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  • Prince Harry’s Spare Fallout: Why Sources Say Charles Is “Deeply Hurt”

    Prince Harry’s Spare Fallout: Why Sources Say Charles Is “Deeply Hurt”

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    It is a silence Prince Harry has described in his book as “deafening” but the Royal Family is sticking to a tried and true format as it continues to come under fire in Spare, Harry’s highly anticipated memoir released today.

    As queues formed outside central London bookshops ahead of the midnight release, Buckingham Palace was still refusing to comment on the bombshell allegations in Harry’s new book and announced that the king will resume official duties after the holidays with a visit to a community project in Aberdeenshire on Thursday. 

    There has been no comment on Spare’s release in which Harry writes about how his father was not cut out for solo parenting, that he was never able to grieve his mother’s death, how he and Prince William have been on separate paths since Diana died and his no holds barred account of the rift with his brother. Quoting (from his recollection) private conversations between himself, his brother William and their father King Charles, the extent of the familial rift which caused the late Queen so much distress is laid bare in the 407 pages of Spare. 

    Harry details physical brawls between him and William and explains that the heir to the throne could not understand Harry’s decision to leave the royal family. He also recounts the now infamous fall out between Meghan and Princess Kate over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress, revealing that Kate texted Meghan to say that her daughter was in tears because her dress did not fit her and that Kate insisted Meghan had new dresses made days before the wedding. 

    A seemingly innocuous anecdote about lip gloss also highlights the froideur between Kate and Meghan for the very first time. 

    The royal family is said to be in shock at the extent to which Harry has divulged private family details and conversations in his book. William is said to be so angry that he cannot speak to his brother while Charles is understood to be “deeply hurt,” according to a family friend. Meanwhile Queen Consort Camilla, who has perhaps suffered the most personal attack, was said by the same source to be “astounded” by Harry’s allegations which include damaging claims that she planted stories in the press to rehabilitate her own image and that the family briefed against him and Meghan. 

    In the book, Harry writes that while he loves his stepmother and was relieved she was not the “wicked stepmother” he feared she would be, there was a time when he considered Camilla “dangerous” “leaving bodies in the street” as Harry claims, she sought marriage to Prince Charles and ultimately the Crown. During an interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday, he told Anderson Cooper that Camilla was the “third person in the marriage” and he considered her “the villain.”

    Insisting that he is now “at peace” with the fact that they are married, Harry also told interviewer Tom Bradby he is happier than ever. 

    However, The Times recently reported that Harry told publishers he wanted to pull the book after returning to England for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and seeing how frail his grandmother was. After the Queen died in September, the book was back on. 

    As Harry continues to promote Spare, the repercussions of his devastating memoir are now becoming apparent. Despite telling Bradby that he hoped for a reconciliation with his family, even suggesting there could be work for him to do in the Commonwealth, he then told Cooper he didn’t think it was “ever going to be possible” to resume his role as a working royal adding that he has not spoken to his father, brother or stepmother “for quite a while.”

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    Katie Nicholl

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  • Has Prince Harry Changed His Attitude About the Press Interest in His Life?

    Has Prince Harry Changed His Attitude About the Press Interest in His Life?

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    On Sunday, one of ITV interviewer Tom Bradby’s hardest questions for Prince Harry started with something that sounded a bit like a compliment. “But the trouble is, you’re probably the most famous person on the planet right now,” said the journalist, who has known Harry for nearly 20 years. “Like, if it’s not a horrible article in a newspaper, it’s gonna be out there on Twitter, so what your family might say to you is, ‘Look, you just can’t—you’ve gotta let it go, you can’t fight it all.’”

    Harry and Bradby moved right past that original assertion, but I was stuck on it. Is Harry the most famous person on the planet right now? It’s debatable, but there are others who are more clearly internationally known. In 2022, Australian publication New Idea decided to combine Google search results with annual income and decided that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was the most famous person. On Google’s own list of the top trends for 2022, Johnny Depp and Will Smith were the most searched-for celebrities. But on the same list the death of Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, was the second biggest news event of the year. When his mother, Princess Diana, died in 1997, she was frequently called ”the most famous woman in the world.”

    Earlier in the interview, Bradby was a little less specific, describing Harry as “the most talked about man on the planet.” I’m not convinced by that one either, but judging by the front pages of the tabloids, I can understand why people in Britain might feel that way. For the detractors in the UK who want him and Meghan Markle to give up their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles, he is trying to profit off of his position in the line of succession. But his notoriety, along with his brother, Prince William, has always gone hand-in-hand with their mother, whose fame continued to grow even after she divorced King Charles III. 

    As both brothers have discussed at length, her worldwide fame put them in the public eye when they were children, and when she died, her tragic loss made them public symbols. By beginning his memoir Spare with the night he heard his mother died, he is acknowledging how central the loss of Diana is both to his identity and to public interest in his story. In his interviews so far, he has discussed how that dual role of grieving child and avatar for the nation was disturbing for him, down to the “wet” hands of crying well-wishers on the street. For Harry, being a public figure has meant coming to terms that the one thing that everyone knows about him is the worst thing that he ever experienced, which cannot be easy.

    When Bradby mentioned Harry’s celebrity, he was saying that Harry had decided to go to war with the press instead of simply going along with them. “I’m not permanently at war at all,” the prince responded. “I made peace with it; I was willing to let a lot of it go back in 2020 when we left the country.” Of course, he hasn’t really let it all go, and his criticisms of the British press have only grown since then, but what he said next helped explain why Harry is still weighing in. He pointed out that the tabloids continued attacking him and Meghan even after they left their royal roles. “If living in a new country, minding our own business during lockdown, not saying anything, not doing anything that would affect the British media at all,” he said. “Every single day there’s an attack—well, then the assumption of it going away or moving on isn’t the case.”

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    Erin Vanderhoof

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  • Prince Harry Hasn’t Spoken To King Charles ‘For Quite A While’ And Doesn’t Text Prince William: ‘I Look Forward To Us Being Able To Find Peace’

    Prince Harry Hasn’t Spoken To King Charles ‘For Quite A While’ And Doesn’t Text Prince William: ‘I Look Forward To Us Being Able To Find Peace’

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    By Becca Longmire.
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    Prince Harry is giving an update on his relationship with his father King Charles III and his brother Prince William.

    The Duke of Sussex told Anderson Cooper in an interview for “60 Minutes” that he’s currently not in communication with his brother via text, and that he hasn’t spoken to his dad in a “while,” ITV reported.

