I can’t believe another year has gone by! Last year our most commented story was about the slap heard round the world when Will Smith stood up to Chris Rock at the Oscars for disrespecting his wife. We added our favorite stories to that list, including Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez getting married, Leonardo DiCaprio dumping his girlfriend for turning 25 and then-Duchess Camilla gleefully spreading covid maskless at a cooking event. This year we had King Charles’s coronation and both Spare and Endgame came out! Here are our most commented stories this year along with some of our favorites. (From CB: I’ve written this post and there are sections that Kaiser wrote which are labeled!)

20 Meghan sent letters to Charles following the Oprah interview

The Telegraph revealed this April that Meghan and then Prince Charles exchanged letters following the Oprah interview in early 2021. They discussed Meghan’s disclosure to Oprah that there were “concerns and conversations about how dark [Archie’s] skin might be when he’s born.” The letters were said to be cordial but there was no resolution reached. We later learned, through the mistaken publication of the Dutch translation of an unapproved draft of Omid Scobie’s Endgame, that both Princess Kate and King Charles were the royals who speculated about the baby’s skin color. (Get the Top 10 stories from Omid Scobie’s Endgame when you sign up for our mailing list!)

15 The racist Oscar voter

A rare non-royal story among our most commented was this Entertainment Weekly piece featuring quotes from four anonymous Oscar voters. One was so contemptibly racist that we made it a blind item. He refused to watch The Woman King, called “wokeness” “out of control” and said “Viola Davis and the lady director need to sit down, shut up, and relax.” While there was no consensus on this horrible man’s identity, those awful comments could have come from any number of old white men in Hollywood.

16, 10, 6 The Sussexes were evicted from Frogmore Cottage, then targeted in a paparazzi car chase

It was just this year, following the massive success of Prince Harry’s Spare, that the Sussexes were evicted from Frogmore cottage. This laid bare their very serious security concerns, particularly because Harry is still fighting to pay for armed protection in the UK. Meghan signed with WME in April and then in May the Sussexes were targeted by paparazzi in a car chase during a trip to NY. There were so many think pieces about how they should have made more business moves this year and very little analysis of the systematic way they’ve been targeted, threatened and harassed. (Get the Top 8 stories about the Sussexes’ paparazzi car chase when you sign up for our mailing list.)

17, 13, 12 Kate tried to get attention as her marriage crumbled

Princess Kate’s fashion and the sad state of her marriage were among our most commented stories. She wore a cosplaying red outfit to the South Korean state visit, which she comically hiked up when exiting her car. At the BAFTAs she paired a white dress with black opera gloves and then she donned a white pantsuit to a Rugby World Cup match in March. We wouldn’t have paid much attention to her predictable copykeening, except for the fact that it was a near exact copy of the outfit Meghan wore to the previous years Invictus Games – as the Invictus Games were happening. We also heard that Will and Kate have “terrible rows where they throw things at each other.” The stories about Will and Kate throwing cushions at each other and needing time apart make it sound like their marriage is all but over. (Get the Top 8 stories about Will and Kate’s crumbling marriage when you sign up for our mailing list!)

7, 5, 3, 2 The Coronation of King Charles

It’s hard to believe that the coronation of King Charles was just this May. The palace announcement that only Harry would go and that Meghan and their children would stay home was our second most commented story this year. The post about Charles claiming the Sussexes would be banned from the balcony, the Coronation open post and the story about Kate’s outfit were also amount the top 10. Overall it was a glum, bizarre and expensive affair highlighting the uselessness of the monarchy. (Get the Top 10 Stories about the Coronation when you sign up for our mailing list!)

From Kaiser: The coronation substories were hilarious because there was so much dumb drama ahead of the coronation, then the event itself was so boring. I loved our open post on the day, I loved all of the drama about Prince Harry’s Dior suit, I loved how aristocrats were totally pissed that they didn’t get invited, and I loved that as soon as the whole thing was done, Prince William basically told everyone that he’s already planning his coronation and he won’t do anything like Charles. The Pamela Hicks snub was really extraordinary too, and that didn’t get enough attention.

19, 18, 14, 11, 9, 4, 1 Spare

Prince Harry’s Spare was an international bestseller and contained so many revelations that made it to our top 20. The number one story was about Prince William’s violent assault of Harry in Harry’s kitchen. William’s response at the news getting out was textbook DARVO. Other top stories from Spare include Prince Harry’s first lover selling her story to the tabloids, Kate throwing a fit about Charlotte’s bridesmaid’s dress, Kate grimacing when Meghan borrowed her lip gloss – after Meghan asked, and Prince Harry revealing Meghan’s pregnancy at Eugenie’s wedding. My favorite story was when Kate misinterpreted Meghan’s empathetic comment about “baby brain” as a slight. Another top story this year was Queen Camilla’s 48-year-old son, Tom Parker-Bowles, who very much takes after her looks-wise, being floated as a replacement for Harry. Thankfully we haven’t heard much about him since.

From Kaiser: We had so many huge stories about Prince Harry’s Spare in the first months of the year, and Spare became one of the biggest bestsellers of the year. There’s so much conversation about what was said and Harry “selling out his family,” and all of that dumb sh-t, but I just have to keep repeating this: Spare is not only a historical document, it’s also a narrative about childhood neglect and how that shaped Harry.

Our Favorites: Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater’s affair

From Kaiser: Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater’s affair was one of the most old-school messy gossip stories of the year. That man had a wife and a baby at home! And his wife started briefing the press herself. (Get the Top 8 stories about Ariana’s Grande’s messy affair when you sign up for our mailing list!)

Our Favorites: Taylor Swift’s love life

Taylor Swift had a great year with the bestselling tour of all time, a box office hit and two new romances. In May we heard that she was dating The 1975’s vocalist, Matt Healy. They moved quickly with a typical boyfriend rollout for Taylor however his awful history of racism and sexism soon caught up with him and he remained unapologetic. They split soon afterwards. We heard in September that Taylor was seeing Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and their whirlwind romance has been so much fun to witness. (Get the Top 8 stories about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s new relationship when you sign up for our mailing list!)

Our Favorites: thunder-stealing

From Kaiser: I laughed my ass off at all of the Chelsea Flower Show thunder-stealing. Princess Kate hosted a surprise picnic at the flower show on Media Day, overshadowing Charles and Camilla, and there were headlines for weeks! (Get the top 8 stories about the Waleses stealing King Charles’s thunder when you sign up for our mailing list!)

The Middletons’ house of cards

From Kaiser: The collapse of the Middletons’ house of cards was Peak Schadenfreude, especially since long-time royal watchers always knew that the Middletons’ finances were shady as hell. Party Pieces’s descent into bankruptcy was incredible to watch, especially as someone finally admitted that the Middletons have lied about their wealth for years. (Get the Top 10 stories about the Middletons’ shady finances when you sign up for our mailing list!)

And finally The Telegraph called us Sussex Squad influencers when they saw Kaiser’s tweet about getting an advance copy of Endgame.

Thank you for reading, listening and commenting! We hope you have a great 2024!