Dear Gossips, 

The coronation of King Charles III will take place exactly a month from today. The British royal family posted a countdown tweet today – it’s a pinned tweet, meaning it’s expected to stay at the top of their feed, and can you tell what they’ve done with it? 

 

At the time of this writing (8am et), the comments have been disabled. I’m sure by now most of us understand that disabling comments only happens when people are trying to avoid negative comments… of which there have been a lot since the reveal of the coronation invitation and dropping the “consort” from Camilla’s title. There is support, for sure, but there’s also disdain. Buckingham Palace’s push to make Camilla the queen, just queen, no consort, has not been universally embraced. And there’s no doubt that they are aware of it. 

UPDATE: They've now enabled comments. We'll see how long this lasts. 

 

You wouldn’t know it if you were only looking at the British tabloids though. The Sun is calling her the “Comeback Queen” on its front page with multiple articles praising her “character” and integrity. Over at the Daily Mail they’re jerking themselves off over her “regal transformation”. 

More and more, then, Camilla’s “long game” is coming into focus, although many have been seeing it quite clearly for a long time. 

 

Part of the long game involved not just developing a cozy relationship with the British tabloid media, but selling out information on other members of the British royal family to the tabloid media, including Charles’s children. And this goes wayyyyy back. Back in 1998, the tabloids somehow found out about Camilla’s first meeting with Prince William. William was pissed, this wasn’t a small thing, they ended up conducting an inquiry into where the leak came from, and eventually the leak was traced to Amanda McManus, Camilla’s private secretary. Amanda’s husband was an executive who worked in Rupert Murdoch’s empire. At the time, of course, Rupert owned the News of the World. Supposedly it was her husband, James, who ended up telling someone at the newspaper and that’s how it got out there. Camilla denied that she had anything to do with it and Amanda was fired, briefly. And then rehired a couple of weeks later and would remain as Camilla’s private secretary for 25 years. Which is basically the length of this long game. 

Over the course of two and a half decades, imagine the moves, the information that’s been exchanged, the people who’ve been sold out and sacrificed so that Charles and Camilla could arrive at this moment. Her allies, the British tabloids, will be grinding hard for her in the coming weeks leading up to the coronation. 

Attached - Charles and Camilla are met by protesters today at York Minster for the Maunday Thursday Service.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey