We were told back in 2017-18 that Meghan Markle’s engagement ring consisted of two diamonds from a piece of Princess Diana’s jewelry. It was said that Prince Harry used one of Diana’s old pieces and repurposed the diamonds, plus the largest stone in Meghan’s three-stone ring was ethically sourced from Botswana. I know I’m a broken record about this, but I enjoy the jewelry stories and I was fascinated by Harry’s goal of including Diana as much as possible, even the original plan was to have Meghan wear the Spencer Tiara. In Spare, Prince Harry details how he went about putting the ring together. His description includes a notable little story about Prince William and Kate too:

I took a ring from Meg’s jewelry box and gave it to a designer, so he’d know her size. Since he was also the keeper of Mummy’s bracelets, earrings and necklaces, I asked him to harvest the diamonds from one particularly beautiful bracelet of Mummy’s and use those to create a ring.

I’d cleared all this in advance with Willy. I’d asked my brother if I could have the bracelet, and told him what it was for. I don’t recall him hesitating, for one second, in giving it to me. He seemed to like Meg, despite his oft-cited concerns. Kate seemed to like her too. We’d had them over for dinner during one of Meg’s visits, and Meg cooked, and everything was good. Willy had a cold: he was sneezing and coughing, and Meg ran upstairs to get him some of her homeopathic cure-alls. Oregano oil, turmeric. He seemed charmed, moved, though Kate announced to the table that he’d never take such unconventional remedies.

We talked about Wimbledon that night, and Suits, and Willy and Kate weren’t brave enough to admit to being superfans. Which was sweet.

The only possibly discordant note I could think of was the marked difference in how the two women dressed, which both of them seemed to notice. Meg: ripped jeans, barefoot. Kate: done up to the nines. No big deal, I thought.

Along with the diamonds from the bracelet I’d asked the designer to add a third—a blood-free diamond from Botswana. He asked if there was a rush. Well…now that you mention it…

[From Spare by Prince Harry]

First off, I wonder if William and Kate ever confessed to being Suits fans to Meghan. Harry makes it sound like W&K always avoided telling Meg, like it was a shameful secret that they both knew who Meghan was long before Harry started dating her. No wonder Kate and the Middletons were so unsettled! Secondly, Harry is such a shady B – “He seemed charmed, moved, though Kate announced to the table that he’d never take such unconventional remedies.” Kate is so rude, my God. Even if Kate privately side-eyed Meghan’s homeopathic cures, Kate should have the class to not announce it to the table – Kate was a guest in their home, where Meghan had cooked dinner. There’s also kind of a consistent narrative that Kate and William would visit Nottingham Cottage but they barely asked Meghan and Harry over to their luxurious apartment in the main palace. Poor Meghan had to cook AND be stared down by Kate wearing some designer ensemble AND Kate insulted Meghan’s vitamins.

As for the jewelry stuff… I wonder how many pieces of Diana’s private jewelry are left and whether Harry still has any kind of access to those pieces.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Aside from mental health, one topic about which Selena Gomez speaks with regularity is body positivity. Like most female celebrities, Selena gets a lot of scrutiny and criticism, which is especially gross when coupled with the fact of her physical health issues and need to take medication. Sometimes she claps back or defends herself as she did after the Golden Globes, chalking up her (lovely, I thought) appearance to holiday indulgences, saying that’s why she’s “a little bit big right now.”

Selena Gomez is still not letting her critics get her down.

The Only Murders in the Building star, a longtime advocate for body positivity, drew several body-shaming comments on social media after she walked the red carpet at the 2023 Golden Globes on Jan. 10. Selena, 30, later appeared on Instagram Live with her award show date, her little sister Gracie Elliot Teefey, 9, and spoke about gaining weight.

“I’m a little bit big right now because I enjoyed myself during the holidays,” she said, as seen in a video reshared on TikTok, before asking her sibling, “Right?”

Gracie replied, “Yeah,” after which Selena began laughing.

The pop star spoke while dressed in her Golden Globes attire—a strapless, plum velvet Valentino Fall 2022 Haute Couture gown with puff sleeves and a long train. At the award show, Selena was nominated for her first Golden Globe, for best performance by an actress in a television series, comedy or musical for her role of Mabel Mora in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.

