I’m not any kind of monarchist or royal-defender, but I do give credit where it’s due: I actually thought King Charles’ US state visit went well. I was looking for reasons to criticize him, but the state visit was mostly a chaotic neutral – Charles’ speeches went well, he didn’t face massive protests, he was popular with the MAGA/DC crowd and unpopular in New York. That’s about it. What’s fascinating about the “Charles was fine” storyline is that monarchists and royal-defenders did not STFU about Prince Harry and Meghan the entire time Charles was in the US. The royal reporters traveling with Charles and Camilla couldn’t shut up about the Sussexes. The MAGAt commentators were posting photos of Harry and Meghan and trying to argue that they were “jealous” (the Sussexes live rent-free in MAGA peabrains as well). Harry and Meghan were a lot quieter than Prince William and Kate last week, so why were royalists so insistent on dragging the Sussexes into every conversation about the state visit? Is it because *the royalists* thought the state visit didn’t go well? Is it because the Sussexes are the “royals” everyone wants to gossip about?

Speaking of, Tom Sykes was part of the traveling royal press corps too (of course he was) and he spent all of last week talking about… Harry and Meghan, of course. Not just in his Substack, but also in lunches with American magazine editors. Behold, Sykes’ big exclusive, “Miserable Meghan and Unhappy Harry’s Desperation and Despair Related to Me Over Lunch in New York.”

I did promise that, alongside the TV hits and podcast appearances, before I left, I’d also be working on a few other things. And one of them was a very interesting lunch with Dan Wakeford. Wakeford, a former editor of Us Weekly and People — and once a key ally of Harry and Meghan — sat down with me for a delicious late lunch at Pastis in the West Village and spilled everything JUST HOURS AGO.

Dan, as you’ll know has been close to the Sussex operation at various times in his career. Both magazines he edited ran stories that were sympathetic to the Sussexes when he was editor.

One was the famous People story, built around five friends defending Meghan against allegations that she was mean, and then when he moved to Us Weekly there was a similar kind of piece when she was accused of being a workplace bully, with interviews from former and current staff members saying she was a good boss, et cetera.

Dan now runs an independent newsletter on Beehiiv, Celebrity Intelligence, and if you’re interested in brainy celebrity news, it is well worth the humble $7 monthly subscription. Anyway, as I mentioned I was going to earlier in the week, I had lunch with Dan before I left, and he told me ALL the gossip, some of which he wasn’t able to put in the story. Which is not to say that there is not still PLENTY to feast on in the story.

The most explosive line, I think, comes from a quote from a source in their “orbit” saying they are “wildly unhappy.”

There is also forensic detail about what is going wrong commercially for the couple, and some of the markers of it.

Wakeford reports that the Sussex operation has been gutted. Staff have apparently been reduced from 16 full-time employees to five. So now they have a chief of staff each, a charity consultant, two TV executives, a U.K. press representative, and in the U.S. a press agency, Sunshine Sachs.

Wakeford also says Meghan is much more careful about minding the pennies, having been raised in a world where she was used to having to fend for herself, whereas Harry, he says, lacks “basic awareness of what things cost,” as the legacy of having been brought up in the palace and never having to pay a bill himself.

He says they want completely different things, and has some very interesting detail in there, with which I would totally concur, about Harry being unhappy with the life he has right now. He misses his family, his friends and his former existence in the U.K.

Dan says he would, in an ideal world, move to Montana, live modestly, and pursue work on his own terms. It’s the first time I have heard the word Montana in connection with Harry, but I have been told that he is not remotely enamoured with the prospect of spending the rest of his life in California, and that he certainly does not want things to continue as they are.

Then there is some interesting material about what Meghan wants, and what she doesn’t want.

Wait for this as well: Dan has an interesting line saying that her departure from the royal family was catalyzed by the realization that they would ultimately be paid by Prince William. His source says that when she realized William was going to be in charge of how much cash they would be getting, she wanted out. A source in the Sussex camp denied that allegation.

[From The Royalist Substack]

“Meghan didn’t want to be tied financially to her brother-in-law” sounds like the most accurate piece of gossip in this piece. The thought being that when QEII passed, William would become Prince of Wales and then HE would determine how the Sussexes and their office was financed. The problem with that is… in 2019, Harry and Meghan already got halfway out of that particular system. They finally got their own office, in Buckingham Palace, and I believe they were funded partially by QEII and then-Prince Charles. But here’s the thing – when Charles was PoW, he didn’t fund HIS siblings. His siblings were funded by QEII, which is what would have happened with the Sussexes if they had stayed – King Charles would have “funded” their separate office. Or at least that’s how it would have been organized traditionally. I don’t doubt that William had his own ideas about controlling Harry and Meghan financially though. God, I’m so glad H&M noped out of there.

