This is truly one of the biggest scandals of the month: the Duchess of Sussex was pap’d in Montecito on Monday and, in the photos, she’s smiling. The Windsors have been outed as racists in a mistranslated Dutch edition of Endgame and you’re smiling?? The British monarchy is in crisis and they’re openly begging Meghan to save their asses and she’s just wandering around Montecito without a care in the world?? LMAO. The Daily Mail ran the photos as an exclusive (my guess: the pics cost six figures) with this hysterical headline: “Not a care in the world? Meghan Markle is pictured SMILING in first sighting since royals accused of racism were named in Dutch translation of Omid Scobie’s new book.” Hahahahaha.

A smiling Meghan Markle was out and about in California on Monday, seemingly without a care in the world as the furor over the ‘racist royals’ continues back in England. The 42-year-old was spotted in Santa Barbara, a few miles from her Montecito mansion, seemingly oblivious to the firestorm raging in her husband Prince Harry’s home country.

The California-born mother-of-two was dressed down in black leggings and a black long-sleeved t-shirt, with a green baseball cap. Markle wore a pair of $100 New Balance 327 sneakers, and her favorite Krewe sunglasses, which retail for around $400.

It wasn’t clear if she was en route to the gym: her husband has been spotted working out in a Santa Barbara gym, and Markle is known for her love of yoga. As she strolled the beachfront Californian city, 5,000 miles away the royal row sparked by her former ally’s book rumbled on.

[From The Daily Mail]

‘Atta girl. Keep smiling, Meg. I hope she’s having a great holiday season. Does anyone want to talk about her shoes? I still love New Balance, by far the most comfortable sneaker brand. But the problem I’ve always had with New Balance is that the shoes are basically unwearable after a couple of months, mostly because of the poor quality of the shoe’s interior. I moved to Asics for my walks and hikes and one pair can last for a lot longer than New Balance.

Not a care in the world? Meghan Markle is pictured SMILING in first sighting since royals accused of racism were named in Dutch translation of Omid Scobie’s new book https://t.co/Am6BkTdmAD pic.twitter.com/vJypAsOgAC

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) December 5, 2023

Meghan Markle seen SMILING in first sighting since royals accused of racism were named https://t.co/jwrXaOXXGC

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) December 5, 2023

Photos courtesy of Instar.

As many have noted, we’re in the middle of yet another “Panic! At the Palace” newscycle. Kensington Palace is in full meltdown mode and Kate’s people have sent out talking points to all of their friendliest media allies. The thing is, the game is pretty tired and Camilla Tominey is one of the few who took the bait. The Middletons’ big “tell” for their panic is when they authorize Gary Goldsmith to put his name on some Daily Mail screed. Dodgy Uncle Gary, a convicted domestic abuser, is trotted out every few months to verbally canonize his niece and clap back on Kate’s enemies. The thing is, I doubt Gary even writes this drivel. Some highlights from messy Gary’s latest screed:

His feelings on Omid Scobie’s Endgame: His book made me feel nauseous. I had to put it down many times because the content made me so angry and I haven’t even been able to finish it. It’s such a character assassination of William and Kate in particular, who is mentioned an extraordinary 291 times. There is even a chapter devoted to her, Kate, my niece! And now we’re even being told that Kate has been ‘accidentally’ named as the supposed royal racist, along with her father-in-law, King Charles, in the Dutch translation of the book.

Racist Kate: Somehow, the names of two of the most upstanding members of the Royal Family were in the manuscript when it was sent to Dutch translators, in a passage about an exchange of letters between Meghan and Charles regarding members of the Royal Family and unconscious bias. It’s utterly ridiculous to consider that Kate is a racist. Racism isn’t something which is inherent in anyone. It comes from an environment. Both Kate’s mum Carole and I grew up in Southall, West London. Colour, race, age, creed and religious beliefs have never been a factor in our friendships or values. To think Kate would buck that trend is totally bonkers.

Old news! The whole book is just a tapestry of gibber and falsehoods sewn together with his personal opinion. It is Scobie milking his relationship with the Sussexes for every cent it’s worth and stirring up a pot which has been stirred enough. Let’s face it, this one-sided snidey account will make it even harder for any of the Royal Family to reach out to Harry and Meghan now or in the short-term future. From the first page to the last, all Scobie does is re-tell well-worn stories, but with a particularly vicious slant, using terms such as ‘pliable’, ‘tightly controlled’ and ‘carefully assembled’ to scoff at Kate.

