Tom Sykes does the Royalist column for the Daily Beast. At least once a month, Sykes has an exclusive column about how much Prince William hates his brother. While I don’t doubt that Sykes gets briefings straight from Kensington Palace, I also don’t doubt that William’s “friends” feel like they can speak freely and emphatically about how William is constantly in a state of incandescent rage over all things Harry. I mean, no one is hiding it anymore – every royal reporter says exactly that in so many words. In recent months, we’ve heard from William’s “friends” that William “f–king hates Meghan and Harry now,” that William will not invite his brother to HIS coronation and William thinks Charles is an idiot for extending the invite to Harry. We’ve also heard that William believes that England is “his,” much like he believes Africa is “his” and conservation work is “his.” As in, William doesn’t want Harry to ever step foot in England ever again. Or else what? Or else William will likely violently assault Harry again. In any case, with all of that rage, hatred and violence simmering in England, William is now totally “baffled” why Harry is so reluctant about coming to the coronation.

Prince William is “baffled” by his brother’s reluctance to so far publicly accept his invitation to King Charles’ coronation, a friend of the prince has told The Daily Beast, and thinks Prince Harry is trying to “be difficult” by not announcing his and his wife’s intentions.

Harry and wife Meghan Markle have said that they have been invited to the coronation but have not yet said if they will come. In January, Harry told interviewer Tom Bradby that he needed to have a face to face meeting with his family of origin before attending, and told another interviewer, Bryony Gordon, that he wanted “an apology for my wife,” although without specifically linking it to their attendance at the coronation. Royal sources have insisted that the family will make no such gestures towards Harry and Meghan, firmly believing they have nothing to apologize for.

Meanwhile, the personal friend of William’s, who used to also be friends with Harry but has not maintained the relationship in recent years, told The Daily Beast: “William is baffled by Harry not publicly saying that he is coming to the coronation, especially because everyone thinks he will be there. Relations have never been this bad and it feels like Harry is just stringing it out to try and be difficult, frankly.”

Asked if William thought his brother would ultimately attend, The Daily Beast’s source said, “Everyone thinks he will.”

The king, meanwhile, is “working on the assumption that Harry and Meghan will come,” having not heard anything to the contrary, a friend of the king said, adding that the family and institution as a whole was determined not to be “distracted” by the will-they-won’t-they around Harry and Meghan.

One question likely to be asked in royal circles this weekend—especially if the couple do not make an announcement soon—is how Harry has reacted to the publication of the official coronation invite which unambiguously identified Charles’ wife as “Queen Camilla.”

Asked how William was reacting to Camilla being declared queen, the friend said he “will be enormously supportive.” They said Prince Harry’s description of how he and William had begged their dad not to marry Camilla was “ancient history and completely irrelevant,” and that William was totally focused on supporting his father. They said that while the change in her status from would-be Princess Consort to Queen Consort to Queen Camilla might have appeared rapid to outsiders, it was “no secret” within the family that she “was always going to be queen” and would not likely have come as a surprise to Harry, saying: “This has been on the cards for at least a decade.”

[From The Daily Beast]

This is actually the third piece I’ve read in 24 hours which has made explicit reference to Harry’s January interviews, in which he said outright that one of his preconditions for going to the coronation would be an apology to Meghan. One of the royal courts has briefed The Times, the Daily Mail and now the Daily Beast with the Windsors’ position that no apology will be proffered, that “they have nothing to apologize for,” and that the Windsors have “no desire to pander to his wishes.” Both the Times and the Mail used the word “pander” because (I believe) some courtier used it in the briefing. That’s how they view Harry’s flat request to acknowledge how Meghan was mistreated and have some accountability for everything that went down. That they would be indulging him, pandering to him by acknowledging their sh-tty, racist behavior. So, no apology for Meghan.

