There’s been a palpable sense of panic among Prince William and Kate’s political base, the sycophantic royal reporters who feel their only job is propping up an angry egg and his bewigleted wife. Maybe I’m being generous, but I do believe that there are some royal reporters who genuinely understand that the events of the past month have irreparably altered the Windsors’ standing and public trust. But as we’ve seen time and time again, these people are short-sighted and unimaginative – they can’t see that there’s money to be made from doing honest coverage of the monarchy’s death rattle. So instead, they trudge along, writing their sympathetic “Poor Prince Huevo” pieces. Becky English had a doozy, published on Wednesday: “What William really thinks about the Kate conspiracy theories. And why it’s been so heartbreaking for him to see her reputation trashed in the same way as Diana’s.” Can someone tell William that his own mismanagement and tone-deaf messaging has done the most damage to his wife’s reputation?

William has had such a difficult four years: All this against the backdrop of a series of devastating losses, beginning with the death of the Duke of Edinburgh in 2021 (always a tower of strength for the princess, to whom he frequently wrote fond letters, as well as William) and then his irreplaceable grandmother and sounding board, Queen Elizabeth, the following year.

The grief of exiling a brother who refused to divorce his wife on William’s orders: There has been grief, too – well, at least a form of it – at the devastating defection of Prince Harry, whose almost primeval need to snipe, strike and rile his brother and sister-in-law, to whom he was once so close, has been one of the most devastating sucker punches of them all. Sure, William’s heart has been hardened and his resolve reaffirmed when it comes to his sibling, particularly after his disloyalty to Catherine in his bile-fest of a memoir, Spare. But it is important not to underestimate, friends tell me, just how much of a form of bereavement it has been.

The weight of the world on his hunched shoulders: But having covered the Royal Family for so long you do get to pick up the signs, and it was clear that William was also a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. I know he is angry, frustrated and, yes, deeply disappointed, at what has transpired over recent weeks. ‘When will it all stop?’ he is said to have asked. William has worked hard over the years to ring-fence his family and protect them from the worst excesses of public scrutiny. While he doesn’t have an easy relationship with the British media, he has learnt to work with us professionally – and has, rightly, been afforded unprecedented privacy for a publicly funded national figure.

William always hoped to control all of the media: William has now learnt the hard way that this degree of control does not extend to the sump of social media – let alone foreign publications and even prime-time US television – which are simply not subject to a fraction of the same regulation as news outlets here. Most worrying for the prince and his team is the way that the worst sniggering excesses of internet trollism have broken through the barrier and appear to now be controlling a particularly spiteful form of public discourse.

William’s own-goals: Of course, there have been a few own-goals on the way. I’ve been clear in my view that Kensington Palace were desperately naive in thinking one of the most famous – and, let us not forget, much-loved – women in the world could disappear from public view for three months and people not talk about it. Do we have a right to know what’s been wrong with the Princess of Wales? Absolutely not. But might it not have been prudent to consider a slightly more informative approach in order to fill the vacuum that is now, inevitably, overflowing with rumour, conspiracy and bile?

An even more insular Huevo: The trouble is that approach doesn’t come naturally to William – who, insiders fear, will become ‘even more insular’ as a result of his wife’s experience. And after events of recent days, you can honestly sympathise. It’s also worth noting that while everyone hopes and prays for the King’s successful recovery (and from what I hear, currently, his spirits are excellent), Charles’s cancer diagnosis is a gnawing reminder for his son and heir of what is coming down the line, possibly faster than he ever feared. That’s a huge burden for William not just as a man, but also a husband and father of three young children, to bear.

Allow their actions to do the talking: For now the prince and his team are not minded to publicly react to what they describe as ‘the madness’, and feel their actions should do the talking. That said, I’m told they have not entirely ruled out making some kind of public statement in the coming weeks, ahead of Catherine’s return to public duties. There is much William would like to say. It has been tough for him to stand by and see his wife’s reputation shredded by the court of public opinion in the way his late mother’s once was.

