A date with Sarah-Kate; Kate’s home truths
Long may the young royals reign, say s Sarah-Kate
As the rest of the world descends further into sordid chaos, I couldn’t be happier to be a member of the Commonwealth. Presidents and prime ministers may come and go, but the royals are forever, and the current crop of youngsters gives me hope that good sense and tasteful style will prevail.
Obviously Netflix’s The Crown helped us understand how the Queen became the Queen. What a bother, is all I can say. It takes a special person to remain that devoted to duty. I now forgive her for decades of dour frumpiness, especially as she’s so funky with her outfits these days.
I swear, there’s been the odd hat and coat combination where I’ve actually thought, “Hey, I could wear that! In fact, I want to wear that!” Although the black pumps would do nothing for my clown-sized feet and I have way too much stuff to fit in a handbag the Queen’s size, even with my own royal consort, Prince Ginger, putting half of it in his man bag.
Prince Charles, I confess, remains something of a mystery to me and although I hear that Camilla is a good sort, as a Princess Di-hard fan, I’m on the fence on that one, but the young princes are what royals are all about.
I’m particularly in awe of the Heads Together charity that Princes William, Harry and Kate are spearheading together in Britain. It’s the first time royals have worked together like this on one project and it gives them great power, and makes them human because we see the way they interact with each other, like real people.
It’s fitting, then, that the issue they’ve thrown their combined weight behind is mental health because you couldn’t find a more downto-earth problem, albeit one that still seems difficult for those who suffer to talk about.
And that’s what our regal triumvirate wants to change, just as our very own Sir John Kirwan has been so bravely championing for years and still does via the website depression.org.
As William said in his big GQ interview recently (read it if you can, you’ll love it and him), talking is often the start of recovery, especially for men who don’t want to speak about their problems. Normalising depression is the aim, says our lovely prince, who goes on to talk about that terrible day we can all remember when he and Harry had to walk behind Princess Diana’s coffin, and while he doesn’t have mental health issues himself, his experience with losing his mum and bottling that up has made him super-sensitive to the plight of others.
And there he was, with Gran, after the terrible tragedy at Grenfell Tower in London. This whole family could be sitting home swilling gin and tonics, or opening flower shows, but I take my fascinator off to the new breed of royals for whom the stiff upper lip is a thing of the past – and hip-hooray for the future.