    Cooper questioned, “Do you speak to William now, do you text?”

    “Currently, no, but I look forward to us being able to find peace,” Harry responded.


    READ MORE:
    Prince Harry Says It Was ‘Slightly Awkward’ Previously Being A ‘Third Wheel’ To Prince William And Kate Middleton

    The Duke added when asked how long it had been since he spoke to his father, “We haven’t spoken for quite a while, no, not recently.”

    Elsewhere in the tell-all chat, Cooper asked whether his family dynamic was like “‘Game of Thrones’ without dragons.”

    Harry insisted: “I don’t watch ‘Game of Thrones’ but there’s definitely dragons – and that’s again the third party that is the British press.”


    READ MORE:
    Prince Harry Addresses William’s Alleged Physical Attack, Why He Didn’t Fight Back

    Harry also told Cooper of his father Charles’ wife Camilla, the now-Queen Consort: “She was the villain, she was the third person in the marriage, she needed to rehabilitate her image.”

    In his memoir, Harry accused Camilla, and even his father at times, of using him or William to get better tabloid coverage for themselves.

    He added that the now-Queen Consort “sacrificed me on her personal PR altar.”

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    Becca Longmire

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  • Prince Harry’s TV Interviews Declared War on the Royal Family’s Media Strategy

    Prince Harry’s TV Interviews Declared War on the Royal Family’s Media Strategy

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    There was one particular moment in Prince Harry’s 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper on Sunday night where the prince felt compelled to set the record straight. When Cooper said that the family dynamics of the royals sounded like “Game of Thrones without dragons,” Harry first said that he has never watched the HBO show. 

    “But there’s definitely dragons,” the prince added, “And that’s, again, the third party, which is the British press.”

    Afterward, Harry said a few sentences that sound a bit like a statement of purpose for the lengthy media tour accompanying his memoir, Spare, which will officially hit stores on Tuesday. “Ultimately, without the British press as part of this, we would probably still be a fairly dysfunctional family, like a lot are,” he said. “But at the heart of it, there is a family, without question. I really look forward to having that family element back. I look forward to having a relationship with my brother. I look forward to having a relationship with my father and other members of my family.”

    It might seem a little strange that he hopes that spilling some of the family’s dirty laundry would help him get back in their good graces, but earlier in the interview, Harry offered some insight into his logic. The royal family reads the tabloids at breakfast, he explained, and he’s putting his message out where they can’t miss it. “Now, trying to speak a language that perhaps they understand,” the prince said, “I will sit here and speak truth to you with the words that come out of my mouth, rather than using someone else, an unnamed source, to feed in lies or a narrative to a tabloid media that literally radicalizes its readers to then potentially cause harm to my family, my wife, my kids.”

    For the last few years, Harry has been going on a journey into media criticism, from his collaboration with the online activist group Color of Change in 2020 to his 2021 tenure on the Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder. During Harry & Meghan, last month’s Netflix docuseries, he spent some of his time as a talking head explaining the relationship between the palace, its inhabitants, and the Royal Rota, the press pack that covers them. Now, in the media tour for the book, he’s applying some of the information he learned in those roles to his own life.

    For Harry, coming to understand the motivations of the news media helped him understand why Meghan’s time in the royal family went so wrong, but also illuminated some of the reasons why his relationships with his family were dysfunctional even before she entered the picture. In his conversation with Cooper and in his 90-minute sit down with Tom Bradby, which aired in the U.K. earlier in the day, he criticized both Queen Consort Camilla and William for their relationship with the press for different reasons. Camilla, Harry claimed, spread information about him in an attempt to improve her own reputation. William, he told Bradby, never took the chance to get to know Meghan Markle because he was too distracted by the stories about her in the tabloids.

    Spare apparently begins with a description of the night that Charles told Harry that Princess Diana had died, and in his interview with Bradby, he said that he has some trouble remembering things that happened in his life before that. In both interviews, he recalled hearing that the events leading up to his mother’s death were like a “bicycle chain,” a series of interconnecting factors putting an event into motion. “If you remove one of those [links] the end result would not have happened,” he explained.  It’s also clear from his in-depth discussion of his pilgrimage to the tunnel where she perished and his close observations of the paparazzi’s crash scene photos, that he has chosen to regard the media as the one link on that chain he can actually do something about.

    By focusing on that link, it seems like he’s trying to find a way to forgive his family, internally, for not supporting him in his time of need. As for whether or not it will work, it’s too soon to tell, and when Harry told Cooper that he didn’t think he would ever return to royal life, he was admitting that he didn’t have too much hope. So think of his return to the spotlight this month as a little bit of catharsis for Harry himself, an attempt to show off some hard-fought personal growth. 

    Listen to Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY podcast now.

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    Erin Vanderhoof

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  • Why Insiders Say Prince Harry May Have Crossed a Palace Red Line with Latest Interview

    Why Insiders Say Prince Harry May Have Crossed a Palace Red Line with Latest Interview

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    Prince Harry said he is “100 percent” confident he can reconcile with his family, despite launching a fresh wave of attacks on King Charles, Queen Consort Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate in an explosive 90-minute interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby that aired Sunday.

    Claiming that his family and the British media drove him and Meghan Markle out of Britain, Harry said that some members of his family chose to “get into bed with the devil” to tarnish his and Meghan’s reputation in order to improve their own. While he claimed he wants to make peace, he said his family have “shown no willingness to reconcile.” 

    During the sit-down interview to promote his autobiography Spare (due out Tuesday) that aired on ITV, Harry read excerpts from the book, specifically passages that covered parts of his childhood, his school years and the traumatic impact Princess Diana’s death had on him. Harry described he and William as being “on different paths” since they were young boys, saying they dealt with their mother’s death in “different ways.”

    He also revealed a deep sibling rivalry that dated back to their school days, however, he insisted “I’ve always loved my brother.” When asked whether there was any chance of a reconciliation between them, Harry said he “genuinely believes” there can be a resolution, saying, “I hope there can be a constructive conversation” but he insisted that they needed to keep “the antagonists” as he referred to the British tabloid press, out. 

    It was a matter Harry was pressed on by Bradby, an old friend who has interviewed the prince on numerous occasions over the years. When asked about the tirade of very public criticism he has leveled at his family, Harry blamed the British press for creating conflict and a culture war in the UK and said, “Silence only allows the abuser to abuse, I don’t see how silence can make things better.”

    In his memoir, Harry writes that William feels he has been brainwashed by therapy, however, Harry told Bradby he was in a good place and happier than he has ever been. 