[From The Daily Mail]

Stop for a second and really think about how f–king bizarre all of this is. William is not a one-man royal office. He has a staff of dozens, if not hundreds at his disposal. He has a brand new private secretary from the diplomatic corps and access to the top Tory spinmasters. He also has an eager, sycophantic press corps openly telling him what they want from him and what he should do to simply change the narrative. He’s either too stupid, too stubborn or hidden option C to actually do the things he needs to do to get through this. Release the original Mother’s Day photos, release a clear, unedited photo or video of Kate, have Kate release a real message of thanks for all of the care and support she’s gotten, actually respect the British public enough to communicate with them directly in some way. Instead, he wants to whine, dither and throw a tantrum about how he still hates his brother and he’s mad that people actually want to know if his wife is alive. BTW, hidden option C is that William can’t do any of the things the media wants him to do because Kate is refusing or she’s incapacitated. Who even knows?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Jason Momoa, O he of the luscious locks and a love of loincloths, says he runs A-OK on six hours of sleep. So uber fit, 6’4”, looks like he’s in his mid 30s when he’s 44, that Jason Momoa keeps all that going from only six hours of sleep. He must be a vampire, right? Jason has a brand new partnership with Guinness, for which he just co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in a commercial that debuted earlier this month. To tout the video — that has a Director’s Cut for a beer commercial! — Jason recently spoke with GQ about his sleep routine, favorite foods (aside from sardines for breakfast), and the bit of casting he did for this project with Guinness:

So, are you getting up early?
Generally, 5 to 6 a.m. I generally get six hours of sleep and am good with six. I don’t get more than that.

So you’re going to bed every night at midnight?
I would say 11 to midnight, yeah. But I went to bed the other night at nine, and my body woke me up at 3:30 a.m., and I was like “Get f–ked!” And my body’s like, “That’s six hours, bro!”

Okay, what are we doing for lunch?
I love sandwiches, and for lunch, I keep it simple and have a sandwich. I have a chef who travels with me for dinner, but I consistently love the same stuff. I love Hawaiian food, so I’ll have nice chicken and rice, mac salad, poi, and salad. I love a simple salad. I like radishes and tomatoes; then there’s just the greens and olive oil. I’ll do protein; I’ll always have chicken. I ate red meat for a very long time, and I loved it to the point where it hurt me. So, I don’t eat as much red meat as I used to. I love seafood, like uni and stuff like that. I should eat way more vegetables than I do, but we’re working on that. Baby steps!

Okay, before we go, hit me with your favorite memory with Guinness.
I have one that’s just a little too personal, so I’m going with the latest one. I was raised by a single mother — it was just me and her. We ate shitty pizza — she’d send me coupons, so the pizza we ate was like 88-cent pizza. She worked three or four jobs, and she busted her ass, but she would drink a beer, and she taught me how to drink Guinness. When we were looking for this woman to play this role in the commercial, I was like: Oh my God, let’s just get my mom. Most people aren’t gonna know that’s my mother. I told my mom, and my mom’s obviously so giddy — she’s never been in anything before. It’s one of the coolest moments I’ve ever had with my mom, and to share it over something that she taught me. We went to the Guinness factory, wrote this story with my friends, directed it, and starred in it with my mother. That’s about as good as it gets.

[From GQ]

Nepo mom alert! I actually think the commercial he made is pretty cute, and a reminder that his comedy chops are being vastly underutilized (much like Chris Hemsworth). Chiseled hunks can be funny too! And of course it was really sweet of Jason to give his mom a cameo, especially for something that was already meaningful between them. I’m not much of a beer drinker (as in I don’t drink beer at all), but if some brand ever wants to make me their ambassador for root beer floats, you can be sure I’ll loop in Mama Kismet.

