The Royals with Roya and Kate - Roya with the Royals in Nepal, and Kate’s fashion u-turn
Episode Date: February 7, 2025Roya chats to Kate from Nepal as she travels with the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh on a six-day official visit aimed at strengthening UK-Nepal relations, with a focus on youth opportunities, healthca...re, gender equality, and conservation. While there, they followed in the footsteps of the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, planting a magnolia tree in the Nepali botanical garden. Meanwhile, it’s been a busy week in the UK, as The Sunday Times revealed that Kensington Palace will no longer release details of the Princess of Wales's outfits. So, how has that gone down with fashion watchers?Get in touch: theroyals@thetimes.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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["The Royal March"]
Hello and welcome to the Royals with me, Roya Nikar.
And I'm here in Nepal.
I'm traveling with the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh
who are on a six day trip here,
which means we've got a lot to unpack from this trip
and a lot of other Royal news, Kate.
We do.
And while Roya is on a Royal visit to Nepal,
I'm here in the studio in London,
but it's been a busy week here in the UK too.
Prince Louis turns photographer
as he captures a Royal portrait of his mum,
the Princess of Wales, which was released for World Cancer Day.
Plus, move over Harry and Meghan, there's a new star in the streaming business.
The King's debut in a new Amazon Prime documentary.
But first, a Roya.
Hello, all the way over there in Nepal for an official visit by the Duke and Duchess
of Edinburgh, Prince Edward and
Sophie. So, how's it been so far?
It's been good. Thank you very much. We started in Kathmandu on Tuesday. We did two days in
Kathmandu. We've just arrived in Pokhara, up in the mountains, which is just rather
wonderful actually. And we've just finished doing an engagement with them at
the Gurkha Welfare Trust. So lots of learning about what that amazing organization does
for Gurkhas. And yeah, it's been a bit busy couple of days. I'm not complaining.
Well, no, it sounds wonderful. It sounds like a great trip. Set the scene for us because
we've seen some lovely pictures earlier from kind of looking down the Kathmandu Valley. And now you're in another glorious location. The pictures look brilliant.
They look very happy to be there. What's it like? What can you see?
Well, they arrived and we had a presidential handshake and meeting with the president and
the first lady. And then a really busy day yesterday where Sophie and Edward split. So
then a really busy day yesterday where Sophie and Edward split. So Prince Edward did a sort of day in Back to Pore looking at sort of conservation and heritage. Then he went to
an animation studio. Then at the end of the day, he gave out some awards to Duke of Edinburgh
International Award gold award holders. And then Sophie did her own thing until they met
up in the evening. So she had a busy day too. We went to Maternity Ward of
Back to Ball Hospital and she met lots of mothers and their newborns and cute, literally wanting
to hold all the babies. It was very sweet actually. And that was interesting because that
maternity wing is supported by the government, by the FCDO. So this whole trip is really designed
to, obviously it's focused around what they're interested in, but it's also touching on our ties with Nepal, which I'll come on to.
And then we went to something amazing, a place called Mighty Nepal.
Mighty Nepal.
Mighty Nepal, yes, M-A-I-T-I, but pronounce mighty.
And I tell you, the woman that runs it is mighty.
And that charity supports women and children who have been the victims of
human trafficking, women who've been the victims of sexual exploitation. It's been going for
a long time.
This is the place that the King visited, wasn't it?
Yeah, exactly. The King visited in 1998. And that was very moving and very powerful. And
obviously, Sophie is very, you know, she supports a lot of causes that are focused around those issues.
They were asking about the King. I'm looking at this from afar, they were asking about the King,
weren't they, at the engagement and she had a kind of quite funny comment, didn't she?
She met this wonderful woman called Anita Shrestha who has lived at the centre of Maitre
Nepal since she was a child. It's an extraordinary place and she now works in the sort of textiles area and she'd made this handmade cushion for the
king and she explained to Sophie that she'd met him and she showed the photo when he came
all those years ago and she was much younger and she'd made this cushion and gave it to
Sophie who said, I'll be absolutely sure he gets it. And had a very sweet card written
in it saying, you know, I want you to know how much your visit all those years ago meant. Apparently she told people that people were
saying, what's the king like now? And she said, oh, he's still the same. Hasn't changed. And
mighty means, I'd love to say this my own work, but I'm being passed this note by the producer saying,
mighty means mother's home in Nepalese, I'm told.
