When she worked on Suits in Toronto, Meghan Markle rented a cute, modern house in the city. She lived there peacefully with her two dogs, minding her business and working up until November 2016. That’s when the British media learned of her relationship with Prince Harry, and her nice house was under siege day and night from the paparazzi. A year later, she moved to the UK, into Nottingham Cottage. Harry’s descriptions of NottCott in Spare make it sound like a dilapidated shack next to a palace, but he loved it. Meghan thought it was like a frat house, and she spent her own money making the place liveable and cute. Harry described NottCott as a place filled with love, and I’m sure he loved every minute of having Meghan there, all to himself.

Still, they outgrew NottCott and they eventually moved into Frogmore Cottage, another dilapidated shack which needed tons of renovations. As it turned out, Frogmore needed $3 million in renovations just to make it habitable. For years, the British media whined about the cost… to restore a small house on the Royal Windsor Estate. This was not private property! It was not Harry and Meghan’s responsibility to pay for anything involved with the structure of Frogmore. But the whining from the British media was too much, so Harry “paid back the cost” in the summer of 2020, months after he and Meghan moved to America. Harry explained what happened in Spare:

We’d rented a house in Oxfordshire. Just a place to get away now and then from the maelstrom, but also from Nott Cott, which was charming but too small. And falling down around our heads. It got so bad that one day I had to phone Granny.

I told her we needed a new place to live. I explained that Willy and Kate hadn’t simply outgrown Nott Cott, they’d fled it, because of all the required repairs, and the lack of room, and we were now in the same boat. With two rambunctious dogs…and a baby on the way…

I told her we’d discussed our housing situation with the Palace, and we’d been offered several properties, but each was too grand, we thought. Too lavish. And too expensive to renovate.

Granny gave it a think and we chatted again days later. Frogmore, she said.

[From Spare by Prince Harry]

First of all, “we’d been offered several properties, but each was too grand, we thought. Too lavish. And too expensive to renovate…” I wish he had gone into detail about what he was offered, the state of those potential properties and why he turned them down. I have believed for years that the Sussexes were offered a spacious apartment in Kensington Palace, but Harry turned it down because he didn’t want to be so physically close to his brother.

I also now believe that Buckingham Palace and Clarence House were constantly setting up the Sussexes, only offering them houses and apartments which would need millions worth of renovations. So much of “the cost of Frogmore” screams could have been mitigated by BP and CH saying clearly that Frogmore needed to be renovated anyway, and it’s royal property so of course the cost comes from the Sovereign Grant. The Queen and Charles could have provided some cover for the Sussexes. They chose not to.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Netflix, SussexRoyal IG.

Lucy Hale seems to be in a transitional phase professionally these days. She was the de facto star going into Pretty Little Liars, but was definitely not by the time it ended. And she’s struggled to find her footing with her projects since. I feel like she’d be a great streamer movie queen (coining it now, the 2020s version of the scream queen). Anyway, she recently appeared on Rachel Bilson’s “Broad Ideas” podcast. I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet because it’s one of their longer episodes at more than two hours and I find Rachel’s co-host a little annoying. The podcast ep covered a range of topics, including dating. Lucy, 33, talked about her age range of dating and clearly was talking about 52-year-old Skeet Ulrich when she mentioned the oldest guy she’s dated.. But never fear, “he was a young 52.”

“I haven’t really had rules with dating,” [Lucy Hale] said on Rachel Bilson‘s Broad Ideas podcast. “I’ve dated all the way up to 52 — [from] 27 to 52. I’m 33 and I feel like I’ll probably end up with someone around my age or older, just because of the non-negotiables. I feel like a lot of people in that older age bracket will meet those.”

Fans remember Lucy dated Scream actor Skeet Ulrich in 2021!

“He was a young 52,” Lucy said in the interview. “I loved it. No bulls–t, almost.”

In February 2021, Lucy and Skeet were photographed kissing on what appeared to be a date.

To fuel the fire, a short time after that, the Riverdale actor actually left a very flirty comment on the 31-year-old actress’ Instagram.

By April 2021, a source revealed if they were officially over.

