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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s unprecedented pressure after 12 hellish days

The very best thing about being Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, right now, as far as I can tell, is that no one is going to make them go to Birmingham. On Friday, the Commonwealth Games opened in the Midlands city and in the coming days, various members of the royal family will be sent forth to do their flag-waving best.

Never mind that much of Europe is busy slathering on the SPF 50 or that the Queen has begun her usual summer hols or that the beaches of Mustique are calling. To be a working member of the British monarchy this week requires that all available HRHs front up while looking jolly pleased to have to wear a Team GB polo shirt and watch badminton.

Having absconded more than two and a half years ago for sunnier climes and fatter bank accounts, this sort of tedious duty is no longer part of the Sussexes’ lives.

Small mercies, huh?

However, aside from the fact that the couple won’t have to contend with so much polyester and so many hours of archery anytime soon, things are not exactly looking that rosy over Montecito way, with the couple having taken hit after hit over the last 12 days or so.

Rewind to July 18 and Harry and Meghan were jetting into New York where they had an appointment at the UN, with the duke having been asked to give the address to mark Nelson Mandela Day. In the couple strode to the famed building’s foyer, a masterful demonstration of what has become a hallmark of their post-royal careers – purposefully marching into the important buildings for supposedly important meetings and events after which … nothing much would seem to happen.

Anyway, they were back! Back at doing their quasi-royal darnedest! Harry had a speech, Meghan had a Jackie O-esque black dress – what could possibly go wrong?

Well, for one thing, not that many people turned up. As the Duke of Sussex gave his address to him, talking about climate change (conveniently forgetting that the family uses private jets on the reg), disinformation and abortion rights (all the good stars on these fronts) the vast majority of the seats were visibly empty.

For whatever reason, the bulk of the great and good of the international body would seem to have decided to be elsewhere and not watch the sixth in line to the throne have a crack at international statesmanship. (Maybe the UN cafeteria was serving waffles?)

If Harry looked grim when the couple was caught by the paparazzi leaving Italian restaurant Locanda Verde, he had every reason to look sour. That week saw the publication of biographer Tom Bower’s Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors.

Bower’s book is a largely unrelenting, highly unflattering take on the Sussexes, casting them as fueled by ego and some misguided notion that Meghan was going to be Diana mark two, aside from the fact that, in the biographer’s telling, she seemed to have no interest in the monarchy, no willingness to learn its fusty ropes and little enthusiasm for the boring parts of HRH-dom.

As the week progressed, Bower did the press rounds, offering a series of caustic takes including that he thought “they pose a real threat to the royal family” and labeling the duchess “a very scheming” person.

What is surprising has been the reaction from Montecito, with the Sussexes having so far not commented. While in the past, the duo have filed multiple court cases against various media outlets and sent out legal letters during the storm over their daughter Lilibet’s name, however in this instance they have remained staunchly silent.

Then came the development playing out in a court in Florida when lawyers for the duchess got into the “subjective” nature of truth. Earlier this year, the former actress was sued by her estranged half-sister Samantha Markle for allegedly telling “false and malicious lies” during her bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview last year.

This week, the Duchess of Sussex’s lawyers moved to dismiss the case, with legal papers filed by their side arguing that Meghan’s description of growing up “as an only child” during the interview was “obviously not meant to be a statement of objective fact” and was “a textbook example of a subjective statement about how a person feels about her childhood.”

While it’s an argument that has more than a tinge of Philosophy 101 (what is truth?) this strategy then raises an obvious question: If Meghan’s characterization about her upbringing was “subjective” then were any of the other devastating claims she made during the two -hour tell-all “subjective” too?

One bright spot on the horizon for the duo during all this was Harry’s successful appeal to the High Court for a judicial review over the Home Office’s decision to no longer automatically grant him full-time bodyguards when he is in the UK.

Except, even this was not exactly a slam dunk; just because the review was granted does not mean it will automatically be successful.

Then there is the cost of the whole legal imbroglio. the Sun has reported that the UK government has spent $156,000 on the case from September last year to May 2020. If Harry’s costs are similar then that would mean he has also spent well into the six figures to argue the case over his security arrangements which only pertain to the handful of days per year he has spent, on average, in the UK since quitting.

That bill could only go up if he ultimately loses the case, with the Home Office having previously said it will look to recover costs if they win.

While August is a traditionally quiet month on the Planet Royal, the rest of the year is shaping up to be a barnstormer of a doozy.

Harry is looking down the barrel of some of the most monumental months of his life since the sonic boom of Megxit, with news his memoir will be published before Christmas and with Page Six having reported that Netflix wants the couple’s “at home” docu series (shush you in the back there yelling “reality show”!) to hit screens this year too.

This book and show will very likely prove to be huge commercial successes for the couple, much needed professional wins after having released exactly no content up until this point for the streaming giant, since 2020 – but at what cost?

