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Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin collapsed after being tackled during the NFL game last night. He’s in critical condition and the teams postponed the game. [JustJared]
True-crime watchers have a lot of thoughts about this arrest in Idaho. [Buzzfeed]
I halfway agree with Donald Trump on this? [Jezebel]
Happy 20th birthday to Greta Thunberg. [Dlisted]
Yellowstone’s season finale was dramatique. [Pajiba]
T&L’s final 2022 podcast. [Tom & Lorenzo]
The year of Christopher John Rogers’ colorful designs. [GFY]
The Catholic Church & the Boy Scouts would rather file for bankruptcy than pay settlements to their many victims. [Towleroad]
Miley Cyrus seems to be in a good place right now. [Egotastic]
They made a reality show about Special Forces training? [Starcasm]
Overused words & phrases we should abandon this year? [Gawker]

Share this video instead of the video of last nights incident. Prayers for Damar Hamlin pic.twitter.com/x7mw4s4xwm

— Primetime Sports (@Primetime2828) January 3, 2023

The Daily Mail’s Becky English had an end-of-year piece on the state of the monarchy and King Charles’s “first 100 days” on the throne. They’re really doing a hard sell, and the invisible contract grows more visibly strained with each passing day. Part 1 of my coverage of English’s piece was all about the Sussexes, which was a decent-sized chunk of the article. But there was more in the piece, about Buckingham Palace rolling their eyes at Prince William, and how they froze out that deranged nutjob Angela Kelly (QEII’s dresser and BFF). Weirdly, there is nary a mention of She Who Keens, the Princess of Wales. It’s almost as if Kate is a nonentity within the monarchy. It’s almost as if they’re behaving like William has already gotten a divorce. Some highlights from the Daily Mail:

Where Charles & Camilla live: The couple, I am told, will continue to use their own homes (Highgrove for him, Ray Mill for her) as well as royal residences including Windsor and Sandringham. But it is Birkhall in Scotland — all ‘muddy wellies, wet dogs and afternoon teas’ — that they see as their ‘marital home’, according to one source.

The Duke of Edinburgh title: The distribution of other family titles is also on the back burner, I understand. I am told that the King has no immediate plans to hand out the Dukedom of Edinburgh that reverted after the death of his father to Queen Elizabeth, and now to him. The late Queen intended for it to be given to the Earl of Wessex, her youngest son, who does a great deal, along with his wife Sophie, for the late Prince Philip’s eponymous awards scheme. It could yet go to Prince Edward, but the current thinking is that such a senior title — particularly one associated with Scotland —should not go to the 13th in line to the throne (and descending). While some have suggested it will go to seven-year-old Princess Charlotte — one of a number of options on the table — others feel little Prince Louis, four, is a more likely future inheritor.

An old woman’s funeral was an advertisement for Britain: One Whitehall source explains: ‘The Government is keen for it to be a great moment of national celebration because this year’s events have been a fabulous advertisement for Britain. We do pomp and pageantry in a way that no other nation can. Despite what some American papers would have you believe, Britain does have a special place in the world.’

What Camilla will wear for the coronation: I am told that planning is continuing apace and that the Queen Consort has already sourced a suitable dress and mantle (the cloak she will wear), and she has also chosen her crown. Many now believe she will opt for the late Queen’s diamond diadem.

Tours & annual events: Buckingham Palace is planning a series of visits to all four corners of the United Kingdom over the next few months in the run-up to the big day. Before then, we can also expect the King and Queen Consort’s first state visit — to an as-yet-undisclosed country. And while I understand Charles also plans to keep the ‘hardy annuals’ of the royal calendar — such as Royal Ascot, the garden parties and the Maundy Service — going, staff are looking at ‘tweaking’ some of these events to make them more relevant to the modern age.

Angela Kelly has been frozen out: The late Queen’s most powerful and devoted female member of staff, Angela Kelly, who acted as her Majesty’s dresser and personal confidante, has been firmly frozen out. The King and his team were inherently suspicious (and possibly a little jealous) about the degree of influence Kelly enjoyed thanks to the ageing monarch. Within days of the Queen’s passing in September, the locks were changed to bar Ms Kelly from access to the royal apartments at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, where she retains a grace-and-favour home. She has written two books and is believed to be working on a third about her life with the Queen. Many suspect she may try to use the tome to settle a few scores.

