Dollar Tree made the transition to start charging $1.25 for their products in locations around the US in 2021. At the same time, they launched a section called Plus, which has products costing up to $5, including slightly higher end decorative items. A few months ago they announced plans to charge up to $7 for items. They’re also soft launching $1.50 price points, making many people wonder when their inflation will end. In the meantime they’re closing some of their confusingly titled Family Dollar stores, which they also own, and have acquired 99 Cent Stores. (All of these stores are not to be confused with Dollar General, which is owned by a different company and has its own issues.) The maybe positive news is that Dollar Tree, Inc. has purchased 170 99 Cents Only stores, where I hope they’ll stick to the original intent of Dollar Tree with all items under a dollar.

Dollar Tree Inc. is acquiring 99 Cents Only Store’s intellectual property in North America as its competitor goes out of business. The dollar store acquired the IP alongside the designation rights of 170 99 Cents Only stores in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas.

The discount retailer said Thursday via email to sister site Retail Dive that the stores would be turned into Dollar Tree locations, but didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about what it plans to do with 99 Cents Only’s intellectual property. The deal also included the acquisition of select furniture, fixtures and equipment.

“Dollar Tree looks forward to welcoming customers from 99 Cents Only Stores as early as fall 2024,” the company said in a Wednesday announcement.

[From GroceryDive.com]

I’ve shopped at Dollar Tree for years and I love how you can get products that are several dollars more at stores like Home Depot, Lowes and CVS. The greeting cards at Dollar Tree are decent and you can save quite a bit of money if you check Dollar Tree first for cards. I often remind myself to check Dollar Tree for things I would typically get at another store. With the price changes, Dollar Tree is no longer competitive with Walmart for many items though.

The 25% price increase is not cost prohibitive for many people, but many others rely on Dollar Tree for their staple items and have felt the crunch. With the move to buy .99 Cent stores, maybe they’ll expand the offerings at those stores. It remains to be seen whether they’ll rebrand them and charge more, but of course that’s also a possibility. None of these companies are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and that’s understandable, but I wish they would reduce CEO compensation and pay more attention to employee wages and the needs of lower income consumers.

As I’ve mentioned before, I regularly watch Dollar Tree haul, organization and crafting videos on YouTube. One of my favorite recent videos is from Catherine from Do It on a Dime. She reorganized a very cluttered bathroom using Dollar Tree products, all while emphasizing that there’s no reason to feel shame or guilt around a messy space. If you struggle with being organized and/or keeping your home clean I highly recommend the book How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis. Catherine’s videos also have a lot of tips and tricks to getting your spaces organized.

Here’s what I wrote in November, 2021, about my favorite Dollar Tree channels:

Also I watch a lot of Dollar Tree shopping and DIY videos. I’m not particularly crafty but I find them soothing and I like seeing what people come up with. My favorites are Bargain Bethany, She So CraftDee, Glue Guns and Roses, Do It on a Dime, and ChicOnTheCheap. Sometimes I just like to watch women shopping because I also find that relaxing. PrettyNflawed is so great for that.

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Photos are screenshots from Bargain Bethany and Do it on a Dime YouTube videos and via Instagram

Prince William has spent the past five days furiously briefing everyone that he is an “emerging statesman” and world-class diplomat following his appearance in Normandy last week. The man barely managed to avoid tripping over his d-ck and he’s begging for all of the gold stars now. What’s particularly amazing is that this new “Huevo is a for-real global statesman” campaign comes after he’s had one of the worst years of his life when it comes to his image and credibility. His wife has disappeared, his office has been caught up in several major lies, the international media publicly blasted William’s lack of credibility and he’s repeatedly stepped out to public events looking and acting drunk. It also doesn’t help that William has all of the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Behold, the latest keen statesman garbage.

The British monarchy is in good hands as Prince William has stepped into a more senior leadership role while his wife and father are being treated for cancer, a royal expert has told Newsweek. Since his accession to the title of Prince of Wales in September 2022, William has stepped into a more prominent role within the monarchy and British life, something Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal commentator, told Newsweek was a natural progression for him as an emerging statesman.