There was a real feeling there, yes, of nurturing and women and children being looked after. And
it's really interesting this chip. It has all these different strands. When we first went to
the presidential palace, we were reminded, of course, by people there and people working for the embassy that, and I had no idea about
this, that Nepal is, and the UK, the UK is Nepal's oldest
diplomatic relationship in the world. So the oldest one of all
of them, of all of them, it's the country that Nepal has had
diplomatic ties with and a sort of formal diplomatic relationship
more than any others. So it's very important to them, which is
why I think
the King has been, obviously, we had Prince Harry here in 2016.
This is Sophie Ebbard's first time here. And there's lots of
different strands to it. Because obviously, as you and I both
know, any official trip is always focused around the
particular sort of interests of the principles, but also what
does the government want to get out of it? And what is the
Nepali government? The interest of the principles, but also what does the government want to get out of it? And what was the Nepali government?
The themes of the visit.
Exactly. And so there's a bit of that every day, every engagement, every step of the way.
And a hugely important connection to the UK as well, not just for Nepalese, but also for us.
And that must have come through in the Gurkha engagement.
It's interesting. So the first two days were very much focused on the individual causes that Sophie and Edward support. Now we've come to Pokhara, it's switched very much to
military and Gurkha. We came here this afternoon and the last engagement this afternoon was
with the Gurkha Welfare Trust where actually it was rather wonderful. They met a 104-year-old
Gurkha widow who's moved into residential care there. Her husband passed
away a few years ago, but he served for two years, I think, in the Second World War. Didn't
qualify for a pension because you need 15 years in the Gurkhas to get a pension, but
he's been supported by the trust for years. And then what was really nice right at the
end was they met a lineup of Gurkhas who had served as orderlies in the royal household,
including a couple who'd worked with the Queen.
Oh, really the late Queen?
Yeah, Queen Elizabeth.
Ah, yeah.
Did they have any kind of recollections to share?
Some recollections may vary, Kate.
So how did you get there? Did you all bundle onto a military jet with the Duke and Duchess?
Jet might be pushing it, Kate.
Yeah, we had a great bad choice today.
So our day started in Kathmandu in the morning.
Then we went up to the hills of Gadawari and went to these beautiful
Patangka Gardens.
Then we raced back.
Is it just stunning, the view?
It was.
It was absolutely beautiful.
Sort of mountains in the background.
And they planted their trees next to the trees that Prince Philip and the Queen
had planted in 19, back in the 1990s.
Then we raced back down to Kathmandu
to the military airport and we got on a tiny, tiny plane with- All of you.
All of us.
All, probably about 12 of us, with Sophie and Edward. Flew through the bits of the Himalayas,
they pointed out the Fishtail Mountain on the right, which was pretty cool. We had a female
co-pilot, which I liked. Yes, and we jetted up to Pokhara and now we're here for the next
few days. So it's a really interesting trip. It's really interesting for me to
see that the Edinburgh is sort of on a ship like this. This is the first one of
their overseas tours I've done. And, you know, normally when you and I travel
together, we travel with an enormous great pack of us. This is much smaller.
There's two reporters here, two photographers,
no broadcast. It's different.
There wasn't much notice before the trip, was there? There's a couple of spaces for
people who can make it. So great that you're there.
It's a different vibe. It's a different vibe to normal broadcasting.
What do they like together? Because when they're planting the tree, we saw her say,
keep going darling. And he was joking. he was joking his most exercise he'd had in
ages planting this tree. What they like together.
They've got a good rapport, actually. I mean, that was that engagement. They were sort of
joking all the time because you know, she was like, I want to get I want to plant and he's
like, you're doing the other one. There's nice, there's nice banter between them. They look like
a couple who still have a laugh and a joke. And it's all a bit less formal.
We talked about last week, we were asked a question, weren't we, about how are the slimmed down monarchy, so to say, going to continue into the next reign with so few members of the
working-raw family of a kind of age to carry on working? Well, this is the sort of answer,
isn't it? Edward and Sophie, in their early 60s, trying to fill in that gap and seem to be doing a brilliant job.
