Last week, the Vatican’s spokesperson had to issue a very weird and vague apology on behalf of Pope Francis. You see, Franny was in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops, and the discussion turned to how Franny wished there was some way to stop homosexuals from joining the priesthood. The pope used the word “frociaggine” to describe gay men. It’s not exactly a straight translation of the f-slur in English, apparently it’s more like an adjective, if you understand. Well, as it turns out, at a different meeting around the same time, Pope Francis was wildly sexist. He told a group of young priests that “gossip is a women’s thing…We wear the trousers, we have to say things.” My dude, you wear a dress and you love to gossip, and you surround yourself with people who love to gossip. Let’s dial all of this down several notches.

The leader of the Catholic church, typically lauded for his modern leanings, allegedly made a sexist remark about women just two days after dropping a homophobic f-slur behind closed doors in Rome, according to the Vatican news outlet Silere Non Possum.

Pope Francis allegedly warned a group of young priests in a different closed-door meeting on Thursday against badmouthing parishioners and others—a reasonable piece of advice, if woefully ironic, as it came so soon after the f-slur reveal. Unfortunately, the pope also reinforced misogynistic stereotypes about women in his choice of words: “Gossip is a women’s thing,” he reportedly told the group of priests. “We wear the trousers, we have to say things.”

Marco Perfetti, the director of Silere Non Possum, claimed to have audio recording of the pontiff making the cringe-worthy remarks and said multiple sources confirmed the pope’s comments. An apology may be forthcoming—on Tuesday, Francis had to apologize for using the Italian slur “frociaggine” during a discussion about possibly allowing gay men in seminaries.

[From The Daily Beast]

Beyond the fact that it’s the damn POPE saying this sh-t, it always irritates me when men dismiss “gossip” as solely a female purview. Men gossip. Men LOVE gossip. MEN LOVE TO GOSSIP. Within the past month, one of the biggest stories in music/entertainment was Kendrick Lamar and Drake spilling tea about each other in songs and let me tell you, their male fans loved every minute of it and those guys were suddenly all gossip scholars when it came to rap beef history. It’s especially rich for Pope Franny to say this sh-t dismissively – “don’t gossip like those weak-minded women” – when he was literally just gossiping about all of the gay clergy!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Natalie Portman & Paul Mescal are “just friends” okay?? [Just Jared]
The Bear Season 3 trailer – more kitchen stress! [Socialite Life]
Selena Gomez is having a very good week! [LaineyGossip]
I just think the whole tour/concert model needs to be changed – there are too few medium-sized venues and too many “arena-only” tours. [Pajiba]
Aidan Shaw & Carrie Bradshaw, still dealing with each other in 2024. [Go Fug Yourself]
I am super-old but I love Tate McRae’s voice & music. [OMG Blog]
Will Smith & his whole fam came out for the Bad Boys premiere. [RCFA]
Bradley Whitford was in Adventures in Babysitting! [Seriously OMG]
One of the Duggar sons is courting. [Starcasm]
Taylor Swift gave Blake Lively’s kids a shout-out. [Hollywood Life]
I get why people are mad but I bet Chloe Sevigny & Kim Kardashian’s Actors-on-Actors discussion will be iconic. [Buzzfeed]

Back in February we talked about a new study that recommended reducing your coffee intake for one week out of every month. The science indicated that our bodies need a minimum of seven days to recalibrate caffeine tolerance. I indicated that they could pry my iced coffee from my cold, dead hands. (Also in that discussion I outed myself as the could’ve-been Dunkin’ Donuts heiress. It still hurts.) Now people are pondering whether you should wait an hour or two after waking up before drinking coffee in the morning. To which I’m pondering, how do you wake up in the first place without the coffee? Experts spoke to the New York Times to weigh in on the pros (coffee!) and cons (no coffee!) to delaying your first cup:

Better latte than never?

