#yoga teacher in kensington

[yogasutraau]

[zenspa-hypamama-me]

Welcome to:

Zen Spa (by the Hypa) Mamas Palms & Co @ Zen Spa-Samadthi.me

E: wellness@zenspamamaspalms.co

W: http://www.zenspamamaspalms.co

Mamas Palms. On-Brand.

Tagline:

Find your feet in the water.

Intro:

Okay, folks.

Thank you for joining us @ Zen 🧘🏽‍♀️ Spa by the Hypa-Mamas Palms on our daily Blog:

“ Flop. Float. Fly ”

When we think of spas, we think of the water. In actual fact, “spa” means treatments with water. Mamas Palms fell into spa & wellness, and found her and feet in the the water purely by chance. Born of a typical migrant thai-asian migrant family, she dreaded owning a thai restaurant or a massage shop. After all it was typical of many migrant families.

Born of a father who was a bodyguard to a crown at royal 👸🏽 duntroon military college post in the ACT and a mother who was a teacher then later, a visa clarke at the local embassy. Mamas Palms was not interested in public service, Foreign affairs or The military. In fact, little did she know; Mamas Palms was a touch Asperger’s and a lot hyperactive. So obviously she was meant for “ShowBusiness.”

Despite her family Business opportunities she was reluctant to join the public service and advocated to work in media and entertainment. Her dream goal was to “play one of those dancing mushrooms on those Disneyland parades.” She told this to her therapist - and she was told that she had - a tad of Asperger’s with a lot of ADHD.

After graduating in communications media majoring in theatre productions at the Australian National University / and the local university of Canberra (cross institutional), Mamas Palms went on to complete training at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts 🎭 aka. NIDA (a part of University of New South Wales in Kensington) There, she studied TV presenting / voiceovers and some vocals at the Sydney Conservatory of music.

Though through a twist of faith, and after multiple unsuccessful freelance careers in Sydney/London/Montreal (where she developed a love for languages) in the media industry. Mamas palms returned home to become a single mum, running a small wellness studio at her formal University the Australian National University. But after going bankrupt and out of business due to Covid and becoming a pregnant 🤰🏻 single mum; Mamas Palms was encouraged by chance from other Therapist to join them in a local beauty course, initially to assist them as a translator in their school work, but later developed an deeper love for the spa & wellness industry.

In 2019, Mamas Palms completed her Aerial Yoga Therapeutics training and became a certified “Anti-Gravity” instructor or what Thailand calls “Fly-Yoga”. She completed her studies with “Creative Body Flows,” based in Brisbane but also provided training out of Sydney. Her other training is as a lifestyle and leisure coordinating at TAFE NSW.

Mamas Palms found her love in the spa Business, because it helped her find her feet. She began blogging about her life and experiences in a memoir series called “Flop-Float-Fly” in 2018.

Mamas Palms opened up her own brand in 2019, after being dumped by an ex-from London in 2018. She was later left pregnant with a South African daughter by a scholarship student at the ANU - and went into the spa Business full-time after graduating in 2017 at the Royal Palace school of Massage Therapy at Wat Pho in Bangkok. As such, the spa industry had helped her find her feet and financially support her daughter as a single mother. As the work was demanding creative and extremely consistent.

Later, with the help of her brother that gave her the slogan “Mama’s Palms Wellness Studio”, and cousin (who was a sisterly mentor) an ex-flight attendant; who worked at Landmark. As well as, with the help from a business coach from her leadership program. She was convinced to go into the Business of mindful-lifestyle and the selling of “Zen”.

As Thailand is also well known as the top 10 in wellness-tourism and the spa industry. Mama Palms late Father, “Tony” had always told her to focus on bringing “the best of Thailand to the world and bringing the world to Thailand.” 🇹🇭 Her father travelled extensively as a Royal bodyguard for the National crown, therefore Mamas Palms was raised as a child predominantly by her mother, brother and aunt, during which her father would travel for almost 8 months of every year. However, this upbringing became a part of discovering her own branding.

Mamas Palms makes light hearted microblogs on the art of wellness & mindful-living on a series called “ Flop. Float. Fly. ”. Adding a sparkle of fun into mindful 🧘🏽‍♀️ living.

Through a time of growth, she discovered through being a mother, the Love of zen-spa, wellness and embracing how to be neuro divergent - and loving it.

Mamas Palms, produces lighthearted social media content on Tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, SoundCloud and YouTube. She considers her programs to be “accessible”and inclusive as a form of “edu-tainment” and should not be a substitute for seeing a medical or other healing health professionals.

She is currently completing her local qualification as a lifestyle coordinator / consultant and her diploma in spa wellness and Beauty, with the love of her dog who is eight and her three-year-old daughter by her side.

The alias name “Paeri” shorten from “Ploy/Tarn > Mamas Palms” comes from her traditional Thai nickname which means “sugar toddy palm” a locally common - yet tropical traditional name chosen by her mother. Which is also her alias - or “pen name” on blogs / & has become her industry in house-name.

In actual fact, Mamas Palms means the “palm” that “belongs” to her mother.

Thanks 🙏 for following us!

Paeri (Floating Bamboo Raft)

aka. LNVO

Zen Spa (by the Hypa) Mamas Palms & Co @ Zen Spa-Samadthi.me

[poppyofwales]

BASICS.

Name: 

philippa 

the feminine form of her father’s name. technically it means lover of horses.

alexandrina

the given name of her great-great-grandmother, queen victoria. greek in origin, it means defender of the people.

beatrice

meaning she who brings happiness. the guide through paradise in dante’s divine comedy and the high-spirited heroine of much ado about nothing.

clementine

the only name her american mother was allowed to choose to bestow upon her. it is one that poppy holds quite dear.

house of saxe-coburg and gotha

technically, as a member of the royal family styled HRH, poppy does not have a traditional surname. ( her passport lists her as her royal highness the princess philippa alexandrina beatrice clementine )  if she ever did need a surname for legalities, she would use saxe-coburg and gotha

Nickname: poppy, by most everyone; pippa by very close family; clementine by her mother alone.

Gender & Pronouns: female & she/her

Age & DOB: twenty-eight; january 18, 1992

Zodiac sign: capricorn

Orientation: heterosexual & heteroromantic 

Nationality: british

Ethnicity: white

Religion: church of england

Neuroses: poppy always has to ensure she looks perfectly presentable when in public, even if she is just at lunch in an out-of-the-way restaurant with a friend. there could be cameras everywhere. she is also quite sensitive to the flashes of cameras and worked for years with a therapist to overcome that.

HISTORY.

Hometown: london, england

Father: his majesty the king philip i 

Mother: her majesty the queen willa ( nee symonds ) 

Siblings, if any: his royal highness the prince edward of wales, aged twenty-six

Extended family: 

on her father’s side, an aunt ( victoria, the princess royal ) and two cousins ( jeremy, earl of snowdon and lady annabel saxe-coburg and gotha ). she was incredibly close to her paternal grandmother, the queen mother, who has recently passed away.

on her mother’s side, several aunts, uncles, and cousins who all reside in america. she is close only to her mother’s parents, for they relocated to england shortly after poppy was born. 

Educational background:

north london collegiate school; 1996-2000 

hill house school, london; 2000-05

benenden school; 2005-10

gap year

university of edinburgh; 2011-15 ( ma in linguistics )

Languages spoken:

english (fluent) welsh (fluent) latin (reading fluent; not conversationally fluent) french (fluent) german (moderately fluent) italian (conversational) spanish (conversational) portuguese (basic; currently working on it)

Occupational history:

princess of the united kingdom

poppy is a working royal and, as such, carries out official engagements on behalf of her father, king philip i. she has a decent amount of free time where she can occasionally jet-set off to other locales, but she tries to keep those under wraps and does not flaunt it publicly. 

Achievements:

head girl; benenden school

THE SOCIETY.

Codename: theia

Meaning: goddess or divine. after the titan goddess of sight and the blue ether of the sky. she also is the reason gold and silver have such intrinsic value. 

Traditionalist or Reformist?: traditionalist; poppy knows well what duty and the status quo mean and most of the time she follows them.

Goals in the society: to ensure that she becomes the next queen regnant, being the first heir of her father. 

Opinion on the society: it’s necessary. without the society and similarly functioning organizations, the world as we know it would cease to exist. people in power exist to ensure that those not in power know how to function.

PERSONALITY.

MBTI: enfj-A { the protagonist } 

Protagonists are natural-born leaders, full of passion and charisma. Forming around two percent of the population, they are oftentimes our politicians, our coaches and our teachers, reaching out and inspiring others to achieve and to do good in the world. With a natural confidence that begets influence, Protagonists take a great deal of pride and joy in guiding others to work together to improve themselves and their community. Protagonists radiate authenticity, concern and altruism, unafraid to stand up and speak when they feel something needs to be said. They find it natural and easy to communicate with others, especially in person, and their Intuitive trait helps people with the Protagonist personality type to reach every mind, be it through facts and logic or raw emotion.The interest Protagonists have in others is genuine, almost to a fault – when they believe in someone, they can become too involved in the other person’s problems, place too much trust in them. Luckily, this trust tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, as Protagonists’ altruism and authenticity inspire those they care about to become better themselves. But if they aren’t careful, they can overextend their optimism, sometimes pushing others further than they’re ready or willing to go. Assertive Protagonists view themselves with more self-confidence.