Speaking of sh-tty racists, I’m baffled by William’s bafflement here – as I made clear in my opening, William has spent months telling everyone that Harry is basically dead to him, that he f–king hates his brother, that he loathes Meghan and on and on. And now William can’t believe that Harry won’t simply come back when ORDERED. Imagine William being upset because someone else is “difficult.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Keira Knightley is currently promoting Boston Strangler, a film where she plays the real-life Record American reporter Loretta McLaughlin who first referred to the serial killer as “the Boston Strangler” in the 1960s. Keira in a historical drama/thriller? Yes, give it to me. Keira covers Harper’s Bazaar UK to promote the film and she acknowledges that it’s been a while since she’s been on a promotional tour or given an interview to a magazine. She has two daughters, an 8-year-old and a 4-year-old, and she’s still married to James Righton. A big chunk of this interview is Keira talking about how great James is and how he’s a hands-on father who relocates with Keira when she’s filming on location. Some highlights:

She lost her engagement ring on his Bazaar shoot. “I didn’t say anything to my husband when I got home. I’d already been onto the insurance, looked up cheap alternatives online. We were watching TV and I was desperately texting the team to see whether it had been found, and James was like, ‘Who are you texting?!’ I’d make a great spy.” Fortunately, it was found on the balcony and returned to her the next day. “I experienced loss, I came to terms with it, the ring came back. I am whole again.”

The husbands in her friend group are hands-on fathers: “The guys are super-active. Maybe that’s not normal. But [in my situation], it has to be a partnership. The heavy lifting of childcare has to be acknowledged. It’s hard work, it’s vital, it’s undervalued. And it’s so exhausting…. During filming, the hours are unpredictable and extreme. I worked out I needed three people to do what one full-time parent did. When you hear somebody say, ‘I’m just staying home with the kids’, that’s not a ‘just’. That’s a huge thing.”

She dislikes being asked about balance: “We’re constantly asking it, because what we actually want to know is, how are you doing it? Because I don’t feel like I’m doing it.”

Location shoot for ‘Boston Strangler’: “James is a really good traveller – that takes a lot of stress off the logistics. He’s fearless about exploring and doing all the research.” However, they were plunged back into the pandemic as the move coincided with a tidal wave of the Omicron variant. Filming was delayed by 10 days because the whole family caught Covid, and Righton ended up caring for Delilah throughout the production period (which doubled to four months), as group activities were cancelled. “My husband became a full-time dad. I felt a lot of guilt because I had suddenly put my very sociable two-year-old into a situation where she was basically in lockdown the entire time. It was amazingly bad timing. We were foiled by the plague.”

Playing a female journalist: “Women in public spaces – it’s a constant problem. From the everyday office situation, where your voice isn’t being heard, to the most extreme aspect, femicide. The film told an interesting story that covered the whole spectrum.”

Playing Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean. “She was the object of everybody’s lust. Not that she doesn’t have a lot of fight in her. But it was interesting coming from being really tomboyish to getting projected as quite the opposite. I felt very constrained. I felt very stuck. So the roles afterwards were about trying to break out of that.” She considers the period between 2003 and 2008 “a very tricky five-year window… she felt “quite powerless”. “I didn’t have a sense of how to articulate it. It very much felt like I was caged in a thing I didn’t understand.”

Burnout in her 20s: “I was incredibly hard on myself. I was never good enough. I was utterly single-minded. I was so ambitious. I was so driven. I was always trying to get better and better and improve, which is an exhausting way to live your life. Exhausting. I am in awe of my 22-year-old self, because I’d like a bit more of her back. And it’s only by not being like that any longer that I realise how extraordinary it was. But it does have a cost.” What is that cost? “Burnout.” Knightley took two years out from working after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. “There was never an ounce of me that wasn’t going to find a way through.”

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

I remember reading her interviews from her dogsh-t 20s and realizing how overwhelmed and miserable she was during that time. It was like a weight was lifted from her shoulders when she turned 30 and became a mother – it was almost like she was thinking “oh, I don’t have to be the It Girl/ingenue anymore, YAY!” Her husband sounds like a real one, super-supportive of her career and like a really good father. I love that she expected that from him.

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Cover & IG courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar UK.