With some TikTokers blaming their mid-afternoon energy crashes on drinking coffee first thing in the morning, researchers are spilling the beans on the pros and cons of delaying your caffeine intake.

“Everyone responds to caffeine differently,” Marilyn Cornelis, a caffeine researcher at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told the New York Times Wednesday.

Caffeine can make it more difficult to fall asleep — and stay asleep — as it competes with adenosine, a naturally occurring chemical in the body that promotes drowsiness.

Michael Grandner, the director of the sleep and health research program at the University of Arizona, told the Times it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to feel the effects of caffeine after it’s absorbed into your bloodstream.

Genetics play a role in how long caffeine keeps you alert, Cornelis said — some only need one java to last them the day, while others are jonesing just hours later.

Grandner said he typically waits 30 to 60 minutes after waking up to savor his first cup.

The idea is that since adenosine builds throughout the day, downing coffee first thing in the morning would give you “less bang for your buck” because your adenosine levels are at their lowest.

Dr. Deborah Lee, the sleep expert for the UK furniture maker Get Laid Beds, also advises preparing your first cup 45 minutes or later after rising.

“The cortisol [stress] hormone follows a rhythm specific to your own sleeping cycle,” Lee told the Mirror in February. “Elevated levels of cortisol may impact your immune system, and if they’re already at its peak when waking up, drinking coffee as soon as your eyes open may do more harm than good, and may even make you immune to caffeine over a long period of time.”

But Allison Brager, a neurobiologist for the US Army, told the Times that research has shown that regular caffeine consumption has little effect on morning cortisol levels.

Brager said a morning coffee may still help workers and exercisers stay focused, while delaying it may extend the effects of caffeine into the early afternoon.

But don’t wait too long to drink it — Grandner and Lee advise finishing your last cup at least six hours before bedtime to have a restful sleep.

[From NY Post]

Why is the world trying to curb my our coffee consumption this year?! Is this some plot secretly hatched by AI to hasten humanity’s downfall? If you think my cortisol/stress levels are high before my morning coffee… So no, I’m not gonna wait two hours to take those first sweet sips of the magic elixir — particularly on days when I’m expected to function in front of other people at the office. Nor will I blame an afternoon slump on my having imbibed the coffee too early in the day. Why? Because I know my energy crashes are the results of overeating at lunch, thankyouverymuch.

But if you still want a level-headed account of the science as opposed to my emotionally-charged visceral response, I do recommend the original NY Times piece. It explains the basic premise a bit more fully: since adenosine, the chemical that makes us drowsy, increases in production as the day goes on (purportedly; I’d wager it’s just a steady drip in my body and will gladly submit to testing to confirm my hypothesis), why begin drinking the invigorating caffeine when the adenosine levels are still low? The overall takeaway from the article, though, definitely pointed to everyone is different, figure out what works for you. I have, and it’s COFFEE. (What problem? I don’t have a problem!)

Photos credit: Olly, Sung Wang and Cassandra Hamer on Unsplash, Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels

Last week, Prince William’s cousins joined him at a rain-soaked palace garden party and the British media has not shut up about it since. To be fair, some of this seems to be coming from Kensington Palace as well, as they twist themselves in knots to explain why William wants his cousins to help him out constantly, but they can never be “working royals,” because of the Sussexes! Something has to give – the heir is lazy, the king is jealous and the cousins just want to be included at family events. Well, there’s yet another piece about how Zara Tindall and the York princesses genuinely want to help out this year, all to support their (p)eggy cousin.

Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall ‘want to support Prince William and King Charles’ unique circumstances’ and are ‘closer than most cousins’, a royal insider has claimed. The King’s nieces stepped up last week to help host a garden party at Buckingham Palace with the Prince of Wales – amid the monarch and Princess of Wales’ cancer treatments.

Zara, 43, Beatrice, 35, and Eugenie, 34, appeared in high spirits for the event and co-ordinated in matching pink-and-white dresses. Speaking to Hello!, a royal insider commented on the royal women’s bond and why they wanted to help William with the event.

