The Royals with Roya and Kate - Trooping the Colour, William the Statesman, and Trump’s State Visit

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

This week, we head to Horse Guards Parade for Trooping the Colour as King Charles marks a quiet but significant shift—retiring from horseback for the event. The Prince of Wales steps further into statesman territory, and Roya and Kate discuss his recent visit to Monaco alongside international heads of state, signalling a growing global presence. Plus, they look ahead to two headline-grabbing moments: President Trump’s second state visit to the UK and David Beckham’s long-awaited knighthood. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome back to the Royals with me Royanika. And me Kate Mansi. But something is rather different this week. It is a bit. We're coming to you from a new studio. There's a lot of purple and a backdrop of Buckingham Palace. So listeners, if you can't see us, we are recording in the new TV studio and you can check us out on YouTube because it does look rather regal.

A slightly different surrounding, I think you'll see. But we've still got the fanfare. Oh dear. Today on the Royals Roya and I reflect on a year of the Princess of Wales since her return to royal engagements last June when she surprisingly to everyone except you Roya who called it, returned to the public sphere with an appearance at Trooping the Colour. And this year there is news about the King himself at that very event. We also take stock of William the Statesman and we look ahead to Donald Trump's second

state visit and all the planning and discussions and decisions that are going into that one. So first, Trooping the Colour, the King's annual birthday parade will take place this Saturday. So what do we know Roya and what can we expect? Well, the things that we can expect that we always see are 400 musicians, 200 horses, an awful lot of soldiers, all the pomp and pageantry, but there is gonna be one thing that is gonna be different from now on.

And that is that we're not gonna see the king back on a horse. Because last year, he rode in a carriage for the first time. He was undergoing the first stages of that cancer treatment. Exactly. So the first year he was monarch in 2023, he rode on a horse.

And that was a wonderful tradition that he revived because we hadn't seen the monarch on a horse at Trooping since 1986, when the late queen rode her lovely mare, Burmese, that was a gift to her from the Mounties. She had then, since 1987, traveled in a carriage. And we'd last seen her in 2022 for her very last appearance when things have been adapted for her due to her age and her health and she'd taken the salute from the Buckingham Palace balcony. So Charles was

very keen to revive this and you know, great images of him riding that very naughty horse, naughty noble up the mountain. Naughty noble who lived up to its name. She sure did. But then last year, of course, he was, as you say, going through the first stages of his cancer treatment. And in order to sort of accommodate him, he'd had surgery, he'd had treatment for an enlarged prostate, then he was having weekly cancer treatment. It was felt it was more comfortable for him to travel in a carriage rather than on horseback. But what's new is that's never going to come back.

Yeah. We're not ever going to see the King again on horseback. Well, for trooping. I did the story last week and I asked Buckingham Palace and they said never say never, but I do know a bit about horses and I do know a bit about people and horses. And once you haven't been in the saddle for more than two years, particularly at an advancing age, I don't think we're ever going to see, I'm pretty certain we will not see the king back on a horse for trooping the colour.

You could do that, You could do that. Which I think is a real shame because, you know, I completely understand and I think it's a sensible choice, but it's sad for him. I think that he probably, we only ever saw him once on a horse publicly as king, you know, Charles is someone who has such a long tradition. He used to be a great polo player until he entered his arm. Great polo player, amateur jockey, he used to do national hunt racing. So I think it's a shame for him, but I think it is just one of the very few concessions that he's made to his illness,

because he's still working a full diary, he's still working, you know, lots of engagements, but I think that's just sensible. So we'll see, we believe we'll see Anne back on horseback for the first time publicly since she suffered those injuries last year, we'll be leaving from the horse. Prince William is very keen to keep riding on the parade. I was told it's one of the things he most enjoys.

And I think we will also see the Duke of Edinburgh horseback as the Royal Colonel's behind the King. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Because the late Queen was riding for a long time, right up until her nineties. Side saddle as well. Loved riding side saddle. Didn't ride in trooping for a long time.

So following that kind of, it'd be nice for him to be in a carriage though. Well, he'll be in the carriage with Camilla and he'll you know, he won't feel he has to struggle and cling on for dear life to Naughty Nable, who last year actually and took one for the team and was riding and she was really naughty as well. So anyway, Trooping is an interesting one. So Trooping was a quite big deal last year as well, wasn't it? Because we had the return of the Princess of Wales to public duties. It was the first public engagement she'd done since that cancer diagnosis. Right. Yeah. And she wanted to be there for her family. The palace said didn't it didn't they?