Now getting back to six hours of sleep. I’m still suspicious! And by that I mean jealous! Look, I “function” many days on six hours of sleep. It’s hard to get around that with the demands of life, though I always strive for the rule of eight: eight hours for the day job, eight for my own pursuits, and eight for sleep. Emphasis on strive. But to look like Michaelangelo’s long lost Hawaiian David, on only half of Rob Lowe’s or less than half Dakota Johnson’s nightly slumber? To quote the man himself, “Get f–ked!”

Embed from Getty Images

photos credit: Darla Khazei/INSTARimages, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon

I follow Peter Hunt on Twitter (you can see his handle here). He’s a former BBC presenter and sort of a self-styled royal critic. He’s a royalist, don’t get me wrong, but he also criticizes the way the Windsors do business. For years, he’s made some good points about the Sussexit and how horrible the Windsors were to Prince Harry in particular. One of Hunt’s special interests is how the British media is far too obsequious to the Windsors, how access-journalism has ruined everything, and how the media should do their jobs and act as a check on the monarchy’s power. Well, guess who has many thoughts about the Mother’s Day Frankenphoto Fiasco? Hunt was appalled that after years of bowing, scraping and supplicating to the Windsors, the British media didn’t have the balls to question the photo and it took the international media calling out the palace clownshow for anyone to mildly criticize this horrible system. Hunt shared even more thoughts:

The media should use the Kensington Palace photo editing row as an “opportunity” to insist it has full editorial control over royal footage, a former BBC royal correspondent has said. Peter Hunt, now a royal commentator, said parts of the media had “a bar that was perhaps too low” when it came to examining material handed out by the palace.

Earlier this week, Phil Chetwynd of AFP said the palace was no longer a “trusted source”, adding that the photographs more usually subject to a “kill notice” were issued by North Korean or Iranian news agencies. Mr Hunt, speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, said broadcasters including the BBC should follow suit in insisting filmed material is not controlled by the palace, proving to viewers that it can be trusted.

Mr Hunt said: “It’s a new world for the royals and a new world for the media. That senior person from AFP mentioned the British monarchy in the same breath as the so-called axis of evil, which isn’t a good look when he says that they previously killed pictures only from the North Korean and Iranian news agency. It shows that they and maybe others had a bar which was perhaps too low when it came to photos from this sort of source.”

Mr Hunt said he had raised concerns in 2016 about footage of the Royal family and projects including the Heads Together mental health campaign being filmed by others and handed out.

“The BBC has made considerable focus on this issue of transparency,” he said. “The BBC constantly talks about transparency being an essential element in ensuring audiences feel they can trust BBC journalism.” He suggested the corporation could make use of the existing “royal cameraman” paid for by the BBC, ITV and Sky. “This would be an opportunity for the BBC to make clear to its audiences that the material that individual provides is material that they control. That it’s not edited by the palace, not controlled by the palace. They can make clear that the sound that’s picked up by the cameraman is not interfered with in any way as well. It’s an opportunity for broadcasters to follow suit.”

[From The Telegraph]

I appreciate that Hunt is bringing this up, if for no other reason than the issue puts a spotlight on the fact that no British media outlet has followed the lead set by Reuters, AFP, AP and Getty. The Sun, The Times, the Mail, the Telegraph, the Mirror, the BBC – none of them have pledged to examine and verify the authenticity of photos and videos provided by the Windsors. You know why that is too, it’s not that the Telegraph or the Mail has some kind of implicit trust in everything they’re handed from the palace. It’s that every British outlet (save for the Guardian, arguably) sees itself less as a member of the Fourth Estate and more as a helpful propaganda arm of the British monarchy and Tory Party. Why examine a palace-issued photo when you can use it in your royalist propaganda?

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.

