Royal style (and occasionally gossip): thread 3

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Here we go again!

Agree Doria, looks great, natural grace.

Apparently Doria told people she was "Meg's mom". I've seen clips of Harry calling her that too. Quite relaxed and a refreshing change from the Cambridges' weird insistence on "Catherine" and claiming she's never been known as Kate!

Looks lovely. Harry looks so delighted. Agree there was a faux pas over touching the woman who was greeting them. Poor briefing on someone's part.

Meghan just looks so natural and effortless. Harry does look awkward poor love. He's letting her shine, and that's great. Her speech is just so different from the strangulated formulaic stuff we are used to from the RF. Doria just looks great.

She’s an absolute natural, so at ease with others and particularly so at ease with herself.

The hair flicks she does during the speech remind me of Jennifer Aniston for some reason.

Lovely coat.

The best royal speech I've heard. Warm, genuine and kind. A lovely event and how fantastic to include Doria! They all look so happy and involved. Doria looks lovely and is so unpretentious. Meghan's coat is a classic, but not frumpy. They're an absolute breath of fresh air. Oh, and I've never seen Harry look so proud!

It must be so surreal for Doria - I don't think she ever imagined that her daughter would one day be a member of the royal family!

How strange for her. But she hasn't had her head turned and is so unpretentious.

I agree with Queen re Catherine / Kate.
All a bit stiff and starchy.
Mind you she hasn't put a foot wrong.
Don't mention Uncle Gary.

In fairness to Catherine, she isn’t a trained actress and probably never expected to make speeches. It would be surprising If Meghan Markle couldn’t speak beautifully after studying drama/theatre studies and making a career out of what is effectively public speaking . Her U.S. accent is classless(at least to us Brits). Kate is posh, but I know my accent goes up a notch when I speak in public (or answer the phone!)

True, but Kate has the money, means and opportunity to take speaking and presentation lessons. It's going to be part of her job, so it would help her to develop that skill. If you're interested in people, it tends to shine through.

If you're interested in people, it tends to shine through.

Agree @Clionba. Harry always seems genuinely interested in the people he meets but William just looks like he's going through the motions. And while Kate doesn't put a foot wrong, it does sometimes feel like she's had all traces of personality scrubbed from her. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to Meghan.

I found it interesting that Meghan had 'Kate hands' during her speech. I thought her training would have ironed that out of her a bit more

The royal family is lucky to have her - she's a knockout.

I'm sure she gets it from her mum.

I noticed that too @Paradyning but I think it's just that she's a very expressive person. I have a few friends like that and you occasionally have to duck as they're always gesticulating!

If Kate could just loosen up —a lot— she might come across better. I think Doria and MM haven’t got the British thing of feeling inferiority to the royals and are all the better for it. Kate looks petrified of putting a foot wrong all the time. Hopefully Meghan will adopt the parts of the RF’s ways that she likes and adapt the rest to suit herself. She is a breath of fresh air so far.

I'm so glad for Meghan because I hadn't heard her speak since her engagement, and thought she was stifled! What comes across is a genuine passion for the project, for supporting Grenfell and the women involved. It's like Invictus or Sentebele for Harry - it's not notional, it actually means something. She's spent time with these women with no publicity and worked to get the project done.

I've been having a look at the cookbook today and she writes that she first visited the kitchen in January. So that's 9 months with no publicity - so much for her being fake and press-hungry etc, as was said before they married!

Looks like Kate is launching her own passion project later this year, to help disadvantaged children.

The book launch was awesome. I am definitely going to buy the book; I love middle eastern food. What did you think of the book @Queen?

Kudos to Meghan getting that project launched and delivered completely under the radar. I thought Harry looked happy and proud!

I suspect H&M are going to go Obama style and open up KP to family events. I really hope they do something for Halloween.

Great to see Doria there. “ I’m Meg’s mom”. Love it!

I only bought it today @CurlyWurlyTwirly so I've not made anything from it yet, but pretty much every recipe looks delicious and easy to follow. I can honestly see myself trying most of them as the ingredients are fairly easy to source too.

I think both Kate and Meghan are bringing positivity to the RF - I do hope people (mainly the Press!) don't start playing one off against the other. Everyone's different, with different skills, but that doesn't mean they can't contribute.

I very much doubt Meghan will be allowed to outshine Catherine as she’s the future queen. Meghan & Harry will eventually become like Andrew & Margaret - second fiddle. As we’ve seen that doesn’t always go well.

Re Kate’s way of speaking my dcs went to a very similar school to Marlborough. They speak fairly well spoken on a day to day basis but if speaking in public they are extremely posh. Their friends are the same.

The difference between them and Andrew and Margaret is that they've got their own interests - Invictus, Sentebele etc - to keep them busy.

I don't think Kate sounds posh, she sounds like someone trying to be posh! Diana and even Fergie sounded more genuinely upper-class. Probably because they weren't trying to put on an accent, it was how they actually spoke.