“William has long been regarded as the perfect diplomat,” Fitzwilliams said. “It was he who was chosen as the first royal to pay an official visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2018, which he carried out superbly. Last year he made a surprise visit to British troops on the border with Ukraine. He also made a plea for a permanent peace in Gaza in February.”

“He is a fine public speaker,” Fitzwilliams continued. “His address on Juno Beach, at the official Canadian celebrations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, was superb. At the international ceremony on Omaha Beach, where he represented his father, King Charles, who is undergoing cancer treatment, it was a significant moment for him, being alongside 24 world leaders.”

“He is used to lobbying at the top,” Fitzwilliams said. “Whether it is President Xi about the illegal ivory trade or President Biden when in the United States for the Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony. He and Catherine are the future of the monarchy. It must be a very difficult time for him whilst she fights serious illness, but it is in good hands with him as the future king,” the royal commentator continued.

[From Newsweek]

He thinks he can just make these pronouncements to reporters, the reporters will dutifully parrot his talking points and everyone will be like “yes, this checks out!” William has NEVER been regarded as “the perfect diplomat,” nor is he currently regarded as an emerging statesman. He’s almost 42 years old and he’s scared of doing royal tours because he’s incapable of behaving like anything other than a racist and a colonizer. His father has never trusted him to carry out international work or diplomacy, for good reason – William is at best a gaffe-machine and at worst, one of the dumbest royals ever.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Instar.

Here are some photos of Jennifer Lopez at Giorgio Baldi on Sunday night. I’ve seen some outlets claim that she was “dining alone,” but she was clearly out with a couple of girlfriends and one of those ladies drove J.Lo away from the restaurant. Giorgio Baldi is one of the most popular restaurants in LA and it’s become something of a celebrity hot-spot. During Rihanna’s pregnancies, she was there practically every week, sometimes multiple times a week. My point is that J.Lo knew she would be photographed and she either wanted to be seen or she didn’t care that she was seen. Considering the weekend was full of “imminent divorce” rumors, it feels like Jennifer wanted to be seen out and about. Is the message “I’m not hiding away?”

Notably, Jennifer is still wearing her wedding band and her green-diamond engagement ring. She’s been wearing her wedding ring this whole time, I think? Meanwhile, Ben has been seen recently without his ring at times, and wearing his ring at other times. You guys know I don’t put a lot of stock in Ring Watch, but I do think Jen is sending a message by getting pap’d this weekend with her rings. ET also confirmed that Jen and Ben are “quietly” trying to offload their $60.8 million Beverly Hills mansion, which seems to be the root of the divorce rumors in recent days. Maybe it’s just… selling a house which doesn’t work for them, but Ben and Jennifer are still working on their marriage?

And finally, Meghan McCain recently said that when J.Lo appeared on The View, Jen was “deeply unpleasant” and “not a nice person.” Again, that’s coming from Meghan McCain, who is one of the biggest a–holes in the country.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Last month, I said that it felt like a major turning point when Prince Harry’s spokesperson issued a statement saying that his father is too busy to meet him. The statement itself was a turning point – it obviously came after King Charles and his courtiers were playing all sorts of foolish games with Harry – but the reaction from the palace also marked a turning point too. Buckingham Palace threw a full-on tantrum for two solid weeks, giving contradictory briefings to their media allies and making increasingly wild and bizarre claims about Harry. Ever since, Buckingham Palace has been trying to backtrack and play off their own craziness and go back to “business as usual.” Oh, of course Charles wants to see Harry, oh of course Charles wants a relationship with his Sussex children, of course Charles is a wonderful grandfather and not a spiteful, bitter and petty old man. Speaking of:

The King has committed himself to building a relationship with Prince Harry’s children and to be present in their lives, sources say. The monarch, who has been having treatment for cancer since February, has told friends he is not content with only seeing them on video calls after meeting Archie, five, only a handful of times and two-year-old Lilibet once. His decision to step up efforts to become more involved comes as it can be revealed he sent Lili a “heartfelt gift and card” on her birthday last week.

