Welcome to this week’s edition of to get all the latest royal news and gossip with Tom Sykes and Tim Teeman.
Kate Middleton plays piano to open Eurovision
As reported by The Daily Beast, Kate Middleton stunned TV viewers Saturday night when she played piano at the beginning of the Eurovision Song Contest. Kate, dressed in a blue, one-shouldered Jenny Packham gown, played the piano for 10 seconds in a rendition of last year’s winning song, Ukraine’s the Kalush Orchestra’s “Stefania.”
The perennially popular Eurovision has an estimated worldwide audience of 160 million, and was held in Liverpool in the U.K. this year after Ukraine’s victory last year (the country could not hold the contest as is traditional for the winning entry’s country because of the war). Kate’s performance was filmed earlier this month in the Crimson Drawing Room of Windsor Castle. Oh, and in case you had a different kind of great night out and missed it, Sweden won.
Charles could be heading to Kenya
Queen Elizabeth II was, famously, on a royal tour in Kenya when her father, King George VI died in February 1952, and she became queen. She was staying in a treehouse at a game reserve, and it has been correctly observed that she went up the ladder a princess and came down a queen.
Ever since, Kenya has held a particular place in the hearts of the royal family, and the Mail on Sunday reports that King Charles III is due to visit the country as soon as this year—perhaps before he even gets round to rescheduling a state trip to France that was cancelled after the country was rocked by violent strikes and protests.
An insider said: “It will be a poignant moment. Inevitably it will be a reminder of his young mother at the start of her reign. Now, he is at the start of his, but he has the advantage of experience, too. It will also be an important marker for his reign that will underline how importantly he views the Commonwealth.”
Meghan gets a salute on Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is upon us, and this is one piece of territory the Californian and British branches of the royal family have been able to divide peaceably because it is marked on a different day in the U.S. (today) to the U.K. (March).
The Sussexes do not have a social media presence, but a friend of Meghan’s, Kelly McKee Zajfen, who has raised awareness around the mental health implications of losing a child after her nine-year-old son died last year, has paid tribute to Meghan as an “incredible friend and mother,” and posted a picture of her and Meghan on Instagram. Zajfen is a founder of LA charity Alliance of Moms, which supports teenage mothers in foster care, the Telegraph reports.
This week in royal history
It seems a long time ago… On May 19, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary; they married on May 19, 2018, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
Unanswered questions
Will Harry’s phone hacking trial uncover the identity/identities of the royal family whose camps allegedly fed stories to the Daily Mirror and any other tabloids?
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