Carol Burnett is on the cover of People because she turns 90 on April 26. I unapologetically adore Carol and love to see her celebrated whenever possible. She overcame a rough childhood and so many people telling her she wouldn’t/couldn’t make it in her chosen profession. We grew up watching The Carol Burnett Show, which she said she loves to hear. She also told People she can’t grasp the fact that she’s been alive for nine decades. She still feels like a little girl. It’s understandable too, because she still has all her original parts: her knees, her hips, and her brain.

Carol Burnett has been making audiences laugh for decades, picking up six Emmys, six Golden Globes, one Grammy and a Kennedy Center Honor along the way. On April 26, she’ll reach another milestone — turning 90.

“I can’t wrap my head around it,” Burnett tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I still feel like I’m about 11, but I’m amazed. It sure went fast. But I’m glad because I’ve got all my parts — got my hips, I got my knees and I’ve got my brain, so I’m happy about that.”

As a kid growing up in Los Angeles, “I used to pretend to be on a radio show,” Burnett recalls. “I would yell out the window, ‘Now ladies and gentlemen, we have a young girl who is going to sing here without any musical accompaniment. One time, a man next door said, ‘Will you turn that goddamn thing off?’ And I thought, ‘I’m a hit. They think it’s real.’”

“I was pretty much of a quiet student all through grammar school, junior high and Hollywood High,” Burnett says. “I would kid around with my friends, the neighborhood kids, stuff like that. But I never really thought about it until I got to UCLA and I was in an acting class. A lot of the kids at the class were doing heavy, dramatic stuff and I thought, I can’t do that. So I picked something light and they laughed. That’s when the bug bit.”

Burnett simply wants her legacy to be that “I made people laugh, made them feel good when they might have been down,” she says. “In my fan mail, many say it was the only time the family would get together, to watch and laugh. And that sometimes they were lonesome and were cheered up by our show. That’s a good feeling.”

[From People]

I’m shocked that Carol has not replaced her hips or knees if that’s what she’s saying. She’s in dynamite shape. And still very sharp. She’s still working, the article said she has a new project coming out for Apple TV+ called Palm Royale. I don’t have a lot of desire to stick around past my 70s, but if I must, I want to do it like Carol or Rita Moreno or Betty White – just as active and vibrant as ever. I wouldn’t mind their bank accounts either.

The article lists many of Carol’s roles, of which there are plenty. One role I think gets largely overlooked is she was fantastic as the voice of Kangaroo in Horton Hears a Who! I realize out of all the iconic roles she’s done that’s a bizarre one to pick, but she was that good. Like I said, I like Carol in everything she does. I’ve even seen her live. Last time I wrote about her I told you some of my favorite skits so now I’ll let you tell me yours. To celebrate Carol properly, NBC is doing a two-hour special called Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love. It will feature famous folks, some who appeared on her variety shows like Cher and Julie Andrews, and some who just adore her like Steve Carrell and Billy Porter. It will air at 8PM on April 26 and stream on Peacock the next day. While searching photos I saw that Vicki Lawrence and Bob Mackie will both be there. So will Bernadette Peters, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Kristin Chenoweth, Sutton Foster and Susan Lucci, among many others.

Photo credit: People and Cover Images

Shortly after Donald Trump’s Tuesday arraignment, he flew back to Florida and gave an unhinged speech at Mar-a-Lago. His supporters were there, his lawyers were presumably there and of course the media was there, feeding on all of the MAGAness. But two people were notably absent: Ivanka Trump and Melania Trump. Ivanka is desperately trying to separate herself from all things Diaper Don. Melania just doesn’t give a sh-t. Meaning, it’s not even like Melania is making an effort to distance herself. The distance was already there. The ambivalence was already there. Melania is just… going to the spa and spending time with her parents. Donald Trump didn’t even thank his wife during his speech. Well, now Stephanie Winston Wolkoff – who used to work for Melania until the Trumps turned on her – has some sh-t to say about what Melania thinks about all of this mess.

Former Melania aide and best friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff — who previously revealed the former first lady privately referred to Daniels as “the porn hooker” — told Page Six, “Melania lives in an ivory tower of denial.”