Sources close to the 75-year-old King, who was in Normandy last week for D-Day commemorations, say he is “keener than ever” to focus on his family and his duties and “make up for lost time” after being forced to scale back engagements after his diagnosis.

Those who know the King best say he has been in a reflective mood and considers his close bond with his son William’s three children a blessing. He is a “fantastic and enthusiastic grandpa” to Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, five, sources say. His wife Camilla, 76, is also ­understood to be a driving force behind his decision to ramp up efforts to see his other grandchildren.

A source said: “The King is absolutely committed to being present in all of his grandchildren’s lives. He values family above everything and whatever the course of his ­relationship with his son he would never be content with just seeing his grandchildren on the odd video call.”

Ingrid Seward, author of My Mother and I – The Inside Story of the King and Our Late Queen, said: “Family has always been important to the King. He remembers his own somewhat fragmented childhood as his parents were always busy doing their duty. It is a great sadness to him he doesn’t see more of Archie and Lilibet. That is why he will never break ties with Harry. He does not want a FaceTime relationship with his son’s children. He wants to know them and be involved with their lives while they are still young enough to be able to learn from his wisdom. His cancer has made it all the more poignant to him as he knows that he won’t be around for ever.”

A friend of Harry insisted: “There has never been an issue with the King being in their lives and there never would be. The door’s always open.”

[From The Daily Mirror]

Charles evicted his grandchildren from their British home, he initially planned to remove their royal titles, he vocalized his concerns about “how dark” they would be and he clearly has never cared about his grandkids’ security or Harry and Meghan’s security. He’s also shrugged off invitations to spend time with the kids in California AND England. He scheduled his coronation for Archie’s birthday, then forced Harry to “choose,” all while refusing to invite the children to England last year. Genuinely insane. Anyway, this business-as-usual briefing is falling flat, given the downright unhinged panic from the palace last month. Charles showed his whole ass and he’s never going to see Archie and Lili again unless HE makes some significant changes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Netflix.

In the days before Taylor Swift released The Tortured Poets Department, there were some album leaks and people could not believe their ears, especially when they figured out that there were references to Matt Healy all over the album. While Healy does not come across as a good guy in TTPD, he really hasn’t gotten the Full Taylor’s Ex Treatment. My opinion is that the Swifties aren’t pouring scorn on him now because they’re genuinely happy that Taylor and Healy are over and that she’s gotten all of it out of her system (hopefully). Over the past month, we’ve heard a little bit about how Healy feels to have so much of Taylor’s musical energy devoted to their rather short relationship. He was reportedly relieved because it could have been a lot worse, but he’s still “uncomfortable” with all of the attention, especially given that he’s also in a new relationship. Well, now that TTPD has been out for a month, does he feel differently? Apparently, he’s weirded out that Taylor’s lyrics are all about marriage and weddings and they really weren’t all that serious.

It’s been over one month since Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which many fans think was partially inspired by Matty Healy. The 1975 frontman, 35, has mixed feelings about the record, a friend of his reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.

“He loves the attention it’s brought to him, [but] he also thinks it’s hilarious because at no time [were they] ever serious,” the friend claims.

Healy’s pal adds that the musician was “completely blindsided” by TTPD’s “lyrical content,” especially Swift’s allusions to her and a love interest discussing marriage and children.

“For her to be saying things about baby carriages … and living together — he says it had never even come up,” the friend says. “He’s taking it in stride.”

Swift, 34, sings about unfulfilled promises of domestic bliss on several TTPD songs. “You s–t-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles,” she sings on “Loml.”

On “The Manuscript,” which is seemingly about a relationship with an older man, Swift sings, “He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was, soon they’d be pushing strollers / But soon it was over.” In the title track, Swift recalls someone taking a ring off her middle finger and placing it back on “the one people put wedding rings on.”

While Swift is not one to confirm or deny who her songs are about, her fans have found lyrical clues suggesting that several TTPD songs are about her whirlwind 2023 romance with Healy on the heels of her split from Joe Alwyn. (Swift and Healy were first linked in 2014 but didn’t confirm the romance rumors at the time.)