If either or both of these projects are focused on little more than the Sussexes launching a fresh volley of complaints about their treatment by the royal family, interspersed with some vignettes of them doing some caring, then they could be playing with fire.

If this scenario came to pass, they would run the risk of looking dangerously like little more than perpetual whingers who are clinging to the self-appointed victim status inside their $20 million mansion at a time when war, fire, floods and monkeypox are blighting the world.

Then there is what toll these two releases could take for his tattered relationship with House of Windsor, a bond that is reportedly hanging by a thread.

as the Sun’s former royal editor Duncan Lacrombe recently told the Daily Beast: “Once the book is out, William will have to make a decision about what he is going to do about Harry, but he is not going to do a thing until he knows what is on.” every page of that book. The reality is that if, as a senior member of the royal family, you have written a tell-all book, you have broken rule No. 1 of the royal family.”

If Harry’s book and/or their Netflix series sees them paint big fresh targets on the monarchy’s backs then will Queen & co. sit idly by and suffer through a fresh hellish round of monarchical character assassinations?

Thus far the Sussexes’ repeated media provocations have been met with a certain imperiousness and contrived dismissiveness from London but should the duke and duchess continue to bait the royal family but we might soon discover that The Firm has some very sharp teeth.

For example, the duo do still, of course, use their gifted Sussex titles from the Queen, day in and day out. While only parliament could officially revoke those titles, that is not to say the weight of the Crown and Harry’s father and brother could not be brought to bear pressure on them to no longer use them.

Would Prince Harry and Meghan Mountbatten-Windsor (or Prince Harry and Princess Henry of Wales) as they could only then call themselves be quite so marketable for Hollywood?

There is so much on the line for them in the coming month – their image, reputations, careers and potentially even a large chunk of money. But, there is always a sliver lining: At least no one is going to be making them sit through a table tennis match any time soon.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

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Brisbane Lions loss to Richmond, MCG losing streak, Chris Fagan press conference, why was Darcy Fort sub, Zac Bailey injury

The Brisbane Lions’ premiership hopes took a significant hit on Sunday afternoon, with Richmond putting the side’s top-four hopes in jeopardy following a stunning come-from-behind win at the MCG.

Brisbane at one stage in the first half held a 42-point lead, but was reigned in during a thrilling second-half that ultimately ended in the Lions’ 11th straight loss at the MCG, with the side still yet to win at the venue since 2014.

Despite the loss, Fagan said the MCG hoodoo remained an external talking point rather than a genuine phenomenon.

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Brisbane Lions press conference | 06:30

“It’s our best performance at the MCG for a long period of time I would’ve thought,” he said post-game.

“It doesn’t matter to me but I thought anyone watching the game would’ve thought it was a fantastic game of football. We were in it all the way to the end.

“Richmond had a really strong team tonight outside of Dustin. They had a lot to play for, as did we, we were trying to cement ourselves in the top four, now we’re in a battle, they’re trying to get back in the eight … there was no lack of effort on our side or theirs, it was a good reply in that regard.”

Not helping the Lions’ cause was an injury to Zac Bailey in the opening half, which forced Darcy Fort – a ruckman – into the contest as his replacement.

It was a move that raised eyebrows, but one Fagan was coy on when asked post-game.

“In hindsight it was the wrong decision to have Darcy as the sub. It’s probably something I’d rather keep in-house to be honest,” he said.

“I appreciate you asking the question, but we have our reasons and they’re good reasons, but in reflection tonight it would’ve been better to have a running player for sure.”

Speaking on Fox Footy, Dermott Brereton said Fagan had every right to be more frustrated with his side.

“I wouldn’t like to be sitting on one of the wooden seats inside the rooms as coach Fagan decides to give them a recital of what he’s just seen in the last 60 minutes,” he said.

Richmond Tigers Press Conference | 08:42

“Even though they got to within two goals at three quarter-time, I felt like they could still stabilize, Brisbane. Not until Rioli bombed one from 55m did I go ‘woah, this is really dangerous for them now’.”

Co-host Nick Dal Santo said the MCG factor was less of a concern than the sheer collapse the side suffered in the second half.

“Yes the ground conversation will get brought up and I think rightly so, but more damning and more disappointing from a coach’s perspective and the leaders of this football club is they weren’t able to shut the game down during the third quarter, let alone the last quarter,” he said.

“Lachie Neale got enough of the football, so my question becomes what went wrong and who didn’t stand up?

“Because you can’t ask a lot more from their key forwards, particularly in that first half, but it dropped off so quickly and their inability to minimize the momentum when the Tigers had it.”

Asked if there were elements of a “choke” in the Lions’ loss, Dal Santo said: “You’d have to say yes. But to what degree of a choke, I’m not quite sure.