Carole never orchestrated anything! He even pursues the laughable theory that Carole orchestrated Kate’s relationship with William, pushing her daughter to choose St Andrews University in a bid to meet William when, in fact, she would rather have gone to Edinburgh. ‘The Middleton strategy involved more than just aristocratic affectation — Carole calculatingly placed Kate right at the centre of young Prince William’s world,’ he writes. What rubbish. St Andrew’s is the best university for history of art and Kate did well to get in. Does Scobie really believe that Carole was sitting there in a war room down in the basement of Bucklebury planning out some devious strategy saying: ‘Right. If we put her in the right place on this day then bang… fireworks’?

[From The Daily Mail]

“Colour, race, age, creed and religious beliefs have never been a factor in our friendships or values.” Kate literally has zero brown or Black friends OR aides and she only uses Black children as props. And she spearheaded a national smear campaign against her Black sister-in-law. William and Kate’s jealousy of a Black woman is the root of so many of the problems facing the monarchy today – that is one of the Windsors’ “original sins” of the modern era, the fact that Will and Kate lost their everloving f–king minds the very second they learned that Harry was dating Meghan. Nothing was ever the same. As for Gary’s denial of Carole’s orchestrations… yeah, even Kate-friendly journalists fully admit that Carole was the brains behind Operation Big Blue, and the facts are not on Gary’s side. From Kate trying to copy William’s gap year to Kate changing schools to go to St. Andrews once William’s choice was confirmed, it’s silly to try to deny the Middletons’ “orchestration” at this point.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

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The vibe around this whole Hugh Grosvenor story is very strange. It’s possible that Hugh, the Duke of Westminster and the inheritor of a $10 billion fortune, would willingly involve himself in the Windsors’ increasingly clownish PR. It’s possible that Hugh decided, on his own, to exclude the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from an invitation to his June 2024 wedding and then chose to announce the snub to a royal reporter. But this whole thing absolutely has the feel of Prince William overstepping across the board – that William threw a tantrum to Hugh about snubbing the Sussexes, then William leaked the news to the Sunday Times as a way to box in the Grosvenor family and use their name for his own bullsh-t. If I was in Hugh’s place, I would find William’s actions and behavior really tacky, inappropriate and gauche. But that’s just me. According to the Telegraph, Hugh is very mad that Prince Harry would be so mean to the Windsors. Mmhm.

The wedding snub: Harry and Meghan, meanwhile, have allegedly been excluded from Hugh’s wedding guest list to avoid a family clash in the House of Windsor (after all, what bride wants a royal feud to upstage her big day?). But it is quite a snub and illustrates just how distant Harry now is from the world that he was brought up in. He and Hugh know each other very well – in 2015 the pair travelled together in South Africa with the aim of fighting rhino poaching – and this lack of an invitation is likely to be a nail in the coffin of an important friendship.

The consequences: But it seems that Harry is once again discovering how bad-mouthing the Royal family in public can have consequences on relationships beyond just those within his family. The Grosvenor ties to the royals are entrenched: while Hugh is King Charles’s godson; he in turn was made godfather to Prince George when he was born and later to Prince Archie.

Hugh and his fiance: The couple themselves are said to have met through friends and the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales are firmly on the invitation list for their June wedding – and there is a good chance all of them will attend (Charles is likely to be in the country as the following weekend is the Trooping the Colour).

Hugh’s loyalty: “You have to remember that people like this are very traditional – and while they wouldn’t be at all bothered by a drunken uncle or some overt snogging on the dance floor, they don’t like it when people criticise their way of life in public, which is exactly what Harry and Meghan have been doing for the last few years,” says a source who knows the Grosvenors. “And given who he is, Hugh’s loyalty would always have to be to the current King and the future King.”

Do these people think the Sussexes would have displayed a wedding invitation?? The absence of a stiff white invitation to prop up on a Montecito mantelpiece will sting even more when it becomes clear that the Waleses might play a major role in the day itself. William is apparently in the running to be best man (a role he last took on in public at Harry’s wedding) while Prince George, as one of Hugh’s godsons, is likely to be a pageboy. Given Hugh is thought to be the only friend of William and Harry’s chosen to be a godparent by both, this could fan even more flames over in California.

Hugh likes to keep it low-key?? As for the couple themselves – they are unusually low-key given their wealth and connections, as evidenced by the fact that only one engagement photograph of them was released in which they are wearing very casual clothes. “They are very, very private,” says a high-society contact. “Nobody has any good gossip on them.”