Wolkoff, a former senior Vogue staffer who was Melania’s advisor until 2018, said of the former first lady’s absence at Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom, “I never expected to see her there. Her silence is deliberate, it is her weapon of choice and her protective armor. Of course she knows about Donald’s affairs, she knows everything. But her silence is her dignity. She will stand by her husband, as she always does. I don’t think Melania is humiliated by his affairs — but she is angry.”

But that doesn’t mean she’s going anywhere. “Still she isn’t leaving him,” Wolkoff added. “This is a transactional marriage, she knew what she was getting into when she married Donald. Her means of survival is to just act like it never happened. Privately, Melania says people are just jealous, and she hoped the Stormy Daniels scandal would be swept under the carpet. Her way of coping is to never let her feelings show or affect her. I predict we will see her back at his side at the next social event at Mar-a-Lago.”

Wolkoff added Melania would go to great lengths to avoid situations where she might be quizzed by the media about her husband: “Melania believes she doesn’t have to answer or explain herself to anyone, so she’s not going to put herself in that position.”

Wolkoff also writes in her tell-all memoir, “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,” about how “I’d known all along how impenetrable and unflappable she was, but it wasn’t until after hearing the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape or about the affairs, I had no idea of her grit.

“Not many people could bear having their lives ripped open and all their regretful, hateful, humiliating moments splayed out for the world to see and judge. Melania and Donald, a perfect match, could tolerate any amount of ridicule and flick it aside. I always interpreted that as her resigning herself to an unconventional marriage or household and having no expectations of Donald as a faithful husband or doting father.”

[From Page Six]

I’m obviously no fan of Melania and I think she’s just as much of an idiot and loser as her husband. But… out of all of her options, Melania is kind of choosing the right one for her, in her situation? Gritty silence isn’t what most women would choose, but I can totally understand why it’s the right choice for Mel. She doesn’t care about her husband, she isn’t his moral support and she refuses to make an effort at anything. So, why would she change an arrangement which suits her just fine? She lounges around Mar-a-Lago, she pampers herself, she spends time with her son and her parents and nothing can rock that boat. Now, Melania is absolutely humiliated. But she’s willing to swallow that every day to keep her lifestyle.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Joker: Folie a Deux has wrapped and they released this photo of Lady Gaga as Harleen Frances Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn. [JustJared]
Lainey on Queen Camilla’s side chick DNA. [LaineyGossip]
Anne Hathaway went to Tokyo to get that money. [GFY]
This Jacquemus stunt was amazing? [OMG Blog]
On one side, no one should get shot. On the other side, these YouTubers need to learn to stop pranking people for content. [Dlisted]
Review of the Super Mario Bros Movie. [Pajiba]
Don Lemon exposed as a misogynist douchebag. [Jezebel]
Rachel Brosnahan wore Altuzarra to Paleyfest. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Jennifer Aniston & David Schwimmer once had a crush on each other. [Buzzfeed]
Pope Francis: Sex is a beautiful thing. [Towleroad]
Dove Cameron’s confusing tattoo. [Egotastic]

April 3rd was supposed to be the imaginary cut-off date to RSVP for King Charles’s coronation. I’m not entirely sure about that date, I think it was more likely the British media’s imaginary cut-off date, especially given that Buckingham Palace only released a copy of the paper invitation this week. Still, it’s been utter silence from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex about their coronation plans. Public silence, but also… silence privately, in their communications with the palace. I still do not believe that Harry and his father have actually spoken, so this is a case of palace minions being tasked with barraging the Sussexes with questions about whether they’ll come and issuing threats about how badly they’ll be treated when they come. Speaking of, both Page Six and the Daily Mail had updates and they’re just as nervous as can be:

Plans are being finalized for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to jet to the UK for Prince Charles’ coronation, multiple sources tell Page Six. There is just a month to go before the coronation at Westminster Abbey in London and a royal insider told Page Six: “There have been lengthy discussions between the Sussexes and the palace, there is a time crunch on this, of course. It’s such a historical event and it’s hoped that Harry and Meghan will be there.”

