The Royals with Roya and Kate - Taylor Swift, the Prince, the Emperor and the Princess Royal

Episode Date: June 27, 2024

A week of pomp, pageantry and pop as the Prince of Wales dances along to Taylor Swift as if no one was watching (but Roya and Kate were). Japan's Emperor Naruhito begins his state visit with King Charles rekindling an old friendship with some new jokes, and we look at the impact of the Princess Royal's incident involving a horse at her Gatcombe Park estate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I knew you were trouble when you walked in. I'm sorry? Do you want me to begin again? Ah, I know your game. Yes, it's a love story for the ages. William and the children at Wembley, but not football for once, with dad dancing. Shaking it off?

Bravo. How many more Taylor Swift songs can we fit into this intro? Look what you made me do. It says here that I should be singing, but I've politely declined the editor's request to burst into song. Let's get into it, shall we? Oh, yes. Welcome to The Royals with me, Roya Nikar.

And me, Kate Manthie. So we're going to be discussing the Japanese state to visit. And we were there at Buckingham Palace last night, weren't we, Kate? We were. And it was a truly splendid affair, as you would expect. And we'll have more on the news surrounding Princess Anne's accident in due course and how horses have been such a part of her life over the years. How to start when there's so much to talk about?

Chronologically? Geographically? Let's do both, Kate. And the role week started at Wembley. Go Swifties! Now, I had a lot of love for this story, and not just the timing of it. I used to think that on a Sunday newspaper,

and anything clicked over kind of past 7pm on a Friday, I'd say, it's in my time, it's in my pitch now. And I did think of you on Friday night. Friday night. We got it in late though. We did get it in late. Well done. Well done.

William's 42nd birthday. We thought all the news of William's 42nd birthday was going to be that lovely picture that the household put out, taken by the Princess of Wales, of William and George, Charlotte and Louis leaping over a sand dune. Leaping into the unknown.

In Norfolk. Looking joyous. The children were looking joyous. He looked a bit fearful. Sweet message. Happy birthday. We all love you so much, Papa. Lovely.

I have to say, it does great on me. I do. You don't like the Papa? No. I mean, and also if my husband ever calls me mummy, he would never would because I'd divorce him. I do know. I know him and I don't think that's going to happen.

But you know what I mean. But it was sweet, sorry. Memo for William and Catherine. We thought that was rather lovely and everyone went to town on the pictures. And then Friday night, people's phones started whirring, didn't they, with unconfirmed reports that William

was actually not celebrating down the pub with his favourite pint of cider, but that he was with the kids at Taylor Swift, at Tay-Tay, at Wembley, the other big news event of the week. And there was sort of no confirmation officially that night because if they were there, it was private time, wasn't it?

It was private time. Private time is very private when it comes to... When you're shaking your booty in front of thousands of people at Wembley. But then what emerged on Saturday morning as I was trotting around Hyde Park, my phone, which I didn't touch because I'm a controllable horse, was whirring away and I thought, hey, hey, what's this? And there was just some spectacularly wonderful, highly entertaining footage of William dad dancing, shaking some moves, quite not dissimilar actually to the moves Prince Louis has clearly inherited

when he was shaking it. Yes. You know, shaking his little bod, drooping the colour. There he was at Wembley Stadium in a box, but jiving away to Shake It Off, Taylor Swift's very famous hit. And I thought to myself, even if we don't get a picture of them there, this is just going to write itself, this piece. Let's get a blurry of them there this is just going to write itself this piece let's get a blurry screen grab of that on page three let's get a screen grab of that let's embed that video onto the times website make myself a cup of tea and i'll just have a lot of fun writing this which

i did but then joy of joys the selfies just just just you know a bit of messaging with kenston palace well we don't know we don't know and i was thinking this could be really good if we get my picture editor said on whatsapp if we get that picture my head will explode with happiness and uh a few minutes later i did make his head explode with happiness when not one but two pictures because first we had the kind of selfie it looked like someone was taking a picture of them taking the selfie which obviously as a journalist you always go well I want to see that selfie yeah and almost as if they had prepared their social media presence around almost as if they had done you know it's all been choreographed as such within a few moments we had Taylor's version as she says on you know it's all been choreographed as such within a few moments we had taylor's version