Well, I thought about that again, actually, because obviously, the last royal visit here we had was
Prince Harry, who, beyond anything changing massively, is not going to be here on official
business again, because obviously, he's no longer working royal. Also, I was thinking about that with Prince
Edward. He came here, actually he came a few days earlier. He came from India. He went to India on a
two-day official visit. That's, again, I thought was quite interesting because I don't know what
you think about it, Kate, but India is a very important diplomatic relationship with us in terms
of trade and business. The king and queen have been to India many times. We might have expected one might
have expected perhaps a bigger hitter to go to India, but it's,
you know, and that's not no disrespect to Edward. But he's
not as well known on the international circuit as the
king, the queen, William, Kate. But as you say, there are fewer
working roles around now. And is it that we're just going to see
Sophie and Edward do more of these overseas trips? Possibly. And is she the glamour? I mean, the interest has
been in Nepal. It wasn't, you know, we saw a few pictures coming out of that brief visit to India,
but she does bring that kind of, you know, the glamour and the sort of show bits to the
role jobs that they do, has to be said. I'm not sure Prince Edward would disagree with you there.
jobs that they do has to be said. I'm not sure Prince Edward would disagree with you there.
She does it very well.
Yeah.
The photographers, they're delighted with how it's going for them.
Also, we've got Chris Jackson out there.
We've been seeing his photographs dropping on the wires, the Getty photographer who is
very good and takes lots of glamorous shots.
So there's been a lot of focus on her in his images.
Yes, there has. And actually, it's really interesting watching how Edward and Sophie
interact with the photographers and the media, because sometimes the photographers occasionally
feel like they'd like members of the Royal Family to be a bit more collaborative. And actually,
today, when Edward was planting that tree with Sophie, he went out of his way to say,
should we do it again? Would you like me to do it again? Sophie was, Sophie was corralling a load
of children when she was planting a rhododendron and literally spent two minutes rearranging them
or checking the photographers got the shots they wanted. That's very different to what you and I
normally see on engagements. Yes, that's so interesting. And we don't always get offered
reporter slots on these, on these Edinburgh visits. No, we don't.
So it's interesting, they obviously, you know, they want that to be publicised and the whole
kind of machinery around that, you know, get my good side, not in a vain way, but to make
sure-
Let's make this work.
Yeah, exactly. Let's get a shot that is actually going to work if you've made the effort to
come out that way. So I think that's interesting. It might be other members of the royal family
could take a leaf out of that. And I find that with the Queen actually, with Camilla, I think
she's always, I was there with her, a much less glamorous job this week in East London when she
was opening a secondary school, more your kind of bread and butter style royal visit than trips up
to the Kathmandu Valley. But she, you know, she'll glance across, she'll make, you know, she plays the
game, she knows that, you know, she plays the game, she knows
that, you know, you've got to get a shot and you've got to get what you need as well.
She was a good sport, you know, she raced a robotic car with an 11 year old girl who,
the Queen won.
And then she said, well, thank you for letting me win and all that sort of stuff.
So, but she's another one, I think, who's aware, I remember.
Arthur always says that, doesn't he?
Arthur Edwards, who we had on our podcast
at Just Before Christmas, always says
that Camilla will go out of her way.
And sometimes when the king doesn't want to,
he doesn't want to do another photo,
Camilla will rally him and say, come on darling.
And she makes it work.
And that's why the photographers love her.
And there'll be lots more from me on this visit
in the Sunday Times this weekend.
So watch this space for
more news on Edward and Sophie in Nepal.
I look forward to reading that.
Now this week we saw a different side of Prince Louis and a new and explored talent, shall
we say. The six-year-old prince took a royal portrait of his mother, the Princess of Wales.
And it's the first official picture we've seen from the young royal. It's a photograph
of Kate standing in the woodland at Windsor as the sun peeks through the trees. She's dressed up warm
wearing a hat, scarf, gloves, standing at the top of the hill, arms wide, stretched, beaming down
at Louis who has taken the photograph. The photo was released by Kensington Palace to mark World
Cancer Day this week alongside another image of frosted foliage
at Windsor taken by the princess with a message which read, don't forget to nurture all that which
lies beyond the disease. Signed C. The King and Queen also shared a message on their social media
channels to mark World Cancer Day. It read, this World Cancer Day, we're sending love to all those navigating a cancer diagnosis,
as well as the incredible doctors, nurses, charities and families who work tirelessly
to support them.