“Was any of it true? Gazing at me starry-eyed in your Jehovah’s Witness suit,” Swift sings on “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” seemingly taking aim at the suit and tie Healy often performs in.

Swift also recalls public backlash to a relationship on TTPD, seemingly clapping back at those who criticized her for dating Healy after he made problematic comments about Ice Spice. (Ice Spice, 24, later told Billboard that Healy had apologized “a bunch of times” for his remarks.)

“God save the most judgmental creeps who say they want what’s best for me / Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see / Thinking they can change the beat of my heart when he touches me and counteract the chemistry,” she sings on “But Daddy I Love Him.”

[From Us Weekly]

I think two things concurrently. One, Taylor does this with all of her relationships, she turns them into this potential for a white-picket-fence fantasy even when the relationships are just a few months long and not all that serious. At least, that’s what she does lyrically as she’s analyzing her relationships, she makes mountains out of molehills (and Healy is absolutely a molehill of a man). Two, I also think she did a lot of conflating between her three relationships in 2023 – Joe Alwyn, Matt Healy and Travis Kelce. She clearly thought Joe would marry her, and she was clearly all-in with what was (frankly) an ill-conceived rebound/affair with Healy, and lyrically, she’s drawing from both of those relationships. Also, I totally believe that Healy was making some gestures to make Taylor think that they were soulmates or whatever and that’s just his “game.” That’s just his thing. She got conned by a charming douchebag. It happens.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, is 33 years old. His bride Olivia Henson, now the new Duchess of Westminster, is 31 years old. This has become more of a regular thing in the British aristocracy – titled toffs waiting until their 30s to marry, and marrying generational peers to boot. It feels like a very small accomplishment, that the Duke of Malarkey or the Lord Bumfuddle no longer seek virginal teenagers as their brides. Now, the same old expectations are there: Olivia, the new duchess, basically has to provide an heir as soon as possible. That’s the way all of this works. That’s primogeniture. “Duke of Westminster” is a hereditary title going to the firstborn son. With the title comes all of the loot, the $9 billion real estate fortune, the 11,000-acre Eaton Hall, the whole shebang. But as it turns out, if Olivia and Hugh have zero sons, a secondary/subsidiary title will be passed along to a distant relative. A distant relative of whom, you might ask. Well, funny story. The distant relative is related to both Hugh AND Olivia. Ah, the British aristocracy.

A 90-year-old academic living in Australia could become the saviour of the Duke of Westminster’s family title, first bestowed on his ancestors at William IV’s coronation in 1831.

If newlyweds Hugh Grosvenor and Olivia Henson do not have a son, the historic Duke of Westminster title will die with him. However, his subsidiary title, the Marquess of Westminster, will live on through the Earl of Wilton, his fourth cousin once removed.

The 8th Earl and heir presumptive also happens to be distantly related, through marriage, to Ms Henson, as her step-first cousin twice removed.

The Eton-educated academic, more commonly known as Francis Ebury, lives in Melbourne, where he settled after pursuing a career in the financial industry that took him from London to Hong Kong. He took a doctorate in Philosophy-Arts at Melbourne University, where he also taught, and served as a director of the city’s Victorian Opera until 2017.

[From The Telegraph]

Okay then. Update your copies of Debrett’s Peerage. What I don’t understand is how in the world the subsidiary title would pass to this super-distant relation of both Olivia and Hugh, all while Hugh has plenty of nieces and (more importantly) nephews. Hugh has three sisters, all of them married, and he has at least three nephews (I’m not doing a deep dive on this, don’t hate me). Why would a subsidiary title not pass to one of Hugh’s nephews in a situation where Hugh had no male heirs? Sigh… this page of Debrett’s is going to have a lot of annotations.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Roya Nikkhah at the Times of London got a big briefing from Kensington Palace over the weekend, all about how King Charles is no longer jealous of Prince William’s massive popularity or William’s gold-plated international statesmanship. As I said, it came straight from William’s camp and it was almost funny to watch as William desperately tries to bill himself as this global diplomat and immensely popular figure. Within that Times piece, there was a curious mention of Prince Harry and how Harry… wasn’t in Normandy for the D-Day anniversary. It’s been mentioned in several articles too, like “why wasn’t Harry there/Harry must be jealous of William’s statesmanship!” That too is coming straight from Kensington Palace. No one expected Harry to go to Normandy, and there’s absolutely no reason to even mention Harry’s name in the discussions of D-Day. And yet…

Prince Harry is to blame for missing commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day because he’s the one who burnt bridges with his family, a royal expert claims.

