I’ve been thinking about it, and I feel like this pandemic could be a great excuse for the royals of the world to truly go back to their roots and wear weird-ass formal masked-ball style masks.

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WHY NOT. THINGS ARE ALREADY WEIRD.

Anyway, in addition to all the blah blah blah in the slideshow, we got two events from Kate this week: She wore a new good coat to meet with students; and she and Wills heroically didn’t get caught in a giant fern at BP.

Other news of interest:

At USA Today: New portrait of Queen Victoria’s African goddaughter sheds light on forgotten Black history

Via Hello!, lots of pictures of the inside of Highgrove House, AKA Chaz and Camz’s country house.

Sophie Wessex is in quarantine because she’s been exposed to Covid. [People]

At Vanity Fair: Can the Royal Family Stay Politically Neutral Forever?

This is interesting: Japan to hold crown prince proclamation ceremonies on Nov. 8. Per the article, “Following the proclamation ceremonies the government is expected to start full-fledged discussions on how to ensure stable succession in the shrinking imperial family, as the Japanese parliament adopted a nonbinding resolution in 2017 requesting the government to address the matter.The emperor’s enthronement left only three heirs to the throne — the crown prince, the crown prince’s son Prince Hisahito, 14, and Prince Hitachi, 84, the uncle of the emperor.”  [Kyodo News]

At Harper’s Bazaar: Prince Harry Surprises Marathon Runners in Person in Los Angeles. Why don’t I run!??? (Because I have asthma and the air quality is bad and also I’m very lazy but whatever!)

Also, it seems Harry and Meghan have reached a deal with the paparazzi agency they were suing over the drone pictures of Archie; the agency has apologized, per the New York Times. (It is not a surprise to me that this was the work of X17.)

Harry and Meghan have a lot of stuff coming up this weekend! Per T&C, they’re pairing up with Malala to talk about girls’ education in a chat that drops on Sunday, and they’re also going to be on the Teenager Therapy podcast, which comes out tomorrow (per People).

Is it wrong that I want to buy this re-issued version of Princess Diana’s iconic sheep sweater? It’s SO cute. [Rowing Blazers]

At Tatler: Kristen Stewart is nervous about mastering Princess Diana’s accent

A later add: The Queen has released her Honours List for the year. [The Guardian]

On social media:

This is a good thing:

Anne has some questions for this horse:

Duchesses in SPAAAAAAACE:

Ah, this is where Charles has been:

Do you want to see Max and Wax’s dogs? I thought so:

Google Translate translates: “350 years ago, Christian V ascended the Danish throne, and in a special exhibition at Rosenborg, the story of the King’s life is told through, among other things, the Majesty’s war suits, portraits, weapons, death mask and anointing cloak. ⁣ ⁣ The exhibition about Denmark’s second autocratic king can be experienced from Saturday, but today His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had the opportunity to visit the exhibition about his eight-time great-great-grandfather in the castle’s Knight’s Hall. At the small tour, the museum director of the Royal Collection, Thomas Thulstrup, told about the exhibition’s many objects and about the upcoming autumn holiday, where families and children can go object hunting in the exhibition. ⁣”

Interesting!

[Photos: Getty Images, Shutterstock]