Royal Family

Tracey Hanan, 56, (not pictured) showed Queen Camilla a wooden board which had been used to hold a pork pie wedding cake when she married her late husband Tony in 2017. Mrs Hanan had been left distraught when the etching on the board bearing their names began to fade following her husband's death from prostate cancer in 2021. But the item was returned to its former glory when she visited the Shrewsbury Repair Cafe - which restores damaged items - and was one of the volunteer groups who met the Queen (pictured) on Wednesday.

Lady Tatiana Mountbatten, from London, has celebrated the christening of her baby daughter Elodie in a stunning church ceremony (left). Tatiana, who is the daughter of King Charles's cousin George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven, shared the carousel of images to her Instagram account last week. The 33-year-old from London welcomed baby Elodie, now five months, with her husband Alexander 'Alick' Dru last October (pictured right, just after Elodie was born). 

Meghan Markle hopes to sell products from bird seed to pet treats and gardening shears to napkin rings with her new lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard. The Duchess of Sussex has listed a range of items in documents sent to the US Patent and Trademark Office, also including bath soaps, curtains and yoga blankets. Other items in the papers - which were submitted on March 13 but have only now emerged - are ketchup, incense burners, flower pots, pet food and recipe books. It comes after DailyMail.com revealed Meghan is now eyeing Gwyneth Paltrow 's beauty crown as she added cosmetics and beauty products to the list of goods . The 42-year-old Duchess wants to market fragrance sachets, bath and shower gels and salts, hand soaps, body creams, bath oil, body lotions and other cosmetics. Meghan is also hoping to sell scented oils, reed diffusers, fragrances and non-medicated pet grooming products such as shampoo and conditioner for dogs.

The 59-year-old comedian told his audience on The Late Show on CBS last night that he does 'not make light of somebody else's tragedy' - but he fell short of apologising to Kate who has been the subject of cruel conspiracy theories in recent months. Colbert - a self-confessed anti-monarchist - accepted that his jokes had 'upset some people', adding that he was aware 'any cancer diagnosis of any kind is harrowing for the patient and for their family'. The presenter - who had made jokes about Kate's 'disappearance' - also said that he and everyone on the programme 'would like to extend our well wishes and heartfelt hope that her recovery is swift and thorough'. In a monologue on last night's show, he began by saying: 'You know, folks, I don't know if you have noticed, but we do a lot of shows and I tell a lot of jokes, and I tell jokes about a lot of different things, mostly what everybody's talking about.' Colbert's lack of apology sparked a fresh backlash, with Queen Elizabeth II's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter writing: 'He might be full of regret for himself but he didn't apologise.'

Windsor will be witnessing a very different sort of Easter this year. Last time, we saw a full turnout of the Royal Family in the spring sunshine at St George's Chapel. The chief concern back then was the countdown to the Coronation. This year, it is going to be a much smaller affair. We are likely to see the King and Queen but his health, of necessity, demands a much-reduced crowd around him. The Princess of Wales and her family are not expected at all. They want to make the most of the Easter holidays and maximise her three wishes: time, space and privacy. The contrasting images of Easter Sunday 2023 versus 2024 will, therefore, paint a pretty bleak picture.

The family released Kate's video announcement to the press a few hours after the school closed so that her children would not immediately face questions in the playground after the news was made public. 'George is ten now and can't be shielded from any of this now,' a palace source told The Sunday Times. 'Once it's at the school gate and in the school playground, he won't be able to avoid it.'

Prince William supported Princess Kate's decision to announce that she was being treated for cancer and is said to be 'extremely proud' at her 'courage and strength'. The Prince of Wales played an important part in his wife's decision to reveal her diagnosis to the world and wishes she did not have to do it, he knew it was her choice and he supported her. 'It was her decision, it wasn't begrudged and he fully supported it,' a close friend of Prince William's told The Sunday Times.

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: With invitations dispatched for Duke of Westminster Hugh Grosvenor's wedding, a society guessing game develops as to whether Harry will show at the event in June. If he does, it would be the first time he and William were under the same roof since their father's coronation. Sources report that Grosvenor, 33, is staying neutral, maintaining a good relationship with both, leaving it up to them to resolve their family drama. However, the home team could have an advantage. The Duke is godfather to Prince George who could be a page boy on the big day in Chester Cathedral. Perhaps Harry might replicate his attendance at the Diana Legacy Awards last week when he appeared via video.

Conspiracy theorists have taken to social media to cast doubt on a photo showing the Princess of Wales smiling during a shopping trip over the weekend. An 'incredibly happy' Princess Catherine was seen in public on Saturday as she joined her husband for a trip to their local farm shop in Windsor. An image from the visit showed the mother-of-three in good spirits, and appearing healthy and relaxed, as she chatted with Prince William on the return to their car. The news will have reassured fans of the couple that Kate is recovering well from her abdominal surgery in January, which has left her unable to carry out public engagements. It comes after wild social media speculation and gossip about Kate's health and whereabouts, which is understood to have left the couple deeply upset. However, the furore shows no signs of abating among some, as some cynics took to  social media to denounce the images as fake, accusing them of showing a body double, a different woman or having been altered by AI .

