Royal Report: August 2020
This month started out busy for the royals, but has slowed down considerably as the Queen and Prince Philip went to Balmoral and the younger families enjoyed a break before the school year starts.
Kate unveiled a huge project to support baby banks. After visiting one and seeing the increased demand from Covid, she was moved to organize 19 brands to donate more than 10,000 items to 40 baby banks. She made several private visits and then one photographed visit to Baby Basics in Norfolk to announce the initiative. Since then, UK baby banks have been overwhelmed with donations!
The 150th Anniversary of the British Red Cross was celebrated by multiple members of the Royal Family, with Prince Charles (their President) recording a speech to launch their online exhibition, the Queen sendinga message and Kate writing a letter to 150 Red Cross staff and volunteers in which she noted that both her great-grandmother and grandmothe had served as Red Cross nurses.
In an effort to support summer tourism, Kate and William made a visit to Barry Island in Wales, where they met local business owners, played arcade games and highlighted a charming “staycation” option.
Meghan and Harry finally bought a house, choosing to settle in Santa Barbara. It’s not LA, which never made sense to me for Harry, and is a big polo community. They should hopefully be able to have privacy at home there - and I love that they got a mortgage, just like the rest of us - it may be the most normal thing they have done in months!
As I mentioned in the intro, The Queen and Prince Philip have moved to Balmoral for the month of August. They have already been visited by Princess Eugenie/Jack Brooksbank and The Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children. It looked like they were making day trips for socially-distanced outdoor picnics with Her Majesty!
We finally reached the culmination of all of the build up to Princess Anne’s 70th birthday! The Royal Family social media accounts posted about her life throughout the week and while the party they had planned was cancelled, they did share three new portraits of her and social media tributes on the day ( I especially loved the photos that Prince Charles shared!)
The 75th anniversary of VJ Day was marked Prince Charles/Duchess of Cornwall and Prince William attending two different events and delivering moving speeches.
Good Housekeeping UK has The Countess of Wessex on their September cover to highlight her work with Childline and the NSPCC. She discussed the valuable services they are providing to combat the rise in child abuse and how she is helping her own children navigate life and social media.
Prince Harry participated in a Netflix documentary about the Paralympics, which he has been involved with since the 2012 London Olympics and inspired his Invictus Games.
Meghan and Harry Drama
Since I almost always talk about Harry and Meghan’s drama in the “disappointments” section, and this month was a real doozy, I decided to make a section dedicated just to them!
Finding Freedom, the book about Harry and Meghan came out this month after so much press buildup. It contains a shocking amount of detail that could have only come from Meghan’s diary - from what they ate on dates to text conversations. The book was incredibly one-sided and really painted them as victims. I felt that it left out a lot of important context and was clearly driven by the Sussexes, as much as they denied it.
Meghan had a court win in her lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday. She had filed to protect the identities of 5 friends who had shared with People Magazine, the letter she is suing the MoS about - and the judge ruled that they would be protected, but only for now. She and the MoS both had their wrists slapped by the judge for playing out the case too much in the press and online.
Harry wrote an Op-Ed for Fast Company about using social media for good and how to create a less toxic internet. It was fairly well-written, but didn’t contain many actionable items. On the flip side of this, the Sussexes were called out for recently calling one of their fans to thank them for organizing fundraisers to honor them - and it was revealed that the fan was a super toxic Twitter troll perpetuating a lot of the behavior they have been speaking against.
Meghan has also been making waves by participating in a virtual event with When We All Vote and other online conversations about voting like the Makers video with Gloria Steinem. While I am all about voting rights, the royals are definitely not allowed to show a preference for any political party, especially those that are as high up in the line of succession as Harry and Meghan are. It’s tricky ground and much of the British press are saying its grounds for the removal of their titles.
Key Celebrations in August
August 4th - Duchess Meghan’s 39th birthday, which much of the family marked with social media posts
August 8th - Princess Beatrice’s 32nd birthday
August 15th - Princess Anne’s 70th birthday
August 26th - The Duke of Gloucester’s 76th birthday
What I’m Looking Forward to in September
September 15th - Prince Harry’s 36th Birthday
Cambridge kids go back to school and hopefully we get a cute photo!