Katie Nicholl told The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show how it would’ve been a “hard” and “pretty stomach-clenching moment” for Harry to watch the two days of commemorations and know he wasn’t a part of it. Speaking to The Sun’s Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson, the royal commentator explains that Harry’s fought in Afghanistan and is the only member of Royal Family to have fought on the front line twice, so on another parallel universe, he would’ve been there.

“Every time we cover the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, if there’s anyone that’s earned the right to be there and to lay a wreath, it’s Prince Harry because he fought for his Queen and his country in Afghanistan twice,” she says. “And I can only imagine, and we was talking about how happy is out in Montecito and I believe he is, he’ll be watching those D-Day commemorations. He was a soldier for a big part of his life as we know through the Invictus community and I think it’s a pretty stomach-clenching moment for him where it’s that realisation that despite what he did, he wasn’t a part of this because he’s not a part of the working class Royal Family.”

Matt goes on to note how the reality of Prince Harry being absent for the D-Day commemorations is simply the repercussions of him burning bridges with the royal family, to which Nicholls agrees.

“They are, they are,” she says. “Currently, we don’t know whether he did anything in Montecito, but if he did, he didn’t do anything publicly. And you’ll remember that one Remembrance Sunday when him and Meghan were photographed laying a wreath and that backfired on them so badly. So I think they’ve learned from things like that so it must’ve been a hard moment for him to watch these two days of commemorations in Normandy and in Britain and know that just like being a solider, he wasn’t a part of it.”

[From The Sun]

“You’ll remember that one Remembrance Sunday when him and Meghan were photographed laying a wreath and that backfired on them so badly.” In 2020, he requested that a wreath made for him by The Poppy Factory be picked up and placed at the Cenotaph in his absence. The palace refused, they leaked their refusal and tried to humiliate him publicly. Harry and Meghan spent Remembrance Day 2020 at the LA National Cemetery, laying flowers on the graves of Commonwealth soldiers. It didn’t “backfire” on the Sussexes, it made the point that Harry will always find a way to honor the fallen. What has backfired on the Windsors is their unhinged campaign against a veteran who served two tours of duty. What has backfired is the Windsors’ refusal to acknowledge Invictus veterans or Harry’s work with the veterans community. Instead, they keep trying to claim that William suddenly has a special relationship with the veteran community. William really wants to carve Harry’s face off to wear it as his own.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, King Charles and Queen Camilla attended a commemorative event at the British Normandy Memorial. The event was also attended by President Macron and France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron, and Camilla made a horse’s ass out of herself with Madame Macron. Charles made a speech and then he and Camilla had lunch with some WWII veterans, and then left Normandy before the big commemoration on Omaha Beach. They left Prince William to represent them at the big ceremony. This was a last-minute adjustment in plans, and William has been trying to get mileage out of it every since. He briefed the Mail about how he was a big-boy international statesman and CNN dutifully reported that Charles’s absence will help prepare people for “King William’s reign.” William just couldn’t help going overboard and rushing around to all of his favorite reporters to brag about how he did this one thing (sitting on a stage with actual world leaders). Of course Roya Nikkhah at the Times got a special briefing too. Some highlights:

Charles used to be anxious about his idiot son interacting with world leaders: Once upon a time, not so long ago, the sight of his son rubbing shoulders with more world leaders than the monarch would have induced a wave of anxiety. For years, those close to the King and his heir experienced the sensitivities as William and Kate’s profile sometimes overshadowed that of Charles and Camilla.