As for the other stuff… Montana! Gutted operations! Wildly unhappy! This is why I brought up Charles’ state visit in the beginning of this story – if royal reporters were convinced that Charles, Camilla, William and Kate were getting the job done, they would not be spinning deranger fan-fic in the middle of the state visit. They can’t even make up their mind – is Harry desperate to return to the UK, or is desperate to live in a Unabomber-shed in Montana? Which is it?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

You know how the Prince and Princess of Wales organize “photoshoots” for their family photos, and they spend months recycling through one day’s photos for every major holiday and birthday? Well, Prince William and Kate are trying to be less obvious about it, finally. They’re encouraging the kids to wear different clothes for different photo set-ups. Costume changes for everybody! All of which to say, I’m certain that Princess Charlotte’s 11th birthday photo and video were taken/filmed at the same time as Louis’s birthday shoot, not to mention that weird “anniversary photo” released last week. Prince George’s 13th birthday photo will likely be from the same Cornwall beach vacation over Easter too.

So, yes, this is Charlotte’s 11th birthday portrait. I’ve already seen some criticism of Will and Kate for releasing new portraits of their kids, but I’ve always been sort of fine with it. They’re just nice birthday photos, it’s not that deep. There are a million other reasons to criticize Will and Kate. I do think the which-kid-looks-like-which-royal discourse is always going to be heated, especially since the kids are growing into their faces these days. For the record, I think Charlotte looks the most like William, and she also looks like Princess Margaret’s daughter Sarah Chatto. Louis is the one who looks like Kate. George also looks more like a Middleton to me. Charlotte’s hair is so long these days! That’s probably why Kate insists on wearing that too-long doll wig, right?

Another reason why I believe these are all from the same photoshoot? Charlotte’s blue nail polish! She had the same blue manicure in her parents’ anniversary pic. It’s crazy how nail polish is allowed these days, because I remember when a certain duchess wore dark polish and royalists were still screaming about it years after the fact.

Last thing – Will and Kate also announced the name of their second dog: Otto. I assume Otto is Orla’s son, part of Orla’s litter of four puppies last year. We heard that the Keens kept one of the cocker spaniel puppies, so there you go.

Welcome to the family, Otto! 1 today pic.twitter.com/kOOXV1rJW6

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) May 1, 2026

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales)

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.

If you’re a longtime Daily Mail-reader or longtime Mail-analyst, you are familiar with the newspaper’s Ephraim Hardcastle column. The column is written by Mail staffers using the Hardcastle name to protect their sources and drop sometimes-delicious pieces of gossip. What’s interesting about the Hardcastle column is that the Mail stopped publishing it online last year. Nowadays, if you want the real royal dirt, you have to buy a print copy. Unless, of course, someone posts a photo of a juicy piece of gossip in the newspaper. Apparently, Prince William absolutely refused to go to Jamaica after the island was hit by Hurricane Melissa last October.

After his trump in the US, the King departs alone to Bermuda, a trip that hasn’t gone down well in Jamaica. Six months after being devastated by Hurricane Melissa, islanders are still awaiting a royal visit. By contrast, when Hurricane Irma crashed into Antigua in 2017, the King, representing his mother, was on the ground within weeks.

A mole reports that William had been consulted about heading to Kingston on his father’s behalf but “wasn’t inclined” to make the trip. It seems the scars of his 2022 visit, marred by protests, PR missteps and PM Andrew Holness telling him and Kate that the nation would remove the monarchy “in short order,” run deep.

[Transcribed from The Mail’s Hardcastle column, via Twitter]

A similar story emerged last year, where Charles basically had to order William to attend Pope Francis’s funeral, and William tried to get out of it because of… football. Aston Villa. Alongside that, we also heard that William apparently told the Foreign Office that they only get to ask him to make one trip a year, and they used up that “ask” with his (ridiculous) Saudi Arabia trip this year. Lazy, lazy, lazy. My god.

In addition to the (racist, colonialist) ghosts of the 2022 Caribbean Flop Tour, there’s another reason why William is mad about Jamaica – in 2024, Harry and Meghan flew to Jamaica for a movie premiere, and they were greeted warmly by Andrew Holness on the red carpet. The Mail should remember that, since they screamed and cried about it for weeks.

Photos courtesy of Instar, Backgrid, Cover Images.

It will be interesting to see how this year’s Met Gala plays out, especially with Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez sponsoring the event and acting as co-chairs. If I’m being honest, I doubt that the Sanchez-Bezos presence will cause much of a stir, nor do I think that many celebrities will care one way or the other. I saw the guest list for the Bezos wedding last year – A-listers showed up because they wanted to kiss-up to one of the richest men in the world and his tacky bride. Still, for Anna Wintour to give her blessing to the Bezoses, they needed to write a big check. An eight-figure check.