[From Just Jared]

Did anyone else recall that line from Always Be My Maybe when Ali Wong’s character defensively describes her boyfriend as “a very young 50.” Um, I will just say, from people in my life in various capacities, there is definitely a such thing as “a young 52.” However, that’s not necessarily a good thing! It could mean youthful and energetic and or stunted and immature. What Lucy says sort of half makes sense. She’ll date people her age or older because they’re likelier to meet her non-negotiables. Sure, but what exactly are those? Because I’m the same age as Lucy and if I were to date someone 20 years older it would be because they’re mature and stable and straightforward. Like, I’d hope for the youthful energy to match my own (waning) energy, but that quality wouldn’t be my goal in dating someone just a few years younger than my parents. I guess the “young 52” thing was fun for a bit, but possibly turned out to be my more cynical reading of the phrase since she says “I loved it. No bullsh-t, almost.” Maybe there was some BS toward the end, which would make sense because their thing was pretty short-lived. Or maybe she caught up on Riverdale and thought it was too ridiculous.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

photos credit: Avalon.red, Backgrid and Getty

At some point, the Alec Baldwin story became about something else entirely. Alec’s accidental shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust in October 2021 became some kind of macabre “gotcha” for conservatives. The right-wingers were mad that Baldwin was and is a long-time Democrat, and that Baldwin spoofed Donald Trump on SNL. I’m trying to explain why I tapped out of the tragic story at some point last year – by most accounts, Hutchins’ death was a preventable tragedy if producers (like Baldwin) had paid closer attention to the live firearms being used in the production, and if the armorer and propmaster were doing their f–king jobs. I thought the people involved with Halyna Hutchins’s death were guilty of criminal negligence, not murder. So… I’m surprised that after a fourteen-month investigation, there are charges being brought for… involuntary manslaughter. Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed (the armorer) are both facing two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Alec Baldwin, the producer and star of Rust, will be charged with involuntary manslaughter in the October 2021 on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. On Thursday, Santa Fe County District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and special prosecutor Andrea Reeb announced that Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will both be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. No charges will be filed related to the shooting of Rust director Joel Souza, who was injured in the incident. The charges will be formally filed before the end of the month.

Assistant director David Halls signed a plea agreement for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon, according to a press release.

“After a thorough review of the evidence and the laws of the state of New Mexico, I have determined that there is sufficient evidence to file criminal charges against Alec Baldwin and other members of the Rust film crew,” Carmack-Altwies said in a statement. “On my watch, no one is above the law, and everyone deserves justice.”

Reeb added, “If any one of these three people — Alec Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed or David Halls — had done their job, Halyna Hutchins would be alive today. It’s that simple. The evidence clearly shows a pattern of criminal disregard for safety on the Rust film set. In New Mexico, there is no room for film sets that don’t take our state’s commitment to gun safety and public safety seriously.”

Baldwin’s attorney Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE Thursday, “This decision distorts Halyna Hutchins’ tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice. Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun — or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.”

Jason Bowles and Todd J. Bullion, attorneys for Gutierrez-Reed, said in a statement, “Hannah is, and has always been, very emotional and sad about this tragic accident. But she did not commit involuntary manslaughter. These charges are the result of a very flawed investigation, and an inaccurate understanding of the full facts. We intend to bring the full truth to light and believe Hannah will be exonerated of wrongdoing by a jury.”

In New Mexico, involuntary manslaughter is a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine, according to a press release. The other involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act charge is also a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in jail and up to a $5000 fine; since a firearm was involved, this is punishable by a mandatory five years in jail.

[From People]

Okay, so I googled for a bit and I think I understand (in a general sense) why the charge is involuntary manslaughter. The DA will have to prove that Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were not only negligent but “reckless” in their handling of the gun. Remember, Alec’s argument was that, at the time, he believed he was handling a prop gun. He had no idea that he was handling a weapon with live bullets. I guess the DA’s argument is: well, he should have known. I agree, but I’m not sure that makes Baldwin guilty of involuntary manslaughter. I tend to think the case against Gutierrez-Reed is a lot stronger than the case against Baldwin. We’ll see. I mean that literally, I’m sure all of the cable news outlets will have wall-to-wall coverage if this makes it to court.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, ABC.