Meghan would have disapproved! …The day itself will probably follow the rhythms of a classic upper-crust English country wedding, rather than anything billionaire-like: men in morning suits and women in pretty florals with hats, children as bridesmaids rather than adults, and a service filled with hymns and carefully chosen readings. Speeches at dinner will likely be dominated by men (something Meghan would possibly disapprove of) while the rule of thumb when it comes to the music will probably be: the cheesier the better. When all is said and done, though, the fact that Harry and Meghan won’t be strutting their stuff to Sweet Caroline and Come on Eileen is incredibly sad. Given how deep the links are between the two families, it is an outcome neither side would have wanted.

[From The Telegraph]

The ghastly pattern is familiar to all of the royal-watchers – someone in the UK will make a big deal about snubbing Harry and Meghan from a hat party or biscuit tournament, then there are days of stories where sources insist that the snub must sting the Sussexes, that they must be beside themselves with misery, but that’s what they get for pointing out that the Windsors are racist and sadistic morons. Again, what’s fascinating about this particular cycle is that the royals have roped in one of the richest and most powerful men in the country. They’re using a billionaire’s name in their petty little drama. As I said, it’s possible that Hugh Grosvenor genuinely feels this way – but if he’s so humble, low-key and no-drama, why would he willingly take part in this despicable royal soap opera?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.

Review of May-December – I thought it was an excellent film, just FYI. The three core performances were incredible & Charles Melton deserves the buzz! [Pajiba]
I cannot wait for Variety to release their Margot Robbie & Cillian Murphy actor-on-actor video and interview. I bet it will be really good! [LaineyGossip]
The Gilded Age’s photocall is as bonkers as the show. [Go Fug Yourself]
Joey King reacts to Jacob Elordi. [Just Jared]
Timothee Chalamet vs. Coleman Domingo: who has the better style? [RCFA]
Beyonce released a new single for World AIDS Day. [OMG Blog]
Trailer for The Boys Season 4. [Seriously OMG]
Should I watch Fellow Travelers? [Tom & Lorenzo]
Bhad Bhabie is pregnant! Congrats. [Hollywood Life]
Dubai Bling Season 2 trailer. [Starcasm]
A very good AITA – I don’t think the landlady is TA. [Buzzfeed]

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Netflix.

As CB always notes, the royals love to tell on themselves. Their royalist defenders do as well – it’s clear that Kensington Palace has sent out an SOS to all of their biggest rota cheerleaders, demanding that the Princess of Wales must be centered and embiggened no matter what. Absent from all of these defenses is any credible excuse or rationale for why Kate was apparently openly discussing her “concerns” over the skin color of Meghan’s babies. Instead, we’re getting stuff like Camilla Tominey’s latest, “Why has Meghan never really taken to Kate?” This is supposed to be some hamfisted rebuke, an argument that Meghan was the aggressor, that she was “rude” to Kate, that Meghan didn’t “know her place.” What’s crazy is that there are some new pieces of information in this piece which… make Meghan look good and make Kate look like an a–hole. Of course, that’s not supposed to be the takeaway but…

The Sussexes & Cambridges’ first joint appearance at the foundation event in 2018: “‘Women don’t need to find a voice. They have a voice. They need to feel empowered to use it,” Meghan quotably exhorted as Harry looked on with awe and his brother and Kate stood by with expressionless irritation.” The event was supposed to be about promoting better mental health, and here was the Duchess, seemingly politicising it. The quartet would never appear together again, except in the context of larger royal engagements, such as Trooping the Colour, the Platinum Jubilee, and of course, the late Queen’s funeral. But the awkwardness on display that frosty day provides an insight into the many reasons why Meghan appears never to have taken to Kate – and vice versa.

The foundation event was the real turning point: Although some believe the royal sisterhood broke down following a tearful row over a bridesmaids’ dress fitting for Princess Charlotte in the run-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding in May 2018 – that Royal Foundation Forum proved to be a significant pinch point. At the time the Beast from the East was sweeping through the UK, leading to freezing temperatures, heavy snow and heavy winds. Royal aides were therefore surprised to find Meghan had dressed in a summer dress for the summit – as Kate, who was seven months pregnant with Prince Louis at the time, opted for something rather more conservative.

