Settle in, because this week has been genuinely wonderful, the kind of week where you end up smiling at your phone three or four times before breakfast. We have a Met Gala moment to savour, a royal pregnancy announcement that brought a collective cheer, a duchess joking about vow renewals and Aussie swimwear, the most beautiful birthday portrait in a field of daisies, and a king who crossed the Atlantic and came home having somehow charmed the uncharmable. It has been a very good week for the House of Windsor. Let us begin.
While the Royal Family has been keeping the diplomatic wheels turning, this week belonged to the other kind of royalty, fashion royalty, as the 2026 Met Gala descended on the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Monday night.
This year’s theme, Costume Art, with the dress code Fashion Is Art, delivered exactly the spectacle it promised. Co-chairs Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams set the tone for a night of jaw dropping looks, Beyoncé arriving last, as she does, in a sheer diamond encrusted gown with a feathered train, joined by Jay Z and Blue Ivy for a genuine family moment. Nicole Kidman shimmered in sequined Chanel. Venus Williams arrived in a Swarovski mermaid gown that directly referenced a National Portrait Gallery painting of herself. Madonna wore Saint Laurent, a pirate ship hat, and her own sense of theatre. It was, as always, a night that defies description and demands you simply look at the pictures.
It got me thinking, as it does every year, when did a British royal last climb those famous steps?
The answer is 2018, when Princess Beatrice attended solo in a stunning purple Alberta Ferretti gown and made the whole thing look completely effortless. But she followed in the footsteps of the most iconic royal Met Gala appearance in history, Princess Diana’s one and only attendance, in December 1996.
Diana was the guest of Liz Tilberis, then editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar and a dear friend through the years of Diana’s divorce. She wore a navy silk slip dress by John Galliano for Dior, lace trimmed, languid, and sensational, paired with sapphire and diamond jewellery. It was described at the time as elegant, but revealing, and it caused, in the words of Newsweek, a near sensation, showing the newly divorced Diana in a risqué new light, unburdened by the staid traditions of royal dress. She had been divorced for less than three months. The gown was a message. She was free, and she dressed accordingly.
Galliano later recalled: I remember we all jumped into this old van and drove to London, where we met Princess Diana. It was like a blessing. I mean, wow. Anna Wintour, who has co-chaired the event for decades, said: She was the most famous woman in the world. She was enjoying fashion and the spotlight.
There is a poignant detail about the gown. Diana nearly did not wear it. She worried that the original design, a corseted slip, ravishing but revealing, might embarrass her fourteen-year-old son William. She did wear it in the end. And it became one of the most celebrated looks in Met Gala history, eventually displayed at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
Anna Wintour has said publicly that her dream guests for the Met Gala are Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle. The invitation, presumably, remains open.
Monday 4 May brought the most delightful surprise of the week and honestly, the most welcome piece of news from the York family in months.
Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank have announced they are expecting their third child together, due this summer. The announcement came via the most beautifully simple Instagram post: a photograph of their two boys, August, five, and Ernest, two, standing in front of a white picket fence, peering down at a sonogram. Baby Brooksbank due 2026! Eugenie captioned it, with a small army of heart and baby emojis. Buckingham Palace followed with an official statement, confirming King Charles has been informed and is delighted with the news. And notably, deliberately, no mention of Andrew or Sarah in the official palace statement. The new baby will be fifteenth in line to the throne.
The announcement came just 24 hours after Eugenie had returned to social media for the first time since February, posting a series of sweet beach photographs to celebrate her husband Jack’s 40th birthday. Happy 40th my love, she wrote, with a sun-soaked shot of Jack on the sand, before adding: Here’s to another 16…xx, a touching nod to the sixteen years they have been together. The birthday celebration was notably more restrained than Brooksbank birthdays past, given the difficult public scrutiny the York family has been navigating, but the warmth of those posts was palpable.
It is also worth noting Beatrice was spotted in public this week for the first time since March, making a low-key appearance that confirmed she is very much still out there. She was seen getting in a town car at Saint James’s Palace and loading her own luggage into the boot.
For both sisters, it has been an extraordinarily hard few month. This baby news feels like the most welcome light in a difficult season.
