The Royal Family must be breathing a collective sigh of relief this week – if indeed royals do anything so vulgar as noisy exhaling.
After much debate about the trip’s merits, King Charles’s state visit to the United States was an undisputed triumph. He somehow managed to flatter Donald Trump while at the same time reminding Americans of their constitutional norms; he scattered royal stardust and yet came across as relatively down to earth. It helps, of course, that Trump, as a point of comparison, lives in cloud cuckoo land.
Hot on the heels of that success, we now learn that the Princess of Wales is to undertake her first overseas trip since 2022 next week, to Reggio Emilia in northern Italy. Her well-documented health challenges of recent times have made it impossible for her to take on the share of royal duties that might otherwise have been expected of her. As the most bankable asset of “The Firm”, Kate Middleton’s enforced absence from major trips and events has been a problem.
That is particularly so when the Windsors have faced so much terrible publicity in the last few years, thanks largely to the unending saga of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein. It had always seemed a forlorn hope that the late Queen’s steps in 2022 to remove her favourite son’s HRH title would create sufficient distance between Mountbatten-Windsor’s alleged wrongdoing and the rest of the family. The release of the Epstein files renewed scrutiny of the links between the royal playboy and the paedophile financier – seemingly dragging the entire question of the monarchy’s 21st-century existence with it into the spotlight.
The King may have belatedly done the right thing by forcing his brother into semi-exile in Norfolk and by removing his remaining princely status, but it is unlikely that there won’t be more damage to come.
Victims of Epstein want to know more about his trips to the UK, some of which apparently involved trips to royal residences. Some of the victims want a public acknowledgement from the King of the role his brother played in Epstein’s network.
An alleged confrontation with a balaclava-clad man on Wednesday has led Mountbatten-Windsor’s friends to claim that he should have his taxpayer-funded security detail reinstated. Even from deepest East Anglia, he can seemingly set off new rows about his entitlement to the trappings of royalty. Of course, Mountbatten-Windsor continues to maintain his innocence in all things, but there can be no doubt that his friendship with Epstein – and all that stems from it – remains the biggest thorn in the King’s side.
So much so, in fact, that the ongoing estrangement of Prince Harry from the rest of the family feels increasingly minor by comparison. The feud between the spare and the heir (and their wives) may not be close to repair, but it no longer feels existential for the House of Windsor. If anything, an ongoing familial battle has made the royals seem practically normal.
That said, Harry’s recent trips to Australia and Ukraine have highlighted the paucity of the family’s working personnel. With Charles and Kate both having spent time on the sidelines dealing with health problems, that issue has been magnified. A smaller, tighter-knit group of working royals should have been a partial answer to the question of how the monarchy would evolve to survive, but bad luck has shown its downsides.
A solo trip to Italy will, therefore, be cheered by royal fans and closely watched by commentators. Ever since she and Prince William got together at St Andrews, Kate has been the focal point of the Windsors’ future security: she combined non-aristo vibes with grace and charm; she gelled with the late Queen and with her father-in-law; and she has appeared entirely at ease combining motherhood with state dinners. She and William offered a glimpse of a more modern monarchy: one still with a bit of pomp but a tad less ceremony and one that would have fewer hangers-on providing fodder for critics.
The question now is not whether Kate retains her star power – there seems little doubt about that. Rather, it is whether that power is sufficient to undo the damage that lingers from Harry and Meghan’s departure from the family’s bosom, and more pertinently, whether it can compensate for the significant and ongoing harm caused to the monarchy by Mountbatten-Windsor. In short, can Kate and William get on with their efforts on modernising the House of Windsor, or will Mountbatten-Windsor keep pulling the focus back to the past?
If anyone can restore the royals’ reputation, it is the Princess of Wales. But for as long as questions about Mountbatten-Windsor’s association with Epstein remain, even she may struggle.