Y’all remember how Prince Harry played polo nearly every weekend for two months? Harry formed a polo team with his good friend Nacho Figueras called Los Padres. They were good, they won a lot of polo matches and made it to the semifinals of the polo league they set up in and around Santa Barbara. Los Padres’ ticket sales benefitted charity and Harry got to do what he loved. Now this headline from the Daily Express: “Watch out, Harry! Kate and William make major announcement set to upstage Duke of Sussex.” The Express is really helping William play it so cool, lol. That major announcement is that William is going back to the polo field to play for charity too.

The Duke of Cambridge is to return to the pitch as a polo player for a charity match. Prince William will take part in the Out-Sourcing Inc. Royal Charity Polo Cup 2022 at Guards Polo Club on July 6.

With this match, Prince William will raise funds for and awareness of a number of charities and associations close to his and Kate’s heart.

The patronages and organisations to benefit from this game are SHOUT, The Foundling Museum, The Welsh Rugby Charitable Trust, London’s Air Ambulance, Mountain Rescue England and Wales, The Anna Freud Centre, Family Action, The Forward Trust, East Anglia Children’s Hospice (EACH) and The Passage, Kensington Palace said.

This comes two months after Prince Harry debuted in the Los Padres polo team based in Santa Barbara, California.

[From The Daily Express]

Something I think about a lot is that mysterious Talk of the Town column last summer (almost a year ago exactly) where gossips claimed that William had “given up polo” and sold his TWELVE polo ponies, but not before he commissioned three paintings of the polo ponies. He kept one of the paintings, gave one to his groom and sent one to Harry. I still wonder about all of that, because I’d be willing to bet that William actually sold a couple of Harry’s polo ponies, the ponies Harry had to leave behind in the UK when he moved to California. I think William gave up polo when he assumed he wouldn’t have to “compete” with Harry on the polo field anymore, that they had both given it up. Imagine William’s surprise when Harry was galloping around, enjoying himself at the Santa Barbara polo club. So that’s what this whole thing is about. It’s hilarious that William is like “I CAN PLAY POLO TOO, HARRY!” Stalker much?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

July 1st was Princess Diana’s 61st birthday. August 31 will be the 25th anniversary of her death. Prince William and Harry tend to mark the bigger anniversaries of Diana’s death, and I wonder if they have separate plans to do so this year. In 2017, they did a lot around the 20th anniversary of her death, including a joint interview, a special appearance at Kensington Palace and commissioning the Diana statue which now stands in the gardens of KP. I have a feeling that Harry will mark the day in California with some poignant charity work. For Diana’s birthday, Harry appeared at the virtual ceremony for the Diana Award, which gives grants to extraordinary young people. Harry spoke at length about Diana, his own children and the children recognized by the Diana Award.

The Duke of Sussex, 37, surprised the latest recipients of the Diana Award, a worldwide philanthropy honor named for his mom at a virtual ceremony on Friday. Echoing his brother, Prince William, who wrote a letter to them earlier in the day, he thanked the 180 young philanthropists for helping “keep her voice alive” 25 years after her tragic death.

Prince Harry said in a video address, “Today, we’re reflecting on what would have been my mother’s 61st birthday. And this year is also 25 years since her passing. There isn’t a day during the past two and half decades where I haven’t thought about the mark she left not only on me and my brother, but on all of our lives.”

“I see her legacy in all of you,” he continued. “I see her legacy in a Diana Award community that spans multiple generations. I see her legacy every time I meet with families, young people, and children from all corners of the world. And, I see my mum’s legacy when I look at my own children every day.”

“This is a special year, and one where I hope we take extra time to not just remember her as she lived, but to reflect on the life she continues to lead through so many, including the young change makers with us today. My mother instilled in me, and in all of us, a drive to speak up and fight for a better world. And now, as a husband and a parent, my mother’s voice is even stronger in my life. All of you have helped keep her voice alive by showing the world how each small action counts, how kindness is still valued, and how our world can be better if we choose to make it so.”

“To everybody who is part of this afternoon, know that you are already making a difference, and we need you to keep making a difference. Don’t ever give up on the idea that each of you can create lasting and much-needed change,” Harry said. “And with that, it’s my great pleasure to welcome you all and invite you to meet this year’s amazing young leaders receiving The Diana Award.”