Meghan didn’t bow & scrape around William & Kate: According to an insider with knowledge of the engagement, Meghan seemed uncomfortable having to so publicly play “second fiddle” to William and Kate as the superior royals in the palace hierarchy. “I think there was always a sense that Meghan felt she was a self-made woman whereas Kate hadn’t really had her own career. She seemed to feel like she had more of a right to speak than her sister-in-law, who had married into the family as an unknown whereas Meghan regarded herself as a philanthropist who could teach the royals a thing or two about charity. I think she found it difficult that the Royal Foundation was already a well oiled machine by the time she got there,” said the source.

Meghan kept Doria away from the white supremacists: Around the same time as the Forum, Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland flew to London for her daughter’s baptism and other wedding preparations but, curiously, she was never introduced to William and Kate – despite the Prince and Princess repeatedly asking to meet her. “It was all very bizarre,” said one source. “Meghan seemed to want to put a separation between them.” In truth, there had been a degree of frisson almost as soon as Meghan officially arrived on the royal scene in 2016 to a lukewarm reception from “formal” William and Kate, who as well as finding her “a little full on”, had no idea she would be a keeper, having met a succession of Harry’s girlfriends.

William & Kate were influenced by their bigoted friends: The Prince and Princess of Wales may well have been influenced by mutual friends raising concerns following a shooting party at Sandringham when Meghan apparently clashed with 16 invited guests over issues including the imminent election of Donald Trump as US President in January 2017. As Tom Bower revealed in his 2022 book Revenge: “Without hesitation, Meghan challenged every guest whose conversation contravened her values. Beyond Harry’s hearing, some friends questioned Meghan’s “wokery”. Meghan was a dampener on the party, they concluded. She lacked any sense of humour. Driving home after Sunday lunch, the texts pinged between the cars: “OMG what about HER?” said one; “Harry must be f***ing nuts.”

Meghan called her Kate, not Catherine: To add insult to injury, as Harry revealed in Spare, when he first introduced Meghan to his brother – Kate remained in the garden, playing with the children – hardly the welcome they both wanted. From that point onwards, Meghan always pointedly insisted on calling the Princess of Wales “Kate” even though the rest of the family referred to her as “Catherine”.

Meghan saw that the Middletons were grifters: The Middletons also soon proved to be a bone of contention for the Duchess. She mistakenly believed that Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole, were cashing in on their royal connections to get special treatment. Harry had apparently already voiced concern about Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton publishing a book on entertaining called Celebrate in 2012, rather ironically accusing her of commercialising her links to the monarchy. The Sussexes were then upset when Pippa declined to invite them to her wedding to James Matthews in May 2017, perhaps fearing she would be upstaged by Harry’s new girlfriend. She later relented and invited them to the evening reception “to keep the peace”. According to Harry in Spare, William and Kate then took exception to the couple moving the name places at the table – before being accused of doing the same when the Sussexes got married.

Meghan hated that Will & Kate got along with Charles & Camilla? Having developed a habit of regularly exchanging letters with her father-in-law the King, parcels would arrive for Meghan in Queen Camilla’s distinctive bespoke wrapping paper, which rather runs contrary to the suggestion that they were all but abandoned by their royal relatives. While she certainly got on well with her father and mother-in-law, there was perhaps also a sense that William and Kate got on with them even better – and sometimes even gossiped about the Sussexes over dinner, as Harry suggested in Spare. Kate was also adored by the late Queen for the very reasons Scobie seeks to denigrate her in Endgame. She was “coachable”, “comfortable in her role” and “willing to bring the requisite smile and elegance to her duties as princess”.

Meghan was mad about Kate’s buttons!!!! Despite being comparatively less charismatic and an inferior public speaker, Kate was loved by the public for “never putting a foot wrong” – and carrying the mystique of someone who has never given much away about themselves. She was also a renowned clothes horse – and as a self-styled trend setter, the endless focus on her wardrobe appears to have irritated Meghan, who subsequently complained she had less help with her clothes and was forced to wear muted tones – even though she appeared in a vast array of colourful outfits.

