This Newsweek cover is probably a bad sign, don’t you think? It shows that the American media market – not just that, the mainstream American news – is paying attention to the chaos within the British monarchy and the impending doom of the Queen’s poor health. Newsweek mostly quotes from Penny Junor, who seems to be all over American news outlets these days (she was quoted in a recent NY Times story too). The crux of the cover story is that the Queen isn’t going to live forever, and there are already cracks and fissures in the “institution,” mostly because William and Charles are so horrible. Some highlights:
There’s so much speculation about the Queen’s health: “There’s something we’re not being told about the Queen’s health,” the commentator Piers Morgan tweeted. “It’s clearly a more serious situation than the Palace is saying.” The Palace staff, an insider told Newsweek, is still “hopeful” that Elizabeth will continue to pursue her “light duties,” including video meetings. But on this increasingly frail elderly woman, a widow since the death of Prince Philip in April, rests the fate of a monarchy that over the course of 10 centuries has survived innumerable wars, scandals, rebellions and a cataclysmic abdication, but now faces a future in which its strongest assets—tradition, pomp and pageantry—count for less and less in a world dominated by the finger-flicking power of social media.
Andrew Morton on the future of the monarchy: “Everyone focuses on Meghan and Harry but they’re looking in the wrong direction. They should be focusing on Prince Charles because he has got a mountain to climb. Prince Charles, our future head of state, future king in the very near future, is only polling in the low 30s and low 40s. For me it causes alarm. Harry and Meghan were ancillary members of the Royal Family even when they were part of the Royal Family.”
Penny Junor on the Queen’s long view: Elizabeth “takes a very long view on things. Young people tend to get excited by a sudden sense of injustice if someone has said something and people are believing them, like in the Oprah interview, you want to jump in there and immediately correct it and put it all right. I don’t think that’s the way the Queen operates, she’s seen everything come and go and knows that things do blow over. Sometimes it’s best to let them blow over without getting involved in it. Because, by getting entangled, you do give oxygen to it.”
William & Charles: But one day Charles will be king, and William, who will turn 40 next June, will be heir apparent, a situation Junor thinks is fraught with the potential for more family turmoil. People recently ran a cover story by royal biographer Robert Lacey suggesting that the future of the monarchy is in Prince William’s hands, not his father’s. The theory gained credibility when William soon afterward gave an interview to the magazine, which he would not have done had the previous coverage offended him. “I think it’s always going to be a little bit difficult,” Junor told Newsweek. “They [Charles and William] are two people doing a very similar job. With all fathers and sons I think there’s an element of competition, the older man not really wanting to step over just yet and let the younger take his crown. I think that’s always going to be a slight issue. I think they’re closer than they were, and they’re both pulling very much in the same direction.”
Charles will never be popular: Charles also has to live with the aftermath of his bitter divorce and Diana’s account of how his coldness and infidelity left her despondent. “I think that is something that will haunt him indefinitely, unhappily,” Junor said. “The problem is that at every anniversary she will be brought up again and the facts or a version of the facts will be trotted out. There will always be people who choose to believe everything they see and hear and watch. Things like The Crown I think are incredibly damaging and are giving a false impression of Charles to the world.”
LOL. Just… all of it is hilarious to me. “How dare everyone pay so much attention to Harry & Meghan, even though we’re the ones who cannot shut up about them, who did this??” That’s basically what it is. Everyone on Isla de Saltines knows there is a massive enthusiasm gap when it comes to Charles and William, and William’s childish PR games and temperamental rages aren’t helping matters at all. It feels like Junor – long a Charles ally – was sent out specifically to say something about William’s big dumb People Magazine cover. This is Charles sending a message to William, in the American media: back up, it’s not your time yet, don’t get messy.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.
Or. OR… The monarchy is already a mess while the Queen is alive.
Seems like the palaces, aka kangaroo courts, are doing a new form of briefing against each other, which is letting “historians” get on TV and talk about how sad you are you were such an asshole and gaslighter toward a teen, and how your heir has adopted all your worst qualities and expanded upon them.
Right? It’s messy now. Sure, it could get worse, but it’s bad enough now. Maybe in the longterm they could stop having separate courts because it’s just shambles.
Exactly. And once again, did they even mention Andrew’s legal troubles with the FBI over raping a sex-trafficking underage victim? Ohhh no the biggest problem is people care about Diana still! Ughhhh.
Messy McMessy has nothing on this family. As one of the most dysfunctional royal families in the world, the queen’s legacy is already in tatters. They chose to focus their energy on piling on the black family member rather than look to sort out all the credible corruption and paedo scandals. They are irredeemable at this point.