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos paid at least $10 million to sponsor the Met Gala Monday night, Page Six can reveal. This puts the billionaire couple, who will sit with close pals including Kris Jenner at the party, firmly in Anna Wintour’s good graces.

They are also honorary co-chairs of fashion’s biggest night, alongside Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Wintour herself — the former Vogue editor who uses the starry annual event to raise money for the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“The Bezoses are where the American dream is at right now for status, wealth and style,” former Vogue editor William Norwich told Page Six. “They display conspicuous consumption [and] they have the ‘AWOK’ — the Anna Wintour OK.”

But for many in the fashion crowd, Wintour’s courting of America’s new “bizarro” royalty — as one insider dubbed the Bezoses — who this week celebrated Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla at a state dinner at the White House, where Sanchez Bezoz wore 200 carats of emeralds – goes against what the Met Gala stands for.

“I’m heartbroken,” admitted a frequent Met Gala guest and fashion insider. “It’s being able to buy yourself into [the good graces of] Anna and the Met.”

Wintour’s eyes, it seem, are on the bottom line: Last year, she raised $31 million, the biggest gross in the event’s 77-year history. Norwich said that 76-year-old Wintour — who remains Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of Vogue after handing over the day-to-day reins of the fashion bible to Chloe Malle earlier this year — would have first approached the Bezoses about financing the gala at least two years ago, which the fashion insider agreed with. Despite this, other sources told us Wintour reached out after the Bezos wedding to make the request.

Sources told Page Six that Bezos paid at least $10 million to sponsor the ball, which this year has the theme of “Costume Art” and has the Bezos name plastered all over the invites. In fact, it could well be up to $20 million, said another source in the know.

[From Page Six]

My guess is that the total cost was probably $20 million or higher. I doubt that Wintour would have signed off on “sponsoring the Met Gala,” her baby, for anything less than $20 million. And yes, Jeff and Lauren are being completely open about what they’re doing too – they’re buying access and they’re buying the cultural cachet of the gala. Jeff wants his tacky wife to be embraced by the A-list fashionistas and he’s willing to spend a lot of money to make it happen.

Interestingly enough, the NYT had a fascinating story late last week about how the gala might end at some point, or significantly change. The reason? Because for the past decade, the Costume Institute has been quietly funneling gala revenues into a nest-egg “endowment” which could easily fund the Costume Institute’s exhibitions and operations for years to come. Per the NYT: “By 2030 — possibly as soon as 2028 — the Costume Institute will have saved enough of a nest egg to potentially support its own basic operations for the foreseeable future, no matter what happens in the greater museum economy or with the gala itself.” The Costume Institute’s director told the Times that the goal is to not be reliant on Met Gala revenues forever, especially after they had to cancel the gala during the pandemic. He called the gala “not sustainable.” I get all of that… but why not continue throwing the gala and just use the money for other causes, perhaps?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

The backstory on Office Romance is amazing – Brett Goldstein has had a massive crush on Jennifer Lopez for years, so he cowrote a rom-com script where they could star together and she said yes! It looks like they have tons of chemistry too. [LaineyGossip]
Grace Gummer wore something… unexpected. [RCFA]
Britney Spears was formally charged with a DUI. [Hollywood Life]
Why isn’t Simon Baker in The Devil Wears Prada 2?? [Pajiba]
Ziwe interviews Ramy Youssef. [OMG Blog]
Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen were out & about this week. [Just Jared]
Goldie Hawn slept through her Oscar win. [Seriously OMG]
For your Emmy consideration: Love Story. [Go Fug Yourself]
Young people, stop with this crap. [Starcasm]
NACHO Trump malfunctions. [Buzzfeed]

Given the Prince and Princess of Wales’s efforts to overshadow King Charles and Camilla’s US state visit this week, there’s been precious little commentary about it. I think that’s because most of the royal reporters were part of the traveling press corps in the US with Charles & Cam – they couldn’t do two things at once. So it’s left to the B-team royal commentators to speak the truth and question what the hell William and Kate were doing this week. One Daily Mail columnist, Claudia Connell, picked apart William and Kate’s bizarre anniversary photo in a piece called, “Why this photo of Kate, William and their children makes me uncomfortable.” LOL. Some highlights:

The weird staging: There was Kate, looking like a glossy Boden mum in her Breton top and pristine white jeans, surrounded by her barefoot family and two spaniels. It’s a previously unseen photograph taken on a family break to Cornwall. There’s William with a golden tan, showing off his muscular thighs; cheeky Louis is linking fingers with his mum, while Charlotte is laughing and showing off her trendy blue-painted fingernails. Only George looks uncomfortable and unsmiling, a quizzical look on his face as if it ask ‘how much longer have we got to stay like this for?’ And if George was wondering that, who could blame him?