Before Prince Harry’s Spare was released, I read a financial analysis of what it would take for Penguin Random House to “make money” from the memoir, considering that the publisher reportedly paid Harry $20 million upfront. The analysis was like “Spare would have to sell in the vicinity of 1.5 million just to ‘break even’ with Harry’s upfront.” Spare sold that many units in its first day. So how did it sell in its first week? Amazing:

Prince Harry’s “Spare” sold more than 3.2 million copies worldwide after just one week of publication and will likely rank among the bestselling memoirs of all time.

Penguin Random House announced Thursday that Prince Harry’s headline-making memoir sold 1.6 million copies in the U.S. alone. It’s a number comparable to first week sales for blockbusters such as former President Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” and former first lady Michelle Obama’s “Becoming,” which has sold more than 17 million copies since coming out in 2018.

The British publisher announced last week that “Spare” sold 400,000 copies in the United Kingdom in all formats — hardback, e-book and audio — on its first day.

The total sales announced for “Spare” are for print, audio and digital editions in the major English-language markets: the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. The book has come out in 15 other languages, and editions in 10 additional languages are expected.

“Spare” may set records for nonfiction, but no book in memory approaches the pace of the final Harry Potter novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which in 2007 sold more than 10 million copies in its first 24 hours.

[From The AP]

Royal Suitor says that the AP actually got it wrong, Spare sold 1.6 million copies in North America alone, not in the US alone. Which is still amazing. There’s also a shift in how people are consuming Spare, as compared to how people consumed the Obamas’ books. While Barack Obama’s A Promised Land sold more hardcopies than Prince Harry, Spare is being bought on ebooks and audiobooks at a much higher rate.

Prince Harry ‘s memoir sold 629,300 hardcover copies in the U.S. in its first week, trailing only two titles by the Obamas on the list of top first-week U.S. adult-nonfiction hardcover sales.

According to NPD BookScan, which started releasing first-week U.S. sales numbers in 2004, Prince Harry’s “Spare” sold more hardcover copies than all but two adult-nonfiction books in the U.S. in their first week: former President Barack Obama ‘s memoir “A Promised Land” and former first lady Michelle Obama ‘s memoir “Becoming.”

Mr. Obama’s “A Promised Land,” published in 2020, sold 831,300 copies in the U.S. its first week, according to NPD BookScan. Mrs. Obama’s “Becoming,” published in 2018, also outsold “Spare” in week one, with 645,900 first-week sales in the U.S.

[From The WSJ]

Basically, Harry is, again, just below the Obamas in print copy sales. But something being left out is that A Promised Land sold 3.3 million in its first MONTH. Spare has sold 3.2 copies (print, ebook, audio) in a WEEK. Spare will be one of the bestselling memoirs of all time, mark my words.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Anna Kendrick has been exceptionally open about how much of herself she’s put into her performance for Alice, Darling. The movie portrays a woman in an emotional and psychologically abusive relationship. During the press for the movie, Anna divulged that she’d experienced the same type of abuse with an ex and that family and friends helped her leave the relationship. Because she had some distance between the abuse and the filming, Anna was able to give her character the vulnerability she needed without retriggering her own trauma. However, what Anna didn’t anticipate was how much the promotional junket would weigh on her. She finally had to admit she couldn’t go through with all her obligations and she established boundaries.

Having a decades-long career, actor Anna Kendrick has experienced her share of promotional tours for the films she’s been in. Yet, with her most recent psychological thriller Alice, Darling, the Pitch Perfect star has revealed that her own emotional ties to the film have made the press junket situations “trickier to navigate” than ever before.
“People have asked me, ‘Was it challenging to shoot the movie?’ and I guess that question makes sense,” said the Oscar-nominated actor. “But I’m actually finding that the press is the thing that has been a little trickier to navigate, making sure that I’m OK and feeling safe in my body.”

Highlighting one specific situation of multiple, fast-paced interviews, Kendrick described feeling “shitty” at the end of the day and making a decision to not continue that type of press junkets for the rest of the promotional tour.

“There was a thing early on where I was doing like a junket-style day for Alice, Darling where it’s like six minutes per person and you kind of run through like 30 interviews really quickly, and I went home and was in the shower and was like, ‘Why do I feel so shitty right now?’” Kendrick said. “And I sort of told everyone, ‘I don’t think I can do another thing like that.’”

