Tag: prince william

  • Royals to not wear military uniform at Philip’s funeral ‘to avoid embarrassing Harry’

    Royals to not wear military uniform at Philip’s funeral ‘to avoid embarrassing Harry’

    Senior members of the royal family will not wear military uniform at Prince Philip’s funeral, in a break with tradition designed to avoid embarrassing Prince Harry, British media has reported.

    The Duke of Sussex, who lost his military titles after stepping down as a senior working royal, faced being the only senior male royal not in uniform, despite having served two tours in Afghanistan. According to protocol, he is required to wear civilian dress, although he would be allowed to wear his medals.

    On the other hand, the Duke of York Prince Andrew, who stepped back from public duties following the controversy over his friendship with the disgraced financial and sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein, was due to be promoted to the rank of admiral in 2020 to mark his 60th birthday, but this did not go ahead following the fallout from his disastrous Newsnight appearance.

    The dilemma that exists is the fact that both the royals are the only ones to have seen active service – Harry in Afghanistan and Andrew in the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict.

    As a result, the 94-year-old queen decided all royals should wear mourning suits to avoid any embarrassment. It was “the most eloquent solution to the problem”, said a source while talking on the matter.

    At a ceremonial royal funeral like Prince Philip’s, it has been traditional for uniforms to be worn. They were worn at the last ceremonial royal funeral, that of the Queen Mother. However, a no-uniform rule was adopted for the private family funeral of Princess Margaret, when mourning dress was worn, and for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, who was by then no longer an official member of the royal family.

    The decision is a break with tradition for ceremonial royal funerals and will contrast with the strong military presence that will be on show to honour the duke, who served with distinction in the second world war.

    Meanwhile, Prince Philip’s funeral is scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 17. Preparations for the funeral are underway and a specially built Land Rover will carry his coffin from Windsor to St George’s Chapel. The car had been designed by the Duke himself, reportedly 18 years ago.

    The funeral ceremony will just have 30 guests in attendance, in line with government regulations. Heir to the throne Charles, his wife Camilla, and the monarch’s three other children and eight grandchildren, as well as all their spouses, will be among those present.

    Other guests include the children of the queen’s late sister Princess Margaret, and three of Philip’s German relatives — Bernhard, the hereditary prince of Baden; Donatus, prince and landgrave of Hesse; and Prince Philipp of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Countess Mountbatten, Penelope “Penny” Knatchbull, who was Philip’s carriage driving partner and one of his closest friends, is also invited.

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson opted against attending to free up a space.

    Attendees including the Queen will be required to wear face masks, sit apart and observe COVID-19 social distancing rules.

    Queen Elizabeth will be accompanied to the venue in the state Bentley by a lady-in-waiting, before sitting alone in the chapel.

    Furthermore, William and Harry will not walk side by side in the procession, Buckingham Palace has revealed, giving traction to reports of rifts between the two. According to details, Princess Anne’s son, Peter Philips, is positioned between them and William will move ahead of his younger brother as the royal mourners enter in pairs.

    As young boys in 1997, the pair provided the most poignant image of their mother Princess Diana’s funeral as they walked, heads bowed, behind her coffin. Prince Philip had accompanied them, alongside their father Prince Charles and uncle Charles Spencer.

    The funeral will be Harry and William’s first public meeting since Harry’s shock move to the United States last year and Oprah’s bombshell interview. The brothers have reportedly fallen out over Harry’s departure.

  • Prince Philip passes away at 99

    Prince Philip passes away at 99

    Queen Elizabeth II’s husband and the longest-serving consort of any British monarch Prince Philip has died at age 99.

    In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: “It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.”

    “His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle,” it added.

    The statement also said that further announcements will be made in due course.

    Philip, who retired from public duties in 2017, had earlier been admitted to hospital on February 16, 2021. He went back home after nearly a month during which he was treated for a pre-existing heart condition and an infection.

    His death comes just months before his 100th birthday in June — an event typically marked in Britain with a congratulatory message from the queen, who is now Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

    The couple, who celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in November, had been living largely in isolation at Windsor Castle, west of London because their advanced age put them at heightened risk from COVID-19. They received their first vaccinations against the virus in January.

    Officially known as the Duke of Edinburgh, Philip married Prince Elizabeth in 1947, five years before she became Queen and had been by his wife’s side throughout her 69-year reign, the longest in British history. During this time he earned a reputation for a tough, no-nonsense attitude and a propensity for occasional gaffes. He is also credited with playing a key role in modernising the monarchy in the post-World War Two period, and behind the walls of Buckingham Palace being the one key figure the queen could turn to and trust.