So little Louie's first official photograph. It's come quite early, hasn't it? But I get
the sense that he's commandeers his mother's phone quite a lot from that picture.
Like the idea that he's just nicked the phone and scarpered down the hill and then it's actually got quite a good image. I love the picture of her standing there with her arms wide stretched. I
thought it was kind of, I love you this much, standing at the top of the hill and more relaxed
than we would often see a royal portrait, of course. But I thought
he did a pretty good job. These digital native children.
Well, yes. It's really interesting, isn't it? It's another rung on the ladder of how
the Waleses control their image. Because we know that, and you and I talked about a lot
and we talk about a lot amongst the, you know, the rural reporters and photographers that increasingly they like taking it for
these very landmark moments.
They like taking, you know, Kate likes taking photos.
We've even had William take a couple of photos.
You know, sometimes Kate will take photos for the children's birthdays.
Other times they get photographers in.
But I thought this was a really interesting departure because obviously the message
that Kate wanted to put out was, you know, as part of her recovery, she looked quite free, didn't she? It was just a real freeing image of her sort of arms outstretched.
And the fact that she entrusted little Lyri to take that photograph rather than get a swanky photographer in felt all the more natural for it, I thought.
felt all the more natural for it, I thought. Yeah, and it's also combining two elements of her work as well.
So although it was a kind of glimpse into family life,
we had, you know, it's a young boy, her son, her youngest son taking the image.
And also commemorating World Cancer Day,
because of course she had her chemotherapy last year.
She recently went to see doctors at the
Royal Marsden where she thanked them for treating her. That's where she went for a treatment. And
remember when she said, I really felt like I needed to get the sun, you know, during her treatment,
you need loads of water and loads of sunlight, almost comparing herself to a plant. And then
here she is in the woods, but also that kind of early years element that, you know, spending time
with young people in their kind of formative years, which of course is another huge part of her work,
particularly at the moment. And then the same two things, portraiture and young children,
the following day we saw her at the National Portrait Gallery doing just that, joining school
kids on a bus, a minibus, to go and see a new installation at the gallery,
of which she's patron, and all these things that are combining together, these two elements,
portraiture and young people. So I wondered how sort of choreographed that was,
the idea that it all kind of ties into those two strands coming together.
I thought it was really interesting.
Well, we've been told, haven't we? And we've seen that already with the engagements she's done this week at the National Portrait Gallery and the
announcement of the new report from her Center for Early Childhood that as part
of this graduate return, that work is going to be her focus. So yeah, that
image, yeah, you're right, it did sort of bring it all together and in a
much more natural, unstaged way,
it brought all of that together, which was quite a clever way of doing it actually.
And what did you think of the image itself? Do you think it was...
It just was very natural. It's really interesting to see the princess in that setting when
she hasn't had hair and makeup and a lot of thought hasn't gone into what she's wearing.
I don't mean that in the wrong way, but you know, just wearing an outdoor
coat and boots, just looking much less like a princess and more like a mum out
for a walk with her little boy who's commandeered her phone and taken an image
of her where you can see that she feels free and happy to be on the road to
recovery.
And this may be the first official portrait
taken by Prince Louis, but it isn't the first time
we've seen a Wales children's creative side, have we?
No, because back in 2021,
the children's Mother's Day cards
were to their late granny Diana,
and they were shared on social media too.
And in Princess Charlotte's card,
which was decorated with a large heart
and a mouse ballerina sticker, she wrote the message, I love you very much, Papa is missing you.
Heather Hyslop Tearjerker. And a year later, 2022,
the palace released a painting by Prince George, who was nine at the time, and it showed a reindeer
smiling in the snow, along with two robins and the caption, Happy Christmas. And the words, Bye George, so we all
knew who'd done that. George was here. None of that should come as a surprise, of course, because
their mother, the princess, is a very keen photographer and also has a degree in art
history from St Andrews University, where she met William. She's also patron of the National Portrait
Gallery, the V&A and the Royal Photographic
Society.
So chances are we could see more photographs and paintings from the young Walesers in the
future.