So I think this year we hope we'll see her I think we expect to see her on the balcony, don't we and taking part in the procession. And in the carriage procession with the children. I always look forward to trooping. A, because it's on a Saturday, so I know I've got something in the bag. B, Prince Louis. Come on Prince Louis, we always rely on his antics for a little bit of mischief making. Yeah, he always makes for great pictures, doesn't he? He makes for great pictures. I suppose trooping is so important to the Royal Family. Why? Because it's the sort of

military thing, isn't it? It's the opportunity for the Royal Family to say thank you to the armed forces and for the armed forces to say to their colonel in chief, their commander in chief, thank you. And on a national level, it's this idea of a kind of pomp and pageantry that makes, you know, Britain great. The images are beamed around the world of brand Britain and the King's, you know, sort of official birthday, not his actual birthday, which is later in the year. But this year, we have been discussing this, haven't we, you and I, that given events in the week, there might be adaptations. So what I'm referring to, of course, is the Air India crash, the plane leaving India bound for Gatwick and the King has put out a statement today saying

how shocked he is by it and sending his deepest possible sympathies to everybody involved. And this is going to, you know, it's very hard to have a big celebration as such when, you know, something so tragic has happened. Well, there is a template for this, quite a recent one actually, because, you know, we don't know yet, we haven't heard from the palace whether anything will be modified at all with Trooping. But in 2017, of course, just after the Grenfell fire tragedy, the Queen, the late Queen felt she just could not go on with Trooping as usual.

It just wouldn't. That's right. She very instinctively woke up very early in the morning, we were told, and the palace said she woke up very early and she felt I've got change something. And I've got to, you know, show the nation and lead the nation in remembrance of this awful, you know, the victims of this awful tragedy. And she, instead of just leaving from Buckingham Palace, as she normally did in a carriage, she stood out there and led the nation in a period of silence. And I just wonder, again, we haven't heard from the palace, but I just wonder, given that we know that, you know, more than 50 Britons were aboard this flight, whether there might be some sort of moment of, you know, reflection at the beginning of trooping.

But we'll wait and see. We haven't heard yet from the palace, but we'll wait. Stay tuned for that. So moving on to Will's week. Well, Will's weekend, should I say, because the Prince of Wales was in Monaco last weekend for the Blue Economy and Finance Forum, which was to mark World Ocean Day on Sunday. And we were there, Kate, weren't we with him? We were there to see it. This was described, wasn't it, as a landmark speech. A landmark speech, punchy intervention, they said. Punchy intervention. He was there in Monaco delivering his address to world leaders. So he was there in front of Emmanuel Macron of France, who got up to speak after the Prince of

Wales at length. Yes, you were timing it. It went on and on from Emmanuel Macron. So he might want to rein that in when he comes over for the state visit for the state banquet speeches. Dear President Macron, can we have a slightly shorter state banquet speech? Thanks so much. But even though it was very good, we were there to see what the Prince of Wales had to say, of course. We were. Which was that basically that world leaders have to act now and turn the tide. See what he did there. I see what he's done. On ocean pollution. And I thought it was a really considered speech. There was a lot of information in there. And behind the scenes, we obviously saw him speaking

to people from his EarthShot prize. This is a prize that he founded, which inspires entrepreneurs to come up with unusual and innovative ways of saving the planet. And one of the five categories of that is reviving the oceans. Now, it's interesting that category hasn't had the pick up that some of his other categories have such as clean air,

you know, pollution on land and some of the other elements of the prize and that the ocean is still such a massive part, you know, an untapped kind of resource. And it was a great platform for the EarthShot Prize and some of the finalists there because the audience was interesting, wasn't it? It was 1,800 people. Obviously you had your government leaders there. You had, you know, presidents Macron, Lula of Brazil,

who's gonna host Cop later this year, Rodrigo Chavez Robles of Costa Rica, who gave a wonderful speech, I thought, a Prince Rainier of course, of Monaco. But the really interesting bit of all the choreography around William being there rubbing shoulders with the presidents was what Kensington Palace are so focused on, which is William as the global statesman.