    Harry’s approach in promoting the blockbuster book has, unsurprisingly, irked the royals and those close to them, sources say. As one tells Vanity Fair, Harry “totally fails to see the irony and hypocrisy in what he says. When there have been private family conversations, it has been Harry who has leaked them to the press.” 

    On Saturday, sources close to the royal family expressed their shock at Harry’s book and interview saying, “He is on a path of self-destruction. There is so much vengeance. The late Queen would have been absolutely devastated.” They added that any reconciliation appears unlikely in the short term.

    Before the interview aired, former Buckingham Palace communications advisor Dickie Arbiter told Vanity Fair he thought Harry would ultimately regret speaking out and that the Palace was unlikely to comment as the saga continues to escalate. 

    “If Harry wants to engage he has to eat humble pie and he doesn’t show any signs of doing that,” he said. “From my perspective, the institution did a lot to help Harry but he got to a point where he stopped taking the advice. Harry’s always been stubborn. He was always going to go his own way and do his own thing. As for his book, I think he’ll regret not having pulled it. It’s done now. He can’t undo this.” 

    Among the revelations to emerge from the Bradby interview are Harry’s claims that William and Kate made Meghan feel unwelcome from the start of their relationship, buying into the stereotyping of Meghan as a famous American actress, who was a divorcée and mixed race. Revealing that William and Kate were fans of Suits, the American legal drama in which Meghan starred, he said they were wary of his future wife from the outset. 

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    Katie Nicholl

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  • The Genuine Shock of That Prince Harry Frostbite Story

    The Genuine Shock of That Prince Harry Frostbite Story

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    You’ll have heard about Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir, Spare, by now, whether you wanted to or not. The content of its pages has seeped into the water table and osmosis-ed into your brain, where it’ll fester for a bit, then harden. From there, the book’s words will etch themselves into the deepest grooves of your memory. One day, sooner than you ever thought possible, you’ll be aged and bedridden with a tenuous handle on the world around you. Even though you’ll have forgotten the faces of your children, King Charles III’s offspring will remain lodged, and for comfort or because it’s all that’s left, you’ll return to what you know from an earlier time, shouting to the reluctant stranger changing your bedpan: “Kate and Wills were huge Suits fans before they met Meghan Markle!” or “Prince William broke Prince Harry’s necklace when William grabbed Harry by the collar and threw him down on the dog’s bowl! Allegedly!”

    Sorry about all that. I had to do some priming. As we’ve processed the torrent of leaks from Spare this week, it’s almost been hard to keep track of it all. But for my money, the most genuinely jarring bits have been the corporeal candor that Prince Harry took in writing the book. Like when he addressed one rumor that I don’t recall ever reading—that Princess Diana did not want the boys to be circumcised. Turns out they are. So there’s another little fact to shout at the overworked orderly in the years hence. It’s a pretty stark diversion from the Windsor clan’s usually steadfast commitment to decorum.

    The Duke of Sussex didn’t bring this detail about his most private parts up out of nowhere in the book, which has dominated headlines nearly everywhere since the first excerpts of it leaked on Wednesday. There was context. The context was that before the wedding of his brother and Kate Middleton in April 2011, Harry had been on a charity expedition to the North Pole, where he’d walked 200 miles across arctic landscape alongside fellow soldiers who’d served in Afghanistan. The thing about walking 200 miles across arctic landscape is that your extremities will possibly suffer, and his did. Harry’s ears, cheeks, and penis got frostbitten. His circumcised penis, that is. (Before we go on, it should be clarified that “Willy” is what he calls his brother and “todger” is the polite term he uses to refer to his penis.)

    “There were countless stories in books, and papers (even The New York Times) about Willy and me not being circumcised,” he reportedly writes in the memoir. “Mummy had forbidden it, they all said, and while it’s absolutely true that the chance of getting penile frostbite is much greater if you’re not circumcised, all the stories were false. I was snipped as a baby.” 

    The frostbite healed as the duke returned to England’s gentler climes, and most was well in time for the big royal wedding. But, as would be expected, the most extreme of his extremities took a little longer to get back to normal. So, he reportedly writes, as he walked down that aisle of Westminster in support of his brother’s new chapter in life, his “todger” was ailing. I don’t know exactly what sharing all of this is for necessarily, but now, you can google “Prince Harry penis” and receive vaguely more safe-for-work results than before. (I assume!)

    The big freeze is not the only bit of body horror that has made headlines from this memoir. The other one—the one that is deeply funny and sad and has been banging around my skull since yesterday—is the moment after their grandfather Prince Philip’s funeral, when the boys and their father, the soon-to-be-crowned King Charles III, convened in the family cemetery to talk about Harry and Meghan’s decision to defect to America. It was a moment when Harry felt misunderstood, and worse, as though no one was even trying to understand him. 

    He reportedly writes, “I looked at Willy, really looked at him, perhaps for the first time since we were little, taking in every detail: his familiar scowl, which had always been the norm in his dealings with me.” William was balding, Harry noted, and it was more “advanced than mine.” That’s a great burn to levy between brothers. But then this: Harry noted that with the balding, William’s resemblance to their late mother had “faded.”

    Harry’s brother was, in a way, unrecognizable to him. And what’s more horrifying than that? The person who is perhaps the only one who has access to what you went through—the struggles of the monarchy, having that father and those expectations, the tragedy of losing their mother—fading into something different, something more bald. William had aged out of the thing—his hair, and thus the resemblance—that had made him a bridge to what came before, and what’s worse, he’s Harry’s big brother.

    These moments, first with the frostbite and then with the hairline, make it seem as though Harry’s masculinity, and more so his humanity, is at stake in the writing of Spare. These parts are when the book—which, we should remember, few people outside of Spain have been able to read cover to cover—seems most like an exorcism so far, especially when paired with the Sussex’s Oprah interview and their Netflix documentary. Whether this is the intention or not, the duke has blanketed the internet, the television, the published word with his own stories about every single bit of himself, down to the most personal, physical matters.

    To some, watching the whole exercise might register as the real body horror here. But if this is useful for him—if he’s able to find peace in the informational spew—then we can at least understand it. After all, sometimes getting all the sick out is the only relief you can find. 