“But when you’re up by 42 points, you are well and truly in control.”

Brereton added: “I thought they put in well enough to say it wasn’t a choke. Richmond just went back to their tried and true formula.”

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Sports

Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. cancelled, why was it cancelled, weight issues, statement, latest, updates

Just one week out from the fight, Jake Paul’s scheduled bout against Hasim Rahman Jr. has been canceled due to Rahman Jr. having serious issues with his weight cut.

The New York State Athletic Commission forced Rahman Jr., who normally fights at heavyweight, to submit regular weight checks to ensure he was cutting weight safely after the 31-year-old was given just one month to prepare.

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But according to Rahman Jr.’s promoter Greg Cohen, he was struggling badly with the weight cut and was sitting at 214 pounds just one week out from the bout.

It forced a complete cancellation of the event and prompted a strongly-worded statement from Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions.

“On Friday, Rahman submitted a weight check to the NYSAC that demonstrated he had lost less than 1 pound since originally signing to take the fight 24 days prior,” the statement read.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 12: Jake Paul and Hasim Rahman face-off during a press conference at Madison Square Garden on July 12, 2022 in New York City.  (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 12: Jake Paul and Hasim Rahman face-off during a press conference at Madison Square Garden on July 12, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

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“This prompted the commission to declare that it would not sanction the fight at less than 205 lbs. Still, Jake Paul was prepared to move forward with the fight at this new weight and a new contract was sent to Rahman’s promoter reflecting a 205 lbs. limit, impose strict penalties should he fail to make weight.

“Upon receiving this new contract Saturday morning, Rahman’s camp indicated for the very first time that he planned to weigh 215 lbs. at the official weigh-in and would not agree to weigh-in at 205 pounds and informing Most Valuable Promotions that they are pulling out of the fight unless the fight was agreed to at 215 pounds.

“MVP and Jake Paul will not reward someone that has conducted themselves in such a deceiving and calculated manner. Therefore, MVP is left with no choice but to cancel the August 6th event.

“This forced outcome impacts Jake Paul, Amanda Serrano and every other fighter on this card who have trained endlessly over the past few months for this event. The boxing community must hold Hasim Rahman Jr. liable for his lack of professionalism.”

Rahman Jr. stepped in on one month’s notice as Paul’s fight against Tommy Fury collapsed for the second time.

Fury, the younger brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, first withdrew due to broken ribs and a chest infection in December last year and then pulled out in July because of visa issues trying to get into the US.

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WWE news: Randy Orton and wife caught out having sex at Madison Square Garden, Big Show

Madison Square Garden is a special place for WWE superstar Randy Orton and his wife, Kim Orton.

On the latest episode of “The Wives of Wrestling” podcast — which is hosted by Jon Alba and also featured Kim and Giovanna Angle, who is the wife of WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle — Kim recalled having sex with Orton at The Garden during the most festive time of the year, the New York Post reports.

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“Big Show walked in on us in Madison Square Garden,” Kim recalled.

“He told us the room to go in. A security guard walked in on us. That’s when he had both titles. New, fresh love. There’s nothing better.”

Alba pointed out that the WWE took over MSG around Christmas time in 2013, when Orton was the WWE World Champion. The 42-year-old is currently sidelined with a back injury.

“You f***ed in Madison Square Garden at [WWE’s] Christmas shows? What is wrong with you, woman? Alba asked.

“What do you mean?” Kim asked. “We’re showing Christ our love. I’m so glad my kids don’t like me enough to listen [to the podcast] anymore.”

Kim and Orton welcomed their daughter Brooklyn Rose Orton in November 2016 — a year after the couple tied the knot in Las Vegas. She has three sons from her first marriage, Anthony, Robbie, and Michael. Orton also has a daughter, Alanna, from his first marriage to gymnast Samantha Speno.

“Why do you think my husband fell in love with me, Jon?” Kim asked. “He’s like ‘wait a minute, this chick is something else. She’s a freak.’”

Orton proposed to Kim during a romantic getaway to Bora Bora, and they tied the knot four months later on Nov. 14, 2015. The couple met at a live event in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 2012, while she was a member of his fanclub.

Kim brought up the sex story after the group discussed the cleanliness of title belts after they are won.

“People that have titles, when you first bring that title home make sure you alcohol swab that sh*t down,” said Kim.

“Me and Kurt may or may have done it with his medal… I just had them on. You heard ‘clink, clink, clink,’” Giovanna quipped of her Olympian husband.

This article originally appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.

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Entertainment

Florence Pugh unhappy over Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles affair, source says

In just a few weeks, Olivia Wilde and boyfriend Harry Styles will step on the red carpet at the prestigious Venice Film Festival for the world premiere of their new movie, Don’t Worry Darlingwhich she directed.