Last year, Kevin James had an unexpected surge in cultural relevance when an old promo picture of him from his The King of Queens days suddenly blew up as a meme. Even though it was the first time that most people had thought of Kevin outside of reruns on CBS/Peacock, he’s actually been steadily working for two decades. Well, for some reason that I don’t really want to know about, Kevin appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast a couple of weeks ago. During the interview, he talked about his career, including some of his weight struggles. Kevin shared that while he was recently filming a horror movie, he lost about 50lbs. When the movie was over, he gained all of the weight back. After gaining it back, he found out he needed to do reshoots and had to lose the weight all over again. So, he ended up losing 60lbs by “fasting,” which entailed sustaining on some salt and water over the course of 41 days. Holy yo-yo dieting, Batman.

The King of Queens star Kevin James recently stopped by The Joe Rogan Experience for a wide-ranging interview covering everything from his career to his own body. At one point in the conversation, he explained that while filming a new movie, he underwent a dramatic weight loss, then weight gain, then an even bigger rapid loss. But the extreme method he described is far from a healthy approach to achieve his desired result. The actor explained to Rogan that he lost weight to play a priest in an unnamed upcoming horror movie, getting down to 230 pounds. After shooting had wrapped, he packed on 50 pounds and got back up to 280. When he learned he had to do reshoots later, he had to lose all the weight again.

“I can lose it really quick, I can fast and lose it,” he said of his yo-yo dieting tactics. “Seriously, I can lose it quick… I can do it in a month. Less than a month.”

He went on to explain how he fasted for multiple weeks—”41 and a half” days to be exact—to drop the weight for the reshoots quickly. But it wasn’t intermittent fasting, an approach where you restrict the number of hours per day you can eat food which has gained popularity in some health circles in recent years and has been proven in studies to be safe and effective. Instead, he claims he survived only on “water and a little salt” for approximately six weeks.

“When I lock on, I can do something,” he stated plainly. “I started fasting, I didn’t say ‘I’m going to do 40 days,’ I just said ‘I’m going to do whatever I can.’”

That doesn’t mean it was a smooth ride the whole time. “I felt pretty good for a while, and then I’d have these dips, like wow, I feel pretty miserable,” he confessed.

In the end, he dropped all the weight he initially lost for the movie and then some. “I lost, I think, like 60 pounds,” he said. “I didn’t even take vitamins… It cleansed everything out of me.” In the interview, however, James acknowledged that this wasn’t the best advice for others. “I’m not saying it’s the way to go for everybody, I don’t know,” he said.

James himself acknowledged that he didn’t go about losing weight in the healthiest way, and that he gained much of the weight back afterwards. Looking ahead, he wants to focus on his diet and establish a sustainable routine to stay in good shape for years to come.

[From Yahoo]

Oh man, that sounds miserable. While different bodies respond to different types of diets and exercise, that’s not what Kevin did here. It’s absolutely worth pointing out that what he did wasn’t fasting or intermittent fasting or however he wants to present it so that it’s less jarring. He was starving himself. I would have been so hangry after about 12 hours of that method. I wish that Kevin had worked with a dietician or nutritionist to lose the weight safely. If he really did sustain on nothing but salt and water for 41 days without taking any vitamins, then that is crazy. All of that drastic weight loss and gain cannot be healthy for him. He has so many resources available to him, too. I hope he’s serious about focusing on a better diet and exercise routine to live a healthier life in the future.

Screenshots from YouTube and Instagram

Anya Taylor Joy kicks ass in the new trailer for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. [Seriously OMG]
Emily Ratajkowski repurposed her engagement ring into a divorce ring. [Just Jared]
Taylor Russell looked great in The Row. [RCFA]
Another woman accuses Johnny D*pp of being abusive, shocking. [Socialite Life]
Review of The Girls on the Bus. [Pajiba]
Jodie Foster’s awards-season wardrobe was kind of blah. [Go Fug Yourself]
This artist turns cloud formations into cartoons. [OMG Blog]
Amy Duggar sobs as she explains “blanket training.” [Starcasm]
Ariana Grande & Dalton Gomez are officially divorced. [Hollywood Life]
So many celebrities have falsified their backstories completely. [Buzzfeed]