    “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,” Elizabeth said in a rare personal tribute to Philip made in a speech marking their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997.

    Read more – ‘We’re not a racist family’: Prince William rejects Meghan’s claims of racism

    The couple had four children, eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

  • Harry has ‘unproductive’ conversation with Charles, William after bitter TV interview

    Harry has ‘unproductive’ conversation with Charles, William after bitter TV interview

    Prince Harry has spoken to his father and brother after he and his wife Meghan Markle raised allegations of racism in the royal family during an explosive TV interview, a friend said Tuesday.

    In the interview, Harry said that his father Prince Charles had cut him off financially and at one point stopped taking his calls, and also described his damaged relationship with Prince William.

    The British monarchy has been rocked by the couple’s allegations that an unnamed royal asked how dark their child’s skin would be before he was born.

    “I did actually call them to see how they were feeling, and it’s true Harry has talked to his brother and he has talked to his father too,” Gayle King, a US television presenter and friend of the couple, said on CBS.

    “The word I was given was that those conversations were not productive, but they are glad they have at least started a conversation.”

    King said the couple were “frustrated” that alleged racism in the royal family had dominated the news agenda since the interview was broadcast on March 7.

    “All they wanted all along was for the royals to intervene and tell the press to stop with the unfair, inaccurate, false stories that definitely have a racial slant,” King said, adding that no one had spoken to Meghan as yet.

    She added that Harry and Meghan wanted “healing” in the family, but that Meghan had “documents to back up everything” she had said in the interview with Oprah Winfrey.

    As for what Meghan and Harry hope will happen in the future, King explained, “The family has to acknowledge that there are issues, and right now, no one is acknowledging, ‘Houston, we have a problem here.’ That’s really all they want. They want a conversation.”

    The allegations, which the royal family said would be investigated, have plunged the monarchy into its biggest crisis since the death of William and Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.

    Meghan, a former actress, told Winfrey she was “naively” unprepared for life as a royal and had contemplated suicide while pregnant with their first child. On the other hand, Prince Harry said that he felt let down by his father Prince Charles and that his late mother Diana would have been angry and upset at the way the British royal family had treated his wife Meghan.

    “My family literally cut me off financially,” Harry had said. “But I’ve got what my mum left me and without that we would not have been able to do this.”

    Meanwhile, William while responding to the interview had said: “We’re very much not a racist family,” while Buckingham Palace, in a statement, said that they will address the couple’s grievances privately.

  • ‘We’re not a racist family’: Prince William rejects Meghan’s claims of racism

    ‘We’re not a racist family’: Prince William rejects Meghan’s claims of racism

    Prince William has defended the British royal family after his younger brother Harry and wife Meghan accused them of racism in a bombshell interview watched by millions across the world.

    “We’re very much not a racist family,” William told reporters during a visit to a multi-racial school in a deprived area of East London, becoming the first royal to directly address the explosive interview.

    The Duke of Cambridge, son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, added that he had yet to speak to Harry in California since the interview first aired in the United States on Sunday.

    “No, I haven’t spoken to him yet, but I will do,” he said, as his wife Kate Middleton walked by his side.

    Harry and Meghan’s allegations of racism and mistreatment have rocked the royal family, and though Buckingham Palace tried to diffuse the situation saying that they will address the couple’s grievances privately, it has failed to quell the controversy.

    Meghan, who is biracial, said in the interview she was so isolated and miserable as a working member of the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts. She also said Harry told her there were “concerns and conversations” by a royal family member about the color of her baby’s skin when she was pregnant with their son, Archie.

    Meghan and Harry’s comments have touched off conversations around the world about racism, mental health and even the relationship between Britain and its former colonies.

    Meanwhile, Charles has yet to comment on the controversy but was filmed on Tuesday touring a Nigerian Christian church in London whose pastors are promoting a drive to vaccinate more black people against the coronavirus.

  • Meghan says she has forgiven Kate for making her cry, accuses Royals of making her suicidal

    Meghan says she has forgiven Kate for making her cry, accuses Royals of making her suicidal

    Meghan Markle, in a tell-all interview with Oprah, has given a rare insight into her relationship with Kate Middleton, admitting to the fact that their relationship has been tense.

    Read more – Meghan’s ‘Suits’ co-star Patrick Adams defends Duchess, hits out at the Royal Family

    When Oprah asked her to share details on media reports which stated that the Duchess made Kate cry in the days leading up to her wedding with Prince Harry in April 2018, Meghan said: “The reverse [of what was reported] happened. And I don’t say that to be disparaging toward anyone, because it was a really hard week of the wedding. And she was upset about something, but she owned it and she apologised and she brought me flowers and a note apologizing and she did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone, right? To just take accountability for it.”

