William ‘very much wants’ to support Charles
The renewed closeness of King Charles and Prince William was revealed as father and son shared royal duties in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Sunday Times reports.
William stood in for his father Thursday at two events, including an international ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach.
As The Daily Beast previously reported, royal sources said a decision had been made for Charles to skip the large event in Normandy attended by other heads of state—including President Joe Biden—in order to “protect” his “continued recovery” from cancer.
“A friend of the King says that in recent years Charles’s tendency to consult William on tricky family issues involving the Duke of York and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has helped to ease the anxieties of the past and boost their personal and working relationships,” the Sunday Times reported.
Despite missing the international event, Charles attended a D-Day ceremony earlier in the day honoring British troops.
“Eighty years ago on D-Day, the 6th of June 1944, our nation—and those which stood alongside it—faced what my grandfather, King George VI, described as the supreme test,” Charles said. “How fortunate we were—and the entire free world—that a generation of men and women in the United Kingdom and other allied nations did not flinch when the moment came to face that test.”
William, aware that he’s way more popular in opinion polls than his dad, has always been conscious of not “queering his father’s pitch,” friends tell the Sunday Times.
“If there was ever a green-eyed monster or a sense of rivalry between the two, that is a chapter of the past,” the friend of Charles told the paper. “The King sees his son as a useful ally on family matters and increasingly in discharging the duties of nation and state. When you are monarch, you’re not counting the column inches. You’re thinking about performing your role for your country, not just as King Charles but as ‘the family.’”
A source close to William told the Sunday Times: “He very much wants to support his father. That isn’t something new, but of course with everything the King is going through with his treatment, he will continue to support him as much as he can.” His visibility in Normandy, and proximity to global power players, also boosts William’s own international statesman profile.
Meanwhile, father and son will appear alongside one another at more events this summer, like the garter service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, on June 17 and for a day’s racing at Royal Ascot later that week.
It’s just as well father and son are getting so well—the number of senior royals available for events has shrunk in recent years, following Harry and Meghan’s exit from their roles, and Prince Andrew’s sidelining following allegations of sexual assault and his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Charles’ portrait may get some in-palace love
King Charles is so enamored with Jonathan Yeo’s controversial portrait of him that it may be going on display at Buckingham Palace. Depending on your view, the portrait looked great, or like the king was being consumed by hellish fire, or as if he was bobbing around in a watery tomato soup.
The Times reports there are plans for the portrait to go on display at the Palace for its summer opening months between July and the end of September.
The large painting features Charles in the garb of the Welsh Guards, holding a sword. Charles was appointed the Guards’ Regimental Colonel in 1975, with Prince William taking on the post in 2023.
At the time of its unveiling in mid-May, the BBC reported that the painting has one confirmed fan: Queen Camilla, who, on seeing the portrait, said to Yeo: “Yes, you’ve got him.”
Inevitably, online opinion raged about the dramatic painting—about whether it showed Charles’ “acceptance of the revelation of your flaws and your mortality,” or it being a “very fine portrait,” or conversely “like the poster for a truly nightmarish horror movie,” or even so bad it was deemed “absolutely fecking hideous, looks like he is burning in hell.”
Yeo—whose other royal sitters included Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and who has painted celebrities like Nicole Kidman—told the BBC that Charles had sat for the portrait four times since 2021. “My interest is really in figuring out who someone is and trying to get that on a canvas,” he said.
As for the presence of the butterfly, it “symbolizes metamorphosis and rebirth,” Yeo said, referencing Charles’ ascension to the throne.
“I think it’s lovely,” Yeo said of the debate the portrait had caused. “Part of the reason the portrait has gone as far and wide as it has, is because of that whole bit of theatrics of the unveiling happening there [at the palace], the King doing it, the palace being visible as a backdrop. It looked great in there so it’s no bad thing that people will be able to see it in that setting.”
“I do my best to capture the life experiences etched into any individual sitter’s face. In this case, my aim was also to make reference to the traditions of royal portraiture but in a way that reflects a 21st Century Monarchy and, above all else, to communicate the subject’s deep humanity,” Yeo said. “I’m unimaginably grateful for the opportunity to capture such an extraordinary and unique person, especially at the historic moment of becoming king.”
As for feeling nervous about how the portrait might be received by the king himself, Yeo joked: “If this was seen as treasonous, I could literally pay for it with my head, which would be an appropriate way for a portrait painter to die—to have their head removed!”
Camilla: Charles won’t slow down
Queen Camilla has said King Charles, currently receiving treatment for cancer, was “doing fine except he won’t slow down and won’t do what he’s told.” The Sun reports that Camilla was speaking with author Lee Child during the second annual Queen’s Reading Room Literary Festival at Hampton Court Palace. Child replied that it “sounds to me like a typical husband.”
Earl Spencer ‘immensely sad’ as marriage breaks down
Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, says his marriage to his third wife Karen Spencer broke down in the wake of writing his recent memoir detailing the abuse he endured at boarding school when he was a kid. The couple wed in 2011, and are divorcing after 13 years of marriage.
Spencer told the Mail on Sunday: “It is immensely sad. I just want to devote myself to all my children, and to my grandchildren, and I wish Karen every happiness in the future.”
Working on the memoir, in which Spencer wrote about an assistant matron at his school abusing him, led Spencer to undergo residential treatment for trauma late last year. Spencer said the matron—whose real-life identity was also revealed by the Mail this weekend—had written a note in Spencer’s schoolboy diary, reading “Me,” which he discovered when researching his memoir. “There is something about the word, ‘Me,’ that strikes me now as not only wildly inappropriate, but intensely intimate—and, of course, slyly anonymous,” Spencer said.
This week in royal history
Prince Philip was born on June 10, 1921. Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon married on June 11, 1509.
Unanswered questions
After Kate Middleton’s vow to be back representing the Irish Guards “very soon,” when will the Princess of Wales be seen in public?
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