They will be joined by Styles’ co-star Florence Pugh, one of Hollywood’s brightest young things. But Hollywood is buzzing that the 26-year-old actress has fallen out with Wilde, 38, over the director hooking up with Styles.

“I can tell you for a fact that Flo seeing Olivia and Harry all over each other on set did not go down well as Olivia was still with Jason when she first hooked up with Harry,” one insider told The New York Post’s Page Sixreferring to Wilde’s ex, ted lasso star Jason Sudeikis.

The former couple — who got engaged in 2012 and share kids Otis, 8, and Daisy, 5 — announced the end of their seven-year romance in November 2020.

At the time, sources cited Wilde’s relationship with Harry as the main reason for the split, with one insider telling Page Six the affair with Styles, now 28, had been ongoing for a month, leaving Sudeikis distraught.

“Jason and the kids visited Olivia on set at the beginning a few times, so I think this all made people feel a little uncomfortable,” the insider said this week.

Internet sleuths certainly think something is up — finding it strange that, in an industry where stars live and die by Instagram, Pugh failed to “like” a post in which Wilde included the full official trailer for Don’t Worry Darling last week.

Wilde followed that up by posting a photo of Pugh with the comment: “Watching this woman work was such af***ing thrill! Can’t wait to show you more. @florencepugh@dontworrydarling.”

Pugh, again, was conspicuous by her silence — and the fact that, on the same day, she posted a teaser trailer for another new project, Oppenheimerabout J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called father of the atomic bomb.

It’s a subject of hot debate on social media, with one fan tweeting: “The way Florence Pugh has yet to post about Don’t Worry Darling even though there are two trailers out for it and yet she’ll post about every single other project that she’s doing right now – like what did Olivia Wilde do????”

“I think it’s so funny how Florence Pugh had said NOTHING about Don’t Worry Darling and Olivia Wilde keeps trying to hype her up,” tweeted another.

And noted a third Twitter user: “I need to know what Olivia Wilde did to my baby Florence Pugh on the set of DWD because my girl has been SILENT on movie updates.”

But, a source told Page Six, “I heard she was already scheduled to post (about Oppenheimer) that day for some specific reason, it had nothing to do with a response to Olivia.”

Don’t Worry Darling is described as a tale of an unhappy 1950s housewife, played by Pugh, who discovers a disturbing truth about her idyllic life, while her loving husband, played by Styles, hides a dark secret.

On the blue carpet in support of a Tiffany and Co. opening in London this week, Pugh was asked about working with Styles. She said he was “a total professional and it was a great experience working together”.

She then spoke about the cinematography and styling — “It was a joy to walk into the hair and makeup trailer every day,” Pugh said, noting, “the way that everything looks delicious and golden” — but had nothing to say about her director , Wilde.

It’s Wilde’s second film, following the success of 2019’s book smart, for which she won an Independent Spirit Award. She hired former One Direction heart-throb Styles on Don’t Worry Darling to replace actor Shia LaBeouf, who was caught up in a lawsuit by his former girlfriend FKA Twigs over allegations of sexual assault and “relentless” abuse. (LaBeouf has denied the claims, and the case will go in front of a judge next April.) Wilde famously said she had a “No Assholes” policy on set.

Wilde has further been in the headlines after being served custody papers by Sudeikis while promoting Don’t Worry Darling in Las Vegas at CinemaCon in April, for which he later apologized.

Pugh is currently filming Dunes 2 playing Princess Irulan, and another Hollywood insider told Page Six: “Florence is shooting dunes right now and out of pocket. I’m sure she will be front and center for the (Don’t Worry Darling) promo. Once the promo starts in late August, early September, I’m sure she’ll be visible.”

Reps for Styles, Wilde and Pugh were unavailable for comment.

This article was originally published by Page Six and reproduced with permission

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ daughter makes big screen debut

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ daughter made her on-screen debut.

Holmes, 43, stars in the newly released movie “Alone Together,” and her daughter Suri Cruise, 16, joined her on the big screen, Fox News Digital has reported.

“I always want the highest level of talent,” Holmes said in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment. “So, I asked her. She’s very, very talented. She said she would do it, and she recorded it, and I let her do her thing about her. That’s the way I direct in general. It’s like, ‘This is what I think we all want – go do your thing.’”

In the movie, Suri sings a cover of “Blue Moon,” which plays during the opening credits of the film. Holmes told the outlet this will not be her daughter’s only on-screen singing gig.

“She actually did sing in ‘Rare Objects,’ which is the film we did last fall,” Holmes explained. “Other than that, she she’s a 16-year-old kid doing high school.”

Cruise and Holmes were married from 2006 to 2012. Suri is their only child together, and Suri’s parents opted to keep her out of the public eye for a majority of her childhood.

Holmes directed, wrote and stars in “Alone Together.” She stars alongside Jim Sturgess in the romantic comedy set during the coronavirus pandemic. The film follows a man and woman fleeing New York City during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020.