The source said: ‘They are closer than lots of cousins might be – they have that unique shared experience and unusual life they all lead. This is an institution that they all belong to, perhaps in slightly different ways in terms of how they serve it, but they all believe in it and its future and want to do what they can to support it.’

According to the publication, Zara, Beatrice and Eugenie were asked to help at the garden party because of the ‘unique circumstances’ the Prince and Princess of Wales are facing.

Kate was unexpectedly taken into hospital at the start of the year for major abdominal surgery. She remained in The London Clinic for two weeks before going home to recuperate.

[From The Daily Mail]

“Zara, Beatrice and Eugenie were asked to help at the garden party because of the ‘unique circumstances’ the Prince and Princess of Wales are facing.” This is what I keep saying too – if Kate was up and around, the cousins wouldn’t have been invited to jacksh-t. Kate and William have spent years bullying the cousins and letting it be known that they (W&K) are the most important people around and they don’t need the Sussexes or the cousins. As many have said, it’s more than likely that the cousins were asked to do the garden party because the Spencer family came out for Prince Harry’s Invictus service. The Windsors’ big “we’re snubbing Harry, he’s all alone” scheme was blocked by the Spencers turning up at St. Paul’s Cathedral. This is William desperately trying to convince everyone that he has a lot of family support too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Angelina Jolie is a big Broadway producer now, on the musical adaptation of The Outsiders. Angelina’s daughter Vivienne is apparently a huge theater/musical-theater geek, which we realized when Vivienne dragged her mother to easily a dozen regional performances of Dear Evan Hansen. Well, now that Angelina is a Broadway producer, she gets invited to other Broadway opening nights. Which is what happened last night – Angelina and Vivienne came out to support Reefer Madness: The Musical. They posed with Kristen Bell, who produced this stage show.

Angelina’s outfit here is so cool – a slim suit with a t-shirt, which has a print of a necktie. I love that she didn’t take off her shades too. Vivienne looks cute! I get the feeling that Vivienne is the “normcore” kid, Shiloh is a full tomboy and Zahara is the girly-girl. All of those kids ride for their mom so hard. As we discussed, Vivienne has dropped “Pitt” from her surname in the playbill for The Outsiders. Just this week, Shiloh filed paperwork to drop “Pitt” from her name legally… on her 18th birthday. Zahara seems to have dropped Pitt from her name too, although it’s unclear if she’s done so legally.

Meanwhile, post-Cannes Film Festival, other festivals are trying to get some hype. The Venice Film Festival will likely host the global premieres of Joker 2: Folie a Deux AND Pablo Larrain’s Maria. That’s the Larrain-style bio-pic of Maria Callas, starring Angelina. Angelina in Venice towards the end of the summer? I hope it happens!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

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LMAO, the Windsors and their “sources” are still incredibly salty about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s successful Nigerian tour. While I believe the Sussexes’ tour would have always been seen as a massive win, the fact that the Windsors and their sycophants are still throwing tantrums about the tour, weeks later, has only added to the perception/reality that the Sussexes are doing everything right. The Windsors are mad that they can’t control the Sussexes or control their travels. But even more than that, the Windsors are mad that the Sussexes are doing everything better, including these “royal tours.” The last time Prince William and Kate went on a royal tour, it was the Caribbean Flop Tour of 2022, which was such a racist, colonialist disaster, it’s still being used to this day as an example of What Not To Do On A Royal Tour. Royal sources are super-mad that Harry and Meghan get to travel around, not being racist prigs and not wildly offending everyone they come in contact with.

Prince Harry and Meghan Meghan’s recent Nigeria trip was such a glossy PR success they’re likely to set up more faux “royal” tours — much to the chagrin of actual working royals, insiders told Page Six. The couple’s visit earlier this month came on the heels of a much-publicized February trip to Canada to promote the 2025 Invictus Games. But well-placed royal sources with knowledge of royal tours worry that such splashy, high-profile jaunts could create a “major diplomatic incident” for other countries.

