Richard Kay wrote a lengthy piece looking back at the royal gossip of 2025 and looking ahead at the royal gossip to come in 2026. Kay is now something of a royalist elder, although at one point, he was more of a Diana loyalist. That was years ago though, and he’s been thoroughly compromised by both King Charles and Prince William. Kay occasionally lets some criticism spill out, but most of the time, he’s in full royal stenographer mode. Well, this piece made some news. Some broad strokes: the knives are out for King Charles; royalists hate Labour and Keir Starmer; everyone around Charles hates the idea of “reconciling with Prince Harry,” and Prince Edward and Sophie are probably going to be forced out of Bagshot Park, their palatial estate. Some highlights:

Andrew Windsor’s mess caused problems for the Windsors: Questions about the ex-prince’s occupation of Royal Lodge – soon to be his former home – has galvanised a Labour Party desperate to shift attention away from its own Government’s lamentable failures, with calls for a wider examination of royal properties and their – allegedly – generous leasing arrangements. Amid such a climate it would not take much for Left-wing MPs, sniffing an opportunity – and royal blood – to demand a wider audit of the wealth of the Windsors.

The king’s speech: Even the festive season did not provide Charles with the universal acclaim one might have expected. While his Christmas Day message of peace and reconciliation was widely praised by church and political leaders, the online reaction was decidedly mixed. ‘The Defender of Faith is as woke as his Church,’ posted one correspondent. Another wrote: ‘Just a load of **** spewed by an individual who knows absolutely nothing about what hard-working, tax-paying citizens go through 52 weeks of the year.’ It would be tempting to dismiss such disaffection as the ranting of a minority, but the numbers voicing such views were not insignificant. More sobering for courtiers was the fact that those finding fault with the King were not from the agitprop Left but were of the Christian and monarchy-supporting Right.

Charles’s trip to America in a few months: Setting foot on American soil will inevitably raise questions about whether he will see his wayward son, Prince Harry and his children, whom he has met only once before.

Harry & Charles’s September meeting: In September, California-based Harry spent 54 minutes at Clarence House with his father – their first meeting in more than 18 months – after he had publicly expressed hopes of a reconciliation with his family in a TV interview. But the encounter later descended into farce, with sources close to Harry perversely scorning those who leaked details of an apparently warm experience as being ‘intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son’. Against such a background some courtiers are privately sceptical of Harry’s calls for a rapprochement. Is it any wonder that the King’s handlers are uneasy? ‘Extending an invitation to meet his father will almost certainly be a media event,’ says a PR figure who has advised the royals. ‘But so too will any failure to invite him. It will be a story if Harry is there, and it will be a story if he isn’t. It’s quite a dilemma.’

Whether the Sussexes will visit the UK: Harry remains a divisive figure. It was surely coincidence that his televised walk through the minefields of Angola last July took place on Queen Camilla’s birthday and his Invictus Games in Birmingham in 2027 will coincide with his stepmother’s 80th – something the King wants to be at the centre of attention including a service of thanksgiving at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Inside the family, such distractions remain a serious hazard. Even if Charles is minded to reconcile with Harry what about William? The dynamic between the estranged brothers could ignite at any point, whether over titles, tours or even the future direction of the monarchy. These then are vexing issues for a King who dislikes confrontation.

Memorializing QEII: A national memorial for the late Queen is being planned for St James’s Park in central London, although there is no date yet set for it to be completed. Handling his mother’s legacy is both a privilege and a burden for the King. It is in his gift to choose the writer to compile the Queen’s official biography. But any official account of the late Queen, however discreet the historian, will necessarily have to feature the breakdown of the marriages of her three elder children and in particular that of Charles and Diana and its effect on national life. ‘After less than four years on the throne, he is unlikely to wish to have the whole sorry saga of his unhappy first marriage dragged up for public consumption all over again,’ says a friend of the King. ‘Better to leave it in the pending tray for a little bit longer.’ Better indeed perhaps to leave it for his son William to sort out.

Prince George’s 13th birthday. In practical terms it means him starting a new school. Where he goes to will provide an intriguing insight into the Prince and Princess of Wales’s decisions about how they want to educate their three children. So far they have resisted royal tradition and kept them together in schools. That must now change. Eton College, which both princes William and Harry attended, is the favourite.

The Edinburghs & Bagshot Park: The focus, at least to start with, seems certain to be the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh’s occupancy of 120-room mansion Bagshot Park which, in sheer size, dwarfs Andrew’s Royal Lodge. But unlike Andrew, Edward and Sophie are working royals and criticism has been muted. Then, late last year, it emerged that they were living there under the terms of a peppercorn rent. I understand that an idea being floated among informal advisers is that they leave Bagshot, where they have lived for 26 years, and move into Kensington Palace. The 21-room Apartment 1 – next door to William and Kate’s London residence – has been empty since it was vacated by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in 2019. Originally it was earmarked as a family home for Harry and Meghan and there was later talk that it might be used by William and Kate for official entertaining. As one figure told me: ‘I have no idea if it will happen, but it could take the wind out of the sails of a Labour wrecking crew intent on another royal scalp.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Kay writes, “But the encounter later descended into farce, with sources close to Harry perversely scorning those who leaked details of an apparently warm experience as being ‘intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son’.” What strange wording – Kay is trying to avoid saying that the king’s courtiers leaked a very nasty account of Harry and Charles’s meeting to the Sun, which prompted Harry to point out that Buckingham Palace was leaking like a sieve. After which, the palace courtiers huffily leaked their anger and disappointment that Harry had called them out publicly! It’s all Harry’s fault, obviously! So, all of that reads like there are still many people around Charles hellbent on keeping him away from Harry and keeping father and son estranged indefinitely.

The stuff about Bagshot Park is interesting though – I wonder if Ed and Sophie really will downsize, or if that would raise more questions about why they needed that 120-room home in the first place? I assume their youngest, 18-year-old James, will be starting his gap year this summer and then head off to college? There’s zero energy towards finding out anything about James though.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.