Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton both attended Queen Elizabeth II’s pre-Christmas lunch on Wednesday, December 19 looking as chic as ever. Unfortunately, the holiday merriment was no-doubt clouded by the incessant rumors the two sisters-in-law are feuding. These reports are unfounded, of course, and Kensington Palace even shut down them down with a rare statement in early December.
A new report from People claims Markle and Middleton’s relationship is “complex” but not outrageously terrible. “They are very different characters,” a family friend tells the magazine. But what in-laws relationship isn’t complicated? Are you best friends with your sister-in-law? Probably not! You most likely have a calm, congenial relationship with her—and the same goes for Markle and Middleton, in my opinion. Just because they’re not skipping down the street together doesn’t mean they’re enemies.
PHOTO: Getty Images
In fact, I’m willing to wager the two women had a lovely chat while sipping tea and eating those small sandwiches that never fill you up with the queen. Below, a non-exhaustive list of topics I hope they talked about:
You swore you wouldn’t procrastinate on your holiday shopping this year—but alas, here you are, just days before Christmas, with a to-do list long enough to turn you into a Grinch. That’s where Amazon Prime comes in, to save both your holiday sanity and spirit. With hundredsthousands of last-minute Christmas gifts you can order online and have in time, you can finish all of your shopping in one fell swoop. Here are 34 of our favorite last-minute Christmas gifts that will definitely make it under the tree, as if Santa delivered them himself.
Kensington Palace shared the photo Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are using for their Christmas card this year, and it’s breathtaking. The shot is from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s May 19 wedding reception. Markle is wearing her stunning white Stella McCartney dress, her and Prince Harry’s backs turned to the camera as they watch a firework show. Is this an ad for a Disney movie or a Christmas card? I’m not sure, but either way I’m completely captivated.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are delighted to share a new photograph from their Wedding Reception at Frogmore House on 19th May,” Kensington Palace shared on Instagram alongside the new pic. “The photograph, which was taken by photographer Chris Allerton, features on Their Royal Highnesses’ Christmas card this year.”
Take a look at the photo for yourself, below.
With everything Markle and Prince Harry have accomplished in 2018, it’s hard to believe this photo was only snapped a few months ago. Their royal wedding was followed by a busy, engagement-filled summer and fall. Markle went on her first solo outing with Queen Elizabeth II in June. Then, four months later, she and Prince Harry embarked on a royal tour of Australia, Fiji, Tonga, and New Zealand. Right before this trip, Kensington Palace announced Markle and Prince Harry were expecting their first child.
“Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby in the Spring of 2019,” the palace posted to both Twitter and Instagram on Monday, October 15. “Their Royal Highnesses have appreciated all of the support they have received from people around the world since their wedding in May and are delighted to be able to share this happy news with the public.”
The royal family revealed their Christmas decorations for Buckingham Palace on Tuesday (December 4), and they’re so cheery. And festive. And everything you could possibly want out of Christmas decorations. The trees are adorned with white twinkly lights; little crowns are scattered everywhere; and the staircases are covered in greenery with multicolored ornaments. It’s exactly the scene you need to get into the holiday spirit.
The decorations are a stark contrast to the White House’s Christmas setup, which, sure, is festive—but it’s also a little scary. Need we remind you of the red Christmas tree room, which looks like it was inspired by The Shining, Suspiria, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and just straight-up blood?
Twitter is definitely noticing the differences between Buckingham Palace and the White House’s takes on Christmas.
“So this is what it looks like when your leaders don’t choose ‘dystopian holiday hellscape’ as a decorating theme, huh?” tweeted one person. “Now that’s tasteful compared to the one at America’s White House,” tweeted some else, savagely.
It’s been a busy year for the royal family. Kate Middleton gave birth to her third child, Prince Louis, in April. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry tied the knot in May, followed by a whirlwind royal tour of Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and Tonga in the fall. Markle is also expecting her first child, due in spring 2019. The entire royal family is reportedly spending Christmas together.
Rose McIver, who plays Amber Moore in Netflix’s A Christmas Prince, told Glamour this week that Meghan Markle was “certainly” an inspiration in the franchise’s sequel, aptly titled A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding. Watch five minutes of the new movie—which hits Netflix today—and that’s abundantly clear.
It centers on Amber’s acclamation into the Aldovian royal family, where she finds herself challenging the traditions and protocols Prince Richard (Ben Lamb) and his relatives have followed for years. Meghan Markle reportedly has a history of doing the same when it comes to the British royal family—so, in that respect, she and Amber are very similar. In fact, Markle’s “royal rule-breaker” narrative is all over this movie—as well as some softer references to her wedding, relationship, and life with Prince Harry.
Below, check out all the maybe-probably-definitely references to the Duchess of Sussex in A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding. PS: Very light spoilers ahead.