One well-placed royal source told Page Six, “Harry and Meghan’s trip was very interesting since it didn’t fit any of the normally accepted royal categories. This would have given the High Commission in Nigeria a headache. If a prince lands in your patch, officially or otherwise, you have protocol, security and media issues which have to be right.”

Normally, the royal source added, “This would all be part of the planning of a proper royal tour. But Harry and Meghan’s tour showed their ‘all about me’ media strategy and how they divert from royalty’s role as super ambassadors for Britain. When Harry and Meghan break all the usual norms of royal visits, it somewhat looks like the royal family can’t manage itself properly.”

This all comes as the most popular working royals are not able to travel on official tours. Kate Middleton, along with Prince William, last went on tour to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas — a trip fraught with political issues — in 2022. But the Princess of Wales is now out of the public eye as she battles cancer. King Charles and Queen Camilla, meanwhile, were meant to visit Australia later this year, but Charles, 75, is also battling cancer.

“A high-profile royal visit overseas has one main function — to promote British interests: diplomatic, trade, cultural and humanitarian. That’s their job,” said the royal source. “By the grace of god there wasn’t a major diplomatic incident this time, but it’s a risk for the future that Harry and Meghan seem to be willing to disregard.”

A British official with knowledge of royal tours told Page Six that Harry and Meghan’s attention-drawing travels would cause a “medium headache” for embassies and high commissions. It would be up to the British embassy and the host country to decide how to engage with them, the source said, admitting, “The foreign office feels the impact of having fewer working royals. It’s like having a little bit of gold dust, and you can only sprinkle it so far.”

[From Page Six]

“A high-profile royal visit overseas has one main function — to promote British interests: diplomatic, trade, cultural and humanitarian. That’s their job.” After screaming and lecturing everyone about how the Sussexes are out of the institution, why would they be expected to promote British interests or do any kind of “job” for the UK or monarchy? Why is there this refusal to acknowledge that two private citizens were invited to do a tour, organized between Nigeria’s Defense Department and Archewell, which highlighted the Sussexes’ private work and not “British interests”? As for the lack of a “major diplomatic incident” – considering that the heir is a gaffe machine who can’t even attend the BAFTAs without offending people, maybe just focus on the diplomatic incidents of the working royals?

Anyway, I think this story is sort of fascinating because it’s an admission that the left-behind Windsors suck at tours AND the Windsors keep rooting for the Sussexes to fail only to be continuously traumatized by the Sussexes’ many successes.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty.

Yesterday, Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, all to do with paying hush money to Stormy Daniels and colluding with David Pecker to shut down speculation about his affairs. It was always going to be a terrible day for Donald Trump, but hilariously, it was already pretty awful for him before the jury came back. Hours earlier, Slate published a first-person account from Bill Pruitt, who was a producer on The Apprentice for the first two seasons. Pruitt signed a strict NDA with a $5 million fine attached if he ever spoke about what he witnessed from Trump. The NDA just expired, and Pruitt told a lengthy story about how, during the first season, Trump used the n-word on-camera. He said it about one of the finalists that season, Kwame Jackson, and he used the word to suggest that America didn’t want to see a Black man win the game show.

We lay out the virtues and deficiencies of each finalist to Trump in a fair and balanced way, but sensing the moment at hand, Kepcher sort of comes out of herself. She expresses how she observed [Kwame] Jackson at the casino overcoming more obstacles than [Bill] Rancic, particularly with the way he managed the troublesome Omarosa. Jackson, Kepcher maintains, handled the calamity with grace.

“I think Kwame would be a great addition to the organization,” Kepcher says to Trump, who winces while his head bobs around in reaction to what he is hearing and clearly resisting.

“Why didn’t he just fire her?” Trump asks, referring to Omarosa. It’s a reasonable question. Given that this the first time we’ve ever been in this situation, none of this is something we expected.

