Catherine, Princess of Wales, at the "Together at Christmas" Carol Service at Westminster Abbey on December 15. This year's carol service is dedicated to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Photo / Getty Images
Catherine, Princess of Wales, at the "Together at Christmas" Carol Service at Westminster Abbey on December 15. This year's carol service is dedicated to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Photo / Getty Images
Buckingham Palace has nothing to say. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
In the wake of the final half of Harry & Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix ‘documentary’ landing on Thursday night, those tweedy sorts over in London were pursing their lips and clasping their hands. They had nothing to say about Harry’s claims that brother Prince William left him “terrified” after “screaming and shouting” at him during 2020′s Sandringham Summit or that the royal press offices are locked in an unholy alliance with those ink-stained bruisers over on Fleet Street.
But Kate, Princess of Wales? She just might have said everything in the cheekiest way possible.
Thursday in the royal world was a very big day because nearly 12 hours after the Sussexes’ second and final (thank the lord!) soul-baring tranche of pouty hurt feelings, mud-slinging, and melancholy string music, Kate arrived at the Westminster Abbey for her second Christmas carol concert, ready for a bit of a singalong and some much-needed cheery, happy-family PR.
Prince William, Prince of Wales, Princess Charlotte of Wales, Prince George of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales attend the "Together at Christmas" Carol Service at Westminster Abbey. Photo / Getty Images
So, there we had Kate arriving, all done up like a perfumed Christmas cracker in a fitted maroon coat and with dangly burgundy earrings. Then, after having greeted some of the concertgoers, high-fiving a few kids On Their Best Behaviour inside, the Princess made a second entrance with her family with daughter Princess Charlotte in, fancy this, a maroon coat. Huh.
Then came royal cousin Zara Tindall and her recently released from the I’m A Celebrity “jungle” wilds of the Gold Coast husband, Mike. What was the horse-loving, former Olympian daughter of Princess Anne wearing? A maroon coat.
Mike and Zara Tindall arrive at the carol service. Photo /Getty Images
Pippa Matthews, Kate’s sister, also did her sibling bit and came along, and what did she choose for this huge, going-to-be-endlessly-photographed-and-seen-by-the-world-event? Another maroon coat.
Pippa Matthews also chose the plum shade for the event. Photo /Getty Images
I’m not done yet here. Sophie, the Countess of Wessex looked chic in a white coat while Her Majesty AKA Camilla opted for … a white coat.
(May I please point out here, while knickers were twisting the world over about the Sussexes’ supposed Homeric tale of woe, Sophie was being awarded the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security for her work focused on sexual violence in war zones).
We could write all of this off as funny coincidences, something these women could all have had a giggle over later that night over a large glass of Waitrose prosecco as they kicked off their heels and made Prince George ferry over a tray of pigs in blankets. Except, that is, for the fact that these matchy-matchy instances come hot on the heels of one particular claim by Meghan.
In the first volume, Harry & Meghan, the Duchess informed the streamer’s cameras: “Most of the time that I was in the UK, I rarely wore colour.
“There was thought in that. To my understanding, you can’t ever wear the same colour as Her Majesty, if there’s a group event. But then you also should never be wearing the same colour as one of the other more senior members of the family. So I was like, ‘Well, what’s a colour that they’ll probably never wear?’ Camel? Beige? White? So I wore a lot of muted tones, but it also was so I could just blend in.”
Meghan Markle has said she had to stick to muted tones when she became a royal. Photo / Getty Images
(Look, here we could get into the fact that a quick search on Getty or Google throws up a number of images of her wearing red, purple, orange and green, but that signature Sussex glossing over of certain inconvenient facts is hardly something new, is it?)
Then, in this week’s second lot of episodes, the former Suits star repeated the claim saying, “Until that last week in the UK, I rarely wore colour. I never wanted to upstage or ruffle any feathers. So I just tried to blend in.”
To Meghan’s telling, to be a lowlier working member of the royal family, there was an expectation she wouldn’t tread on anyone’s higher-ranked toes and that she was expected to, sartorially, know where she fitted in the pecking order. Here was even more grist for the ever-chugging grievance mill – just another way that Meghan’s vibrancy was squashed by the monarchy.
Which is what makes Thursday’s carol concert such a defiant and loaded moment.
Whether Kate, Zara, Camilla, Sophie, Beatrice, Eugenie and Pippa had some sort of WhatsApp group where they co-ordinated their sartorial pincer movement or they all turned up accidentally wearing mirror-image versions of each other’s coats, who knows?
The bottom line is the same – Simply by dint of what they wore, the women of the royal family have just managed to demolish assertion.
The royal family was not done yet. While those old Etonian lips stayed zipped in the face of the Sussexes’ highly strung, emotionally manipulative (and even at times moving) retelling of events, with battlelines between Montecito and London being drawn, the Windsors were busy sending a message that has been heard loud and clear.
Last year, six members of the extended royal family traded the comfort of a warm sitting room to spend an evening listening to Leona Lewis belt out O Holy Night in support of Kate.
And this year? A full 20 Windsors, including William’s third cousins, forwent an evening of eggnog in front of The White Lotus to come along at this most crucial of moments image-wise.
The meaning hardly needs spelling out – this was a show of family unity and support as Charles, William and Kate came under fire from the world’s most famous royal conscientious objectors.
Then, if anyone was in any doubt about all this togetherness, this consolidated front, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace also sent out their first co-tweet about the event.
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) December 15, 2022
There is a sad last point to make here.
Never have Harry and Meghan looked more isolated, more like two people cut off from both of their fathers and siblings, who have cast themselves off into the celebrity wilderness. Totally and utterly marooned, even.
