I honestly thought the Swedish court would release photos of Prince Oscar today, but that hasn’t happened yet. I had nothing planned because I thought we would be getting baby photos, so here’s a very quick round up of some stuff about The Queen, Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Prince William, Duchess Kate, Prince Harry, and the King and Queen of Bhutan.
The Daily Mail is doing a series to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday; they’ve talked to various members of her family, her friends, and courtiers, as well as below-stairs staff who have giving insight into various topics. The first article in the series is about the Queen’s relationship to Princess Diana.
The two bits I thought were the most interesting were about the Queen’s thoughts on William and Harry, and her thoughts on Charles v Andrew:
- “Over tea with an old friend at Windsor Castle the other day, the Queen was talking about her grandchildren and how well they were doing. She went through all eight of them, but when the names of William and Harry came up, there was a pause — and a smile. ‘Perhaps, after all, we have rather a lot to thank Diana for,’ she said. […] ‘[the Queen] would never say now that Diana hasn’t contributed to the family,’ says the friend. ‘[the Queen] sees how much Diana radiates out of William and Harry and the effect they have on ordinary people.'”
- “Intriguingly, what upset [the Queen] more than anything up to the break-up of the Waleses’ marriage were pictures in the newspapers of Andrew’s bikini-clad wife Sarah — the Duchess of York — having her toes sucked by American lover John Bryan beside a swimming pool at a villa in the South of France. ‘The Queen is very protective towards Andrew and she was deeply wounded on his behalf that he had been made to look such a cuckolded fool before the entire world,’ says one close figure. By contrast, her distress at the publication of the toe-curling ‘Camillagate’ tape, in which the Prince of Wales made lavatorial references in conversation with his mistress Mrs. Parker Bowles, was, says one close figure, ‘relatively mild’.”
So basically the Queen has no problems with the way William and Harry act and how much they work, and she cares way more about Andrew than Charles. I’m sure it’s normal for parents to have a “favorite child”, but it must be terrible on the non-favorite child for the parent to be so obvious in their favoritism.
Yesterday was Mothers Day in the UK (the US doesn’t celebrate that holiday until May), and the Clarence House Twitter account released a video of the Queen playing with Prince Charles in 1949 when she was still Princess Elizabeth and he was still an only child. This video is adorable.
Today, we’re sharing this video of The Queen and The Prince of Wales having fun at home in 1949. Happy #MothersDay!https://t.co/U4S33GVkaH
— Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) March 6, 2016
Prince William’s former girlfriend (the one he dated at St. Andrews before meeting Kate), Olivia Hunt, got married over the weekend to Nicholas Wilkinson. Prince Harry attended the wedding, but William and Duchess Kate were no-shows.
A guest said: “Prince Harry was there, along with most of William and Kate’s friends. Their absence was really striking.” [Daily Mail]
The last wedding Kate went to was in November 2014. Last summer, William went to a wedding solo and then the press said Kate disappeared from public and social events because she’d skipped so many of William’s friend’s weddings. I guess now they’re both skipping weddings.
[His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck Facebook]
Here are some baby photos even though they aren’t the ones I was hoping for. To mark his first month of life, King Jigme Khesar and Queen Jetsun released more photos of their still unnamed Prince.
The first photo (above) is of the King, Queen, and Prince with 50-year-old Kezang Dorji, who traveled for 3 days to reach Thimphu from his village in Merak to receive an Audience with the King and offer his wishes for the Royal Birth.
The second and third photos are with Her Majesty The Royal Grandmother.
[His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck Facebook]
[His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck Facebook]
What beautiful photos of the Bhutan royal family, what a cute video of the Queen and Prince Charles as well. That video, at the end, says “thanks to the BFI” and when I looked at it really quick I thought it says “thanks to the FBI for the pics” LOL
LOL that’s what I thought when I first saw it too!
The Cambridges are in the French Alps. The British Monarchy posted the pictures on Facebook. Criticism averted, I suppose, for awhile.
Beautiful pictures of the Bhutanese family. They are so warm and lovely.
Yes I saw the pictures, I keep my comment on these til KMR post them…
I agree : beautiful pictures of the Bhutanese family!!!
Yes, beautiful pictures from Bhutan – look at those flowers! I do think the third picture is quite interesting because it is taken from a bird’s-eye view. You NEVER see that when it comes to official photos of royalty, etc.
Oh my goodness, Charles was a cute kid!!!! Can you imagine W+K releasing a video of them playing with George like this lol
I know! Charles was such a cutie. And seeing Elizabeth play with him was adorable. I’d love to see a video of William and Kate playing with George and Charlotte like that.
I would love to see that too KMR. I actually made that comment on DM and got nothing but red arrows and grief from some girl for it. I seriously doubt we’ll ever get anything like that out of W&K because of William’s privacy rules.
Why did some girl give you grief for wanting to see W&K playing with G&C?
