Woman's Weekly Living Series March 2024

As we go to press, Buckingham Palace has released news of the King’s cancer diagnosis. It will be a blow for His Majesty, who has always been keen to stablise the monarchy after recent dramas, but also worrying for his heir Prince William, who has his own concerns closer to home. The pressure on the Prince of Wales – husband, son, father and first in line to the throne – must be immense. He also has an estranged brother back on the scene. At times of family crisis, blood is often thicker than water so hopefully this could prove a turning point for them all. In the meantime, we wish His Majesty a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him carrying out public duties again very soon.…

SENDING ALL GOOD WISHES TO THE KING Only days after he left a London hospital looking so well, we learned that His Majesty has been diagnosed with a form of cancer. The Palace has not revealed which type, but confirmed that the King would be stepping back from his public duties while he receives treatment. In January, Charles underwent a successful ‘corrective procedure’ for an enlarged prostate and it was during that surgery that tests uncovered a new health concern. The King phoned his immediate family to deliver the news, telling his siblings and sons of his diagnosis. Prince Harry left California within hours to be reunited with his father in London, while Prince William returned to work to share the job of monarch with his stepmother Queen Camilla. The…

‘He is a caring, very loving kind of character’ With Catherine, the Princess of Wales newly out of hospital, Prince William made it very clear where his priorities lay. Family came first, and that meant stepping back from his job with The Firm. But then came news of his father’s cancer diagnosis, and everything changed. While his main concern will be for Kate – still recovering at home with their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – the Prince of Wales had little option but to share the tasks of monarchy with Queen Camilla. With King Charles receiving treatment over the next few months, we will see William, Camilla, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh doing more. The King’s health has also brought youngest…

The minted Middletons The family wealth comes from their former business, Party Pieces, combined with trust funds inherited by Michael Middleton from his paternal grandmother, Olive. She was the daughter of a wealthy Leeds-based industrialist, wool merchant and mill owner called Francis Lupton. His legacy was used to pay for his descendants’ education. Mike and his three brothers all boarded at Clifton College, Bristol. Kate, along with her sister Pippa and brother James, boarded at Marlborough College, where boarding fees are currently £15,665 per term. Grandad was Prince Philip’s co-pilot Carole and Michael fell in love while working for British Airways (she was a flight attendant and he was an aircraft dispatcher). But who knew Mike’s father, Captain Peter Middleton, was an Oxfordeducated pilot who flew alongside Prince Philip on…

ROYAL RECYCLER Denmark’s new Queen Consort likes to champion Danish designers and often rewears her favourite gowns. This beautiful velvet dress, by Birgit Hallstein, has appeared at no fewer than five New Year celebrations – the first time back in 2007. This year, just days before being crowned, she wore it again for the 1 January reception at the Amalienborg Palace. LET IT FLOW Mary obviously adores this spectacular ice-blue gown, wearing it for one of the three New Year galas in January this year, and for the State banquet at the Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen in November to welcome Spain’s royalty. The dress was created by Lasse Spangenberg for Mary to wear in official portraits to mark her 50th birthday in February 2022. PRETTY IN PINK Another dress to…

Adored by the British public and a beacon of light in the gloom of World War Two, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was once described by Adolf Hitler as ‘the most dangerous woman in Europe’. For many, it’s hard to think of the late Queen Mother as anything other than a harmless grandmama. But there was a side to Elizabeth that few knew about. The Queen Mother died 22 years ago this month aged 101. She is remembered as the smiling granny with the pastel hats, but beneath this exterior was a woman of ambition, determined to secure the hand of the King of England. She would succeed – but not in the way she imagined. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite entered the world on 4 August 1900, the ninth of 10 children born to…