You said what is echoing my own thoughts.
That’s…not news, Newsweek.
LOL I was coming here to say the exact same thing. Their next cover story will be ‘Water is wet!’
@ Rapunzel, especially given the source…..🙄
Once the Queen kicks the bucket, and I think we all know this will happen sooner rather than later, the RF will enjoy maybe 2-5 years of international goodwill and the “rally around the flag” mentality that sets in when a country is facing grave uncertainty and needs something to hold onto. After that… lord help these royals. The Middletons better keep that business up and running because Bill and Cathy are gonna be out of a job before the end of the decade.
They will be lucky to get 2 years and even there it will be UK only. Many other countries will want to dump that family because it was mostly inertia that kept them from doing it sooner.
I don’t think good will will just be limited to the UK. But i do think that more and more countries will start considering leaving the CW because they simply don’t want charles as head of state. And personally i think that could not happen to a better person.
The Queen gives oxygen to the mess that is Charles and William when she does nothing. This is a woman who historically does nothing until the situation is so out of hand she is forced by her advisors to act. Re: the death of Diana.
And I love the way their knickers are still in an enormous knot over The Crown. Lol.
This. In terms of the aftermath of Diana’s death, their initial decision to keep the boys away at Balmoral or wherever they were (not in the public eye, anyway) was a good one, and they should have made a public statement to that effect. I don’t think they did, not until their hand was forced.
The Queen still thinks it’s 1905 and the press will report politely and respectfully and only the story that the Royals want published. So much gets so far away from her and makes such a mess.
What bothered me a lot was the Queen taking the boys to Church the morning their mother died and had no prayers read for their mother. I found that insensitive and inexcusable. The boys should have not been isolated in Balmoral they should have been there to see the flowers left for their beloved mother and how much she meant–which they were able to do.
. I would not have allowed them to walk behind the casket though. And let them quietly go into the Church with the family. The Queen IMO did not learn considering what happened with Harry and Meghan.
Well, duh. It’s a mess now.
I actually agree with Morton. They need to focus on the people who are actually funded by the taxpayers.
I agree with him, too. However charismatic, Harry and Meghan were always going to be several steps below on the ladder. They can be modern, but they can’t modernize the monarchy – only the monarch can do that.
Ridiculous how they say people shouldn’t look in Harry and Meg’s direction. They were the only hope of modernizing the RF now they can’t believe they left. Suck it.
Even more ridiculous how the people who’re now saying this are the same people who cannot shut up about H&M. What is this, the Cognitive Dissonance Olympics?
@Mira, “Cognitive Dissonance Olympics” — I love it!! Totally stealing that from you; I’m sure there will come a time when it will come in useful as a reply, lol.
so I interpreted that a little bit different. I think he’s saying that in terms of royal watching or following, you don’t need to focus on H&M, they aren’t working royals anymore, and what H&M do or don’t do isn’t part of the royal family. You know whose actions are still part of the Firm? You know whose actions guide the Firm and direct it? Charles. There’s so much talking about H&M but there’s a real issue with the next king and public perception of him and how he’s viewed, and I think Morton was saying that’s what the Firm should be concerned with, not what H&M are doing in California. Basically they need to focus on their very real problems that are right in front of them before worrying about M going on Ellen.
I think Morton is right that they shouldn’t be focusing on Harry and Meghan but looking more at what William and Charles are up to. The Problem is thay had grown so used to using Harry as a smoke screen, Now that has been taken away they have been left exposed, and its both the fault of the Royal Family and the Media, they had had no fall back plan to show themselves in a good light. Charles Miscalculated his slimdown monarchy because he didnt bring up his heir to really take over his place in waiting, so now there isnt a clear defined route of succession with people calling for william to be king, but william has not proven himself to be ready the only thing he has on his side is youth and still that is questionable because he is not relatable. They played Harry Leaving all wrong, with all the drama surrounding his departure it became Diana 2.0 luckily with out the death. But the media needs to leave Harry and Meghan to get on with their lives. and William needs to stp up and fill the voids of both Harry and his father.
@ Lili, I agree with you wholeheartedly! They keep spending their energy not we’re it matters but 6k miles away, well that’s Baldinghams position. The fact of the matter is that Baldingham is not ready now, and more than not, may never be fit for king. Maybe he should start doing the work he is up for instead of always raging against his brother for leaving him to his own devices. Yet, Baldingham, the Royal family and of the the house staff in each and every division of The Firm f@#%ed that up royally! Their predicament is due to their own actions and inactions. Instead of saving one, they destroyed the entire family. Let them sit in their own stink for awhile.
