Category Archives: Monarchy

Questions persist over how Prince Andrew funded luxury lifestyle

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Analysis: friendship with David Rowland has often featured in speculation over how duke has managed to get by

With little in the way of visible support, questions over how the Duke of York has been able to fund his lifestyle have rarely been answered. In the past he has appeared to live the jetset life of a multimillionaire, with holidays aboard luxury yachts, regular golfing sojourns and ski trips to exclusive resorts.

Yet the Queen’s second son’s only publicly known income was the £249,000 a year he received as an allowance to fund his Buckingham Palace office while undertaking royal duties. The allowance was paid by the Queen from the private income she received from the Duchy of Lancaster estate. In addition to this allowance, Andrew would also have a small pension from his time serving with the Royal Navy, a job he left in 2001.

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Meghan chose to write letter to father to protect Prince Harry, texts reveal

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Duchess says in messages to aide that Harry was receiving ‘constant berating’ from family over Thomas Markle

The Duchess of Sussex chose to write a letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, to protect Prince Harry from “constant berating” from the royal family to do something to stop him talking to the media, texts have revealed.

Meghan also believed a letter was better than an email or text as it “does not open the door for a conversation”.

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Prince Charles’s former aide quits as charity boss amid cash-for-honours claims

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Michael Fawcett resigns from The Prince’s Foundation after accusations he offered to help secure a knighthood for Saudi donor

A former aide to the Prince of Wales has resigned as chief executive of one of Charles’ charities amid an alleged cash-for-honours scandal.

Michael Fawcett and his party planning company will also no longer be providing services to Clarence House, a spokesperson said.

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Jemima Khan cuts links with The Crown over treatment of Diana’s final years

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Princess’s close friend says story was not handled ‘as respectfully and compassionately’ as she had hoped

Jemima Khan, a close friend of Princess Diana, pulled out of helping to script Netflix’s The Crown because the story was not being handled “as respectfully or compassionately” as she had hoped, she has said.

Khan said she was brought in to help the show’s creator, Peter Morgan, write the script of the fifth series, which includes the years leading up to Diana's death in a Paris car crash in 1997.

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Anger over ‘grotesque abuse’ of £600,000 case to keep Mountbatten papers secret

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David Owen condemns Cabinet Office’s ‘waste of public money’ in four-year bid to stop part of archive’s release

The Cabinet Office has been accused of a “grotesque abuse” of public funds in a freedom of information battle over the personal diaries of Lord and Lady Mountbatten in which costs are now expected to exceed £600,000.

Andrew Lownie, the author and historian, has fought a four-year legal battle over the papers that are in an archive saved for the nation after a fundraising campaign. They are now held at Southampton University.

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Resting Queen goes for a drive around Windsor estate

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Monarch seen alone in green Jaguar that she usually uses to take her dogs to go for a walk

The Queen, who is following medical advice to take it easy for two weeks, donned a headscarf and sunglasses as she got behind the wheel to drive herself around her estate at Windsor on Monday.

Forced to cancel her appearance at Cop26 in Glasgow after a recent overnight stay in hospital for tests, she was seen alone in the green Jaguar estate that she usually uses to take her dogs to go for a walk.

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The Queen advised to rest for two weeks, says Buckingham Palace

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Monarch can undertake ‘light, desk-based duties’ and aims to attend Remembrance Sunday service

Doctors have advised the Queen to rest for at least another two weeks and not to undertake any official visits, Buckingham Palace has said.

It means the 95-year-old will not attend the Royal British Legion’s Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on the eve of Remembrance Sunday, though she hopes to be at the Cenotaph for the Remembrance Day service itself.

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Prince Andrew given deadline to face questions in Virginia Giuffre case

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Duke must make himself available by 14 July in US lawsuit brought by woman who accuses him of sexual abusing her

Prince Andrew must make himself available to answer questions under oath by 14 July next year in a civil lawsuit brought by a woman who has accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager.

While not specified in the court papers, the Duke of York and his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, are both expected to answer questions under oath. Depositions must be completed on or before 14 July, said the district judge Lewis Kaplan, who serves in the southern district of New York.

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Crown gives go ahead to rival ‘net zero carbon’ North Sea schemes

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Exclusive: crown estates accused of greed in selling rights to ‘incompatible’ carbon capture and windfarm projects

A clash between two multibillion pound “net zero carbon” schemes is brewing in the North Sea after the Queen’s property manager granted development rights for one patch of seabed to two different projects at the same time.

The crown estate will earn millions of pounds after agreeing to lease an area off the Yorkshire coast to the latest phase of the giant Hornsea offshore windfarm, as well as to a scheme led by BP which plans to begin storing carbon dioxide under the seabed. This has prompted concern that the giant wind turbines could interfere with seabed sensors for the carbon storage project.

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The Queen spent night in hospital after cancelling Northern Ireland visit

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Buckingham Palace says Elizabeth II is now back in Windsor after doctors advised a few days’ rest

The Queen spent Wednesday night in hospital after cancelling a visit to Northern Ireland, Buckingham Palace has said.

The 95-year-old had been due to take part in a two-day trip, but doctors told her that she should rest for a couple of days at Windsor Castle.

