The controversy surrounding Prince Andrew certainly hasn’t died down, but the Queen has since sent a powerful message about what the future of the monarchy will look like.
“I think there has been a lot of messaging since then from the Queen around who matters in this family,” Angela Mollard reveals on New Idea’s podcast Royals.
“I think it’s going to be a very slimmed down monarchy this year in terms of who is publicising what they are doing.”
Indeed, it appears that in the lead up to Christmas the Queen sent out a few subtle messages. The first of which was the release of photos featuring the Queen along with her direct heirs, Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince George making Christmas puddings.
“I thought, the optic on this are, ‘this is the core of the royal family this is who we are going to be focussing on going into the future this is who we are focussing on don’t worry about little Andrew and his misdemeanours, these are the people you need to trust,’” she says.
“It was like full on marketing post for HRH.”
Then shortly after this, another photo from the day was released featuring the foursome.
“It’s a lot of messaging going on,” admits Angela.
“It’s saying trust in us were the stable people, you’re going to be fine, you’ve got 200 years of leadership here standing in front of you we’ve got ongoing decades of continuity and substance and this is who were promoting.’
“This is very much apparently being driven by Charles. When he takes over, he wants a very slimmed down monarchy. He doesn’t want brothers’, sisters, extended heirs to the throne sort of taking tax payers money and doing work extensively on behalf of the royal family…
“It’s a smart move and it’s a very sort of 2020 move, and I think that was the Queen determining the future.”
But what will this mean for some of the much-loved royal family members such as Meghan and Harry?
We will just have to wait and see.
To hear more about it, listen to this week’s podcast here…