Enneagram: One { 98% } with a very close Three { 96% }

Type One can be thought of as the Perfectionist. Ones are defined by their belief that everything must be in order, and by their feeling that they must always be right. They show great commitment and determination to improve conditions that they find need improvement, and they are forward in encouraging others to improve their performance, too. 

Type Three is also known as The Achiever. Threes want to be successful and admired by other people, and are very conscious of their public image.

Temperament: phlegmatic

The phlegmatic temperament is fundamentally relaxed and quiet, ranging from warmly attentive to lazily sluggish. Phlegmatics tend to be content with themselves and are kind. They are accepting and affectionate. They may be receptive and shy and often prefer stability to uncertainty and change. They are consistent, relaxed, calm, rational, curious, and observant, qualities that make them good administrators. They can also be passive-aggressive.

Hogwarts House: slytherin

Inspirations/Parallels: princess anne, catherine de’ medici, queen mary i

Tropes: old money, royal blood, british royal family, rich kid, forbidden fruit

YOUR MUSE AS ..:

A piece of art: girl with a pearl earring by vermeer

A song: to live is to fly by townes van zandt

A book: the voyage out by virginia woolf

A movie: the secret life of walter mitty (solely for the traveling aspect)

A TV show: belgravia

A historical era: the regency period

A historical figure: mary i of england

A fictional character: caroline bingley

A colour: peacock blue

An animal: a swan

YOUR MUSE’S DREAM ..:

Job: 

queen of the united kingdom ( and the commonwealth ). if she was not royal, however, poppy would have loved to have worked in international relations on a smaller scale ( translating, perhaps working for an ambassador, etc. )

Vacation:

something relaxing, where there are not cameras taking photographs of her every minute of every day. a private island would be ideal, with the opportunity to be on the beach as well as venture into a lush jungle or forest. in reality, most of poppy’s vacations take place in the cotswolds or on a royal estate. 

Day:

waking up for tea with her parents at buckingham, a couple of engagements in the morning, lunch at the bluebird with her friends, followed by afternoon bikram yoga and a dinner that she prepares for herself in her kensington palace apartment. ( poppy generally likes her life and often lives out what she enjoys doing. yes, she has a strong desire for duty, but if she did not enjoy it, she’d have found another ambition for which to funnel her attentions. )

As a child:

to be queen. poppy never truly understood why her brother should be king simply because he was born a boy and she a girl. it’s a dream that has stuck with her throughout her entire life.

Last night:

poppy very rarely remembers her dreams.

That they gave up on:

attending university in america. she was accepted at harvard, princeton, and stanford and had desperately wanted to study outside of britain. however, she chose the university of edinburgh instead, well aware that attending a british school could only endear her to the public. 

That they have right now:

to pursue that which is hers. with primogeniture being abolished years ago, it makes sense that poppy should be the next queen regnant. but as her parents and parliament don’t see the need to “strip edward of his birthright” ( that poppy argues shouldn’t have been his birthright to begin with ), she has to find a way to do it herself.

[heavyarethecrowns]

It was breathlessly reported this month by British newspapers that Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s American TV-star girlfriend, had been introduced to Queen Elizabeth II.

The teatime meeting — said to be over finger sandwiches and scones at Buckingham Palace — with her love’s granny was the most significant indicator yet that the 36-year-old “Suits” actress will soon step into her biggest role ever: joining the cast of one of the world’s most celebrated families.

Markle, who was photographed on Sept. 25 holding hands with Harry at the Invictus Games in Canada during their first public outing, is said to have given up her Audi lease in Toronto, where “Suits” films. And her work contract ends in late November.

It seems to be a case of when, not if, an engagement is announced.

Rumors are swirling around London that the 33-year-old prince has already proposed to his squeeze of 15 months after getting permission from his indomitable grandmother.

It’s an understatement to say that free-spirited Markle is about to experience a dramatic lifestyle change. As Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of “Majesty Magazine,” told The Post: “It’s going to be a minefield.”

Sources reveal that as the Los Angeles-raised actress prepares for a very public engagement and wedding, she is also being schooled in the ways of the Firm — the royals’ affectionate nickname for themselves. There’s no special “school” where Markle will learn how to curtsy, hob-knob with foreign dignitaries or emerge from a car without flashing her underwear.

British writer Katie Nicholl told The Post that Prince Harry has been Markle’s main mentor in all things royal.

“He knows how daunting this will be for Meghan and he’s keen for her to be relaxed in the company of senior royals,” she said.

Before the auspicious meeting at so-called “BP,” he would have told his girlfriend how to address the 91-year-old queen, strongly suggesting that she curtsy, even though that’s an optional move these days.

“Harry will have made sure Meghan knew how to address the queen and how to behave in her presence,” says Nicholl, who has written a forthcoming biography of Harry. “He calls her ‘Granny,’ but after Meghan had curtsied and called her ‘Your Majesty,’ she would have reverted to ‘ma’am.’ It seems strange to mere mortals, but it is how [Princess] Kate addresses her.”

The American divorcée will be encouraged to be herself — with one giant caveat.

“She will always have to remember, in public at least, that she is royalty and certain behaviors are expected,” said Seward, whose latest book, “My Husband and I”— chronicling the marriage of the queen and the Duke of Edinburgh — is soon to be published.

“It’s going to be difficult for her because she is an independent career woman who [won’t] really like being told what to do.”

Markle’s position is unprecedented, although there are echoes of the scandalous love affair between divorced US socialite Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII that led to the king’s abdication in 1936.

“We’ve never had an American divorcée marry someone who is in line to the throne,” said Seward. Harry is currently fifth in position, behind his father, Prince Charles, brother, Prince William, nephew George and niece Charlotte. He will be shunted to sixth place after the birth of William and Kate’s third child next April.

“American manners are different than British manners,” Seward added. “[She] can’t walk down the street eating or chewing gum.” Markle will even have to correct her table manners. “We hold our cutlery differently. It’s a whole different culture.”

Markle did well in her new role in a September Vanity Fair cover-story interview, sanctioned by Harry, when she revealed: “We’re two people who are really happy and in love.”

Still, the corridors of Kensington Palace (where Harry lives in an apartment near William and Kate) are a long way from the San Fernando Valley, where Markle was raised by her yoga-teacher mother, Doria, who is black, and lighting-director father, Thomas, who is white.

When she launched an affordable clothing line in 2016, she told the Toronto Star: “I was not a girl who grew up buying $100 candles. I was the girl who ran out of gas on her way to an audition.”

She first attended the private Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse and then an all-girls’ Catholic school, Immaculate Heart High. Markle studied theater and international relations at Northwestern University, just outside Chicago, where a fellow alumnus remembered her as being “very sophisticated for a college student.

“We were in our early 20s but she seemed like someone 10 years older. She had the poise and grace it takes to being a royal.”

By the time she graduated from college in 2003, Markle had already made her screen debut in “General Hospital,” which led to roles on TV shows such as “90210,” “Knight Rider,” “CSI:NY” and, ultimately, “Suits.”

Charles Rae, former royal correspondent for Britain’s Sun and author of the book “Diana: The People’s Princess,” believes the starlet’s professional skills will come in handy when she signs up with the Firm.

“She’s a natural performer and will chat with people with ease,” he said. “Besides, everyone will be intrigued by her accent.”

It’s not as if Markle lacks experience in public speaking. A global ambassador for World Vision, she traveled with the humanitarian organization to Rwanda for its clean water campaign. Her résumé also includes working for United Nations Women as part of the HeForShe gender-equality movement. All of this earns her extra points with the royal family, as she would be expected to perform charity work and have pet causes as a princess.

Rae, who described the possibility of Markle marrying Harry as “the best thing to happen to the monarchy in years,” revealed that the brunette has been “studying hard” to fit into the lifestyle.

“She has practically been living at Kensington Palace whenever she is in London and will have seen the routine that goes on with the butlers and servants,” he told The Post.

As of late, Markle has been zipping around London in a new Volkswagen — sometimes, but not always, with a driver. According to the Daily Mail, this is significant because the royal family has a deal with VW in which they get a 60-percent lease discount; Princess Kate had a similar deal, leasing an Audi (owned by VW) before marrying William.

It will likely only be after an engagement is announced that Markle will receive formal briefings on her public appearances. A personal assistant will also be hired.

As Seward points out, advance information on how to dress correctly could have helped Markle ahead of the Invictus Games, where she famously wore ripped jeans.

Meanwhile, the royal protection squad, an elite team of police officers, will be on hand to advise her on dealing with the traditional “walkabouts” so loved by the British public.

“She will learn how to cope if someone [in a crowd] comes on too strong,” said Rae. “Ever since John Lennon was shot, the royals have been told never to rebuff anyone. Members of the family, including the queen, have had assassination attempts against them in the past, and no chances will be taken with Meghan.”

As with Grace Kelly, when she became the princess of Monaco, Markle’s “acting career will, of course, be a thing of the past,” Rae said.

Robert Lacey, historical consultant for the hit Netflix series “The Crown,” told The Post that Markle will not be expected to take British citizenship — mainly because of Harry’s low place in line to the throne.

“Her position as the wife of Prince Charles’s second son would not warrant it,” said the author of the upcoming book “The Crown: The Official Companion.”

The Greek-born Duke of Edinburgh [Prince Philip], now 96, became a British citizen in March 1947, eight months before his wedding to the then-Princess Elizabeth.

“Times have changed and the heat is off Meghan,” added Lacey. “She is a new recruit but, apart from being assigned a lady-in-waiting, it would be demeaning for her to get too much advice from courtiers.