William’s relationship with Charles & Camilla: As for the family, Charles and William — who, let us not forget, have endured their own tensions over the years — are closer than ever before. The only blip has been a recent moment of friction over the handling of William’s godmother, Lady Susan Hussey — the Queen’s former lady-in-waiting who stepped down after repeatedly asking a British charity campaigner what part of Africa she came from. Some at Buckingham Palace felt the situation was ‘unhelpfully’ inflamed by Kensington Palace’s ‘over-hasty’ decision to enter into the fray with a public pronouncement on the row.

Oh, Buckingham Palace was really pissed at William: A spokesman for the Prince of Wales said at the time: ‘Racism has no place in our society, these comments were unacceptable and it is right that the individual concerned has stepped down.’ He is right, of course, and there was sympathy that the incident came as he was about to embark on a high-profile visit to the U.S. But it was deemed perhaps an ‘unnecessary’ intervention at a particularly delicate moment for the royal household, according to several with knowledge of the situation. This was, it must be stressed, however, more a case of internal eye-rolling than any full-scale row, in what has proved to be a strong partnership between the King and the heir to the throne.

Steady peg: William will be by his father’s side at the Coronation on May 6 — while Harry, having stepped down from royal duties, will be unlikely to undertake any ceremonial duties at the event, if he attends at all. The House of Windsor, then, has much to look forward to in the coming year — and, notwithstanding a few difficulties emanating from California, ‘steady as she goes’ seems the royal order of the day.

[From The Daily Mail]

Interesting about the Edinburgh title – there was some talk that Charles would keep it for himself and actually use it at some point, but I guess he was talked out of it, and now he doesn’t want anyone to have it – especially not Edward, lol. And Camilla won’t wear the Koh-i-Noor… but they still won’t return any of their stolen jewels, I guess. As for Angela Kelly… they really tossed that nasty old woman out the moment QEII died. I mean, I hate everyone in this situation, so I think it’s funny that they literally changed all of the locks on Kelly and she’s persona non grata in the new royal court. Good – she’s a barking lunatic.

The part about William and “internal eye-rolling” is fascinating – I think William is a racist dumbass, but I don’t blame him for issuing a statement about Susan Hussey (his godmother, lol). The fact that Camilla and Charles expected William to NOT throw his godmother under the bus at the earliest inconvenience says, to me, that Charles and Camilla still believe they can control William. They cannot. Keep your eye on that – this is the soft-launch of a storyline about how Charles and Cam are worried about “hotheaded, undiplomatic” William.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images, BP.

Given what we know now about then-Meghan Markle’s introduction to Prince Harry’s family, it definitely adds different layers to the history and interpretations of what happened, especially in 2017-2018. In all of the retellings of “where it all went wrong” between the two couples (William, Kate, Harry and Meghan) there’s been a lack of conversation about the lead-up to Pippa Middleton’s 2017 wedding. I’d love a deeper dive on that at some point. The Middletons basically waged a public campaign to blast Meghan while also using her name to hype Pippa. I’d love a deeper dive on that at some point.

In any case, we know that Kate had her back up about Meghan from the word go. Kate and her family were in a full-blown panic, and Kate absolutely believed she could play the same Mean Girl games with Meghan and get away with it. The question is, when did Harry realize that Kate is kind of terrible? Because at some point, Harry just began actively ignoring Kate entirely, which only made Kate’s behavior worse – because Harry was the one who was always nice to her. All of which adds to Kate’s sense of “betrayal.” From Us Weekly:

Both Prince William and Princess Kate still are navigating the aftermath of Harry & Meghan, with a source telling Us Weekly that Prince Harry isn’t on good terms with his sister-in-law.

“William isn’t planning to give his side of the story or openly retaliate. He’s remaining dignified and is getting on with the job. Kate feels hurt and betrayed that Harry would do this to her too, especially as the pair used to be so close,” the source reveals in the new issue of Us.