Yeah, it's presenting him in that role on the world stage and saying he is equivalent to any other kind of global statesman that you would see. He's there for a reason. He's got the authority to speak to this subject. We were left in no uncertain terms of that because Kensington Palace put out a statement ahead of his speech saying, this is another key moment in the Canada where you'll see the Prince

acting as a global statesman. So it's like, you know, hammering home to avoid any confusion. In case you were in case there was any doubt there. By the way, that's important, isn't it as well? You know, he's there to deliver this message. He the way, that's important, isn't it, as well? He's there to deliver this message. He's there in his own right as well, not just as Prince of Wales,

that here he is having done years and years of preparation with this prize. He knows a lot about it. When he speaks about the environment, he knows what he's talking about. But it was really around him, because you had Crown Prince Harkon of Norway there. You had Princess Victoria of Sweden there. But it was William who was asked to address the delegation, which I thought

was interesting. Yeah, I thought what was interesting about positioning William as a global statesman is that he's still doing it in a formal informal kind of blend. So we had him chatting behind the scenes as well. And I think more and more we're hearing a bit more about, you know, his emotions. So he was speaking to somebody who was involved with the Sir David Attenborough Ocean film, somebody who'd worked on the production team. And he said, you know, it made me sad, it made me happy, it made me angry, it made me frustrated and goodness, I need to find out a way to get the children to watch

it as well, because I think it's really important. And this is quite interesting hearing this from William, from my point of view, because it's not just him standing on stage saying, you know, frankly, what we would expect him to say that you've got to act now, we've got to turn the tide on pollution, you know, too little has been done for too long, spurring people onto action, but behind the scenes sort of talking about his personal kind of feelings about it all. And in the speech as well, a tiny little flick of that saying that some of our happiest memories are on the ocean or at sea, which was interesting

because we've seen those lovely videos of William and Kate diving when we've been on overseas tours and they love him and they do enjoy, you know, time. They love being in the sea. You know, we've heard from Kate before about how she likes cold water swimming and further back, you know, him on yachts with Princess Diana as a child. You know, it's really interesting that sort of the little glimmers that you get of how he's making that global statesman role his own. He's not just sort of taken one off the shelf. Yeah, is adapting it.

He's doing it in his own way. So it was really interesting from that point of view. It's nice to get some sunshine. Frankly, it was very important for us to be there, Kate, wasn't it? It was crucial for us to be there. It was crucial research. And it wasn't too tough a gig, as a few people pointed out when I said I was in Monaco. But anyway, yeah. Let's look ahead to another foreign visit, this time President Donald Trump's second state visit to the UK. The Donald, scheduled for September.

What should we expect and does Trump need to lower his expectations? There's been quite a lot of back and forth when he comes in July to see his golf course in Scotland. Will the King make time for a private visit? Will the stars align for them to have a private visit before the big bells and whistles second state visit, which we've reported will come to Windsor Castle rather than Buckingham Palace? Well, Tim Shipman did a very interesting piece about this at the weekend for the Sunday Times.

Tim Shipman's last dispatch for the Sunday Times, sadly, and sources close to the King were guiding very strongly away from that, that actually there probably won't be a private visit. Well, there might not be a private meeting, whether Trump comes for a private visit without seeing the King. Oh yes, it sounds like he is coming. Well, that's it. Well, that's interesting in and of itself, isn't it? Post the Canada trip.

Well, that's it. Well, that's interesting in and of itself, isn't it? Post the Canada trip. I think there has been some reevaluation of that letter that was delivered with such a flourish by Keir Starmer in the Oval Office a few months ago, because just to remind everyone, that letter said from the King to President Trump said, inviting him for an historic second state visit, why don't you maybe come to Balmoral or come to Dumfries House first, and then we can have a sort of more low-key visit, and we can discuss plans for a much sort of bigger state visit. The briefing now is that perhaps there aren't going to be two hits with the king. It's just going to be one big visit at Windsor.