“That’s not his job,” Bienstock says to Trump. “That’s yours.” Trump’s head continues to bob.

“I don’t think he knew he had the ability to do that,” Kepcher says. Trump winces again.

“Yeah,” he says to no one in particular, “but, I mean, would America buy a n— winning?”

Kepcher’s pale skin goes bright red. I turn my gaze toward Trump. He continues to wince. He is serious, and he is adamant about not hiring Jackson.

Bienstock does a half cough, half laugh, and swiftly changes the topic or throws to Ross for his assessment. What happens next I don’t entirely recall. I am still processing what I have just heard. We all are. Only Bienstock knows well enough to keep the train moving. None of us thinks to walk out the door and never return. I still wish I had. (Bienstock and Kepcher didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

[From Slate]

Yes, of course he said it. Of course he’s said that word in many other circumstances too, and he’s said the word a million different times over the years. Of course NBC has all of those tapes of Trump saying the word on camera. They also have tapes of him saying horribly misogynistic crap and sh-t about eugenics and antisemitic sh-t too. We’ve known that all along, that a lot of people have spent a lot of time, money and effort to cover up Trump’s most despicable statements and activities. And even with all of those cover-ups, it still comes spilling out all the time. I get that this guy had an NDA and it’s better late than never, but Jesus, news at seven, Trump is a racist piece of sh-t.

Trump’s former assistant Omarosa: I have heard the tape of Donald Trump calling a Black man the N-word. It was clear as day. Donald Trump is a con. When he talked the way he did on that tape it confirmed he is truly a racist pic.twitter.com/A3VgVo3m3G

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 30, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

As we discussed, it was confirmed on Thursday that the Princess of Wales would miss a pre-Trooping the Colour event called the Colonel’s Review. The Colonel’s Review was set (and is set) to take place on June 8th, and since Kate is the Colonel In Chief of the Irish Guards, she was supposed to do the “review” in London. Kate took over the Irish Guards patronage from her husband, because as Prince of Wales, he had to take an honorary position with the Welsh Guards. That transfer happened last year. Since Kate has been Colonel In Chief of the Irish Guards, she’s missed the St. Patrick’s Day parade and now she’ll miss this review.

The palace is now confirming Kate’s absence during a week in which the palace is also running around, trying to convince British and American outlets that Kate has been running errands and seen out in public with her family. Royal insiders swear that Kate’s treatment has turned a corner and that she’s out and about with some regularity, despite a complete lack of witnesses, photos or videos. I’m still at a loss to explain wtf is actually happening here or why it feels like a regression to early March of this year, with chaotic clownery around the palace messaging on Kate’s health. Back then, royal sources insisted that Kate was likely to rise like Wiglet Jesus at church on Easter Sunday. We know what happened there. Now royal sources are insisting that Kate is considering making an appearance on the balcony for Trooping the Colour.

The Princess of Wales is considering making an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony after the Trooping the Colour ceremony, it was claimed today.

Royal officials confirmed yesterday that Kate will not attend the Colonel’s Review on June 8 – which is the traditional rehearsal for Trooping the Colour, held on June 15.

But the Daily Mirror reported that the Princess is understood to be considering walking onto the famous balcony in a fortnight’s time if she is feeling well enough.

Kate, 42, who is also undergoing cancer treatment, would have been due to take the salute on June 8 in normal circumstances in her role as Colonel of the Irish Guards. But she continues to stay away from public royal duties during her chemotherapy while resting at home, and will only return when doctors give her the all-clear.

Lieutenant General James Bucknall, former commander of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, will be the inspecting officer on Kate’s behalf for the Colonel’s Review.

Buckingham Palace also revealed yesterday that King Charles III will travel in a carriage with Queen Camilla on June 15 and will not be on horseback.

MailOnline understands the attendance of other Royal Family members at Trooping the Colour events will be confirmed nearer the time of each one.