The pair end up booking the same Airbnb and ultimately decide to stay at the upstate property together.

Sturgess praised Holmes’ directing style and shared that she gives actors wide latitude when they are in front of the camera.

“She gives you this incredible space between action and cut,” Sturgess said of his co-star.

“She very rarely shouted, ‘Cut!’ actually. You’d think the scene had ended and she just kind of left it hanging. I love that she was always searching for those little nuggets of authenticity.”

The movie is in theaters and will move to video on demand on Friday.

This article originally appeared in Fox News Digital and was reproduced with permission.

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The Queen needs Kate Middleton needs to take less holidays

There is a strange schism when it comes to the royal family and holidays: The royals love taking lengthy stretches off from the business of the monarchy… but their holiday homes are pretty grim.

Sandringham, the Queen’s Norfolk estate where Christmas is spent, looks like the setting of a gothic horror story while Balmoral, Her Majesty’s Scottish home, was partially modeled after a Bavarian schloss. All that forbidding gray stone and all those mock medieval turrets are enough to give even the bravest of young HRHs lifelong nightmares.

And yet when it comes to holidaying, the House of Windsor are nonpareils. Princess Margaret used to jet off to Mustique and crisp herself in the Caribbean sun with egregious regularity (you could probably still catch a whiff of coconut oil long after she was back demanding whiskey in the some London drawing room) while the Queen Mother promptly bought herself a holiday castle – the Castle of Mey – and would decamp there for generous stints, far away from anything so bourgeois as work.

And unfortunately this royal tradition of holidaying like it was a competitive sport is one that William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambrdige, are eagerly carrying on. In the last 18 months they have taken nearly four months off and are currently in the middle of their roughly two month-long annual summer holiday.

While the duke and duchess are set to roll up to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this week to wave the Union Jack and prove how good they are at cheering, in a normal year, once the final Wimbledon trophy is handed over in July, it’s time to get out the Ambre Solaire, with the duo not returning to their posts until early autumn.

This year, sure June was a busy month for the Cambridges given all that Platinum Jubilee waving they had to do, but as is usually normal, in July we have only seen Kate at a charity polo match and in the Royal Box at Wimbledon, hardly a demonstration of regal elbow grease. (Any sort of ‘work’ that can be done while holding a chilled glass of Pimms hardly counts as hard graft now does it?)

August, as unusual, will see Kate disappear off the radar completely, usually only popping back up around mid-September.

Likewise, in 2021, the only official engagements that Kate undertook in July involved watching tennis and soccer, after which she proceeded to take nearly nine weeks off, meaning that from the end of June until mid-September her out-of-office was essentially on.

The same schedule also held for William, apart from two meetings about the Earthshot Prize he managed to squeeze in and one church service. Gosh, however does he manage to get so much done?

The couple have, in roughly the last year, been to France twice (for Kate’s brother’s wedding and for a skiing holiday) and to Jordan, not to mention spending time in Scotland and Norfolk.

There’s no way around it: William and Kate have a holiday problem.

And, as we all know, the first step is admitting it.

At issue here is that just because they can take months of the year off and that traditionally members of the royal family have, does not mean they should.

For years now, the couple and their team have been focused on building Brand Cambridge, that of them as a hardworking and oh-so-normal couple. Look at them, out there boldly taking the most pressing issues of the day, including mental health and climate change, and then getting home for bath time!

This is the formula that has been cooked up to try and ensure that the monarchy survives yet. The idea seems to be to let Prince Charles be, well, Prince Charles, rabbiting on about hedgerow preservation and delivering the occasional barnstorming speech about the environment and his Aston Martin that runs on white wine (really) and Britons will grudgingly tolerate him.

Meanwhile, alongside all that we have William and Kate pioneering a much pluckier, more engaged and more proactive version of royalty that also features quite the cult of personality.

Central to the nascence of Cambridge Inc. is the couple’s relatability and willingness to be vulnerable. We’ve heard Kate talk about the loneliness of new motherhood and appear on a parenting podcast while William has regularly opened up about the emotional toll that his years of him as an air ambulance pilot took on him and his grief over the loss of his mother.

These touchy-feely outings are not one-offs but a core part of their public personae, all about transforming them into the first senior members of the royal family who are viewed as genuinely human and who are in touch with the real world; who have done more than just spy the hoi polloi when peering out at the world through the window of a golden carriage. (They have one of those of course, but it’s terribly unwieldy for the school run.)

But for all the H&M dresses Kate wears, they are not a normal middle-class family, no matter how many Audi station wagons they add to their fleet and how many times young Prince George is taught how to use the self-checkout at Waitrose.