It’s certainly not a spontaneous image: It was taken by Matt Porteous, a professional photographer and favourite with the Wales family, and looks to be the result of a carefully thought-out and highly stylised shoot. The family’s clothes are all in complementary colours and every one looks as though they have been told to point their legs one way and look in a certain direction. In addition, the picture is taken from above. Was Porteous in a tree? (He has actually photographed the family in a tree before.) Did he have a stepladder with him perhaps? Or maybe he utilised a drone to capture the shot? Whatever the story, it certainly reveals that a great deal of time, effort and planning went into what is actually a tightly controlled ‘holiday pic’.

Why the discomfort? The reason for my discomfort is that it’s all a bit showbiz and buys into the damaging world of social media perfection. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see pictures of the couple in a messy house surrounded by muddy dogs and sulky siblings arguing with one another, just something a little more honest. Professional portraits that look like professional portraits? Fine. Professional portraits dressed up to look like relaxed, informal holiday snaps? No.

The Waleses are overdoing the glossy-family pics: A keen amateur photographer, Kate has previously taken many of the family portraits released to the media to mark family occasions. However, following the debacle in March 2024 when she had to admit to ‘editing’ a Mother’s Day picture taken by Prince William, I wonder if she’s decided that it’s safer to rely on the professionals. If so, it’s a shame because since then, we’ve been treated to a glut of glamorous, Hollywood-style photos and videos of Kate and her family, the videos often accompanied by some decidedly woo-woo voiceovers.

That horrible 2024 video: In September 2024 to celebrate the end of her cancer treatment, Kate released a three-minute video via the family’s official social media channels. The content was a complete departure for them in that it was truly personal and intimate. Filmed by videographer Will Warr, it showed the Wales family in Norfolk enjoying picnics, a game of cards and days out on the beach – there was even some decidedly fruity footage of Kate and William rolling around in the sand dunes. I say! It went down a storm and so far has garnered 2.1million views on YouTube and 2.4million likes on their official Instagram page. Ever since then, the Princess has taken to releasing nature-inspired videos to mark the arrival of each new season. I hate to say it, but it’s all become a bit cringey and ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ for my liking.

Kate is copying Meghan!! My other issue with this type of picture and video is that it’s all a little bit ‘Meghan’. It’s the sort of thing we expect from a Californian former lifestyle blogger fond of using phrases about ‘living authentically’, ‘speaking my truth’ and ‘thriving not surviving’. Harry and Meghan have a good eight years of form when it comes to these types of barefoot-on-the-beach, love-heart-drawn-in-the-sand snaps and oh how we’ve mocked them for it, too. It would be unfortunate if Kate and William continued down this path. At times it’s starting to feel like they’re one small step away from writing inspirational quotes on bananas. We love Kate and William because they’re not Meghan and Harry.

The bare feet: When Meghan revealed that, eight years ago, she had turned up barefoot for dinner at Kate and William’s Kensington Palace apartment and it hadn’t gone down well, most of us Brits thought: ‘Quite right too, put some shoes on woman!’ Today, I feel like I’ve seen enough of the Waleses’ bare feet to last me a lifetime.

Bring back cold, detached royalty: I understand that the Royal Family need to adapt to the times and update their way of communicating with the public, but surely there’s a limit? There are a million influencers we can follow if we want staged perfection. I want my royals to rise above it all and be detached. It’s hard to imagine no-nonsense Princess Anne rolling around on a picnic rug in the sand dunes.

[From The Daily Mail]

This actually makes me feel sorry for Kate in a weird way, because she’s never going to be good enough. That’s the root of it too. She has no sense of self, which is why she dresses like other women in her orbit and why she obsessively watches and copies everything Meghan does and wears. That’s why she “edits” family photos and commissions these weird “commercials” and “family photoshoots” to publicly perform a wholesome-family image. Anyway, it’s amazing that the more William and Kate try to copy the Sussex aesthetic, the more the royalists f–king hate it.

Update: I didn’t even catch that this woman lied about Meghan’s bare feet. According to Prince Harry’s Spare, Meghan was barefoot in Nottingham Cottage, when she made dinner for William and Kate for the first time. Meghan didn’t show up barefoot at Will and Kate’s KP apartment.

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace and Cover Images.