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Barbados elects first president as it prepares to drop Queen as head of state

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Caribbean nation elects governor general to new role prior to former British colony becoming a republic

Barbados has elected its first president with just weeks to go until the Caribbean island becomes a republic and ceases to recognise Queen Elizabeth as its head of state.

The island’s governor general, Dame Sandra Mason, was elected almost unanimously by the former British colony’s parliament on Wednesday, with only one member declining to vote.

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Queen cancels Northern Ireland trip and is told to rest

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Buckingham Palace says monarch has ‘reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for next few days’

The Queen has cancelled a planned two-day visit to Northern Ireland after advice from her doctors that she should “rest for the next few days”.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement: “The Queen has reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for the next few days.

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‘You are as old as you feel’: Queen declines Oldie of the Year award

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Monarch ‘politely but firmly’ turns down title because she ‘does not believe she meets relevant criteria’

The Queen has received many accolades over her 95 years, but one she is refusing to accept is the Oldie of the Year award, believing she does not meet the criteria and explaining that “you are as old as you feel”.

She “politely but firmly” declined the award, which is given annually to celebrate the achievements of members of the older generations who have made a special contribution to public life, although she sent organisers her “warmest best wishes”.

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Prince William criticises space race and tourism’s new frontier

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Duke of Cambridge says world’s greatest minds need to focus on trying to fix the Earth instead

The Duke of Cambridge has criticised the space race and space tourism, saying the world’s greatest minds need to focus on trying to fix the Earth instead.

Prince William’s comments, in an interview with Newscast on BBC Sounds, will be aired the day after William Shatner made history by becoming the oldest person in space.

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Dutch royals can marry person of same gender without giving up throne, says PM

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The prime minister was responding to book arguing old laws would prevent same-sex marriage for a monarch or their heirs

A Dutch monarch can marry a person of whatever gender they choose without forfeiting their right to the throne, prime minister Mark Rutte has said.

Rutte was responding to questions from parliament that arose from a recent book, Amalia, Duty Calls, which argued that old laws would appear to exclude the possibility of a same-sex couple on the throne, despite same-sex marriage being legal in the Netherlands since 2001.

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Prince Andrew allowed to review settlement between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein

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A court in New York has granted the royal’s lawyers permission to see the confidential agreeement between his accuser and the late financier

Prince Andrew will have a chance to review a 2009 settlement agreement that he hopes will shield him from a civil lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing a woman two decades ago, when she was underage.

In an order made in New York on Wednesday, US district judge Loretta Preska granted permission for Andrew’s lawyers to receive a copy of the confidential agreement between the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre.

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Diana: The Musical review – a right royal debacle so bad you’ll hyperventilate

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This filmed version of the Broadway show, with its accidental comedy and cringeworthy lines, is a guilty-pleasures singalong in waiting

And … so … it’s … springtime for glamour and victimhood, winter for Windsors and Charles. Netflix have now given us the filmed version of the entirely gobsmacking and jawdropping Broadway show Diana: The Musical, shot at the Longacre theatre on West 48th Street last summer with no audience while the show itself was on pause due to the Covid pandemic. And while you’re waiting for Pablo Larraín’s movie Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart as Diana, this will have to do. Although there is a danger it will cause you to hyperventilate.

Not since the Cats movie have I literally shouted from my seat: “What? What? WHAT?” Only by having Diana ride on stage on the back of a Jellicle cat could this be more bizarre. If it was deliberate satire it would be genius, but it’s not. It’s a saucer-eyed retelling of the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, with bobbing chorus lines of footmen and flunkies who with a costume change morph into step-in-time phalanxes of snarling tabloid hacks, while Diana solemnly warbles downstage about her loneliness and determination in a pool of follow spotlight.

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Prince Andrew accepts he has been served in US sexual assault lawsuit

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Issue of whether royal had been notified about the case had previously been contested

The Duke of York has received court papers relating to a sexual assault lawsuit, US officials have confirmed.

The complainant, Virginia Giuffre, is seeking damages after alleging Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her, a claim he vehemently denies.

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Prince Charles ‘cash-for-honours’ scandal grows with fresh allegations

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Prince reportedly ‘met at least nine times’ with William Bortrick, the alleged fixer at heart of the claims

Clarence House is facing fresh questions over further revelations in the royal “cash for honours” scandal involving middlemen who reportedly took cuts for setting up meetings between wealthy donors and the Prince of Wales.

Prince Charles “met at least nine times” with William Bortrick, the alleged fixer at the heart of the claims, who is said to have received thousands of pounds to secure an honour for a Saudi billionaire and brokered a personal thank-you letter from Charles to a Russian donor, the Sunday Times reported.

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Prince Philip’s will to remain secret for 90 years, high court rules

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Ruling on Duke of Edinburgh's will made to protect ‘dignity’ of Queen and her constitutional role

The Duke of Edinburgh’s will is to remain secret to protect the “dignity” of the Queen because of her constitutional role, the high court has ruled. Philip – the nation’s longest-serving consort – died aged 99 on 9 April, just two months before he would have turned 100.

After the death of a senior member of the royal family, it has been convention for over a century that an application to seal their will is made to the president of the family division of the high court. This means the wills of senior members of the royal family are not open to public inspection in the way a will would ordinarily be.

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