED the woman – the one accusing Horner of harassment – with full pay. Horner was never suspended during the investigation. It’s an extremely bad look, but Horner is basically doing a victory lap ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend:

Christian Horner praised his wife, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, for her support amid the fallout from an investigation into his alleged inappropriate behavior toward a female Red Bull employee.

“It’s obviously been a very trying period,” the team principal, 50, said during a press conference ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah on Thursday. “It has been of great interest in different elements of the media for different reasons, [but] I think it’s time to draw a line under it,” he went on, calling for an end to the “scrutiny” placed on his marriage.

The couple put on a united front at the Formula 1 season opener in Bahrain last weekend, just days after an independent inquiry cleared Horner of any misconduct. However, an explosive email containing private WhatsApp messages purporting to be between Horner and his accuser were subsequently sent to nearly 200 high-level F1 executives and journalists.

“I’m very fortunate that I have a beautiful family and a very supportive wife. And I’m the only one who has been named in this,” Horner said on Thursday, noting that his three children also had been dragged into the scandal.

“My wife has been phenomenally supportive through this, as has my family, but the intrusion on my family is now enough, and we need to move forward and focus on what we are here for,” the long-tenured team boss added. “It is time now to focus on why we are here, which is to go Formula 1 racing.”

Horner and Halliwell, 51, tied the knot in 2015 and are parents to 7-year-old son Monty. They also share daughter Bluebell, 17, from the singer’s relationship with Sacha Gervasi and daughter Olivia, 10, from the former driver’s first marriage to Beverley Allen.

His comments came a few hours after multiple outlets confirmed the unidentified woman who had accused him of inappropriate behavior has been suspended with full pay from her job at the team’s UK headquarters in Milton Keynes.

[From Page Six]

Even some of the more sexist media outlets are like “wow, this looks really bad, to suspend a woman who accused her boss of sexual harassment?” The F1 fans seem particularly outraged too, but there’s always so much internal drama within F1, I can’t tell if it’s specifically about this Horner situation or if it’s about a million other things. Anyway, powerful men will use their power to protect themselves and no one else. And Geri is just supposed to sit there, being the “good wife.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.