[From The Telegraph]

Hector Projector Tominey got briefed by Kate’s people about all of the different “reasons” why Kate hated Meghan and treated Meghan like sh-t, so Tominey wrote it all up from the perspective of “this is why Meghan disliked Kate!” When even Kate’s biggest cheerleaders are basically admitting that Kate hated Meghan because Meghan was smart, well-spoken, politically progressive, well-dressed and happy, that’s not the slam dunk Kate thinks it is. The thing about Doria is so weird – why the f–k were William and Kate demanding to meet Doria, and did Meghan avoid introducing them to Doria because Meghan already knew that W&K sucked?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Again, be mindful of the Murdoch family connections within all of these dramas involving Omid Scobie’s Endgame and the “mistranslated” editions. Endgame was published by Harper Collins here in the UK and North America – that’s the publisher Scobie worked with throughout the process of writing Endgame, and that publishing house is owned by News Corp, meaning the Murdochs. News Corp also owns News UK, the umbrella for all of the Murdochs’ media outlets in the UK, which includes The Sun and The Times of London. The Times has had very curious coverage of Endgame and the mistranslations, and I believe their reporting about an internal investigation. Thus far, the Times has avoided assigning blame, all while the other British outlets are basically calling for Scobie’s beheading. Well, the blame game might be afoot internally, because now the Times has this curious story about where and when the names of the “racist royals” might have been added.

The agency of the author Omid Scobie sent his book’s Dutch publisher a final version weeks before publication which did not name the two royals at the centre of a race row. However, United Talent Agency (UTA) had earlier sent a draft version to the Dutch publisher Xander Uitgevers which did contain the names, a source told The Times. It is understood that the translator interpreted an earlier version of the manuscript, rather than the final approved text.

Thousands of Dutch-language copies of Endgame had to be pulled from the Netherlands and Belgium last week after they named King Charles and the Princess of Wales as the senior royals who were said to have made remarks speculating about the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s unborn child. The claim arose in an interview given by the Sussexes to Oprah Winfrey in 2021. After the broadcast, Prince Harry denied that he and his wife had accused a member of the royal family of racism.

Translating can be a long process and it is common for agents to send early versions to foreign publishers to get it underway. It is understood UTA received a signed-off manuscript from the British publisher, Harper Collins, and sent that to its foreign counterparts.

Xander initially said the names were revealed in a “translation” mix-up but later said that an “error” led to the printing. The book has the title Eindstrijd (Final Battle) in the Netherlands. Anke Roelen, managing director of Xander Uitgevers, said: “Xander … ­temporarily removed the book from sale, due to an error that occurred in the Dutch edition.” That edition credits two translators.

One of them, Saskia Peeters, said last week that the names were in the manuscript that she was sent. “I translate what is in front of me … I did not add them,” she told Mail­Online. The other translator, Nellie Keukelaar, did not comment.

Scobie, 42, said last week that he did not include the names when he gave the manuscript to his publisher. When told that Scobie had denied the names were in his manuscript, Peters said: “I don’t know why he would say that. I have been translating for many years. This is the first time anything like this has happened. This is not something I wanted to be involved in. This has been upsetting.”

[From The Times]

I genuinely believe Scobie’s denials, that he never included the names in any drafts he turned in, and here’s a question I have for the lawyers: even if Scobie did turn in a draft with the names, wouldn’t legal have caught it immediately and shut it down? It makes zero sense for the names to have been included in earlier drafts, only to be edited out at the last moment… especially with Scobie saying repeatedly that he never included the names in the first place. As I said up top, be mindful of the Murdoch connections here – is someone trying to set up Omid Scobie?

Note by CB: Get the Top 8 stories from Omid Scobie’s Endgame when you sign up for our mailing list! I only send one email a day on weekdays.

Photos courtesy of Scobie’s IG and a screencap from the BBC.

Since 2020, we’ve heard that Prince William “absolutely f–king hates” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. We’ve heard it over and over again, that William despises them, that he will never forgive them, that he follows their movements obsessively because of his hatred, that he will travel to America more often because he loathes Harry so much, that the next time William will speak to Harry, it will be at their father’s funeral. The problem is that William clearly has no more threats left, no more punishments, nothing more to withhold. If he’s been a violent, simmering ball of rage for years, why does it matter if he’s particularly mad this week over Omid Scobie’s Endgame? Welcome to Tom Sykes’ Royalist column in the Daily Beast, where “sources close to William” once again meet a crisis with nothing but rage.

The naming of Kate Middleton as one of the alleged ‘royal racists’ means Kate and Prince William will never reconcile with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, a friend of William and Kate’s told The Daily Beast.

While King Charles is expected to continue to maintain cordial relations with his son, and contact with his grandchildren, William and Kate will have “zero interest” in ever seeing Harry and Meghan again, the friend said.

The friend admitted they had “no idea” before this week’s revelation that Kate was being referred to by Meghan Markle when she told Oprah Winfrey that a family member had raised “concerns” about “how dark” Archie’s skin might be.