1. Amber has a personal blog; Meghan ran a lifestyle website called “The Tig.”
2. The couple goes back and forth between Aldovia and New York, much like Meghan and Harry shuttled between Toronto and London during their dating phase.
3. There’s a “waving to the commoners from a car” scene! Look familiar?
4. Amber is tabloid fodder. News outlets may have covered Meghan and Harry once or twice.
5. Someone tells Amber that royal “protocol” must be observed now that she’s about to marry Prince Richard. That’s a word Meghan knows all too well.
6. Amber’s father doesn’t act fancy-pants when he meets the royals for the first time. Seems to be some Thomas Markle symbolism, in my opinion.
7. Mrs. Averill is now the head of royal press and protocol, and she’s telling Amber to watch the image she’s projecting with all her TV show appearances and blog posts. So, in other words, quit Suits.
9. Amber is clearly finding these intense traditions and procedures difficult to understand. Meghan reportedly has similar feelings in regards to the British royal family.
11. Everyone seems quite turned off by Amber wanting to work and speak on more serious Aldovian issues — much like Meghan raised eyebrows (and made headlines) for voicing her political opinions.
12. Yup, they make Amber censor her blog. Remember when Meghan shut down The Tig?
13. Take a shot every time they say “protocol” in this movie. Then take a shot for every article about Meghan Markle that has that word.
It’s been a stressful year, but at least you can count on Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix to come through with the holiday cheer. After all, what’s more relaxing than watching an overworked woman fall in love with a Christmas tree farmer? So decompress with all of our delightful holiday content right here.
Decorating for the holidays is serious business for many—but if you’re CEO of Crown Media Networks (a.k.a. the Hallmark Channel) the bar is on a different level. “Oh, I’m a Christmas nut,” William J. Abbott, Crown Media’s CEO and president, tells Glamour.com. “We actually built [an addition] in our house so we could accommodate a 12-foot tree in the middle of our den, so, yeah, we just love the holidays.” The same goes for Michelle Vicary, the network’s executive VP of programming and publicity. “Christmas decorations go up the day after Halloween,” she jokes. “I’m a little [like the] Griswolds.”
Tinsel and trees aside, Abbott, Vicary, and the entire team at Crown Media actually live the business they’re selling. And they’re selling it well. Vicary says nearly 85 million people lay eyes on the network between Halloween and New Years. If that sounds more like a Christmas miracle than reality, you haven’t been paying attention to the Hallmark Channel—or its sister property, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries—the last few years. When the network says it is “cable’s biggest success story,” it’s true.
This year Hallmark is in the midst of airing 37 original holiday movies for its Countdown to Christmas programming (and planning the 2019 holiday slate). And watching these movies is no longer a guilty pleasure—it’s appointment television. From unofficial drinking games to a user-friendly app, it’s become cool to stay home and watch two people in sweaters fall in love in a town named like a Bath & Body Works lotion.
PHOTO: Hallmark
‘Christmas at Pemberley Manor,’ starring Jessica Lowndes and Michael Rady.
Abbott says Netflix is partially to thank for changing viewer habits, particularly among millennials. “They have a formula that certainly has worked for them in terms of driving people toward watching on their smart TVs,” he says. “Ultimately the more people that consume entertainment, the better off we all are.”
But Netflix is only a small part of Hallmark’s success. Vicary cites the constant, and often depressing, 24/7 news cycle as another factor. “I think people can only take so much,” she says. “We purposely look to be an escape. We try not to be issues-oriented in terms of creating polarizing conversations because there are places to get that. We are a place that is a haven from that. We’re just a different conversation.”
Abbott agrees. “I think it’s not only the political landscape, but the entertainment landscape to a degree too. There are just very few options that are not shocking, looking to shock, or looking to be over-the-top in terms of violence or salacious for salacious sake. I think people tire of that.” Abbott admits that’s not the only reason people tune into the channel, it is a big one—and something that Hallmark has included in its strategy. “It’s tapping into emotion in a positive way and making you feel a little better about relationships and how people interact,” he explains. “The Hallmark brand is all about people connecting. The secret, I think, to our success is that we focus on that relentlessly.”
“We really work hard to ensure that our women are strong—while they don’t need a man, they’d love to fall in love.”
This secret to success doesn’t come without detractors, though. Abbott and Vicary know there are plenty of people who think the content is cheesy, but that doesn’t have to be a negative. “I have to be honest, I don’t always think predictable is a bad word,” Vicary says. “I think of every Nora Ephron comedy I ever watched—the first time I saw Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan on screen, I knew they were going to end up together. But it was the journey! So I don’t mind when you tune in that you know our characters—who are on two separate journeys—are going to end up together by the end. It’s about how they get there.”