And it sounds to me that there's quite a lot of toing and froing of what Donald wants and what's actually deliverable. Of course, we know that the state visit is not going to happen at Buckingham Palace for the first time in a long time, because Buckingham Palace is undergoing this huge renovation refurbishment, which then rules out the procession down the mall, although he never happened last time. Anyway, flew himself in and out in a helicopter as much to Queen

Elizabeth's fury at scorching her lawns. I don't think he'll mind that because he can then claim not only to be unprecedented for having a second state visit as president, but he can then say, I'm also the only one to have one at Windsor Castle and one at Buckingham Palace. Yes, that's true. Except that, you know, President Macron is going to sneak into Windsor before him, but obviously he didn't have his state visit at Buckingham Palace before. So I think we'll see a little bit of a template of what Donald Trump's state visit would look like when we see President Macron, Brigitte Macron come very soon in a matter of weeks in July. I

think things are still being ironed out for the Donald in September. He's got his hands full back at home anyway, hasn't he? So it might not be top of his inbox at the moment. No, I think that's one for the political podcast. I think it might be quite top of the entry at Buckingham Palace. But anyway, I think the suggestion that we've also got Kirstama flying over to Canada to meet with Mark Carney, which I think is significant because of the backdrop of Trump doubling down after the King's

opening address to Canada. Fascinating that. The Canadian parliament. Yeah, I think now Stammer is kind of going to align himself with Carney's government. I wonder when Donald Trump comes for the state visit, how high on the agenda do you think Canada might be? How many times do you think the king might say sovereign and sovereignty to the Donald? Invite Trump to Windsor, plant a maple leaf tree in the grounds of Windsor. We'll all be looking for clues, won't we? You never know.

And those speeches are going to be absolutely key, I think, to what's going on behind the scenes. One thing's for certain, I think, based on the last state visit in 2019, it's not going to be dull. It won't be dull. And now for our final story, an event that's happening right now as we speak, as we're recording, King Charles is hosting a reception for the King's foundation. And it's the awards and it's quite starry because Meryl Streep is there, Kate Winslet is there, Penny Lancaster is there.

Penny Lancaster is there. And drum roll, the newly minted Sir David Beckham. Sir David Beckham, yes, as we all expect him to be when he's knighted. Sir David Beckham, who David Beckham. Yes, as we all expect him to be when he's knighted. Sir David Beckham, who has finally got his knighthood in the King's Birthday Honours, which will be announced next week, officially, for Trooping the Colour, the King's Birthday Parade. It's been a long journey, hasn't it, Kate? It has been a long journey. I mean, talk about waiting your time. There were leaked emails

weren't there, that may have been accurate weren't there may have been accurate that may not have been accurate depending on whose PR you talked to years ago about how much he wanted that knighthood and how disappointed he was to miss out. He tried so hard for that knighthood it became something of a running joke not just among the royal correspondence but actually in public so at the annual King's Foundation Awards last year, you'll remember that Sir Rod Stewart. I do. Cracked a joke on stage.

I don't know if he had had a couple of glasses of fizzy or something like that, but he said, you know, it's such an honor for me to be an ambassador for the King's Foundation. It's such an honor also for me to be a Knight, and I'm sure yours is coming soon, David. To which David chuckled along. You did along and it was all jolly good fun. And a year later here he is having, I mean...

Now the signs were all there though, weren't they Kate? Because the last year... Is there anything that man hasn't done to help the royal family? It's been a well fought campaign. In the last year, David Beckham has rocked up at High Grove more times than I can remember. There have been links of beekeeping, David Beckham has rocked up at Highgrove more times than I can remember. There have been links of beekeeping. David Beckham's beekeeping, Highgrove beekeeping. He's been made an ambassador for the King's Foundation. He turned up at Highgrove with Victoria, Lady Beckham. He was also at the State Bank. An Italian themed dinner, slow food dinner, celebrating Italian culture ahead of the Italian

state visit that we went on at Highgrove. As you say, very unexpected. We were walking around the Qatari state visit. He was at the state banquet. He was at the state banquet with Victoria. We were like, oh, hey, that's interesting. And there was, you know, World Cup bids and all this kind of stuff. And then it was not just that. And he's helping Prince of Wales as well with his, when he was fundraising for the air ambulance in London, there was Beckham. At the Chelsea Flower show last month, there he was in the receiving line with the King, wearing the new King's Rose that had been made. In his buttonhole. I mean, and you know, there was a lot of chat and he just had his 50th birthday