They said they were “as shocked as everyone else” by the dramatic developments this week, which saw the king and Kate named as the individuals in question in a Dutch-language version of Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame.

However they added, “It has been clear for a long time to anyone who knows them that they don’t want to see Harry and Meghan. Now we know why. They will have zero interest in ever seeing them again.”

Although Meghan’s camp have briefed the Telegraph that she did not leak the letter to Scobie, the suspicion that she did is widespread among royal insiders.

One former courtier told The Daily Beast: “It is pretty obvious that detail on the contents of a letter between two people would have to come from one of those people, and it’s hard to see Charles sharing it.”

The Sun has previously reported that palace insiders believe Meghan did share the contents of the letter, citing sources as saying: “That letter is under lock and key and no one from within the king’s circle would’ve briefed anyone about its contents. In all likelihood, it must have been the Sussex camp which leaked the names. It’s a nasty and deliberate attack.”

[From The Daily Beast]

I’m a broken record about this, I know, but how f–king stupid are all of these people? Are they legitimately this dumb, or is it all some kind of elaborate feint so the peasants don’t catch wind of what’s actually happening? As Omid Scobie and Piers Morgan have said, the names of the royal racists have been known by British journalists for some time, I would imagine for years. Journalists knew the names before we even heard any reporting on the letters exchanged between Charles and Meghan – the letters were exchanged in 2021, and we learned of the existence of the letters in April of this year. Meghan didn’t leak the existence of the letters – Buckingham Palace did. Besides that, my larger point is that the knowledge of the identities predates the letters. Someone could know the identities of the royal racists without seeing the letters exchanged by Meghan and Charles. As for Peg & Buttons’ hatred… snooze. It’s sad that even in the middle of a racist storm, they come across as desperate for attention.

Note by CB: Get the Top 8 stories from Omid Scobie’s Endgame when you sign up for our mailing list! I only send one email a day on weekdays.

Photos courtesy of Instar.

There have been so many references to the Sussexes’ 2021 Oprah interview in recent weeks. Truly, one of the defining cultural moments of the past decade. Something I’ve been thinking about, which never gets as much attention, is that in the wake of the interview, Meghan’s friends all came out and issued statements of support, praising her as an amazing person, telling the world that the British media and the Windsors had smeared and maligned their friend. What’s funny is… no one can do that for Kate, the Princess of Wales. When Kate was named as one of the “racist royals” in a mistranslated Dutch edition of Endgame, there was no big outpouring of support for Kate. Probably because most people believe that she really is racist. And because she has no friends other than the sanctimonious white supremacist Karens in the British media. Speaking of, Camilla Tominey had some thoughts:

In Endgame, his second hagiography of Harry and Meghan, author Omid Scobie variously describes the Princess of Wales as “cold”, “keen” and “inscrutable”. Damning the Princess with faint praise, he writes: “Comfortable in her role, willing to bring the requisite smile and elegance to her duties as princess, Kate glides under the radar.”

He refers to an incident when he saw Kate in “fits of giggles”, and suggests the future Queen should reveal more of herself: “I always thought this more frank, real side of the sometimes Stepford-like royal wife was something that others should see more of.”

While I agree the Princess should be heard as well as seen, where has oversharing ever got the Royals? Both the King and Diana, the late Princess of Wales, bitterly regretted pouring their hearts out on prime time.

Harry and Meghan have been forced to row back on some of the more outrageous claims they made in their Oprah Winfrey interview, which has since become a parody of itself. Their repeated outpourings have only served to diminish them in the eyes of a cringing global public. That South Park episode, featuring a young royal couple who move to a small town in search of privacy while simultaneously constantly drawing attention to themselves, said it all.

Conversely, it is precisely because Kate is not a brash blabbermouth that she remains so endearingly popular. Like the late Queen, she is a reluctant royal. She’s an introvert. She’s a conflict avoider. She keeps calm and carries on. She’s very English – which perhaps goes a long way to explaining why she didn’t get on with an uninhibited, over-confident American.

Scobie suggests that “on more recent occasions, Kate has jokingly shivered when Meghan’s name has come up around her.” Who can blame her? She has repeatedly been thrown under a bus by her sister-in-law, seemingly for committing the crime of seeing straight through her meaningless word salad and tiresome pursuit of victimhood. And this is precisely why Endgame won’t damage the Princess of Wales in the slightest.

