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WELL. We have MUCH to discuss. This event, Kate’s outfit and her hair bow, and all of that, but mostly I’m sure what you want to discuss is the news that came out over the last few days that Harry and Meghan are leaving Kensington Palace to move to Frogmore Cottage (not to be confused with Frogmore House on the same estate, which is the one that’s a former royal residence; this one most recently housed royal staff), and — more scandalously! — that Wills and Harry are not getting along. For my money: While I don’t think it’s at all strange that siblings might not want to live on top of each other (though KP is huge), I think there is some truth to the fact that the boys aren’t getting along fantastically at the moment. As I noted to someone in the comments of our more recent Royals Round-Up: Transitions are really hard, for every family, even when all the people involved are lovely and decent human beings. It seems VERY possible to me that adding Meghan to the mix — and this isn’t about Meghan specifically, I think this would have happened with anyone Harry married — changed the Kate/Wills/Harry dynamic in a way that’s been rocky for both brothers. I think it’s HIGHLY likely that both men are a bit bratty at times, and that there’s been some mutual brattiness happening here — Wills is used to being the boss, and Harry is probably chafing under that now that he’s starting his own family, and voila: trouble in familial paradise. It seems very normal to me. (It’s also honestly more par for the course with a royal family throughout history; this idea that everyone gets along is insanely new. Back in the day, Harry would probably be plotting how to murder Wills.) There’ve also been leaks that Meghan and Kate aren’t best friends, but my guess is that they’re perfectly cordial to each other and just trying to stay out of the way of their husbands’ fight. And as Heather and I wrote for Bustle before the wedding, even, we shouldn’t expect them to be madly in love with each other. They weren’t one another’s choice. (Who, truly, is besties with her sister-in-law? Half of the people I know don’t like their sibling’s spouse at all.) Almost more interesting to me than all of this is how leaky Kensington Palace is right now — which is a change from the last several years, but which is also honestly back to business as usual.

So all that’s happening, and also Wills and Kate went to Leicester today. I have to admit that I was only dimly aware of this helicopter crash that killed the owner of the Leicester City football team, two staffers, the pilot, and the co-pilot. How absolutely awful for their families, the team, and its supporters.

They also went over to the University of Leicester to meet with students and staff. (The University’s Twitter account has loads of good coverage, but also it amuses me that they note in their bio that they are where Richard III’s old body finally popped up.)

Clothing-wise, this is interesting — Kate’s worn this Catherine Walker coat/dress/coatdress before, but we’d previously only seen the top of it. I’m sad to note that it’s NOT leather pants on the bottom. She’s carrying this tiny bag that I want in teal, except it’s $725 and while I technically have $725, it is tragically not ear-marked for tiny shiny bags but more for, like, my health insurance premium. Being responsible is very dull. INTERESTINGLY, this is also the day upon which I learned that the velvet bow Kate’s taken to wearing in her ponytail is not just some twee ribbon she snagged at Ye Olde Notions Shoppe, it’s a J.Crew velvet hair tie which has already done all the hard work of tying the bow for you. (I cannot be the only person who has a hard time tying a bow behind her head and making it look not-wonky.) I freely admit that now that I know it’s actually just a ponytail-holder with a bow on it, I also want this. I’m like Veruca Salt over here today.

Late add, but this is very cute. I love Kate admiring this little girl’s coat:

[Photos: Beretta/Sims/REX/Shutterstock, DAVID HARTLEY/REX/Shutterstock, REX/Shutterstock. We use affiliate links.]

Tags: Catherine Walker, royalty, Wills and Kate
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