A short time ago, the Princess of Wales wore the same terrible Self Portrait dress to two events about five weeks apart. It really bugged me – while Kate has been wearing more repeats in the past year, she usually puts more distance between rewears. I actually wrote a piece where I wondered if Kate’s wardrobe issues were really staffing issues, as in Kate has spent more than a decade working with Natasha Archer as her makeshift “stylist,” and “stylist” was only one of about a dozen job descriptions Archer was supposedly fulfilling. I’m just saying, it never seems like Kate is surrounded by a top-notch team at any level. Around this time last year, Kate actually promoted Archer to “senior private executive assistant,” a gaudy new title with probably the same all-encompassing job description. Well, Natasha has had ENOUGH! She has sewn her last emergency button!
Kate Middleton’s longtime right-hand woman is stepping into a new chapter. After 15 years of dedicated service, Natasha Archer is departing Kensington Palace, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. An invaluable member of the private household, Archer has made the decision to leave her palace role to set up her own private consultancy — with more details expected soon.
PEOPLE understands the Prince and Princess of Wales’ household has wished Natasha the very best for the exciting opportunities ahead.
Affectionately known as “Tash,” Archer, 37, joined the royal fold in 2010 as a personal assistant to both Princess Kate and Prince William. Over time, she became an integral part of Kate’s inner circle and was widely known for being Kate’s unofficial stylist. She was most recently the senior private executive assistant to the Prince and Princess of Wales.
With her discerning eye for British fashion, Archer was also instrumental in curating Kate’s wardrobe for countless royal engagements — including high-pressure international tours (in Australia and New Zealand, Kate wore 24 outfits in 19 days!).
Archer helped usher Kate from girl-next-door to regal style icon, championing high-end designers such as Alexander McQueen and Jenny Packham. The so-called ‘Kate Middleton Effect’ — the phenomenon of fashion items selling out after she wears them — is estimated to contribute $1.27 billion a year to the U.K. economy.
The Kate Effect = wearing doilies, Victorian sister-wife dresses and Meghan cosplay. But hey, Kate has stopped traveling for work, so at least we’re no longer getting flag-dressing. Archer was with Kate from the very start of this adventure, and I’m sure Kate will miss her. I do wonder about the timing, of course. I also wonder if Archer knows too much to ever go far – when she was promoted last year, they made a big deal about how she was visiting Kate at the hospital constantly (??) and driving Kate to and from doctor’s appointments (???). So… yeah. I hope whatever new venture Archer is undertaking, it doesn’t involve styling.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Cover Images.
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales, known as the the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay when in Scotland, attend the naming ceremony for HMS Glasgow, at the BAE Systems shipyard in Scotstoun, Glasgow Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, William, Prince of Wales Where: Glasgow, United Kingdom When: 22 May 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Members of the British Royal Family at the annual Order of the Garter Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle Featuring: Catherine Princess of Wales Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 16 Jun 2025 Credit: Cover Images
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- Members of the British Royal Family at the annual Order of the Garter Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle Featuring: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 16 Jun 2025 Credit: Cover Images
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales arrive to greet the President of France Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron at RAF Northolt, north London, on day one of the French President’s state visit to the UK. Featuring: William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 07 Jul 2025 Credit: Justin Tallis/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales leave by car after greeting the President of France Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron at RAF Northolt, north west London, on day one of the French President’s state visit to the UK. Featuring: William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 07 Jul 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles and Queen Camilla welcome President Macron and Mrs Macron for the state visit accompanied by the Princess and Princess of Wales .Official welcome at Windsor and Eton Riverside for the French State Visit Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 08 Jul 2025 Credit: Cover Images
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- King Charles and Queen Camilla welcome President Macron and Mrs Macron for the state visit accompanied by the Princess and Princess of Wales .Official welcome at Windsor and Eton Riverside for the French State Visit Featuring: William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 08 Jul 2025 Credit: Cover Images
