As Meghan Markle and Prince Harry wrap up their final royal engagements before heading back to their new lives in Canada, they spent some quality time with Queen Elizabeth II at church on Sunday morning, March 8.
The Queen invited the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to join her for church service in Windsor, marking what is believed to be the first time Markle will have seen the monarch since the couple announced they were stepping down from their roles as senior members of the royal family. (Prince Harry has sat down with his grandmother and other members of the Royal family several times since the announcement, but Markle remained in Canada with the couple’s son Archie.)
“It was a really sweet gesture that the Queen asked them to church,” a source told People. “It’s telling in the sense that these two are still her family. And as a family, they all love each other.”
In photos obtained by the outlet, Prince Harry was seen driving his wife to the Royal Chapel of All Saints as Markle smiled and waved at fans.
This is only the third time we’ve seen Markle since the pair announced they were stepping down from their royal duties. This week, the couple made a joint appearance at the annual Endeavour Fund Awards in London before attending the Mountbatten Festival of Music at the Royal Albert Hall in London in matching red ensembles.
The reunion follows the Queen’s emotional statement from earlier this year, emphasizing that “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved members” of her family.
“I recognise the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life,” she said in the statement. “I want to thank them for all their dedicated work across this country, the Commonwealth and beyond, and am particularly proud of how Meghan has so quickly become one of the family. It is my whole family’s hope that today’s agreement allows them to start building a happy and peaceful new life.”
The Sussexes are also set to attend the Commonwealth Day service on Monday, March 9, where they will reunite with Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince William, and Kate Middleton in public for the first time since this all began in January.
As expected, I only found about 10 emails between us in as many years of Gmail use. The revelation was not in anything I read but in the mere typing of his name—an icy wave of relief splashing me in the face. How good it felt to write his name for no reason, in a place that only I could see, and not on some piece of paperwork related to his death or in response to some well-wisher’s post on Facebook. It was like charging a magical sigil. I’d never been one of those writers who attached fetishistic significance to the physical act of writing (or to books themselves, or paper). But I finally understood how those writers felt. Writing to my father, I realized, was a charmed act. It didn’t summon him, but it raised the friendly shadow of him in the room; that was something.
I began writing him emails. I didn’t send them at first. Typing his email address into the “recipient” bar was enough to conjure up his listening presence. For months I transcribed the hostile anguish in my head into emails to my father, which I would then seal off with the addition of his email address and save in my drafts folder. It was the high school diary, unfiltered. He would never find out how it ended now; it felt good to “tell” him.
The first time I pressed “send,” it was by accident, and I was horrified. I was worried not that someone would receive and read the email, but that the recipient address would bounce back a message that the account had been deactivated.
I stared at my inbox for a minute, waiting for the inevitable. It never happened. The email address was still active.
So I continued the ritual, except now I sent those long-winded emails out. I wrote to my father anytime I needed him. In my letters, I tried to talk myself around to whatever he would have said to me, hoping I could reverse-engineer the advice he might have given me. Then I pressed “send,” which never stopped being thrilling—I’d sidestepped the finality of death and found a plane where my father could thrive unchallenged. I put disclaimers at the beginning of every email: Hey, if you can somehow read this, please ignore it; hey, I don’t think anyone’s checking this email, but if you are then please just delete without reading; I’m lonely, I’m grieving, I miss my father, nothing to see here. But nobody ever responded.
One day, a year and a half later, someone did respond—not from my father’s email address, thank God, or I likely would have passed out at my desk. Still, it was frightening to see another email address from the same Workplace suite, with the same subject line. I don’t know what I was frightened of, exactly. Only that the stakes felt terribly high. I’d forgotten the cardinal rule of doing anything online, even sending emails to a dead person’s inbox—everything that happens online can be witnessed by an audience.
The response I received is the reason you’re reading this, because I posted it on Twitter and it went viral. “I’m sure you remember me,” my father’s former coworker wrote. “I want you to know that I never read these emails because I can tell they are very personal. But I do see them coming in and I can see that you must still miss your dad terribly.” There was more; I’m self-conscious about typing it all out, because of how generous it was for this person to not only share memories of my father with me, but to interpret them, color them with our shared understanding of what my father and I had been together. Like, for example: “Watching the two of you together wisecracking…it was like watching a Mel Brooks movie.”
Right after he died, all I ever wanted to do was talk about how great my dad was. People never quite related to that urge properly, leaving me feeling frustrated and thwarted at every turn. I was so dialed into my grief that it was unimaginable to me how people could talk to me about anything else. I wanted other people to tell me funny stories that made my father sound as cool and charming as I’d always believed him to be, without my having to ask for it. That was the thing that my dad’s old coworker did for me. I shot the signals of my mourning into space for months, fully expecting them to die unreceived. And when I least expected it, someone sent signals back that said, “You are not the last living witness to the relationship you had with your father.”