Shall we see if we can get an exhibition of George, Charlotte and Louis?
Well soon that'll be enough.
I was with the King this weekend, reminded that perhaps they inherit their talent from
him because he has his
watercolours. He was looking around a gallery at a Polish community centre and the curator said to
him, when are you going to bring yours in? And he said, oh, I didn't know. And she said, oh,
that, you know, they're actually quite good. Why don't you bring some of your artwork in?
After he was here in Nepal in 1998 and he visited Mighty Nepal,
he sold one of his watercolours and raised money and gave it to the charity.
That's incredible, isn't it?
Yeah.
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See full terms at canada.casino.fandio.com. Please play responsibly. Now, the Princess of Wales is making a gradual return to public duties in recent weeks.
But there is one thing that's different.
No details of her outfits have been issued by Kensington Palace.
And that's because, in a significant move, as I reported last week, Kensington Palace
will no longer release details of Kate's outfits because she wants the public focus
of her work to be on substance, not style.
And it's a move that has definitely divided opinion among royal watchers and fashionistas.
A Palaceade said, there will always be an appreciation of what the princess is wearing from some
of the public and she gets that. But do we need to be officially always saying what she
is wearing? No. The style is there, but it's about the substance. Although it's understood
that the palace may still occasionally issue details of significant outfits or jewelry worn by the princess for the most important family and state events,
but just not for our other public engagements. So has this had the desire that they wanted,
I suppose, because everyone's been talking about after your story, everyone's been talking
about about it, about her clothes actually. In some
ways it's had a kind of negative, sort of backfired on them, this strategy, hasn't it?
I've been absolutely intrigued by the different responses. It was interesting, on Sunday in
another Sunday newspaper, Alex Schulman, the former editor of Vogue wrote a column about it and said,
actually, I applaud this decision. And of course, Kate was in Vogue magazine a few years ago to mark
the centenary of the magazine and Alex Schulman was editing then. And Alex Schulman wrote in this
piece saying, I commend her for it because she's more than a clotheshorse. And you know, the focus
should be on her work. But Alex Schulman made the point that a lot of people
don't seem to be making and seem to have slightly missed,
which is that this does not mean
that Kate's gonna stop championing British fashion.
It doesn't mean that within two minutes
of her appearing in public,
the world and us won't know what she's wearing,
because we've seen already since we do.
There are so many royal watchers and so many fashionistas
on social media who can identify outfits literally within you and I know seconds,
we know which Twitter accounts to look at, which ex accounts to look at.
So I think the point really that they're trying to make and that is coming from the princess is
she loves fashion, she understands how important fashion is to the economy, she understands there
will always be an appreciation of what she's wearing.
She doesn't feel, and nor do the palace, that they have to be constantly giving out the
details every single time she goes out because A, as we've just discussed, people can find
that out very quickly and B, I think she would just rather people focus much more on what
she's doing.
And I have to say, I thought her choice of outfit
on her first public engagement after that story this week
was really interesting when she went to the National Portrait
Gallery.
Well, she had the brown jacket, blazer, charcoal trousers,
and black polo neck on.
It's one of the most low-key outfits
I've ever seen her wear on a public engagement.
Having said that, Hilary Rose in the Times said, nice try, nice try Kate. It didn't work.
You still look glamorous. The mermaid hair that she has, she always looks gorgeous.
You wrote the other day, you wrote in your good story the other day about the royal warrants, that she's going to issue royal warrants and you quoted and I mentioned your quotes in the piece, you know, you mentioned
Katharine Zoraida, the jeweller about the huge, the Kate effect and how important that is on
British fashion, British brands. And I think Kate's, she is obviously incredibly aware of that. And
that's not going to stop because Kensington Palace don't give us her fashion,
what she's wearing. No, it was interesting at the Queen's engagement this week, someone sort of
sidled up to me and said, she's wearing a suit by Mr. Roy. I said, oh, you're not joining the club
then. We have to look it up online instead. Well, they always give us the details, don't they?
They always do what the Queen's wearing. She has two or three designers, Anna Valentine, Mr. Roy. As did the late Queen.
I sort of see where Kate's coming from. I think if I, and I mentioned in that piece something that
someone said to me a couple of years ago when I did the profile of her when she was 40, that she
found it really, really hard at times, particularly when she was starting out,
that she'd go and do all these engagements.