Us previously reported that Harry and Meghan Markle’s six-episode docuseries “is a thorn” in the Prince of Wales’ side.

“He’s disappointed with Harry for portraying him and the family in a cynical light,” the insider said. “William was hoping they could move on after the CBS interview [in March 2021], but Harry airing his dirty laundry has only heightened the conflict between the two brothers and resulted in them taking a step backwards.”

[From Us Weekly]

Kate’s PR always amounts to “Kate and Harry used to have such a nice time together, before Meghan STOLE him away from Kate.” I believe that Kate feels betrayed, I just think Kate has felt betrayed this whole time, for years now, ever since Harry fell for Meghan. Kate wanted to be the only woman in Harry’s life. So Harry falling in love was a huge betrayal. For William too, who clearly believes that Meghan “stole” Harry away from him too. Basically, I’m saying that Peg and Buttons need a massive amount of therapy.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Commenters on this blog and people on Twitter brought up an interesting point yesterday, one which I hadn’t considered before: that Prince Harry purposefully chose two white men as his interviewers for his Spare promotion because he was disgusted by how the British media treated Oprah Winfrey. When Oprah was announced as the first person to interview the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after their exit, the Windsors and the British media went into overdrive to slander… Oprah. They called her a “tabloid talk show host” and even Sophie Wessex tried to pretend like Oprah was merely a minor American celebrity. So how will the British media slander Anderson Cooper, who is a Vanderbilt (practically American royalty) with family ties to the British aristocracy and British royalty? From Ephraim Hardcastle’s column in the Mail:

CNN’s Anderson Cooper joins the growing list of TV presenters subjected to a full Sussex moanathon while interviewing Prince Harry. Who is he? His grandmother was heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, who lost custody of Anderson’s mother (also Gloria) following rumours of a lesbian love affair with a British royal. And his great aunt Thelma was the libidinous mistress of the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII) until she made the fatal mistake of introducing him to her friend Wallis Simpson. All told, a Cooper tell-all would be so much more illuminating than Harry’s reheated bleatings about callous courtiers and the horrid media.

[From The Daily Mail]

“Who is he?” LMAO. Granted, I acknowledge that Coop isn’t as internationally well-known as Oprah. AC is much more familiar to American audiences than an international audience. But it’s just funny to watch British people “discover” Anderson Cooper and his crazy backstory in real time. Like, his mother was GLORIA VANDERBILT. He’s very comfortable in these elitist circles.

The Independent has a story about Anderson’s family too and his family connections to British bluebloods. Amazing.

Photos courtesy of 60 Minutes/CBS, Avalon Red.

Becky English at the Daily Mail had a surprisingly dishy piece about King Charles’s “First 100 Days” on the throne. While the piece was about Charles and there are a great many sycophants being paid to fall all over themselves to praise their new king, a huge chunk of the article was not-so-surprisingly about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and how the new king feels about the California royals. This piece is so dishy, I’m actually going to break it up into two posts so we can discuss ALL of the gossip. Here’s all the Sussex-related highlights:

Prince Archie & Princess Lilibet’s titles: More troubling is the issue of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s children, Archie, three, and Lilibet, one, who can be ennobled now that their grandpa is King. However, I am told that this thorny issue is one that Charles has firmly put to one side for the time being. ‘Anything to do with his grandchildren will be decided once they [Harry and Meghan] stop lobbing salvos into the palace,’ says one royal insider. ‘No decision or pronouncement can be made on that issue until the King is confident that the decision he makes can withstand any activity on either side in the long term — and they are not in that place right now. Monarchs move with great caution and reflection and there is no obligation to rush. The King will, of course, need to make a decision at some point — but the Sussexes’ activity is still so changeable that it’s just hard to take any firm decisions at this stage.’