It’s true. Charles will never be able to compete with Diana’s memory. She will be eternally young, glamorous and loved, while the tampon King will just age ungracefully.
And the queen? Yes we all knew she is an ostrich with her head in the sand, nothing to be proud about.
“The Tampon King.” I love that that story will never die.
It’s strange how desperate the British monarchy is on seeking American attention.
Right? It’s not like we can vote for them. /s
“…its strongest assets—tradition, pomp and pageantry—count for less and less…”
Sort of off topic but I find this an incredibly strange thing to say in a context that refers to all the numerous past centuries of the monarchy. While these might be their strongest assets today – if indeed they have any assets left at all – monarchies used to serve an important purpose in a society. They didn’t survive hundreds of years just because they liked traditions and looked pretty.
Maybe I misunderstood the whole paragraph.
That paragraph is problematic to me and I don’t think you’re off-topic at all – you’ve hit on the basic issue. The monarchy had a definable purpose. Now, that purpose is largely ceremonial. The question is whether the public want to preserve this part of their cultural heritage. I don’t see what social media has to do with it – it’s a delivery mechanism. People will either want the monarchy or they won’t.
I interpreted that as meaning its strongest assets TODAY and going forward not that 400 years ago the most important thing about the monarchy was the pageantry. It’s not the best written article, lol.
Why would anybody be enthusiastic about these royal criminals? Don’t people usually root for the good guys? Chuck & Bill are the worst of the worst. Harry & Meghan are the true heroes.
Why is this Newsweek’s cover story? What does it matter, really, if the monarchy is a mess, except to the Royals and their stans? The Queen isn’t in charge of British domestic or foreign policy, and Charles won’t be either. They should be putting Boris Johnson on the cover.
I admit I’m being salty, because as an American I’m annoyed that a major American news magazine is wasting space on this family and this rotten institution that we fought a war to get off our backs.
Newsweek isn’t actually a major news magazine. It was bought by some really shady people awhile ago, no longer has a print edition, and mostly specializes in clickbait. I grew up reading it and took awhile to adjust, but it really doesn’t have any credibility anymore – to the extent it’s correct about some things, it’s because of stories like this, where they report on the obvious.
@lunchcoma – thanks for that explanation – I had no idea that had happened.
I didn’t know that. Explains a lot!
I recall it being good decades ago, but I unsubscribed after it seemed to change to a second grade reading level.
It is disgusting to see an American publication be flattering and kissing up to a foreign monarch. Their headline is literally “God save the queen.” No, dudes, we fought a long and bloody and terrible war to get the imperial boot off our necks. Uccch.
@Ann & @Emma 100% – disgusting and degrading headline. Such disrespect to the U.S.
I’ll be happy to watch this horrible institution crumble in my lifetime.
If Harry and Meghan have always been “ancillary” to the monarchy and are now even less relevant to the monarchy then why are multiple interviewees talking about them in an article about the future of the monarchy?! I know these quotes are cherry picked by celebitchy for this post, but still. They literally can’t keep the Sussexes’ names out of their mouths while talking about how irrelevant they are. It’s so painful for them to admit they are the most interesting thing about the royals, gave the Firm a cache to hold over the masses until the Cambridge kids are older, and that it was a mistake to drive them away.
I mean, I’m so glad they left and are free, but from a Royalist perspective it was a huge f-up.
And while no one has yet publicly articulated it, it’s obvious that William, for whatever reason, has failed to inspire the confidence and stability that he’d hoped would be his brand at this point in his life and Betty’s. I think it’s a combination of behind the scenes information that stops RR from fawning authentically, and an outward reptilian coldness that turns the public off. Not to mention his very elderly grandmother still outworks him!
Letting things blow over probably worked back in the Queen’s youth when there were fewer media outlets and no SM. It’s not really an effective strategy nowadays. Lies get recycled over and over and need to be corrected. If that’s an excuse for not correcting things in the media concerning H&M, it’s a pathetic one.
I’m guessing like the NYT article it was written by a British person based in the UK that’s why these American publications go to Junor for quotes. They’re not saying anything that most people don’t know. I think when the Queen dies there will be more calls for the monarchy to be abolished.
The author of that NYT article, Mark Landler, is actually American. He was sent to London as bureau chief a couple of years back. There are also, conversely, quite a few British journalists working in the US.
People are sick of supporting this ruling class of idiots. I think once Liz kicks the bucket that this institution is gonna burn. Modern people
Realize this monarchy has no use and needs to go.
@ Lunasf17, and when Chaz stated that he wants a skimmed down monarchy, his wish will come true as countries will work towards independence. So in the end he gets his slimmed down done with just the death of his mother.