William is hesitant about overshadowing his dad?? William’s friends observe that the prince, who regularly beats his father in polls charting the royal family’s popularity, has always been conscious of not “queering his father’s pitch”. But something has changed.

Charles & William’s relationship these days: A friend of the King says that in recent years Charles’s tendency to consult William on tricky family issues involving the Duke of York and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has helped to ease the anxieties of the past and boost their personal and working relationships. “If there was ever a green-eyed monster or a sense of rivalry between the two, that is a chapter of the past,” the friend said. “The King sees his son as a useful ally on family matters and increasingly in discharging the duties of nation and state. When you are monarch, you’re not counting the column inches. You’re thinking about performing your role for your country, not just as King Charles but as ‘the family’.”

William is really drawing attention to all of his medals: Pinned to his suit were medals and decorations, including his Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilee medals, and Coronation medal. But it was his striped Army Air Corps tie that carried a subtle but significant message, a nod to the military role handed from father to son last month, when William took over from Charles as the colonel-in-chief of the AAC, which trained Prince Harry as an Apache helicopter pilot.

Harry’s absence: To many royal watchers, Harry’s absence from D-Day events last week — where, had he still been a working royal, he would surely have played a significant role — only highlights the importance of the strengthening bond between Charles and William.

William’s support: A source close to William said: “He very much wants to support his father. That isn’t something new, but of course with everything the King is going through with his treatment, he will continue to support him as much as he can.”

A big-boy international statesman: The global platform that events in Normandy provided was also a diplomatic boost for William, 41, who travelled to France with his new private secretary, the former diplomat Ian Patrick. The prince, whose annual environmental prize is held in different locations overseas, continues to want to burnish his credentials as an international statesman. This year’s Earthshot event will be in Cape Town in November. “It is important for him, both for his current role and his future role as head of state,” an aide said.

Charles’s heavy lifting: The King left Normandy on Friday before the main international event to pace himself as he recovers from cancer. A friend of his observed: “The King did the heavy lifting in the morning, his heir was there to honour veterans later in his absence. Those decisions are very carefully made, they’re not done without consideration about the optics.”

[From The Times]

William is really showing his hand with all of the talk about the medals – it’s clear that both Nikkhah and Becky English got a memo to draw attention to the fact that William wore his coronation medal (unlike Harry!) and that William made a point of reminding people that he’s now patron of Harry’s old Army Air Corps. Nikkhah and English both got the same briefing about William’s keenness to be seen as an international statesman too.

What I find fascinating about this story though is how it’s positioned like it’s coming from Charles’s people, when really, this is ALL William’s PR/comms. This is William telling people that he’s more popular than his father and his father is fine with William’s enormous popularity (lmao) and that Charles recognizes how important it is for William to be an international statesman, and how Charles loves him more than Harry! William is as obvious as he is stupid. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have this entire system in place solely devoted to flattering and embiggening dull, dumb William.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Charles, the Earl Spencer, is headed for his third divorce. The Earl Spencer has not had a lot of luck in love, nor does he sound like he’s an engaged father to his brood of six kids. While I also love that the Earl Spencer has shown a lot of support for Prince Harry and Meghan, make no mistake, his personal life is MESSY. Some background: he was married to his first wife Victoria Lockwood from 1989 through 1997. His second marriage was to Caroline Freud, from 2001-2009. He met his third wife Karen Gordon in 2010 and they were married in 2011. So this was his longest marriage. According to the Mail, the marriage fell apart as he wrote his memoir, in which he wrote about being savagely abused at boarding school and how that abuse has larger repercussions for him to this day.

Charles Spencer and his third wife are divorcing, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The Earl’s relationship with the Countess of Spencer broke down amid the strain of writing his harrowing memoir detailing the physical and sexual abuse he suffered at boarding school, it is understood.

The couple announced their pending divorce to staff at Althorp, the Spencer family estate in Northamptonshire, in March.

‘It is immensely sad,’ Earl Spencer told the MoS last night. ‘I just want to devote myself to all my children, and to my grandchildren, and I wish Karen every happiness in the future.’