Interesting article on Queen Elizabeth with her revelations. I had read that Prince Andrew was her favorite. One does wonder how the other siblings felt about this. He sure was good looking when young. He sure fell from grace which is so sad.
Wow the Bhutan Royal couple are showing more photos this soon. They are such a sweet family. Thank you for sharing.
I actually think Charles was better looking when he was young than Andrew when he was young.
Here is a photo of just Jetsun Pema with the king’s grandmother. http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/3310/2336/original.jpg
Beautiful photos, but I would have loved another close-up of the baby. It would be nice to see how different he looks since a few days after birth.
I still wonder what the King and Queen will have to discuss with W&K during the upcoming visit. The King and Queen seem like intelligent and positive people. I hope some of their positive way of thinking (i.e. like sharing their baby photos) rubs off on W&K.
I don’t know what to think about HM comments on William and Harry. I’m pretty sure it was a complimentary remark with regards to Diana, William and Harry, but I don’t necessarily feel she was saying she’s happy with their lack of work. More that they relate well to the public (and honestly I think she was referring more to Harry than William)
The photos the Bhutan family releases are all gorgeous photos. The colors, the clear joy on the faces of those in the photos with the baby. Can’t wait to see more!
I agree, I think the Queen was referring to the way they converse and connect with people, taking a genuine interest and especially visiting people behind the scenes where people don’t have camera and officials to intimidate them and can be candid and honest. Harry does the latter still and William use to with Centrepoint but not so much William these days, including conversing and engaging well with people.
Diana starting training them while they were young. This was one of the biggest things that Diana got slated for in her time, she didn’t behave like a Royal the way she connected with people human to human, touched them and was so down to earth.
She would insist on waiting in queues, at home would take the boys down stairs to thank the chefs for preparing their meals and knew them by name, Sarah Fergusson would try copy Diana with this with her kids but would get the names wrong. Diana took the boys to shelters, and they volunteered like anyone else including being in conversations with people who didn’t care for the monarchy, Ken Wharf speaks of an incident when William was confronted and quite shocked.
Diana broke the mold and set a new pattern in the way royals engaged with people, like normal people do and without an overload of all the airs and graces.
Andrew is very old school in that he’ll remind you of your station, he’d do so even with his girlfriends. He likes to remind people that he’s the sovereign’s son and wants more Royal recognition for his daughters.
They are ridiculously good looking! So is Bhutan. I love the rich, saturated colours and their genuine happiness.
Awww, I love these photos of the beautiful Bhutan royal family!!! Kudos for using the aerial photo as it provides an interesting perspective. I kind of choked up when reading about the man who traveled 3 days (by foot I assume) in order to give his good wishes to the Royal family personally. It is rather telling of the genuine affection felt for this Royal family, that someone would go to such lengths to meet with them.
I love that photo Lauri wish we knew a little more about the visitor- a relation or just a subject.
Love these photos of the Bhutanese family so filled with joy and love.
With regard to your comment KMR that all parents have favourites. I don’t find that. I find with three that each needs me at different times for different reasons and that there are times I devote more attention to one than the other , but it evens out, with young adults this is even more true. They are all so different that it is easy to love some things about one, be irritated by another and then things swing round and it’s all change. They all say one of the others is my favourite which I think proves that none of them are. My mother has three sons and me and she has always made it clear she would have preferred four boys. She had a stroke last week and I was the first to visit her and through incomprehensible speech I did hear her ask why my brothers weren’t there and I was! It’s a terrible thing for a parent to show favouritism so I hope Will stops it soon. G is going to need all the support he can get as the heir to a throne that might be looking less robust once HM passes on.
Sorry to hear your mum had a stroke, Birdy. I hope she’ll get better.
Yes, it’s terrible when parents show they care more for one child. Can’t imagine what his mother’s soft spot for Andrew did to Charles.
Watching this vintage video of Charles and his mother is so sweet. It’s sad though that it wasn’t like that throughout his childhood. He was deprived a lot of her.
The Bhutanese family is amazing. I don’t know what is more beautiful: the baby, the love of his parents for him, the backdrop, the visitor, or the grandmother. I am so glad that I saw this post today after the flotsam and jetsam of the ski pics.
It was a nice balance to see the then Princess Elizabeth with Charles. I often forget how HM is a mom and loved that role.
Thank you for such a sweet way to start or end a Monday, KMR!
There is so much love on display in the Bhutanese photos. All the color, the magnificent background, too.
Me too I would love to go and offer my wishes to the King and Queen of Bhutan! I think I’ll take the plane though, it would take me more than three days, lol.
Stunning pictures. Better than the staged ones of Cambridges in the French Alps, IMO.
The name of the Prince of Bhutan will be revealed on April 16 :http://www.kuenselonline.com/hrh-the-gyalsey-to-be-named-on-zhabdrung-kuchoe/
So after the visit of K&W? I don’t remember when they are in Bhutan