I find it remarkable that QEII, 95 years old and terribly frail, does not trust her son and heir enough to let him take the reins even though she is “in her dotage” as the Brits used to say.
I know full well that she has feelings about abdication, but even so-it sends a clear message that she does not have faith in him at all.
But it doesn’t . She took an oath and is abiding by it because it’s her God given duty. I find it to be complete hogwash , she doesn’t .
Her not giving up isn’t a no confidence vote at all. The British monarchy will die a slow death after TQ croaks but it won’t be because Chuck is unpopular or because CB hates Willy . It’s long past it’s expiration date as an institution and has no place in the modern world .
It’s her own damn fault.
Once Betty goes, #Rexit
WHEN?!?!🤬😛😃😬😡
There are A LOT of people who think William in wonderful. They will continue to support the monarch through Charles’ reign because they think they see the “light” in the tunnel after him (William). I know people on Celebitchy see William for what he is, but trust me, there are a lot of people who buy his public relations b.s. and think he’s the bright future of the monarchy.
Sadly, I agree with you.. The British media has turned William and Kate into the second coming… especially William. He’s been protected his whole life and his PR has has worked as a family man and middle class one of the guys with a traditional wife and kids. He’s more powerful than his father and he is also willing to be far more ruthless than any of them. I can see if the media was as least willing to report the truth about him but they are not and are not going to turn against him. He knows that and he’s giving the media what they want. The media is not turning against him in the UK or US. He’s very cunning and knows how to manipulate to get what he wants. Very few ppl are coming around to see what is really happening but not enough to turn the tide against him. Once TQ passes, he will be much more visible and him Charles is going to be at his mercy.. it’s going to be interesting but Charles allowed this to happen so he’s gonna have to deal with him.
Anyone that thinks William is awesome deserves what they get. The only reason he wants to be king now is to presumably show his brother what ‘power’ looks like in his mind. It is 2021. Most people probably care more about Cardi b than any mornachy. The appeal isn’t there anymore. Now had they tried to behave like civilised people maybe the masses would not be on their necks as much. They effed up. They’ve dug themselves so deep I’m not sure there’s a way out. I actually think Charles is better than William. That’s saying a lot considering he’s scandalous a.f. William is unhinged and if he ever ascends I will laugh my ass off because he will embarrass that salty isle beyond belief. They haven’t seen nothing yet.
Charles now seems more forward thinking than William who seems to be going back to the style of the earlier Kings, and out of touch. William was allowed to run rampant and he still continues to scheme against his own brother and his sister in law.
I never mind when they bring out Penny Junor, Robert Jobson, Dickie Arbiter etc (I don’t like them bc they’ve twisted words about H&M) but these reporters are “company men.” Meaning they are all about the longevity of the monarchy and more aligned with England, monarchy, and with Charles than they are with William. The reporters I find most nasty are the ones that William has in his pocket and briefs/leaks to. William is a nasty nasty piece of work and he will go to war with his father the second the Queen dies. He’s a mud slinger and a bully – and all bullies are really just fearful and insecure inside. I will watch the Queen’s funeral and even Charles’ coronation but I will do everything I can to push for a republic after Charles. William is a terrible human being (in my humble opinion)
These people have been a mess since the dawn of time, but I predict there will be a mass exodus from the Commonwealth in Charles’ reign. People just can’t stomach the thought of a King Charles and Queen Camilla.
The thought of Charles face on my money disgusts me, but my country won’t be leaving the Commonwealth any time soon.
That Barbados becoming fully independent from the UK has been a blip on the radar about the future of the monarchy, says a lot. That the chaos of Brexit that has resulted in food and labor sources over there is glossed over also says a lot. As long as the storyline focuses on family drama and conflict, the less attention everyone pays to what is really shaking the table.
Actually they are right on the Harry and Meghan comment in terms of hierarchy except Harry and Meghan were the only ones with profile, intelligence, charisma, who understood the need to modernize. However, the family and the press tried to destroy them so they are off living their best lives now.
Of course shit will be an even bigger mess when the Queen dies. She is the only working royal who people respect and have a high degree of reverence for. When she kicks it, we will get more of a power struggle between deeply unpopular, selfish, and petty Charles, and work-shy, stupid, petulant, racist William. Of course things are bound to get even messier between these clowns.
The picture of the Charles and Camilla and the Cambridge’s is very interesting. All the fake smiles and laughs, the body language tells me that the each couple cannot stand the other one.
Charles looks like he’s sharing an inside joke with Camilla who has a really evil grin on her face. Kate is performing as usual, William, I don’t know. He actually looks like he’s genuinely laughing.
Kate always has that exaggerated laugh and over doing it. Nothing sincere.