It’s perfectly possible that the “Prince Harry & Meghan bought a home in Portugal” report is some British-media fiction designed to produce a Sussex soap-opera storyline. But what’s strange about the story is that it’s not playing out like the usual Salt Island fictions. Usually, when they’re making something up, it’s a story designed to make Harry and Meghan look bad or broke or on the verge of divorce. Saying that Harry and Meghan bought a $4 million villa in Portugal (close to Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank) makes the Sussexes sound rich, successful and uninterested in the UK. Which makes me wonder if the story is actually true. Anyway, the Mail has yet another column about the Sussexes’ possible Portuguese real estate and what it all means. This piece is overwrought, so here’s the section I wanted to discuss:

So the fact that Harry and Meghan are also looking to set up a home in the region is a fascinating development. Why? Because it reveals much about the significance of Eugenie and Jack – and their two children – to their lives. Professionally, socially and emotionally, the two couples and their young broods have become entwined. It would be no exaggeration to say that, in the chilliness of their life since leaving the Royal Family, Harry and Meghan have found a rare familial solace in the company of Eugenie and her family.

One could easily see how Harry’s sense of loss could be partly assuaged if he and Meghan could live, at least part-time, near Eugenie and Jack. Perhaps the biggest attraction will be the knowledge that his own children – Archie, five, and Lilibet, three – will be able to spend time with Eugenie’s children. A royal source says: ‘Harry must know his children are not going to grow up as friends of William’s children, George, Charlotte and Louis. A bond for Lilibet and Archie with Eugenie’s kids will be the only royal friendship they will have. Most likely, August and Ernest are the only cousins they are going to ever spend time with. So time in Portugal, even just for holidays, means that Harry is keeping the only door to the Royal Family just a little bit open for himself and for the next generation, and raising them as royal children, at least in some way.’

The royal source continues: ‘The cousin bond is strong between Harry and Eugenie and they have grown up together to some extent. Both have suffered with an at-times difficult relationship with their parents.’

A local estate agent who has been working in the area for decades told The Mail on Sunday that the couple were likely to have spent in excess of four million euros for a property on one of the exclusive resorts. ‘In recent years we have seen A-listers from the States buying homes or plots which are essentially closed environments. It’s very high-end and homes range from four to 20 million euros. There have been rumours in recent months that Harry and Meghan are among the latest buyers. But it’s unclear if they have bought a home that is already built or if it is yet to be built.’

Locals, though, are unlikely to be laying out red carpet for the Duke and Duchess, the agent said. He added: ‘We have much richer and much more famous people buying here for sure. I think they will have zero impact, to be honest. If someone like Jeff Bezos [the Amazon boss] bought here then, yes, there could be some impact – but not Harry and Meghan.’

[From The Daily Mail]

“So time in Portugal, even just for holidays, means that Harry is keeping the only door to the Royal Family just a little bit open for himself and for the next generation, and raising them as royal children…” Ah, yes, everyone knows that royal children are typically raised in America and Portugal, with next to no contact with the Windsors except for Harry’s favorite cousin. I get the feeling that we’re about to witness yet another anti-Eugenie press cycle, where we’re suddenly getting quotes about how Prince William is ordering Eugenie to “choose” and that obviously, she’ll want to stay close to the future king. It never fails to amuse me that the Mail and other outlets manage to get their “royal sources” to chat freely about the Sussexes’ activities, real estate, tours and businesses. It’s almost as if the entire institution is still solely focused on whatever Harry & Meghan are doing.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think Prince William or Kate have very adventurous palates. Kate has said that she likes really spicy food, while William avoids spice because he gets sweaty. I’ve never really thought that either of them have much of a sweet tooth either, and you rarely hear about them picking out a good dessert for themselves or anything like that. To be fair, they both tend to avoid any story which would humanize them, citing their privacy concerns. So I imagine William was quite upset that a student in Cornwall figured out Kate’s favorite dessert and William’s favorite cake.

It appears that many members of the royal family have a sweet tooth, and during a trip to the Duchy College in Cornwall, Prince William revealed what dessert his wife, the Princess of Wales really enjoys.