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales during the Ceremonial Welcome for the state visit to the UK of the President of France Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, at Windsor Castle, Berkshire Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, William, Prince of Wales Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 08 Jul 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- USA Rights Only – Warsaw, Poland – 7/19/17 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Prince George and Princess Charlotte leave Warsaw, Poland, as they head to Germany. -PICTURED: Stylist to the Duchess of Cambridge Natasha Archer -PHOTO by: Dominic Lipinski/PA Images/INSTARimages.com -32109111.jpg Editorial Rights Managed Image – Please contact www.INSTARimages.com for licensing fee and rights: North America Inquiries: email sales@instarimages.com or call 212.414.0207 – UK Inquiries: email ben@instarimages.com or call + 7715 698 715 – Australia Inquiries: email sarah@instarimages.com.au Êor call +02 9660 0500 Ð for any other Country, please email sales@instarimages.com. ÊImage or video may not be published in any way that is or might be deemed defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene / Please consult our sales department for any clarification or question you may have – http://www.INSTARimages.com reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this image or video. If you are in violation of our intellectual property you may be liable for actual damages, loss of income, and profits you derive from the use of this image or video, and where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or statutory damage. Featuring: Natasha Archer Where: Warsaw, Poland, Poland When: 19 Jul 2017 Credit: Dominic Lipinski/PA Images/INSTARimages.com **USA Rights Only**
A “regal style icon”! HA!
“discerning eye” yeah, sure
Both the polka-dotted dress & ruffled dress both look like she borrowed them from Kate’s closet, so I do think she was a factor in the doily/lacy/flouncy/buttony dressing. Perhaps Kate will get a legit stylist.
Finally throwing in the towel, eh? Strange that she never got a gong like Melissa, Kate’s erstwhile private secretary did for far less time. Especially considering all the secrets she must keep…
And she’s married to Chris Jackson, Kate’s favorite Photoshopper, oops I mean photographer so Kate has to keep her sweet!
Good point. Give her a gong to keep her quiet.
Do you mean Rebecca Priestley, nee Deacon? They usually get the honors at the year end list so she may get one at this year’s end. Deacon also set up a “private consultancy” and is on the boards of either Earthshot and definitely the board of William’s slushfund philanthropy fund he used to donate to a hurricane fund for Mustique.
oh lordy i had forgotten about her lol.
Ahhh!!! Maybe she’ll get a royal warrant when the time comes so her new consultancy can benefit from the so called Kate Effect worth the unsubstantiated £1.2b someone plucked out of thin air.
“ I also wonder if Archer knows too much to ever go far – when she was promoted last year, they made a big deal about how she was visiting Kate at the hospital constantly (??) and driving Kate to and from doctor’s appointments (???).”
I think the Royal warrant will suffice for the years of dedicated service noted above.
ahh perfect, Kate’s first royal warrant should be even better than a gong. And let’s be honest, can you really see Archer – given the evidence of her “work” with Kate – handling tiara events with jewels from the Royal Collection, not only for Kate but for the other married ins? Coordinating with everyone from Anne to other queens ‘ staff to foreign PM wives etc? She’s no AK 47 either, so the jump into her own styling business slash handholding for rich ladies is a great idea… good timing, before it looks like Kate sacked her for not being suitable for a Queen.
Couple of Tatler and Town & Country articles later and she’ll be smelling all the roses!
@Lady Esther
Exactly, no Royal tiaras and jewels but she can still work with Kate from outside the institution and make money as a business instead of an employee. The employee pay would likely be far less than what she would earn in business revenue from the Royal Household with a Royal warrant. It’s a good grift. 🤷🏽♀️ If she remains a member of the Royal Household until retirement, she’d have very little to show for it financially. Back in the day, the benefit of working for the Royal Household until retirement was the boast or clout that the individual or family of the individual would have in that class system society. The Royal Family does not have the same relevance, deference and majesty it had prior to KCIII reign. I think Charles’ affair with Camilla who is now Queen and his continued abhorrent treatment of Prince Harry, the son who reminds people of Diana the People’s Princess, is the measuring stick for many people’s assessment of Charles’ reign and a negative reflection of the monarchy. The majesty of the institution has faded. I think Prince Philip foresaw this happening during Charles’ reign. 🤷🏽♀️
Yeah…so I think Natasha being outside of the institution is more lucrative than being inside during William’s and Kate’s time as Head of the Windsor Household, which I think will be upon us soon. 😞
“ including high-pressure international tours (in Australia and New Zealand, Kate wore 24 outfits in 19 days!).”