as she says on you know when you stream her music of the picture which was them all kind of grinning into the into the camera the selfie itself yes with mate and charlotte called him mate m8 charlotte and george were with william on his 42nd birthday meant to have been a treat for the kids but if you look at that picture and if you study the video of William dancing I'd have the guess that he's a bigger Swifty than his kids yeah and on his birthday as well oh I'm just doing it for the kids and the picture he looked quite it's the same kind of expression Charles used to have when he met people like Diana Ross when he was younger and things like that it It's that kind of like, ugh.

Yeah. I'm going to change my name to K8 now. K8. I like what you've done there. But this wasn't William's first encounter with Tay-Tay, was it?

No. Because he had actually got up on stage years ago at a Centrepoint fundraiser, which is the charity which is patron homelessness

charity at Kingston Palace. John Bonchovy. Yes, and he recounted this a couple of years ago doing a Time to Walk podcast where he recalled... Don't plug another podcast, right? No, I shouldn't, should I? Ours is better. It's not a podcast, it's called a walking,

Apple Fitness walking experience, audio experience. Sitting with Taylor Swift and John Bon Jovi was just about to get on stage and sing Living on a Prayer. And Taylor, he said, Taylor, look, touch me on the arm and said, come on, William, let's sing. And led him onto the stage like a puppy. Even though he's not known for his singing voice, I think it's fair to say. It was the puppy, it was the puppy dog element of it all. I thought it was kind of slight cringe.

He did get up on stage. He's a big fan. I think it's fair to say William's a big fan of Tay Tay. It was nice to see that it was it was nice to see him you know cutting loose a bit

do you know what I thought was interesting there were a lot of celebrities there on a lot of freebie VIPs Friday, Saturday and Sunday Keir Starmer was there

and I didn't see other politicians are available yes I didn't see Taylor Swift put out any other photos of other well-known people apart from William, George and Charlotte. And that's quite interesting, I think,

in terms of how she sees them. Because whenever we talk about the royal family, you know, they're globally known, but there's always a sort of slight sense that some members of the royal family, quite a lot of them, don't like the idea of being celebrities. But, you know, when you have the likes of Tom Cruise

and huge stars that vary over the weekend, the only picture that Taylor Swift put out was with Prince William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. I think that's quite interesting. Yes, it is. I think because they meet so many famous people, don't they? People like Taylor Swift and Tom Cruise. There can't be that many people that they have that kind of celebrity kind of,

oh my goodness, experience. But when they meet members of the royal family, that is the reaction. What do you think was the reasoning behind that going from sort of private time to, okay, you can have a picture? I think it struck me that they were quite sensible about, you know, how could it possibly be truly private? When there's 80,000 people there. When there's that many people there.

And they must, I think they knew on the Friday night that they obviously had this plan to put out this picture the following day in their kind of schedule, social media schedule. Yeah. So I think then they, it's kind of a shrug, isn't it? That kind of public, semi-public. And, you know, watch this space. Could Taylor Swift be helpful

to William in his Earthshot Prize or something like that? Take on some sort of role for him? That wouldn't hurt at all, would it? So it could become this kind of mutually beneficial mateship.

With her many millions of followers on social media and her empire. No, it'd be helpful, yeah. You didn't get a ticket then, Kate. I feel like I'm the only person in the country who didn't get to see Taylor Swift. I didn't get to see Taylor Swift.