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    Kenzie Bryant

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  • How the Spare Leaks Have Already Upended the William-Harry Narrative as We Knew It

    How the Spare Leaks Have Already Upended the William-Harry Narrative as We Knew It

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    Yes, there seems to be a reference to penile frostbite in Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir, Spare, but the first detail to make it to the public in this week of leaked excerpts is still the most shocking one. On Wednesday, The Guardian quoted a few sections from the book where Harry alleges that Prince William physically assaulted him during a 2019 argument over the younger prince’s wife, Meghan Markle. It’s been clear since Harry and Meghan’s Netflix docuseries dropped last month that the couple has the new Prince of Wales squarely in their sights, but the book looks to be an even greater escalation, bringing William’s wife, Kate Middleton, into the ring as well. Add in Harry’s reported reference to William’s “alarming” hairline, and it’s clear that the younger brother is happy to punch below the belt—or at the scalp.

    Since the Sussexes’ royal exit, royal watchers have wondered whether Harry and William will be able to make amends after more than six years of private feuding. On the royal beat at Vanity Fair, we’ve approached the question in a hundred different ways, going in depth about how wary William is that their private conversations might make it to the public. But by telling the story of an alleged violent argument, Harry has finally raised the question that has been worth asking all along: Does he even want to make nice with his family at all?

    Though Harry told Tom Bradby, in an interview set to air Sunday night, that he would like to repair his relationships with his brother and father, King Charles III, the stories in the book make the terms of any reunion clear. Harry’s willingness to make this physical fight public, or mention his frustration with his father’s press strategy, proves that he feels deeply wronged by the events of both the last five years and the last two decades. If William and Charles are ever going to attempt to make amends, they now have no choice but to jump this fairly high hurdle first.

    It’s too soon to tell if the senior royals will respond to the book publicly at all, and it’s important to remember that few people have actually gotten to read the entire thing. So far most of the information we have from the book comes from the Spanish-language version, which went on sale early in Spain and has been acquired by media organizations across the world. There’s something kind of perfect about the fact that our early introductions to the book’s details are coming as a translation of a translation. Harry’s own words are still largely unknowable, but we are getting all of the shocking details. 

    When Harry first announced his deal to produce a memoir with Penguin Random House in July 2021, reports also came that Tender Bar author J.R. Moehringer had signed on as a ghostwriter. It seemed like an apt choice because Moehringer had written movingly about masculinity, ambition, and, in his work on Andre Agassi’s Open, father-son relationships. It wasn’t until Wednesday, when The Guardian published the first substantive leak from Spare, that I remembered exactly how splashy Open was, accompanied by a trickle of headlines about methamphetamines, Agassi’s disdain for the sport that formed him, and his experimentations with a toupee. The combination of depth and utter, even silly, honesty has made Open a classic of the form. Though I’ve read plenty of celebrity memoirs that divulge mostly nothing in a brisk and entertaining manner, it’s clear now that Spare will be something else entirely. The last few days of leaks, both serious and humorous, have proven that Harry is taking the Agassi route, down to the frank sexual details and drug use—and it’s working. 

    The prince has a long lineage of carousing and brawling ancestors, but it seems like putting his name on something so tawdry might be the biggest possible betrayal of his family. The negative response to the book in the British press so far seems to be an instinctual reaction to the embarrassment, and it might mean that the palace never needs to provide a response because it’s satisfied by its side’s defenders. In the Daily Mail on Thursday, combative columnist Jan Moir summed up a common response to the news, calling Harry a “grudge-toting manbaby” in a column with the headline, “If Big Willy really did push Little Harold over (and break his necklace) one can understand why.” A combination of Sussex fatigue and knee-jerk defense of the stiff upper lip means that the Windsors will get the benefit of the doubt in the audience that truly matters to them.

    This is, of course, the strategy the royals have been pursuing all along, and it’s precisely the one that Harry is criticizing. On the Vanity Fair podcast DYNASTY, my colleague Katie Nicholl and I traced the history of how the monarchy survived a tumultuous 20th century by managing the media and paying close attention to the public’s reaction. But we also discussed how an emphasis on surface appearances over values is often reflected in the palace’s desire to protect the images of the monarch and the heir at all costs, including allowing and inflicting reputational damage to other family members.  

    Harry’s deep grievances against his family are just the latest example in a long history of Windsor tabloid misadventures resulting from this dynamic. Accepting negative coverage of Harry in the interest of protecting William, a tactic that Harry has alleged, has always seemed like a risky strategy, precisely because it distorted Harry’s interest in protecting his own reputation. On the covers of the tabloids for two decades, Harry has been the risky, impulsive, rebellious brother to a future king, even as hints of William’s alleged “temper” have emerged. As Harry surely knew, authoring a book divulging plenty of deeply personal family information would be the most effective way for him to attack William’s growing position within that system.

    Listen to Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY podcast now.

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    Erin Vanderhoof

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  • Prince Harry “Never” Thought He’d Lose Palace Security After Prince Andrew Kept It

    Prince Harry “Never” Thought He’d Lose Palace Security After Prince Andrew Kept It

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    Prince Harry never imagined he’d be left to fend for himself when it came to a security detail for his family, especially after his uncle Prince Andrew was permitted to keep his despite being in the midst of a sexual assault scandal, he reportedly writes in his new book.

    In a portion of his forthcoming memoir, Spare, obtained by Us Weekly, the Duke of Sussex recalls that when he and his wife, Meghan Markle, decided to move to America after stepping down from their positions as senior royals in 2020, she expressed fears that they would be left unprotected, and he reassured her, “Never. Not in this climate of hate. Not after what happened to my mother [Princess Diana]. Also, not in the wake of my Uncle Andrew.” He goes on to say in the excerpt that his uncle “was embroiled in a shameful scandal, accused of the sexual assault of a young woman and no one had so much suggested that he lose his security. Whatever grievances people had against us, sex crimes weren’t on the list.” Following the move, however, Harry and Meghan did lose their royal security detail, which, in the prince’s opinion, was a refusal by the palace to perform “its implicit promise” and “obligation” to them.

    In January 2022, Prince Andrew was stripped of his military affiliations and royal patronages over accusations of sexual assault involving a then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, who was a victim in Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking ring. The Duke of York has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and Giuffre’s lawsuit against him was settled out of court in February 2022.

    The same month that Andrew was stripped of his titles, Harry issued a statement regarding the palace’s decision to remove his security detail. “Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life. He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats,” the statement read. “While his role within the Institution has changed, his profile as a member of the royal family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family.” He added that he and his wife’s personally funded security team could not “replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the UK.”

