Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor may be a public disgrace—but England’s aristocrats won’t let that spoil their supper plans

By Ashley Baker

How many anni horribiles can a monarch have? King Charles may have believed that 2024, when he and Princess Catherine were diagnosed with cancer, was as bad as it could get. But 2026 has brought little peace. This week alone, Meghan Markle has returned to public life, nipping into Claridge’s for tea with the Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai; Prince Harry has released a MasterClass on grief (in the teaser: “I consider myself a student of grief”); Charles Spencer has continued his press tour for his incendiary memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister; and now even the King’s disgraced brother is venturing back into polite society. READ ON

Charles Spencer’s new memoir takes aim at King Charles—but it also raises awkward questions about his own relationship with Diana

By Ashley Baker

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oor King Charles. With his brother, the former Prince Andrew, banished to a sad little farmhouse on the Sandringham estate, and his son Prince Harry consumed by the complexities of the English school run, the King might have hoped for a reprieve from familial drama. But ha! These are the Windsors. It’s never long before another tall, mouthy relative has something unfortunate to say.

For the past fortnight, British newspaper readers haven’t been allowed to check the Premier League rankings without getting an earful from Charles Spencer. It’s not the first time. Two years ago, the ninth Earl Spencer, brother of Princess Diana, was everywhere with his first jaw-dropping memoir, READ ON

Charles Spencer’s new memoir of his sister, Princess Diana, serves up a royal rogues’ gallery—from King Charles’s alleged elation at her death to tales of a light-fingered Prince Philip

By Johanna Thomas-Corr

As a small boy, Charles Spencer was known to his family as “Buzz” for his bee-like effervescence. Today, the buzzing is of a decidedly less innocent variety. The 9th Earl Spencer—former journalist, historian, godson to Queen Elizabeth, veteran of three divorces and, of course, the only brother of Diana, Princess of Wales—has re-entered the national conversation like a hornet in the royal enclosure.

We already know from the headlines that Spencer has accused King Charles of sounding “giddily elated” and “like a lottery winner” after Diana’s death. He also alleges that Charles casually told him that he was “so READ ON

In England’s toniest rural enclave, a royal title only gets you so far. Can the Sussexes charm the people who rule it?

By Eilidh Hargreaves

The swimming pool is long, serene and lined with huge healing crystals, the water unbroken. The sauna is full of financiers, businessmen and banter led by Sir Ben Elliot, the former Tory chairman and nephew of the Queen. Wellness-obsessed housewives ease themselves into cold-plunge barrels. Battles rage on the padel courts, involving illustrious names such as the Belvoir scion Lady Alice Manners, jeweler Charlie Pragnell and Charlie Brooks, the racehorse trainer and husband of Rebekah, Rupert Murdoch’s UK media chief. Upstairs afterwards, it’s Château Léoube rosé and WFB: working from Bamford. More specifically, The Club by Bamford.

None of my sources have spotted Meghan here yet, but this is READ ON

Six years after fleeing royal life for California, Harry and Meghan are returning to Britain—with their children, their grievances, and, perhaps, a camera crew in tow

By Hilary Rose

You have to wonder when Harry decided. When did he think, enough, I want to go home? Was it when he had tea with his dad a few weeks ago? Was it when he came over for Invictus, where he excelled at what he does best? We know he’s looked at his kids and wished they could grow up knowing the country of his birth, because he’s told us. Or maybe he just woke up one day to more blue skies in Montecito and thought wistfully of rain pouring down windows.

Whenever it was, the news that the worldwide READ ON

The Sussexes’ summer photo dump reveals a life of barefoot luxury—and leaves one mystery unresolved: What are they so furious about?

By Hilary Rose

The big question raised by the latest photo dump from Montecito isn’t where they are. Scotland, Althorp, whatever. As you scroll through the Sussexes’ summer of barefoot, leisured luxury, the big question is this: why are they always so furious? When their lives are so gilded, so impossibly blessed, how can they muster so much rage?

Meghan has posted 12 pictures to her Instagram detailing their summer holidays with their two young children, and their lives are like a glossy magazine shoot, but better: Meghan relaxing on a sunlounger, Harry running into the waves with the kids, alfresco lunches in seaside restaurants near the second home they are believed to have bought in a luxury development on Portugal’s Atlantic coast. READ ON

Where do Harry’s thrashing in court and chaotic visit to the U.K. leave the duke’s plans to present himself as a moral crusader?

By Kate Mansey

Prince Harry was half an hour early. As a discussion about his Invictus Games tournament at Chatham House in London got under way, the Duke of Sussex was distracted, glancing down at his lap to check a phone or tablet of some sort.