[From E! Online]

It’s unfortunate that she feels she has to make videos like this justifying her appearance/weight. I hadn’t seen any particular body criticism, but she must have or was just generally feeling self-conscious. But I thought she looked great and wish people didn’t expect female celebrities to look exactly as they did at 15. (Although some of her fashion is another story.) I don’t think she needed to say anything at all, but I can certainly understand feeling insecure and wanting to. But she doesn’t need to defend herself over her body! But something she might need to justify — her new boyfriend, Drew Taggart from The Chainsmokers. EW. US Weekly had the exclusive: “The former Disney Channel star is ‘so affectionate’ with the rocker and ‘Selena can hardly keep her hands off him,’ the insider tells Us, adding that the pair are ‘having a lot of fun together.’” I mostly know him as a skeeze from his music, dealings with Halsey, and general vibe. Selena seems to have matured a lot in the past few years, but it seems her taste in men hasn’t.

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King Charles is already on his second prime minister, after his first PM couldn’t outlast a head of lettuce. We haven’t heard much about Charles’s relationship with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but we might be hearing more in the coming weeks and months. Apparently, Charles has asked Downing Street to take the hit and tell Prince Harry he’s not welcome at Charles’s coronation. According to the Mail, Downing Street is refusing. Sunak is basically telling the king: this is your mess, clean it up yourself.

The Prime Minister could be drawn in to the increasingly intense debate over whether Prince Harry should be invited to the Coronation, after senior Royal insiders argued that the decision should be ‘taken out of the King’s hands’. Sources say King Charles should use the so-called ‘Churchill precedent’ to escape the ‘impossible’ decision of either inflaming tensions by barring his son, or enduring the circus that would surround his attendance with wife Meghan.

Harry has so far refused to say whether or not he would come to the ceremony if he was invited, even when directly asked.

In 1953, Churchill, then Prime Minister, made it clear to the Duke of Windsor – who had abdicated as Edward VIII more than 16 years earlier – that he would not be welcome at Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation.

A well-placed source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The Coronation is a State event and funded by the State. So, in the same way that Winston Churchill advised the Duke of Windsor to stay away [from Elizabeth II’s Coronation], the decision of whether to invite Harry, who has no official Royal role and no state function at the ceremony, will be down to the Government rather than just his father.’

However, Whitehall insiders tried to hand responsibility for the ‘Harry hot potato’ back to Buckingham Palace. A source said last night: ‘Traditionally, the Royal Household provides us with the number of Royal guests, without giving their identity, and we construct the arrangements on that basis.’

[From The Daily Mail]

There’s some evidence that the palace will try to force Downing Street to basically make a logistical argument to Harry, as in: the security situation will be too intense, therefore you shouldn’t come, something something about the Taliban fighters Harry killed in the Army. All of this is ridiculous though – while the palace has let it be known that Charles has extended a general (verbal?) invitation to the Sussexes, there’s no evidence that the palace has formally invited the Sussexes, nor is there evidence that the Sussexes have made up their minds about whether they even want to go. Harry demurred when asked about his coronation attendance directly, and it absolutely feels like his attendance would be contingent on exactly what he’s repeatedly asked for: a sit-down conversation, accountability and an apology. King Charles is trying to center himself, like the Sussexes’ attendance is his call, and he’s also trying to abdicate responsibility to Downing Street. I’m glad Sunak isn’t biting. No need to get involved in the Windsors’ psychodrama.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

In mid-December, the Sun published a violent screed written by Jeremy Clarkson. Just days before the column was published, Clarkson had a Christmas lunch with Queen Camilla, Piers Morgan and various other despicable people. We can only imagine the vile things that were said at the lunch, but we didn’t even have to imagine, because Clarkson made it pretty clear. In the column, he wrote about how he hates the Duchess of Sussex on a “cellular level” and he fantasized, in writing, about stripping her naked and parading her down the street so that people could throw sh-t at her. Clarkson also wrote that everyone of his generation felt the same. Gee, I wonder where and when he got that impression? Days later, the Sun finally removed the column and Clarkson made a half-assed statement about it. Now, weeks later, Clarkson has made a new statement on his Instagram, here’s almost all of it:

One of the strange things I’ve noticed in recent times is that whenever an MP or a well-known person is asked to apologise for something, no matter how heartfelt or profound that apology may be, it’s never enough for the people who called for it in the first place.

So I’m going to try and buck the trend this morning with an apology for the things I said in a Sun column recently about Meghan Markle. I really am sorry. All the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head. This is me putting my hands up. It’s a mea culpa with bells on.