In the VENN diagram of royalists, MAGA Americans, ultra-conservative British political commentators and tabloid hacks, there’s a TON of overlap. You would think that all of those groups would be pleased as punch with King Charles and Camilla’s “successful” US state visit. The king and queen did not face significant protests, the Jeffrey Epstein issue was a relatively minor blip, the state dinner was tacky AF but there was no major incident, and Donald and Melania Trump didn’t malfunction too badly. Just call it a win and keep it moving, right? So tell me why that overlapping VENN diagram has spent the past 24 hours glitching out about Prince Harry and Meghan? Why are British ultra-conservative commentators huffing about “this shows why Harry was wrong to leave” and “Meghan is so jealous she couldn’t be part of this!” Why is today’s Daily Mail cover focused on what Donald Trump said about Harry and Meghan? It’s true- Robert Hardman got a private audience with Trump in the Oval Office, and the Mail turned Trump’s offhand comment about Harry and Meghan into their big headline. Pitiful.

It’s late in the day and I am the last visitor on the President’s schedule. But he is in exuberant form, clearly buoyed by the success of this week’s state visit of the King and Queen who will be saying farewell in the morning. ‘We’ve done a good job with the King, right?’ he says. I reply that the British team seem overjoyed by the success of this trip.

‘He’s a great guy, he really is,’ he says, adding warm tributes to the Prince and Princess of Wales. He is less complimentary about the Sussexes.

… Talk turns to his fondness for his royal visitors and he checks his schedule for the official departure the following day when the King and Queen will head on to Virginia and thence back over the Atlantic.

‘It’s been unbelievable,’ he reflects, before asking after the Prince and Princess of Wales.

‘William, he’ll be a good King, won’t he?’ he says. ‘He’s very nice. A great guy. I like him.’

I observe that one of the Prince’s key priorities is not just his role as heir to the Throne but that of ensuring the next royal generation want to embrace their destiny. ‘The kids are good kids, right?’ he nods.

‘So can Harry make a comeback?’ he asks. I say that any return to the royal fold is looking highly unlikely.

‘Too many things, I guess,’ he sighs. ‘That wife of his. Boy, what she’s done to that guy.’

I say that the couple were clearly unhappy with the royal hierarchy. ‘I guess she got blocked out by William’s wife,’ the President continued, as he reflected on the ‘perfect’ performance of the Princess of Wales.

‘How’s she doing? She’s so great. She was sick, people said crazy things about her and she was so brave.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I don’t like to admit this, but every now and then, Trump’s dementia-addled mind accidentally spits out one truth in a cavalcade of lies and racism. “I guess she got blocked out by William’s wife.” Woof. Kate, like Camilla, is another snake in the grass and even dipsh-t Trump knows that. Beyond that, Trump just enjoys royal gossip. He’s always been into royal gossip – you should hear what he used to say about Charles and Diana in the 1990s. Anyway, curious that the Mail put “That wife of his” on their cover and not Trump praising The Other Brother.

The King had a wonderful visit to the US, Trump was on best behaviour. The author of this piece, Robert Hardman, has just received a ringing endorsement for his book from Trump.

That book, incidentally, celebrates Elizabeth II.

But this is their headline.

Utterly deranged. pic.twitter.com/DCdC88x1iv

— Petina Gappah (@VascoDaGappah) May 1, 2026

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Back in 2023, in the lead up to King Charles’ coronation, the British and American media were obsessed with the gossip around Prince Harry and Meghan’s possible attendance. For MONTHS there was a back-and-forth between the Sussex camp and the palace about invitations and who was actually invited and whether Charles really wanted them there. At one point, some royal commentator admitted the obvious, which was that the palace was parlaying the global interest in all things Sussex to hype the coronation. I fear something similar happened this week, with Charles and Camilla’s US state visit. While Charles has had good moments, there’s been a suspicious amount of mainstream conversation about “why isn’t Charles visiting the Sussexes” and “what are the Sussexes doing during the state visit?” Well, wouldn’t you know, someone told Rob Shuter that the Sussexes refused to watch Charles’ address to Congress on Tuesday. Nice way to extend the one big positive moment for Charles, I guess.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle did not watch King Charles’s speech live — and insiders say they did not watch it later either. No livestream in Montecito. No replay behind closed doors. No private gesture of respect after the fact. They did not tune in. At all.

“They didn’t watch it. Not live, not later, not at all,” one insider says. “Once upon a time, that would have been unthinkable. Now it makes the point for them.”

And that point was clear: the distance is no longer symbolic. It is real. Harry and Meghan have also not spoken to King Charles while he is in the USA and, despite past efforts to repair the rupture, insiders say there are no plans for contact and no expectation of a meeting.

“There is no relationship right now,” one source says. “No calls. No messages. No outreach. No backchannel. It has gone completely cold.”

According to insiders, whatever fragile progress had once been made collapsed after Harry and Meghan’s recent Australia trip, which reignited palace tensions and hardened positions on both sides.