[From People]

He said a lot more about how these kids are helping to keep his mother’s fire alive. His words were very inspirational and warm. He is living his mother’s legacy even now, not just with his children, but by breaking the toxic cycle which chewed up Diana. He got out. He protected his wife. He put his wife ahead of the generational trauma cycle. Diana would be so proud of him. She would adore her little red-headed grandchildren too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

The thing which will ultimately “save” Prince Charles is that his current scandals are all complex financial crimes involving tax schemes, suitcases full of cash, shadowy arrangements ensuring access and honours and failed property deals. Charles had plenty of sex scandals in the past, but the sexiest controversy Charles has been involved in recently is accepting those multiple suitcases full of cash. I just worry that younger people won’t even realize how utterly corrupt Charles has been this whole time too. Speaking of, there was yet another horrendous financial story about Charles’s corruption when it comes to his charitably endeavors. I won’t post the whole Times story, but here are the basics:

The Prince of Wales gave an honour to a controversial Tory peer who spent £1.7 million bailing out his failed eco-village in a string of secretive deals being investigated by the charity watchdog. Prince Charles presented Lord Brownlow with the award during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace after accepting millions of pounds in donations from him.

His flagship charity also opened up Dumfries House, his 18th-century country estate in Scotland, for Brownlow’s 50th birthday — a black-tie event involving fireworks, bagpipes and a performance by a celebrity magician — and awarded the businessman’s company a £1.2 million construction contract.

In 2013 Charles, 73, appointed Brownlow as a trustee of the Prince’s Foundation, which manages Dumfries House. Charles had bought the mansion from the Marquess of Bute by taking out a £20 million loan six years earlier. He also acquired a nearby piece of farmland, Knockroon, at a cut-price rate. Charles saw the construction and sale of faux-Georgian homes there as an ideal way of repaying the Dumfries House debt. The development was also supposed to bring jobs and homes to a depressed former mining community and exhibit his values of traditional and sustainable architecture in practice.

There was a severe shortfall in demand: just 31 of 770 homes were built and its value was written down from £15 million to £700,000. By 2015 Hope Homes, the prince’s developer, had withdrawn from the project and a leading Scottish architect, Professor Alan Dunlop, described the prince’s vision as an “imported pastiche” and a “curious mix” of relatively expensive homes dropped into a rural setting that should have never been built. Today plans to complete Knockroon have been abandoned. Residents complain it is a ghost town that Charles rarely visits despite routinely spending weekends entertaining donors and relaxing and unwinding at his nearby estate.

Brownlow incorporated his own property company, Havisham Properties, and started buying homes at Knockroon from a subsidiary of the Prince’s Foundation. Between 2012 and 2017 he spent £1.7 million purchasing 11 properties and converting them into buy-to-lets and a café, according to official documents. The charity did not declare any of the purchases as “related party transactions”. This is a standard measure used to guard against perceived conflicts of interest and to demonstrate that trustees knew that money was going to someone who had existing ties to the charity.

During this period the foundation also awarded Brownlow’s company a series of contracts. In 2015 it gave him an estimated £1.2 million worth of work to build three properties on the estate, which a source said were cottages for staff. In the same year the charity seconded charitable staff to run Da Vinci’s, his company’s café, housed in what was supposed to be Knockroon visitor centre. It also “purchased an item of home furnishing on behalf of Mr Brownlow” which he later repaid, and paid him £8,590 in rent. The following year, accounts state that his company received £715,668 for building the staff homes. The foundation would not say if there was an open competition or tender exercise to award the contracts.

[From The Times]

So… again, Charles is lucky that this is so complicated and dry. The basic gist is that Charles once again pursued a relationship with a wealthy man under the auspices of charitable fundraising. Lord Brownlow was added as a trustee to the Prince’s Foundation, which seems like one of the biggest money laundering schemes in the UK. When Charles’s wacky housing development project set his foundation back millions of dollars, Brownlow bought up all of the now cheap properties and, in exchange, Charles gave Brownlow (who is still a foundation trustee) multiple no-bid contracts.

The thing that strikes me is that the Prince’s Foundation must have tens of millions of dollars/Euros just sitting there, not being used. I mean, we’re constantly hearing about how Charles secured millions from this shady Qatari or that scammy Russian, yet Charles’s foundation is also, somehow, always in a constant state of need for additional cash infusions. What’s really going on there?

Photos courtesy of Instar.