Usually, I read what I’ve written to someone else before filing, but I was home alone on that fateful day, and in a hurry. So when I’d finished, I just pressed send. And then, when the column appeared the next day, the land mine exploded.

It was a slow rumble to start with, and I ignored it. But then the rumble got louder. So I picked up a copy of The Sun to see what all the fuss was about. We’ve all been there, I guess. In that precise moment when we suddenly realise we’ve completely messed up. You are sweaty and cold at the same time. And your head pounds. And you feel sick. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Had I really said that? It was horrible.

I knew what had happened straight away. I’d been thinking of a scene in Games Of Thrones, but I’d forgotten to mention this. So it looked like I was actually calling for revolting violence to rain down on Meghan’s head.

I was very angry with myself because in all those controversial days on Top Gear, when I was accused of all sorts of things, it was very rarely sexism. We never did ‘women can’t park’ gags for instance. Or suggested that powerful cars were only for men. And I was thrilled when Jodie Kidd and Ellen MacArthur set fastest-ever laps in our reasonably-priced car. I’m just not sexist, and I abhor violence against women. And yet I seemed to be advocating just that.

I was mortified and so was everyone else. My phone went mad. Very close friends were furious. Even my own daughter took to Instagram to denounce me. The Sun quickly apologized and I tried to explain myself. But still, there were calls for me to be sacked and charged with a hate crime. More than 60 MPs demanded action be taken. ITV [was] incandescent…

I therefore wrote to everyone who works with me saying how sorry I was and then, on Christmas morning, I e-mailed Harry and Meghan in California to apologise to them too. I said I was baffled by what they had been saying on TV but that the language I’d used in my column was disgraceful and that I was profoundly sorry.

Over the last 30 years, I have written very nearly 5,000 newspaper and magazine columns, so it was inevitable that, one day, I’d do a Harry Kane and sky one of the damn things. Which is what happened with the piece about Meghan.”

Can I move on now? Not sure. It’s hard to be interesting and vigilant at the same time. You never hear peals of laughter coming from a health and safety seminar. But I promise you this, I will try.

[From Clarkson’s IG]

What a deplorable man. “Then, on Christmas morning, I e-mailed Harry and Meghan in California to apologise to them too. I said I was baffled by what they had been saying on TV…” So Clarkson waited about ten days after his Sun column was published to “apologize” over email, but his email was an attack on “what they had been saying on the TV.” Who emails their apologies on Christmas Day? Jesus. And I don’t even believe Clarkson would have their personal or professional email addresses either. When Harry spoke about the Clarkson sh-t in his Spare promotion, those interviews were conducted before Christmas, so it makes sense that Harry was still piping hot about it (Clarkson had not “emailed” his apology yet).

Beyond that, I’m a big believer in “your apology needs to be as loud as your disrespect.” Instead of this self-serving, patronizing bullsh-t on his Instagram, the Sun absolutely should have published a thorough apology from their editorial staff AND Clarkson. So no, I don’t give a sh-t.

Hilariously, Clarkson was a day late and a dollar short on this self-centered apology. Amazon is cutting ties with him after the final seasons of “The Grand Tour” and “Clarkson’s Farm” air. Racist loser.

After I wrote up all of that, the Sussexes released a statement. Holy sh-t, Clarkson only wrote TO Harry. Despicable.

A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex has responded to Jeremy Clarkson’s Instagram apology posted earlier today (and addressed his claim that he emailed the couple in December): pic.twitter.com/DI6YdLIG5a

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) January 16, 2023

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Anna Kendrick is promoting her film Alice, Darling that deals with a psychologically abusive relationship. As discussed in the last post, the film, unfortunately, mirrored Anna’s experience of having been in a toxic relationship prior to the film. While talking to Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on their Armchair Expert podcast, Anna spoke about why she was so afraid of leaving the situation. Like many victims of abuse, she believed she was the problem, and that she was lucky to be “loved” at all. So leaving would prove she was flawed.

“I was with someone — this was somebody I lived with, for all intents and purposes my husband. We had embryos together, this was my person,’” she shared. “And then about six years in, about somewhere around there, I remember telling my brother, when things had first kind of gone down, ‘I’m living with a stranger. Like, I don’t know what’s happening.’”

Explaining that she’d seen a personality shift and her partner later revealed he had feelings for someone else, Kendrick explained she continued to try and work on the relationship through couple’s therapy despite the continued behavior.