OK, so how did Hallmark get here? How did it go from a brand-new network in the early aughts to a holiday empire? For one, consistency. Hallmark premieres most of the original movies on Saturdays and Sundays, a time when other networks air sports or re-runs. “It’s the perfect time to unwind and get away from reality,” Abbott says. “We appeal to people wanting that escape over the weekend.”
Second, it’s investment. “Our movies are so much better because our production value, our stars, our music, our scriptwriting, our development, and our production are so much better than they’ve ever been,” Abbott says. “Success snowballs. The more you do right, the more people notice; the more people notice, the more you invest; the more you invest, the more you pay attention, and the better it gets.”
PHOTO: Hallmark Channel
LeAnn Rimes in ‘It’s Christmas, Eve’.
And finally, as Vicary points out, it’s about creating an experience. “We’re an emotionally-driven brand. We’re about enhancing relationships and enhancing life.” She says in the last decade the network has tapped into viewers’ love of celebration. “The Hallmark brand already lives in that space, so it really is about delivering on the experience of the brand.”
And then there’s the wish-fulfillment aspect, those picturesque, snow-capped towns and leads in color-coordinated holiday attire. “We’re not embarrassed to say, ‘Let’s make it sound even more holiday oriented,” Vicary says with a laugh. “We are not shy about creating an environment that compliments and enhances that great story.”
Still, that “environment” has come under more scrutiny in the past few years for being predominantly white, straight, and without much diversity. The network needs to do more to reflect America today—and Abbott says the Hallmark Channel team is aware and working on it. “Absolutely, no question about it,” Abbott says. “We’ve worked really hard at it. It’s the type of thing we should have been doing all along, but we’re pleased at where we are.”
Where they are is a more diverse slate of programming than years past. It’s not perfect yet, but one example of progress is a recent full-page ad Crown Media took out in The Hollywood Reporter to showcase its holiday slate. Of the 14 actors in the ad, nine were women, seven were people of color, and five were women of color.
“I don’t care what political party you’re part of or where you live, people like to feel positive.”
“Our goal is to do everything we can to represent the public faces on television and represent the United States as it really looks on our air,” Vicary says. “I think we have some terrific casting this year with Tatyana Ali, Dondre T. Whitfield, Patti LaBelle, Christina Milian, Jerrika Hinton, Tia Mowry, and more. We have our most diverse slate ever.”
In addition to what viewers see on air, Vicary notes that “more than 50% of the scripts that were written this year were written by women.” She also said they’re consciously trying to hire more female directors and behind-the-scenes crew. “I think in the last year we have added three more women to our roster of directors,” Vicary says. “We are very conscious of it.”
But Abbott or Vicary know that’s not enough. The executives are discussing a possible Hanukkah movie to join their holiday lineup (“One of my development execs brought me one this week that they were really excited about,” Vicary says. “I said, ‘Great, let’s meet and talk about it for 2019.”) According to Abbott, he’s even open to a Hallmark movie where the main couple doesn’t end up together. “As we delve into our content and [look for] a more authentic way, we’ll progress,” he says. “Everything is on the table.”
PHOTO: Hallmark
Danielle Panabaker and Matt Long in ‘Christmas Joy’.
That progress is important to Abbott and Vicary, who want Hallmark to stay current and evolving. “It’s particularly important that we represent the reality of the twenty-first century in that everybody is different and unique,” Abbott says. “It’s a pet peeve of mine when I read a story and kids are portrayed a certain way. The reality is girls can play baseball or be into science or play with dolls.”
Abbott even acknowledges that the network’s older movies were guilty of playing into stereotypes.”You look back at some of old, old movies, and it’s kind of the stereotypical situation of the woman at home,” he says. “We work very hard to stay out of that stereotypical dialogue and situational behavior because it’s just not reality, and it’s not authentic. We really try to empower women. We really work hard to ensure that our women are strong—while they don’t need a man, they’d love to fall in love. But at the end of the day, that is not what they need to be successful or happy or fulfilled or have a good career. That is something that is very important to all of us to portray.”
That awareness is one of the reasons Abbott credits the Hallmark Channel’s growth in markets like Chicago, New York, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, and D.C. “I think there’s this feeling that we’re flyover country and that it’s all red-state people,” he says. “That’s just completely not true. Everybody likes to feel good. I don’t care what political party you’re part of or where you live, people like to feel positive.” Yes, Hallmark’s content isn’t edgy—”and never will be”—but it’s certainly smarter than it’s ever been. “And that wins.”
It’s been a stressful year, but at least you can count on Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix to come through with the holiday cheer. After all, what’s more relaxing than watching an overworked woman fall in love with a Christmas tree farmer? So decompress with all of our delightful holiday content right here.
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