The shock waves hitting the House of Windsor this year have been relentless, not least among them the news that King Charles has been diagnosed with cancer.
So it was heartening to see him meeting Rishi Sunak at Buckingham Palace this week, getting on with his job. Discussions between them turned to the importance of raising awareness for cancer charities and the Prime Minister commented on how well the King looked.
Rishi wasn’t the only one who thought so. The King’s appearance was a reassuring message of hope. He hadn’t lost his hair, as some of us feared, as a result of possible chemotherapy. Nor had he lost too much weight. He seemed in good heart.
But to me there was also something rather poignant about seeing him. It made me think about the Princess of Wales and how we haven’t seen her for so long. The most recent pictures I can find of Kate were taken on Christmas Day last year on the royal walk to church in Sandringham.
It was January 17 when it was announced she had been admitted to hospital for unspecified surgery. She then spent two weeks in a private clinic before her planned three-month recuperative break from royal duties.
William can pontificate foolishly about Gaza all he likes, but those of us who support and admire him and the Royal Family are not even vaguely interested. We just want to know about Kate, writes Amanda Platell
Kate and Princess Charlotte on Christmas Day on the royal walk to church in Sandringham
The Princess of Wales was admitted to hospital in January for abdominal surgery and spent two weeks in a private clinic
Can we even remember a time since she married William in 2011 when she was not there in our lives, smiling and laughing at official events or with her husband and her children?
Her absence feels almost like a bereavement so used to her have we become. Wherever I go — the hairdresser, the butcher, shops, even in the street — I am asked about Kate by people who think I might have some information about the Princess because I am a journalist (I don’t).
Everyone’s desperate to find out what’s happening. How she is. When we’ll see her. But there is radio silence. If Charles can be open about his condition, why can’t we hear about how Kate is getting on?
William can pontificate foolishly about Gaza all he likes, but those of us who support and admire him and the Royal Family are not even vaguely interested. We just want to know about Kate.
So please, William, stop lecturing us about the Middle East. And tell us that the wonderful woman you married — and who long ago captured our hearts — is doing OK.
Designer Katharine Hamnett posts images of herself dumping her CBE in a bin while wearing a T-shirt saying ‘Disgusted To Be British’. I’d have had more sympathy if this protest against events in Gaza hadn’t been followed by her telling us to buy the $21.99 T-shirt from her website.
Poor show by Bafta
Emma Stone won Bafta’s best actress for her role in Poor Things portraying a freakish, half-woman half-child who relieves herself in public, is willingly abused by men and then embraces prostitution. The film has made $100million.
Meanwhile, Margot Robbie, breaking free from female stereotypes in Barbie is not even nominated —despite the film, which she co-produced, taking $1.4billion.
Time for Bafta judges to ask themselves why they prefer a mutant woman to a gloriously ordinary and uplifting gal.
Margot Robbie, breaking free from female stereotypes in Barbie is not even nominated for a Bafta — despite the film, which she co-produced, taking $1.4billion
Shamima Begum has lost her appeal against the removal of her UK citizenship.
In 2015, aged 15, she fled to Syria, married a jihadi fighter and lost all three children she bore with him. She has already served a nine-year sentence in exile, while hate preacher Anjem Choudary was sentenced to five years and six months, and served only half that.
Why has Shamima become the poster girl for terrorism? Is it just that we can’t forgive a teenager who slept with the devil?
Isn’t it time to bring her home?
In 2015, aged 15, Shamima Begum fled to Syria, married a jihadi fighter and lost all three children she bore with him
Celebrating her movie Madame Web, which has bombed at the box office, Dakota Johnson prances around in a bikini with boyfriend Chris Martin of Coldplay in Mexico. Maybe he was singing her his hit Fix You and its lyrics: ‘When you try your best, but you don’t succeed.’ Dakota’s career peaked with Fifty Shades Of Grey. Pass the whip . . . and the sick bag.
The Victoria & Albert Museum, which opened its doors in 1852 to display and preserve historic, artistic or scientific artifacts, has created a new job for an official Taylor Swift expert, known as a super-Swiftie. It’s an attempt to lure younger visitors and celebrate the singer’s life and art.
Call me old-fashioned, but I thought the purpose of a museum was for us to wonder at the miracles of antiquity, not revere the life of a transitory 34-year-old pop star.
Winners in life’s lottery
What is not to love about Lancashire couple Richard and Debbie Nuttall, who scooped £61million on the lottery?
They’ve splashed out on a new car, while engineering support assistant Debbie also chose a hairdryer. Accountant Richard says he will work until the end of the tax year ‘to be fair to his clients’. One suspects the curse of the lottery will not befall this endearing couple.
Lancashire couple Richard and Debbie Nuttall scooped £61million on the lottery
Cover it up, Barry
Saltburn star Barry Keoghan appears on a cover of Vanity Fair naked.
I’m all for actors posing nude, but haven’t we seen enough of Barry’s not very attractive bum and bare chest?
Personally, I’d far prefer to see Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling, Cillian Murphy or Bradley Cooper starkers.
What red-blooded woman wouldn’t?
Saltburn star Barry Keoghan appears on a cover of Vanity Fair naked
Bubble’s burst for soap actors
James Hawes, the director of the fabulous spy drama Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden, says soap characters could in the future be performed by AI.
Having stumbled upon an episode of EastEnders, my first in ten years, I found that the women all look the same, haggard and angry, the men ugly and angry, all of them shouting: ‘Oi, I ‘ate you.’ And: ‘Oi, I ‘ate you back.’
Why don’t they just turn it into a zombie movie where they all eat each other?
Gary Oldman in spy drama Slow Horses
A Catholic priest is accused of sexually abusing young nuns. Father Marko Rupnik is charged with coercing them into threesomes, convincing them group sex was the embodiment of The Holy Trinity. Crikey, where do the nuns fit in? Even I know The Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost are all blokes.
The tragic death of 44-year-old Robin Windsor, who suffered depression, is a wake-up call. Friends who knew of the ex-Strictly dancer’s anguish searched for three days after he went silent. Message to us all: if a loved one is close to the edge we must persist with them. We never know if we might be the one to save them.
Killer Valdo Calocane’s sentence of a hospital order on the grounds of diminished responsibility is to be referred to the Court Of Appeal. A glimmer of justice at last for the families of his victims, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates.
Leo’s the Pitts in Netflix show
With his floppy blond hair, electric blue eyes and easy sexuality, comparisons are being made between a young Brad Pitt and the star of Netflix’s One Day, Leo Woodall.
Surely viewers are confusing sexy with soppy. In the series, Leo has a ginormous, constantly quivering jaw and looks at any moment as though he’s about to blub. I’m swimming against the tide on this one, as the series has been a huge hit.
But I couldn’t wait for the final episode to be put out of my misery.
And — spoiler alert! — the only truth I took from this sentimental saccharine fest is that cycling can be dangerous.
Comparisons are being made between One Day’s Leo Woodall, left, and a young Brad Pitt
After the unedifying spectacle over the vote on a Gaza ceasefire where Tory and SNP MPs walked out of Parliament, the cradle of democracy, I’ve cancelled Westminster Wars this week. The complex details of who did what to whom and why bewilder even me, a seasoned political hack.
Suffice to say those self-serving, chaotic scenes gave no succour whatsoever to the thousands of Palestinian children hungry, homeless and orphaned in Gaza.