“It wasn’t just the, ‘Oh, I’m losing a relationship.’ It was that I believed that if we broke up or, you know, if he left basically, it was a confirmation that it’s because I’m impossible, I’m lucky that he’s even tolerating my b—–t.”

[From Yahoo!]

“I’m lucky that he’s even tolerating my b—–t,” Phew – you know when you read something, and you need to hide under the cover so the bad memories can’t find you? If Anna saw this person as her husband and made embryos with him, she truly saw herself bound to him. Thank goodness the good people in her life were able to break through and help her get out. Not to get ugly, but in light of Sophia Vergara’s nightmare, I kind of hope those embryos no longer exists. I’ve always liked Anna, mostly her quirky personality and silly sense of humor. I had no idea the pain she’d been in, processing and recovering from. I’m grateful to her for putting this all out there. It is so, so important for people who are in these situations to recognize it and those who were in them to understand so they, too, can start their journey of moving on.

As on the last thread, obviously there is much curiosity over who this is. Anna has had only a handful of relationships: Edgar Wright, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Richardson and Bill Hader. Eliminating the obvious, she and Jake G were barely together. It seemed like more of a fling that may have overlapped when she and Wright were ending, they never confirmed that actually dated and if they did, it was under a year. So while Jake may have been a jerk, he’s not the jerk in question. Bill H is also eliminated because of timing. Wright and Anna dated from 2009–2013 and Anna and Ben R dated from 2014-2020. Technically, I don’t know who Anna’s abusive ex is, but she does specify, “about six years in,” in her comments above. I’ll let you guys do the math.

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Sunny Hostin, cohost on The View, recently revealed to People that she got cosmetic surgery over the summer. She got a breast reduction — from a G-cup to a C-cup — and lift, and lipo on her waist and chin. Sunny says she was self-conscious and physically uncomfortable for years because of her breasts. She mentions struggling when she was a teen in New York City, which I imagine means unwanted male attention, and throughout her professional life when wardrobe for appearances wouldn’t fit properly and she felt worried about popping out of her clothes at events. Sunny is sharing her story because she wants to share the truth about the plastic surgery process and destigmatize it for others.

Sunny Hostin is sharing her cosmetic surgery journey.

In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, The View cohost reveals she underwent a breast reduction and lift, as well as liposuction, last summer.

“I feel like a better version of myself,” Hostin tells PEOPLE exclusively of the procedures, which she moved forward with after years of struggling with back pain and body-image issues. “It was a health decision and a self-care decision.”

Now Hostin wants to start a conversation about cosmetic procedures — and to destigmatize them.

“I thought I would feel shame, like, ‘Oh my God, I’m doing plastic surgery like all these crazy celebrities.’ But I don’t feel shame at all,” she says. “And I hope sharing my story will help more people. If they’re feeling so body-conscious, the way I was — they can do what they need to do to feel better.”

On Aug. 22, 2022, Hostin underwent a breast reduction and lift, as well as liposuction on her waist and chin.

“It’s not glamorous,” says Hostin, who hired a private nurse to assist during her two-week-long recovery at home, which included drainage tubes to prevent blood and fluid buildup for three days, along with minimal scarring. “I was up and walking around in three days. I was back to work in two weeks, and I was doing Pilates in two months.”

Indeed, these days Hostin is happy and confident.

“Now I prance around nude all the time at my house — I feel great,” says Hostin, who went from a G-cup to a C-cup. “I don’t know, you may see me naked on The View!”

And Hostin hopes viewers take note.

“I look through magazines and Instagram accounts. I always believed, ‘Oh, they must be clean eating.’ No, they’re not — a lot of them are taking something, or they’re getting plastic surgery. It’s their decision to keep it private,” she adds. “But I wanted to be really honest. And I’m so happy.”

[From People]

Sunny describes a specific incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner when her dress didn’t fit and she could barely eat or move because she was afraid of falling out. And that was the catalyst for her surgeries. I appreciate her honesty about both the surgery and the recovery process. Celebs who won’t cop to it and suddenly just appear looking different make it look too easy, like big changes can just happen like that overnight. And I like that she mentions that celebrity appearances are way more effortful than we’re led to believe. She used to fall for it herself, but she pulls back the curtain a bit by acknowledging that it’s not just diet and exercise and a good skincare routine, celebrities have a lot of help to look the way they do. It is their decision to keep it private, but then just don’t talk about it instead of pretending it’s something it’s not. I like that Sunny was honest and it’s great that she’s feeling more comfortable and self-confident after all these years.