“The best person to give Meghan advice would be her fellow divorcée, Camilla [the Duchess of Cornwall and Harry’s stepmother]. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had taken Meghan aside for a strong gin and tonic and some helpful tips on joining the royal family,” Lacey said. “She’s a very funny woman who’s had it all thrown at her but survived.”

Rae said the royals have learned lessons from the ill-fated introductions of both Princess Diana and Sarah, the Duchess of York, to the royal family in the 1980s. “Kate Middleton’s entry into the world went relatively smoothly in comparison.”

Last week, the Daily Mail reported that, when Middleton joined the royal family, an agreement was drawn up among Kate, her parents and Prince William to protect her from undue stress during the first five years of marriage. “Prince Harry is said to be considering a similar agreement to shield [Markle] from palace courtiers who like to keep their charges busy,” said the newspaper.

Speculation is now rife that Markle will appear on the balcony with Kate, Camilla and the queen as princes Charles, William and Harry place wreaths on London’s Cenotaph memorial on Remembrance Sunday, the British equivalent of Veteran’s Day, on Nov. 12.

“Meghan will no doubt follow royal protocol to the letter and wear a nice black coat and hat,” said Lacey, adding that her presence will be another indicator of an impending engagement.

And Christmas is approaching. If Markle is invited to Sandringham, the Norfolk estate where the queen and her family spend the holidays, she might as well be walking down the aisle at Westminster Abbey.

“I just hope she enjoys pheasant shooting,” said Rae. “When the birds drop and they’re not yet dead, Meghan will be expected to join the other royal ladies in wringing their necks.”

“[She] can’t walk down the street eating or chewing gum.”

by: Ingrid Seward

Does Ingrid Seward love to insult people? Is that her favorite past-time? She really needs to let it go, the monarchy has to evolve, modernise, if they are to continue well into the 21st century.

However, I honestly believe that Prince Charles will be the last monarch.

SUBMITTED

I can’t be bothered to read this. 

But from the mild skimming, I don’t believe that meeting took place 

Of course Harry will help her when need be, that is what the born royal does for his partner - married yet or not. 

[harryandmeghan0-blog]

Meghan Markle's 'VERY DIFFERENT lifestyle' forces Prince Harry to take up meditation - Express

New Post has been published on https://harryandmeghan.xyz/meghan-markles-very-different-lifestyle-forces-prince-harry-to-take-up-meditation-express/

Meghan Markle's 'VERY DIFFERENT lifestyle' forces Prince Harry to take up meditation - Express

Prince Harry revealed to Buddhist monk Kelsang Sonam during a visit to community cafe and supermarket Number 7 with the Meghan Markle this week that he takes part in daily meditation sessions. Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams has revealed how much Prince Harry has changed since meeting Meghan. Speaking to Express.co.uk, Mr Fitzwilliams said: “This is fascinating, not least because his image used to be synonymous with partying and with action, he was very at home in the military.

Related articles

Meeting Meghan will have had an impact

James Brookes

“Also, he is very much a doer with his charitable work, as Invictus and his Lesotho charity Sentebale have shown. Many benefit from meditation with the intention of linking mind and body and becoming more focused.

“Meghan, who practises yoga and meditates, she recommended it on her blog, has introduced him to a very different lifestyle.

“This is a glimpse of his more spiritual side. He has spoken openly about how he suffered after Diana’s death, now he wants to help others who suffer trauma.

“The fact that he meditates and feels so much more content is another sign that he is happy with the woman he loves.”

Meghan Markle news: Harry’s marriage has “had an impact” on his decision to take up meditation (Image: GETTY)

Mr Fitzwilliams said it is clear Harry has always had a demanding lifestyle and with a baby soon he will “obviously find meditation beneficial”.

Harry is likely to have picked up the hobby from Meghan, who has previously admitted to meditating twice a day and is also a big fan of yoga.

Meghan may not be the only factor influencing Harry to take up meditation, with Royal commentator James Brookes revealing to improve his mental health.

Mr Brookes said: “Meeting Meghan will have had an impact. It’s clear she’s already helped him to adapt his lifestyle choices and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s introduced him to meditation too.

“But I also think his time spent working on improving mental health awareness will have opened his eyes to it too.

“He’s chatted to many people on the topic over recent years; medical professionals, volunteers, charity reps and veterans – all of whom will have had views on how to improve mental health. Meditation is one of the ways you can help yourself.”

Mr Brookes added: “It’s also worth remembering that meditation doesn’t necessarily mean sitting crossed-legged with your hands up by your side, humming.

“It may simply be that Harry takes 10-15 mins of quiet time each day to clear his mind and – perhaps when he’s had a particularly busy day – that’s when he’ll do it twice.”

The couple is said to be installing a yoga studio at their new home Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.

And Meghan has posted pictures on Instagram of her striking a yoga pose.

Meghan Markle’s “very different lifestyle” has made Harry change his ways (Image: GETTY)

In March 2018, LA-based yoga instructor Light Watkins said he once spend four days with Meghan giving her one-to-one guidance.

Mr Watkins told The Mirror: “I met Meghan through a mutual friend and she was really intrigued by the fact I was a meditation teacher.

“She came by my home studio and we did four sessions over four days, so you become self-sufficient in it.

“I took her through it and she had wonderful experiences. She really appreciated the training and getting structure.”

While Harry revealed his more personal side, Meghan also disclosed this week that her due date is late April or early May as she chatted to well-wishers in Merseyside.

Kensington Palace had only previously said the couple were expecting their baby in the spring.

Royal expert Angela Mollard has also said the “honeymoon period” for the Royal couple could soon be over as Prince Harry fears the Duchess of Sussex will “suffer” from the same afflicting treatment Princess Diana was forced to go through.

Commentator Angela Mollard suggested the feelings of “misery” Meghan is reportedly having could be a result of the stressful period she is going through as she prepares for motherhood and for changes in her relationship with husband Harry.

Asked whether the “honeymoon period” was over for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Ms Mollard told The Morning Show: “It has to be over. These two in July will have known each other for three years.

“We know from relationship counsellors, as you get into the three-year period of the relationship, it doesn’t so much as get boring but it gets real. The state of being in love and infatuation dissipates after three years. Remains to be seen with these two.”

Prince Harry fears Meghan will “suffer” same treatment as Princess Diana (Image: GETTY)

Meghan Markle news: Commentator Angela Mollard says honeymoon period over for royal couple (Image: GETTY)

She continued: “This comes at a time when she’s made massive changes in her life – she’s moved countries, she’s given up her job, she’s now pregnant, she doesn’t have her friends around her, she’s got massive unrest within her family.

“There are so many stress factors it wouldn’t be surprising if she had feelings of misery. Harry apparently feels very guilty about the fact – really, it’s becoming a repeat of what his mum suffered.”

Ms Mollard argued Prince Harry had been unable to protect Princess Diana from the onslaught of attention and would ensure Meghan is spared any further stress as she prepares to give birth to their first child in April.

She added: “He couldn’t protect his mum and we know from the early days if the relationship when he made the unprecedented statement ‘please, leave her alone,’ he’s very protective of her.

“She should take the advice of Michelle Obama, who’s come out and said ‘you need to take it slowly. Do not everything at once, you’re pregnant, you’re having a baby – just feel your way gently’.”

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1073126/Meghan-Markle-news-Prince-Harry-latest-2019-wedding-baby-date-meditation-Princess-Diana

[jenniferfaye34]

Guest Post ~ Dough or Die (A Bread Shop Mystery) by Winnie Archer... #books #CozyMystery #readers

Dough or Die (A Bread Shop Mystery) by Winnie Archer

About Dough or Die

Dough or Die (A Bread Shop Mystery) Cozy Mystery 5th in Series Publisher: Kensington (August 25, 2020) Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages ISBN-10: 1496724410 ISBN-13: 978-1496724410 Digital ASIN: B082WQZBGF

Known for its mouthwatering traditional breads, the Yeast of Eden bakery has gained fame across Northern California’s coast. Now the shop is bound for Reality TV—but a murder may kill its reputation . . .

People come to the beach town of Santa Sofia as much for the healing properties of Yeast of Eden’s breads as for a vacation getaway. And now a cable food channel has selected the bakery as a featured culinary delight for a new show. Baking apprentice Ivy Culpepper is excited as the crew arrives, ready to capture all the ins and outs of the renowned bread shop. But instead they capture something much harder to stomach: the attempted murdered of the show’s cameraman just outside Yeast of Eden . . .

With no motive and no clues, and the town craving answers, it will be up to Ivy to sift through the evidence to find the truth. But she’ll have to move quickly before someone else is targeted or the wrong person gets the heat—and the business collapses like a deflated soufflé, right before her eyes.

About Winnie Archer

Winnie Archer is a middle school teacher by day and by night she's the author of the Bread Shop Mystery series. Born in a beach town in California, she now lives in Colorado. She fantasizes about spending summers writing in quaint, cozy locales, has a love/hate relationship with both yoga and chocolate, adores pumpkin spice lattes, is devoted to her five kids and husband, and can't believe she's lucky enough to be living the life of her dreams. Visit her online at Website .

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[yogasutraau]

Yoga Unveiled: Journey into the Heart of Well-being with Yoga Sutra

Embark on a transformative odyssey at Yoga Sutra, unraveling the profound essence of yoga. Delve into ancient wisdom, explore diverse practices, and embrace holistic well-being. Discover a path to inner harmony and vitality through the art of yoga.

