Queen smiles through a tough week
Despite the horrendous headlines, Her Majesty keeps calm and carries on
The Queen was back cracking jokes and smiling through what’s been a turbulent week for the Royal Family with difficult headlines for Prince Andrew and Prince Charles. Proving she’s the hardest working monarch in British history, Her Majesty resumed light duties. From greeting incoming ambassadors via video calls to performing her first face-to-face engagement days after a Covid scare when Prince Charles tested positive two days after spending time with his mother.
While the Queen has resolutely shown she’s back to business for her Platinum Jubilee year, the headlines were dominated by Prince Andrew’s unexpected out-of-court settlement with Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Prince Charles’ charity rocked by a ‘cash for honours’ scandal.
On Tuesday, the Duke of York agreed to settle a US civil lawsuit in which Ms Giuffre accused him of sexual assault when she was 17. The settlement meant the Duke of York, who turned 62 on Saturday, brought an end to a six-month-long civil case, despite his lawyers previously claiming he was prepared to go before a jury to fight Ms Giuffre’s claims.
A letter filed to the US district court said the duke - who makes no admission of liability - would pay an undisclosed sum to Ms Giuffre, rumoured to be £12 million. An accompanying statement said the duke would make a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”. Prince Andrew, the statement added, had “never intended to malign Ms Giuffre's character” and he recognised she had “suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks”.
The duke also pledged to “demonstrate his regret for his association” with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by supporting the “fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims”. He also commended the “bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others”.
If that wasn’t enough for the Queen to deal with, the very next day her son and heir Prince Charles found himself hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Metropolitan Police are currently investigating allegations that Michael Fawcett, the Prince’s former close aide for 40 years and ex-CEO of the Prince’s Foundation, worked with fixers to secure a CBE for a Saudi billionaire who had given more than £1.5 million to the Foundation.
Charles has denied any knowledge of the “alleged offer of honours or British citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities” and has said he is willing to speak to police if asked. But with the official investigation likely to take months, it’s casting an unwelcome shadow over the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year.
However, putting aside her concerns surrounding her scandal-hit sons, it was business as usual when the Queen met with the outgoing Defence Services Secretary Rear Admiral James MacLeod and his replacement, Major General Eldon Millar, at Windsor Castle on Wednesday. The Queen used a cane for support during the meeting and greeted the pair, chirpily saying, ‘Oh, I’m here’ followed by, ‘Well, as you can see, I can’t move,’ pointing to her left leg to acknowledge her limited mobility. Reports suggest the Queen was believed to be feeling slightly stiff, rather than having injured herself or feeling unwell.
The Queen held her audience in the Oak Room at Windsor Castle, which is generally used as her sitting room and by the looks of it, home to some of the monarch’s treasured possessions. From her Corgi figurine to a home-made collage featuring photos of Prince Philip and Balmoral, we also love the fact that the famously sweet-toothed monarch had not one but three boxes of chocolates to hand, Bendicks Mint Collection, Fortnum & Mason Milk & Dark Selection Box and Fortnum’s Marc de Champagne Truffles.
Let’s hope her mementoes from her extraordinary life offer great comfort, when reading the daily newspapers recently is anything but.
Kate’s royal style twin
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge will be in Copenhagen on Tuesday and Wednesday, for her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, where she will meet Queen Margrethe II and carry out an engagement with Crown Princess Mary. She should feel right at home, as Kerry Parnell wrote in the Daily Telegraph here, it will be like looking in a mirror when Catherine meets Mary.
Not only do the royal pair look the same, with long wavy brown hair and slim figures, but they dress the same. Although at 50, Mary has a decade on Catherine and seven more years in the royal game, as she married Crown Prince Frederik in 2004, compared to Catherine’s wedding to Prince William in 2011.
Catherine and Mary’s style has evolved through the years until they have perfected a kind of royal uniform of midi-dresses and glossy tresses, suede heels and pussy-bow blouses with blazers and wide-leg trousers. They often wear the same items, such as an identical blue-printed Beulah London dress and pastel Emilia Wickstead frocks. Even the late great fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld noticed, once dubbing them “royal sisters”.
Eugenie’s Super date with Harry
She’s always been close to her first cousin, Prince Harry and now Princess Eugenie can claim to be the first member of the Royal Family to visit Harry in the States, two years after he quit life as a senior royal and left the UK.
They both attended last Sunday’s Super Bowl together at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California. The royals may have left Meghan and Eugenie’s husband Jack Brooksbank back in Montecito but the following day, Eugenie posted a Happy Valentine’s Day greeting on Instagram showing her and Jack under a blossom tree, with reports speculating it could have been taken in Harry and Meghan’s garden.
Harry has stayed with Eugenie at Frogmore Cottage (his former marital home) on the two occasions he has visited Britain since settling in the States – for Prince Philip’s funeral and the unveiling of his mother’s statue. Whether Harry returns any time soon, could now be dependent on his legal battle to pay for police protection for himself and family when they are in the country. They lost their police protection when they stepped back from royal duties in March 2020. Harry’s lawyer said he does not feel safe when in the UK but that he wants to come back to see family and friends and support charities. “Most of all, this is and always will be his home,” his lawyer stated.
Snap up some candid royals
Who doesn’t love seeing photographs of the Royal Family caught off guard? Now a Kensington Palace exhibition called Life Through a Royal Lens will give us just that. Nearly a thousand members of the public entered their pictures into a competition and now the 50 winning images will go on display alongside professional shots by Annie Leibovitz, Norman Parkinson and Cecil Beaton.
The exhibition opens from 4 March and if you pop along you’ll be treated to memorable images, including the Duke of Cambridge laughing with Sir David Attenborough and a thoughtful Diana, Princess of Wales visiting the homeless. Book tickets here.
Charles & Diana’s engagement anniversary
Yes, it really was 41 years ago this Thursday that Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer announced their engagement to the world. The fairy-tale romance was sadly short lived, but did you know Charles proposed to Diana at a private dinner at Buckingham Palace three weeks earlier on 6 February, 1981 – the 29th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne. Years later Diana confessed she giggled at the proposal not realising Charles was being serious.