    To compound matters, Harry also shares in his new book that he suffers from agoraphobia and panic attacks, which made the public duties of royal life all the more difficult and terrifying, something he says his brother, Prince William, once mocked him for, according to the excerpt from Us Weekly. “I was an agoraphobe. Which was nearly impossible given my public role. After one speech, which couldn’t be avoided or canceled, and during which I’d nearly fainted, Willy came up to me backstage. Laughing,” the duke writes. “Him of all people. He’d been present for my very first panic attack. With [Princess] Kate. We were driving out to a polo match in Gloucestershire, in their Range Rover. I was in the back and Willy peered at me in the rearview. He saw me sweating, red-faced…. He’d told me that day or soon after that I needed help. And now he was teasing me? I couldn’t imagine how he could be so insensitive.”

    Listen to Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY podcast now.

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    Emily Kirkpatrick

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  • Princess Diana’s Fave Ski Jacket Is Still Elite, so I Found a $75 H&M Version

    Princess Diana’s Fave Ski Jacket Is Still Elite, so I Found a $75 H&M Version

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    Whether or not hitting the ski slopes is in your future, winter temperatures are here for at least a few more months. And aside from the pros, no one did sporty fashion (before athleisure was a thing) better than Princess Diana. 

    Although she was endlessly photographed in everything from ball gowns to bikinis, it is Diana’s leisure looks that continue to inspire our off-duty style decades later. Case in point: her red puffer jacket. It was simple yet statement-making (you couldn’t miss her on the mountain), and we love this piece not only for its place in one of the world’s most iconic wardrobes but also because it is the epitome of both practical and chic. 

    While Princess Diana’s red ski jacket was likely of the more technical variety—she wore it to exercise, after all—we’ve found 11 similar styles that will suit any winter-weather leisure look from Aspen to the Alps, including a nearly identical $75 option from H&M. Keep scrolling to find your perfect red puffer to wear all winter; no ski boots required. 

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    Drew Elovitz

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  • Prince Harry Relived His Mother’s Last Moments In Tunnel Where She Died: ‘I Wanted Closure’

    Prince Harry Relived His Mother’s Last Moments In Tunnel Where She Died: ‘I Wanted Closure’

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    By Anita Tai.
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    Prince Harry reveals he reenacted his mother’s last moments.

    In the prince’s memoir, Spare, which was leaked early in stores in Spain, he revealed a number of bombshell revelations including his attempt to find closure in the same tunnel his mother died in.

    “The World Cup provided me with a driver, and on my first night in the City of Light I asked him if he knew the tunnel where my mother…” he began, via People.

    Harry had attended the 2007 Rugby World Cup semifinal in Paris at the age of 23. After the driver confirmed the location, the royal requested the driver to speed down the tunnel at “sixty-five miles per hour”.


    READ MORE:
    Prince Harry ‘Spares’ No Details, Shares Cheeky Story From Prince William’s Wedding

    “The exact speed Mummy’s car had supposedly been driving, according to police, at the time of the crash. Not 120 miles per hour, as the press originally reported,” he explained.

    Princess Diana died of injuries from the car crash in Paris in 1997, as paparazzi followed the car in an attempt to capture the popular royal.

    Recounting the experience, he confessed that it was altogether underwhelming in the end.

    “Off we went, weaving through traffic, cruising past the Ritz, where Mummy had her last meal, with her boyfriend, that August night. Then we came to the mouth of the tunnel. We zipped ahead, went over the lip at the tunnel’s entrance, the bump that supposedly sent Mummy’s Mercedes veering off course,” he continued. “But the lip was nothing. We barely felt it.”

    They emerged from the other side of the tunnel within seconds.

    “I sat back. Quietly I said: Is that all of it? It’s…nothing. Just a straight tunnel. I’d always imagined the tunnel as some treacherous passageway, inherently dangerous, but it was just a short, simple, no-frills tunnel. No reason anyone should ever die inside it,” he recalled.


    READ MORE:
    Inside Prince Harry’s Multi-Book Deal And Its $40 Million Price Tag

    He claimed to even attempt to go through the tunnel again, but the second time didn’t produce any results – it in fact left him in more pain than before.

    “It had been a very bad idea. I’d had plenty of bad ideas in my twenty-three years, but this one was uniquely ill-conceived. I’d told myself that I wanted closure, but I didn’t really. Deep down, I’d hoped to feel in that tunnel what I’d felt when JLP gave me the police files—disbelief. Doubt. Instead, that was the night all doubt fell away,” he added. “I got the closure I was pretending to seek. I got it in spades. And now I’d never be able to get rid of it.”

    Other shocking confessions in the book include Harry’s admission he lost his virginity at 17 with an older woman, as well as trying cocaine for the first time in the same year.

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    Anita Tai

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  • This Is the Princess Diana Way to Style Boots for Winter

    This Is the Princess Diana Way to Style Boots for Winter

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    I love remembering Princess Diana through a fashion lens because she so clearly enjoyed expressing herself through her clothes. She was a fearless dresser and loved experimenting with the trends of the moment but she also appreciated classic pieces.

    Her style also evolved significantly over the course of her tragically cut-short life. When Princess Diana emerged in the spotlight after getting engaged at only 19 years old, she favored twee sweaters, youthful overalls, and Peter Pan collars, while in her 30s she wore a lot of sharp skirt sets and tailored coats. She also gained more and more confidence as she adjusted to her post-divorce life, which was absolutely reflected in her fashion sense. Revenge Dress, anyone? In homage to the late, great Princess Diana, scroll down to re-create some of her best winter outfits worn with boots. 

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    Erin Fitzpatrick

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  • Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Criticized By Nelson Mandela’s Granddaughter For Using His Name To ‘Sell’ New Documentary ‘Live To Lead’

    Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Criticized By Nelson Mandela’s Granddaughter For Using His Name To ‘Sell’ New Documentary ‘Live To Lead’

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    By Becca Longmire.
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    Ndileka Mandela isn’t thrilled about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle using her grandfather Nelson Mandela’s quotes in the trailer for the Netflix documentary “Live To Lead”.

    Footage of the anti-apartheid campaigner leaving prison in 1990 is also used in the clip, that was released last month.

    Harry explains of the upcoming series, that has been co-produced by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, “This was inspired by Nelson Mandela.”

    Quoting Mandela, Harry says, “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we’ve lived.”

    Meghan finishes it off by saying, “It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”


    READ MORE:
    Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Announce ‘Live To Lead’ Docuseries Inspired By Nelson Mandela

    Ndileka has now said in an interview with The Australian newspaper that there’s “no comparison” between Harry and Meghan’s struggle with the Royal Family and her grandfather.

