Alexander Larman

Most years, the royal family’s attendance at the Easter Mattins service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor is nothing more than a well-received piece of pageantry, an opportunity for well-wishers to wave and cheer and for commentators to observe whatever couture the royals are wearing. Not this year. The absence of the Princess of Wales was inevitable as soon as she revealed her treatment for cancer, and therefore there is no Prince William, nor their children. It goes without saying, of course, that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have not decided to end the estrangement that exists between them and the rest of the family. Even had they wished to attend, it is doubtful that Harry’s well-documented battles with the government over his security issues would have allowed it to happen.

At last, the matter should have been settled. After the innumerable articles, social media posts and television pundits all speculating as to what, exactly, has happened to the Princess of Wales, it was revealed over the weekend that she had been seen with her husband, looking in good health, visiting a farm shop – that bastion of well-heeled Englishness. The story seems designed to reassure anyone that she is one of their own, as well as, one day, the future queen. There was, of course, some scepticism about the Sun’s initial revelation, given that it was not substantiated with pictures or videos. So the development that there is, indeed, footage of her looking 'happy and relaxed' should, one hopes, put the near-endless rumours about the state of her health to bed.

There is no possibility, if you consume any kind of media, that you will not be aware of Kate Middleton’s absence from public view over the past couple of months. For a time, it was possible to put the various rumors and speculation down to over-excited people on the internet with too much time on their hands and over-vivid imaginations. Then, in an apparent attempt to quell speculation, Kensington Palace released a strangely Photoshopped image of the princess on Britain's Mother’s Day, and all hell broke loose. Even those who would normally have sighed at the increasingly prurient stories found themselves saying things like, “I’m not a conspiracy theorist but...

On September 23, 1951, King George VI was operated on for cancer. It was a grueling, dangerous procedure, conducted at Buckingham Palace by Clement Price Thomas, a leading chest surgeon. The king, unsurprisingly, was miserable at the idea, saying, “if it’s going to help me get well again, I don’t mind, but the very idea of the surgeon’s knife again is hell.” Yet he was kept unaware of the seriousness of his illness, instead being informed that the cause of his health problem was nothing more urgent than obstruction in one of his bronchial tubes, which would require a “resection” of the lung, and that it would cure the “pneumonitis” that he believed he was suffering from.

It is a known, and lamented, fact that the rivalry between the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Sussex has led to a series of incidents of one-up(wo)manship. It is surely no coincidence that in the midst of the Harry and Meghan brouhaha on Netflix, the princess was photographed looking suitably radiant and selfless, helping out with good causes and generally being a credit to the royals, rather than a thorn in their side. And now that she has become the most discussed woman in the world by dint of her disappearance from the spotlight, a certain Montecito resident might be forgiven for feeling that her elegant nose has been put out of joint.

It's safe to say that at the moment the royals are besieged by controversy and difficulty – partially through bad luck, and partially through problems of their own making. It has not, perhaps, then been the most helpful development that the Princess of Wales’s loud and self-styled ‘flamboyant’ uncle Gary Goldsmith has entered the Celebrity Big Brother house. Joining the show along with fellow luminaries such as Lauren Simon, Zeze Mills and David Potts, Goldsmith has been described as the 'tattooed, party-loving brother' of Kate’s mother Carole Middleton.

Prince Harry's failed High Court challenge against the government over his security protection heaps more embarrassment on the royals. The Duke of Sussex was told today that the decision to downgrade his security status following his departure from the royal family was legitimate. Once again, it means the Royals are in the headlines for the wrong reasons. We are not yet three months into 2024, and this year shows every sign of being the worst in memory for the royal family. This is an impressive achievement, given that 2023 began with Prince Harry publishing an embarrassing tell-all memoir, rich in revelation about his family’s attitudes and antics.