New Idea Royals 2401

What a task it’s been choosing the 100 most iconic moments of such an historic year. 2023 was dominated by the coronation, of course – the first in over 70 years – but there’s been a lot else happening too! January kicked off with the shock of Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare – and the year ends with another prince in trouble... Frederik of Denmark is in the news for all the wrong reasons. With the airing of the final episodes of The Crown, we look back on Mohamed Al-Fayed’s tragic entanglement with the royal family, and also remember the early days of the romance between two History of Art students at St Andrews. And short-lived King Edward VIII... feckless Nazi sympathiser or a true people’s monarch? Our exclusive book extract…

HE’S A BIG ISSUE! COVER STAR CHARLES King Charles III graced the cover of the Big Issuemagazine ahead of his 75th birthday – and he even stumped up the cash to buy his own copy! The latest UK edition of the non-profit magazine, which is sold by vendors experiencing homelessness and disadvantage, featured a piece penned by His Majesty and included an exclusive new portrait. And, while King Charles was attending an event near Didcot in Oxfordshire, he happened to come across vendor Kelvin Gregory selling the magazine. Kelvin admitted it was a ‘bucket list’ experience to have the King buy a copy of the magazine from him. ‘He asked about my well-being, if I had accommodation, how I find selling the magazine, and how the Big Issue has helped…

As King Charles and Queen Camilla made their recent tour of Kenya, it was impossible not to remember another famous royal tour of that country. It’s been over 70 years since Kenya’s Treetops Game Viewing Lodge became known as the historic hotel where Princess Elizabeth climbed up a tree – and came down as Queen Elizabeth II. Sadly, that historic venue is now closed for business, and the hotel that hosted Princess Elizabeth in 1952 has fallen into ruin. On 5 February 1952 Princess Elizabeth and her husband of four years, Prince Philip, checked in for a one-night stay at the picturesque Treetops Hotel, a lodge deep in Kenya’s Aberdare National Park. As the name suggests, the couple stayed high up in a treehouse cabin that could only be accessed…

BUT WHAT WAS HAPPENING BEHIND THE SCENES?…

What’s the definition of a successful royal marriage? One that doesn’t make it into the newspapers. During the recent visit of Spain’s King and Queen to Denmark, explosive photos were published in Spanish magazine Lecturas of Danish Crown Prince Frederik, 55, on a night out in Madrid with glamorous Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova, 47. Lecturas reported that Frederik and Genoveva visited a Picasso exhibition and went for a walk in a park. At around 7pm, Lecturas claims both Frederik and Genoveva went to her apartment building separately, and both reappeared at around 9pm, having changed their clothes into evening wear. Again, they are reported to have emerged from the building separately, but then climbed into the same car. The magazine wrote that the pair watched a flamenco performance that finished…

The story of how they met is rather common: two teenagers who became friends in their first year of studies after moving away for university before eventually finding love. Except that when Kate Middleton fell for the cute boy in class, there was nothing ordinary about it – because Prince William just happened to be the second in line to the British throne. Against the odds, the relationship between the Prince and Princess of Wales, both now 41, has not only survived but flourished, refreshing the monarchy, and ushering in a new era of popularity for the Windsors. As the story of how they fell in love is explored in the final season of the hit Netflix drama The Crown, ROYALS takes a look back on the early days of…