She added, “I totally get it’s no journalist’s job to show up for me in the same headspace that I’m in, but I’m trying really hard to go into these conversations really open and it feels kind of strange to be talking to somebody who clearly just has a million things to do that day… I was like, ‘Oh, I need to draw a boundary there. I can’t really be talking about this in that style of conversation.’”

[From The AV Club]

This makes perfect sense to me. As much as the script for Alice, Darling might have paralleled Anna’s experience, as an actress, she was probably able to lose herself in the character. That would have given her the layer of protection she needed to not fall back into that place emotionally. But on the press rounds, Anna’s speaking about her own experience and being asked repeatedly to relive it. She probably thought she was ready for the discussion but found out she had limits. Trauma rears its ugly head when we least expect it.

I also understand what Anna’s saying about having a deeply personal conversation with someone who isn’t on the same page as her. True, it’s not the journalists’ responsibility to place themselves in her shoes. But it does make it that much harder to discuss something like this, especially if she’s opened herself up and the journalist is just looking for a pull quote with one eye on the clock. So I’m glad Anna recognized she needed to draw those boundaries. They will do a lot of good putting this film out there. I hope those involved benefit from it as well.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Anna Kendrick (@annakendrick47)

Photo credit: Cover Images and Instagram

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kyle Richards Umansky (@kylerichards18)

It used to be lip injections and BBLs, but now we’re all talking about buccal fat removal and Ozempic. The latter is a diabetes medication that’s rumored to be popular among celebs for its off-label use as a weight-loss drug. Anytime a celebrity seems to lose some weight, people speculate it’s due to Ozempic. (I wonder how Adderall and cocaine feel about this speculation.) Sometimes it’s A-listers, but usually reality stars that I see as most subject to this Ozempic speculation. The latest is Kyle Richards of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fame. But she says she’s not taking it.

Since Ozempic was exposed as being a popular Hollywood weight-loss drug, celebrity watchers have been speculating over which of their favorites might be on it. The latest suspect is Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards.

Ozempic is intended to help treat diabetes, and can lower blood sugar and encourage insulin production, but has recently gone viral as a weight-loss drug rumored to be extremely popular in Hollywood. And now it seems that whenever Richards posts any kind of gym selfie, commenters on Instagram immediately began questioning whether or not Richards was getting a little extra help from Ozempic. Last week, she responded after a commenter wrote “ozempic” under a post-workout group shot, she responded, asking the user to “not spread lies,” and insisting, “I’m not on ozempic.”

Her denials did not stop fans from questioning her again. On Monday, when “Page Six” posted about one of her gym selfies on Instagram, commenters immediately began suggesting that she was taking Ozempic, causing her to issue a second denial. “I am NOT taking Ozempic. Never have,” she wrote Monday. She then responded to a comment theorizing that it wasn’t Ozempic, but plastic surgery, again shutting down the claims. “I have never tried Ozempic and this is not from plastic surgery,” she wrote, adding that she did “have a breast reduction in May.” She continued, promising that if she ever did decide to go under the knife for any more surgeries, she’d be sure to let fans know. “I’m honest about what I do,” she wrote. “But if giving plastic surgery makes you feel better then pop off sister.”

[From The Cut]

So Kyle posts gym selfies and commentators ask about Ozempic. She says it’s a lie, she is not now nor has she ever taken Ozempic, and if she gets surgeries she’ll let us know. Lol, thanks? I don’t know enough about Kyle’s vibe or Ozempic to say if she’s lying or not, but I kind of believe her. A lot of celebrities lie about plastic surgery and how they maintain their appearance, but as I’ve said before, reality stars, particularly Real Housewives, are typically more honest about that stuff. It’s a little gross for commenters to keep harassing Kyle directly on her Instagram and accusing her of taking Ozempic. Speculate among friends or on a third-party blog! In any case, Kyle is posting gym selfies, not pretending she only eats burgers and pizza and never works out. Even if she is lying about taking Ozempic, she’s not promoting some harmful, quick-fix method. And Ozempic does seem to have some tough side effects, including weight gain when people eventually stop taking it, as most people who don’t actually need it for diabetes would probably do.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kyle Richards Umansky (@kylerichards18)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave (@teddimellencamp)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kyle Richards Umansky (@kylerichards18)