After visiting the college’s criminology department, William toured the establishment’s student and staff hub, Sam’s Café, where he was presented with one of his favourite cakes, the refrigerated breakfast cake, which formed one of the layers of William’s wedding cake. The dessert was also a favourite of the late Queen’s and it consists of chocolate, butter, sugar, cream and biscuits.

The cake was presented to William by chef Darren Watson, who had been undertaking a lot of research in order to uncover the desserts loved by the royals.

When Darren told William that he had discovered that Kate’s favourite pudding was a sticky toffee pudding, William confirmed this, saying: “Very good.”

Speaking of his love of desserts to Darren after being presented with the biscuit cake, the heir to the throne said: “Thank you very much, that’s very sweet of you, any kind of sweet thing I will take, I’m a sucker for anything chocolate and anything sweet.”

[From Hello]

As an American, whenever I hear “sticky toffee pudding,” I think of an actual pudding, not a cake. But in Britain, it is a cake – a sponge cake or “pudding cake,” with a toffee syrup and maybe some ice cream too. I wouldn’t choose it as my favorite, but whatever, it’s Kate’s favorite, and I’m surprised that William even confirmed that. Now, I think we knew that William likes chocolate? So yeah, obviously, he enjoys any cake with chocolate. I hope he didn’t insult this guy like William did with that poor woman who made cupcakes.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Here are some photos of King Charles and Queen Camilla on Monday in Canberra. They flew from Sydney to Canberra (Australia’s capital) as part of their Australia tour. One of the biggest events of the day was King Charles’s address to Australian Parliament. It was right after his speech when Senator Lidia Thorpe staged a one-woman protest of his visit and his address:

The King’s speech in the Australian Parliament was disrupted by shouts of “genocide” and “f— the colonies” as a senator used the Royal visit to protest. Senator Lidia Thorpe also shouted “f— the colonies” before she was escorted from the Great Hall of Parliament House, Canberra.

Speaking moments before, the King had delivered a speech in which he particularly addressed the First Nations people and their “traditional wisdom”, thanking them for their welcome ceremony and paying his respects to the “traditional owners of the lands on which we meet”. After the speech, which also touched on the King and Elizabeth II’s memories of visits to Australia and topics including climate change, Senator Thrope, who is well known for her protests, shouted: “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us: our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land, give us a treaty – we want a treaty, we want a treaty with this country. This is not your land. This is not your land. You are not my King, you are not our King. F— the colonies.”

She was escorted from the hall by security as she continued to berate the King. He was said afterwards to have been “unruffled” by the interruption and determined not let it overshadow an otherwise “wonderful day”.

Ms Thorpe, 51, is an independent senator. In 2022, she was compelled to repeat the oath of allegiance for Australian parliamentarians after initially describing the late Queen as a “coloniser”.

[From The Telegraph]

Thorpe’s 2022 protest of the oath got international coverage – she’s long been on the radar of republicans and monarchists, and I felt sorry for her that they basically forced her to pledge her allegiance to QEII to undertake her role in the Australian Senate. It was asinine, and it underlined the need for Australia to dump the monarchy. I’m glad she got the chance to protest King Charles in person. There’s lots of footage of Thorpe’s protest and I find it very moving. I’m actually a little bit emotional about it – she’s an extremely brave woman.

King Charles protester Lidia Thorpe, a Victoria Senator interrupts the great hall after speech pic.twitter.com/d02hoKW1rh

— Kate Mansey (@KateMansey) October 21, 2024

Australian senator Ms Thorpe, who has aboriginal heritage, heckled King Charles.

“You are not our King, you are not Sovereign… you have committed genocide against our people.” pic.twitter.com/Z3LyAOUg2I

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) October 21, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Two weekends ago, Elon Musk joined Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Musk acted like a servile dumbass and proclaimed himself “Dark MAGA.” It was pitiful. It also marked the total end of Musk’s pretense that he wasn’t trying to f–k around and manipulate the election. Keep in mind, Musk is not American – he’s South African – and so this constitutes a foreign actor interfering in the election. He’s basically moved to Pennsylvania, where he’s overseeing a super PAC, to which he has donated tens of millions of dollars. He’s also paying people to “sign a pro-Trump petition,” literally trying to buy votes for $100 a vote. But that’s not all, because of course not. He’s just announced this:

Billionaire Elon Musk promised on Saturday to give away $1 million each day until November’s election to someone who signs his online petition supporting the U.S. Constitution. And he wasted no time, awarding a $1 million check to an attendee of his event in Pennsylvania aimed at rallying supporters behind Republican Donald Trump. The winner was a man named John Dreher, according to event staff.