😂 that was a long time ago. So she did 24 events? How many outfits did she do for the Caribbean disaster tour?
“ The so-called ‘Kate Middleton Effect’ — the phenomenon of fashion items selling out after she wears them — is estimated to contribute $1.27 billion a year to the U.K. economy.”
🤣
Surely it’s million and not billion. I’d be asking by whose metric too. I’m sure there’s a peak fashion body who can crunch more realistic numbers.
Considering how few events she does, how few outfits she wears that are current and how many of her outfits are bespoke – even million seems like overkill.
Are British women running around in flying saucer hats and coat dresses because of Kate?
I follow this Insta account called eliza.co.uk and they show what’s on trend atm. They do the season: Ascot, Wimbledon, Henley etc.
What I like about them is that they ask random people of practically the same look – which one costs £300 v £3000? The results can be sometime surprising with the dupes though Choo and Loubotin shoes and a Bottega bag is always a giveaway.
My point is, they’re in touch with current fashion and Lazy is so out of touch with everything atm and it’s showing every time she goes out.
I’d say a million over two decades is pretty fair especially in her early married years. But no longer. The Middleton effect hasn’t existed since Meghan arrived on the scene.
The “Middleton-effect” existed for just one garment – the blue engagement dress. That is it.
The coat dresses and hats seem to be about setting a certain image, one that will appeal to old-school royalists and monarchists. But I don’t know how much product that it’s going to move bc it feels a little unrelatable. Don’t get me wrong, I’m guessing there are some people out there also wearing coat dresses and looking for inspo but maybe not a whole lot.
I feel like back in the day some of her more casual looks sold out, but it was also hard to categorize bc often she wears items from a year or two ago that are already sold out so its not related to Kate. I am a little ashamed to admit that I got a pair of Supergas because of Kate, lmao (and I love them, surprisingly comfortable for being so flat.)
but I feel like now even her casual looks are kind of nothing burgers.
@ArtHistorian – the engagement dress company went bust, so that Kate/Middleton effect was not very effective 🙂 .
Kate would change clothes to walk off the airplane and that was considered an event.
Exactly! The plane tarmac meet & greet is counted as an event, then drinks at whatever palace/governor’s mansion is an event, dinner that evening is an event. So three right there on Day 1. Their airport run for the Macrons was one event & then I bet the meeting up with Chuck & Cams was counted as a separate event.
I just looked at the CC, and the Waleses definitely will get credit for three events on Tuesday, maybe more.
Also the schedule for the Macrons was insane and weirdly laid out. They arrived in windsor, had the parade and such, then went to London met with Starmer, he gave an address, they met with veterans, laid wreaths in at least two places, and then back to Windsor for the state dinner and then met with Charles in the morning and then back to london for more events.
If that’s the pace of a head of state when visiting another country…..William could never.
‘The so-called ‘Kate Middleton Effect’ — the phenomenon of fashion items selling out after she wears them — is estimated to contribute $1.27 billion a year to the U.K. economy.‘
Lol what? When?
The ‘Kate effect’ is fashion houses going bankrupt & charities ending
This . There is NO WAY Kate’s outfits contribute billions to the UK economy yearly lol. Even millions is stretching it.
Awwww…Kate is losing her only friend!!!
That’s true and very sad actually. I think isolation has zaken a toll on his mental health and this won’t help.