It’s not often that a member of the royal family gets vulnerable with reporters. But on Friday, October 18, a revealing interview with Duchess of Sussex Meghan Marklemade the rounds online, in which she opens up about the intense media scrutiny that’s followed her since she became a royal. Fans are now responding to the interview by rallying behind the Duchess of Sussex with messages of support.
An upcoming documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey follows Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on their recent royal tour of Southern Africa. In a teaser clip from the film, director Tom Bradby asks Markle how she’s minding her physical and mental health amid the media scrutiny she’s faced in recent months. Her answer is gut-wrenching. “I would say…look, any woman, especially when they’re pregnant, you’re really vulnerable,” Markle says. “So that was made really challenging. And then when you have a newborn, you know?
“And especially as a woman, it’s really, it’s a lot,” Markle continues in the clip. “So if you add this on top of just trying to be a new mom or trying to be a newlywed, it’s um…. Yeah, well, I guess, and also thank you for asking because not many people have asked if I’m okay. But it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”
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Fans online were stunned at the Duchess’s honesty—and at the difficulties she’s faced in silence. So Greg Hogben, a writer, asked royal fans to share posts with #WeLoveYouMeghan to show their support.
The response was overwhelming. Thousands of fans have written messages to the Duchess with #WeLoveYouMeghan. One called her “a true warrior”; several others noted that her story’s a potent reminder to treat everyone with kindness. Here’s just a sample of the messages fans sent.
High-profile voices have chimed into the conversation to share their support for the duchess, and to remind their followers that any role that comes with press attention can feel isolating. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez retweeted the clip, noting that Markle’s quick rise to notoriety was not unlike her own. “Sudden prominence is a very dehumanizing experience,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “There’s a part of your life that you lose, & it later dawns on you that you’ll never get it back.”
The official Sussex royal accounts haven’t responded to the trending moment, but fans can hope that Markle may have seen their messages of support and love—and that Markle now knows she’s not alone.
Sexting with a partner can be thrilling. It can also be nerve-raking. How can you be sure they’re the only one who will see a racy pic? What if they send you a nude photo, but you don’t feel comfortable returning the favor? What’s the appropriate way to respond if you like what you see? And what if you get a nude pic that’s not appreciated?
Sending and receiving nude photos can be amazing, but only if everyone is on the same page. “In terms of pictures, consent and communication are needed as they are in all sexual interactions, off or online,” says Laurie Mintz, Ph.D., a sex therapist, psychologist, and author of Becoming Cliterate.
Here’s how to handle every sexting situation that comes your way.
Situation 1: Your partner asks for a nude photo
First things first: It’s completely up to you if you’re willing to get naked in front of the camera. (If full-on nudity isn’t your thing, you might try something more subtle like underwear or even just a t-shirt.)
Second, be aware that sending a nude photo always entails some risk, says Mintz. The question to ask yourself is, “How sure are you this would not be someone who would show these photos to someone else or post them in revenge if you break up?” she says. “You need to be aware that trust can be broken.”
To practice safer sexting, at the very least, add a passcode to your phone and have your partner do the same. Cropping your face out of any photos also helps to minimize privacy concerns. To really be protected, consider using an encrypted app like DiscKreet which adds an extra layer of protection to your peace of mind. Messages and photos sent between partners in the app require two passwords to open at any given time—in other words, you have to give your consent every time a partner wants to view your photos.
Situation 2: You want to send a nude photo to someone
You’re comfortable enough with someone to take your texting to the next level? Awesome. Just make sure they’re on board, too, since not everyone has the same comfort level.
Rule number one: Always ask before sending an unsolicited racy photo. “If they reply with enthusiasm, you’ve got the green light,” says Astroglide’s resident sexologist Jess O’Reilly, Ph.D. “If they say no or sound unsure, respect their boundaries. Sexting can be hot, but there are many other hot activities in which to engage if it’s not your partner’s cup of tea.”
Situation 3: You want your partner to send a nude photo
When you’re asking for a photo, the same rules apply: make sure your partner enthusiastically consents before engaging in any nude photo exchange. Mintz recommends a simple, clear request like “I’d love to get a picture of your XX.”
Most importantly, don’t pressure them, and don’t take it personally if they say “no,” says O’Reilly. They may be concerned about privacy or just not feel comfortable with it, but that doesn’t reflect how they feel about you.
Situation 4: You get a photo you like but aren’t sure where to take it from there
Sexting can be fantastic foreplay—it can also be a little awkward to get the hang of. Once you get a sexy photo from your partner, it’s not uncommon to draw a blank on what to say next, especially if this is a new activity for you or your partner.
Spoiler alert: “Nice!” probably won’t cut it. Taking a mental health day to binge watch Game of Thrones is nice. Scoring the last spot in your favorite SoulCycle class is nice. When someone get’s vulnerable enough to share a nude photo, you can do better than nice.