She might go to a hospice,
she might go and do something,
people who are sort of very vulnerable,
and all some of the media write about was her fashion.
Now, I'd say that's changed now.
It's not what everyone writes about.
Certainly, certainly some areas of the media
are very interested in what she's wearing,
but that's not gonna change
just because Ken Stenpannis don't issue the details,
but I can see why she's done it.
Also, I think this pause away from public life while she's had a cancer treatment has been an
opportunity for the palace and her to reset. Because this has sort of come off the back of
that, hasn't it? I mean, she's spoken about how her cancer journey has given her a new perspective
on everything and the importance of reflecting on the simple yet important things in life, which while she has this passion for textiles
and the fashion industry, as we've been told, she doesn't feel the need to kind of be the
kind of clothes horse or going forwards. It's interesting how she's used that time away
to reflect on other things as well. And probably the stress of being somebody who everyone's looking at,
what's she wearing, won't have helped her, I don't think.
She's never enjoyed that attention, but she understands it goes to the job.
And also, when we had the Qatar State visit here at the end of last year,
the palace did tell us what she was wearing. They told us she was wearing Sarah Burton for
Alexander the Queen and it was that maroon coat dress, which
was the color of the Qatari flag.
Exactly the color of the Qatari flag.
You know, they told us she was wearing earrings and a choker
that belonged to the late queen. So we will see, you know, for
the big state moments, I suspect, you know, probably for
things like Trooping the Colour, we may still get, you know, details of what she's wearing
and for state visits.
So it's not a fashion blackout, guys.
It's not a fashion blackout.
It's just focus on my work, not my wardrobe request.
But we're seeing more of her, I think, again.
So this gradual return is gradually increasing, isn't it? Do you think actually with that decision, Kate, do you think she'll make braver decisions now?
Do you think she'll feel more emboldened to make decisions that she really wants to make that
perhaps she held off on doing before? Yeah, I think everyone, you know, I speak
to friends who've had cancer and things like that, that when they are in remission, as she says she is now, there is that kind of, it's a chance to kind of let go of some of the stuff that you've
worried about before that frankly, once you've stared down the barrel of something like cancer,
yeah, you can make braver decisions and do what you want to do perhaps a bit more. So it'd be
interesting to see how she kind of emerges from the cocoon
sort of butterfly-like to do, you know, Kate 2.0.
There's no shortage of stars in the royal family, whether it's Prince Louis as a budding
photographer or Kate making a fashion statement or not. But there could be another TV star in the
making because as Kate reported last week,
King Charles will star in a feature-length documentary for Amazon Prime on his charity
work and environmentalism. It's going to focus on the philosophy the King outlined in his 2010 book,
Harmony, a new way of looking at our world. Filming has already begun in January at
Dumfries House in Scotland and it's a big shift for the Palace to work with an international production company rather than domestic outlets like
the BBC and ITV.
The film will be out towards the end of the year or the beginning of next year. And it's
understood that several platforms were consulted before Amazon was given the Royal Seal of
Approval. So Kate, tell us more.
This is the King, I think, cementing his legacy of everything he stands for, which over the
years I don't think he has been able to draw together onto one thing. If you go back to
his 2010 book Harmony, A New Way of Looking at the World, there's the keys in there to
how this documentary is going to come
about. So it's all his views on all different things. And in there, he says it's time for a
kind of dramatic revolution of way of, you know, helping the planet, helping communities. And it
draws together all those strings of his interests over the years, which he says aren't disparate
interests. They're all part of the same thing.
So whether that's architecture, community, the way that people should live, the way that
we should eat, the way that we should farm, you know, everything we're doing wrong essentially
and how we should bring that together. And it's a call to sort of change the world, sort
of how it is. There's going to be interviews with him in there, but it's also going to
be around the world. It's going to look at his work, not just in the UK, but overseas as well,
which I think is interesting. So it's trying to establish the King and what he stands for
and establish that legacy project, I think. Not just in the UK where we know him quite well,
but overseas, hence why he's got this major streaming giant Amazon to do it rather than someone else.