OMG, you’re right! Now it’s just going to be the nannies. I’m sure they’re thrilled.
Did she get paid a salary or per diem? If it’s a salary she may have just been bored, if it’s per diem well I can see why she left after the last 18 months or so. And while the client has a lot of say over what they wear, if Kate’s fashion is evidence of her stylist bona fides, I can see why her new job doesn’t have anything to do with it. Will we be treated to articles about how long-term employees are leaving their employer? Or are we going to acknowledge that it’s normal for people to move on from jobs throughout life when it’s about Kate?
Also, those numbers for the supposed “Kate effect” are comically inflated. Which tells me that a certain someone’s Shopmy page is envied. Half the stuff she wears is either from a previous season and in limited stock, from brands that don’t exist any longer, and bespoke outfits. Who is buying enough Catherine Walker coat dresses to earn the economy a billion dollars?
Is Dior valued at $1B?
Maybe it’s the total company valuation of fashion houses that she’s patronised that gave them that ridiculous figure.
Lazy ain’t a billion dollar brand. 😏
I read somewhere credible (can’t remember where) that Kate’s private secretary quit out of boredom, and this was before 2024.
There was one who quite and gave the reason as wanting to work with charity, which could be nothing else than subtle shade at Kate.
Can’t remember her name, but IIRC she was the one with impressive credentials (overqualified) and possibly had been assigned to Kate from somewhere else in the royal operation. Also think she may have been the one who originated Kate’s Arly Years project, before leaving after just about two years and quoted, as I also recall, to be moving on to work with charities. Ouch.
It was Catherine Quinn. She came from Oxford and had real jobs. She left right as her 2 years were up and said she wanted to work for charity.
Some of the stans will be happy about this. They have been complaining about Kate’s styling recently. At least Kate the Meghan and Diana lookbooks to refer to when she needs an outfit.
Career-wise it makes sense for her to change it up, setting up her own business while using her resume for working for the palace. Timing-wise it is weird how Kate is so close to being the queen and she is losing all these key people. Did she even get a press secretary after the last one resigned before even starting the job?
Right? Who do we know of that is on her team anymore? We know at least one (often more) person that frequently gets mentioned as being close to Chucky, Cam, Will, not to mention all the staff we knew of for QEII. Why does it seem like she’s a short hop away from being QC and has no one around her except mummy dearest?
CarolE’s fully in charge now, I guess. Just by the by, I saw CarolE and the Duchess of Gloucester greet each other with pecks on the cheek at Wimbledon as though they were long standing friends. I had no idea they were “that” close. It seems CarolE’s status amongst the Windsors is on the ascendency.
@Sure unless Willy is giving her Duchy money to dole out, her power over the rest isn’t visible. Not yet anyway.
@SURE
Carole began to exert control over William after December 2023. The Middletons had long been sidelined, and a divorce seemed imminent. In December 2023, William lost his temper, and now he’s paying the price. Carol likely secured photographic documentation and other evidence, and since then, she’s been keeping William by the balls, miraculously returning to the social scene. There’s so much drama there that it’s unclear what might happen, and what—despite expectations—won’t. A modern-day self-proclaimed Nostradamus has long been predicting that William won’t become king. It’s unlikely, but we’ll wait and see. And instead of caring for William and hanging around aristocrats, Carole should be caring for her daughter, who is so emaciated she looks anorexic, which wouldn’t be surprising in the nest of mutually scavenging vipers that Kate and her mother also are. Carol is playing hardball, but she should be careful, because Kate could end up like Diana.
Does this maybe cut the other way? Kate is so close to being queen so all her worthless staff who have enabled them all these years will be replaced by much more regimented, domineering men in grey?
But who will style her? Jason?!!
@Blogger, she might be better off with Jason.
@Blogger, she has the Diana & Meghan look books. If Will gets another “friend” that he can go to for supper, she is gonna have another source for styling. So, I don’t think she actually needs a stylist. Last time we saw her, she was holding a huge plant in the car to give the impression that Kate was leaving the hospital. Any gray men can do that for her.