“That trip was the final break,” a source tells us. “The palace saw it as confirmation they are fully out. Harry and Meghan saw it as proof they no longer need the institution.”

That is now the divide — and it is wider than ever. Sources say Harry and Meghan no longer believe they need the King’s approval, the palace’s protection or the family’s blessing to move forward.

“They are done looking back,” one insider says. “They do not need Charles. They do not need the palace. They do not need permission. They’ve moved on.”

And insiders insist not watching the King was not an oversight. It was intentional.

“This was deliberate,” the source says. “Not watching was the message. The silence was the statement.”

[From Rob Shuter’s Substack]

If Harry and Meghan really did avoid watching Charles’ speech, it’s a real shame because Charles backed up Harry’s previous statements completely, especially about NATO, Ukraine and the need for stronger American leadership. There are so many people trying to make “Charles & Harry are on the outs again” happen, it’s like they didn’t actually listen to Charles’ speech themselves. Far from creating more distance from Harry, Charles sounded like his speech was cowritten BY Harry. As for the rest of it… I actually believe that Harry and Meghan know that they don’t need the palace nor do they need permission to do anything. I think they realized that five-plus years ago. Whether the palace understands that the Sussexes don’t need their permission is another thing altogether. In any case, Charles is certainly making some interesting moves these days.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

King Charles and Queen Camilla were back in the DMV on Thursday, after spending all of Wednesday in New York. They attended some kind of party in Virginia – and met VA’s Democratic governor Abigail Spanberger – and Charles visited the Shenandoah National Park while Camilla visited a horse ranch. At some point, they dropped by the White House for a formal goodbye with Donald and Melania Trump, which are the photos in this post. Note the drip for Charles and Camilla – Charles wore his full medal collection, while Camilla wore a brooch from Tiffany & Co. Cam’s brooch was actually a gift from the Trumps, given to her last year.

When Buckingham Palace formally announced the state visit a few weeks ago, they also announced that Charles and Camilla would tack on a trip to Bermuda following their four days in the US. Well… Camilla decided she had enough. She flew back to the UK after the US leg of the trip, and Charles is already in Bermuda, looking perky. Interesting, innit?? While Charles looked dead-tired on the second day of the US state visit, he’s perked up considerably in the last half of the week. Which leads me into this Royalist Substack piece, “Four Days In, How Come Charles Still Looks So Fresh?”

So, King Charles has left the United States after his four-day state visit, looking every bit as fresh as he looked when he arrived at Joint Base Andrews on Monday. That’s four days of making speeches, shaking hands, and generally being royal. The 77-year-old will be donning his Bermuda shorts now for his first trip as monarch to an overseas British territory.

His secret? Apart, of course, from the sheer joy of being in Washington and New York in the spring sunshine and getting the chance to hang out with Donald and Melania Trump?

It seems like an experimental cancer-fighting cocktail has worked wonders.

I don’t know the precise details, but as Tom Sykes revealed on the latest Daily Beast Podcast, Charles has been receiving treatment with an immunotherapy-RNA combination for the cancer he’s been battling for the last couple of years. I think that means some kind of checkpoint-inhibitor immunotherapy treatment combined with an RNA-based cancer vaccine, delivered in a weekly injection, although y’all can Google as well as I can.

Tom said: “I have been told, by someone who knows, that they are incredibly impressed at how the treatment has worked, and there is now a great deal of optimism—amongst the Palace, amongst his family, amongst his circle—that the king can carry on for many, many years hence.

“And, of course, when people talk about this, they always say it with the proviso ‘But, of course, with cancer things can change very, very quickly.’ But I think there’s no denying that there is a massive sense of optimism now that maybe we have come through what looked like an existential storm.”

In public appearances over the past couple of years, Charles has put on a good show. Of course he has; he learned from the best in the business. But there’s no denying that he’s looked exhausted at times, like any cancer patient in his seventies would.

On this week’s evidence, however, he is back. His looked like it might be a short reign, tacked on almost as an afterthought to his mother’s, but that’s no longer the case. And the interesting thing is how that changes the dynamic in the familial psychodrama that is the Windsors. Welcome back!

[From The Royalist Substack]

While I’m loath to give Tom Sykes credit for any insider knowledge, this would make sense. We’ve heard rumors for two years now that Charles isn’t going through traditional chemotherapy, and we’ve also heard rumors that Charles wanted a more experimental therapy. Since the pandemic, we’ve heard a lot about the advances in RNA-based cancer treatments as well. I also think a lot of the pro-William royalists have been thrown for a loop because William has been rage-briefing about how “he’ll be king soon” and now it’s looking like Charles will live into his 80s (at the very least).

One final indignity for the king and queen – an upside-down Union Jack when they visited Arlington.

