Royal style & gossip: from maximum Maxima to minimalist Meghan

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Previous thread:

Royal style & gossip: what do we want? Frock shots! When do we want them? Now!

Hi Royal watchers! I've been following the last couple of threads but haven't posted. I just wondered if you knew a way of finding out timings for visits.

The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge are coming to the local town near me today and I wanted to go down and see them arrive / leave, but I can't seem to find what time they are going to be there. Is there a way of finding out? I don't fancy (and can't) hang around all day in the rain waiting for them.

@Cuzcothellama

I presume for security reasons, they’re unlikely to give a specific time. Are you in Leicester?
Can’t you call the football stadium and ask Sounds really morbid but if there are still flowers laid out for the late owner; perhaps they’ll go there to pay their respects.

I'm near Leicester, yes. We have activities on Wednesdays, hence not being able to just go & wait. If I was child free I would, haha. I guess I'll have to miss them. Never mind.

[Waves to fellow Leicestershire person] I grew up around there

Given the range of stories about Megan, from the tiara thing to the hat thing to all this recent stuff - if it is one person leaking, it should be possible to find out who it was. Assuming the leaks are based on firsthand experience and not internal staff gossip which someone is passing on - that would make things harder.

I hope they pack it in soon, it's relentless and awful. I'm sure Meghan is tough - she was in a tough profession before and I'd hope that Harry set out what she might face when they got engaged. But it's horrible, and she's pregnant which can leave a woman feeling more sensitive than usual.

As for the crying thing - I had a weepy moment the other day at grownup DS was looking, and I was alone in the house. And I suspect, also, that Kate is a tough one as well, and not some shrinking little blossom who weeps at a sharp word. She's been doing this for a long time, you don't stick this sort of life out without a certain amount of mental armour.

Doesn't the royal.uk site give timings of visits @Cuzcothellama? Or try the Kensington Palace Twitter feed.

I think Harry is very protective and will be incandescent with rage regarding these recent slanders and allegations. Normally there is a bigger story they are not printing and it seems like a threat that the media are not going to toe the line. Someone has upset someone powerful

Better/some shapewear would improve Fergie's green dress.

I thought that too GrumbleBumble . If she had posted here she would have got some kind advice.

I think anyone who wears a dress like that green one would benefit from shapewear, just because a bias cut is so clingy.

I’m really not sure what the RF can do. The malicious gossip is everywhere. It’s ironic that William gave a speech a few weeks ago about cyber bullying.
Whether the distance stories between the 2 couples are true or not, they really should picture Kate & Meghan together as pp said; at the ballet or something. They really need to shut the rumours down, because in the absence of a positive story from the palace, the press will just make up stuff.
Despite Harry having been the most popular Royal, there was zero coverage of his trip to Zambia, apart from tweets from KP.
It’s all about the women now; the British press, especially of course the DM are all #teamkate.

I just reread my post, and also based on @user ‘s comments.
I suspect it may well be Harry who has pissed someone off. Zero coverage of his trip to Zambia. If there’s no press, apart from the local Zambian press and local diplomacy; his visit is irrelevant.

So now, they are laying into his wife.

The more I read about it, the more I'm convinced it's the work of one of the "grey men" that Fergie and Charles' former PR talked about. H&M could well have pissed them off, but that doesn't mean they did anything particularly wrong. If these men are used to the royals doing what they tell them to do and H&M stood up to them and disagreed, then we could be seeing the result. And of course the right-wing press love to discredit women, especially women of colour, so it's like catnip to them.

curly I thought so too, the only mention of PH was way down the DM page,

I don't understand why should DoC step in and help with DoS image?? , that would mean Kate getting tangled in all this drama too, who would want that,
PH is a royal and knows all about these protocols/rules . If the stories are true , then he should have explained them better to his wife.
Who are the Men in Grey anyway?? Agents??

I don't know, i think the 'rift' story is a very very predictable load of Jackanory journalism. We've had fairly regular engagements, weddings and babies for the last few years and now there's a lull while Meghan gestates and a vacuum to fill for a while.

Also, as pp have said, they did it with SF and Diana when their relationship was new. This is the first time since then they've had the same situation (two glam royal SILs) with which to do it again and they are.

Tbh if there weren't stories whipping around about festering hostility between the two of them by now i'd be much more surprised

The crying story makes me so cross!
Its so obviously twisting an event to fit the current narrative which is Kate -good Meghan-bad. The have placed it in the middle of an article about a 'feud' so people automatically assume it was a bridezilla moment. But although they go to great pains to say it was confirmed by 2 people what they don't say is if Meghan was even there! It's completely possible that she wasn't given that she had bridesmaids/pageboys being fitted all over the world even at the appointment. And even is she was I agree 101 things could have made Kate cry.

I agree there is a sustained campaign against the H&M (mainly Meghan)and the moment the amount of 'Leaks' is un heard of know it's seems to have really ramped up since Harry was voted most popular royal. I wonder whose back that would have got up?

I don't like Fergie's green dress, the fabric is unflattering and unforgiving. It looks as though she wrapped in a curtain, and why is she skulking behind the door?

Hiding from the DoE @AdaColeman??

@queenofarles The grey men are apparently the bureaucrats behind the scenes who run the palaces. I'm guessing the various private secretaries, spin doctors etc. Fergie wrote about them in her autobiography and was convinced they had it in for her. Could be that they tipped off the press re the toe sucking photos, because I always got the impression that the reason she was so hated by the royals was not because she had an affair but rather because she'd been caught by the press having an affair.

QueenOfTheAndals Or waiting to grab a bottle of fizz as a waiter passes!

There's a nice video clip on BBC News site about Queen Margrethe, "Denmark's queen designs ballet costumes".

I've read about the grey men before. Didn't Diana talk about them as well? I should imagine whoever they are they're horrified at the idea of Meghan infiltrating the ranks and the RF becoming more egalitarian and slimming down because where does it leave them? I should imagine they have very cushy jobs for life they want to protect. Anyway back to topic, i do quite like the bottom bit of Fergie's dress and she's reminded me I have a black leather jacket I'd forgotten about I might have haul out for xmas....

Well obviously Fergie is wearing some kind of shapewear as we can see practically every stitch of it. She also needs to smile. That serious look just ages her and misses sultry by a mile (and I say that with kindness because my face is very similar these days !).

Going against the grain to say I really like that green dress on Fergie.

I wouldn’t choose that shade of green myself, but if that photo was lifted off Instagram or whatever there will be a filter on it affecting the colour.

don'tcallme I thought how refreshing it is to see a face that actually looks it age when I saw a close up of her at E&J's wedding. Not hard, shiny and plastic looking like many women of a certain age in the public eye.

@CurlyWurlyTwirly wasn't it you who said Kate is deliberately looking more regal since she came back from maternity leave? The Mail has stolen your idea! Again!