The peacemaker Sussexes? Recently, I revealed that the Sussexes have told friends that once Harry’s memoir Spare is published next month, their focus will be on healing the family rift. Those on this side of the Atlantic are, perhaps understandably, a little more sceptical. ‘They said their Oprah Winfrey interview was the one time they were going to air these private family issues — and since then we have had a couple of TV projects, podcasts, interviews, the docu-series, the book,’ a well-placed source says.

The Sussexes are fundamentally in conflict with the monarchy: ‘The big question about the Sussexes is whether they can exist outside of a position of conflict with the institution. Everyone hopes they can but I’m not sure they commercially feel able to. Plus, they clearly believe everything they say. The interpretation they have of events is as true for them as it is untrue to everyone else who was involved. But the family want closure, not further acrimony. There will never be a day where, despite their most awful behaviour, the King would not welcome his son into his arms.’

Charles is feeling Harry’s absence: Another source adds: ‘Yes, His Majesty continues to be very bewildered by the whole thing. He hasn’t watched [Netflix’s Harry & Meghan] series and will not read [Harry’s] book — but he knows what he needs to know, and he’s very upset.He loves his son. But one of the King’s great skills is to compartmentalise. While he may be feeling Harry’s absence acutely and be concerned about the potential impact on the institution, he will also be focused very strongly on the job he has to do. There’s nothing he can do about it now, so there’s no point in losing any sleep at this stage.’

They’re worried about Harry’s ‘Spare’: Although Charles came off ‘lightly’ in terms of criticism during Harry’s recent score-settling on Netflix, royal insiders are decidedly ‘apprehensive’ about his memoir, which will be published on January 10. ‘In Netflix, the villain of the piece had clearly moved on to being [William], the Prince of Wales. Harry and Meghan actually had some nice words to say around the King’s role in helping them plan their wedding,’ one source points out. ‘Are they saving their ire for the book instead? Who knows. You can’t not feel sorry for Harry. He is fundamentally the product of a very damaged childhood. But you can also feel sorry for the individual and frustrated at the world he has created for himself, where he sees enemies at every turn. Despite it all, I know the institution would [still] have him back in a heartbeat.’

Open invitations: There is, as I reported recently, an open invitation for Harry and Meghan to attend all family events, including next May’s Coronation, although the guest list is yet to be confirmed. Whether they will come is another matter. Whatever the Sussexes decide, there is no doubt that our first Coronation for 70 years will still be a magnificent spectacle.

[From The Daily Mail]

King Charles is not “ennobling” his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet – that would imply that Charles is making a choice to “give” royal titles to his grandchildren. Archie and Lilibet are already prince and princess, since the moment QEII died and they became grandchildren of the monarch. Charles is trying to TAKE AWAY their titles. You can tell by the linguistic hoops everyone is jumping through. As for Harry and Meghan’s very alleged desire to make peace – anyone who watched the Netflix series knows that Harry and Meghan want an apology and accountability, but they are expecting nothing and they’re simply going to move on with their lives. Meaning, the ball is in Charles’s court to actually make the approach, apologize, make meaningful changes, hold William accountable, etc. The Sussexes know that probably won’t happen though. And how many f–king times are these sources going to emphasize that Charles will welcome HARRY back with open arms… but not Harry’s wife or Harry’s children? These people suck.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

I wonder how many snippets/clips 60 Minutes will release ahead of the Sunday airing of their interview with Prince Harry. I don’t think of 60 Minutes as an outlet which plays around with tabloid storylines, but you’ve also got to believe that they know they’re sitting on one of their biggest interviews of the year. Which might explain 60 Minutes dropping this clip online last night. Anderson Cooper asks Prince Harry: “Can you see a day when you would return as a full-time member of the Royal Family?” Harry says “NO” before Anderson even finishes the question.

“Can you see a day when you would return as a full-time member of the Royal Family?

See Prince Harry’s revealing interview with @andersoncooper.