    “What was shocking was, six or seven months after our wedding, that the reverse of that would be out in the world,” she added.

    In November 2018, it was reported that Meghan had driven Kate to tears over dresses to be worn by the flower girls at the wedding.

    Meghan told Oprah that it was actually Kate who’d been upset about “something pertaining to the flower girl dresses” and that the Duchess of Cambridge’s actions, which she refused to disclose, had made her cry.

    “It really hurt my feelings,” Meghan said. “And I thought in the context of everything else going on in those days leading to the wedding that it didn’t make sense to not just be doing what everyone else was doing, which was trying to be supportive knowing what was going on with my dad and whatnot.”

    Meghan asserted that it wasn’t a “confrontation” with Kate and that she has forgiven her sister-in-law. However, she said that it was hard for her later to be blamed by the media for something she didn’t do.

    Meghan said she still doesn’t understand why the wedding communications team didn’t defend her.

    “Everyone in the institution knew it wasn’t true,” she said.

    When Oprah asked why the palace didn’t go on the record to dispel the story, Meghan responded, “That’s a good question. I would hope that [Kate] would’ve wanted that corrected. Maybe in the same way that the palace wouldn’t let anybody else negate it, they wouldn’t let her. Because she’s a good person.”

    It is pertinent to add here that Kate’s youngest son Prince Louis was born less than a month before Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding.

    ‘I didn’t want to be alive anymore’

    Meanwhile, Meghan also said that she contemplated taking her own life after joining the royal family, and raised allegations of racism in the monarchy during an explosive television interview.

    Explaining the couple’s dramatic exit from royal life, Meghan said she was denied help during her mental health crisis, was targeted by lies, and that there was official concern about the skin colour of her unborn son.

    “I… just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he (Harry) just cradled me,” she told Winfrey, describing the impact of a torrent of vitriol from hostile tabloids and social media.

    “I went to the institution and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help … And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.

    “I remember this conversation like it was yesterday, because they said, my heart goes out to you because I see how bad it is, but there’s nothing we can do to protect you because you’re not a paid employee of the institution.

    “This wasn’t a choice. This was emails and begging for help, saying very specifically I am concerned for my mental welfare.”

    Asked if she had had suicidal thoughts while pregnant, Meghan replied “Yes. This was very, very clear.”

    Meghan, 39, also told of royal “concerns” about “how dark” her son’s skin would be, saying Harry revealed to her official conversations over Archie’s appearance, as well as the security he would be entitled to, ahead of his birth on May 6, 2019.

    “They didn’t want him to be a prince or princess, not knowing what the gender would be, which would be different from protocol and that he wasn’t going to receive security,” said Meghan.

    “In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of, you won’t be given security, not gonna be given a title and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”

    Asked who the conversation was with: “I think that would be very damaging to them. That was relayed to me from Harry, those were conversations the family had with him.”

    Meghan and Harry welcomed their first child Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in May 2019. They are currently expecting their second child. In the interview, the couple revealed that they are expecting a girl and that she is due sometime in the summer.

    Later, when asked if she was not supported by the powers that be, she said: “There’s the family, and then there’s the people that are running the institution, those are two separate things and it’s important to be able to compartmentalise that because the queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me.”

    The two-hour interview with the queen of US television was the biggest royal tell-all since Harry’s mother Princess Diana detailed her crumbling marriage to his father Prince Charles in 1995.

  • Prince William welcomes new investigation into Diana’s explosive BBC interview

    Prince William welcomes new investigation into Diana’s explosive BBC interview

    Prince William has “tentatively welcomed” an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding a BBC interview in 1995 with his mother, Princess Diana, royal officials said on Thursday.

    William, who is second in line to the throne, in a statement said that the probe is “a step in the right direction”. He added that it “should help establish the truth behind the actions” that led to the interview as well as “subsequent decisions taken by those in the BBC at the time”.

    The Princess of Wales was interviewed by BBC’s Martin Bashir (R) in the current affairs program, Panorama, November 20, 1995

    On Wednesday, BBC announced that it has appointed a retired senior judge to lead an investigation into the 1995 interview after Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, made renewed complaints this month that journalist Martin Bashir used false documents and other dishonest tactics to convince Diana to agree to the interview.

    The investigation will consider if the steps taken by the broadcaster and Bashir were appropriate and whether those actions influenced Diana’s decision to give the interview. It will also look into how much the BBC knew about the “mocked-up bank statements” that Charles Spencer claimed Bashir produced, purporting to show payments made to staff working for Spencer and the royal family.