[officialroyalqueen]

The Duchess of Sussex's mother, Doria Ragland has 'cancelled her yoga classes and hired a dog sitter' in preparation for the arrival of the royal baby. The 62-year-old is said to have landed in Britain as Meghan Markle is due to give birth this month. Sources close to the family have said that her Doria wanted to be by her side for the event.  Speaking to The Sun On Sunday friends said that Doria wants to spend as much time as possible with her first grandchild and is expected to stay in the UK for a sustained period of time. Sources close to the family have said that Prince Harry will be delighted to have Doria with them  'Like all mums, Doria wants to be there for her daughter at this seismic event in her life. 'She has sometimes worried about being so far away but she is absolutely going to be there for her at the birth. Doria is set to stay with Meghan and Harry at the newly renovated Frogmore Cottage 'Meghan also wanted to show off her new house to her mum and the two have been enjoying spending time together.' Doria, who works as a social worker, is understood to have left her modest two-bed bungalow in Los Angeles last week. The grandmother-to-be has hired a live-in-sitter to walk her pitbull cross and Yorkie dogs twice a day as well as having cancelled a senior citizens yoga class that she teaches. A second source told The Sun that regular yogis who attended Doria's class were informed that their class would be cancelled as their teacher would be taking a break. 'It didn't take long for tongues to start wagging that perhaps the royal birth was responsible. 'Doria is a tremendously popular figure and everyone is thrilled for her.' Meghan, 37, has a fractured relationship with her 74- year-old father Thomas Markle and Prince Harry is said to be delighted that her mother will be joining them at their Windsor home. The first source added that Harry adores Doria and is happy to have her around. 'Meg is understandably apprehensive and wanted her mum with her to calm her. 'She wants the birth to be as natural as possible and wants to stay at home for as long as possible. But her watchword is flexibility. 'If at the last minute, doctors advise her to go to hospital or she feels she wants drugs, then of course she'll take their advice. 'She is taking each day as it comes and can't wait to be a mum.' The newest edition to the royal family will be seventh in line to the throne and will also have dual US and UK citizenship. The news of Doria coming over from the US comes as it was revealed that Harry and Meghan are set to snub another royal tradition by not hiring Norland nannies and instead hiring a US nanny sourced through a specialist hiring company in Kensington.

http://www.royalqueen607.com/2019/04/meghan-markles-mother-all-set-for-royal.html

[gyrlversion]

Meghans mother Doria Ragland will fly to London for the birth

Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland is said to be flying over to London from LA for the birth of her grandchild, before staying on to help the new family settle, new reports claim. 

The Duchess of Sussex, 37, who has a close relationship with the American yoga teacher, 62, is due at the end of this month.

And insiders are claiming Doria will fly over to be by Meghan and Harry’s side for the birth of their firstborn, before flying back to LA to continue with her work and tend to her pet dogs. 

Meghan and Harry, 34, have officially moved out of their Kensington Palace home and into their new Frogmore cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle, which they reportedly spent £3 million renovating.

Scroll down for video 

Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland is said to be flying over to London from LA for the birth of her grandchild before staying on to help the new family settle, new reports claim. Doria is seen with Meghan and Harry in September

A source told The Mirror: ‘Doria should be here for the birth and will be staying. But then she has to get back to her dogs and work.’

The insider also claimed that Doria was bringing posters over from Meghan’s old Toronto pad, which is reportedly being spruced up with the help of Victoria Beckham.

They added: ‘Harry and Meghan want to make Frogmore as homely as possible and Meghan has brought over a lot of posters’. 

FEMAIL have contacted Kensington Palace for further comment. 

Meghan and Harry, 34, have officially moved out of their Kensington Palace home and into their new Frogmore cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle

According to previous reports Doria could split her time between LA and Meghan and Harry’s new home at Windsor Castle to help raise their firstborn child, due this month. 

The couple recently moved into the refurbished Frogmore Cottage, which according to The Express has had a new floor with a yoga studio installed, so the family can enjoy regular sessions together.

Harry has become a yoga fan after Meghan introduced him to it last year. 

A friend revealed: ‘It has brought calmness to his life. Meghan has kept up her own routine during her pregnancy and many experts say gentle stretching is highly beneficial for babies too. The new Prince or Princess will be the first royal baby to be skilled in yoga.’

insiders are claiming Doria will fly over to be by Meghan and Harry’s side for the birth of their firstborn, before flying back to LA to continue with her work and tend to her pet dogs. They are pictured together at a Grenfell charity event in September

Seen: Doria Ragland, Prince Charles and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last May

The duchess has been a devotee for years and her mother Doria Ragland is a life-long practitioner and teacher.

The friend revealed: ‘Harry has been very supportive of Meghan and has worked with her in her yoga through her pregnancy. They want to give their child the healthiest, happiest start in life.’

The Duchess of Sussex has long been an advocate of natural lifestyle choices including meditation, yoga and a balanced diet.

During her recent tour of Australia last year, Meghan told royal fans how she was relying on yoga to boost her energy levels.

Harry has become a yoga fan after Meghan introduced him to it last year. They are seen togegther at New Zealand House in London last month

The Duchess of Sussex, 37, who has a close relationship with the American yoga teacher, 62, is due at the end of this month. They are seen together at Doria’s graduation in a picture Meghan shared in 2016

 A source previously told Vanity Fair that Frogmore Cottage had been updated to include a nursery as well as a ‘mother-in-law suite’ for Doria Ragland, who ‘will be encouraging Meg to go for a natural birth’.

A source said at the time: ‘Doria plans to be around a lot when the baby arrives, and there are plans for her to have a dedicated space at their new home.

‘She wants to be on hand to help Meghan and Harry with the baby. Doria will be involved and if she’s involved she will be encouraging Meg to go for a natural birth.’

Last month, The Mail on Sunday reported that the couple will be hiring a traditional nanny after the birth of their child.

The royals reportedly plan on being hands-on parents and will bring in a nanny later this year ahead of a rumored royal tour.

The approach mirrors that adopted by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their children, George, five, Charlotte, three, and Louis, ten months.

Harry and Meghan will reportedly bring in a nanny later this year. The approach mirrors that adopted by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their children, George, five, Charlotte, three, and Louis, ten months, pictured

    The post Meghans mother Doria Ragland will fly to London for the birth appeared first on Gyrlversion.

from WordPress https://www.gyrlversion.net/meghans-mother-doria-ragland-will-fly-to-london-for-the-birth/

[sweetlyhopefulangel]

12 Of The Most Expensive Houses In The World

Mentioning the word ‘Home’ evokes a sense of comfort and modesty. For most of us, it’s not the size that matters as much as the soothe and security, we feel within this place called home. Well, for those who are listed as the richest people on Earth, there’s more to a ‘home’, than just modesty and utility. To these, who ace the lists of ‘Forbes’ Top Billionaires’ and ‘The Most Expensive House In The World’, home is a place where they can spend most of their fortune, afford unimaginable luxuries and flaunt their wealth. For example, If you take a quick tour inside Donald Trump’s house, You’ll find nearly everything in gold. Also, The Bill Gates’ house where he has screens that display any desired painting, photo or artwork that cost $150,000. Best House in The World? Maybe! Let’s find out.

These billionaire homes are architectural expressions born out of extravagance and vanity. Their lavishness and exclusivity not only inspire commoners towards riches but also provide opportunities for experimentation, with some of the most expensive and uncommon technological innovations.

What’s The Most Expensive House in The World?

1. Antilia, Mumbai, India, owned by Mukesh Ambani

Like many billionaire families, Ambanis too wanted an opulently unique and customized residence. Thus began the conceptualization and construction of ‘Antilia’, designed by the firm Perkins and Will, named after a mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean. Costing over $1 billion and taking four-years to be constructed, Antilia now stands boastingly, amidst the slum-filled context of Mumbai. This 27-floor high residence, stacked to achieve an area of about 400,000 square feet, surpasses the Palace of Versailles in terms of area encompassed. With six levels of parking below the ground level, three helipads, a health spa, a salon, a ballroom, a 50-seat movie theater, multiple swimming pools, yoga and dance studios and an ice cream room, maintaining Antilia reportedly require a staff of about 600.

2. Villa Leopolda, Villefranche-sur-mer, France, owned by Lily Safra

Villa La Leopolda is a palatial villa, with cascading terraces, located in the Alpes-Maritimes on the French Riviera. Spread across 20 acres, this villa has a reputable history of owners including Gianni and Marella Agnelli, Izaak, Dorothy J. Killam. Since 1987 it was owned by a Swiss banker Edmond Safra, who passed it on to his survivor and mistress Lily Safra. The architectural character of this villa belongs to a historical style called Belle Époque which translates to ‘Beautiful Era’. Designed by an American architect named Jr. Ogden Codman, on an estate once owned by King Leopold II of Belgium.

3. Fair Field, Sagaponack, N.Y, owned by Ira Rennert

Ira Rennert, an American billionaire, owns this sprawling mansion, part of a 63-acre estate called Fair Field, one of the largest in the United States. It includes several built forms, has 29 bedrooms, 39-bathrooms, 3 dining rooms, 3 swimming pools and a 164-seat theatre. The estate also includes a recreation pavilion with basketball court, gym, two bowling alleys, two tennis courts, two squash courts and many other buildings. A residence of this size also requires an immense supply of electricity, which also is sufficed by an on-site power plant.