“By the way, John had no idea. So anyway, you’re welcome,” the Tesla founder said as he handed Dreher the check.

[From Reuters]

The thing that’s keeping me sane about this foreign election interference is that Musk is a moron and he’s throwing money at a “problem” he doesn’t understand. Another thing keeping me sane is that Musk is going to end up talking himself into several lawsuits. He decided to peddle some lies about Dominion voting machines – the same Dominion which sued Fox News and won a settlement of $787.5 million.

Billionaire Elon Musk promoted debunked conspiracy theories about election fraud Thursday at the first of a series of planned campaign events across Pennsylvania meant to rally support for former President Donald Trump’s campaign. At a town hall hosted at a high school outside Philadelphia, Musk referred to the false conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems was part of a plot to rig U.S. elections in recent years.

“When you have mail-in ballots and no proof of citizenship, it’s almost impossible to prove cheating,” he said, responding to an audience member’s question about election fraud. “Statistically there are some very strange things that happen that are statistically incredibly unlikely. There’s always this question of, say, the Dominion voting machines. It is weird that, I think, they were used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa County [in Arizona] but not in a lot of other places. Doesn’t that seem like a heck of a coincidence?”

“The last thing I would do is trust a computer program,” he said, promoting the idea that U.S. elections should use only paper ballots. The Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive nonprofit law and public policy institute, has found that 98% of votes in the general election are expected to be cast on paper ballots.

In a statement, a Dominion spokesperson disputed numerous aspects of Musk’s comments. “Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion’s voting systems are already based on voter verified paper ballots. Fact: Hand counts and audits of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. They are verifiable facts,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

[From NBC News]

Psst, Dominion: SUE HIM. Sue him into oblivion. As for why Elon is doing all of this… I really think it’s a combination of things: he’s a loser and like attracts like, the Trump cult is the mothership for losers. I also think Musk has such a f–ked up philosophy when it comes to women, breeding, and the white supremacist “great replacement theory,” and Musk believes that Trump’s general sleazy misogyny mimics his world view.

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Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Getty.

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It’s hard to know where to begin with this. Well… on the campaign trail, VP Kamala Harris has spoken repeatedly about how she once worked at McDonald’s. It would have been during her college years. The Republicans have called her a liar and they’ve tried and failed to “prove” that Kamala never worked at a McD’s. It’s been a very strange fixation for the Trump campaign as well, so much so that Donald Trump decided to stage something very special on Sunday. His campaign closed down a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania for several hours, and they put Dementia Don in a McD’s apron and let him cook french fries and “serve” his supporters at the drive-thru. It was absolutely one of the most bizarre stunts I’ve ever seen from a presidential campaign, especially in the last few weeks before the election.

Donald Trump is spending part of his Sunday afternoon behind the counter at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s. The former president, who has frequently said he loves the chain’s food, donned an apron to work the fry machine and hand food to customers at the drive thru. It’s an attempt to bring attention to his unfounded allegations that his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, did not work there during college.

When asked why he wanted to come to the fast food restaurant, Trump responded, “I like McDonalds. I like jobs. I like to see good jobs and I think it’s inappropriate when someone puts down that they worked at McDonalds… She [Harris] never worked at McDonalds.”

“Should I give them extra salt?” Trump asked a McDonald’s worker while salting fries.

Rolling Stone has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment. A campaign official told CNN that she worked at a McDonald’s in Alameda, California, in the summer of 1983 while a student at Howard University, working the register as well as the fry and ice cream machines.

“I did fries. And then I did the cashier,” Harris said on Drew Barrymore’s talk show in April.

[From Rolling Stone]

I remarked on Twitter that the footage of Trump fussing over the fries was the happiest he’s looked in months, if not years. He honestly had a great time at one of his favorite fast food joints and he probably wishes he could have kept doing the stunt until Election Day. But yeah… the whole thing is utterly bizarre. Shutting down a McD’s for this, having his supporters drive up so he can throw food at them, his fussing over the fries. It’s a sad man with a sad fixation.