For the past year, Heritage Foundation has been engaged in a truly disturbing attack on Prince Harry’s American residency. The Heritage wingnuts have latched onto Harry’s admissions in Spare that he tried cocaine and he’s used other drugs, including hallucinogens. Heritage claims that Harry’s Spare confessions somehow mean that he lied on his visa application and the only way they can prove that is if DHS releases Harry’s visa application publicly. This is also about Heritage trying to make the Biden administration look “bad,” because the wingnuts have all apparently forgotten that Harry moved to the US in 2020, when Donald Trump was president and presumably the Trump-era DHS originally approved Harry’s visa application. Speaking of, the judge in the case has basically asked to see Harry’s visa application so he can double-check it, only DHS has asked for a delay:

The Department of Homeland Security says it needs an extra two weeks to hunt down Prince Harry’s immigration records as a federal judge weighs whether or not they should be made public. The department made its request in a court filing Sunday, saying it needed more time to respond to Judge Carl Nichols’ order to provide more information about why his immigration details should be kept secret.

The conservative Heritage Foundation is seeking the release of the documents amid questions about whether Harry lied about his drug use in his visa application.

‘Defendant has begun the search but searching for and reviewing the records has taken longer than anticipated,’ wrote D.H.S. lawyers in the filing. They also said other government agencies may need to review the documents before they can be handed over to the judge.

‘Thus, having established good cause, defendant respectfully requests an additional fourteen days, up to and including April 4, 2024, to comply with the court’s order,’ they wrote.

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah, this sounds like a typical bureaucratic mess, especially given (once again) that the visa application was probably approved during the previous administration. I genuinely hope nothing comes of this case, but just wait – the Heritage wingnuts are keeping Trump informed and they’re feeding him talking points about Harry too:

Donald Trump has once again hinted that, under a second Trump administration, Prince Harry could be kicked out of the United States if he is found to have lied on paperwork about his drug use. Trump told Nigel Farage in a GB News interview to be broadcast Tuesday, when asked what he would do if allegations that Harry may have lied on his visa forms proved accurate: “We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action.”

Farage asked if “appropriate action” could mean “not staying in America,” to which Trump replied, according to a report on the outlet’s website, “Oh I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago.”

The interview is the latest twist in a legal case that increasingly looks like it could become a real problem for Harry. An immigration lawyer recently told The Daily Beast that Harry could be vulnerable to a politically motivated attack on his residential status, saying: “Department of State decisions are discretionary and very susceptible to political influence. His visa could be canceled. He could be denied entry upon return to the U.S. from foreign travel for inadmissibility due to prior drug usage, despite an unexpired visa in his passport. There are many scenarios where political influence could impact Harry’s ability to re-enter the U.S.”

[From The Daily Beast]

As I’ve said before, if Trump “wins,” there are much bigger issues than “will he deport Prince Harry.” The end of the American republic will be upon us and an army of white supremacists will take to the streets. Which makes it even more notable that our British allies, drunk with white nationalist/royalist fervor, are excitedly pitching Harry’s deportation as a selling point for a second Trump term.

Photos courtesy of Netflix and Cover Images.

Adam West. Michael Keaton. Christian Bale. Ben Affleck. These are all actors who have famously played the Caped Crusader himself, Batman. (I left out Clooney on purpose, *but* I think his cameo in The Flash movie was perfection.) Batman is such a well worn-in property at this point that the chance to play him comes along like six times per generation. Jake Gyllenhaal has long-wanted to play the Dark Knight. And since James Gunn is (infamously) rebooting the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) since taking over in November 2022, he’s looking for a new Batman. In an interview with Screen Rant, Jake commented on fan rumblings about him playing Bruce Wayne’s alter ego, calling it an “honor.”