4. 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, U.K, owned by Lakshmi Mittal

Steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, shares neighborhood with some of the world’s richest icons. London’s prime and priciest residential address i.e. Kensington Palace Gardens is also the second most expensive street in the world. Reportedly the average price per square meter here is $107,000. Laskshmi Mittal owns not one, but three palatial homes on this street numbered 9a and 18-19. The house was designed by Sir Charles Barry in 1845, as a pair of semi-detached ‘Palazzo’ style villas. Lakshmi spent millions to renovate and transform the renaissance styled mansion into “Taj Mittal”. With a total of 12 bedrooms, a pool, and Makrana marble, this mansion can be considered a pricey tribute to his Indian origins.

5. An apartment in One Hyde Park, London, U.K, owned by Rinat Akhmetov

Ukraine’s richest man and oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov spent a record-setting amount of £136.4m, to buy two of the world’s most expensive apartments, in Knightsbridge, London. This project by Richar Rogers, and his firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners encompasses an area of 25,000-square feet. Each of these apartments flaunts a 360º protection by bulletproof glass facades, exclusive interiors designed by Candy & Candy and sophisticated lighting systems by artist James Turrell, which gradually change the ambiance from sunset to sunrise.

6. Ellison Estate, Woodside, California, owned by Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison, co-founder, and chairman of Oracle, world’s fifth richest man and a famous property collector, built his Japanese-style estate in 2004, which took him 9 years to build. Modeled after a 1600 CE Japanese emperor’s palace, this mansion was designed and constructed by Paul Driscoll, a Zen Buddhist teacher, and architect. It includes three cottages, a gymnasium, eight bridges, two gardens, a five-acre man-made lake, a bathhouse and a koi pond. The landscape also includes expenses of cherry blossom, maple and other Japanese species along with pines, oaks and redwoods.

7. 16 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, U.K, owned by Roman Abramovich

Another billionaire resident at the Kensington Palace Gardens street, Russian tycoon and the owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich owns this exuberant huge mansion. Despite the whopping price-tag, this London mansion falls short in terms of facilities and area. Hence Roman plans extend it underground, to accommodate a subterranean leisure complex with a tennis court, a health center and an auto museum.

8. Blossom Estate, Palm Beach, Florida, owned by Kenneth Griffin

Kenneth Griffin, an American hedge fund manager and the owner of Citadel LLC, bought four adjacent properties, for a total of nearly $130 mioms, six kitchens, a library and a full-fledged guest house.

9. Xanadu 2.0, Seattle, WA, owned by Bill Gates

The richest man in the world, Bill gates owns this simple looking, but an extravagantly architected mansion, on the edge of Lake Washington. Named Xanadu 2.0, this 66,000 sq. foot residence was designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and Cutler Anderson Architects, built over a span of 7 years. The earth-sheltered mansion boasts of quite a many features apart from its sustainable design, including a high-tech sensory system changing the ambiance to suit the mood and timing, a pool with an underwater music system, a 2,500- square foot gym with a 20 feet high ceiling, 24 bathrooms, six kitchens, a library and a full-fledged guest house.

10. Silicon Valley Mansion, Los Altos Hills, CA, owned by Yuri Milner

Russian tycoon and an investor in Facebook, Yuri Milner, is a proud owner of his retreat home in California. This mansion resembling to a French chateau has plenty of indoor and outdoor pools, a luxurious ballroom and living areas which frame a panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay.

11. Broken O Ranch, Augusta, Montana, owned by Stanley Kroenke

Billionaire Stanley Kroenke bought this ranch for $132.5 Million. The estate includes an exclusive 10,000-square foot house with an indoor pool. As far as the ranch goes, it has multiple horse stables, nearly 4,500 cattle, extensive water rights and significant agricultural property.

12. 15 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, U.K, owned by Tamara Ecclestone

The heiress, and also a British Playboy model, Tamara Ecclestone, spent a bounty, on her 55-room house, in the ‘Billionaire’s Row’. She also modified this mansion by revamping it with an Amazonian crystal bathtub, a private nightclub, a bowling alley, a subterranean swimming pool, a beauty salon, a dog spa and a car lift.

These billionaire homes, their extensive estates, and their impressive scale, not only knock our socks off but also astound us with their impeccable opulence and grandeur.

Source: Best House in the World

[party-hard-or-die]

‘I’m American. I Hug.’ Meghan Markle’s Looming Impact on the British Monarchy

LONDON — As a harbinger of things to come for Meghan Markle, consider a scene from her early encounter with royal protocol: After her first few visits to see her boyfriend in Kensington Palace, she began greeting the palace guards with hugs.

After this happened several times, someone informed her that, according to the social codes of the world she was entering, hugging palace guards is Not Done. Ms. Markle, 36 — born and raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of a yoga teacher — listened politely to that advice.

And ignored it.

“Someone said to her, ‘People don’t do that,’” her friend Bonnie Hammer recalled in an interview to NBC. “She literally said, ‘I’m American. I hug.’”

In the last-minute focus on things that could go spectacularly wrong between now and Ms. Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry on Saturday, it has been easy to lose sight of the change Ms. Markle represents for the British monarchy.

She is, like Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, informal and open. She is at ease in the glare of celebrity and adept at using it for her purposes. Raised as a political activist, she likes to recall the letter-writing campaign she undertook as an 11-year-old, in which she persuaded Procter & Gamble to withdraw an advertisement for dishwashing liquid that she thought was sexist.

In other words, she is many things the royal family is emphatically not. Already, Britain’s monarchy is poised at the edge of an unpredictable modernization: Queen Elizabeth has reigned for 65 years, providing a beacon of continuity during a period of social turmoil and decline in British power.

And many of the monarchy’s supporters worry that the conservative traditions the queen represents — including emotional distance and political neutrality — will fall by the wayside when the younger generation takes control. The more “normal” the royals seem, they say, the less people will see the point of the institution of monarchy.

Ms. Markle did not introduce this tension, which has divided palace traditionalists from modernizers for generations. But, at an anxious moment in Britain, she seems to personify it.

“That is my biggest concern, that they will turn the monarchy into celebrity,” said June Ash, the chairwoman of the Arts Society on the island of Jersey. “We’re talking about medieval times, there’s a history that carries through. You can’t just say that it’s celebrity. If we go down that route, it would be wrong. I hope it will stop at a certain point.”

Though there were similar worries before Catherine Middleton’s marriage to Prince William, Ms. Ash added, with Ms. Markle, it seems more serious.

“Kate, again, she is British, she knows the rules,” Ms. Ash said. “American people are much more free in their way of thinking and their attitudes.”

These fears have not been alleviated by the publicity in the lead-up to the wedding, in which Ms. Markle’s friends — effusive, deeply tanned residents of Los Angeles — praised her as a change agent.

“She will break convention, but in a good way, in a healthy way,” Ms. Hammer, chairwoman of NBCUniversal Cable, said on “Inside the Royal Wedding,” broadcast on NBC on Wednesday. “She will somehow take this monarchy and open it up to modern living, to modern women.”

To an outsider, the British royal family’s relationship with fame can seem peculiar. Though they lavishly promote the institution of the monarchy — recent months have seen a barrage of news releases on icing flavors (buttercream) and carriage upholstery (gold), accompanied by an orgy of personalized tea towels and coffee mugs — they are also visibly uncomfortable with all the attention.

There is a reason for this, a palace insider explained: In the royal family, self-promotion is considered a cardinal sin. Unlike the Scandinavian royals, who happily pose for photographs when walking into charity events, the British royals tend to stride by with their heads down, which can make them seem aloof and awkward.

Ms. Markle is not like that. She connects. In January, when a 10-year-old girl on a rope line asked her for an autograph, she grabbed the paper, wrote “Hi, Kaitlin,” and drew a smiley face. This circumvented an unwritten rule of the royal family, for a reason that dates back centuries: If a royal signature is made public, it can be forged. Her most sharp-eyed monarchist critics, mostly women who caucus anonymously on social media, noted it down. A few weeks later, she did it again, hugging a 10-year-old girl. (Tradition dictates a handshake or “small curtsy.”)

In this, Ms. Markle is similar to Prince Harry’s mother. Diana was congenitally unable to maintain a formal distance, something that endeared her to ordinary people — “commoners,” as they are sometimes called here — but that drove her palace handlers crazy. She was insistently human, and this stripped the royal family of some of its sheen. Particularly damaging was a television interview she gave in 1995, describing her private struggles with bulimia, depression and her husband’s infidelity.

Diana’s sons have made it clear that they plan to follow her model. Harry, in particular, has stepped forward as an advocate of modernization, telling Newsweek last year, “Even if I was king, I would do my own shopping.” This plan worries conservative royalists, as did the emotional interviews the princes gave on the 20th anniversary of their mother’s death.

“Each time you do one, you’re slightly peeling back the layers of the monarchy,” said the television presenter Piers Morgan, who has logged time on a series of Fleet Street tabloids. This, he is convinced, will be the way of the future: As the younger generation rises in prominence, “you’re going to see a more Diana-esque royal family,” he said, more “touchy-feely and emotional and heart-on-sleeve.”

Mr. Morgan also sees echoes of Diana in Ms. Markle, who he predicted would chafe at the “never complain, never explain” ethos imposed by senior courtiers.