party and the King had sent him a gift. I had to say, I thought as soon as I saw that new King's rose in his buttonhole, I thought he's got his night. He's got it. And when Camilla also said, you've got them, you've got the roses. Yeah. Hard fought campaign. I think a lot of people would agree just for his sporting achievements and his charitable work. Well deserved. Yeah, because before the King's charity, he was helping with UNICEF. He has done other bits and bobs. The joke, yeah, he's now smiling about it. He's taken it all with good humour, I think it's fair to say. He has taken it with good humour. But the foundation's interesting. They're saying it's marking its 35th anniversary this year, which is true if you go back to lots of different previous charities at the Prince of Wales

around. This is completely separate to the Prince's trust. Now the King's trust, which is separate, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. But these are all the other charities that the King has done, which kind of came together as part of the foundation, which is headquartered at Dumfries House, hasn't always had such an easy ride in the press I've written about. Other people have written about it.

Michael Fawcett, the King's long time aide, had to resign over cash for honours scandal. This was where letters appeared in which Michael seemed to be offering to help obtain knighthoods for foreign donors. And it was very bad press. And that was just a few years ago. Since then, they've had a new chief exec come in.

They've also got, like you say, these sort of A-listers now. Sienna Miller is another one who's been a helpful ambassador for the charity. So it has kind of turned a corner, I think. They've done quite a good number on the PR of it. I think they were unfortunate for a few years, maybe made some mistakes. And here they are, you know, the King wants to kind of secure the legacy. Now, one of the winners at today's awards, dear listeners, is a young woman called Emily Hurst, and she has just completed the King's Foundation in partnership with Chanel Millinery Course, which they run at High Grave. And we had a lovely trip to High Grave and we saw some of the milliners there, some of the students on the Millinery Course, which they run at Highgrave. And we had a lovely trip to Highgrave and we saw some of the Milliners there,

some of the students on the Millinery Course. She has won one of the awards and I think that's great news and- Good for her. Is this where you tell me about your freebie for Ascot? Next week on loan, I will be wearing one of her creations for Royal Ascot. Lovely.

Yes. I look forward to seeing that. Have you seen it? I have seen it. I have tried it on. She's learned this extraordinary technique of plaiting straw inspired by the plaiting of heavy horses. It had me at heavy horses, as you can imagine, but it's quite a cool hat. Good. Yeah. And she's won an award. So I'll be wearing an award-winning design. I look forward to seeing that.

Yes. Yeah. That's it, isn't it? You know, it's the kind of ordinary people, I suppose, for want of a better phrase, that the charity is all about. Does it hurt that they've got some celebrities pushing it? No. Not exactly. One final note this week, actually, on The King. We got a rather interesting message this week from Buckingham Palace to say that Charles had hosted a private reception earlier in the week for his old shipmates from his naval days. And there was quite a fun message from a Buckingham Palace spokesman who said, although it was entirely private, and there are no pictures to come out of this and we weren't told he was there, who did say that the King was no doubt sharing a few salty tales on the trip down Memory Sea Lane with his old buddies. How much fun do you think that would

have been that reception? What were they drinking Kate? Were they drinking rum? I hope so. I hope they were drinking something strong. The challenge is to find out what those salty tales were. Wow. Let's go on a deep dive. And that's about it for this week isn't it? But next time. Next week, Roya's favorite event of the year, Royal Ascot. Once again, we'll be there reporting behind the scenes as usual on all the fanfare, the

horses, the jockeys, the glorious fashion, the Royals, of course, and the parade. So mark your race card. I'm really looking forward to it. I do love it. It's the Royal Family, it's racehorses, it's all the collisions of my world and I have been on the gallops this morning riding racehorses, seeing some of the horses that get running at Ascot. So I think we'll come to you for tips. Don't come to me for any tips. But one one thing we should mention, one very special thing,

yes, very special thing is that we are now an award winning podcast because we won best video strategy at last night's podcast publisher awards. But the real, it's all down to one person really, although someone who makes us look good every week. And that is our brilliant video producer, Morgan Erdick. Well done, Morgan. Morgan's put in a special request. She says we must only refer to her now by HRH. She wants to be called HRH. I've seen her on her Instagram. That's fine. I think she's earned it. I think she has too. Anyway, bravo.

Dame Morgan Burdick. Maybe even Queen Morgan. Queen of the videos. Yeah. Fantastic achievement and we're really, really proud. We are. Thankful. And in the meantime, if you'd like to get in touch, email us at theroyalsatthetimes.k.uk.

Until then, bye-bye. Bye.