But once William is king, there’s a very good chance he is going to get rid of a lot of those men in grey, at least the ones who have worked with Charles. I don’t think William and Charles get on well enough for him to keep many of them on. What that will mean for Kate’s staffing idk. Will William allow Carole to just manage Kate’s staff so he doesn’t have to do too much? Or do they have people in mind already. I just think bringing on new people must be somewhat hard bc they’re so private and don’t want anything of their real inner workings leaking out. I just remember how it was said that so much of the KP staff had no idea what was going on with Kate in that year she was sick.
@Katee
Or maybe in yet another direction. They know she Kate won’t become queen, so they flee before they’re released. The ship sinks, the rats evacuate.
Kate,us no style icon
😂😂😂😂.”regal style icon” oh please what a joke. Maybe she was bored with the “work” she was doing and decided to move on.
Tired of lugging around the suitcases & tote bags for the lazy sods. Looks like she did this work since finishing college–assuming she went–and this has been her only adult job. She thinks she can set up her own consultancy? Consult about what? What does she even know? And who’d hire her? Her boss is late to everything, cancels at the last minute, is ill-prepared when she bothers to show up–and this is more on Kate than Tash–and that doesn’t reflect well on staff, either.
Of course if this was Meghan there’d be dozens of articles about “bullying” and “bleeding staff” and “YET ANOTHER departure” – but no with Kate it’s “how wonderful! She’s got new opportunities!” Eyeroll….
Pretty much. Lazy is going from one disaster to another. It’s falling apart. And AWOL at Ascot was definitely putting her foot wrong.
Honestly this is good news. Maybe Kate will replace her with someone with a fresh modern fashion sense!
I don’t think she will. W and K don’t like to surround themselves with competent people who tell them their honest opinion.
For Kate it’s how she wears clothes. The clothes wear her due to her being way too thin. I think some of the pieces are nice and would look way better on someone else with curves, but awful on Kate.
i wonder if there is some house cleaning before Kate becomes queen – but at the same time, wouldn’t she want someone on her team who’s been with her since the beginning? I just wonder whose decision this was.
and LMAO at the 1.7 billion “kate effect” – like where on earth are they getting that number? So they’re saying that each appearance from kate (lets say 100 in a year) generates 10 million in….in what, sales, to the designers?
i dont see a lot of people flocking to Givenchy for a state dinner dress.
She and the Rottweiler should stop wearing Dior. They’re destroying the brand. I’m sure people were judging the Givenchy ensemble and thinking, uh-uh, avoid that fashion house for now.
Lol – yes, that $9,600 custom Dior jacket/skirt outfit is just flying off the shelves.
After that long I know loyalty/NDAs will maintain her silence on anything not 100% flattering (or what these people think is flattering) but if she would/could that would be a book I’d be interested in reading. I know we’d never get an honest version but imagine for a minute of we did. Hoo boy that would be interesting.
This is going to be interesting. Not!
All of their staffers are notoriously underpaid, and that’s why they leave. This one probably had enough, too.
I assume with some sort of consultancy, she can still cooperate with them in some way, but earn significantly more money.
AK-47 was called a “dresser” and that seemed to involve sourcing a lot of QEII’s outfits and matching brooches and jewelry to them. Not really the same as an actual stylist. I wonder if Kate will hire an actual stylist now, or if she still wants to be known for her “work” not her clothes. It sounds like Kate was driving many of the choices anyway—I don’t see Archer wearing a lot of coat dresses in those pics.
Archer signed up as a personal assistant, not a stylist. She may be sick and tired of reading the criticism of coat dresses and doll hair.
And yeah, lolol at that billion dollar figure for the Kate effect.
Among AK 47’s other important responsibilities were leaking to the press (to the point where Charles demanded his own AK – 47 and then promptly turfed her out of her grace and favor house the minute QEII died) and working with William to make sure Meghan never wore any royal jewels. So it’s a big job, people!