    She shares, “That’s chalk and cheese, there is no comparison. I know the Nelson Mandela Foundation has supported the initiative but people have stolen grandfather’s quotes for years and have used his legacy because they know his name sells – Harry and Meghan are no different from them,” according to the Daily Mail.

    Ndileka adds, “I admire Harry for having the confidence to break away from an institution as iconic as the Royal Family. Grandad rebelled against an arranged marriage to find his own path in life.

    “But it comes at a price, you have to then fund your own life, I’ve made peace with people using granddad’s name but it’s still deeply upsetting and tedious every time it happens.”


    READ MORE:
    Prince Harry Reveals Whether He Ever Sees Himself Returning As A Full-Time Member Of The Royal Family

    Ndileka says elsewhere in the interview, “Harry needs to be authentic and stick to his own story, what relevance does grandad’s life have with his?

    “I don’t believe he nor Meghan have ever properly met granddad, maybe when Harry was young at Buckingham Palace, but they are using his quotations in the documentary to draw in people and make millions without the Mandela family benefitting.”

    This isn’t the first time one of the Mandela family has spoken about Harry and Meghan.

    Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela previously responded to Meghan saying that an actor from South Africa pulled her aside at the 2019 “Lion King” premiere to say: “I just need you to know: When you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison.”

    Mandla said of his grandfather being released after serving 27 years in prison, “Madiba’s celebration was based on overcoming 350 years of colonialism with 60 years of a brutal apartheid regime in South Africa. So it cannot be equated to as the same,” the Mail Online reported back in August.

    He continued, “Every day there are people who want to be Nelson Mandela, either comparing themselves with him or wanting to emulate him.

    “But before people can regard themselves as Nelson Mandelas, they should be looking into the work that he did and be able to be champions and advocates of the work that he himself championed.”

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    Becca Longmire

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  • Princess Kako Celebrates Her 28th Birthday—And Her Expanded Royal Role

    Princess Kako Celebrates Her 28th Birthday—And Her Expanded Royal Role

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    On December 29, Japan’s Princess Kako celebrated her 28th birthday, and to mark the end of the year during which the princess expanded her royal role, the Imperial Household released a new set of portraits taken on the grounds of the Akasaka imperial residence in Tokyo. Kako was thrust further into the spotlight after her older sister, Mako Komuro, married her college sweetheart, Kei Komuro, and moved to New York City in late 2021. Over the last year, Kako took on two of Mako’s former royal jobs when she became the honorary president of the Japan Tennis Association and the president of the Japan Kogei Association, which promotes traditional crafts.

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    In a statement, the Imperial Household Agency said that Kako hopes to see society continue to evolve to allow more people to reach their full potential. “This hope appears to be strengthening as [the princess] experiences various things in life,” her attendants said, per the Kyodo News Agency. As coronavirus restrictions lifted in the country over 2022, Kako attended more royal engagements, including her annual contribution to a sign language competition, a visit to a sustainability award ceremony, and a trip to an urban greenery festival in Hokkaido. 

    Kako is the niece of Emperor Naruhito, the country’s current emperor, and the older brother of Prince Hisahito, the 16-year-old future emperor. As a teenager, Kako competed as a junior figure skater, and she also works part time with the Japanese Federation for the Deaf. She has also taken on a formal diplomatic role, meeting with Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen on an official trip in September 2019.

    The news comes as the imperial family is weighing new strategies to communicate with the public. Currently, the royal family only has a simple website where they share press releases, event information, and photographs, but according to the Japan Times, the Household announced that they are planning to hire an official public relations staff beginning in April and are considering starting accounts on social media. One factor contributing to the decision is the public controversy that Mako and Kei’s marriage prompted in the tabloid press, specifically related to his family financial situation. When the couple married, Mako said that the press intrusion had caused her emotional distress.

    Japanese law has strict expectations for women in the imperial family, and if Kako choses to get married, she will likely have to leave behind her royal title. On the occasion of her 56th birthday in September, Kako’s mother, Crown Princess Kiko, said that she planned to talk to Kako about her future and her possible future marriage, adding “I hope that she will be fulfilling her duties while accumulating experience.”

    Listen to Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY podcast now.

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    Erin Vanderhoof

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  • Queen Guitarist Brian May ‘Thrilled’ To Become ‘Sir Bri’ After King Charles’ First New Year Honours List Revealed

    Queen Guitarist Brian May ‘Thrilled’ To Become ‘Sir Bri’ After King Charles’ First New Year Honours List Revealed

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    By Brent Furdyk.
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    On Dec. 30, Buckingham Palace issued the 2023 New Years Honours List, honouring distinguished Britons who have demonstrated exemplary achievement in their respective fields.

    Among the 1,100-plus names mentioned in the first New Years Honours under the reign of King Charles III was Brian May, guitarist and co-founder of legendary British rock band Queen.


    READ MORE:
    King Charles Reveals 2023 New Years Honours For Queen’s Brian May And More

    Following the announcement, May took to Instagram to share his thoughts on his impending knighthood.

    “Thank you so much for all your messages of congratulations following the announcement of my knighthood,” the 75-year-old rocker said in a brief video message he shared with his 3.1 million followers.


    READ MORE:
    Queen’s Brian May Calls Out ‘Fruitcakes’ Eric Clapton And Other Anti-Vaxxers

    “I’m very thrilled and very touched by the love that’s come from you and the support,” May added. “I will do my very best to be worthy. For now good night and thank you and much love, from Sir Bri.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVwbyikGjW8

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    Brent Furdyk

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  • See Prince William And Kate Middleton’s Son Prince Louis Make His Royal Christmas Debut

    See Prince William And Kate Middleton’s Son Prince Louis Make His Royal Christmas Debut

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    By Leah Sarnoff, ETOnline.com.
    Published:

    It’s a very royal Christmas for Prince William and Kate Middleton‘s youngest son, Prince Louis, as the 4-year-old made his official holiday debut on Sunday.

    The adorable young royal was in attendance at the Christmas morning service at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Norfolk, England with his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and his older siblings, Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7.

    Due to restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic, last Christmas the royal family could not do the traditional public greeting and formal debut they are able to conduct this year.

    Photo: Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images

    The royal family looked dapper in their holiday ensembles, with Kate Middleton wearing a dark green, fitted coat that was finished with a stylish hat of the same color. Princess Charlotte complimented her mother’s outfit in perfect Christmas fashion, wearing a red coat. Prince William and Prince George twinned in matching bright blue ties and navy suits. For his part, Prince Louis looked adorable in a navy-and-black coat that he wore with knee-high socks.