[From The Daily Mail]

It would be a huge moment if Kate came out on the balcony just shy of six months since her last verifiable public appearance. Like, beyond the conspiracies and absolute weirdness of the past six months, I genuinely hope that Kate is conscious and able to walk onto a balcony and wave at people. It would be huge international news. That being said… everything around royal comms is shambolic right now and I just don’t believe any of the sh-t they’re saying.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

For a week and a half, the Windsors have desperately tried to figure a way out a trap they built themselves. Last week, Prince William’s cousins joined him for a soggy palace garden party and this became a larger conversation about why those cousins cannot simply “pitch in” and take on some royal work given the fact that King Charles and the Princess of Wales have cancer. The cousins can’t do “royal work” because the Windsors have spent the past four-plus years ranting and raving about how the Sussexes are no longer working royals and they should never be allowed the honor of royal busywork! They did all of that to snub the first Black duchess, and it boomeranged right back on to the left-behinds.

Speaking of, the Windsors have also spent the better part of five years ranting about how the Sussexes are “not allowed” on the fakakta balcony, one of the most idiotic and racist punishments designed by this cadre of morons. Now that the Princess of Wales is likely to be missing for much of the year and no one is saying much about the Wales kids, the Trooping the Colour balcony will absolutely be pretty sparse. Especially if they’re only doing “working royals.” Enter Richard Eden at the Mail, who thinks he has a brilliant idea: perhaps the balcony should just be for the whole family? Gee, why didn’t anyone think of that years ago???

With both King Charles and his daughter-in-law, the Princess of Wales, undergoing treatment for cancer, this has been a tough year for the Royal Family. Rarely has there been more need for an uplifting royal occasion – the sort of thing that Trooping the Colour might provide in a fortnight’s time.

Traditionally, Trooping has also been an opportunity to toast the extended Royal Family on the monarch’s official birthday. Inviting minor royals to join her on the Buckingham Palace balcony had been the late Queen Elizabeth’s way of thanking relatives for their support. Meanwhile, the public enjoyed a glimpse into what was, in part, a private family occasion. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed seeing the younger royals and how they’d changed in the past 12 months. They added a dash of colour, youthful appeal and even glamour.

When Trooping the Colour returned in 2022, it was a double celebration as the nation also marked the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – 70 years of her record-breaking reign. Although all members of her family were invited to join the party, including Prince Harry and Meghan, as well as Prince Andrew, only ‘working royals’ were invited to appear on the balcony. This meant that the Queen avoided offending either the Sussexes, who had quit royal duties, or Andrew, who had been stripped of them. Yet it also ended decades of tradition. The minor royals were now banished from view.

For me, there was something slightly sad about the sparsely populated balcony that remained – and still remains, as King Charles has decided to stick with this rather radical change after coming to the throne in 2022. Once again, we saw only the ‘working royals’ and their families on the balcony last June. This included the King and Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, Princess Anne and her husband Sir Tim Laurence as well as Prince Edward, Sophie and their two children. We also saw the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, who have stepped into the breach in recent months, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. In my opinion, this year should mark a return to the former tradition.

The King should invite all members of the extended Royal Family to join him and Queen Camilla when they step outside to acknowledge the crowds. What about Zara and Mike Tindall for example, who are so popular with the public? Or, the Duke of Kent’s children, such as Lady Helen Taylor, or even the duke’s glamorous granddaughters, Lady Amelia Windsor and her sister Lady Marina?

All, that is, except for Prince Andrew, whose presence would be an embarrassment. And the Sussexes, whose inclusion would be an insult to the Royal Family and its millions of supporters.

A full balcony would cheer the nation. It would be a fillip to the monarchy at a difficult time. It would be a powerful display of unity and strength.