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Celebrities like Colin Farrell, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jamie Lee Curtis & more tested positive for Covid just after the Golden Globes and before the Critics Choice. [Seriously OMG]
OutTV’s ‘For the Love of DILFs’ trailer is here. [OMG Blog]
Austin Butler suits up in Ferragamo. [RCFA]
Shakira has had enough. [Dlisted]
Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime performance is in less than a month! [LaineyGossip]
Singles Inferno: a dating reality show with real stakes. [Pajiba]
Balmain’s pre-fall collection is bonkers. [Go Fug Yourself]
M3GAN’s screenwriter sounds awesome. [Gawker]
The NYC paparazzi make Rachel Zegler feel unsafe. [Just Jared]
Elsa Hosk looked cute in pink. [Egotastic]
A clouded leopard went missing from the Dallas zoo for hours. [Buzzfeed]
Britney Spears flipped off the camera. [Towleroad]

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It’s been clear for a while that the Windsors fundamentally misunderstand the Sussex situation. The Windsors believe that they still have cards to play and emotional and financial blackmail left in the tank. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have money, private security, freedom, an independent charitable foundation and success wherever they go. Harry has spoken plainly and repeatedly about what he wants now: accountability, an apology and oversight. Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace think they can dictate terms. They cannot. But they’re still briefing Roya Nikkhah at the Sunday Times, who dutifully acted as a palace stenographer with her new piece: “Peace talks plan: moves to reconcile Prince Harry with the Windsors before the coronation.” It’s full of “royal sources” and “sources close to the king.” Some highlights:

Deafening silence?? There has been deafening silence on the subject from the King and the Prince of Wales, who kept calm and carried on with engagements in Scotland and Liverpool this week, buoyed by the rousing receptions and messages of support they received out on manoeuvres. Some in the royal households believe a “least said, soonest mended” approach is the best way forward, a mantra being wilfully ignored by Harry. But there are other wise heads in royal circles who acknowledge that, much as it might stick in the craw after Harry’s nuclear detonations, a reconciliation is “the only way forward” for the royal family. Furthermore, it is only achievable if both sides put their hands up and Harry puts his guns down.

Royal reconciliation: A royal source, who has the King’s ear and who knows the Sussexes well, believes a reconciliation meeting will happen in the coming months and needs to take place before the coronation on Saturday, May 6. “It’s going to take flexibility on all sides, but it can be done, it’s fixable,” says the source. “It needs Harry over here, in the room with the King and Prince of Wales, a couple of other family members, some of ‘his people’ he trusts who always had his back, so he doesn’t think he’s being ambushed. Someone like Elf [Ed Lane Fox, Harry’s former private secretary] and Christopher [Lord Geidt, the late Queen’s former private secretary who advised the Sussexes]. Both sides need to hold their hands up and admit we didn’t get everything right, and we got a lot wrong, and we have to say to him ‘we understand the pain you’ve been through’. The King can do it.”

Roya is still trying to convince everyone that William isn’t a violent psycho: The heir is the spare’s punchbag over Spare’s blistering pages of character assassination and friends have said William is “burning inside” over his brother’s disloyalty. “He is loyal to the throne and understands what needs to be done for the country,” says the source, who also knows William well. “Not everyone here behaved well, but Harry’s got to be able to sit down and say ‘we didn’t behave well either’. That takes a lot of academic flexibility, which Harry isn’t great at.”

Get the wives in: “We’ve got to move on it, and get it done by April. Then, we need to get the wives in. The King needs a clear run for the coronation.” Another well-placed royal source agrees: “They have to invite them in before the coronation, or it will become such a circus and distraction.”

Messiah complex?? If he is as willing to come to the table as he says he is, he will need to leave his messiah complex behind in Montecito. Harry also claimed his blistering assessment of his family in Spare “is not about trying to collapse the monarchy, this is about trying to save them from themselves” — a remark that has been met with groans across the institution that the Sussexes quit…. After 38 years as a prince, Harry still doesn’t seem to grasp that the royal family is not going to change just because he says so. The modernisation of the monarchy, clearly already under way with a King who has a notably different style and approach to his mother, will continue to be led by Charles and William, whose popularity with the British public continues to soar in the polls, as Harry’s plummets.