Well, if she's listening, maybe we could... She's coming back, isn't she? Come on our podcast in August, Tay Tay. I'll settle for a couple of tickets, even at the back. But I did see you, Roya, another hot ticket. It was very hot. It was very hot. It was very hot. I felt about 40 degrees on Horse Guards Parade on Tuesday for another musical spectacular,

which was the official welcoming for the state visit, inward state visit for the Emperor and Empress of Japan. Yes, it was a hot ticket in that it was boiling standing on horse cars parade. But finally, the Japanese state visit got underway because, of course, there was so much uncertainty over whether or not it would happen once the general election was called, as we discussed in our previous podcast episode. So the emperor and empress arrived and they had their official welcome didn't they on horse guards but William had gone

to collect them from Clariters he'd done the sort of meet and greet and then escorted them onto horse guards where funny old scene with well Charles and Camilla

the king and queen and then Rishi Sunak walked across with James Cleverley and David Cameron and you just sort of saw him and you thought if if he doesn't win the election with James Claverley and David Cameron. And you just sort of saw him and you thought, if he doesn't win the election and the polls are right,

that is really sort of his last big moment publicly, you know, as the sort of statesman prime minister, isn't it? He did seem to be enjoying it. You thought he did? Yeah. I'm smiling at you because I wondered if you were going to mention Prince William being late because he went to claridge's to pick up the emperor and empress yes the hotel they were staying at and then they came they did come around quite a few minutes and i did feel for the king and queen it was scorching okay they were under canopy we were

we were you wearing a hat cleverly well done um but I think the official line was that that was traffic and that he'd actually arrived on time. Oh, you're unconvinced. Kate's unconvinced. Let it be noted. No, but it was. It was delayed, wasn't it? There was a question over whether it would happen at all

and then it was delayed anyway because in his speech at the banquet, the emperor said that actually it was the late queen who had invited him initially five years beforehand. And he had said, you know, obviously that it had been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Then we had this new date. Everyone's looking forward to it. And then could it be delayed because of the general election? But what they've managed cleverly to do is just to make sure that there's any of those kind of political elements,

like a visit to Downing Street, which would probably have happened. That was taken out of the schedule. Although there are kind of protocols and everything has to be run past the Cabinet Office, which meant that, of course, Sunak, as the current Prime Minister, was there with Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary as well. But you did, I mean, although it was slightly altered because of that, we did get the full pomp and pageantry of, you know, the carriages,

the sovereign's escort of the household cavalry. It was lovely to see them again. We saw them on trooping. But what was quite striking were the images of the King and Queen and Prince William all going back from horse guards to Buckingham Palace, down the Mall with the Sovereign's escort of the House of Cavalry, and Empress Masako with her mask on,

because... She's allergic. There may have been a lot of beautiful House of Cavalry horses and full-state kids, but she's allergic to horses. Because she had the mask on at the procession, but when actually we saw her in the palace, she'd removed it.

So it wasn't, you know, people might have looked at that and thought that it was a kind of you know hold over from covid or something no but she's had her own health issues you know she nearly well she did step down from public duties for a while she has this kind of anxiety stress related condition um but she has started to come back to to more public duties more recently. And I think they've seen it as a really enjoyable trip so far as well because they got here on Saturday, even though the official start of the state visit wasn't until Tuesday. They've had some sort of downtime.

They'll go on Friday to visit Oxford University, where they've both studied in the past. And it's an opportunity, I think, for them to see something different. So I think they do seem to be enjoying it. We, on Tuesday night, we were lucky. You and I were at Buckingham Palace, weren't we, for the state banquet. And we got a little sneak peek preview, walk through the way it's all set out, the way, you know, it's absolutely extraordinary.

The gilt that's laid out, the flowers that are laid out, the table settings. And we were walked through this and it's always remarkable. And what struck me, Kate, wasn't just the magnificent apples of Asperides candelabrum. It wasn't just the beautiful roses from Buckingham Palace Gardens and Windsor Castle. It wasn't just the beautiful roses from Buckingham Palace Gardens and Windsor Castle. It wasn't just the special Japanese maple trees that were so beautifully set out, which we were

told, of course, would be upcycled and repurposed later. And it wasn't just the drumroll, coronation service or the grand service originally ordered by George IV. No. Do you know what it was, Cade? What was your favourite bit, Roya? The bit that I noticed that really struck me was the seating plan of the King's Principal Private Secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, seated next to the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer. Because of course, the palace and the royal family are always above politics. But I thought it was very interesting that he wasn't sat next to the prime minister. No, his right hand man is cosying up to the potential future leader. There were some interesting guests, weren't there?

