The Royal Foundation, led by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, launched a new 24/7 textline to support people in crisis. The service, Give Us a Shout, was quietly rolled out earlier this year on a trial basis and has reportedly already served 60,000 people. It’s also based on volunteers, of which it has amassed 1,000, with William calling for another 3,000 in the video share by the organization this morning.
We're excited that today The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have launched Shout, a 24/7 crisis text service, as a legacy of @heads_together. The Duke of Cambridge recorded this national appeal for #volunteers to help us support more people. pic.twitter.com/V7EjR1zlQp
— Shout (@GiveUsAShout) May 10, 2019
The formal launch was attended by both William and Kate, during which they spoke with reporters on the record, but the event itself wasn’t organized as a public engagement. (The pictures shared by Kensington Palace, and included in this post, are from prior non-public engagements.)
The Daily Express included a quote from Kate:
“For the last few years, I’ve been focusing much of my work on the importance of prevention in the earliest years of life to help avoid problems in later life. But, sadly, for so many, they have already reached a crisis situation. This is why Shout is so important. It is able to offer support when it is crucially needed, and the opportunity to turn lives around.”
A bit strangely, William, Harry and Meghan are included in the promotional images, but none include Kate.
Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall are wrapping up their visit to Germany. In addition to being another leg in the Royal Family’s “charm offensive” in a Brexit world, the two carried out engagements focused on sustainability, the arts, and, well, food. Charles’s passion for sustainable agriculture almost always lends itself to those two visiting bakeries and farmer’s markets and, frankly, I think it’s genius.
Also props to Camilla for her fashion being on point this visit. I’m particularly a fan of this blue suit from today:
And this gown from a reception in Munich last night:
Photo of the trip goes to this one, in which they appear utterly flummoxed by the sheer volume of beer they’ve been handed:
Finally, the Queen is living her best life at the Windsor Horse Trial (wearing Hermes, natch). Today she was joined by the King of Bahrain and her second son, the Duke of York.
As for the next couple of the weeks, we’ll next see Kate on Tuesday, while it’s officially garden party season at Buckingham Palace as of next week. The Queen is due to launch the first one on Wednesday, and while their attendance isn’t usually announced ahead of time, it’s likely we’ll see an assortment of Windsors there and I’ll throw a post up. Later in the month will also see the Chelsea Garden Show, while in-between those events I’ll do my best to get some history back up on the site after a [rather long] lull.
Finally, as I noted to earlier this week re: the birth of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, the British press are up in arms over how the Palace handled the birth announcement. Here is the best rundown I’ve read so far, which paints a far clearer picture of how confusing the run of show was on Monday for reporters.