“When women feel suffocated and trapped by that world, they tend to go rogue,” he said. “This is a girl who, when she was 11 years old, wrote to Hillary Clinton demanding to get a commercial taken off TV. Is she really going to sit in that palace all day not saying anything?”

Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, expects Ms. Markle to struggle with the ban on expressing opinions on political matters, something the British tabloids will watch closely. An example came early this year, when her future sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, disappointed activists by refusing to wear black to a film and television awards ceremony as a sign of solidarity with the #MeToo movement. Ms. Markle, who has gone out of her way to express support for the #MeToo movement, would be expected to keep her views to herself.

“She’s marrying into an institution,” Mr. Arbiter said. “It’s apolitical. It has to sustain that, because that’s what the constitutional monarchy is all about. That’s why Charles I had his head chopped off.”

Mr. Morgan was no less foreboding, though his worries about Ms. Markle are more general. He went so far as to invoke Wallis Simpson, the American divorcée whose love affair with King Edward VIII prompted him to abdicate the British throne. Ms. Simpson died in 1986, but she remains one of the most hated people in Britain.

“If Meghan has got a couple of kids and decides to take them back to California,” he said, “she will make Wallis Simpson look like a tea party.”

But the wedding is almost upon us. The day will be given over to bodices and bustles and edible flowers, a medieval spectacle shot through with an electric current of sex. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle are still in the first flush of genuine attraction, as anyone with access to a television can attest. (Compare those images to the 1981 interview of his parents, in which Prince Charles, asked if he was in love with Diana, responded, “Whatever ‘in love’ means.”)

The monarchy needs this charisma badly. By the late 1990s, ordinary Britons felt increasingly alienated from a “privileged, inward-looking, inbred royal family that was obviously dysfunctional,” said Mark Leonard, co-author of a 1998 report that recommended swift and comprehensive modernization.

The royal family instituted new policies in an effort to keep up with the times, decommissioning the royal yacht and declaring that the queen would begin paying taxes. But it is the rise of Diana’s sons — telegenic and more tethered to the world of ordinary Britons — that has been its salvation.

When she arrives at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Saturday on the arm of her mother, Meghan Markle will represent the latest of these changes. She has shuttered her blog and social media accounts, with their traces of deeply held opinion.

Colleagues say she is fiercely disciplined on the set, intent on saying every line as it is written on the page. But she is also the girl whose childhood bedroom, her biographer wrote, featured a poster of Rosie the Riveter, sleeve rolled up and bicep flexed, under the motto “We Can Do It!” This is the role she has been preparing for all her life.

The post ‘I’m American. I Hug.’ Meghan Markle’s Looming Impact on the British Monarchy appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2wUxFF5 via Breaking News

[dragnews]

‘I’m American. I Hug.’ Meghan Markle’s Looming Impact on the British Monarchy

LONDON — As a harbinger of things to come for Meghan Markle, consider a scene from her early encounter with royal protocol: After her first few visits to see her boyfriend in Kensington Palace, she began greeting the palace guards with hugs.

After this happened several times, someone informed her that, according to the social codes of the world she was entering, hugging palace guards is Not Done. Ms. Markle, 36 — born and raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of a yoga teacher — listened politely to that advice.

And ignored it.

“Someone said to her, ‘People don’t do that,’” her friend Bonnie Hammer recalled in an interview to NBC. “She literally said, ‘I’m American. I hug.’”

In the last-minute focus on things that could go spectacularly wrong between now and Ms. Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry on Saturday, it has been easy to lose sight of the change Ms. Markle represents for the British monarchy.

She is, like Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, informal and open. She is at ease in the glare of celebrity and adept at using it for her purposes. Raised as a political activist, she likes to recall the letter-writing campaign she undertook as an 11-year-old, in which she persuaded Procter & Gamble to withdraw an advertisement for dishwashing liquid that she thought was sexist.

In other words, she is many things the royal family is emphatically not. Already, Britain’s monarchy is poised at the edge of an unpredictable modernization: Queen Elizabeth has reigned for 65 years, providing a beacon of continuity during a period of social turmoil and decline in British power.

And many of the monarchy’s supporters worry that the conservative traditions the queen represents — including emotional distance and political neutrality — will fall by the wayside when the younger generation takes control. The more “normal” the royals seem, they say, the less people will see the point of the institution of monarchy.

Ms. Markle did not introduce this tension, which has divided palace traditionalists from modernizers for generations. But, at an anxious moment in Britain, she seems to personify it.

“That is my biggest concern, that they will turn the monarchy into celebrity,” said June Ash, the chairwoman of the Arts Society on the island of Jersey. “We’re talking about medieval times, there’s a history that carries through. You can’t just say that it’s celebrity. If we go down that route, it would be wrong. I hope it will stop at a certain point.”

Though there were similar worries before Catherine Middleton’s marriage to Prince William, Ms. Ash added, with Ms. Markle, it seems more serious.

“Kate, again, she is British, she knows the rules,” Ms. Ash said. “American people are much more free in their way of thinking and their attitudes.”

These fears have not been alleviated by the publicity in the lead-up to the wedding, in which Ms. Markle’s friends — effusive, deeply tanned residents of Los Angeles — praised her as a change agent.

“She will break convention, but in a good way, in a healthy way,” Ms. Hammer, chairwoman of NBCUniversal Cable, said on “Inside the Royal Wedding,” broadcast on NBC on Wednesday. “She will somehow take this monarchy and open it up to modern living, to modern women.”

To an outsider, the British royal family’s relationship with fame can seem peculiar. Though they lavishly promote the institution of the monarchy — recent months have seen a barrage of news releases on icing flavors (buttercream) and carriage upholstery (gold), accompanied by an orgy of personalized tea towels and coffee mugs — they are also visibly uncomfortable with all the attention.

There is a reason for this, a palace insider explained: In the royal family, self-promotion is considered a cardinal sin. Unlike the Scandinavian royals, who happily pose for photographs when walking into charity events, the British royals tend to stride by with their heads down, which can make them seem aloof and awkward.

Ms. Markle is not like that. She connects. In January, when a 10-year-old girl on a rope line asked her for an autograph, she grabbed the paper, wrote “Hi, Kaitlin,” and drew a smiley face. This circumvented an unwritten rule of the royal family, for a reason that dates back centuries: If a royal signature is made public, it can be forged. Her most sharp-eyed monarchist critics, mostly women who caucus anonymously on social media, noted it down. A few weeks later, she did it again, hugging a 10-year-old girl. (Tradition dictates a handshake or “small curtsy.”)

In this, Ms. Markle is similar to Prince Harry’s mother. Diana was congenitally unable to maintain a formal distance, something that endeared her to ordinary people — “commoners,” as they are sometimes called here — but that drove her palace handlers crazy. She was insistently human, and this stripped the royal family of some of its sheen. Particularly damaging was a television interview she gave in 1995, describing her private struggles with bulimia, depression and her husband’s infidelity.

Diana’s sons have made it clear that they plan to follow her model. Harry, in particular, has stepped forward as an advocate of modernization, telling Newsweek last year, “Even if I was king, I would do my own shopping.” This plan worries conservative royalists, as did the emotional interviews the princes gave on the 20th anniversary of their mother’s death.

“Each time you do one, you’re slightly peeling back the layers of the monarchy,” said the television presenter Piers Morgan, who has logged time on a series of Fleet Street tabloids. This, he is convinced, will be the way of the future: As the younger generation rises in prominence, “you’re going to see a more Diana-esque royal family,” he said, more “touchy-feely and emotional and heart-on-sleeve.”

Mr. Morgan also sees echoes of Diana in Ms. Markle, who he predicted would chafe at the “never complain, never explain” ethos imposed by senior courtiers.

“When women feel suffocated and trapped by that world, they tend to go rogue,” he said. “This is a girl who, when she was 11 years old, wrote to Hillary Clinton demanding to get a commercial taken off TV. Is she really going to sit in that palace all day not saying anything?”

Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, expects Ms. Markle to struggle with the ban on expressing opinions on political matters, something the British tabloids will watch closely. An example came early this year, when her future sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, disappointed activists by refusing to wear black to a film and television awards ceremony as a sign of solidarity with the #MeToo movement. Ms. Markle, who has gone out of her way to express support for the #MeToo movement, would be expected to keep her views to herself.

“She’s marrying into an institution,” Mr. Arbiter said. “It’s apolitical. It has to sustain that, because that’s what the constitutional monarchy is all about. That’s why Charles I had his head chopped off.”

Mr. Morgan was no less foreboding, though his worries about Ms. Markle are more general. He went so far as to invoke Wallis Simpson, the American divorcée whose love affair with King Edward VIII prompted him to abdicate the British throne. Ms. Simpson died in 1986, but she remains one of the most hated people in Britain.

“If Meghan has got a couple of kids and decides to take them back to California,” he said, “she will make Wallis Simpson look like a tea party.”

But the wedding is almost upon us. The day will be given over to bodices and bustles and edible flowers, a medieval spectacle shot through with an electric current of sex. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle are still in the first flush of genuine attraction, as anyone with access to a television can attest. (Compare those images to the 1981 interview of his parents, in which Prince Charles, asked if he was in love with Diana, responded, “Whatever ‘in love’ means.”)

The monarchy needs this charisma badly. By the late 1990s, ordinary Britons felt increasingly alienated from a “privileged, inward-looking, inbred royal family that was obviously dysfunctional,” said Mark Leonard, co-author of a 1998 report that recommended swift and comprehensive modernization.

