Catching up with the royals (March 31, 2025 edition)
Ill health for the King, a charity scandal for Harry, and commercial success for Meghan
THE KING'S HEALTH
On March 27, Buckingham Palace revealed that “following scheduled and ongoing medical treatment for cancer this morning, the King experienced temporary side effects that required a short period of observation in hospital.” The press release follows the pattern by which the palace and monarch attempt to reassure the public while being as transparent as possible.
He returned to Clarence House in London. The next day, he was seen in the back of a car, window rolled down so people could see him, as he left for a weekend in the country.
On Monday, the palace briefed reporters that he’d had a good weekend, that a few events may be moved out of this week but other than that, it’s business as usual as he and Queen Camilla gear up for a state visit to Italy next week (already the Vatican portion has been postponed due to the Pope's ill health).
Everyone knows that Charles III is not going to slow down. It isn’t in his nature. As he told fellow cancer patients in Northern Ireland recently, “What's that Winston Churchill saying — ‘Keep buggering on!’”
POKING FUN AT THE KING’S MUSIC ROOM
Here’s a little regal podcasting humour from the CBC sketch comedy show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
KATE GOES PRO FOR MOTHERING DAY
Last year, the Princess of Wales released that image of her and her kids. Her amateur photoshopping of the informal photo sparked a deluge of negative publicity and even more misinformation and disinformation about her health.
This year, she took no chances and went with a professional-looking video of nature shots in celebration of "Mother Nature," mentioning that "nature has been our sanctuary."
AN UPDATE ON THE MONECITO ‘FEUD'
Just as the stories were really swirling, Gwyneth and Meghan sought to shut down the gossip with an Instagram story of them pooh-poohing the rumours. (For those not familiar with Instagram, anything placed in a Story disappears in 24 hours, meaning this was meant to be a bit of fun and not to live forever in either of their feeds). Interpret away!
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