Screen Rant: Jake, watching you in these action scenes was absolutely incredible. Like I said, it was deliciously visceral. But a while back, I know that you auditioned for the role of Batman, and I got some Batman vibes in this film when you were beating the crap out of people. Is that a role you’d still be interested in, especially after doing a movie like this?

Jake Gyllenhaal: Oh, man. That’s a classic. It’s an honor. Speaking of playing roles that other incredible actors have played in the past, to me actually roles that other incredible actors have played in the past, which, to me, actually, when I think about it, I’m going to play Iago in Othello with Denzel Washington, and I think about like the history of actors that have played that role throughout time, and I’m intimidated by that. So that’s the first level. That’s what I’m working on right now. But of course. It would be an honor always. Those types of things and those roles are classics.

[From Screen Rant]

Alright, I know there’s a good amount of y’all on here who are into this stuff like I am. What are your thoughts at a potential Gyllenhaal Batman? I’m a very hard no on this one. He was fine as Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home but…Batman? Bruce Wayne needs to be played by a certain type of actor and that is not Jake. “But Rosie,” you may say, “What about Robert Pattinson?” I did like the RPattz Batman movie a lot more than I expected to. I think it was because The Batman was an artsy, noir, whodunit version of the character set in an entirely different universe.

At the end of the day, let’s just stick with Maggie as the Gyllenhaal sibling who’s involved in a Batman movie. I suppose, however, if Jake wanted to, there’s always a villain or someone else he could play. There’s also that small matter of Jake’s personal hygiene. Will he commit to daily showers if he plays Batman? It gets hot in that suit, even without all of the ass-kicking. You know Bruce Wayne probably takes two to three showers a day. Anyway, if Aaron Taylor Johson really is going to be the next James Bond, then I put Idris Elba up for consideration for the role. Idris would make a fine Batman.

photos credit: IMAGO/RW/MediaPunch/Avalon, Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Avalon, JW/Bang Showbiz/Avalon

As someone who does not have a strong belief in one particular Princess of Wales conspiracy, I’m just sort of hedging my bets on what’s really going on in The Sun/TMZ video. Allegedly, Prince William and Kate were seen by a random guy on Saturday, at the Windsor Farm Store, and the guy took a blurry video of W&K practically sprinting out of the store. Kate wore leggings, walked briskly and without aid, and she carried a heavy-looking bag. My initial thought was “that’s Kate but she’s had a hell of a lot of plastic surgery since Christmas.” After several viewings, I’m now questioning that – the gait was off, the woman in the video seems too tall and her proportions didn’t seem like Kate’s proportions. I could apparently never say any of this is I worked for any British media outlet, where a strict code of royal-sycophancy must be maintained at all time. Pity this poor BBC sports reporter, who questioned the royal-party line:

A BBC sports reporter appeared to promote conspiracy theories about the Princess of Wales by suggesting it was a “lookalike’ who was photographed over the weekend. The Princess, whose absence from public life while she has been recovering from surgery has sparked a flurry of bizarre conspiracy theories, was pictured visiting the Windsor Farm Shop on Saturday.

Sonja McLaughlan, the BBC’s rugby specialist, echoed this theory online, suggesting the individual seen shopping alongside Prince William was not his wife, but a double. She also suggested Prince William could have been replaced by an actor.

Commenting on a video which compares the individual in the latest footage against past pictures of the Princess, Ms McLaughlan wrote: “It’s so obviously not Kate. Some newspapers are reporting it as fact. But it’s not her. No conspiracy theorist but all very odd.”

She added to her post on Twitter: “Disturbing that newspapers like The Times are reporting this as fact. Headline ‘Kate seen in public for the first time’ when it’s clearly not her. As someone has said. Could be a couple of lookalikes making mischief.”