IT is the royal biography that made headlines around the world - 'Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story', by the author and esteemed Daily Mail journalist Robert Hardman. Every extract, featured over several days in the Mail and The Mail on Sunday last week, has offered of fascinating revelations about an extraordinary moment in Monarchy: the end of the Queen's life after 70 years on the throne and the beginning of her eldest son's reign.

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Queen Camilla will lead the extended Royal Family at Monday's Commonwealth Day service with the absent King ordering all able-bodied working royals to attend. This shines an unwelcome light on the royal sickbay (the King, Kate and Princess Alexandra) as well as underlining the frailty of others. The Duke of Kent (89 this year) now needs a stick or wheelchair to get about and the Duke of Gloucester is 80 in August. And the one-time baby of the Windsor clan Prince Edward is 60 on Sunday.

While the Prince of Wales has been at his wife's side - and representing her at engagements - Carole (pictured left holding baby Kate, inset with grandson George and right with her daughter at Ascot), 69, also looks to have been eagerly on-hand to do what she can. There were previously concerns that the length of Kate's stint in the exclusive London Clinic suggested the procedure was 'serious'. The exact details of the princess's condition have not been revealed but the Palace said previously it was not cancer-related and that Kate wished her personal medical information to remain private. However, one thing is clear - she has supportive team tending to her recovery - with her mother at the helm alongside William. Speaking to PEOPLE , a palace insider said that Carole and her husband, who only need to take a short drive from Bucklebury, Berkshire to Windsor, are already 'an enduring factor in the upbringing of their grandchildren'.

A royal photographer has claimed Meghan Markle was 'noticeably' more tactile than the other royals when she joined the family. Award-winning photographer Samir Hussein captured the famous picture of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex linking arms under an umbrella at the Endeavour Awards in 2020 and described the picture as 'unusual'. Harry and Meghan are known to have broken from the usual formality seen in royal relationships by openly displaying affection and holding hands when out in public. Mr Hussein told The Telegraph: 'It was very noticeable when Meghan came on the scene just how tactile she was, like holding the Duke's hand and being arm-in-arm, so that was quite unusual.' The image of the pair looking adoringly at one another in the rain went viral and was taken at one of the couple's final engagements before they stepped down as senior royals. It will now go on display in London in a new exhibition charting the Hussein family's photography of the monarchy over the years.

The prominence of 'pleased-as-punch' Prince Andrew at this week's Windsor memorial service served as a vivid reminder of the troubles now besetting the Royal Family. And highlighted how untenable the prince's position has  become.That's the view of Richard Eden, writing in the latest edition of his Palace Confidential Newsletter. With, King Charles and Kate indisposed for health reasons, Prince Harry unavailable and Prince William unexpectedly absent, Prince Andrew found himself on the front row of the thanksgiving service for the life of King Constantine of Greece on Tuesday.

The King and I, by the legendary theatre-writing composers, Rodgers and Hammerstein is once again a West End hit, this time starring Call The Midwife's Helen George. The story tells of Anna Leonowens, a widow who travelled to Siam in the early 1860s to teach English to King Mongkut of Siam's wives and children. Although it is set over 150 years ago the musical, and the later film, are considered so controversial in Thailand - as Siam became known in 1959 - that it has been banned there for over 70 years.

A group of 'Brits' who serenaded Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by singing 'God Save The King' were captured on film as the royal couple put on a united front in their first public appearance since their royal rebrand. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are in the stunning Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in British Columbia for a two-day trip from California to promote next year's Invictus Games, the first time it will involve winter sports. 

Prince Harry and Meghan should be stripped of their titles to stop them shamelessly profiting off the Royal family , according to the Mail's talk show, The Reaction. In the latest episode, out today, Mail columnists Sarah Vine and Andrew Pierce set their sights on Harry and Meghan's new website 'Sussex.com' to ask whether the couple are trading off their Royal titles and are in breach their agreement with the late Queen. Without the Royal family, Ms Vine said, Harry would simply be a 'slightly thick, balding ex-soldier' while Meghan would be a 'moderately attractive, not very successful ex-actress'. After sources close to the former working Royals tried to quash any furore over the naming of the website, Ms Vine added: 'What really irritated me was that "their people" responded to criticism... by saying that Sussex is their surname. It is not their surname, their surname is Mountbatten-Windsor. Mr Pierce interjected: 'It is a shameless way, in my view, to monetarize them by reminding the world that they are Royal.'

As family tensions sometimes threaten to pull the House of Windsor apart, there is, thankfully, one figure who enjoys the confidence of all the disparate Royal factions and quietly keeps the crucial lines of communication open when emotions are running high. This figure, who celebrates her 67th birthday today, has always shunned the limelight - particularly since Diana's tragic death in August 1997 - and it is this discretion that explains why she has been so successful in remaining close to King Charles and Queen Camilla, Prince William and, especially, to Prince Harry.

For all their many accomplishments, the Windsors have rarely been thought of as sparkling musicians. Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth both learnt to play the pianoforte, although it was Margaret rather than her sister, the Queen, who would become associated with the performing  arts. Charles had a go with trumpet and the cello but not, as he admits, to any great effect. Horses have mostly come before harmony. Yet that doesn't mean the royals haven't tried and, in a few cases, succeeded in mastering musical instruments - delighting the rest of us when their hidden talents are unexpectedly revealed...