It was hard to discern what exactly, because the press, who had been invited to report on Harry’s One Year to Go event for the tournament, had been relegated to seats at the back of the room. At 2 p.m. phones started to vibrate around the room with the breaking news that Harry had comprehensively lost his $67 million court battle against the publishers of the READ ON

Peace may be breaking out between Harry and Charles, but the Sussexes’ return to Britain—with children and unresolved grievances in tow—could make the royal family’s quiet summer feel like D-day

By Shane Watson

Despite some recent door slamming from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and a few murmurings about Princess Beatrice’s husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, spending solo downtime in St Tropez’s Club 55 (hotly denied: Beatrice was there too apparently), the royal family have had a notably unruffled couple of months. Then last week, just when the most exciting event on the horizon was the decamp to Balmoral, the news broke that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are returning to the UK for the first time in four years—with their children.

Gah! You can almost picture the King’s expression—exhausted, troubled—when he was informed that READ ON

The Duchess of Sussex’s latest Instagram foray hints at many things: her picture-perfect marriage, her glamorous Montecito life, and—what else?—a brewing next act

By Shane Watson

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his time there are 11 of them. That’s 11 private pictures shared in a personal post on the Duchess of Sussex’s Instagram. There’s one of Prince Harry and seven-year-old Prince Archie (facing away from camera) playing with a giant football. There’s one of some eggs in a nest, half hidden among some foliage. There’s one of Princess Lilibet (neck to waist only) wearing a white T-shirt featuring a line drawing of Beyoncé and the words “B is for Beyoncé”.

There was a time when we had to wait several weeks to sneak a peek of Meghan’s Montecito life but READ ON

As police broaden their inquiries into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his biographer argues that the royal family—and the officials surrounding it—have spent years suppressing the full story

By Andrew Lownie

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he man formerly known as Prince Andrew may be sweating this weekend. On Thursday documents concerning his appointment as the special representative for trade in 2001 were made public, revealing unease about a decision pushed through by Queen Elizabeth. Last Friday, Thames Valley police announced they were broadening their investigations into him to include allegations of sexual misconduct. Now we learn that the force is examining an allegation that he behaved inappropriately towards a woman at Royal Ascot in 2002.

All these developments are important. A freedom of information (FoI) request I made several years ago, in the course of my research for READ ON

Four years after her death, the Queen has faded from the public consciousness with surprising speed. But as the code of silence loosens and archives open, a sharper portrait is beginning to emerge

By Craig Brown

After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, there were those who felt the world had turned into a different place, somewhere scarier and less dependable. The registrar at the Royal College of Psychiatrists spoke of people feeling “shocked, anxious, or fearful about changes they don’t feel prepared for, or deep feelings of loss and sadness”. A YouGov poll concluded that 44 percent of adult Britons had shed a tear at the news: 55 percent of women and 32 percent of men.

You would have to have been over 100 years old to remember a world without her. She was famous from the moment she was born and made the cover of READ ON

The Duchess of Sussex once wanted to be the Gwyneth Paltrow of jam. Now she’s sixth on the bill at an Australian women’s retreat

By Hilary Rose

My first instinct on hearing the news that the Duchess of Sussex has been asked to give a speech at a women’s wellness retreat in Australia was to say, “Ye gods, have they heard her speak?” My second was to wonder, “Has it come to this?” Happily, the woman who’s organizing it, a podcast host called Gemma O’Neill, inadvertently said that for me.

“Meghan, Duchess of Sussex,” she announced breathlessly, has “gone from Oprah to talking on stage with just little old me, Gemma, in Sydney.” Quite so, Gemma, although possibly not a sentence on which Meghan will reflect READ ON

The King always knew his reign would be short—but he could never have imagined that the entire monarchy would be threatened by his own brother

By Stephen Bates

London fashion week was probably the last public place King Charles III wanted to be on Thursday, admiring the suits and costumes that no one he knows would dream of buying, and making light conversation with designers he would have difficulty recognizing at a royal garden party. Charles must have been contemplating the crumbling of all his plans and hopes for his reign. He always knew it would be short, even before his cancer diagnosis, but he probably never thought it would be upended by the alleged behavior of his own brother.

Thursday was the most consequential and damaging READ ON

The royal formerly known as Prince Andrew was—following his many appearances in the Epstein files—arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy

By Hilary Rose

Where did it begin? Was it Newsnight, back in 2019? “Going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do”? “I didn’t sweat at the time”? Or can we actually date all the trouble, all the entitlement, all the grandiose self-importance, to the fact that an RAF flypast greeted his birth?

HRH Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward, born at Buckingham Palace, had a reputation by the time he could walk. As a toddler he would kick the dogs and taunt the staff. As a five-year-old he was thrown in a dung heap by grooms at READ ON