Donald Trump serves fries at McDonald’s.

pic.twitter.com/AGV1BRb9h3

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 20, 2024

This guy spent decades stiffing workers pay, cut overtime benefits for millions of people, and opposed any effort to raise the minimum wage.

You know who has actually worked at McDonald’s, joined workers on picket lines, and fights for working people? @KamalaHarris. https://t.co/QzFMVLiuaj

— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) October 20, 2024

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Here are some photos of King Charles and Queen Camilla on Sunday in Sydney, Australia. They went to a Sunday service at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church, having announced a day earlier that people should come out to greet the king and queen. Hundreds of people did so – legitimately, hundreds of Australians came out to shake Charles’s hand or wish him well. There were protesters, but they were kept a distance away from the church. The protesters chanted “Not my king” and “Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.” There were videos circulating where protestors were talking about how the British monarch does not represent Australia, etc. There were also large banners reading “Empire built on genocide” and “decolonize.” The Guardian mentioned something interesting about the hundreds of royal fans – the Australian Monarchist League “had pledged to hand out thousands” of supportive, pro-monarchy flags and placards. As in, they expected thousands of people to show up outside of the church. Only a couple of hundred showed up.

While the British media tried to put the best spin on all of this, the Telegraph even had to admit that: “When the couple first arrived they met some of the younger members of the congregation at the church door as a group of protesters could be heard shouting “not my King” but were drowned out by shouts of ‘hip hip hooray.’” Yes, god help us all if Charles has to hear faint “not my king” chants in a country his family brutally colonized. That wasn’t all – after the the church visit, Charles headed off to a lunch in his honor. The Guardian’s headline: “King Charles makes relaxed start to Australian tour but spends less than 10 minutes at lunch in his honour.”

King Charles III did not linger long at the luncheon put on in his honour, at the second scheduled event of his short Australian visit. And his gift to the gathering was a reminder of the fleeting passage of time.

There was a menu fit for a king, and very Sydney: chargrilled asparagus and olive dust; marinated octopus and squid ink wafer; barramundi and duck confit.

But the sovereign was gone before the first course. He addressed the gathering at NSW’s Parliament House, he offered an hourglass as a present, told lawmakers the “sands of time” would encourage “brevity”, and left within 10 minutes of his arrival in the hall, not to be seen again in public until Monday.

[From The Guardian]

Some people said that the palace officials were basically like… Charles is tired, we’re trying to limit his schedule. But it was a lunch? It was his only other event on Sunday, after the church service. I get it, he’s really tired. But to not even stay ten full minutes at a lunch in your honor when you just had a rest day on Saturday?

Look at how Charles & Cam greeted their well-wishers:

See how Consort Queen Camilla greets people without looking. King Charles doesn’t even bother to say hi! They despise the people who showed up to see them. #RoyalVisitAustralia pic.twitter.com/hlaberYoXR

— Ange Andrews (@andrews_ange) October 20, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

About a month after VP Kamala Harris became the democratic nominee this summer, Taylor Swift fans organized a massive Zoom fundraising call. It was part of a fantastic trend that was kicked off by Black women for Kamala, and swiftly followed Black men, South Asian women, South Asian men, LGBTQ, white women, and white dudes. The Swifties for Kamala call raised more than $140K! And all of that was still before Taylor endorsed VP Harris. Well, Swifties for Kamala are not done yet! Taylor started the final leg of her Eras Tour in Miami over the weekend, so Swifties for Kamala teamed up with the Florida Democratic Party on the ground to do major GOTV and canvassing efforts while hosting listening parties and live streams of the concerts. Excellent. I’m sure Donald Trump will be crying and waving his exhausted baby fists soon about how unfair it is since Kid Rock isn’t on tour.

The Florida Democratic Party is teaming up with the Swifties for Kamala voter outreach group to host listening parties, statewide canvasses and phone banking. They’ve teed up new merch and live streaming of Swift’s surprise song mash-ups at her shows.

Text banking will prod as many as 1.5 million Florida voters with messages like, “I Know Places You Can Vote” and “How To Get The Girl Elected.” Campaign volunteers will make beaded friendship bracelets that have become a signature accessory among Swift concert-goers, the bulk of whom are Gen Z and Millennial women.