Two weekends ago, the Sunday Times reported that the “bullying inquiry” about/around the Duchess of Sussex had been completed. This was the inquiry announced by Buckingham Palace just days before the Oprah interview aired last year. The foundation for the inquiry was Jason Knauf leaking his own emails about how the Kensington Palace staff were constantly in state of terror/tears because of Meghan’s sheer existence. After the Oprah interview aired, suddenly BP didn’t want this on their plate whatsoever, which is why they hired an independent law firm to handle it, and they kept trying to minimize what was happening. As Buckingham Palace furiously covered their own asses, Kensington Palace aides continued to leak about how awful it was that the inquiry was being “buried” and how they were all just desperate to tell their stories. The Times said the inquiry was completed, the report would not be released and that changes would be made to palace HR. This week, BP went on the record and confirmed everything in the Times report.

So where does that leave Meghan? She was never contacted by the law firm about the inquiry, and we know that she has her receipts, and the palaces have her receipts as well. She left a paper trail within the Firm – she was sending emails and writing letters about how she was being treated and how bad it was getting for her. She reached out to senior staff and begged for help while she was pregnant. They didn’t help her. She has those receipts too. Generally speaking, I do think BP buried the inquiry, but it wasn’t to protect Meghan. It was to protect William, Kate and their staff from the truth of THEIR behavior coming out. But it seems that William and Kate won’t let it go, and neither will their staff. Rebecca English at the Daily Mail wrote a piece this week with the headline: “Palace prioritised peace, whatever the cost to their staff: In the wake of Harry and Meghan’s acrimonious departure, officials were simply unable to predict just how this most defensive of couples would react.” Y’all.

Allegations that the Duchess of Sussex systemically targeted and bullied female staff have been deeply troubling – and problematic – for the Royal Family since they were aired early last year. It was the first time a member of the Royal Family had been the subject of a formal complaint to senior management about their alleged behaviour – and there was no formal HR policy in place to deal with it.

The fact the allegations had first been made three years previously without any action seemingly being taken also uncomfortably accentuated the depth of the Palace’s paralysis over the issue. The delicacy of the situation was further exacerbated by the state of relations between Harry and Meghan and the rest of the Royal Family.

In the wake of their acrimonious departure as working royals and explosive Oprah Winfrey interview, palace officials were simply unable to predict just how this most defensive of couples would react. This is why they decided to focus their inquiries on how the allegations against Meghan were handled, as opposed to the substance of the claims themselves, whose truth or falsity has not been objectively established.

It seemed a neat-ish solution and one that was specifically designed to prevent the duchess and her legal team from having any say in what was being treated as a purely procedural matter.

Now officials have confirmed what the Daily Mail suggested would happen back in December last year – that their entire review is being buried, never to be made public. And as I reveal today, even the tiny handful of staff who were consulted during the process haven’t been told what, if anything, the Palace plans to do to sharpen up their procedures in the future.

Senior palace officials such as the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young – who I have been told by multiple sources was also frequently on the receiving end of the worst of the Sussexes’ ire – wanted to do the right thing, but have clearly prioritised peace with Harry and Meghan over their workforce.

It has led some within the household to ask the question: is how your staff are treated and protected really deemed less important than angering the Sussexes? The answer, for many, is clearly ‘yes’.

[From The Daily Mail]

“This most defensive of couples…” The entire royal establishment and national media ganged up on a woman and smeared her until she was suicidal, and now when she has shown that she is prepared to defend herself and call out her antagonizers, she’s “defensive.” These twisted gaslighters, my God.

This is the truth though: “This is why they decided to focus their inquiries on how the allegations against Meghan were handled, as opposed to the substance of the claims themselves…It seemed a neat-ish solution and one that was specifically designed to prevent the duchess and her legal team from having any say…” After the Oprah interview, BP was scared sh-tless about Meghan’s receipts, and they quickly realized that if they put any of the unhinged smears on the record, Meghan would start suing people and dropping receipts. They needed a way to continue to smear her without claiming anything specific, anything that could turn out to be verifiably false.

So, what is this Mail piece really? Is it William and Kate being genuinely too stupid to understand that they’re the ones being protected? Is it the last gasp of this f–king story, and one last time to blame Meghan for something? I don’t even know.