[From The Daily Mail]

They twisted themselves in knots to explain why the Black duchess wasn’t allowed on their precious all-white balcony and now they’re not even keeping up the We’re Very Much Not A Racist Family appearances. “The balcony should be for the whole family, except Harry and Meghan!” Despite Eden giving the greenlight to the Windsors to throw caution and “working royal” pretzel logic to the wind, we’re once again confronted with the simple fact that Charles and Camilla are extremely worried that someone will steal their thunder. That, too, is why the balcony remains pale and stale.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Back in January and February, Robert Hardman was promoting his royal book, Charles III: New King, New Court, The Inside Story. Hardman clearly had authorized sources in Charles’s camp, and Hardman was tasked with abusing the Sussexes. One of the big storylines was that QEII was incandescent with rage over Harry and Meghan naming their daughter Lilibet. The story landed so badly and the palace’s lies were so obvious, Hardman quickly had to come out and refute his own book. Even funnier is the fact that Hardman was also tasked with taking Prince William down a few pegs, but Hardman made William sound like an illiterate moron AND an atheist. Anyway, Hardman recently attended the Hay Festival and he had a lot of new tea, straight from his Buckingham Palace sources. This always kills me – Charles authorizes all of these hatchetmen to write all of these biographies, and then every book ends up focused on the Sussexes and how badly Charles has bungled one of the most significant moments of his reign. As it turns out, that’s mostly what Hardman’s Hay Festival appearance was about too.

Speaking at Hay Festival, Robert Hardman suggested that Prince Harry’s explosive memoir Spare is still casting a long shadow over family relations. “The problem that exists is, at the moment, there is still a trust issue. People are still very wounded, particularly Prince William, that these intimate private childhood family moments all spilled out in Harry’s book. It’s not what Harry said, it’s the fact that he said it, and he gave away so many secrets. And he was, effectively, at the time of the Queen’s death, you know, he was taking notes.”

Hardman also suggested that Harry hadn’t told the full story – but there might be a cynical reason for that. “If you do read that book, and as I said it’s amazing, but if you get to the bit about his wedding to Meghan, it boils down really to about four or five pages. Now, as an author, that says to me one thing and one thing only: part two might be on its way.”

Asked how the row was affecting King Charles as a parent, Hardman said that “he definitely finds it unsettling, it makes him unhappy. There he is, he’s got two sons, one he hardly sees, and two grandchildren he’s barely ever seen, and yes, I think he would like some sort of modus vivendi. Clearly they can’t come back to royal life, I don’t think they want to. And, after all that’s happened, it wouldn’t work,” the biographer said.

Hardman, who has authored numerous royal books, including 2022’s bestselling Queen of Our Times, said the first step to repairing the relationship would be “normalising” it.

“I thought it was telling that when the cancer diagnosis came through back in February, Prince Harry came straight over. People said why didn’t he stay longer, why didn’t he talk to his father? I mean, there is so much to be worked through, but this was absolutely not the moment to have some sort of summit with Harry about all of Harry’s grievances. But I think the fact he came was important, the fact he was received was important, I think what encouraged people at the palace and encouraged the king was the fact that afterwards, we didn’t then read about it or hear about it. It remained private.”

The author suggested a first step to “normalising” things would be if Harry could “come over with Meghan, with the children, privately, for a few days maybe in the summer. Once that happens it’s not such big news when it happens again. Then you start to get somewhere.”

[From The Independent]

A few things. First of all, I genuinely hope that Harry does write a second memoir and God knows that enough sh-t has gone down in the past two years to make it a must-read. He can call it And Another Thing. As for “he was, effectively, at the time of the Queen’s death, you know, he was taking notes,” Harry was not taking notes – he was being abused by his family on the global stage. He had already wrapped up on Spare, but following QEII’s death, Harry basically just added a chapter at the end. “It’s not what Harry said, it’s the fact that he said it, and he gave away so many secrets.” Ah, yes, how dare Harry reveal the Very Important Secrets of “being neglected after his mother’s death” and “being assaulted by his psycho brother.” Doesn’t Harry know that the biggest Windsor crime is publicly revealing how horribly they treat each other?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.