They’re calling it all the “Eras Tour (GOTV Version).”

The Democratic National Committee is getting in on the action with a new Snapchat filter whose banner reads, “In My Voting Era” and “Be fearless for _____.” Users then get to fill in the blank space with words like “Equality,” “Reproductive Rights” or “Climate Action,” and their followers can click on a link to IWillVote.com. The DNC also snapped up Miami concert-area billboards, featuring Harris and messages like, “Welcome to your voting era! Swiftly go to the polls and vote for Democrats!”

There’s no indication that Swift will use her Miami tour to make a political statement. Democrats remember all too well when a widely circulated false rumor that Beyonce would make a surprise appearance at their convention in Chicago got them down bad.

But that isn’t going to stop Democrats from trying to use the opportunity to canvass outside the concert or from doing voter events with Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Florida state House candidate Laura Kelley. And it hasn’t stopped Democrats from wishing Swift would weigh in again on candidates or issues.

“She holds immense power to get out the vote,” said Eden Giagnorio, spokesperson for the Florida Democratic Party. “We hope our organizing efforts will help voters connect the dots — but nothing compares to her advocacy around it.”

After all, Swift’s latest album features a song called, “Florida!!!” She has used her platform to encourage people to vote and endorsed other candidates earlier in her career. She recently posted about supporting “a woman’s right to her own body” just as Florida voters are facing a question about abortion on the ballot in November. And Harris’ 60th birthday is on Sunday, the same day Swift’s Miami tour wraps. (Harris is scheduled to campaign in Michigan on Friday and Georgia Saturday.)

“Nothing that Taylor Swift does is accidental,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in Tallahassee this week. “She’s very purposeful in how she interacts with her fans, and so I think that her voice in this election is making a big difference.”

[From Politico]

“Nothing that Taylor Swift does is accidental,” may just be the understatement of the century, lol. As of this writing, there’s no reporting that Taylor made any political comments this weekend. She debuted new outfits and songs in the setlist, including TTPD’s “Florida!!!” But the most overt political statement at her concert came from a MAGAt who flew a plane over the venue with a banner saying, “Trump 2024 — Ready For It. Cat Lady? MAGA!” Do you think they meant to put a comma before “Cat Lady?” I’ll add it to the list of reasons to vote for VP Harris: democracy, equality, economy, reproductive rights, climate change, and proper punctuation.

As for the Swifties for Kamala doing this GOTV, I’m thrilled. It’s time for all of us to nail down our voting plans! And I can’t help it, the petty girl in me would love it if Florida, major swing state and current home state to Trump, swung blue. But we can’t take anything for granted. You can go to IWillVote.com to see if you’re registered, check the status of your ballot, or for more info on making your vote plan.

And Happy Birthday to VP Harris yesterday! My gift is coming on Saturday when early voting begins in my area.

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Volunteering with @Swifties4Kamala today making bracelets with @FlaDems! Got to give an S4K “in my voting era” friendship bracelet to Florida Democratic Party Chair @NikkiFried. So much fun! pic.twitter.com/hiqsfHqHKr

— Kate Arnold-Murray (@k_arnold_murray) October 19, 2024

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Last month, I quietly clocked the fact that Jennifer Lawrence totally skipped Paris Fashion Week. In recent years, the Dior shows are one of Jennifer’s few public outings, as she’s been repping Dior for a decade or longer. I thought “hey, that’s interesting that Dior’s most prominent ambassador skipped their show but who knows what’s really going on.” Well, I wonder if this is what was going on – Jennifer is pregnant, again!

Jennifer Lawrence’s family is growing!

The No Hard Feelings actress, 34, and husband Cooke Maroney, 40, are expecting their second baby, sharing the news via a Vogue Instagram post and article on Sunday, Oct. 20.

“Congratulations are in order for Jennifer Lawrence! The Oscar-winning actor will be welcoming her second child with art gallerist husband Cooke Maroney,” the magazine wrote in the caption of the post, adding that representatives for Lawrence had confirmed the happy news to the outlet.

Representatives for the actress did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The couple — who wed in October 2019 — are already parents to son Cy, 2, who they welcomed in February 2022.