Photos courtesy of Instar.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their daughter on June 4, 2021. They announced her birth and her name, Lilibet Diana, on June 6th, a Sunday. The reaction from the British media was unhinged. The British media spent two solid weeks screaming, crying and throwing up over the fact that Harry named his daughter after his beloved grandmother, and that he used his grandmother’s family nickname. There were transatlantic arguments about whether the Queen had been informed of the child’s birth and name. There were articles written about how Harry “stole” the only thing the Queen had which was hers alone, her nickname. It was pretty bonkers. And the Daily Mail wants to keep the controversy rolling, more than a year later.

The Queen believed that Harry and Meghan would name their daughter Elizabeth – not Lilibet – after a phone call with the Duke of Sussex and was taken aback when their choice was revealed, a friend and interior designer to the royals has claimed.

Socialite Nicky Haslam, whose royal pals include everyone from the Duchess of Cornwall to Prince Michael of Kent, made the incredible claim on a recent podcast where he insisted the Sussexes should have named her Doria. Mr Haslam alleged that the Queen had been under the impression that the child, who was born last June, would be named Elizabeth — and was surprised to discover that the couple had, in fact, called her Lilibet.

He said: ‘I heard he [Harry] rang her and said: “We want to call our daughter after you, Granny”. She said: “How charming of you, thank you”, thinking that it would be Elizabeth. So they got the permission, but they didn’t say the name.’

Speaking on The Third Act podcast, Mr Haslam goes on to question why Harry and Meghan didn’t name the baby after the American former actress’s mother instead.

‘Why on earth didn’t they call that baby Doria?’ he asked, adding: ‘It’s the prettiest name ever.’

A spokesman for the Sussexes did not comment, more than three days after the Daily Mail asked them about Haslam’s claims.

Mystery has surrounded the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to call their daughter Lilibet since the BBC’s royal correspondent, Jonny Dymond, claimed last year that they did not ask the Queen if they could use her family pet name. In response, Prince Harry and Meghan launched an unprecedented legal attack on the BBC, saying the story was ‘false and defamatory’.

Their spokesman said: ‘The Duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement — in fact, his grandmother was the first family member he called. During that conversation, he shared their hope of naming their daughter Lilibet in her honour. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.’

Now, Mr Haslam, a friend of the royals has added to the mystery of what they did or didn’t say in their telephone conversation with the monarch.

[From The Daily Mail]

I always believed – and still believe – that Harry did tell the Queen privately about Lili’s birth and name, and that the Queen didn’t tell her aides. I think that was the issue – it wasn’t so much a transatlantic fight as much as the Queen aides throwing a hissy fit that the Queen didn’t inform them about what Harry said when he called her. The aides were not informed of Harry’s plan to name his daughter Lilibet, so those aides did what they always do, they used the Queen as a stand-in for themselves. “I can’t believe he didn’t tell the Queen” = I can’t believe we, the Queen’s aides, were kept in the dark.

As for Nicky Haslam suggesting that Lili should have been named after Doria instead… that message has always been clear as well, that no one in Salt Island wanted a mixed-race child to have a “royal” name. “They should have named the child after her Black grandmother instead!” That’s all it is.

Photos courtesy of Instar, Avalon Red, Backgrid and Misan Harriman.

What’s happening right now in the British media is what I thought would happen two weeks ago, right after the Sunday Times reported on the “buried” inquiry into the Duchess of Sussex “bullying staff” at Kensington Palace. Instead, the Daily Mail and other outlets were curiously silent for about ten days… almost as if they “buried” their unhinged stories until it was more convenient for Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. Now it’s more convenient, with the Windsors actively trying to distract from how excessive they are, how expensive they are to maintain, and how little the British public gets in return. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, suddenly the Mail has TONS of coverage about Meghan, the fakakta “bullying” story and how it’s Meghan’s fault that the Palace won’t release their report…?

First up, Dan Wootoon wrote a very special, unhinged screed about how Meghan clearly demanded that the Palace bury the bullying inquiry… to protect her future presidential run here in America. I sh-t you not. Wootton quotes a courtier, who told him in 2019 that there was a belief within the Palace that Meghan wanted to run for office because she is “obsessed with US politics.” Wootton is now convinced of the same thing, and he believes that Meghan’s eventual political campaign is why… the Palace decided to bury the bullying inquiry and not release the report? Wootton calls on the Palace to “release the findings” even though he fears “senior royals have put family relations ahead of what’s morally right by keeping the report forever secret and refusing to even detail what processes and policies have changed as a result of the complaints against Meghan.” Wootton also accuses Meghan of “emasculating” Harry because she spoke about how Harry is a feminist…