It's interesting, isn't it? You talk about the legacy and given that he was the longest
serving heir apparent in history for the British monarchy, that legacy of him as the Prince of
Wales is something that's incredibly important to him. And I think he's very keen that people
don't forget because he spent a very long time doing a
lot of work in a lot of different areas, which he continues doing now, but in a slightly completely
different way as Monarch. And so for him, I suppose this film, as you say, brings all of that together,
and will give people a sort of very slick, but interesting look in what he's achieved in his 76 years.
Yeah, and I think slick is the word because these are Hollywood budgets. It's going to
be a big deal. It's going to be something that's a huge, huge project for him. And of
course, well, Amazon is an interesting choice as well. And I heard that was quite surprised
in some ways because they were the people who of course did the Royal Scandal series about his brother, Prince Andrew, which came
out of the sort of dramatization of Andrew's fall from grace. But of course, it's a big
rival for Netflix, Amazon. And who's at Netflix?
Harry and Meghan still.
Harry and Meghan still. So they have their big multi-million dollar multi-year project with Netflix. We're
going to see the latest incarnation of that in March when Megan's delayed series comes out,
delayed because of the LA fires, not through any fault of her own.
It's a very different kind of project to that, isn't it? Megan's is an access series all about cooking and home entertaining,
to be very glamorous and very polished. This I'm sure will be extremely polished, but it's a very
different subject matter. It's really looking at the very worthy things that the king does.
How interested in that do you think people will be?
I think they will because it's the king. I mean, I did joke with somebody that maybe he should share his focaccia recipe with us to see.
Organic, organic, organic.
Yeah, but I think his, any kind of off the cuff moments with him, you know, he's already
had an hour with the filmmakers. This isn't going to come out until the end of the year
or even start of 2026, go, it's going to be this major project. I think, you know, the bods at Amazon are going to make sure that it's not kind
of dull and worthy, that it's going to have that kind of mass appeal because
it's going to go out to all different countries around the world.
So I think that, you know, it can't be a snooze vest.
It has to be, or it can't be a kind of vanity project either, because that
will be, you know,
that would defeat the purpose, I think.
Right, I reckon popcorn, you bring the popcorn,
I'll bring the pink rhubarb gin.
Yes.
Maybe I'll bring the Buckingham Palace gin too.
One to watch, Kate.
Yeah, well, let's see.
But now we asked all our wonderful listeners
to get in touch with us on email for any ideas
or anything you want us to cover in the show. We've had so many emails, thank you, to all
of those who got in touch with us. But here's one from Scott in Northern Ireland. And Scott
writes, Dear Roya and Kate, you will be aware that the 9th of April this year will mark
20 years of marriage for the King and Queen. God willing, I trust this glorious occasion will be marked with a podcast
looking back on one of the great love stories in our long royal history.
Well, Scotland Northern Ireland, it's definitely something that we'll be covering on the podcast,
as well as plans they may have for their anniversary. And the palace just confirmed that the King and Queen will actually be in Italy on a state
visit in early April, where they'll be meeting the Pope at the Vatican. So more details on
that soon. Keep an ear out for that and we'll let you know more nearer the time.
And if you'd like to get in touch with us, our email is theroyals at thetimesco.uk. But for now Roya, over in Nepal,
how's the rest of your trip looking? We're going to have dinner tonight, hopefully.
Yes, we've now landed in Pokhara, so I'll search out a snack. Tomorrow we've got a long
military parade, but very important military parade actually, which is when new recruits for the Gurkhas
and their families have, it's called an attestation parade
and they go and it's the sort of official, you've made it.
You get to train as a Gurkha, which is a big deal,
really big deal for the Gurkha recruits and their families.
And you have to be so tough to be a Gurkha.
You do, and it really changes your life.
The training is hardcore, it's hardcore.
So Sophie and Ed will be there,
and then a couple more days to go,
and I think we'll see some very beautiful things,
lots of culture up here in mountainous region of Ganderuk,
which I last visited years ago,
so I'm really excited to see how that's changed.
And hopefully a colorful, interesting,
few more days of this trip, and a few nuggets hopefully to go into the Sunday Times.
Well, I look forward to reading all about it in the Sunday Times.
So, thanks Roya. Safe travels. See you next week.
Till next week. Bye. Bye from Nepal. Fandual Casino's exclusive Live Dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling,
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