[From People]

I’m happy for her. She got to a point, I would say pre-pandemic, where she was so overexposed and really yearning for a more stable life with a husband and children. She clearly loves being a mom and it would not surprise me at all if she ends up with three or four kids total. I don’t know how far along she is, but that Vogue IG shows that her bump is pretty tiny. If her first pregnancy was any indication, she’s probably barely going to be photographed during her second pregnancy as well. Does she have any promotional tours coming up? Let me look…nope. She has several projects in development, including that Real Housewives-esque movie, The Wives. She’ll either have to shoot that pregnant or they’ll hit pause on it for a year.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

One of the most amusing parts of this latest Sussex story is the implicit admission that Prince Harry and Meghan are wealthy enough to afford a second home in Portugal. I still don’t know if the reports are true, but Richard Eden at the Mail broke the news that the Sussexes “quietly” purchased a home on the coast of Portugal at some point after they visited Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank there last year. Jack works in Portugal now, working as some kind of salesperson or real estate guy in association with a luxury development in Comporta. It is believed that Harry & Meghan purchased one of the luxury villas in the development. The cost of the villa? £3.6 million or more. LMAO.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have purchased a holiday home in the Portuguese resort that the Duke’s cousin Princess Eugenie resides during the summer months. Express.co.uk can reveal that the royal properties are located in Comporta, just an hour’s drive south of Lisbon on Portugal’s west coast.

The Sussexes’ purchase of the property was said to have been prompted by Princess Eugenie’s husband Jack Brooksbanks’ job at the exclusive CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club. The resort’s properties have been designed by high end architecture and interior design firm Denton House which delivers “the world’s most glamorous residences and resort destinations”. The resort is positioned on an unspoilt, picturesque stretch of beach in the Algarve and has become a popular holiday destination for the rich, thanks to it being relatively untouched by tourism.

The CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club is owned by multimillionaire property tycoon Mike Meldman. A co-founder of Casamigos tequila, along with George Clooney and Cindy Crawford’s husband Rande Gerber, Mike has been friends with Princess Eugenie’s husband Jack for years. Jack works in marketing, sales, and promotion for Mike’s Discovery Land Company, which specialises in building luxurious private golf and residential holiday communities across the globe. The Discovery Land Company has been developing the highly sought after 722-acre beachfront plot in Comporta since 2019. Once completed, the resort is set to have 300 homes, with prices starting at a whopping £3.6million.

[From The Daily Express]

Let’s say that Jack convinced Harry & Meghan to buy a vacation home in this A-list community, with access to a golf club and all kinds of amazing amenities, not to mention proximity to the ocean. Let’s say that Harry & Meghan purchased the home for something like $4 million to $5 million. Doesn’t that mean that the British reports about “the Sussexes’ struggling finances” and “what happens when the money runs out” are all bullsh-t? Food for thought. Meanwhile, one royal commentator has a theory about why Harry & Meghan want a European hideaway:

Royal expert Hugo Vickers told The Sun: “There are two reasons why Harry and Meghan might go to Portugal. One of them is the one that you mentioned that because he’s very close to Princess Eugenie, his cousin. They get on very well together. They seem to be the main members of the family who are still very much in touch with Prince Harry. The other reason is that there is always this fear that if Donald Trump gets re-elected as President, he will move Prince Harry from America. It’s exactly the sort of thing that he would do, because first of all, it would show his strength and his power. To show that he can do it.

“He has been irritated, I think, in the past by things that Meghan Markle has said about him, and probably Prince Harry as well. He would be completely in his rights to do that, and so they might be looking for an alternative residence.”

Hugo added: “Portugal’s very accessible to all parts of Europe, whereas California is a long way away. Maybe he doesn’t like the Californian way of life, I would imagine that would be quite alien to him. So I think there are many other reasons why he might wish to settle there. It may just be that they want an alternative, an extra home, to go to in the summer. If they’re making lots of money, maybe they can afford to have two bases. He may well have enormous advantages, probably from the tax point of view, and also from cost of living. Food in Portugal is very, very reasonably priced, and I can see many reasons why he would find that advantageous. Obviously, Portugal is really right in the center of things. You can get anywhere very quickly from Portugal. It’s very accessible.”