The duke and duchess can take vast swathes of time off whenever they fancy because they have complete control over their schedules, aside from key events like Trooping the Color and Remembrance Day, meaning they can spend a week on the beach, even if it is in the Cornish Isles of Scilly, rather than at their 19th century mahogany desks whenever the mood strikes.

Nor do they have, as the vast majority of the world does, have a very finite amount of leave to be carefully husbanded and can instead beetle off for some more quality time in famille, Harrods buckets and spades in tow, whenever they fancy.

But, it’s time for the Cambridges to give up this royal perk. They can’t have their nearly one hundred days of holiday per year and still go about trying to sell themselves as the Duke and Duchess of Relatability.

Every time William and Kate accidentally remind the world just how fundamentally not normal their lives are it jeopardises all the work they do the rest of the year to sell themselves as the approachable faces of the modern royal family.

There is also the fact that this pesky bad habit also serves to revive the Lazy Kate narrative that haunted her for years. Prior to their wedding, in 2008, the Daily Mail reported that the Queen thought Kate needed to get a job.

“The Queen has admitted she has no idea what Kate actually does,” a senior aide said at the time and that Her Majesty is “of the opinion that Kate should be working. She believes in a modern Monarchy and feels very strongly that the Royals should be leading by example.”

A source close to Kate said back then, “Mostly she just waits for William to come home so that they can go on another holiday.” (Ouch.)

Then there is the fact that the duo only began full-time royal duties in 2017. Diana, Princess of Wales, by contrast, was chucked in the deep end and shunted off to charm the masses in regional town centers before she had even gotten all the wedding confetti out of her hair.

What anyone worth their Walter Bagehot knows is that the British monarchy, in the coming years, is in for its greatest test since Oliver Cromwell started getting ideas. The next king is a man who garners tepid, at best, support, at a time when the royal house has suffered a series of body blows in recent years it has yet to recover from, thanks to Prince Andrew’s horrifying behavior and the seismic eruptions of Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Things for the Crown are not exactly looking tickety-boo, hence why so much is resting on William and Kate.

And yet, they seem willing to gamble all the gains they have made to take time off from their duties with the sort of enthusiasm that Margraret probably reserved for the arrival of every new 20-something barman at her favorite Mustique watering hole.

Of course the duke and duchess should get a holiday and of course they should not have to apply for leave from their manager (though the image of the 96-year-old Queen spending part of her day green lighting holiday requests from HRHs is fun) . But those crazy kids have to find some sort of middle ground between the extreme privilege of royalty and the image of them as hardworking, ordinary parents who just happen to have the keys to the Tower of London. (Yes, I know, they don’t actually have them but they could certainly get their hands on them they couldn’t they?)

It’s time for William and Kate to channel less Princess Margaret and more Princess Anne. And when it comes to the Princess Royal, the swimsuit industry’s loss has only been the monarchy’s gain …

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

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Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck won’t last, first husband Ojani Noa says

Bennifer 2.0 is destined for divorce, Jennifer Lopez’s first husband has said.

Ojani Noa, 48, claims his ex-wife “loves being in love” but loses interest after the passion in her marriages fizzle, The Daily Mailreported.

Mr Noa — who met J-Lo when he was a Cuban refugee waiting tables in Miami — has kept a low profile since his one-year union with Jenny from the Block dissolved in 1998, reported the new york post.

He told the outlet her recent nuptials with Ben Affleck brought back a rush of old memories.

“Ben is husband number four. I was husband number one and she told me I was the love of her life. When we lay in bed on our wedding night, she said we would be together forever,” he said.

In addition to being married four times, Lopez, 53, has been engaged six times, including twice to the Good Will Hunting actor, some 20 years apart.

Mr Noa fled Cuba on an inflatable boat when he was 15 and survived the 150km journey to the US. I found working washing dishes at Gloria Estefan’s Ocean Drive restaurant Lario’s On The Beach by the age of 22.

“Miami was buzzing. I did some modelling. I hustled. I wanted the American dream – and I found it when Jen walked into Lario’s,” he reportedly said.

“I had no idea who she was. Our eyes glanced at each other and I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”

The next night Lopez came back to the bar and Mr Noa served her another customer’s French fries after she said they looked “yummy”, according to the report.

“I was smitten. She was wearing a white top and trousers, and I remember thinking she had the best body I’d ever seen. She later told me she knew that first night she was going to marry me, ”Mr Noa reportedly recalled.

Later that night, the duo partied at a club called Commune, according to Mr Noa.

“When we got to the club my friend Leo took Jen to the dance floor, and I thought, ‘Oh man, you’re a lucky guy.’ Then she (her friend of her) said, ‘When they get back, take Jen out there. It’s you she’s interested in.’

“They get back and I take her hand and lead her on to the floor, and a slow song comes on. It was electric. She was shaking and said, ‘You make me nervous’.