Harry must shut up, the palace briefs: A royal source says: “They have to now be quiet and get on with their thing in America and Harry has got to realise that it might all go down better there, but here in the UK, people have taken it very badly. You’ve said your piece, but why are you trying to torch the whole house?”

Archie & Lilibet’s titles: Harry and Meghan are understood to fear the King may strip Archie and Lili of their titles, after his reluctance immediately to recognise their elevated status after the Queen’s death. Four months on, they are still styled as “Master” and “Miss Mountbatten-Windsor” on the royal family’s website. Harry and his father had a “brief discussion” in the days after the Queen’s death. The conversation ended unresolved and left the Sussexes dismayed. Palace sources say all will be decided in good time, but the King would be wise to make his position clear on it before the coronation. If he was to decide to issue Letters Patent to remove their titles, it would not be motivated by vindictiveness, more an acknowledgement that Harry’s book has revealed what a “poison chalice” a royal title has proven for his second son and his wife, according to a source close to the King.

Harry’s offer to still support the Commonwealth: A royal source says: “In time, perhaps. There could still be an opportunity down the road, but it will need time for them to settle down and be quiet.”

They’re terrified he’ll keep talking & writing: “Right now, he’s holding a gun to their heads,” says a royal source. “And nobody knows what will be acceptable to him as appeasement. His goalposts are constantly shifting and the family is always going to question some of his versions of events.”

[From The Sunday Times]

The Times piece ends with sources basically saying that Charles, William and the courtiers are not worried at all about Harry because their own (ridiculous) polling suggests that Charles and William are wildly popular and everyone hates Harry. There are international book sales and Netflix viewership that say something different, but whatever these morons have to tell themselves. It’s wishful thinking on the grandest scale, the royal belief that they can simply proclaim themselves to be wildly popular, just like they can proclaim that Harry is despised in the UK.

Anyway, there’s clearly Panic at the Royal Disco, or else they wouldn’t be crying to Nikkhah about how Harry needs to shut up. As with everything else, the palace has horribly misjudged everything and they’re now resorting to publicly pleading with Harry to stop pointing out how badly they’ve behaved.

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Of all the misunderstandings and picayune disagreements in recent Windsor history, I think the dumbest one is definitely the bridesmaids’ dress fiasco, which has now crept into its fifth year of extended melodrama, almost all of it from the Princess of Wales and her people. A close second in the Dumb Royal Melodrama: the wedding tiara fiasco. It’s been clear for a while that the whole thing was solely started by Angela Kelly, who was QEII’s dresser and BFF. Apparently, Kelly frequently leaked sh-t about other members of the family, and Kelly decided to leak a nasty version of the tiara story, which was basically that Meghan “demanded” a wedding tiara and then Harry pitched a fit about having access to the tiara ahead of the wedding. Kelly told people that Harry bitched her out and then QEII bitched him out. Not so, Harry says in Spare. But he adds a different layer to the entire tiara process: apparently, the Diana’s sisters had already offered Meghan the “Spencer Tiara,” the beautiful diamond headpiece worn by Diana on her wedding day, the tiara which belongs to the Earl Spencer and the Spencer family. Meghan was set to wear the Spencer Tiara when QEII suddenly offered Meghan a piece.

There had been spirited arguments in the back corridors of the Palace about whether or not Meg could—or should—wear a veil. Not possible, some said. For a divorcée, a veil was thought to be out of the question. But the powers that be, unexpectedly, showed some flexibility on the subject.

Next came the question of a tiara. My aunts asked if Meg would like to wear my mother’s. We were both touched. Meg then spent hours and hours with her dress designer, getting the veil to match the tiara, giving it a similar scalloped edge. Shortly before the wedding, however, Granny reached out. She offered us access to her collection of tiaras. She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. Do come over, I remember her saying.

Extraordinary morning. We walked into Granny’s private dressing room, right next to her bedroom, a space I’d never been in. Along with Granny was a jewelry expert, an eminent historian who knew the lineage of each stone in the royal collection. Also present was Granny’s dresser and confidante, Angela. Five tiaras were arrayed on a table, and Granny directed Meg to try on each one before a full-length mirror. I stood behind, watching.

One was all emeralds. One was aquamarines. Each was more dazzlingly stunning than the last. Each took my breath. I wasn’t the only one. Granny said to Meg quite tenderly: Tiaras suit you.