The mystique that surrounds Kate, unlike Meghan, means no attack will stick, because all anyone sees of the Princess is her public service. She’s full of grace, whereas Team Sussex seem to be full of hate. It’s a classic case of class versus brass.

[From The Telegraph]

“His second hagiography of Harry and Meghan” – Endgame is barely about the Sussexes, and I always use “hagiography” to describe Kate’s sugary, obvious PR from people like Katie Nicholl. So we know Tominey and the rest of the Telegraph royalists read this blog. “Harry and Meghan have been forced to row back” – where? When? Harry said some dumb sh-t about unconscious bias versus racism (unconscious bias is posh racism, basically) for a solely British audience, but that’s it. I hope Trey Parker is cutting Tominey a check for how often she name-checks South Park, a show very few people watch and a show which has not been culturally relevant in twenty years.

But here’s the meat of it: “She’s an introvert. She’s a conflict avoider. She keeps calm and carries on. She’s very English – which perhaps goes a long way to explaining why she didn’t get on with an uninhibited, over-confident American.” Kate is a sh-t stirring drama queen, habitual flasher and racist who actively participated in a years-long sustained smear campaign against an “over-confident American.” And Kate still tries to copy every f–king thing Meghan has ever done. “Over-confident” is a racist dog-whistle too – how dare a Black woman be confident, much less OVER confident? Anyway, it’s funny that these are the only people who defend Kate – the dregs of the British media, desperately trying to embiggen this ridiculous and stupid woman.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Remember when BBC Radio personality Danny Baker tweeted a photo comparing Prince Archie to a chimp? Remember when Boris Johnson’s sister wrote about then-Meghan Markle’s “exotic” DNA “thickening” the royal bloodline? Remember when the Duchess of Sussex was suicidal and begging the institution for mental health treatment? Remember when several royals had several conversations expressing their concerns over how dark Archie would be? What do all of those incidents have in common? During absolutely zero of those scandals, controversies or pleas for help did the Windsor clan offer public or private support to Prince Harry or Meghan. At no point did they treat Meghan with care, empathy, concern or love. Instead, they told her to suck it up, stop whining, stop talking about race, stop expecting anyone to help. Now that King Charles and the Princess of Wales have been curiously outed as royal racists, suddenly those salty folks are now demanding that Harry and Meghan speak up in their defense. How the white supremacist worm turns.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been urged to speak out in defence of the King and Princess of Wales, as leading public figures rallied to support them against accusations of racism.

Prince Harry and Meghan have so far remained silent after the pair were named as the royals alleged to have made remarks about their unborn child’s skin colour.

The identities first emerged this week in the Dutch translation of a new royal book, Endgame, by Omid Scobie, before being reported by news organisations worldwide including, on Friday morning, the BBC.

Buckingham Palace maintains that “all options” are still open for their own response, as the King flies home from the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai and into discussions about how to deal with the row.

However, a source close to the family urged the Sussexes to speak out and defend their relatives.

They told The Telegraph: “For the couple that talked about ‘death by a thousand no comments’, the silence at this point is deafening.”

Another pointedly described the decision not to respond to the claims as “interesting”, given the Sussexes made repeated complaints about being left undefended against negative press stories themselves while at the palace. Sources close to the Sussexes have previously emphasised that the Duke and Duchess have not said that either the comments or those who made them were “racist”.

[From The Telegraph]

If I’m being honest, I wish Meghan would speak out, not in defense of Charles or Kate, but simply to clarify who said what. Enough with the mystery – let’s have it all out there on the record, in her own words. I know she is unlikely to do that now or anytime soon, but I hope at some point we get that. As for the present Windsor crisis… this might be the biggest FAFO I’ve seen in years. Are they really expecting Meghan to come out and say “on second thought, being concerned about how dark my babies’ skin would be wasn’t racist at all, you guys!” Again, think of all the mental gymnastics taking place – as Omid Scobie and Piers Morgan have made clear, all of Fleet Street has known for years who said and did racist sh-t to Meghan, and they know because their palace sources have been spilling their guts for years. Meghan has never backed down from what she said in the Oprah interview, and she named the racists in her letters to Charles. Why all of this performative bullsh-t?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Omid Scobie’s Endgame was published by HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corp, which is owned by the Murdoch family. The only print interview Scobie did in the British media (that I saw) was in the Times of London, which is one piece of the Murdochs’ print-media empire. While the Times ran several stories about Endgame and they even referred to Scobie as “Harry and Meghan’s cheerleader/biggest fan,” the outlet has not devoted any space to the Dutch-edition of Endgame “naming” the racist royals. It seems that this is being dealt with in-house, and until then, News Corp isn’t throwing Scobie under the bus. It’s fascinating to watch the Times go radio silent on that part of the story, especially given the howling in the Mail, Telegraph, Express and Mirror. I’m very curious to see how that part of the story plays out, honestly.

