Catching up with the royals (June 23, 2025 edition)
A five-day family reunion, a brooch reappears, and a lacklustre launch
Note: I prefer living with ceiling fans rather than in an air-conditioned home, except when Mother Nature suddenly switches from a cool spring temperatures to humid heat that rivals the surface of the sun. As a result, I slowed down on Monday to the point that I wrote this newsletter in the relative coolness of Tuesday morning, when the humidex is a relatively low 36C.
AN ADORABLE BIRTHDAY PHOTO
The royal birthday boy turned 43 on Saturday and his family marked the day with a new image of him with three of the puppies that their spaniel Orla recently had. It’s not the usual photo, as Prince William is not looking at the camera, but his lack of focus is perfectly reasonable — he’s surrounded by PUPPIES! (Kate was holding the fourth puppy while taking this image, explained Rebecca English of the Daily Mail.)
KATE WAS MIA
She went to the Order of the Garter service last Monday then dropped out of attending Royal Ascot at the last moment on Wednesday. The last-minute change drew a lot of attention from the media.
I wrote about Kate’s return from a year of ill health in a post last Friday: “By the Numbers: How’s Kate doing, really?”
Have no fear — Wimbledon starts next week and Kate always attends as patron of the All England Lawn & Tennis Club, which hosts the competition. Last year, attending Wimbledon was one of only two official engagements she did while undergoing chemo.
FAMILY FUN AT ROYAL ASCOT
It is a huge five-day family reunion for the royals as many of the extended family attend, often on multiple days. The contrast between the event’s formality (morning coats and top hats for men, fabulous hats and outfits for women, lots of bows and curtseys) and the informal (lots of hugs, kisses, and laughs) makes Royal Ascot a rare time when we can see the family dynamic in public. It's now even better than when we used to see them on the balcony for Trooping the Colour as this is a multi-day event and they mill around, especially when those in the royal procession greet the waiting royals in the royal enclosure. Then there are the scenes in the royal box, where family and guests are very relaxed — William with a Pimms in his hand, Queen Camilla anxiously watching a race that she’s likely put a wager on.
The King and Queen went every day. He was enjoying it so much that he accompanied his wife to a trophy presentation even though he wasn’t scheduled to be there.
ANOTHER CAMILLA BROOCH MOMENT, STUDENT STYLE, AND ROYAL RECYCLING
Royal Ascot is a huge business for Britain, both for racing and fashion. For the latter, I recommend the royalbritishfashion account on Instagram.
A) Queen Camilla has developed a wonderful habit of wearing pieces that been buried deep in the royal jewellery vault for decades. It’s one of the ways she’s shaken up the royal family style game, as I wrote in “Rewriting the royal jewellery rules.”
On the last day of Royal Ascot, she wore a Victorian era brooch that hadn’t been seen for 90 years. It’s a diamond watch brooch that Alice Rothschild gave to the future Queen Mary as a wedding present in 1893 — the bottom section of the brooch conceals a watch. It was last seen being worn by the Duchess of York in 1936, months before she became Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother). You can read more about the brooch and its history on The Court Jeweller site.
B) The Duchess of Gloucester wore a dramatic hat that was created by one of the King’s Foundation millinery students. Barnaby Horn had just completed the Métiers d’Art Millinery Fellowship (a collaboration between Chanel and the King’s Foundation) and had won the charity’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Barney won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at our King’s Foundation Awards last week. The hat is made from straw, vintage parisisal (a thinly woven straw), silk, and metal leaf, and is designed to be a meld between tradition and modernity, Barnaby explained, “I wanted to create a hat that appeared both classic and technological. A gold wire supports a giant rose. The metal leaf accents contrast with the silk petals and vintage straw.”
C) What also caught my eye was how Princess Anne and her former sister-in-law, Sarah, Duchess of York, seemed to be vying for the title of wearing the oldest outfit possible. And they kept going back into their wardrobes as they each wore two pieces that are at least 30 years old.
Princess Anne:
38-year-old outfit: https://x.com/TheLaurences_/status/1935378853016531350
30-year-old dress: https://x.com/TheLaurences_/status/1935785531629076627
Sarah, Duchess of York:
39-year-old dress: https://x.com/sarahdiaryz/status/1936105180350804381
37-year-old jacket: https://x.com/RE_DailyMail/status/1935079304494256271
For those wanting to indulge in more of the 200th anniversary of the Royal Procession and to see the royal family enjoying their days at the races, here is a list of Royal Ascot stills and videos, grouped by day.
Day 1:
https://x.com/KateMansey/status/1934970256184742149
https://x.com/AtTheRaces/status/1934960587173195799
Day 2:
https://x.com/Tatlermagazine/status/1935710485204398365
https://x.com/freedom_007__/status/1935471838311633162
https://x.com/KateMansey/status/1935338970671366540
https://x.com/emilyinpalace/status/1935327184354152497
Day 3:
https://x.com/markacuthbert/status/1935774469101948947
https://x.com/CameronDLWalker/status/1935689673881563197
https://x.com/AtTheRaces/status/1935685167743471687
Day 4:
https://x.com/royalfocus1/status/1936129452578164822
Day 5:
https://x.com/AtTheRaces/status/1936412098478678368
and https://x.com/ChristinsQueens/status/1936411580083626456
WILLIAM WITH CATE, NOT KATE
On the day after Kate was a no-show at Royal Ascot, Prince William went on an engagement with the actress Cate Blanchett. She's a member of the Earthshot Prize Council and he’s the founder and president of the environmental prize charity. They spent time at Colorifix, an Earthshot Prize finalist two years ago, which has come up with a sustainable fabric dye, which could revolutionize the fashion industry
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
It wasn’t even close. Jane Barlow of the Press Association snapped a wonderfully candid image of two exhausted farmers sleeping as Princess Anne walks by during a visit to the Royal Highland Show. It was published by the Herald newspaper in Scotland and quickly went viral. Enjoy.
BITS AND BOBS
I’d never heard of the BBC’s annual Midwinter Antarctic Broadcast until the King recorded a message for its 70th anniversary.
Tennis great Rafael Nadal received a hereditary peerage from King Felipe of Spain. The tennis great is now the Marquis of Levant de Mallorca.
Days after having surgery to repair her broken upper arm after being thrown from her horse, Princess Amalia of the Netherlands had her arm in a sling as she visited a new military regiment named after her.
HARRY’S GAMBIT
Charlotte Griffiths of the Daily Mail reports that the Duke of Sussex will soon officially invite his father and brother to attend the Invictus Games, which will be held in Birmingham from July 12 to 17, 2027.
Is it an olive branch and a possible first step toward reconciliation or a way to exert maximum pressure to get his estranged family to meet him on what would be “home turf” — the Invictus Games?
By revealing the invitations so early — and the sourcing appears to be from the Sussex camp — Prince Harry is putting maximum pressure on his family, essentially saying, “Be there or be branded as disrespectful to military veterans.”
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