During her visit to Australia last month, Meghan made a surprise appearance on Get Down with Sean and Marley, a YouTube channel hosted by Sean Skeels and Marley Whatarau, two lifelong friends who both have Down syndrome. The pair had previously gone viral recreating Meghan’s spaghetti recipe from her Netflix show, and Meghan had sent them a thank you gift basket in response. This time, they returned the favour with an armful of Australian gifts: Bluey stuffed toys, Minties, a can of chicken salt, NRL rugby jerseys for Archie and Lilibet, sunscreen, two cans of their favourite beers and, most memorably, a pair of bikini style swimwear bottoms with Aussie Bum printed across the back.
That is going to be for my husband, Meghan laughed, before adding: We might renew our vows with him wearing these.
The Bluey reveal, though, is the detail that has made royal watchers coo. Our kids love Bluey! Meghan exclaimed, holding stuffed versions of Bluey and Bingo, which Archie and Lilibet adore. Given that Bluey is proudly Australian and given how warmly Meghan and Harry were received in this country last month, it is a rather sweet full circle moment.
Well played, Duchess.
On Friday 2 May, Princess Charlotte turned 11 and the Wales family marked the occasion in their now signature way, with a photograph and a video from their Cornwall holiday that feel less like a PR exercise and more like a family album being shared with the world.
The portrait, taken by Matt Porteous, shows Charlotte standing in a sunny field of daisies in a red and navy striped jumper and jeans, hair loose, smiling as though she has not a care in the world.
The video montage that followed later in the day was even more delightful. Charlotte bowls a cricket ball, pats the family dogs Orla and Otto, sails with her family, and uses white shells to write a message in the sand.
King Charles, still in Bermuda at the time of her birthday, reportedly sent a birthday surprise from the overseas territory. The official caption read simply: Wishing Charlotte a very happy 11th birthday! and Thank you for the lovely birthday messages for Princess Charlotte, 11 today! for the video.
Third in line to the throne, soon to be twelve when the year turns, sister to a future king and keeper of the royal family’s most expressive side eye, Charlotte continues to be an absolute joy.
And so we come to the triumphant conclusion of King Charles and Queen Camilla’s American state visit, and triumphant is genuinely the right word.
After the White House tea, the ten second handshake, the bilateral meeting, the Congress speech, and the state dinner in Washington, the royal couple moved to New York on day three, where the moments were perhaps a little less formal than the White House glitz. Charles and Camilla visited the September 11 Memorial at One World Trade Center, laying flowers and meeting families of victims and first responders, a moment of profound solemnity in an otherwise glossy visit.
Charles also stopped by Harlem Grown, a community initiative focused on education and healthy food, where he was photographed feeding chickens with very evident delight. That evening, the couple attended the King’s Trust Global Gala at Christie’s, joined by Lionel Richie, Anna Wintour, Charlotte Tilbury and Donatella Versace, while the Empire State Building was illuminated in the colours of the Union Jack. Camilla, meanwhile, visited the New York Public Library for an event with an unexpected guest list: Sarah Jessica Parker, Anna Wintour and Gyles Brandreth.
Day four took the couple to Virginia. Charles joined locals in Front Royal for a potluck street party celebrating America’s 250th birthday, sharing a table that included pizza, doughnuts and chicken wings alongside British contributions of coronation quiche, Victoria sponge, and honey from the royal beehives. He visited Shenandoah National Park, where he met members of the Monacan Indian Nation on their ancestral lands and swore in a group of Junior Rangers. Camilla, true to herself, headed to Smitten Farm in horse country Virginia to learn about America’s thoroughbred racing industry, noting with characteristic dry warmth that in owning racehorses, you have to go with the ups and downs.
Then came the farewell, a formal send off at the White House, a wreath laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, and Charles boarding his plane alone at Joint Base Andrews. Camilla returned to the UK; Charles continued to Bermuda for the first royal visit to a British Overseas Territory of his reign.
The result of the visit? Trump announced he would remove tariffs and trade restrictions on British whisky, crediting the royal visit with helping spur the move. The King had done what no prime minister could, stood in that room, charmed that man, and come home with something to show for it. Not bad for a 77 year old who was diagnosed with cancer just two years ago.
And there we have it, a week of sequins and sonograms, birthday daisies and Aussie gifts, a king at a potluck and a princess in a field. The Crown endures, the family grows, the tiaras are polished, and somewhere on the steps of the Met, a ghost in a navy Dior slip dress reminds us that fashion is, and always has been, its own kind of power. Until next week, keep the tea piping hot and your eyes on the palace gates. There is always something worth watching.