60 Minutes Sunday, on @CBS and streaming on @paramountplus. pic.twitter.com/LaRAtQYMkD

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) January 2, 2023

LOL. That man said: I’m never going back there to live. He said, I’ll visit, maybe. But I’m not working with my father and brother ever again. Which brings me to that ITV trailer – Tom Bradby’s interview with Harry was clearly done around the same time (just before Christmas) and I’m sure the questions will be somewhat similar. The thing about the Bradby interview is that I think it’s a 90-minute piece, so Harry will really be given the space to get a lot off his chest. Which is why I think the trailer was deceptively edited – so many “royal reporters” are writing full screeds on Harry’s “I would like to get my father back, I would like to get my brother back.”

See what I mean? There’s clearly a huge “BUT” coming after Harry says that. I imagine it will be some version of what Harry has said before: “I would like to get my father back, I would like to get my brother back… but that’s impossible, because they’ve made it clear that there will be no accountability.”

Photos courtesy of 60 Minutes/CBS and Avalon Red.

Anna Kendrick has a new film out called Alice, Darling. It looks like it’s a great film but also like it will be incredibly difficult to watch. Anna plays Alice, who is in a psychologically abusive relationship with Simon. Her friends suspect/know something is wrong, but they can’t get through to Alice. Watching the trailer made my stomach turn. If the trailer is triggering, I can only imagine what the film is like. You can see the trailer here. Unfortunately, the reason Anna is so convincing in her role as Alice is because she was drawing on personal experience. Anna received the script soon after getting out of an emotionally abusive relationship. The movie was so similar to what she had gone through, that Anna said if it wasn’t being filmed several months from when she read it, she risked being retraumatized. But she had the space and supportive cast and director, which kept her safe. So they were able to tell the story in a way that may help others.

Anna Kendrick’s latest film, “Alice, Darling,” didn’t need an emotional abuse consultant. Its emotional abuse consultant was Anna Kendrick.

Lead actor and executive producer Kendrick had recently come out of an emotionally abusive relationship of her own when she was sent the screenplay, written by Alanna Francis, which details the experience of a woman struggling, while on vacation with two close friends, to come to terms with the fact that she’s been psychologically abused by her boyfriend.

“I really related to Alice’s obsessive mind,” Kendrick told The Times. The script had a line in which Alice wishes she could purify her thoughts, and although Kendrick didn’t have that same thought, she remembers writing in her journal, “I’m just going to try a little harder. If I could just get it right, if I could make it perfect, if I could just say it in the perfect way, I’ll be OK.”

“It’s this totally irrational hope that if I’m just a little bit better, I’ll be safe. It’s like having a pair of pliers on your heart,” she said.

“Alice, Darling,” opening in Los Angeles Friday, was filmed in June and July of 2021, only six months after Kendrick received the script. But with the help of her therapist, a protective cast and crew, and director Mary Nighy’s offer to provide help if things got too intense, Kendrick felt safe. She explained that this was crucial, because when part of your original trauma is being invalidated, you want to surround yourself with people who understand.

She said she told Nighy that she’d rather have 1 in 10 people watch the movie and think, “Simon was a jerk, but don’t be so dramatic,” rather than have a moment where he shoves Alice into a wall so everybody gets on the same page that he’s an abusive bad guy. “That was a big part of my problem. ‘Well he never hit me and I’m not really afraid that he’s going to hit me. How do I discern between normal conflict and abuse? Why is my body in so much fear all of the time? Why do I wake up feeling like he’s in bed next to me and wondering, ‘OK, do I have 30 seconds before I start performing or … ?’”

Kendrick discussed how living in an abusive relationship creates so much self-doubt that people question their own reality. She describes it as, “He’s so convinced that I am a monster that I can’t see how I am not.”

During the final stages of editing, Kendrick urged Nighy to “pull back” even further, recounting an early conversation with co-star Wunmi Mosaku about why they liked Francis’ script. “I said that I love that it really relied on Alice’s experience rather than cataloging evidence of the behavior from Simon,” Kendrick recalled. “Wunmi said, ‘But Anna, you’re the evidence.’”

At this point in our phone interview, Kendrick cuts herself off and starts apologizing. It takes a beat to realize she’s crying.

“I was begging Mary, ‘Can Alice be the evidence?’” Kendrick said. “Because not only do I want us to not make a movie that’s already been made, but personally, I need to trust that I’m the evidence. Part of it was like, if you can’t trust Alice, then I can’t trust myself. So it was really, really important that the movie relied so heavily on just staying with Alice.”