Shakira Holmes figured out that Gerard Pique was cheating when his side piece ate her jam while she was out of town. [Dlisted]
Cardi B explains her marriage to Offset. [LaineyGossip]
I genuinely don’t have a beef with Andrea Riseborough’s campaign. [Pajiba]
Josh O’Connor has bad hair for Loewe. [Tom & Lorenzo]
ASAP Rocky gushes about Rihanna & their baby. [JustJared]
Natasha Lyonne’s peplum is out of character. [GFY]
Seriously, though, husbands are the worst. [Buzzfeed]
Below Deck’s Camille Lamb explains her firing. [Starcasm]
Oscar Wilde’s house has reopened in Dublin. [Towleroad]
Oh, this is Tommy Paul’s girlfriend? [Egotastic]
This story is pretty horrendous. [Jezebel]
Olivia Wilde gets pap’d at the gym. [Gawker]

Here are more photos from the Princess of Wales’s visit to a nursery school in Luton on Wednesday. Kate’s staff selected a nursery school with a significant number of children of color, so Kate could once again use Black and Asian children as her diversity props. Did you know that Kate also made some comments at the nursery school? No, of course she didn’t give a speech, but someone prepared some comments for her and they were Peak Buttons.

During the visit, she made a point of highlighting the importance of nurseries and their staff in a child’s development, telling one of the educators that “we really saw that highlighted over the pandemic”.

The Princess told Rachel Swain Marsh: “When they [nurseries] were closed down, people realised how vital they were not just for the communities they serve, but for the individual families and children in their care.”

She added that it is important to have a “holistic network surrounding our children” in their most formative years, particularly during challenging times.

On arrival at the nursery, the Princess was introduced to Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance. “Thank you for having me, I was just saying it’s such a beautiful day, a lovely cold, crisp morning,” she said. “Is it busy for everybody? Is everybody back in? There’s been lots of illnesses going around, hasn’t there?”

She then sat down with some of the children, joining them at a sand tray and a craft table, asking what their names were and what they were up to.

[From The Telegraph]

Over a decade of keen Early Years research and study and this is what her research found: nursery schools are good. Nay, nursery schools are important. Nursery schools help parents! Also, “holistic network surrounding our children” sounds a lot like “it takes a village,” a concept which has truly been around for decades and centuries. She really is going to reinvent the wheel and slap a wiglet on that wheel and call it a day.

“Is, um, is it busy, for everybody? Is, um, everybody, sort of, back in? Have you been, sort of, is, I’ve, there’s been lots of illnesses going around.”

This is why the videos don’t normally have sound. It’s embarassing. #MannequinKate #FreeTheWindsors #AbolishTheMonarchy https://t.co/5YAz3cz91v

— Campaign to Abolish the Monarchy (@nomoremonarchs) January 18, 2023

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

The Guardian felt that the biggest story from Prince Harry’s Spare was the incident in early 2019, when Prince William went to Nottingham Cottage and violently assaulted his brother. I agree that the passage is truly disturbing, and you can feel Harry struggling to write about and avoid his default, which is “making excuses for William and giving William the benefit of the doubt.” In every instance before this, Harry blames William’s advisors and staff, or he blames simple misunderstandings which simply got blown out of proportion. I’m not sure, even now, if Harry wants to acknowledge that William is – at least partially – behind the coordinated character assassination of the Duchess of Sussex. And that’s connected to William’s assault on Harry. I was also surprised that the Guardian stretched their coverage to include this: “Harry then accused his brother of acting like an heir, unable to understand why his younger brother was not content to be a spare.” When really, this is how Harry describes the lead up to William assaulting him:

Meg’s difficult, he said. Oh, really? She’s rude. She’s abrasive. She’s alienated half the staff. Not the first time he’d parroted the press narrative. Duchess Difficult, all that bullsh-t. Rumors, lies from his team, tabloid rubbish, and I told him so—again. Told him I expected better from my older brother. I was shocked to see that this actually pissed him off. Had he come here expecting something different? Did he think I’d agree that my bride was a monster?