I doubt Archer has the stones to do either of those things for Kate so out she goes, albeit with a golden parachute like Jason
PA to Lazy isn’t actually a ringing endorsement of competence. So all the best to her. She’ll need it.
Archer may not have been wearing coat dresses in these photos but by golly she was sure wearing a lot of ruffles & bows.
That photo of Natasha struggling with luggage and the military dude checking her out in that short dress (she does have nice legs).
Why was she even wearing stilettos? Stockings!
Dude looks senior RAF: Glad I’m not her gopher.
The whole outfit makes no sense! I get she’s on the job, but if you know you’ve got to handle all the luggage, wear something you can easily do that in! Trousers, flats, something not tight & that you can actually breathe in.
The way that William looks at his wife… so sad.
THIS isn’t talked about enough.
How is she going to advertise her services? As a wrangler of the super-lazy? A stylist of the super-dull? As a scheduler of almost no events?
Tash Inc. — consultant to the chronically work-shy.
Wonder what her CV looks like, especially when it comes to the job duties section. Fifteen years & only a one-page CV?
Do we know what brand Natasha is wearing in the white polka dot outfit? It looks like an Alessandra Rich dress, that awful brand that Kate likes. She and Kate have similar style in dressing which is maybe why she stuck around for so long.
But given that Kate’s relatively light workload became almost nonexistent while she had surgery, recovered, and got chemo away from the public eye, there wasn’t much for Natasha to do. And now that Kate is “back to work” there still isn’t much for her to do still. Natasha also has young kids and she may have wanted to spend more time with them instead of kowtowing to the royals constantly. She lasted 15 years which is pretty admirable all things considering.
All these years I have been blaming Kate for her terrible style when i should have been placing that blame at Natasha feet. Seems to me she put on Kate exactly what she would put on herself and those outfits did not do her or Kate any favors.Natasha started Kate love of buttons and poka dots as her replacement buttons coupled with ruffles . Lots and lots of ruffles. Kate never stood a chance against natasha the button poka dot goddess
Hopefully gifted with a golden parachute in exchange for an iron clad lifetime NDA. Bet she knows where all the bodies are buried.
I didn’t realize until today that she is married to the royals photographer Chris Jackson!
yes!! that’s why we always joke about Chris Jackson photoshopping Kate’s photos.
Between the two of them they must have STORIES. Another one is the sky news journalist Rhiannon Mills and her husband Andrew Parsons who is also a photographer and I think even does official photos for KP? There’s some connection to Kp but I can’t be bothered to look it up.
If she was her stylist… welp, looking at her fashion-sense-less…
Guess who follows all Kate’s royal fashion blogs AND all of Meghan’s friends and all of Meghan’s fashion pages?
Just saw this on Instagram, and wow! Natasha and Kate really are just wannabes.
This will be covered tomorrow but it is very interesting that Natasha made her follows public and it more than confirms they have been monitoring Meghan and her friends.
Oh and she’s removing follows like mad now. Hope the screen caps were preserved.
Is she unfollowing now? That’s funny. I thought for a second she did it on purpose. If not, jeez, amateur hour…which no surprise there.
They really aren’t brain trusts at KP, are they? Fifteen years and Natasha followed publicly with her own name? I can’t even
“Unofficial stylist” is about right for Kate’s crappy wardrobe and hair. We can add, “Unofficial stylist who hates Kate.”
The stylist has been “ stalking” Meghan. She follows her on IG, some of her friends, her colorist, skin care specialist and What Megan Wore. Pathetic and it’s proof that they’re copying Meghan.
I just saw that! She follows like Meghan’s whole circle, WMW and more. Tomorrow’s post is going to be something.
She follows Meghan and As ever too. Also Cressida Bonas, Harry’s ex.
I have one literally “burning” question: looking at the polka-dot dress photo, I wonder what the heck she wore to the beach to get that peculiar sun-burn.