She also resisted any implication that physical abuse was only a matter of time: “You don’t have to believe that it might get physical for you to feel like you’re allowed to leave, that you deserve to be treated better, deserve to feel safe.”

[From Los Angeles Times]

“I need to trust that I’m the evidence… if you can’t trust Alice, then I can’t trust myself,” reading that caught in my throat. Anna detailed the ways that director Mary Nighy and her castmates supported her, and how her therapist helped her get through the filming but my gawd, this must have been so difficult. Kaniehtiio Horn, who plays one of the two friends trying to rescue Alice, admitted she has also been in many emotional and other abusive relationships. And reading above how Wunmi Mosaku understood Anna’s experience, it sounds like it was a very safe place for Anna to tell this story.

I think it’s important too, because as the excerpt emphasizes, they made a concerted effort for there not to be any evidence of physical abuse. They took out a scene where Alice removes her shirt and has bruises on her. Mary and Anna both said they realized there will be those who don’t “see” the abuse because we’ve been conditioned to accept physical abuse as wrong but we aren’t taught the other kinds of abuse. So they really wanted to show what non-physical abuse can look like, which goes back to Anna asking for Alice to be the evidence instead of having her thrown into a wall. Mary said a clinical psychologist came up to her at the Toronto Film Festival and said she believes they may save lives with the film as a result. I feel horrible for Anna knowing this film cut so close to the bone. But I admire the fact that she was willing to put it up on screen to help someone who hasn’t gotten out of a bad relationship yet.

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Photo credit: Cover Images and Instagram

Yesterday, we discussed the reports that Jeremy Renner had been hospitalized on New Year’s Day following a snow plow accident around Renner’s Lake Tahoe home. While the tabloids have been reporting on increasingly gruesome details from the accident, I’m going to try to keep it relatively simple and above-board. From what we can gather, the snow plow ran over part of Renner’s body, and one of Renner’s neighbors (a doctor) applied a tourniquet to Renner’s leg. The sheriff’s deputies coordinated an airlift to the closest hospital. Reportedly, Renner’s injuries are quite extensive. Renner’s rep released a statement saying that Jeremy had two surgeries on Monday and that he remains in critical condition.

Jeremy Renner underwent surgery Monday after a snowplow accident. After sustaining injuries on his property in Reno, Nevada, on New Year’s Day, the actor was taken into surgery on Monday.

In a statement sent to PEOPLE, Renner’s representative says, “We can confirm that Jeremy has suffered blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries and has undergone surgery today, January 2nd 2023. He has returned from surgery and remains in the intensive care unit in critical but stable condition.”

The statement adds, “Jeremy’s family would like to express their gratitude to the incredible doctors and nurses looking after him, Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue, Washoe County Sheriff, Reno City Mayor Hillary Schieve and the Carano and Murdock families. They are also tremendously overwhelmed and appreciative of the outpouring of love and support from his fans.”

[From People]

“Blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries”- holy yikes. I take that to mean multiple broken bones, blood loss and just… pain and tragedy all around. What an incredibly scary accident. He’s apparently in stable condition but it also sounds like there are some serious concerns.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Rest in peace, Barbara Walters. [Dlisted]
A burger joint’s gay iconography. [OMG Blog]
Review of Welcome to Chippendales. [Pajiba]
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s very secretive divorce settlement. [Towleroad]
The Fug Girls’ favorite red-carpet looks of 2022. [Go Fug Yourself]
Don Lemon missed the NYE countdown live on CNN because he was backing that ass up (and because he couldn’t hear producers). [Seriously OMG]
Gawker’s favorite stories of 2022. [Gawker]
M3GAN’s producers defend the PG-13 rating. [Just Jared]
The fashion critics’ best looks of 2022. [RCFA]
Jenna Ortega’s career is going gangbusters these days. [Egotastic]
People share their creepy or paranormal stories. [Buzzfeed]
I also wish winter muffs would come back into style. [Jezebel]