[From The Telegraph & MSN]

Not only is the video extremely odd, but the reaction to the video is odd and the reaction to people questioning the authenticity of the video is just bonkers. Like, the Windsors have zero credibility now. The Mother’s Day frankenphoto changed everything. William’s refusal to explain why he skipped his godfather’s memorial changed everything. The weirdness around which candid photos and videos are “allowed” to be published has added an extra layer of bullsh-t too – what is palace-approved or not, what is a set-up, why did the Sun run a story with no photos or video about the Windsor Farm Store visit for 24 hours? And on and on. I applaud this woman for at least having legitimate doubts and questioning the wisdom of every British outlet putting THEIR credibility on the line for what could conceivably be another Kensington Palace manipulation.

Speaking of, TMZ executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere has already started walking back the authenticity of the video:

pic.twitter.com/o0EOt1nyH3

— Tina V (@tinavan33) March 19, 2024

I watched several videos of Kate in heels and flats walking and then the clip of Windsor Farm Kate walking. Whoever paid for that video got played.

— Christopher Bouzy (spoutible.com/cbouzy) (@cbouzy) March 19, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, covers courtesy of the Mail & The Sun.

Previously, I’ve used royal stories in which “royal expert” Nick Bullen is quoted. Bullen is the editor-in-chief of True Royalty TV. I’ve never really gotten a strong vibe either way, that he has a particular agenda or that he has genuinely palace sources or royal sources. But Bullen has given exclusive comments to Us Weekly and this man just ruined his credibility on everything. Bullen says, with his whole chest, that not only did Prince William never fool around with Rose Hanbury, but William is not a cheater whatsoever. Come on, people. Be real. Interestingly enough, Bullen also claims that Rose is “very upset” that the alleged affair rumors are circulating once again. Girl, if I banged an angry Huevo, I wouldn’t want people to know either.

Rose Hanbury is royally frustrated with resurfaced rumors that she had an affair with Prince William.

“I know people who know the Marchioness of Cholmondeley very, very well, and she absolutely was not having an affair with the Prince of Wales,” royal expert and Editor-in-Chief of True Royalty TV Nick Bullen exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, March 19. “Even when those rumors broke a few years ago, she was very upset by them then. She’s still very upset by them now.”

Kensington Palace never commented on the affair speculation, and the rumors died down. That is, until recently, when conspiracy theories about Kate’s whereabouts breathed new life into the alleged scandal. Stephen Colbert even repeated the theory that Kate’s recent months-long hiatus from public life — which Kensington Palace announced in January, citing a “planned” abdominal procedure — is due to trouble in her marriage. “I think we all know who the alleged other woman is, say it with me, The Marchioness of Cholmondeley,” Colbert, 59, said during an episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert earlier this month.

Bullen told Us that the lack of information the palace has provided about Kate’s surgery has fueled the rumor mill. “Something the royal family could possibly learn from [this] is that [with] these vacuums that are created, other people can be collateral damage,” he said. “Perhaps they need to think about that collateral damage.”

Bullen called the affair rumors “rubbish,” pointing out that infidelity “goes against everything” that William stands for given his experience watching his father and mother, King Charles III and the late Princess Diana, conduct talked-about affairs during their marriage.

“He saw the damage that affairs can cause,” Bullen said. “What I’m told [is], it’s just not in his psyche.”

[From Us Weekly]

“Something the royal family could possibly learn from [this] is that [with] these vacuums that are created, other people can be collateral damage.” But that’s the whole royal communications model – to create collateral damage to save the reputations of the monarch and the heir. Everyone else is collateral damage fodder, including the heir’s wife and the heir’s sidepieces. As for William never having affairs… lmao. Please. He cheated on Kate constantly throughout their courtship and there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence that he’s screwed around on Kate throughout their marriage too. Now, do I believe that these “entanglements” have been passionate love affairs or that Huevo is emotionally involved enough to toss over his wife and his family-man image? No. But before Kate’s medical issues this year, I could have sworn that William was launching himself as a hot single father.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