There were some interesting guests. And I thought there was a sushi master. Diplomatically. Yeah, and a former astronaut and I think that diplomatically it was really interesting given that we're in this general election campaign so randomly apparently you know this is all very it's all part of protocol as the palace would say but it did look odd that in that royal procession going in we had Akshata Murthy the prime minister's wife walking in with the royal procession but he wasn't so he was already in the room and though they said

this is protocol and such like and it's just the way the tables are laid out it was interesting to see I think then you also had Ed Davey there the liberal democrat leader you had Stephen Flynn the SNP politician. So there were sort of nods to all the different parties, I think. It was all on a very level playing field, wasn't it? Yeah, but it was. Those things are always fascinating. It's always the people.

And then you walk in. So as journalists, we get this kind of walk in, walk round to have a look at who's sitting where, the little table plans. But the thing that you can't see on the pictures, of course, is that smell that hits you of the flowers. They were amazing. And they were everywhere. I thought they were the best I've... Extraordinary.

They were definitely the best I'd ever seen. I don't mean to speak ill of the late queen's flower choices, but they were so beautiful, the flowers, and they just had a general sort of Charles Quite Wild vibe. Do you know what I love? This is going to sound quite niche, but they were silver dishes all up the tables, just piled high with juicy peonies.

Yeah, the peonies were great. They just looked like you wanted to kind of pluck them off and eat them. Looking at Charles's peonies. Sounds interesting. And there was, of course, no Princess of Wales, no Princess Royal, Princess Anne. So two senior members of the royal family who would have been there, not there.

It's a sort of reshuffle at the last minute. We'll move that person's name tag. Duchess of Edinburgh made the top table. She was on the top table, wasn't she? Seated next to... Even though the Duke of Edinburgh was, you know, a bit further down. I know.

No, it was a royal kind of promotion for her. Yeah. One thing I thought was funny surrounding the whole Japanese inward state visit was all the acronyms that we hear for our job so MRF members of the royal family and TMs for their majesties and yesterday they were all kind of tripping over themselves verbally sort of going we've got the TMs and I mean um you know their majesties but I'm not meaning their majesties I'm meaning our majesties,

because, of course, normally when you have a state visit, you have some sort of head of state coming in. President. Who's not a member of a royal family, but because you had an alternative royal family, we had them saying our majesties and their majesties. It was overly majestic, wasn't it? It was very majestic.

I'm not talking about a wine shop. And the speeches were great as well. I think they've known each other for so long i actually read the the emperor's memoirs the thames and i because he came in 1983 stayed in 1985 studied at merton college in oxford and studied very niche subject of the 18th century thames waterways and is quite a buff on the subject went back to Japan, wrote a book about that. But then he wrote memoirs about his time in Britain, which is really funny about how he learned how to order a pint in a pub and he was quite nervous to

do so. And then he talks about his fly fishing with the prince and the Balmoral picnic. They're good mates. And they are. They are good mates that it came across really well, didn't it? I think it's one of the reasons why, although it's technically a decision for government, whether or not that state visit went ahead during the election period. But I think the king was very keen that it should happen and not be postponed again because he holds the emperor in such high esteem. Even in that day, even in that day when we looked around the Buckingham Palace display

of the artefacts from the Royal Collection Trust, which were shown out, anything sort of Japanese related was sort of wheeled out so that everybody could look at them. And there was the book, his book that he'd written about the Thames and Charles had written a foreword to his memoirs and there was a sort of signed copy of the book that he had given to Charles when they were both princes. And now, you know, now they're running the show

and it's nice for them. They still, it goes back decades. But this is the kind of proper soft diplomacy, isn't it, of the royal family. This is the thing, these enduring relationships. The ties that bind is the phrase, isn't it? You know, you have politicians that come and go, but these are ingrained relationships

that tie the two countries in a way that you can never otherwise expect. That politics can't do. There was a few kind of jokes I thought fell

