Battle of the TV princes
William and Harry are changing the royal channel and turning TV hosts – so who will rule the airways?
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William and Harry’s TV title fight
As William makes his TV hosting debut on the BBC, Kerry takes a look at the princes’ TV plans for The Sunday Telegraph this week. Read the full piece here.
The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet sees William scaling mountains, climbing to the top of a wind turbine and walking around Orkney. But as he transitions from a reluctant TV interviewee to star, he’s also inevitably going head-to-head with his brother. Here’s what to expect from TV Cambridge vs TV Sussex.
William’s environmental objective: William has thrown his former TV-caution to the wind farm, for the sake of the planet. His five-part series The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet, sees the prince speak to finalists of the eco-competition he launched late last year with the Royal Foundation. “The modern world we have built is at odds with the planet we have built on,” William says. “It’s for this very reason that I launched the Earthshot Prize, the most ambitious environmental prize in history.”
William recently announced 15 finalists for the prestigious prize and five winners will be revealed at a ceremony in London on October 17, each receiving a £1 million prize. Certainly, William looks like an accomplished presenter and sounds very passionate. He’s all-action, speaking to camera off the back of a boat and on the top of a mountain, rather like a royal Ben Fogle. Our prediction is this won’t be the last we see of the TV prince. Catherine, meanwhile, is reportedly in talks for her own documentary about early childhood eductation.
Harry’s mental-health mission: TV shows are central to Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s vision for their new life outside of the Royal Family, thanks to their multi-year deal with Netflix. First up was Harry’s Apple TV + series The Me You Can’t See, with Oprah. Now Harry is making Heart of Invictus, which follows competitors as they train for the Invictus Games in the Netherlands next year.
The deal covers a range of genres. “Our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope,” the pair said. “As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us.” Meghan is working on animated kids’ series Pearl, following the adventures of a 12-year-old girl inspired by great women of history, alongside David Furnish. But while Harry has done plenty of talking so far, we predict the former queen of the small screen, will host her own show, too. Stay tuned…
Return of the radiant Queen
The Queen was back in business this week, looking absolutely radiant. She launched the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games baton relay at Buckingham Palace on Thursday, resplendent in an orange coat and hat by Angela Kelly and was brilliant in blue on Wednesday as she laughed and chatted with the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery at Windsor.
Last weekend she spoke about Prince Philip for the first time since he passed away. Attending the opening ceremony of Scottish Parliament, she talked about the Duke of Edinburgh’s love for the country. “I have spoken before of my deep and abiding affection for this wonderful country, and of the many happy memories Prince Philip and I always held of our time here,” she said. “It is often said that it is the people that make a place, and there are few places where this is truer than in Scotland.”
Kate keeps it real in Zara
She’s the queen of recycling and this week Catherine hit it out of the sustainable style park yet again with a seasons-old £16 Zara midi dress. The duchess wore the high-street houndstooth design while visiting University College London’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies on Tuesday, where she met with researchers to learn about a new project, Children of the 2020s. It’s a topic close to her heart, as this June saw her launching The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
Catherine first wore the dress - originally £89.99 before being reduced in the sales - in January 2020 during a royal engagement in Bradford. Within hours the pussy-bow pleated midi was sold out. Both the dress and her old Hugo Boss pumps (first seen in November 2016) are unavailable. But we don’t care, as far as we’re concerned it’s hats off to the recycling royal.
Sophie’s menopause mission goes full force
Back in May, The Countess of Wessex was the first member of the Royal Family to talk about the menopause. In a stigma-breaking chat Sophie recalled how she found herself lost for words “like somebody’s gone and taken your brain out.”
Now this week, as patron of the charity Wellbeing of Women, the 56-year-old launched the Menopause Workplace Pledge calling on all employers to support women on their staff going through the debilitating effects of the menopause. Speaking during a virtual event, Sophie said, “Women having to leave the workplace because of the menopause is tragic. We are fabulous in our 40s, and we are even more fabulous in our 50s, 60s and 70s, and we need to celebrate that and keep opportunities going for women. Together, we can support the thousands of women out there who form the backbone of our workforce.”
There are five million women aged 45 to 60 in the UK whom the Countess highlighted should be at the peak of their careers, however research suggests 900,000 have left their jobs due to the menopause. “We cannot let anyone leave the workplace, feeling that they have got to slope off into the shadows,” Sophie said. “We have to be able to change that.”
Anne’s dinner party trick
Our favourite story this week was this report about Princess Anne’s top dinner party trick. Fed up with guests who don’t know when it’s time to go home, the Princess Royal has an ace up her sleeve… or in the freezer. Instead of dessert, she reportedly serves guests a choc-ice-to-go, to eat on their way home.
“After all, one wants everyone out of the house by 9.15pm at the latest”, she said. Not sure this would work for the rest of us, but could we love Anne any more?
We could not.