Pour yourself something strong this week, because the royal diary has absolutely delivered. The King is in America playing soft power chess with the most unpredictable opponent on earth, Harry walked through a landmine corridor in Bucha in a move that will stop your breath, Kate was the picture of dignified grace at the ANZAC Day commemorations, Louis turned eight and absolutely owned the camera, and today, right now as you read this, William and Kate are celebrating fifteen years of marriage. We have a lot to get through – love it when the institution is out and about with a fully diary of events.
It has been quite the week for royal diplomacy. King Charles and Queen Camilla touched down in the United States on Monday 27 April for a four-day state visit, the first by a British monarch since King George VI in 1939, and the world has been watching every single moment.
The visit comes as US – UK relations are strained by the war in Iran, with Trump having personally and repeatedly criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s refusal to offer substantial military assistance. The King was landing not into a warm bilateral embrace but into something considerably more complicated, and the entire point of his being there was to smooth it over, using the one thing no British diplomat can deploy, the simple, ancient authority of being the King.
Day one set the tone. Charles and Camilla joined Trump and Melania for a private afternoon tea in the White House’s Green Room, the table set with tea service and small refreshments, an informal gathering ahead of the formal military ceremony. Warm enough on the surface. But eagle eyed viewers immediately clocked the awkwardness simmering underneath. During the handshake, Charles refused to be the first to let go, a ten second tug of war in which the King came out on top, with Trump spotted afterwards with a visibly swollen hand.
And then, and I cannot not mention this, as Trump posed for photographs with the two couples, he was captured on camera appearing to squeeze Melania’s bottom before quickly removing his hand and shaking the King’s hand once more. The King’s expression throughout all of this was the very picture of diplomatic composure. One suspects he has been trained for exactly this.
The visit’s centrepiece came on Tuesday, when Charles addressed a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill, only the second time a British sovereign has ever done so, following Queen Elizabeth II in 1991. The speech was carefully navigated. Charles used a portion of his remarks to praise NATO and its foundational commitment to collective defence, specifically citing the moment it first invoked Article 5 in the aftermath of September 11, a pointed message in a room where Trump has repeatedly threatened to abandon the alliance over Iran. He also quoted Trump himself back at the assembled Congress, reminding members that the President had praised the friendship between the two nations before the relationship became strained over Iran. It was, in the best possible way, extraordinarily well judged.
While the King met Trump privately in the Oval Office, Camilla and Melania led their own parallel program, heading to the White House Tennis Pavilion for an educational event with middle school students, featuring VR headsets showing UK landmarks and AI enabled glasses showcasing American historical artefacts.
The moments when Camilla was offered the headset and clearly decided she was quite comfortable where she was provided its own entertainment.
As for what is still to come, the schedule concludes this Thursday, with Charles and Camilla visiting the September 11 Memorial at One World Trade Center in New York City before heading to Virginia for events marking America’s 250th anniversary of independence, including a community block party and a meeting with Indigenous leaders involved in nature conservation. The tour wraps up with a farewell ceremony at the White House before Charles and Camilla head on to Bermuda for further engagements on May 1 and 2.
It has been, so far, a masterclass in royal soft power deployed at precisely the right moment. The world is a more volatile place than it was five years ago. The King’s steadiness, his ability to stand in that room, with that handshake, and still deliver a speech that said everything that needed to be said, is exactly what the monarchy is for.
While his father was preparing for Washington, Prince Harry was doing something remarkable of his own.
Last week, Harry travelled to Ukraine for a two day visit with his charity, the HALO Trust, which works to clear landmines from conflict zones. He walked through a mine strewn corridor in the destroyed city of Bucha, the site of a massacre in April 2022, where hundreds of Ukrainian civilians lost their lives, wearing only a protective vest.
Speaking to ITV News, Harry drew an explicit connection between the visit and his late mother’s iconic 1997 walk through a landmine corridor in Angola, just months before her death. “What Halo Trust is doing is absolutely incredible work. It’s sad, it’s very, very sad, because nearly 30 years ago, my mother was in Angola, here we are again in a new conflict.” The echo was impossible to miss. Diana with the landmines. Harry with the landmines. The same cause, a different war, a different generation, and yet the same instinct to go to where the pain is and make it visible.
