Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as senior members of the British royal family in early 2020, there’s been a concerted effort by the Firm to elevate Prince Edward and Sophie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, to the same level of popularity. It’s been like trying to make fetch happen. They were on tour in Northern Ireland last week. I’m sure some people were paying attention but let’s not pretend like it was front page news. Most of you reading this probably had no idea it was happening. The same cannot be said of the Sussexes in New York. 

 

British royals generally like to stagger their appearances, so as not to compete with each other for attention. Prince Charles, we’ve seen, does not enjoy being upstaged, not by his first wife, or by his children. And Prince William seems to have picked that up from his father; you’ll recall, back in 2018, even before Harry and Meghan were married, there were rumours that William would be “furious” that he was upstaged when he was out for an engagement at the same time that Harry and Meghan were in Wales. 

Harry and Meghan no longer have to play by those scheduling rules now. Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, and Kensington Palace do not get a heads up about their plans. So the British royals took a backseat this week, wayyyyy in the back, because of the Sussexes’ New York takeover. So it was curious that this came up: 

 

Somehow The Sun was able to get a shot of William and Kate and their kids having lunch at a pub. It’s a cute story, sure. But the fact that it’s been published, and is still up on the website, that they haven’t been issued a royal notice to take it down even though the kids are in the photo and there are strict guidelines about when they can be shown… 

Coincidence or conspiracy? 

Like, there have been times that Kate’s been out for groceries at Waitrose, without the kids, and photographed by a patron with an iPhone and the tabloid have been told to take those shots down. So a family photo with all three of their children having what’s ostensibly a private lunch at a neighbourhood pub…

You’d think that’d be offside. And yet here we are, nobody has complained so far, and if they do complain, it will have been well after lots and lots of people have seen the image…

 

I’m just saying the timing is interesting. 

Anyway, here are some pictures of Kate on Friday with US Open champion Emma Raducanu at the National Tennis Centre. Kate, a big tennis fan, put on a tennis outfit for the occasion, and took a few shots on the court. She looks great. Ordinarily a photo opportunity like this, with the future Queen in a tennis skirt, not something we see all time, would be a major story, get mega play. 

There was coverage, no doubt, but over in New York, Harry and Meghan were definitely the main event on Friday in Harlem. So to go back to the image of the Cambridge Five at the pub… I’m just saying, again, the timing is interesting…