I told him to step back, take a breath, really ask himself: Wasn’t Meg his sister-in-law? Wouldn’t this institution be toxic for any newcomer? Worst-case scenario, if his sister-in-law was having trouble adjusting to a new office, a new family, a new country, a new culture, couldn’t he see his way clear to cutting her some slack? Couldn’t you just be there for her? Help her?

He had no interest in a debate. He’d come to lay down the law. He wanted me to agree that Meg was wrong and then agree to do something about it.

Like what? Scold her? Fire her? Divorce her? I didn’t know. But Willy didn’t know either, he wasn’t rational. Every time I tried to slow him down, point out the illogic of what he was saying, he got louder. We were soon talking over each other, both of us shouting.

Among all the different, riotous emotions coursing through my brother that afternoon, one really jumped out at me. He seemed aggrieved. He seemed put upon that I wasn’t meekly obeying him, that I was being so impertinent as to deny him, or defy him, to refute his knowledge, which came from his trusted aides. There was a script here and I had the audacity not to be following it. He was in full Heir mode, and couldn’t fathom why I wasn’t dutifully playing the role of the Spare.

[From Spare by Prince Harry]

“Like what? Scold her? Fire her? Divorce her? I didn’t know.” I mean… wasn’t it clear to Harry at that point? They all wanted Meghan gone by any means necessary. The purpose was to inflict misery – if not outright harm – on Meghan, to convince Meghan that she would never get any peace in that dreadful island, that she should either unalive herself or divorce Harry. They wanted to drive a wedge between Harry and Meghan, because that’s how much of a threat they were to the institution. It’s also shocking to consider that this was happening AS William and Harry were dividing their offices and breaking up the Royal Foundation. Like, the household split had already been announced and everything was already being moved. William “got what he wanted” – he got Harry and Meghan out of HIS office. So why was he still violently angry?

The rest of the passage was basically as the Guardian described. Harry felt real fear as William menaced him, berating him and insulting him. William had come there for a physical confrontation, Harry just didn’t know it yet. Even after the assault, Harry keeps his promise to William to not tell Meghan and he called his therapist: “I apologized for the intrusion, told her I didn’t know who else to call. I told her I’d had a fight with Willy, he’d knocked me to the floor. I looked down and told her that my shirt was ripped, my necklace was broken.” He told Meghan what happened only after she saw the cuts and bruises on his back. It still feels like… Harry is kind of in denial about what William did to him and how premeditated the assault was.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

On Wednesday, Queen Camilla did her first public event of 2023, although she has been seen going to church with her husband up in Scotland, where they’ve been since Christmas. I wonder if Camilla gets to count church attendance as an event? A question for another time. This appearance at University of Aberdeen was also her first event since Prince Harry’s Spare came out. Remember when I used to believe that Harry would barely mention Camilla in his memoir? What a sweet summer child I was. As it turns out, Charles had every reason to fear what Harry would write about Camilla. Harry made Camilla sound like a manipulative harpy, the kind of person who would stab anyone and everyone in the back to get to the throne. Here’s more about her event:

The Queen Consort has carried out her first public engagement since the explosive publication of Prince Harry’s memoir. On Wednesday morning, Camilla visited the University of Aberdeen to open its new science teaching hub, beaming as she received a bouquet of flowers and delivered a speech praising the institution’s achievements.

She said she was “very proud” to be chancellor of the university, adding that she had taken “the greatest interest in all your work and have sung your praises at every given opportunity”. The event marked her first solo public appearance since the potentially damaging and intimate details of the Royal family were made public in the Duke of Sussex’s ghostwritten autobiography, Spare. She previously attended Sunday service at Crathie Kirk Church in Balmoral over the weekend with the King, where both of them were pictured smiling from their car following a turbulent week.

[From The Telegraph]

Yeah, she didn’t make any comments about Spare, and I glanced through some of the quotes from her speech and I didn’t see anything which could be stretched into some kind of reference to Harry. This was the palace trying to give Camilla something soft and easy to do for her first post-Spare event, something where she wouldn’t have to interact with the public that much. I suspect the Windsors will be doing a lot of those kinds of events for a while – carefully controlled, low-energy, stage-managed to the hilt. They must be terrified that the many punishments they planned for Harry and Meghan are coming for them instead.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.