In an interview with ITV, he also spoke directly about his relationship with the royal family. He pushed back firmly against the label of not being a working royal, insisting that he would always be part of the royal family, regardless of title or official status. It was one of his most straightforward statements on the subject in some time, not combative, not defensive, just clear.
It was a genuinely powerful week for the Duke of Sussex, and whatever your views on the complicated chapters that came before it, the Ukraine visit was a reminder of what he is capable of when he is doing the work his mother raised him to do.
On Friday 25 April, the Princess of Wales stepped out solo for ANZAC Day, and she got everything right.
Kate wore a bespoke navy coat dress by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, the designer who created her 2011 wedding gown, with a striking white collar, a matching Jane Taylor hat, and Gianvito Rossi pumps. She accessorised with a pair of diamond and sapphire earrings that belonged to Princess Diana. The navy was deliberate, sombre for a remembrance occasion, but also a nod to the flags of both Australia and New Zealand. The Diana earrings added a dimension of emotional continuity that no stylist could have manufactured.
She laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall on behalf of King Charles, which carried a handwritten message reading, “In memory of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom,” signed by both Kate and William. She then proceeded to Westminster Abbey for the Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving. Graceful, composed and deeply respectful, exactly what the occasion asked of her. She also accidentally misspelled Australian in her note, writing Austrailian, a human mistake that the internet immediately noticed and rather endearingly forgave.
As an Australian reading that note, the whole moment felt genuinely moving. These ceremonies matter. The people she represents matter. And she clearly knows it.
Tucked in among all the global diplomacy came the most purely delightful royal moment of the week. Prince Louis turned eight on April 23, and his parents marked the occasion in the way they do best, with a photograph and a video that felt a bit personal rather than staged.
The footage was filmed during a family holiday in Cornwall earlier this month by photographer Matt Porteous, and shows Louis digging in the sand with a toy spade, batting a cricket ball, running along the foreshore, and wearing a full wetsuit and jumping into the sea from height. “Thank you for all the birthday wishes for Prince Louis. 8 is great!” read the caption. There is something about the sheer vitality of that child, the glee of the wetsuit jump, the absolute commitment to the cricket bat, that makes you smile even on your worst day.
The official portrait, also taken by Porteous, shows Louis smiling with his arms crossed in a blue half zip, adult teeth now fully in, a small but noticeable sign of how quickly he is growing up. He is fourth in line to the throne, and he will almost certainly be a source of enormous national entertainment for decades to come.
And finally, today, April 29, is the 15th wedding anniversary of Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales.
On April 29, 2011, Prince William and Catherine Middleton were married at Westminster Abbey, and the world stopped to watch. The dress, designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, became the most discussed garment in years. The kiss on the Buckingham Palace balcony was replayed until it became its own kind of cultural memory. For many Australians, it echoed those extraordinary scenes from Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981, the sense that the entire world had paused, briefly and willingly, to witness something beautiful.
Fifteen years later, they are the Prince and Princess of Wales, parents to George, Charlotte and Louis, and by all accounts, at the start of a new chapter. A source close to the couple has told The Telegraph, “If continuity and stability is what the monarchy is supposed to give you, you only need to look at this marriage.” They have earned that description. The past two years, Kate’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, the relentless scrutiny, the sustained pressure, tested them in ways that would have broken lesser partnerships. It did not. They are said to be marking the day with a low-key public outing before celebrating at home with their children.
William made a rare personal comment this week, saying simply that marriage to Kate had been “fun.” Which, coming from a man not given to public declarations, lands rather sweetly. Fifteen years, three children, one bout of cancer, and still choosing each other. That is the real thing.
Happy anniversary to them both.
And there we have it, a week of kings and handshakes, landmines and legacy, navy coats and birthday jumpsuits, and fifteen years of a marriage that has steadied the monarchy through one of its most turbulent periods. The King carries the flag to Washington, Kate carries the wreath to the Cenotaph, Harry carries his mother’s mission to Bucha, and Louis carries a cricket bat along a Cornish beach with absolutely no interest in any of it. The House of Windsor in all its magnificent, complicated, human glory. Until next week, keep the tea piping hot and the tiaras polished.