The ultimate decision still lies in Harry’s hands as one highly-placed source admitted: “All families are difficult, but this is no normal family, of course. Harry has a lot of questions about how the event will work.”

Conversations are on-going about whether the Princess of Wales will wear a tiara to the coronation – she has previously worn Princess Diana’s favorite headpiece, the Lover’s Knot tiara. However, Markle, 41, is unlikely to have access to the family jewels, aside from what Harry has gifted her already, royal sources said.

The Sussexes are fully aware that it’s a case of “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” and that all eyes will be on them on the day, we’re told.

[From Page Six]

“Plans are being finalized” and yet the Sussexes haven’t actually confirmed anything. All the palace has is “hope.” It’s a treading water story – we’ve heard for weeks now that the palace is organizing everything with the belief that the Sussexes will be there, even though they haven’t confirmed. The only new piece of info is that the palace will absolutely never, ever loan Meghan any jewelry! So stupid. Well, the Daily Mail had more on Panic At the Palace:

Royal insiders say they are still ‘none the wiser’ as to whether Harry and Meghan plan to come to the Coronation, despite the deadline for RSVPs closing on Monday. Sources have said that the April 3 cut-off date has now passed and staff have still not been told whether the King’s estranged son and his wife are accepting his invitation to attend, even though the event is now just a month away.

The issue is said to be causing a ‘headache’ for organisers, who are trying to finalise details such as seating arrangements, cars, and security for VIPs attending the historic ceremony on May 6. And even if they did decide to attend, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would not be allowed to stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony next to the King and Queen because they are no longer working royals.

The monarch will be joined by a select few who show the ‘heartbeat and future of his family’ and who have dedicated their lives to public service. Charles and Camilla will arrive at Buckingham Palace from Westminster Abbey in a Gold State coach, followed by the ‘final group of 15’ which would not make room for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on Harry and Meghan’s non-RSVP, although an aide said it was unlikely there would be such a strict cut-off date for family members as there would be other guests. But one source said: ‘Everything is still up in the air and there’s only a month to go. All people have been told is that ‘it should hopefully be resolved soon’. But in the meantime the teams are trying to finalise plans for 2,000 guests, many of whom are international heads of state and VIPs. It’s a headache.’

A game of transatlantic ‘ping pong’ has apparently been going on for weeks now about arrangements should the Sussexes attend. In the meantime Buckingham Palace staff have been ordered to plan as if they were coming, suggesting it wasn’t a definite and immediate ‘no’.

But this is causing problems for staff, who say: ‘Switching things like seating arrangements are fairly easy. But the thing that is causing more of a headache, is the security, cars and other logistical matters. Any plans that mesh with the rest of the family are more important and problematic. There’s clearly a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of talks between members of the family and their offices. But at this stage in proceedings people could just do with some clarity. There are now two plans, one for if they do come and another if they don’t. It’s another layer of responsibility that staff could do without.’

Another family friend said it seemed deeply ‘unfair’ to the King and Queen Consort to have uncertainty over the Sussexes hanging over their heads when they just wanted to get on and plan ‘such a wonderful and historic day of celebration. Regardless of everything that’s happened, a simple yes or no would be polite and suffice,’ they added.

[From The Daily Mail]

It just occurred to me now – I know, I’m ridiculous – that some of the palace briefings are not coming from a place of “Poor Charles doesn’t know if Harry will come to his Chubbly,” but rather from a place of “palace staff are lazy, incompetent whiners and they can’t believe that they have to do SO MUCH WORK to organize this fakakta coronation.” All of these tantrums about organizing seating arrangements, security, cars – those are not Charles’s complaints, those are complaints from his lazy staff. As for the balcony stuff – how many times are they going to use the balcony thing as a punishment? No one cares about the stupid all-white balcony, KKKing Charles.