slightly flat. Which were the jokes you thought fell flat? All the jokes. In the speech? I think sometimes it's quite funny in speeches but I thought that

sort of Pokemon speech he made a reference to the he made a reference to the Pokemon he was talking about his fly fishing and how they used

to go fly fishing together in Scotland when they were younger and then he said well you know I'm not very good at it nowadays not like Pokemon

you've got to catch them all and made a reference to his grandchildren and I just thought I did think well of course and that's interesting

as well that we think we think of Charles talking about his grandchildren the first thing you think of is the Wales well, of course, and that's interesting as well, that we think of Charles talking about his grandchildren, the first thing you think of is the Waleses. But of course, because he doesn't have that connection to the Sussex grandchildren at all, so you don't even think now, oh, I wonder which grandchildren he's thinking about.

And the fact that maybe he didn't think of that when he was doing that speech, do you think that crossed his mind? Or how will people perceive it if I say grandchildren? Or maybe it's just now so written out, the narrative, as they say. Oh, that's a good, that's a deep question. I think you're right, your assessment is right. When he says grandchildren, you know, most people here would first and foremost think of the ones that he's seen with, you know,

on Buckingham Palace balconies at the big moments. And that's not Archie and Lily but we know that you know both sides would love that relationship to be closer and stronger

but the distance means it just isn't it's a shame I think it's time we had a break Kate a break we are never

ever ever getting back together we will be back after this break let's be back let's come back we had a break, Kate. A break. We are never, ever, ever getting back together. We will be back after this break. Let's be back. Let's come back. Welcome back to The Royals with Roya and Kate. Now, a very notable absence

from the state banquet on Tuesday night was Princess Anne. After the worrying news we heard on Monday about the incident that happened at Gatcombe Park Estate on Sunday. So what do we know?

We know that the Princess Royal was walking on Sunday evening inside Gatcombe, her estate. And we know that she suffered a concussion and minor injuries. And we know that horses were in the vicinity. And from what Buckingham Palace told us, her medical team said that her injuries and the concussion are consistent with horses. Yeah, being either hit by a horse's head or its legs.

Or hooves or legs. She was taken to hospital straight away. Air ambulance came, but she didn't use it. I can imagine. You can imagine. Well, We can read between the lines on that one. Giving them short shrift when that air ambulance landed. And she was taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol, where she has been, as we speak, she's still there. She's had visitors. She's had Tim Lawrence, her husband, come and see her. Zara's been to see her. And Tim Lawrence has said a couple of times when he's come outside and spoken to the media that she's recovering slowly but surely quite quite

an incident it was quite a shock because we sort of Anne is so she's such a sort of stalwart steady stoic presence so you you just think when Anne's taken into hospital. You're serious. Yeah. Yeah, and I think the fact that she was treated at the scene, that both the ambulance was scrambled, that the police helicopter was scrambled, that she was walking within that kind of, they made it clear that she was walking within the security perimeter when they first released the news on Monday. The inference being it wasn't an attack from somebody, clearly seems to be some sort of incident with the horse,

despite the fact that she's a very experienced equestrian. She wasn't riding. She wasn't riding, she was on foot. But yeah, I think it is worrying. I think this is somebody who consistently tops the tables for the hardest working royal. There's a lot of public affection for her. She's now cancelled the trip to Canada so she was due to go to Canada on Sunday and Monday for a two-day

visit I mean she typically had another sort of 11 billion engagements this week didn't she which she she had a very packed diary which she had to postpone and the Canada trip isn't significant as well because she's going there in a kind of military capacity there was supposed to be uh the remains of a first world war soldier repatriated in canada um during this ceremony um an unnamed soldier so it was going to be quite a poignant event um for the canadians and i think princess royal was obviously keen to go. And as you say, there's like a whole list of stuff that she's expected to do and had been planning to do throughout July right up until the beginning of August that now seems to be hanging in the balance.