Rather a diplomatic gaff by the Americans here.
The Union flag is upside down at the Arlington Cemetery event. pic.twitter.com/OyPCJy1Ot2

— Mark Stone (@Stone_SkyNews) April 30, 2026

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden was included in the traveling press corps attached to King Charles and Camilla’s US state visit. Eden was super-excited to gossip with the dregs of MAGA society, and of course he happily repeats that gossip in his Mail column this week. Magically, Eden heard second-hand that Donald Trump is not a fan of Prince Harry! The lukewarm scandal of it all! Eden slipped in a weird aside about Charles’ address to Congress – that Charles, like Prince Harry, got advice from Britain’s Foreign Secretary on his speech. Hm. Eden also hypes up the Trump family’s interest in the Prince and Princess of Wales, like that’s a good thing or a proud moment for the Keens.

The greatest honour accorded to the King was perhaps the opportunity to make a joint address to the two houses of Congress. When I went on a tour of the Capitol building before their Majesties arrived, our guide was keen to stress how unusual such an invitation was.

Only 47 foreign leaders have addressed a joint meeting of the Congress before this week. The King’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was the only previous British monarch accorded this honour.
The King used the address to make a surprisingly political speech, stating, for example, that executive power must be subject to checks and balances. He stood up for Nato, despite Trump’s sharp criticisms of the Alliance, begged for Ukraine to be protected and highlighted the importance of the environment.

It is striking how closely aligned Charles was with his younger son, the Duke of Sussex, who had expressed very similar views during a visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, last week. I can disclose that both the King and Prince Harry had received advice from Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, before their respective trips. It is all the more interesting given that Cooper is among those backing the duke’s planned return to public life in Britain – or Project Thaw, as his supporters call it.

As I predicted last week, the King has chosen not to meet Harry and Meghan during his three-day tour. This will hardly have disappointed Trump, who is no great admirer of the California-based couple. During my stay here, I learned of an interesting comment he made to a British visitor when the conversation turned to Harry: ‘Can you take him back?’ asked Trump.

Harry’s brother is another matter, of course. While the president has been delighted to host the King and Queen, he would be even more pleased were the Prince and Princess of Wales to visit the White House. Indeed, I can reveal that the Trumps have now invited Prince William and Catherine to travel to America.

‘Melania wants Catherine, in particular, to come,’ says a US source. ‘She admires her greatly and would love her to visit.’

The First Lady’s enthusiasm is shared by many of the Americans I spoke in the past few days. While they are respectful of the King and Queen, they are more excited about William and Catherine. And when it comes to a visit, what better timing could there be than July 4 – and the biggest Independence Day celebrations in 250 years?

[From The Daily Mail]

At some point, the royalists are going to understand that “Trump’s obsession with British royals” is not a flex. They haven’t realized it yet though, and so Prince William and Kate are going to be shuffled off to America in the sweaty-asscrack heat of July to keen and preen for the Trumps. Melania and Kate will have another half-assed photo-op with some children and jazz hands will flail and it will all be some catastrophic embarrassment in the months and years that follow. Oh well – at least Eden acknowledged that Charles and Harry’s speeches sounded similar. Wonders never cease.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Something crazy to remember: Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie have daughters the same age, and their daughters are both graduating from college in the next few months. Zahara Jolie will graduate from Spelman College, and Apple Martin will graduate from Vanderbilt. Both Zahara and Apple have made red carpet appearances with their moms, but Apple is the one who already scored modeling contracts. Apple is also a regular at fashion shows too. Well, I’m sure Zahara’s post-college plans probably involve humanitarian work and/or grad school. Apple’s post-college plans involve nepo-babying her way to stardom! Apparently, Apple has already signed with CAA, the same agency which represents her mom.

Apple Martin, daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, hasn’t even graduated from college, but already has a powerhouse Hollywood agent.

Martin, who is expected to earn her degree from Vanderbilt University this spring, is now being repped by the A-list agency, CAA, according to a British entertainment newsletter… the same place that reps her mother.

Apple, who is in high demand due to her recent modeling gigs for SelfPortrait and The Gap, wants to turn her attention to acting later this year, but previously turned down more modeling or acting work to finish her education, something that her mother insisted on.

“Gwyneth has always wished she finished college,” a friend said.

Like her daughter Apple, Gwyneth also had a big agent in her youth due to familial connections: Her mother, Blythe Danner, was an actress, and her father, Bruce Paltrow, was a director. However, Paltrow (and, according to friends, her daughter) always had the acting chops to back up the nepo-connections.