“We could both feel the romantic energy. It was instant and intense. Like it was surging through our bodies. I said, ‘I feel the same way you’re feeling’. I lifted her chin and gave her a kiss – it was a kiss like we’d known each other forever.”

While the two shared a goodnight kiss, a passer-by exclaimed “Oh my God, that’s Jennifer Lopez from ‘Money Train’,” Mr Noa remembered. “That’s when I realized maybe she was somebody.”

“The next morning my pager goes off. Jen had to see me before her flight from her. The door goes and I open it and she falls into my arms. We kissed, and as she drove off in her limo, she looked back like in the movies and I thought, ‘This is it. This is crazy’,” Mr Noa told the Email.

While Lopez was in Los Angeles, Mr Noa talked to her frequently from the payphone at the restaurant, according to the Email. When she returned to Florida, the actor invited him to be her date de ella for the blood and wine premiere.

“I rented a cheap suit. We got to the red carpet, there were all these flashing lights and screaming fans. I started to feel sick. I walked down the carpet holding her hand then stood to the side while she gave interviews.

“I heard her say, ‘Jack, I want you to meet my date, Ojani.’ I turned around and she was introducing me to Jack Nicholson. Then she said, ‘This is Michael’ – and it was Michael Caine. I felt like I was in a movie. A few years earlier I was on a dinghy in the ocean running away from Fidel Castro, and now I’m on a red carpet. Michael Caine was lovely. He said, ‘Don’t worry, you will get used to it’.”

After the premiere the couple consummated their relationship, Mr Noa told the outlet.

“That was the first time we made love. It was perfect. She was perfect. We lay there afterwards and she said, ‘I want you to always be in my life. I love you’. I felt like Mr. Cinderella,” he reportedly said.

Noa said he believed the relationship worked because he wasn’t impressed by her celebrity.

“She’s a traditional girl. She comes from a humble Puerto Rican family. She wanted someone to protect her, someone who would stand up for her. We fell totally in love,” he said, according to the article.

“I quit my job and moved to LA. We lived in a nice apartment. But soon we moved into our first house and then the houses kept getting bigger. She loved that I was a balseros (rafter) from Cuba. I never wanted anything from her. I always worked and had my own money,” he said about life with the Bronx native.

“We’d been together about six months when she got Selena. We went to San Antonio, Texas, for the shoot and every night we’d come back to the hotel and she’d collapse in my arms filled with insecurity. She didn’t think she was good enough. In the middle of the night she would burst into tears. I comforted her and said she was the best, that she was killing it.

“She loves shopping, and when she wasn’t filming we went to the local mall. One day we went into a jewelery store and she started looking at rings. She pointed at one and said, ‘I love that one’.

“She left and I pretended I needed to go to the rest room. I snuck back in the store and told the girl to put it to one side. I had money saved up. I’d been working as her personal trainer but also had modeling money. The ring was US$15,000 (A$21,400) – a fortune back then. I hid the ring in a plastic bag behind the sink.”

Mr Noa proposed to Lopez at the wrap party for the critically acclaimed film, according to the report.

“Everyone was cheering. I went down on one knee and gave her the ring. She was crying and laughing and said ‘Yes!’,” he reportedly recalled.

Tensions developed when Lopez’s mother chastised her for deciding to get married in Florida instead of the Bronx, according to the article.

“Jen would be in tears all the time. Her mum de ella was calling and yelling at her, trying to get her to change the venue. So I called (Jen’s mother Guadalupe Lopez) Lupe and said, ‘You need to stop this’. That was a big mistake. From then on there was tension between me and Lupe.”

Lopez soon started to change with increasing money and fame, the jilted lover reportedly said.

“She went from Jen to being J-Lo, this big business bringing in millions. She had all these new people around her, all wanting to make money off her. I would call and an assistant would say, ‘Sorry, she’s not available’. ”

When Mr Noa was tasked with launching Lopez’s LA nightclub, he would see published pictures of his wife with Puff Daddy, who was producing some of her music in New York, according to the article.

“I rang Jen and asked why she was going out with him on dates and she said, ‘It’s just business. This is what I’m being told I have to do’. I was jealous and would scream, ‘But you are married!’”

“We wanted kids, we discussed having kids. Then she told me she could not have a baby because it would interfere with her career, ”he lamented.

Mr Noa and Lopez went on Oprah, where she denied the marriage was in trouble.

“Our whole life became a lie,” Mr Noa said, remembering he lost 17kg due to the stress of the facade.

“We went to the Golden Globes and sat with Jack (Nicholson). He said, “You guys look so happy.” I told him, ‘It’s not what it seems’. He told me to hang in there. I never thought I would be getting relationship advice from Jack Nicholson.”

After 11 months, the couple divorced and Lopez dated Puff Daddy publicly soon after.

Mr Noa was left with $50,000 in a settlement agreement and continued to wear his ring as the two remained close, according to the report.