    Read more – New documentary claiming Princess Diana tried to commit suicide ‘upsets’ William & Harry

    The 1995 interview, in which Diana famously said “there were three of us in this marriage” — referring to Prince Charles’ relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles — was watched by millions of people and sent shockwaves through the monarchy.

    Diana divorced from Charles in 1996 and died in a Paris car crash in 1997 as she was pursued by paparazzi. Charles married Camilla, now the Duchess of Cornwall, in 2005.

  • Princess Diana makes a dramatic debut in the latest season of ‘The Crown’

    More than two decades after her death, Princess Diana’s ill-fated entry into the British royal family is the main storyline in the long-awaited fourth season of the hit Netflix drama The Crown.

    https://twitter.com/TheCrownNetflix/status/1321814107943772162

    Emma Corrin, a 24-year-old actress little known until now, immerses herself in the role of the young Diana, capturing her soft voice and timid gaze from under a heavy fringe.

    But the actress admitted in an interview with The Sunday Times that she felt a “huge amount of pressure” to pull off the role in the new season, which starts on Sunday.

    Diana is shown as a naive teenager who quickly becomes lonely in the role of Prince Charles’ fiancee and rollerskates around Buckingham Palace to pass the time. Even before their unhappy marriage, she begins cycles of bulimia: binge-eating and then purging herself of food.

    Diana Spencer had just turned 20 when the couple married in 1981, while Charles was 32. As heir to the throne, since reaching his 30s, he had faced pressure to marry to ensure succession.

    Despite having doubts, he agreed to propose to Diana but did not sever ties with his long-time lover, Camilla Parker-Bowles. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 and Charles subsequently married Parker-Bowles in 2005.

    While the previous series depicted Charles as a sensitive and misunderstood boy, as Diana’s husband he is seen as cold and unfaithful, complaining to Camilla that she is “so weak, so fragile”.

    The breakup of their marriage due to infidelities and Diana’s confessional television interview was scandalous at the time and is making headlines even today.

    The BBC has pledged to hold an independent investigation into how its journalist Martin Bashir persuaded Diana to take part in the sensational interview in 1995. Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, claims Bashir showed faked documents to persuade Diana to take part in the interview, where she famously complained “there were three of us in this marriage so it was a bit crowded.”

    The love triangle is one of the main storylines in the fourth season, which covers the late 1970s and the 1980s.

    The scriptwriters also dramatise a notorious incident that year in which a 33-year-old man, Michael Hagan — frustrated at being unemployed and separated from his wife — broke into Buckingham Palace and entered the queen’s bedroom.

    The queen, who kept her legendary sang-froid, is again played by Olivia Colman, the British actress who won an Oscar for The Favourite in 2019. In the fifth series, she will hand over the role of the older queen to 64-year-old Imelda Staunton, known for playing the cruel Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films.

    The US actress Gillian Anderson plays Margaret Thatcher, the imperious first woman to head the British government, in a season dominated by strong female roles.

    Read more – Netflix Originals you can watch with your parents

    A critical and popular success, The Crown was first broadcast in 2016 and has won numerous awards, including three Golden Globes and 10 Emmy Awards.

    A total of 73 million people have watched at least one episode of the series, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s joint chief executive and chief content officer, said in January.

  • Prince William reportedly contracted COVID-19 in April

    Prince William reportedly contracted COVID-19 in April

    Britain’s Prince William reportedly contracted COVID-19 in April at a similar time to his father Prince Charles, British media reported late on Sunday, citing Kensington Palace sources.

    William, grandson of Queen Elizabeth and second-in-line to the British throne, kept his diagnosis a secret because he did not want to alarm the country, The Sun newspaper reported.

    “There were important things going on and I didn’t want to worry anyone,” William was quoted by the newspaper as having told an observer at an engagement.

    He was treated by palace doctors and followed government guidelines by isolating at the family home Anmer Hall, in Norfolk, the newspaper said, adding he still carried out 14 telephone and video call engagements during April.

    “William was hit pretty hard by the virus – it really knocked him for six. At one stage he was struggling to breathe, so obviously everyone around him was pretty panicked,” a source told The Sun.

    BBC News also confirmed the news from sources late on Sunday, with Kensington Palace and the office of Prince William refusing to comment officially to the news outlet.

    According to royal reporter Chris Ship, Kate and the couple’s children did not test positive for the virus.

    The residence of William’s father, Prince Charles, had said on March 25 that Charles tested positive for the coronavirus. The heir to the throne had self-isolated at his residence in Scotland for seven days with mild symptoms.