Meg melted. Thank you, Ma’am.

One of the five, however, stood out. Everyone agreed. It was beautiful, seemingly made for Meg. Granny said it would be placed in a safe directly and she looked forward to seeing it on Meg’s head come the Big Day. Make sure, she added, that you practice putting it on. With your hairdresser. It’s tricky and you don’t want to be doing it for the first time on the wedding day.

[From Spare by Prince Harry]

This is such big breaking news, I actually can’t believe that the British papers have mostly ignored it: Meghan was set to wear the beautiful Spencer Tiara and Meghan had even gotten her veil designed specifically with the Spencer Tiara in mind. I wonder how late in the process QEII offered Meghan a tiara – it sounds like it was maybe a month before the wedding, maybe even less time than that. Harry goes on to write that they requested the tiara from Angela one week later, after researching the importance of placing the tiara and sewing the veil and tiara and fixing it with the hair. Of course Angela Kelly “didn’t respond to any of our messages. We kept trying. No response.” Then, after a while, they finally reached her:

She said the tiara would require an orderly and a police escort to leave the Palace. That sounded…a bit much. But all right, I said, if that’s protocol, let’s find an orderly and a police officer and get the ball rolling. Time was running out. Inexplicably, she replied: Can’t be done.

Why can’t it? Her schedule was too busy.

She was being obstructive, obviously, but for what reason? We couldn’t even hazard a guess. I considered going to Granny, but that would probably mean sparking an all-out confrontation, and I wasn’t quite sure with whom Granny would side. Also, to my mind, Angela was a troublemaker, and I didn’t need her as an enemy.

[From Spare by Prince Harry]

This went on for a while, with Angela Kelly blanking Harry’s requests, and Meghan’s hairdresser coming to London and then leaving. When Kelly finally arrived at KP “out of thin air,” Harry met her and signed the release she gave him. Harry writes: “I thanked her, though I added that it would’ve made our lives so much easier to have had it sooner. Her eyes were fire. She started having a go at me. Angela, you really want to do this now? Really? Now?”

I mean… there’s a reason why Charles and Camilla kicked Kelly out and changed all the locks the second after QEII died. Angela Kelly is a f–king menace and she used her position as QEII’s “favorite” to libel a blood prince and his bride.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Do you sometimes wonder if the worst British royal commentators coordinate their talking points among themselves so they can provide an unhinged-but-united front? It’s kind of obvious when the commentators are parroting the palace’s talking points – currently, that talking point is “King Charles and Prince William are so dignified in their tremendous silence in the face of Prince Harry’s attacks!” But there are other narratives and we started to see a big one this weekend: “Where’s Meghan? Why Isn’t Meghan By Harry’s Side During His Book Promo?” But it’s more than that. It’s “Meghan doesn’t support Harry anymore because she didn’t promote his book for him!!” It’s genuinely bizarre. Petronella Wyatt is some royalist commentator and she was shrieking all weekend about Meghan and Harry:

Meghan seems to be strangely silent. Perhaps even she thinks Harry has gone too far?

— Petronella Wyatt (@PetronellaWyatt) January 15, 2023

Given the Sussex’s plummeting popularity, could Meghan be finding her husband a a wee bit toxic right now?

— Petronella Wyatt (@PetronellaWyatt) January 15, 2023

These morons are trying to “bait” Meghan into – what? Coming out and doing promotion for her husband’s memoir? It’s like they have no idea how book promotion works. These are the same people who were screaming, crying and throwing up when Meghan did (gasp) solo interviews to promote HER podcast too. Harry and Meghan will promote their individual projects separately. So part of this is just the British royal commentary class’s desperation to rope Meghan into Harry’s promotion so they can “blame” her for everything. The whole point of Spare is that Harry is owning his sh-t and telling the story of how he and William were already beefing for years before Meghan even came around.

The worst piece in this “where’s Meghan” sub-genre was an absolutely disturbing column by Sarah Vine in the Mail. You can see an archived copy below, but just know that Vine’s obsession with Meghan is utterly grotesque. Meghan has literally been sitting at home in her Montecito mansion, raising her children and minding her business and these nasty trolls keep abusing her. And the British media keeps platforming these hateful psychos too.

this is genuinely one of the most unsettling things I’ve read in a whilehttps://t.co/obXNz1412B

— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) January 15, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Variety YouTube video. Covers courtesy of The Cut and Variety.