“There were times she told me she wanted to get back together. In quiet moments she would say, ‘I need you in my life. I don’t want to lose you’,” Mr Noa reportedly remembered.

Lopez’s brief marriage with Chris Rudd dissolved and Affleck popped the question for the first time before she had officially split from her backup dancer.

Two years later, in 2004, Lopez would get hitched to Marc Anthony. The pair stayed together for 10 years.

The actress hired Mr Noa to manage a Los Angeles restaurant around 2002 but fired him three years later. He sued her, settled, and moved back to Florida where he has not remarried, according to the article.

Mr Noa said he believes he could have made it last with Lopez if it were not for “parasites who feed off celebrities” and media reports that characterized him as a “penniless waiter,” the report said.

“I wish her and Ben the best, but I’m not convinced it will last,” Mr Noa said.

“I think she’s someone who will be married seven or eight times. I can’t see her ever settling down with one person. She pushes herself to constantly go forward in her professional life, which is why she’s had a three-decade career, but she also moves on in her private life.

“If Ben has Lupe on his side then maybe he’s got a chance,” Mr Noa told the Emailsmiling.

This article was published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission

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Categories
Business

Inflation: NYC shop Duane Reade locks up Spam in antitheft cases

It’s the nation’s crises in a can.

Inflation and crime have gotten so bad in New York that even cheap meat like Spam has to be locked up, the New York Post reports.

At Duane Reade’s store in the Port Authority bus station, the shelf-stable product — only $US3.99 ($5.70) a can — is now being stocked in plastic, antitheft cases.

“I’ve never seen that before!” one cashier laughed while using a magnet to remove a can of Spam from its cage from him.

The cashier was among the employees, tourists and store regulars stunned that the iconic blue-and-yellow cans are now being kept under lock-and-key — some even poking fun at the sight as “a sort of Jeff Koons homage,” per one viral tweet.

Jenny Kenny, 43, who was visiting from Kentucky, was aware of the ongoing crime waves hitting cities like New York and San Francisco, but still couldn’t believe the sight of “so many things in boxes.”

“Some of these things are pretty ridiculous,” she said.

As prices and crime skyrocket, New York City stores have taken to locking up staples like toothpaste and soap to prevent crooks from stealing and then hawking the products on the sidewalk or online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.

Yet some shoppers were confused why Spam, along with $US1.89 cans ($2.70) of StarKist tuna, was enclosed under plastic, while pricier foodstuffs like $US5.49 cans ($7.86) of Amy’s soup sat unencumbered.

“To put Spam in a cage is stupid — and kind of insulting to the customers that would buy it,” said shopper Dennis Snow, 46.

Snow said he doesn’t think Spam is being stolen to “sell it for crack,” but rather because the homeless in the area are looking for a quick and easy meal.

“Someone is stealing this because they need it,” agreed Delia Kemph, a 28-year-old teacher.

Employees at the store said thefts have been surging over the past two-plus years, with one estimating a minimum of four shoplifters every evening shift.

“I don’t think they stop anything,” Iggy, 21, a store clerk, said of the antitheft cases. “It’s security theatre. If you really needed it, you would stomp on it.”

The employee’s complaints were prescient — at around 7pm on Thursday, a man in a black tank top and gray sweatpants had an employee unlock the glass case for a $US38 ($54.40) electric razor, and then bolted with the appliance past a yellow-shirted security guard and out the door.

With inflation out of control — the consumer price index spiked 9.1 per cent in June compared to a year ago, even as President Joe Biden this week refused to acknowledge the nation is in a recession despite the economy contracting two quarters in a row — emboldened thieves have found a ready market for discounted stolen goods among recession-weary consumers.

Petty theft complaints for the New York Police Department’s Midtown South Precinct, which includes the Port Authority bus terminal, have shot up 52 per cent — to 1,771, through July 24 — compared to the same period last year.

Hormel CEO Jim Snee told analysts last month that prices for their legacy product were set to increase in late July to cover increased transportation, packaging and meat costs.

A spokeswoman for Walgreens, which owns Duane Reade, refused to say why Spam was locked down at this particular location, and that installing antitheft devices is done “in response to theft data.”

Liz Tawfik, 57, a home health attendant, complained that the added security measures are hampering the once-smooth shopping experience — and annoying customers like herself.

“If you’re gonna catch a train you wanna grab something quick, it’s not quick anymore,” she said. “You might as well have someone take your order at the door and get what you want.”

Not all drug stores have put Spam under lockdown.

Two other Duane Reades and a pharmacy in the Times Square area, along with two other stores in Central Harlem, sold their cans of Spam, cage-free.

Dariel Cepin, 23, an employee at a West 44th Street Duane Reade, said, “Here, we lock up ice cream.”

This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission

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