This news certainly was, I think, a shock to a lot of people. She will not be swayed from her love of horses by a kick, a kick, will she, or even concussion. This is a woman who has spent most of her life around horses, enjoying them, riding them, competing at the highest level, competing at the Olympics, competing in all sorts of other huge competitions. She, you know, and we saw, she's like her mother. I mean, she is, you know, horses run in her blood. And we were just talking about Anne the other day, weren't we, on Trooping the Colour when she was riding Naughty Noble. She will, you can just imagine Anne sort

of, okay, first of all, you can imagine Anne absolutely loathing being the centre of attention and media attention. She'll have really disliked the fact that while her brother was hosting a state visit, a very high profile state visit, Anne was the main news of the day because she loathes being the centre of attention. And she would have wanted to be there to represent the family. And she would have wanted to be there.

She will definitely, I think, you know, fingers crossed when she comes out of hospital soon, I think you can imagine her being around horses again very soon because she, you know, fingers crossed, when she comes out of hospital soon, I think you can imagine her being around horses again very soon. Oh, totally. Because she, you know, they're such a huge part of her life. She will not be, she will, she shall not be put off by a rogue hoof. I agree. I think you're absolutely right. I think we can even look to the past.

So in April of 1976, she was knocked off a horse. It fell on top of her. She broke a vertebrae in her 1976 she was knocked off a horse it fell on top of her she broke a vertebrae in her back um was knocked unconscious and just a few months later she was competing in the Montreal Olympics an equestrian event after such a difficult fall so this is the spirit of the woman who just keeps getting up and getting on with it age Age 73, though. Head wounds not to be taken lightly. So I think everyone's wishing her well. Abundance of caution, I'm sure. She's being treated by an excellent medical team.

Yeah. That means, of course, that Princess Anne won't be there for Scotland Week when they go to Holyrood next week. But someone I know sitting very close to me will be going to Scotland, won't you, Roya? Well, I am going to Scotland tomorrow. Well, I am going to Scotland tomorrow. Very good.

Yes, I'm going to Scotland tomorrow. I'm quite looking forward to this trip, actually. I'm going to Scotland tomorrow because Balmoral is being opened up to the public for the first time next week. And I've got a little sneak preview for the Royal Rotor. That'll be brilliant.

I'm really looking forward to it, actually. Balmoral's great, especially this time of year when it's super hot and muggy. It's actually, will it be in Scotland, though? But that's what I mean. It won't be, so it'll be nice. Exactly.

It'll be cool. That's why the Queen used to love going there for holidays. She did say, I think all her family used to say it was where she was at her happiest. Having her barbecues and her picnics. I think it's interesting that they are opening up more of it, because, of course, you can see, I think it's interesting that they are opening up more of it because of course you can see, I think you can just see the ballroom

or very small bits of it now but a decision's been taken to open more of it up and I think it's already sold out apparently. Not surprised. Yeah.

So I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about next week when I've been up and seen it. And then of course we've got the King and Queen

Hollyreid week or it's just Hollyreid days, really, isn't it? They've crunched it down because he's got to come back for this small matter of the general election. Well, yeah, he's got to be back in time. To welcome a prime minister. If there's a clear winner, then on Friday they'll be going to Buckingham Palace

and he'll be saying ta-ra to the old prime minister if it's a different person from the new prime minister. And if it's the new prime minister, Clive will be saying, oh, hello, mate. Saw you at the banquet. You again, old chap. And I'm going to a banquet tonight, finally, despite the fact that yesterday...

But you're going as a guest. You're grand. You grand thing. The husband has been told he's not allowed to wear his flip-flops So, white tie Is that right? You can't wear flip-flops with white tie? Well, sort of, apparently not What are you wearing?

What are you wearing? A long pink kind of flouncy dress that's very on me actually But nice I'll send you a picture Yeah, please do Right, I think we've discussed a lot in a really busy week Plus, I think we've probably gotten enough Taylor Swift references to warrant a VIP ticket to her next concert.

Shall we bring this episode to a close, Roya? I think that's a very good idea, Kate. Is it over now? Is there a Taylor Swift song for everything? Seems to be. Seems like it. Bye, Kate. Bye, Roya.