Earl Spencer and Karen Gordon, a Canadian philanthropist, married in June 2011 within the grounds of Althorp, where the Earl’s older sister Princess Diana is buried. The couple had met the previous year on a blind date at a restaurant in Los Angeles.

Speaking to The Sunday Times in 2020, the Earl said: ‘Karen and I both appreciate what the other does and look after what we have. Neither of us has found happiness like this before.’

His wife was notable by her absence at events held at Althorp and Spencer House in London in mid-March to launch the Earl’s book, A Very Private School. Charles Spencer told the MoS that the five years of work on his memoir has deeply affected him and led to him undergoing residential treatment for trauma late last year. He is understood to have been particularly traumatised by his discovery of his 1976 schoolboy diary, in which the assistant matron, who he alleges sexually abused him, had written a long-forgotten message. The diary was discovered on the high shelf of a room at Althorp that was being refurbished after he completed the main body of his book.

[From The Daily Mail]

I buy that writing the memoir changed him and I’m glad he’s in therapy now. I also buy that it changed his marriage and there’s work he needs to do on himself, separate from his now-estranged wife. It doesn’t sound like there’s some affair or marriage scandal happening here, although we are talking about the British aristocracy, so who knows. Anyway, I hope the Earl is okay and I hope Karen is too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Introduction: Minutes to 6:15
I loved the Fall Guy and am on the second season of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire. Chandra enjoyed Challengers. You can listen below!

Royals: Minutes 6:15 to 21:30
We’ve talked for years about this common narrative from the British Press where they’ll come up with something the Sussexes need to attend and cover it endlessly. They’ve done this with Hugh Grosvenor’s wedding since the invitations went out in December. Roya Nikkhah, a journalist who regularly gets exclusives from William, reported in The Times that Harry and Meghan weren’t invited, which was not true. Then we heard that Harry was invited, but he declined. Chandra thinks that story was pushback from Hugh and Harry to William’s narrative. They tried to spin it like Harry declined because William is going to be an usher and Harry is jealous or something. People magazine reported that Harry and Hugh talked on the phone and realized that it would be best if Harry didn’t come.

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We haven’t seen Kate since Christmas apart from her video announcement. We’ve heard Kate is not likely to be at Trooping the Colour on June 15th. She’s also not expected to attend any events around the state visit from the Emperor and Empress of Japan on June 25th to 27th. William was asked about Kate this week by a WWII veteran during events ahead of D-Day. William said she’s getting better.

Just last week People and US claimed that Kate was seen out running errands including making a trip to a chocolate shop with William. This is very bizarre messaging. It seems like Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace are not on the same page. Much of the narrative is to protect William.

Kate is covering US Magazine, and the article is getting a lot of attention because of the quote that “she may never come back in the role that people saw her in before.” Richard Eden in the Daily Mail said a couple of weeks ago that Kate might not be seen until autumn and then Tom Sykes in the Daily Beast reported from sources that she won’t be back until next year. It feels like a different narrative keeps taking over and being taken back.

Shiloh Jolie: Minutes 21:30 to 26:15
Shiloh Jolie, who is now 18, filed to have Pitt officially dropped as her last legal name. She hired her own lawyer and filed the paperwork herself. We’ve previously heard that Vivienne, who turns 16 next month, is only using Jolie as her last name, and that Zahara is only using Jolie as her last name in college. Brad Pitt and his children have been estranged for years since he abused and terrorized them on an airplane in 2016.

A source told People that Brad Pitt is “aware and upset that Shiloh dropped his last name. He’s never felt more joy than when she was born. He always wanted a daughter.” Brad and Angelina already had daughter Zahara for a year when Shiloh was born. All of Brad’s statements to outlets about this have been self-centered and lack any remorse or responsibility. We hope the public sees him for who he is soon.

Comments of the Week: Minutes 26:15 to end
Chandra’s comment of the week is from Miranda on the post about Trump getting convicted finally.

My comment of the week is from Jennifer on the post about Jennifer Lopez canceling her tour.

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