Note by Celebitchy: Sign up for our mailing list and get the Top 8 Stories about whether the Sussexes will go to the Chubbly! I only send one email a day on weekdays after lunch.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

A few weeks ago, the Telegraph ran a story about how Prince William and Kate’s three children will all be included in their grandfather’s coronation in some way. We now know that Prince George will be a page, alongside one of Rose Hanbury’s sons and all of Queen Camilla’s grandchildren. I believed, at the time, that William and Kate wanted to make a point of trotting out all three kids, not only because those kids are their little buffers, but because they want to ensure that the coronation isn’t a full-on Parker Bowles event. Like, Camilla’s side of the family will be much more thoroughly represented. If the Sussexes skip the Struggly, it will just be William and his kids, holding down the “Charles line.” Except now it looks like Prince Louis’s participation is up in the air.

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s youngest child’s presence at King Charles III’s upcoming coronation is still up in the air. Prince Louis might not attend the May 6 ceremony due to his behavior at past events, a palace source exclusively tells Page Six.

The insider adds, “He’s only 4, after all.”

However, the little one’s older sister, Princess Charlotte, will be in attendance, the palace source says. As for Prince George, the 9-year-old was named in the official invitation as one of the monarch’s page boys.

An official Kensington Palace spokesperson tells us, “The Prince and Princess of Wales will make a decision on Prince Louis’ attendance closer to the time.”

Louis isn’t the only royal family member whose presence at next month’s event is still uncertain. While a spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle confirmed last month that the California-based couple have been invited, they have yet to publicly accept or decline the offer.

[From Page Six]

What’s changed in three weeks, I wonder? If anything, seeing Camilla trot around and make the coronation all about her victory lap should make William spit with rage and demand that all of his kids be front and center. My guess is that the kids have been out of school on their Easter break, and William and Kate have been trying to prepare Louis for the event and Louis will not be tamed, trained or pacified. The last thing anyone wants is Louis running up to Charles and covering the king’s mouth in the middle of the coronation.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid, Instar.

A year ago, Queen Elizabeth tasked then-Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall to attend the Royal Maundy service in her place. What Charles and Camilla didn’t know was that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in Windsor and about to make a surprise visit to QEII. QEII wasn’t surprised – she clearly invited them, and she asked Harry to speak to his father before he and Meghan left Windsor. That’s why Charles and Camilla hauled ass out of the church service and booked it to the castle, to catch the Sussexes before they left. Whenever anyone mentions “the Royal Maundy service,” I now think of that – the Sussexes managing to slip into Windsor without anyone knowing.

Well, now that Charles is king, he’s still doing the Maundy service. Camilla was with him today and they did the whole thing in York this year. The service was presided over by the Dean of York and the Archbishop of York. Charles handed out two special purses of “Maundy money” to 74 men and 74 women. Within the purses were commemorative coins marking Charles’s upcoming 75th birthday and the 75th anniversary of the Windrush generation. The Maundy money tradition dates back to 1210.

Interestingly enough, the king and queen were protested at the cathedral. There were Republic-organized protesters just across the street, holding signs and yelling. Those bells were trying to compete with the protesters!

Charles turned up – we let him know that he’s not our king. #NotMyKing #AbolishTheMonarchy pic.twitter.com/bL9w0dAfcl

— Republic (@RepublicStaff) April 6, 2023

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Every so often, a British outlet – usually the Guardian – will attempt to do some real reporting on the British monarchy and their secretive finances. While the details of the Sovereign Grant are made public every year, the SG is far from the Windsors’ only source of income. The monarch has access to the vast resources of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the heir (the Prince of Wales) has access to the Duchy of Cornwall. Both duchies are billion-dollar portfolios of real estate and investments. Personally, I believe that Charles spent a significant amount of time William-proofing the Duchy of Cornwall, so that when William became the PoW, he wouldn’t loot the entire duchy and spend money like a drunken sailor. In any case, the Guardian has done a new series about the secretive money situations of the royal family – you can read one of the pieces here. Some highlights:

The money from the duchies: King Charles and the late Queen Elizabeth II have received payments equivalent to more than £1bn from two land and property estates that are at the centre of a centuries-old debate over whether their profits should be given to the public instead.

