A few odds and ends from the week:
- Exciting news from Buckingham Palace yesterday: King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain are officially confirmed to be coming to the UK for a state visit in June.
The King of Spain, accompanied by Queen Letizia, has accepted an invitation from The Queen to pay a State Visit to the UK in June. pic.twitter.com/OhLu0pdC1s
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) March 10, 2017
- On Thursday Kensington Palace announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge *will* be attending the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on the morning of Friday, March 17 before leaving for their Paris trip. This morning’s post gives some background as to why that’s significant.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit the 1st
Battalion Irish Guards at the St. Patrick's Day Parade on Friday 17th March. pic.twitter.com/7yv8Pbizqg— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 9, 2017
- The Royal Family was involved in a bit of a snafu this week when it was reported that the the Princess Royal’s son, Peter Philips, pocketed £750,000 for planning a street party for his grandmother the Queen’s 90th birthday party, which was meant to highlight her patronages. Small problem: That sum is nearly double what the party actually raised for charity. To be clear, Phillips didn’t personally take that amount (though that’s how the headlines are running), his firm, Sports and Entertainment Ltd. did, but it’s less than ideal optics, given how often Phillips and the company repeatedly said in interviews leading up to event that it wouldn’t profiting from its involvement. There’s nothing nefarious about this sum – any company would have received it for services provided – but again, the optics too easily make the jump to nepotism and it’s less than ideal.
- This news is rather old now, but last weekend Meghan Markle accompanied Prince Harry to a friend’s wedding in Jamaica. Meghan and Harry were spotted leaving the ceremony and at the reception that followed. Two fun facts: Meghan flew private, while Harry flew commercial, and Jamaica is actually where Meghan married her ex-husband back in 2011. Meghan wore a floral Erdem gown, reminiscent of one worn by Kate back in 2015.
- Finally, the Duchess of Cornwall hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace in honor of International Women’s Day featuring the London Southbank Centre’s WOW – Women of the World Festival, which ran this past week. She delivered a speech, a portion of which was captured by reporter Rebecca English:
And quite a punchy speech from Camilla, I thought. Watch her talk about the importance of #WOW on #InternationalWomensDay here: pic.twitter.com/cgowDzpFu7
— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) March 8, 2017