The royal family instituted new policies in an effort to keep up with the times, decommissioning the royal yacht and declaring that the queen would begin paying taxes. But it is the rise of Diana’s sons — telegenic and more tethered to the world of ordinary Britons — that has been its salvation.

When she arrives at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Saturday on the arm of her mother, Meghan Markle will represent the latest of these changes. She has shuttered her blog and social media accounts, with their traces of deeply held opinion.

Colleagues say she is fiercely disciplined on the set, intent on saying every line as it is written on the page. But she is also the girl whose childhood bedroom, her biographer wrote, featured a poster of Rosie the Riveter, sleeve rolled up and bicep flexed, under the motto “We Can Do It!” This is the role she has been preparing for all her life.

The post ‘I’m American. I Hug.’ Meghan Markle’s Looming Impact on the British Monarchy appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2wUxFF5 via Today News

[newestbalance]

‘I’m American. I Hug.’ Meghan Markle’s Looming Impact on the British Monarchy

LONDON — As a harbinger of things to come for Meghan Markle, consider a scene from her early encounter with royal protocol: After her first few visits to see her boyfriend in Kensington Palace, she began greeting the palace guards with hugs.

After this happened several times, someone informed her that, according to the social codes of the world she was entering, hugging palace guards is Not Done. Ms. Markle, 36 — born and raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of a yoga teacher — listened politely to that advice.

And ignored it.

“Someone said to her, ‘People don’t do that,’” her friend Bonnie Hammer recalled in an interview to NBC. “She literally said, ‘I’m American. I hug.’”

In the last-minute focus on things that could go spectacularly wrong between now and Ms. Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry on Saturday, it has been easy to lose sight of the change Ms. Markle represents for the British monarchy.

She is, like Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, informal and open. She is at ease in the glare of celebrity and adept at using it for her purposes. Raised as a political activist, she likes to recall the letter-writing campaign she undertook as an 11-year-old, in which she persuaded Procter & Gamble to withdraw an advertisement for dishwashing liquid that she thought was sexist.

In other words, she is many things the royal family is emphatically not. Already, Britain’s monarchy is poised at the edge of an unpredictable modernization: Queen Elizabeth has reigned for 65 years, providing a beacon of continuity during a period of social turmoil and decline in British power.

And many of the monarchy’s supporters worry that the conservative traditions the queen represents — including emotional distance and political neutrality — will fall by the wayside when the younger generation takes control. The more “normal” the royals seem, they say, the less people will see the point of the institution of monarchy.

Ms. Markle did not introduce this tension, which has divided palace traditionalists from modernizers for generations. But, at an anxious moment in Britain, she seems to personify it.

“That is my biggest concern, that they will turn the monarchy into celebrity,” said June Ash, the chairwoman of the Arts Society on the island of Jersey. “We’re talking about medieval times, there’s a history that carries through. You can’t just say that it’s celebrity. If we go down that route, it would be wrong. I hope it will stop at a certain point.”

Though there were similar worries before Catherine Middleton’s marriage to Prince William, Ms. Ash added, with Ms. Markle, it seems more serious.

“Kate, again, she is British, she knows the rules,” Ms. Ash said. “American people are much more free in their way of thinking and their attitudes.”

These fears have not been alleviated by the publicity in the lead-up to the wedding, in which Ms. Markle’s friends — effusive, deeply tanned residents of Los Angeles — praised her as a change agent.

“She will break convention, but in a good way, in a healthy way,” Ms. Hammer, chairwoman of NBCUniversal Cable, said on “Inside the Royal Wedding,” broadcast on NBC on Wednesday. “She will somehow take this monarchy and open it up to modern living, to modern women.”

To an outsider, the British royal family’s relationship with fame can seem peculiar. Though they lavishly promote the institution of the monarchy — recent months have seen a barrage of news releases on icing flavors (buttercream) and carriage upholstery (gold), accompanied by an orgy of personalized tea towels and coffee mugs — they are also visibly uncomfortable with all the attention.

There is a reason for this, a palace insider explained: In the royal family, self-promotion is considered a cardinal sin. Unlike the Scandinavian royals, who happily pose for photographs when walking into charity events, the British royals tend to stride by with their heads down, which can make them seem aloof and awkward.

Ms. Markle is not like that. She connects. In January, when a 10-year-old girl on a rope line asked her for an autograph, she grabbed the paper, wrote “Hi, Kaitlin,” and drew a smiley face. This circumvented an unwritten rule of the royal family, for a reason that dates back centuries: If a royal signature is made public, it can be forged. Her most sharp-eyed monarchist critics, mostly women who caucus anonymously on social media, noted it down. A few weeks later, she did it again, hugging a 10-year-old girl. (Tradition dictates a handshake or “small curtsy.”)

In this, Ms. Markle is similar to Prince Harry’s mother. Diana was congenitally unable to maintain a formal distance, something that endeared her to ordinary people — “commoners,” as they are sometimes called here — but that drove her palace handlers crazy. She was insistently human, and this stripped the royal family of some of its sheen. Particularly damaging was a television interview she gave in 1995, describing her private struggles with bulimia, depression and her husband’s infidelity.

Diana’s sons have made it clear that they plan to follow her model. Harry, in particular, has stepped forward as an advocate of modernization, telling Newsweek last year, “Even if I was king, I would do my own shopping.” This plan worries conservative royalists, as did the emotional interviews the princes gave on the 20th anniversary of their mother’s death.

“Each time you do one, you’re slightly peeling back the layers of the monarchy,” said the television presenter Piers Morgan, who has logged time on a series of Fleet Street tabloids. This, he is convinced, will be the way of the future: As the younger generation rises in prominence, “you’re going to see a more Diana-esque royal family,” he said, more “touchy-feely and emotional and heart-on-sleeve.”

Mr. Morgan also sees echoes of Diana in Ms. Markle, who he predicted would chafe at the “never complain, never explain” ethos imposed by senior courtiers.

“When women feel suffocated and trapped by that world, they tend to go rogue,” he said. “This is a girl who, when she was 11 years old, wrote to Hillary Clinton demanding to get a commercial taken off TV. Is she really going to sit in that palace all day not saying anything?”

Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, expects Ms. Markle to struggle with the ban on expressing opinions on political matters, something the British tabloids will watch closely. An example came early this year, when her future sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, disappointed activists by refusing to wear black to a film and television awards ceremony as a sign of solidarity with the #MeToo movement. Ms. Markle, who has gone out of her way to express support for the #MeToo movement, would be expected to keep her views to herself.

“She’s marrying into an institution,” Mr. Arbiter said. “It’s apolitical. It has to sustain that, because that’s what the constitutional monarchy is all about. That’s why Charles I had his head chopped off.”

Mr. Morgan was no less foreboding, though his worries about Ms. Markle are more general. He went so far as to invoke Wallis Simpson, the American divorcée whose love affair with King Edward VIII prompted him to abdicate the British throne. Ms. Simpson died in 1986, but she remains one of the most hated people in Britain.

“If Meghan has got a couple of kids and decides to take them back to California,” he said, “she will make Wallis Simpson look like a tea party.”

But the wedding is almost upon us. The day will be given over to bodices and bustles and edible flowers, a medieval spectacle shot through with an electric current of sex. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle are still in the first flush of genuine attraction, as anyone with access to a television can attest. (Compare those images to the 1981 interview of his parents, in which Prince Charles, asked if he was in love with Diana, responded, “Whatever ‘in love’ means.”)

The monarchy needs this charisma badly. By the late 1990s, ordinary Britons felt increasingly alienated from a “privileged, inward-looking, inbred royal family that was obviously dysfunctional,” said Mark Leonard, co-author of a 1998 report that recommended swift and comprehensive modernization.

The royal family instituted new policies in an effort to keep up with the times, decommissioning the royal yacht and declaring that the queen would begin paying taxes. But it is the rise of Diana’s sons — telegenic and more tethered to the world of ordinary Britons — that has been its salvation.

When she arrives at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Saturday on the arm of her mother, Meghan Markle will represent the latest of these changes. She has shuttered her blog and social media accounts, with their traces of deeply held opinion.

Colleagues say she is fiercely disciplined on the set, intent on saying every line as it is written on the page. But she is also the girl whose childhood bedroom, her biographer wrote, featured a poster of Rosie the Riveter, sleeve rolled up and bicep flexed, under the motto “We Can Do It!” This is the role she has been preparing for all her life.

The post ‘I’m American. I Hug.’ Meghan Markle’s Looming Impact on the British Monarchy appeared first on World The News.

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[harryandmeghan0-blog]

Royal Treatment: HRH Meghan's Mom Doria Ragland Reportedly Invited to Christmas with the Queen!

New Post has been published on https://harryandmeghan.xyz/royal-treatment-hrh-meghans-mom-doria-ragland-reportedly-invited-to-christmas-with-the-queen/

Royal Treatment: HRH Meghan's Mom Doria Ragland Reportedly Invited to Christmas with the Queen!

Meghan Markle (r) leaves the Cliveden House Hotel accompanied by her mother, Ms. Doria Ragland, ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018 in Windsor, England.

Photo: Bruce Adams (WPA Pool/Getty Image)

It’s no secret we’re quite fond of the new Duchess of Sussex, Meghan (née Markle). But if there’s anyone we especially adore, it’s her mother, Doria Ragland, she of the pierced nose, perfectly-coiffed locs, teacher of yoga poses and admirable poise amidst family drama during her daughter’s nuptials last spring.