So, clearly, marching orders were handed out. Not just to Wootton, but to Richard Kay and Rebecca English as well. Given that Clarence House was openly briefing about Prince Charles spending time with Archie and Lilibet, and given Buckingham Palace’s express wish to dial down the Sussex drama, we’re left with one royal court – Kensington Palace. KP cannot let it go. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge cannot let it go. Their staff cannot let it go. Their media handlers at the Daily Mail cannot let it go. It’s also pretty clear that William, Kate and their staffers don’t even understand that they’re the ones being protected here, not Meghan.

Regarding the Richard Kay piece, you can read it here if you want. He just repeats all of last year’s reporting around the “bullying accusations,” refuses to acknowledge the fact that KP staffers rescinded their claims, and adds one new piece of information to the drama: before Harry married Meghan, he used to make coffee for KP staffers. When he married Meghan, he stopped. Seriously, imagine going to the Daily Mail and whining about that. My God.

Photos courtesy of Instar and Backgrid.

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The Duchess of Cambridge has not shown up in the first four days of Wimbledon. It’s like I’ve said for years now – as soon as Kate got what she wanted, the patronage of Wimbledon, she rarely makes appearances at the tennis matches. She successfully pushed out the Duke of Kent last year, and now Kate is the only active royal patron of Wimbledon. I believe the Queen is still a patron of record, but the Queen hates tennis and hasn’t been to Wimbledon in decades.

So in Kate’s absence and Queen Elizabeth’s absence, the true Queen of Salt Island came out to Wimbledon on Thursday. Carole Middleton arrived with her husband Mike, and they sat together on Center Court. It doesn’t look like they got seats in the Royal Box, which I’m sure irritates Carole to no end. I’m not entirely sure which matches they watched, but my guess is that they were there for Katie Boulter’s win over Karolina Pliskova (Boulter is a Brit) and probably Rafael Nadal’s match on Center Court too. Carole’s favorite, Roger Federer, is not playing Wimbledon this year.

For Thursday’s appearance, Carole wore a £150 jumpsuit from Boden. I don’t have an ID on the white jean jacket, but it offends me? I know the ‘80s revival is in full swing but that looks like a child’s jacket and white denim is tragique (in my opinion). Curiously, Carole wore a topaz necklace from Kiki McDonough for this appearance. Eagle-eyed British fashionistas noted that Kate wore the same necklace to actual royal events in years past. So did Carole borrow Kate’s necklace, or did Carole buy the same necklace for herself? If Carole is borrowing Kate’s clothing and jewelry for public outings, that’s kind of creepy?

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Julia Roberts & George Clooney reunited on-screen for Ticket to Paradise. This looks cheesy and I can’t believe so much of the plot is revealed? [LaineyGossip]
Uvalde cops are harassing & stalking the parents who criticized them following the Robb Elementary School shooting. [Jezebel]
Denver’s famous gay flamingos broke up. [Dlisted]
Homophobic arsonist almost sets himself on fire to burn a rainbow flag. [OMG Blog]
Elizabeth Olsen looks really cute here. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Why are we seeing so many photos from the Barbie movie? [Pajiba]
I like this “beaded napkin” on Eva Longoria? [GFY]
So many men just… hate women. [Buzzfeed]
It sounds like President Biden is worried about monkeypox. [Towleroad]
Charlie XCX leaks her new song. [Egotastic]

The one question I had following the fakakta Jubbly was: did Prince Charles spend any time at all with Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor? In the months before the Jubbly, Charles would occasionally throw himself pity parties in the media about how he had never met Lilibet and he hadn’t seen Archie since he was a baby. The fact that there were zero leaks about Charles meeting the kids was probably smart from the Sussex side, but I found the absence of information disconcerting too. It felt like that whole family was happy to let the world think that they snubbed two innocent children out of spite. Well, given that Charles is in the middle of a really awful newscycle, Clarence House openly briefed the media about Charles seeing his Sussex grandchildren.

Prince Charles had a “very emotional” meeting with his grandchildren Lilibet and Archie when the Sussexes returned to the UK, a royal source says. The heir and wife Camilla are said to have been “absolutely thrilled” to spend time with Harry, Meghan and their children during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

A senior royal source, at the briefing of Clarence House’s annual review, said it had been “wonderful” to have the Sussexes back in the UK at the start of June.

