Royal Report: July and August
Summer is a funny time in royal watching - the beginning of July is packed with engagements and annual events (like Wimbledon), but then as soon as the various royal children are out of school, we tend to see the Cambridges and Wessexes step back, followed by the Queen taking her annual vacation to Balmoral. The quiet period means that there is more room for silly or scandalous news, and in August we saw the rerelease of the terrible Meghan and Harry “biography” Finding Freedom with a new epilogue (as a reminder, Meghan both admitted to cooperating with the authors in court earlier in the year, and also called large sections of the book inaccurate, which is confusing), and a lawsuit filed against Prince Andrew in regards to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Guiffre, who Epstein allegedly trafficked to Andrew). While the Sussexes and Andrew aren’t going away any time soon, I’m excited for the fall and for the rest of the royals to return to work! More on that in a post next week…
Royal Report: July and August
The most anticipated event of the summer came on July 1, which would have been Princess Diana’s 60th birthday. William and Harry were together for only the second time since Harry left the UK (the first time being Prince Philip’s funeral) for the unveiling of a statue to her, along with Diana’s brother Earl Spencer, her sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes and a few other members of the committee. The statue shows Diana with three children, and the brothers were able to keep the focus on a tribute to her instead of the tension between them.
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall did a week of engagements in Devon and Cornwall, visiting local communities, meetings people who have been impacted by Covid, others who work in local tourism, celebrating the 70th anniversary of a local art gallery, attending a sustainability seminar and meeting families with children in hospice. It was a lovely series of engagements and felt like a return to normal royal life!
We had several sightings of the royals at Wimbledon. The big news was that Duke of Kent stepped down as the President of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club after 52 years in the role - he wrote a lovely letter and presented the men’s championship trophy. My favorite statistic from this long ear’s . The Duke has been President of the All England Club for over 50 years, presenting the trophy on more than 350 occasions and Kate is expected to take on most of his duties in her role as patron. The Duchess of Cambridge attended with Prince William one day, with her father, and on her own. We also saw several other royals attend including a big showing from the Kent’s such as Prince Michael, Princess Alexandra, and Lady Amelia Windsor. Princess Beatrice and her husband Edo attended the same day at the Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, and we saw the tennis-loving Middletons (Pippa and husband James Matthews, Carole and Michael).
I was a little bit sad that with Covid, we didn’t get to see the royals cheering on team Britain at the Olympics, but we did get two lovely video messages, one from the Princess Royal, who is a Member of the IOC President of the British Olympic Association and a second from Prince Edward in support of the Paralympics team. The other royal accounts posted on social media, and Prince William did an interview with boxer Lauren Price (who won the gold!).
The Queen has been at Balmoral since August 9th for her annual vacation, with the rest of the royals visiting at various points. When she first arrived, they did the typical welcome ceremony with a Guard of Honor, pipes and drums and more. I love these smaller ceremonial moments! Balmoral is one of the places the Queen seems the happiest (I wrote an entire post all about it last year), and I think it’s sweet that the entire family goes there for casual time together.
July and August Milestones:
June 28th-July 11th - Wimbledon
July 1st - Unveiling of the Princess Diana statue
July 4th - Prince Michael of Kent’s 79th birthday
July 17th - Duchess Camilla’s 74th birthday
July 22nd- Prince George’s 8th birthday
August 4th - Duchess of Sussex’s 40th birthday
August 8th - Princess Beatrice’s 33rd birthday
August 15th - Princess Anne’s 71st birthday
August 26th - the Duke of Gloucester’s 77th birthday
Coming up in September:
September 4th - Braemar Games in Scotland (the Queen always attends!)
September 15th - Prince Harry’s 37th birthday
September 21st-26th - Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show
Follow us on Instagram for more updates.