    Prince Louis’ outfit holds family significance, as it appears to be the very same style his father wore during his first Christmas debut in 1987 at 5 years old. Back then, Prince William wore a powder-blue coat with white knee-high socks.

    Prince William in 1987 – Photo: Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images
    Prince William in 1987 – Photo: Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images

    This Christmas season marks the first since Queen Elizabeth II‘s death in September. During King Charles II‘s holiday address, released earlier today, the newly appointed monarch mourned the recent death of Queen Elizabeth and extend gratitude for those who shared in his family’s grieving.

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    Corey Atad

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  • King Charles III Delivers First Christmas Address Since Queen Elizabeth II’s Death

    King Charles III Delivers First Christmas Address Since Queen Elizabeth II’s Death

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    By Leah Sarnoff, ETOnline.com.
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    King Charles III delivered his historic, first Christmas address since Queen Elizabeth II‘s death. The newly appointed monarch released the pre-taped speech from St George’s Chapel in Windsor on Sunday.

    The King’s holiday address opened with a powerful rendition of “God Save the King.” He continued to mourn the recent death of Queen Elizabeth and extend gratitude for those who shared in his family’s grieving and then went on to highlight the work the royal family has done for the Commonwealth.

    “I am standing here in this exquisite chapel of St. George in Windsor Castle so close to where my beloved mother, the late queen, is laid to rest with my dear father,” he said. “I am reminded of the deeply touching letters, cards and messages which so many of you have sent my wife and myself. And I cannot thank you enough for the love and sympathy you have shown our whole family.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdeVnjkn5RI

    “Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones. We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition,” he added.

    Queen Elizabeth II died in September of this year and Her Majesty’s final resting place, St George’s Chapel in Windsor, was a meaningful choice for the king’s first Christmas address.

    The King went on to extend gratitude for those working in public service such as the armed forces, emergency service providers, healthcare professionals, teachers and beyond.

    “It is a belief that the extraordinary ability for each person to touch with goodness and compassion the lives of others and to shine a light in the world around them. This is the essence of our community and the very foundation of our society,” he shared.

    Highlighting his son and daughter-in-law, Prince William and Kate Middleton‘s service in the royal family, the address showcased footage of them visiting Wales. “The Prince and Princess of Wales recently visited Wales, shining a light on practical examples of this community spirit,” he said.

    To conclude his address King Charles said powerfully, “With all my heart I wish each of you the Christmas of peace, happiness, and everlasting life.”

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    Corey Atad

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  • Was There Deeper Meaning to Tyler Perry’s Role in Harry & Meghan?

    Was There Deeper Meaning to Tyler Perry’s Role in Harry & Meghan?

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    When news first broke that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were living in the Los Angeles mansion owned by Tyler Perry, it was a little surprising. Over time, it became clear that Perry, the entertainment mogul known for films and TV shows that center the stories of Black people, had a “front-row seat” to Meghan and Harry’s new American life, as he put it in an August Instagram post, but it wasn’t until the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan that the three friends opened up about how they met. Perry turned out to be so important to the couple that he is now the godfather of their one-year-old daughter, Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor.

    By the end of Harry & Meghan, Perry’s role in the family’s lives and in the series made perfect sense. He explained that he initially reached out to Meghan after noticing that her father, Thomas Markle, was seemingly cooperating with the press. A few years later, they developed a friendship when he validated her fears about safety and helped her find a place where the family could spend the early months after their royal exit became official. For those familiar with Perry’s work, there is clearly a deeper meaning to their connection. Themes like family betrayal, abuse, and rescue are all over the work of the gospel playwright turned independent filmmaker, especially early films like Diary of a Mad Black Woman or Madea’s Family Reunion. 

    For Tamika Carey, an associate professor of English at the University of Virginia, Perry’s presence in the royal story was more than just a pleasant surprise. Her academic work focuses on Black women’s literature alongside more mainstream self-help texts, like Oprah, Perry, and Iyanla Vanzant. In her 2016 book Rhetorical Healing: The Reeducation of Contemporary Black Womanhood, she did a close reading of Perry’s work to understand how his portrayal of abuse and overcoming or responding to it reflect broader themes in American life. In her writing about Perry, Carey has been critical of the ways that his work occasionally falls into stereotypes about Black women and families, while also understanding its resonance. 

    This week, Vanity Fair spoke to Carey to get an overview on the connections between Perry’s work and his role in Meghan and Harry’s life, and how understanding the stories in Harry & Meghan can help us become more empathetic.

    “I’m thinking about the concept of sanctuary and what that means, for hypervisible figures, and how the attention that we’re seeing to this fleeing, this basic escape, should be pushing us towards a better understanding of the complicated lives that these individuals lead,” she says. “What kind of additional sensitivities and literacies could we develop in our relationship as spectators of the royals?”

    Vanity Fair: The documentary had an explicit focus on the racial politics of the British media, but the inclusion of Tyler Perry and Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, naturally meant that I was thinking about race in America while I watched. What do you think about Meghan Markle as a symbol for Americans? What does she mean to us?

    Tamika Carey: I think, for a symbol of feminism, she shows a particular type of grace in the midst of attack. She has used her ability to tell a singular and consistent story about that abuse really well. She models speaking out in an unapologetic way about her own experiences, and those are the things that I think will be part of her legacy and part of the way we see her for a long time. One of the other themes that I was seeing was the influence of the mother’s experience. Meghan’s motherland, the fact that they end up in California again as a married couple. The way that Tyler Perry was using both his own mother’s experience as well as Princess Diana as ways to understand what Megan was experiencing.

     There was the early episode where she mentions that she didn’t have to think about race a lot [before her relationship with Harry]. Unfortunately, I know of a lot of cynical black women that were like, “How did you not have to think about race?” The racial politics are a little less clear for me, simply because I can’t ignore that. I’m not quite sure how to put those two together. 

    Oh, totally. I think her initial discomfort with race speaks to why Perry’s role in the story is so fascinating, because he is such a prolific interpreter of Black America. In the sixth episode of the show, his relationship with Meghan sounds almost like a therapist. As someone who is very familiar with Perry and his work, what did you make of that?

    Obviously, we could read the documentary as a way to take back some control of the narrative, which in therapeutic culture, that’s a kind of interesting move in and of itself. Like, ‘We’ll get in front of this. We’ll tell the story from our vantage point.’ That particular episode brings it to an end that’s more positive than where I thought we were going. It’s certainly not saccharine, but I didn’t expect it to come to this conclusion the way that it did.