    Britain has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak and has reported 46,717 COVID-19 deaths – defined as those dying within 28 days of a positive test. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday ordered England back into a national lockdown after the United Kingdom passed the milestone of one million COVID-19 cases and a second wave of infections threatened to overwhelm the health service. The one-month lockdown across England will kick in at a minute past midnight on Thursday morning and last until December 2.

  • VIDEO: Kate Middleton, Prince William play games with students in Pakistan

    VIDEO: Kate Middleton, Prince William play games with students in Pakistan

    One year on from the Royal Visit to Pakistan, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge caught up with teachers at Islamabad Model College for Girls to hear how the school’s activities have been impacted by the COVID-19, before joining pupils in a game of Pictionary.

    The video which has been shared on the couple’s official social media account, Kensington Palace, shows Kate and William reunite with the girls and teachers of Islamabad Model College for Girls. During the conversation, Kate praised the teachers for “doing an amazing job” during the coronavirus pandemic.

    “You are a real lifeline for families out there,” she added.

    The couple also played a game of Pictionary with the students. After first thinking a diagram was a wedding, Kate — who wore a traditional Pakistani outfit for the occasion — eventually guessed the first question correctly when she said a birthday.

    As William squinted at the screen to see the drawings, he complimented the girls on their skills, with one of them asking if they enjoyed drawing.

    “Yes, definitely, we both like a little bit of drawing,” William said. “Catherine is very good, I’m really bad.”

    In response, Kate joked: “You don’t practice enough!”

    William then guessed the correct answer to a description of a game of cricket that served as a reminder of one of the couple’s memorable moment in the week-long visit when they played the game with some young people.

    Kate and William also spoke with a special group at SOS Children’s Village in Lahore. During the call, the royal couple was told how the village has helped to teach the children how to combat the spread of COVID-19 through sessions led by doctors and medical staff. They also spoke about the support given for the mental health of the staff and children throughout the pandemic.

    “Their Royal Highnesses heard how the village has helped to teach the children how to combat the spread of Covid-19 through special sessions led by doctors and medical staff, and the work that has been carried out to support the mental health of their staff and children throughout the pandemic,” an official statement by Kensington Palace said.

    Some of the village’s children also showed off some of the artwork, including drawings and friendship bracelets that they had created about their memories of the visit last year.

    Kate and William were clearly taken by SOS Children’s Village. After they visited the children’s centre as part of their official itinerary, they returned to the centre the next day after they were forced to stay in Lahore due to a storm. During their second visit, the couple took part in cricket and arts and crafts and joined in a birthday party for one of the children supported by the village.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CGaXpSipf15/

    Kate and William had thoroughly enjoyed their tour of the country last year, with Kate calling it “fantastic” and “really special.”

    Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an official statement, said that it was “incredibly thoughtful of the Duke and Duchess to check in with the students in these challenging times.”

  • HSY shares how Lady Diana inspired him

    Princess of Wales Lady Diana was loved by millions across the world. She touched hearts wherever she went and inspired an entire generation.

    Renowned fashion designer, Hassan Sheheryar Yasin (HSY) recently shared how the late princess inspired him. Sharing a picture of himself with Prince William and Kate Middleton from their recent visit to Pakistan, HSY wrote, “Life is unpredictable and magical. Let me take you back.”

    Throwing it back to the day of Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s wedding, HSY said “I was a little boy who she [his mother] took along with her to stand way back in line to get a glimpse of the procession. She held me up on her shoulders the entire time so I could see beyond the sea of people in front of us. I was lucky to catch a glimpse of the Royal Carriage with the beautiful Queen of Hearts waving to the jubilant crowd as it passed us by.”

    “It was a magical moment. I was captivated. I would think about her and her regal posture, that stunning gown and her elegance and kindness for decades to come,” he said further. “She inspired me like she inspired countless others.”

    Read more – What did Mehwish Hayat & Prince William talk about and other inside details from the grand royal reception

    Coming back to the present day, HSY shared how honoured he was to have met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

    “I was celebrating my 25 years in fashion, it felt like I had come full circle,” said the designer while talking about his meeting with the royal couple. “This recognition of being invited from a handful from Pakistan to be introduced to them for your contributions in your field. I was overcome with gratitude. The son and daughter-in-law of the very same person who sparked my desire to be who I am were standing right in front of me and acknowledging my work,” he added.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CBiIK8phuh6/

    Meanwhile, HSY is gearing up for his official film debut. The designer will be making an appearance in Muhib Mirza’s Ishrat Made in China with a role that has been specially written for him. According to reports, the film is an action flick which revolves around gang rivalries and that HSY will be playing a negative role in it.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CA5ZCUvBR5K/