So, with corporate seemingly dictating that no royal reporter can dig around the Dutch mistranslation, what’s a royal reporter like Roya Nikkhah to do? It sounds like she just ran whatever dumbf–k story Kensington Palace handed her on a plate. Behold, Harry and Meghan are not invited to a fancy society wedding in the UK. Oh noes, you guys.

If the Duke and Duchess of Sussex need any reminder of the fault lines caused by the royal rift, it will come next summer at the wedding of Prince Harry’s lifelong friend Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster. The King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales are on the invitation list for what will be the society wedding of the year, when Grosvenor, 32, marries Olivia Henson, 30, at Chester Cathedral on June 7.

But Harry and Meghan will be notably absent. Grosvenor, one of Britain’s richest men and closest friends of the royal family, has decided to exclude the Sussexes to avoid a family clash in the House of Windsor. It is thought that Prince William is in the running to be best man for Grosvenor, a godfather to Prince George, ten, who is also expected to attend.

Harry and Meghan’s exclusion will [be] a particular blow to the couple because Grosvenor is so close to Harry that it can be revealed that he is also a godfather to the Sussexes’ son, Prince Archie. He is thought to be the only friend of William and Harry’s chosen as a godparent by both. The Sussexes have not publicly named Archie’s godparents, but they include Tiggy Pettifer, a former nanny to William and Harry, Mark Dyer, a former equerry to Charles, and Harry’s friend Charlie van Straubenzee.

Grosvenor, who inherited 140,000 acres of land in Oxfordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Scotland, as well as 300 acres in Mayfair and Belgravia in central London from his father, is the King’s godson and had an official role in Charles’s procession at the coronation in May.

It is understood that he had wanted the Sussexes to attend his wedding and originally planned to invite them, but has decided against it, conscious that the drama surrounding the couple risks overshadowing the day and causing tension for Charles, Camilla, William and Kate. A spokesman for Grosvenor said: “We are not in a position to comment on the guest list.”

A friend of William and Harry’s said: “It’s incredibly sad it has come to this. Hugh is one of very few close friends of William and Harry’s who has maintained strong bonds and a line of communication with both. He wishes they could put their heads together and patch things up, but realises it’s unlikely to happen before the wedding. He wanted to avoid anything overshadowing the day, especially for Olivia, and doesn’t want any awkwardness.”

Meghan may be less disappointed than her husband to miss out on Grosvenor’s wedding celebrations, expected to be held at Eaton Hall, at the heart of his 11,000-acre estate in Cheshire. Scobie has said the duchess is loath to return to England and refuses to “dive back into the soap opera”, a comment that has caused amusement behind palace walls, where the Sussexes’ interview with Winfrey was dubbed “Soap Oprah”.

But for Harry, who was keen to attend one of his oldest and closest friend’s nuptials, it will be a bitter reminder of the repercussions of his departure from the royal fold. Last month a friend of the couple said the Sussexes would “not decline an invitation to spend time with His Majesty” over the Christmas or summer holidays at Sandringham or Balmoral, noting that “as of yet, there have not been any invitations for the holidays”. But with mutual friends of Charles and the Sussexes conceding that it is impossible for them to attend the same event, the likelihood of an invitation from the King looks more remote than ever.

[From The Times]

There’s a subset of royal gossip these days which always amounts to “William threw a tantrum, demanded that someone snub Harry, then the person begrudgingly agrees to the snub and William leaks it to ‘punish’ Harry.” See also: President Biden, Dr. Biden, Tom Bradby, David Beckham and more. What happened here is that Hugh Grosvenor wanted to extend an invitation to the Sussexes, then William threw a massive hissy fit, one which threatened to overshadow the nuptials, so Hugh Grosvenor agreed to not invite the Sussexes. Who probably would not have even come in the first place. This was Kensington Palace desperate to announce some “punishment” for Harry and Meghan, and all they could get was “you can’t attend a June wedding or William’s head will explode.” Not really the winning narrative the royal clownshow thinks it is.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.