Dear Gossips,

Buckingham Palace confirmed the date of King Charles’s coronation yesterday:

The official crowning of Charles will reportedly be a more restrained event than that of his predecessor and mother Queen Elizabeth II. It will last an hour instead of three hours and 2,000 guests will attend instead of the 8,000 who were invited last time. Apparently the King wants his ceremony to be reflective of his vision for a “smaller, scaled-down monarchy” and hopes the coronation will better highlight the many faiths and cultures that are represented in the United Kingdom – at least where the attendees are concerned; it’s not like the senior members of his family do the job there. And that’s the challenge here with diversity and the British royal family. The family itself is not diverse. For optics, then, they need diversity among people in the audience which, in a way, is kinda like using them as props to watch a white guy get a crown put on his head. It’s a complicated visual in these times and I wonder how sensitive the suits inside the palace are to this reality.

Speaking of sensitive, there’s also the issue of Camilla, the Queen Consort. Last week it seemed like they were inching their way towards dropping the “Consort” part of Camilla’s title so that, eventually, she would become known simply as Queen Camilla, or The Queen. Seven months from now, when the coronation has come and gone, will this be the case? Once there’s enough time that’s passed from the Queen’s death, and as millions of people watch Camilla beside the King, also getting crowned, will Queen Camilla stick? Or is Queen Camilla the royal fetch?

You know who was trending side-by-side with the King on social media yesterday? Archie. Because May 6 is Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor’s birthday and people had feelings about his grandfather the King choosing a coronation day on the same day. There are a lot of stakeholders involved in the day of the coronation; in addition to the King and the palace advisors, there are also many government and religious considerations so I’m not convinced that Charles and his people had any shady intentions here but the reaction tells you something about how petty some people believe Charles to be. No doubt there will be much more drama ahead as coronation day approaches. And there’s more immediate royal drama to discuss later today.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

PS. Thanks for your messages yesterday about my foot. A warning now for those of you who can’t handle the gross sh-t, because if you’ve been visiting this site for a while you know I love gross sh-t. And my cut is gnarly. So click away now if you don’t f-ck with gnarly…

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Can you see? There’s a chunk of flesh missing from the back of my foot. In the shape of a heart!

King Charles III Gossip

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