Welcome to this week’s edition of Royalist, The Daily Beast’s newsletter for all things royal and Royal Family. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Sunday.

A Harry-shaped hole

This week, the United Kingdom marked the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day with a series of poignant and celebratory events.

The Royal Family—including King Charles III, Prince William, and Princess Kate—attended a service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey, observing two minutes of silence in remembrance.

The commemorations culminated in a classic royal concert at Horse Guards Parade, celebrating the resilience and unity of the nation with plenty of Union Jack imagery.

Notably absent from these events was Prince Harry despite being one of the very few living royals to have seen active military service (in Afghanistan).

While it’s valid to argue that Harry has behaved unwisely in litigating his grievances with the royal family in public, youthful idiocy in princes is usually forgiven.

Indeed, a YouGov poll this week indicated that Harry still maintains a 56 percent favorability rating in the United States.

Kings are expected to be wiser, and the failure to get Harry back inside the royal tent reflects exceptionally poorly on Charles.

Harry‘s ongoing absence as the king fights cancer—which Harry did his best last week to remind us is probably going to kill him in the not-too-distant future without actually saying it—represents a painful indictment of King Charles’s authority, not to mention his oft-vaunted alleged convening power.

Sources close to the king and Prince William have repeatedly told The Daily Beast that the principal block to reconciliation is William.

Why is William able to thwart the king? Again, it’s all connected to Charles’ decision to announce he had cancer. William‘s team has argued that Charles cannot bequeath his heir a settlement with Harry that William cannot live with.

With the cat out of the bag, Charles increasingly looks like a lame duck monarch to many.

Prince Harry hunts for his pals

Harry‘s assertion in a recent BBC interview about how incredibly dangerous the U.K. is for him was compromised somewhat by the remarkable doorbell cam footage of Harry in Chelsea searching for friends John and Georgina Vaughan.

He was seen knocking on the doors of random residences they no longer occupy, having long since moved and rented out the house.

One resident told the Mail: “The people he knew have long gone and moved elsewhere.”

It’s a telling sign of Harry‘s total disconnect from the land of his birth.

Staffing news

In an apparent effort to stabilize their operations, Meghan Markle has appointed Sarah Fosmo, a former assistant to Bill Gates, as her new chief of staff. This move follows a series of staff departures and is seen as an attempt to professionalize their endeavors.

Harry and Meghan Catch Beyoncé

Harry and Markle enjoyed a date night at Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” tour at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday. The couple shared affectionate moments, with Markle posting photos and videos on Instagram, including one of Harry wearing a cowboy hat personalized with their children’s names.

In the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, Markle shared a text message she received from Beyoncé the day after her and Harry‘s interview with Oprah Winfrey aired in March 2021. In the sixth episode, Markle reads the message aloud, expressing her surprise and gratitude: “She wants me to feel safe and protected. She admires and respects my bravery and vulnerability and thinks I was selected to break generational curses that need to be healed.”

Sleaze

Prince Andrew’s former crisis manager has been secretly filmed saying the British royal was “f---ing underage girls” while friends with Jeffrey Epstein in embarrassing footage released online Thursday, as The Daily Beast reported.

The hidden-camera tape was made by the notorious MAGA provocateur James O’Keefe, the founder of the controversial Project Veritas, which has previously been accused of publishing deceptively edited videos. But still …Caught on tape is John Bryan, who dated Andrew’s wife, Sarah Ferguson, for six years from 1991 to 1997.

He also became a friend of Prince Andrew despite U.K. newspaper claims that he sucked on Fergie’s toes while on vacation in the South of France in 1992. Bryan always derided the story as a tabloid exaggeration, saying he was playing an innocent game with Fergie’s kids in which they pretended she was a fairytale princess and were kissing her feet. However, it was a sensational story because Ferguson was still married to Andrew at the time. She was staying at Balmoral with the royals when the story was published, and Queen Elizabeth II told her to pack her bags and leave immediately. Prince Philip never spoke to her again. The couple officially separated in the aftermath of the story and divorced in 1996.

Read More Royalist

• Prince Harry Caught on Ring Camera Knocking on Random Door

• Prince Andrew Friend on Tape: 'Royal F***ed Underage Girls'

• Meghan Shares Stunning Pic of Archie for 6th Birthday

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