A Star Is Born, the much-discussed film starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, debuted at Venice Film Festival on Friday and promptly received an eight-minute ovation (due, in part, to persevering through some lightning-induced technical issues, but an eight-minute ovation nonetheless).
Eight. Minutes. As if that didn’t point to the film being worth your hard-earned money for a ticket, early reviews have also been incredibly promising, with Oscar whispers of “Lady Gaga” and “Best Actress” already circulating. In fact, they’re close to nothing but glowing—and Twitter is psyched for the movie’s debut.
The heaps of praise being piled on the film, if you only read the most basic of information on it, are—to be very honest—a little surprising: This is Cooper’s directorial debut, making the film something critics are more wont to pick apart than not. It’s also a remake: The original version came out in 1937 and has been reimagined several times, which inevitably prompts many comparisons against past iterations. And, it features a crossover star: Though she’s appeared on American Horror Story (and won a Golden Globe for it), Lady Gaga is, after all, first a vocalist, second an actress (at least so far). Her first movie-star role, you’d imagine, might invite extra scrutiny in terms of her ability to command a film.
But critics are in love. Over at the Guardian, Peter Bradshaw called Gaga “sensationally good” and gave the film five stars: “[Gaga’s] songs are gorgeous and the ingenuous openness of her scenes with Jackson are wonderfully sympathetic. Meanwhile Cooper, whose screen persona can so often be bland and unchallenging, makes precisely this conservative tendency work for him in the role.” Variety called it “transcendent,” with Gaga’s performance a “fetching and accomplished movie-star debut”; IndieWire called the pop icon “resplendent.” Some go so far as to say that she’s the best part of a very good film.
Needless to say, Twitter is hyped for the film to hit theaters on Oct. 8, with users f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g out over the chance to see a movie with Gaga, Cooper, a lot of romance, and some really, really good tunes (Cooper even wrote some himself).
So yeah, you could say we have the release date on our iCal (with five alerts, a special notification tone, and reminders to pre-book tickets). This is going to be incredible.
Taylor Swift was wrong, people: It turns out we can have nice things. In fact, the Reputation singer/snake ally is about to receive a very nice thing herself…from someone very surprising: Kim Kardashian, her tabloid nemesis. Yup.
What the hell am I talking about, you ask? No, I’m not being facetious. I’m not Khloé Kardashian trolling everyone about my pregnancy by gushing about lip-kit “babies.” I’m dead serious. Kim Kardashian is about to send Taylor Swift a present—one of her new fragrances, to be exact—and all because Swift is one of her haters.
It’s twisted logic, I know, but this is Kim Kardashian we’re talking about. She goes to McDonald’s in thousand-dollar Yeezy outfits. She “dies” if Chipotle doesn’t give her enough ice in her Diet Coke. She once wore this wig on Keeping Up With the Kardashians and talked in a Southern accent just for shits and giggles. Nothing she does should be surprising anymore.
But back to the gift: Kim posted a list to Snapchat of all the “lovers” and “haters” she’s planning on sending her new fragrances to. She has three scents: BFF (which is pink), BAE (blue), and Ride or Die (purple), and everyone on her list was assigned a color.
The “Ride or Dies” are written on purple sticky notes, and they include Jennifer Lawrence, Chrissy Teigen, and Paris Hilton—the usual suspects. The “BFFs” are in pink and include Kourtney Kardashian and Kendall Jenner—again, typical.
But it’s the celebrities in blue—the “BAES,” a.k.a. her “haters”—that are noteworthy. Here’s whom she included: Sarah Michelle Geller, Janice Dickinson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Pink, Bette Midler, Chelsea Handler, Piers Morgan, Naya Rivera, Blac Chyna, Wendy Williams, Sharon Osbourne, and Taylor Alison Swift.
“I’m going to send them to my lovers, to my haters, [and] to everyone I think of, because it’s Valentine’s Day, after all,” Kim says in the Snapchat. Take a look at this hit list for yourself, below:
PHOTO: Snapchat
I’m confused. Was Kim not flattered by all the sweet things Swift said about her on Reputation? Does she not remember the time Handler said Keeping Up With the Kardashians gets “good ratings”? Why is she trying to give Piers Morgan more press?
Her motivation for this is unclear. Maybe Kim has a sudden appreciation for Hocus Pocus or is watching old episodes of Glee and feeling nostalgic. Maybe she wants a DVD of Chloë Grace Moretz’s incredible work in Big Momma’s House 2. Who the hell knows? Either way, it’s happening: Soon everyone who has picked a fight with the Kardashians—either imaginary, in the tabloids, or in real life—is about to receive a giant heart-shaped bottle with Kim’s name on it. Delicious.
Do you hear that? That’s the sound of T-Swift writing a new song called “Perfume.”