The duchies of Lancaster & Cornwall. The duchies operate as professionally run real estate empires that manage swathes of farmland, hotels, medieval castles, offices, shops and some of London’s prime luxury real estate. They also have substantial investment portfolios, but pay no corporation tax or capital gains tax. Duchy accounts, held in parliamentary and state archives, reveal how the queen and her first-born son, in his capacity as the Duke of Cornwall, benefited from a huge increase in their revenues from the duchies during her seven-decade reign. Last year, their duchy income totalled £41.8m. Adjusting for inflation, the pair have received the equivalent of more than £1.2bn in total revenues from the two estates.

The profits: Profits from the Duchy of Lancaster, which consists of 18,481 hectares of rural land, primarily in the north of England and the Midlands, automatically pass to whoever is sitting on the throne. The estate itself is valued at £652m. The Duchy of Cornwall, which encompasses 52,450 hectares, mostly in the south-west of England, is worth more than £1bn. The estate has not kept pace with legislation, passed in 2013, to bring gender equality into royal succession. Its profits still only go automatically to the male heir to the throne.

The Windsors’ claim to the duchies: The royal family’s claim to the income from the duchies stems from archaic charters dating back to when the country was divided into medieval fiefdoms. Ever since the advent of parliamentary democracy, however, generations of MPs have challenged the arrangement and called for duchy profits to be paid to the Treasury instead. Parliamentary debate has often coincided with the accession of a new monarch, amid renewed scrutiny over their public and private sources of wealth.

The Windsors refuse to spend their own money: The royals insist their duchy income is “private” and the government treats it as entirely separate from the sovereign grant, the annual payment the royal family receives from the government to cover its official costs. That too has risen dramatically in recent times, and costs the taxpayer £86m a year. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the Guardian’s figures for income received from the duchies, which it described as “speculative”.

The Windsors claim to spend their duchy money: The palace has long stated that income received from both duchies is largely spent on the family’s official duties, public work or charitable causes. However, the royals have never provided a detailed account of how money from the estates is spent, describing them as “private financial arrangements”. Charles has reported that 49% to 51% of his duchy income was spent covering public and charitable functions in recent years.

How the duchy money is really spent: As Prince of Wales, a large part of Charles’s duchy income was spent privately, including on secretaries, valets, gardeners, chefs, stable hands and farm workers. The late queen was reported to have used Duchy of Lancaster income to help Prince Andrew pay an undisclosed sum – reported to be more than £9m – to end the sexual assault case filed against him by Virginia Giuffre.

[From The Guardian]

There’s more about how little transparency there is with how the duchies function, where the money goes and how the money is spent. This… seems like a pretty easy fix? I’m sure the part about “wanting duchy profits to go to the government” wouldn’t be an easy fix, but the transparency issue is an easy fix – simply pass a transparency law which applies to the monarchy. Audit the f–kers. Make them do the f–king paperwork and file taxes. Tell the royals they can still keep the profits, but everything has to be above-board and taxed. Why does the British government allow for this issue to still be shrouded in so much secrecy? This isn’t a security issue!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

Megan Fox & Machine Gun Kelly are vacationing together in Hawaii? I guess Megan took him back. Ugh, I hate this. [Dlisted]
Kate Bosworth & Justin Long confirm their engagement. [Pajiba]
Country music people did not like Gwen Stefani’s CMA look. [LaineyGossip]
Rachel Zegler wore a lacy dress which does not suit her. [Go Fug Yourself]
Adriana Lima will be the face of Victoria’s Secret new perfume. [RCFA]
Southern Charm’s Craig Conover is… kind of hot? [Starcasm]
Allison Williams looks nice in black velvet. [Just Jared]
WTF is Bari Weiss’s problem? She’s just the worst. [Jezebel]
Jordana Brewster is getting into adventures in Mexico. [Egotastic]
Dandelion children versus Orchid children. [Buzzfeed]
The Muppets are back! (On Disney+) [Seriously OMG]
Dude lost his job, why would he shut down his OnlyFans? [Towleroad]