“It was fantastic to see them. It was wonderful to have them back in Britain,” the source said. “The prince and the duchess were absolutely thrilled to see them. The prince, of course, hasn’t seen his grandson Archie for a bit of time and so it was very, very, very special to have some time with him. He hadn’t met Lili, his granddaughter, and so to meet her was very emotional, a very, very wonderful thing.”

The royal source said of the Sussexes’ financial independence: “Great credit to them. They said they wanted to transition to financial independence and that has now been achieved.”

[From The Sun]

I wonder when it happened? Did Charles go over to Frogmore Cottage for an hour on Lilibet’s birthday? It’s possible. While Charles was seen later in the day on June 4th, at the Platinum Concert thing in London, he wasn’t seen in public that morning or early afternoon. I really do think there’s a good chance Harry and Meghan invited Charles and Camilla to Frogmore for Lili’s party. All of which means that there has been a thawing of relations between Harry and Charles, at least. I doubt that father and son have fully reconciled, but they’re making some moves. I still think that if Charles had made zero effort to see Archie and Lili, that would have been the end of the “thawing” too. Diana would be so f–king pissed at Charles.

As for Clarence House openly briefing the media about this… I hope Charles got Harry’s authorization or blessing. One of the stories I believed was that when Charles and Harry began talking again, Charles asked Harry not to say anything (good or bad) about him in the media. Harry kept his end of the bargain. Maybe Harry gave his father this one. And yes, this was Charles’s rainy-day story, for when he was in a bad newscycle. Once Clarence House says something about the Sussexes, no one will pay attention to Charles accepting suitcases full of cash.

Photos courtesy of Instar and Misan Harriman/The Sussexes.

Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace released their accounts on Wednesday, and all of the palace spokespeople were throwing out a lot of numbers, hoping that people wouldn’t focus on… any of it, really. The inability of the royals to travel like regular people or take commercial flights or public transportation is really infuriating. Don’t let individual event costs go unnoticed – even for something as stupid as “the royals attended the big No Time To Die premiere,” the burden on the British taxpayer was extraordinary.

The Queen will continue to tighten her belt as a post-pandemic credit crunch bites even at Buckingham Palace. Sir Michael Stevens, the monarch’s Keeper of the Privy Purse, said yesterday that while her annual review reflected ‘something of a return to normality’ for the royal household – with travel, investitures and garden parties starting up again – it also continued to be a ‘challenging’ time for the monarchy.

Expenditure was £102.4 million last year – a rise of 17 per cent – with the majority being siphoned off by the major ten-year-programme of building works going on at Buckingham Palace. There was a 41 per cent increase in spending to £54.6 million on the renovations alone. The Sovereign Grant – the pot of taxpayers’ money provided by the Government to cover the cost of the Queen’s official duties and residences – remained static at £86.3 million.

£32,000 was spent on travel for the royals to the premiere of Daniel Craig’s last James Bond movie No Time To Die in September 2021.

£31,769 was spent on the royal train being used to ferry the monarch to the G7 summit in Cornwall in June 2021.

£28,036 was spent on a charter flight for Charles and Camilla to visit the memorial service to the Battle of Britain in September.

The Queen’s trip to Scotland on the royal train for Royal Week in June 2021 cost more than £46,400, while William and Kate’s charter flight and helicopter journey for a visit to Scotland in May 2021 amounted to nearly £45,200.

Royal aides recognize that there is a “tension” between the royal family’s desire to cut carbon emissions and their environmental work — like William’s Earthshot Prize and Charles’ sustainability and climate control efforts.

“Travel is an important part of members of the Royal Family, whether it’s visiting communities or overseas travel at the requests of government. It is part of the core role of members of the Royal Family,” a senior royal source says. “We will take advantage of some of the things we have learned during the pandemic like virtual engagements, but there isn’t any substitute for the physical engagements.”

[From The Daily Mail & People]

Clarence House openly briefed the media about how Charles is “allergic” to using royal helicopters, perhaps emphasizing the fact that William and Kate use helicopters constantly, for work and for their private travel. Charles’s allergy to private transport doesn’t extend to private planes and chartered flights though, and clearly William and Kate never use public transport or even just… cars. And the rare moments they do use cars, it costs the taxpayer £32,000 for the royals to travel a few miles to a London movie premiere. WTF??

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.