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    Erin Vanderhoof

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  • Princess Kate Receives New Royal Title from King Charles

    Princess Kate Receives New Royal Title from King Charles

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    Kate Middleton only became Princess Kate a few months ago, but she’s already adding yet another royal title to her collection.

    King Charles named his daughter-in-law as the new honorary Colonel of the Irish Guards, a title previously held by her husband, Prince William. The appointment is a logical one for the princess as she has spent most of her St. Patrick’s Day holidays since marrying into the royal family in 2011 honoring that guard’s regiment. The annual celebration typically involves Kate and her husband traveling to Aldershot in Hampshire, England to take part in the town’s annual parade alongside the Irish Guards. Once there, they also salute the regiment, pass out shamrock boutonniéres, meet with the regiment’s mascot, an Irish wolfhound named Seamus, and celebrate with a Guinness toast.

    Queen Elizabeth previously named Prince William to the role of Colonel of the Irish Guards in 2011, just two months before his wedding, which is why he wore the traditional red Irish Guards officer uniform for the Westminster Abbey ceremony. But under this new sovereign, the prince has also received a new title. King Charles named his son Colonel of the Welsh Guards, a role befitting of his other new title, the Prince of Wales. Charles’s wife Queen Consort Camilla also received the new title of Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, an honor that was previously removed from Prince Andrew by his late mother. This appointment comes after Andrew lost the title amid the scandal surrounding his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    As part of this spate of announcements, King Charles also revealed that Trooping the Colour, the first public celebration of his birthday, will take place next year on June 17, six weeks after his coronation ceremony on May 6. The new monarch’s actual birthday is in November, but in keeping with Queen Elizabeth’s tradition, it will be celebrated by the nation as the kickoff to summer. The parade gets its name from the troops, the Household Division, that attend in their formal uniforms. It first began as a military exercise, but became a celebration for the sovereign in the 18th century during King George II’s reign. Under Queen Elizabeth, the event became one of the biggest celebrations of the year, featuring over 1,400 soldiers, 200 horses, and 400 musicians, and around 40 members of the royal family all gathered together on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

    Listen to Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY podcast now.

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    Emily Kirkpatrick

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  • “They’re Done”: Palace Insiders Say Harry and William’s Relationship is Kaput

    “They’re Done”: Palace Insiders Say Harry and William’s Relationship is Kaput

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    Now that the six-part series Harry & Meghan is widely available on Netflix, the reviews are in from the one place that matters most: Buckingham Palace. 

    While there have not been—nor will there likely be—any official reactions from King Charles III, Queen Consort Camilla, or the Prince and Princess of Wales, but that won’t stop people within the Palace’s organization speaking to members of the press, either on or off the record. 

    The biggest issue currently seems to be the rift that has grown between Prince Harry and his older brother, Prince William. In the Netflix series, Harry accused the heir to the throne of screaming at him in front of their late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, during a conversation about the Sussexes stepping down from their royal duties. He also said that William broke a promise the two had made about never pitting their offices against one another in the press. Harry accused William of being trapped within the “institution” of the monarchy.

    “I think that’s it,” a source told PageSix, concerning the brothers. “They’re done.” 

    A source told V.F. that a rapprochement seems highly unlikely at this juncture. “There’s a great sense of mistrust, it’s why William won’t speak to Harry, because he is nervous that anything he says might end up in a book or a TV series.”

    Parallel to this, officials at the Palace are contesting the remarks that open the show, suggesting that the royal family declined to respond to any of the charges made in the documentary. While it is still unclear if they ever would, representatives from the family accused the Netflix producers of telling a fib, and that they were never approached. This was backpedaled a bit after producers pushed back, and the Palace admitted they were approached for comment via email from a “third-party production company.” They further claim that they did not receive the proper confirmation that they were indeed representing Netflix or the Sussexes. While this does seem like a realistic miscommunication (no doubt the King of England received a lot of wacky email!), one does wonder if anyone can pick up the damn telephone anymore. 

    PageSix’s coverage of the Harry & Meghan reaction included some additional barbs from their “well-placed royal sources.” One individual remarked that Harry and Meghan looked “distanced, sad and bitter” in their $14.5 million home over 5,000 miles from London. Another remarked that it was odd that Tyler Perry, whom they only met months ago, is now godfather to their youngest child. “Do they have any real friends, or is it just Oprah Winfrey?” this person hissed, adding, “they seem quite isolated.” The lashon hara continued, suggesting that Meghan Markle, having only half-siblings, could not understand the true nature of the relationship between the brothers. Such a thing to say!

    Despite all this, Britain’s Daily Telegraph has reported that the controversial California-based couple have in fact, been invited to attend the King’s coronation on May 6 at Westminster Abbey. Prince William is reportedly very involved in the planning for his father’s big event. As it happens, the coronation falls on the same day as Harry and Meghan’s son’s fourth birthday. This likely coincidence could come in handy as an excuse to politely demure the offer to attend. 

    Harry’s book Spare, which promises to go into even more detail about the ins-and-outs of the family, is primed for release on January 10. 

    Listen to Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY podcast now.

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  • What Beyoncé Texted Meghan Markle After Her Oprah Interview

    What Beyoncé Texted Meghan Markle After Her Oprah Interview

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    Beyoncé makes an unexpected cameo via text message in the final episode of Harry & Meghan, the Netflix documentary series telling the story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. The episode dives into what happened after Meghan and Harry opened up to Oprah in a March 2021 interview, following the couple the next day as they deal with the aftermath. The pair are sitting side by side when Meghan mentions that people have been reaching out all day, and she just got a text from Beyoncé.

    Harry gasps. “Shut up!” he says theatrically.

    Meghan, a longtime fan of the singer, expresses some dismay. “I still can’t believe she knows who I am.” Then Meghan paraphrases the text out loud. “She said she wants me to feel safe and protected. She admires my bravery and vulnerability and thinks I was selected to break generational curses that need to be healed.” 

    Beyoncé first expressed her affection for Meghan when she and Jay-Z displayed a portrait of Meghan in the background as they accepted the BRIT Award for their song “Apeshit” in February 2019. Then, in July, the two couples met in person at the London premiere of The Lion King. During that meeting, Jay-Z reportedly said, “The best advice I can give you: always find time for yourself.”

    Though Meghan shared the text message from Beyoncé and the cameras also captured her talking to Tyler Perry after the interview, one communiqué is only mentioned and not revealed. Harry notes that he just got a text from Prince William, later in the day after William told a reporter that he would be reaching out.

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    Erin Vanderhoof

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