Prince Harry’s Spare will not be serialized in any newspaper or media outlet ahead of the memoir’s release on January 10th. I took that to mean that Penguin Random House was also keeping a close-hold on advance copies too – we know (for sure) that Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace requested advance copies of the book and the palaces were turned down. I wonder if book critics will get copies and when they receive those copies. I bring this up because the Times of London’s “media editor” Rosamund Urwin had a piece in the Sunday Times in which “sources with knowledge of the book” were spilling some details. Who are these sources? Sources at Penguin Random House? Sources who have actually seen Spare? Or just… random royal commentators talking amongst themselves? You decide! Some highlights from this Times piece:

‘Spare’ isn’t an attack on King Charles: The Duke of Sussex’s memoir is expected to let the King off lightly — and focus more on his frosty relationship with the Prince of Wales. A source with knowledge of the book, which will be published on January 10, told The Sunday Times they did not see how the brothers’ relationship could ever recover. “Generally, I think the book [will be] worse for them than the royal family is expecting,” they said. “Everything is laid bare. Charles comes out of it better than I had expected, but it’s tough on William, in particular, and even Kate gets a bit of a broadside. There are these minute details, and a description of the fight between the brothers. I personally can’t see how Harry and William will be able to reconcile after this.”

‘Spare’ focuses a lot on Princess Diana: The source added that the book explores in depth Harry’s grief about his mother’s death: “The overall impression is that this is a man who has never recovered from the trauma of his mother dying so young, and then along comes Meghan and he projects on to her a parallel with Diana.”

A royal commentator has thoughts: Ingrid Seward, the editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine and a royal biographer, said she thought the publisher, Penguin Random House (PRH), would be pleased with its focus on Diana. “He’s got a very good ghost who will write well about feelings, and I think it’s totally fair that Harry should talk about his mother, because everybody else in the world has and they’ve sort of taken her over,” said Seward. “The publisher will know that Diana sells. And you don’t have to say too much — because whatever he says is coming from him.”

Future projects: This book is not even close to being the end of the “H and M” show, either. Alongside further projects for Netflix, the $20 million deal the Sussexes struck with PRH is understood to be for four books in total. The others are currently thought to be a wellness-focused tome by the duchess, a book about leadership and philanthropy, and potentially a Meghan memoir too.

Harry’s interviews: The duke will give one major television interview to broadcasters on each side of the Atlantic. In the UK, Tom Bradby, who presents the ITV News at Ten and has known Harry for more than two decades, has landed the scoop. Bradby, 55, became close to both brothers while he was a royal correspondent in the 1990s, and his documentary revealed Meghan’s mental health turmoil. The interview is understood to have been recorded in California, and while its broadcast date is not yet confirmed, it is pencilled in for next Sunday, two days before the book hits the shelves. ITV is tipped to trail the interview from Monday. ITV will have had to negotiate over the timings with the broadcasting giant CBS, which won the US exclusive and will take precedence.

Harry might be interviewed by the New York Times? The book will not have a newspaper serialisation in the UK, with a source at PRH saying it felt unnecessary given “the book would sell without one”. Publishing sources say they expect him to give at least one newspaper interview; the New York Times, in which his wife wrote about her miscarriage in 2020, could be a potential home for it in the US.

[From The Times]

I think I’m more excited about Harry’s promotion for Spare than reading the actual memoir? I don’t know – I’ve been trying to tamp down my expectations for Spare because we don’t know if Harry was in burn-it-all-down mode. He spent so much time writing it, I feel like it will be more contemplative and therapeutic more than a dishy tell-all. But I feel like his promotional interviews could get really, really good. Like, some fascinating gossip, especially if Tom Bradby and Anderson Cooper ask Harry about his treatment around his grandmother’s death and her funeral, and whether he’s asked specifically about the racism within the family. Now, I am curious about whether the Times’s “source” is correct about some “broadsides” on William and Kate. Fingers crossed!

Here’s the teaser for Harry’s 60 Minutes interview!!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Instar, ‘Spare’ cover.