So my quiet little conspiracy about the Princess of Wales is that she, along with Kensington Palace staffers, always intended to do certain things to show her “recovery.” I believe that there was always a plan to release a “new photo of Kate” for Mother’s Day, just as I believe the original plan was for Kate’s first public appearance to be at church in Windsor on Easter Sunday. The thing is, the palace wanted those things to be a surprise – they didn’t want anyone to EXPECT Kate to be seen or to do anything until May/June. They were caught off-guard by the past month of speculation, conspiracies and rumormongering, and they’ve been trying to react in real time, only everyone involved – from senior staff to junior staff to the Waleses themselves – is an incompetent dumbass. It’s given the impression that Will and Kate are staggering from one self-created crisis to another. Mid-stagger, they’re trying to go back to the original plan, only they’ve made everything into such a four-alarm crisis that if Kate doesn’t show up to church on Easter, it will be international news and the conspiracies will get even worse. Speaking of, now “friends of King Charles” are basically letting Kate know (through the press) that she better put on an Easter wig and hustle her ass to church OR ELSE.

Kate Middleton’s return to public life will be marked with a “big bang” return to the limelight on Easter Sunday, March 31, friends of the royals have told The Daily Beast. Expectations are building that the Princess of Wales will walk to church with other members of the royal family on Easter Sunday and greet well-wishers in a show-stopping set piece, heralding her return to public life.

While her officials have been busily reminding journalists that they initially briefed that her return to public duties would come “after Easter,” with some suggestions that could actually mean “after the kids Easter holidays have finished,” a friend of Kate’s and a friend of King Charles told The Daily Beast that they expected and hoped respectively that Kate would attend church on Easter Sunday morning, in just under two weeks.

While Kensington Palace declined to comment on whether Kate would be walking to church on Easter Sunday, or indeed if she would be seen out and about privately before then after she visited a farm shop with husband Prince William this weekend, one friend said, “She is doing well. Everything is on track. Easter will be the big bang moment.”

A friend of the king’s, meanwhile, told The Daily Beast that Charles “of course” hoped Kate would attend church at Easter. However they were also careful to point out that there was no suggestion of any pressure being put on Kate to do so, and that it would be ultimately up to her. (As for Charles himself, while there has been no specific guidance on whether the king will attend church on Easter Sunday, his attendance would be unlikely as the palace has said he is avoiding crowds while he receives cancer treatment. Queen Camilla will likely represent him instead.)

Another source, a former Buckingham Palace staffer, told The Daily Beast that Easter was “the natural choice” for Kate to make her return to the public sphere. The former courtier said that attending the Easter Day church service at Sandringham with her family would provide a “powerful dose of continuity.”

They said they understood it was unlikely that there would be a social media campaign featuring Kate—last seen in public on Dec. 25, 2023—or that her team would release any more images of Kate before Easter.

The former courtier added that she is now expected to delegate the business of photographing her family for media handouts to professional photographers, after another image taken by Kate of the late Queen Elizabeth II was struck out of official records by the photo agency Getty Images which declared it had been altered. The former courtier, who retains good links with current staff members said: “We won’t be seeing any more official pictures with Kate’s credit. It would just stir the whole story up again. The kids are older now anyway, so it is less of an issue.”

Asked if the reality was that the palace would have little choice now that major picture agencies have said they no longer regard Kensington Palace as a trusted source, the former staffer said: “They could continue to put her pictures out on social media but the point is, they won’t.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Re: the palace-released photos, I said yesterday that I genuinely hope that media agencies dip into their archives and start labeling all of the manipulated photos released by KP for YEARS. This is practically an admission that yeah, they got caught on that too. They thought they could keep sending out manipulated photos forever and no one would say sh-t. That blew up in their faces, as did their lack of preparation for how to keep the public informed about Kate’s condition. Anyway, I’m sure Kate will be resurrected for Easter, or at least that’s what everyone in Windsor World is telling Kate that she has to do. Although, history shows us that whenever pressure is applied on Will and Kate to get off their asses, they refuse.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.