[From The Sun]

“if Donald Trump gets re-elected as President, he will move Prince Harry from America. It’s exactly the sort of thing that he would do, because first of all, it would show his strength and his power. To show that he can do it…He would be completely in his rights to do that, and so they might be looking for an alternative residence.” While I think there could be a “back-up plan” aspect to purchasing real estate in Europe, let’s not skip over the whole “Donald Trump would be perfectly within his rights to deport an American citizen and her husband.” The British press has been salivating about this for years now, the idea that their Heritage Foundation buddies will somehow organize the deportation of the Sussexes during a second Trump presidency. It’s truly insane. Anyway, I hope H&M enjoy their villa!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

King Charles and Queen Camilla touched down in Sydney, Australia on Friday evening, then rested on Saturday. I’ll cover their Sunday visit to the Anglican church on Monday, but here’s an interesting note – the church visit was originally supposed to be low-key and quiet, but the courtiers must have been worried that it would too quiet, so they made a specific appeal to Aussies to come out and see Charles and Camilla. As much as there’s a larger conversation about the crown and whether Australia should become a republic, don’t miss the fact that Camilla is not and has never been an asset to her husband. Don’t miss the fact that Camilla will forever live the shadows of more popular royal women:

Queen Camilla’s Australia tour with King Charles “won’t be easy” due to “less agreeable” crowds Down Under, an expert has warned. According to royal expert and historian Dr Tessa Dunlop, with all eyes on the King, it could be a trip that Camilla finds particular difficult.

She explained to the Mirror: “The press corps have flown in and the King has postponed his cancer treatment – everyone is set for Charles’ first tour to Australia as monarch. Headlines have been full of it – the political snubs from Australia’s premiers, to the pared-down itinerary and absence of walkabouts. Will Charles’s 17th visit down under, seal the deal for Republicans or set royal hearts aflutter?”

“With all eyes on the King, there has been less talk of Camilla, who will be touching down as Australia’s new queen. Her gig won’t be easy – she has giant shoes to fill and not just those of the late Queen. Against expectations, it was just over 40 years ago that Australians surprised themselves and fell in love with a fresh royal fairy story – cue the arrival of Charles and Diana on a six week tour in 1983. Staunchly Republican Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, had been hoping that the incoming Prince and Princess of Wales would seal the deal for dumping the British monarchy. Not a bit of it. Crowd surges, overwhelmed police, flags, flowers and gridlocked roads: 1983 saw the start of a brand new phenomenon: Diana-mania.”

“The public’s love was unadulterated – so much so that Prince Charles, who had been trying to woo Australia since 1966, took umbrage. Sadly Diana is long gone, but while here in Britain we have grown fond of Queen Camilla, who has been rehabilitated in our press, in Australia memories of the ‘other woman’ and Diana’s rough treatment at the hands of the royal family are more pronounced.”

But it’s not just memories of Diana that might work against Camilla in Australia, as Tessa explained another factor may hinder her popularity. She added: “Nor has the international fall-out from the Harry and Meghan debacle helped Camilla’s cause. The Sussexes’ departure from the Royal Family followed hot on the heels of their 2018 Australia tour, with Harry subsequently airing ‘wicked stepmother’ tropes and citing Camilla’s ‘dangerous’ connections. The King and Queen, who have not been to Australia since Megxit, will find new dissenters in the pack. Fortunately the trip is short, and positive polling for an committed monarch with cancer bodes well, but beyond the summer sun, Queen Camilla will be on alert for a less agreeable Australia lurking in the shadows.”

[From The Daily Mirror]

It’s especially wild that Charles and Camilla’s tour is the first major Australian since Harry and Meghan’s 2018 tour. The connections, six years later, are so pronounced. Harry and Meghan were wildly popular and Meghan was regarded, internationally, as a bridge to the future for the monarchy, a breath of fresh air, a woman of color who was uniquely situated to modernize a staid and racist institution and drag the colonialist mess into the 21st century. And right after that tour, the Windsors began their campaign to drive Meghan out by any means necessary. Camilla was a huge part of that campaign, just as Camilla’s fingerprints were all over every part of Diana’s misery. I hope Camilla gets booed especially hard in Oz.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.