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Apparently, we’re not Ragland’s only admirers. According to Vanity Fair, her grace and discretion has also won the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, who had tea with Ragland prior to the royal wedding in May, and has now reportedly extended an invitation for Prince Harry’s mother-in-law to spend this year’s holidays with the royal family at her estate, Sandringham House in Norfolk, England.

This report comes just weeks after Meghan and Harry announced they are expecting their first child , which no doubt influenced the Queen’s decision. If Ragland, who has been reported to be moving to London to be closer to her daughter (and soon, grandchild) accepts the invite (and why wouldn’t she?), it would mark a first in royal protocol, as even Kate Middleton’s family hasn’t been invited to stay at Sandringham (though they have joined the royal family for Christmas Day services, and typically stay at Prince William and Kate’s nearby home).

Kensington Palace has yet to issue an official statement, but a royal source told Vanity Fair:

“The Queen was very impressed by Mrs. Ragland when they met. … The Queen knows that Meghan’s family situation is complicated and that the easiest way for Meghan and Harry to be together and with Doria, which is what they want, is for them all to join her at Sandringham where there is plenty of space. It’s not the norm but then things seem to have changed quite a lot recently.”

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As for what Christmas dinner will be like with the British royal family, there’s no word on whether they’ll be incorporating a few of the new duchess’ avowed favorites, which she discussed during the debut of Together: Our Community Cookbook, which she helped co-create with the women affected by the tragic 2017 Grenfell Tower Fire.

“One of my own favorite meals is collard greens, black-eyed peas [and] cornbread —a meal I would look forward to throughout my childhood” Meghan said, as reported by Hello magazine. “During my time at university in Chicago I would wait with bated breath to return to LA for the winter break and have a bowl of my mother’s gumbo.”

[cleopatrarps]

‘I’m American. I Hug.’ Meghan Markle’s Looming Impact on the British Monarchy

LONDON — As a harbinger of things to come for Meghan Markle, consider a scene from her early encounter with royal protocol: After her first few visits to see her boyfriend in Kensington Palace, she began greeting the palace guards with hugs.

After this happened several times, someone informed her that, according to the social codes of the world she was entering, hugging palace guards is Not Done. Ms. Markle, 36 — born and raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of a yoga teacher — listened politely to that advice.

And ignored it.

“Someone said to her, ‘People don’t do that,’” her friend Bonnie Hammer recalled in an interview to NBC. “She literally said, ‘I’m American. I hug.’”

In the last-minute focus on things that could go spectacularly wrong between now and Ms. Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry on Saturday, it has been easy to lose sight of the change Ms. Markle represents for the British monarchy.

She is, like Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, informal and open. She is at ease in the glare of celebrity and adept at using it for her purposes. Raised as a political activist, she likes to recall the letter-writing campaign she undertook as an 11-year-old, in which she persuaded Procter & Gamble to withdraw an advertisement for dishwashing liquid that she thought was sexist.

In other words, she is many things the royal family is emphatically not. Already, Britain’s monarchy is poised at the edge of an unpredictable modernization: Queen Elizabeth has reigned for 65 years, providing a beacon of continuity during a period of social turmoil and decline in British power.

And many of the monarchy’s supporters worry that the conservative traditions the queen represents — including emotional distance and political neutrality — will fall by the wayside when the younger generation takes control. The more “normal” the royals seem, they say, the less people will see the point of the institution of monarchy.

Ms. Markle did not introduce this tension, which has divided palace traditionalists from modernizers for generations. But, at an anxious moment in Britain, she seems to personify it.

“That is my biggest concern, that they will turn the monarchy into celebrity,” said June Ash, the chairwoman of the Arts Society on the island of Jersey. “We’re talking about medieval times, there’s a history that carries through. You can’t just say that it’s celebrity. If we go down that route, it would be wrong. I hope it will stop at a certain point.”

Though there were similar worries before Catherine Middleton’s marriage to Prince William, Ms. Ash added, with Ms. Markle, it seems more serious.

“Kate, again, she is British, she knows the rules,” Ms. Ash said. “American people are much more free in their way of thinking and their attitudes.”

These fears have not been alleviated by the publicity in the lead-up to the wedding, in which Ms. Markle’s friends — effusive, deeply tanned residents of Los Angeles — praised her as a change agent.

“She will break convention, but in a good way, in a healthy way,” Ms. Hammer, chairwoman of NBCUniversal Cable, said on “Inside the Royal Wedding,” broadcast on NBC on Wednesday. “She will somehow take this monarchy and open it up to modern living, to modern women.”

To an outsider, the British royal family’s relationship with fame can seem peculiar. Though they lavishly promote the institution of the monarchy — recent months have seen a barrage of news releases on icing flavors (buttercream) and carriage upholstery (gold), accompanied by an orgy of personalized tea towels and coffee mugs — they are also visibly uncomfortable with all the attention.

There is a reason for this, a palace insider explained: In the royal family, self-promotion is considered a cardinal sin. Unlike the Scandinavian royals, who happily pose for photographs when walking into charity events, the British royals tend to stride by with their heads down, which can make them seem aloof and awkward.

Ms. Markle is not like that. She connects. In January, when a 10-year-old girl on a rope line asked her for an autograph, she grabbed the paper, wrote “Hi, Kaitlin,” and drew a smiley face. This circumvented an unwritten rule of the royal family, for a reason that dates back centuries: If a royal signature is made public, it can be forged. Her most sharp-eyed monarchist critics, mostly women who caucus anonymously on social media, noted it down. A few weeks later, she did it again, hugging a 10-year-old girl. (Tradition dictates a handshake or “small curtsy.”)

In this, Ms. Markle is similar to Prince Harry’s mother. Diana was congenitally unable to maintain a formal distance, something that endeared her to ordinary people — “commoners,” as they are sometimes called here — but that drove her palace handlers crazy. She was insistently human, and this stripped the royal family of some of its sheen. Particularly damaging was a television interview she gave in 1995, describing her private struggles with bulimia, depression and her husband’s infidelity.

Diana’s sons have made it clear that they plan to follow her model. Harry, in particular, has stepped forward as an advocate of modernization, telling Newsweek last year, “Even if I was king, I would do my own shopping.” This plan worries conservative royalists, as did the emotional interviews the princes gave on the 20th anniversary of their mother’s death.

“Each time you do one, you’re slightly peeling back the layers of the monarchy,” said the television presenter Piers Morgan, who has logged time on a series of Fleet Street tabloids. This, he is convinced, will be the way of the future: As the younger generation rises in prominence, “you’re going to see a more Diana-esque royal family,” he said, more “touchy-feely and emotional and heart-on-sleeve.”

Mr. Morgan also sees echoes of Diana in Ms. Markle, who he predicted would chafe at the “never complain, never explain” ethos imposed by senior courtiers.

“When women feel suffocated and trapped by that world, they tend to go rogue,” he said. “This is a girl who, when she was 11 years old, wrote to Hillary Clinton demanding to get a commercial taken off TV. Is she really going to sit in that palace all day not saying anything?”

Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, expects Ms. Markle to struggle with the ban on expressing opinions on political matters, something the British tabloids will watch closely. An example came early this year, when her future sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, disappointed activists by refusing to wear black to a film and television awards ceremony as a sign of solidarity with the #MeToo movement. Ms. Markle, who has gone out of her way to express support for the #MeToo movement, would be expected to keep her views to herself.

“She’s marrying into an institution,” Mr. Arbiter said. “It’s apolitical. It has to sustain that, because that’s what the constitutional monarchy is all about. That’s why Charles I had his head chopped off.”

Mr. Morgan was no less foreboding, though his worries about Ms. Markle are more general. He went so far as to invoke Wallis Simpson, the American divorcée whose love affair with King Edward VIII prompted him to abdicate the British throne. Ms. Simpson died in 1986, but she remains one of the most hated people in Britain.

“If Meghan has got a couple of kids and decides to take them back to California,” he said, “she will make Wallis Simpson look like a tea party.”

But the wedding is almost upon us. The day will be given over to bodices and bustles and edible flowers, a medieval spectacle shot through with an electric current of sex. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle are still in the first flush of genuine attraction, as anyone with access to a television can attest. (Compare those images to the 1981 interview of his parents, in which Prince Charles, asked if he was in love with Diana, responded, “Whatever ‘in love’ means.”)

The monarchy needs this charisma badly. By the late 1990s, ordinary Britons felt increasingly alienated from a “privileged, inward-looking, inbred royal family that was obviously dysfunctional,” said Mark Leonard, co-author of a 1998 report that recommended swift and comprehensive modernization.

The royal family instituted new policies in an effort to keep up with the times, decommissioning the royal yacht and declaring that the queen would begin paying taxes. But it is the rise of Diana’s sons — telegenic and more tethered to the world of ordinary Britons — that has been its salvation.

When she arrives at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Saturday on the arm of her mother, Meghan Markle will represent the latest of these changes. She has shuttered her blog and social media accounts, with their traces of deeply held opinion.

Colleagues say she is fiercely disciplined on the set, intent on saying every line as it is written on the page. But she is also the girl whose childhood bedroom, her biographer wrote, featured a poster of Rosie the Riveter, sleeve rolled up and bicep flexed, under the motto “We Can Do It!” This is the role she has been preparing for all her life.

The post ‘I’m American. I Hug.’ Meghan Markle’s Looming Impact on the British Monarchy appeared first on World The News.

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