[From NewsNation]

While it’s rare for me to give Gwyneth props for anything, she really encouraged Apple to go to college and finish her degree, and that’s a good thing. Think about how easy it would have been for Gwyneth to do what Cindy Crawford did to Kaia Gerber: basically push her teenage daughter into the fashion world before she was anywhere near ready. I would argue that Gwyneth sort of has the same philosophy as many parents: “You can do whatever you want and pursue whatever you want…once you get your degree.” College is non-negotiable. So, I feel similarly – Apple pursuing a career in acting and modeling in her early 20s, after getting a B.A., is pretty much the best way to do the nepo-baby thing.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

It’s certainly interesting that there’s a concerted effort to push a “thank god for Queen Camilla” narrative this week. It’s coming across like Camilla is begging for validation and praise, like her office is commissioning her press allies to write about how “well” she performed during the US state visit. As I said yesterday, “the hyperventilating praise of Camilla comes across as something else entirely – neediness, desperation, ‘please clap.’” Well, the Telegraph’s Rowan Pelling wrote a whole-ass column in praise of Camilla’s beady eyes, wrinkles and ability to soothe her man-baby husband’s temper tantrums. I’m not even joking. Pelling calls her the “unsung hero” of the state visit. Girl…

Beady eyes: There’s a particular way British shires’ women of a certain age and type walk when performing the day’s duties. Their shoulders are squared and tensed, as if approaching a fence while out hunting; their heads are tilted forward, with legs slightly stiff but purposeful. Their beady eyes are constantly scanning for rabbits in the lettuce patch, an unruly terrier or a farmer’s absconded sheep. My mother-in-law was of this magnificent ilk and so, I observed, is Queen Camilla as I watched her walk across the White House lawn with Melania Trump. They dutifully trod a couple of footsteps behind their menfolk, both dressed like mother-of-the-bride at a stiflingly formal wedding, condemned to the largely silent role of consort.

Camilla never wanted to be queen, remember! Melania, you trust, will one day spring free from the gilded cage of being First Lady. No such salvation awaits Camilla, who is trapped in ermine-lined fetters for life when it’s clear she’d much rather be taking a brisk stroll through bluebell woods, or curled up with a novel. But we should all be grateful she chose love after the Waleses’ ill-fated marriage ended (not to minimise her role in that heartbreak, but there’s surely some statute of limitations on very human failings), because it’s clear that behind King Charles III’s ease, bonhomie and skilled diplomacy there’s one woman working hard to keep him happy.

Camilla soothes Charles’ tantrums: It’s hardly a secret within Buckingham Palace that Camilla has a unique ability to transform a sometimes tricky, petulant man (remember the leaking ink-pen incident at Hillsborough Castle: “I can’t bear this bloody thing… what they do every stinking time”) into a calmer, better-regulated one. When you watch a good-humoured, funny, sage Charles III charm the cynics of Washington, you can be sure his consort is quietly working overtime behind the scenes to ensure he has the exact conditions (organic food, vitamins, sleep, moments for quiet reflection and private jokes) to put his best Windsor foot forward. A score of aides and diplomats helped the King hone his splendid speech to Congress, but only one person gave him the emotional security to deliver it like a properly contented, balanced human being.

The price of not being a fashionista: But there’s a price to be paid for travelling that distinct step behind your spouse. The very least of it is becoming discussed as a clothes horse, rather than a witty, well-read woman. Suddenly, the only thing that matters is which designer you’re wearing and the subtle messages semaphored by your brooch.

Camilla’s wrinkles: Added to all this, whenever I saw Camilla standing or sitting next to Melania, whose marble-smooth, Sphynx-like beauty speaks of the aesthetic practitioner’s skilled hand, I was proud that our 78-year-old Queen looked stylish, glowing but lined. Especially in that cerise gown for the state banquet, adorned by that huge diamond-and-amethyst necklace. Every wrinkle speaks of a joy-filled past, filled with ciggies, sex and champagne. Those of us who regard ourselves as the King’s loyal subjects, Cavaliers not Roundheads, would not have it any other way.

[From The Telegraph]

My one compliment to Camilla is that I also like her wrinkles. She’s a woman in her 70s and she looks like it and that’s a good thing. What’s crazy is that I do think Camilla has had some cosmetic procedures, but she didn’t go overboard and that’s also a good thing. As for her beady eyes… LMAO!!! The argument that Camilla never wanted to be queen and/or that Camilla would prefer to be trotting around the English countryside… well, it’s interesting. Camilla’s goals, back in the 1980s and ‘90s, were to ruin Charles’ marriage and destroy Diana. After Diana’s death, Camilla absolutely wanted to be queen. She campaigned for it, privately and publicly. She made alliances with the dregs of the British press. She’s spent decades commissioning these needy, pro-Camilla pieces. And even with all of that, even with all of the emotional-support polls, no one really gives a sh-t. She’s not loved or supported or respected, really.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.