Queen lands in Northern Ireland for two-day visit
After that whirlwind visit to Douglas on the Isle of Man (see our previous post), the Queen has arrived in Northern Ireland for another two days of royal engagements.

Staff at Hillsborough Castle welcomed Camilla as she arrived this evening, ahead of another busy day tomorrow.

The Queen last visited Northern Ireland in May last year with the King – their first visit to the region following the coronation.

Camilla has stepped up to take on extra royal duties since the King began treatment for cancer, which has seen him miss public engagements.

Behind the scenes, he continues to work on his red boxes of state papers.

Queen jokes that grandson Louis is a ‘handful’ during Isle of Man visit
The Queen gave a nod to her cheeky grandson Louis as she met crowds of supporters during a visit to the Isle of Man today.

Meeting a baby with the same name, Camilla said: “I have a Louis grandson… quite a handful.”

Prince Louis is, of course, the youngest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The five-year-old is known for stealing the show with his many funny faces during major royal engagements.

The Queen’s comment about Louis came as she greeted people outside Douglas Borough Council, after officially declaring Douglas a city.

She made the brief visit on behalf of her husband, the King.

She told well-wishers the King was “so sorry” not to make the occasion but thanked people for their “warm welcome”, before reading out a speech he had prepared.

It read: “The granting of your city status is particularly special to me, as your Letters Patent are the only ones in existence that hold both my signature and that of my late mother.

“Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, as you mark your well-deserved status as one of the newest cities in the British Isles, and the only one of the Crown Dependencies, I would like to offer on behalf of my wife and myself, my heartfelt congratulations and my very best wishes for the future.”

Buckingham Palace hiring communications assistant for £25k
As the royals face rumours and scrutiny over the Princess of Wales’s whereabouts, a job opening has been posted for a communications assistant at Buckingham Palace.

The role pays just over £25,600 a year and is based in the private secretary’s office.

Candidates are tasked with promoting the “work, role, relevance and value of the Royal Family to a worldwide audience”.

“The reaction to our work is always high-profile, and so reputation and impact will be at the forefront of all that you do,” the advert says.

The job application closes on 7 April.

Kate-spiracies reminiscent of days before Diana death, journalist says
Conspiracy theories abut the Princess of Wales’s health are quickly getting out of hand, according to a leading royal journalist.

Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said she had a “chilling feeling” that it reminded her of the time just before Diana, Princess of Wales’s death.

She said the online rumours and frenzy around Kate were “spiralling out of control”.

“It reminds me that just before… Diana, [then] Princess of Wales, was tragically killed in that car accident, it was spiralling out of control then,” Ms Seward told Times Radio.

“I remember every single day it was headline news – what she was doing on her holiday in France with Dodi Fayed.

“I just remember saying, this is spiralling out of control – and I’ve got the same feeling now.”

Royal Family’s privacy in the spotlight: Tampongate, topless photos of Kate and a New York car chase
From hospital stays to holidays, and private phone calls to car chases, the Royal Family’s right to privacy has rarely been out of the spotlight.

The issue will be debated again after reports of an intrusion in hospital while the Princess of Wales was being treated in January.

Here we take a look at the issues they have faced over the years.

Prank call

In 2012, two Australian DJs – 2Day FM presenters Michael Christian and Mel Greig – posed as the late Queen, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and the then Prince Charles in a prank call to King Edward VII hospital in Windsor, where Kate was being treated for acute morning sickness during her pregnancy with Prince George.

Indian-born nurse Jacintha Saldanha was found dead on 7 December – three days after transferring the call to a colleague who divulged details about Kate’s recovery.

An inquest into Ms Saldanha’s death heard the 46-year-old mother-of-two blamed herself for transferring the call, which she believed was genuine. The inquest concluded she took her own life.

Topless pictures of Kate

Topless photographs of Kate – taken while she and Prince William were on holiday in the south of France – were published in a French publication, Closer, in September 2012.

Prince William and Kate were said to have reacted with “anger and disbelief” and thought a “red line has been crossed”.

But the publication’s then editor, Laurence Pieau, said the couple were “visible from the street” and the images were “not in the least shocking”.

The royals filed a criminal complaint for invasion of privacy and got an injunction preventing further use of the images.

They also launched a legal action for breach of privacy against the publishers of the magazine.

A court ordered France’s Closer magazine to pay €100,000 (£92,000) in damages to the couple in September 2017.

‘Tampongate’

A transcript of the infamous “Tampongate” phone call between the then Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was published in 1993 by several British newspapers after it surfaced in an Australian magazine.

The story went into the details of an incredibly intimate conversation between the future King and Queen.

The conversation took place between the pair in December 1989, and was taped by a radio enthusiast scanning frequencies – often used by police officers and pirate radio DJs – after stumbling across the private phone call.

Hacking claims

More recently, Prince Harry won substantial damages in his hacking case accusing Mirror Group Newspapers of unlawfully gathering information for stories published about him.

The privacy case brought by the Duke of Sussex was “proved in part” last year, with 15 of the 33 articles presented in court found to be the product of phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering, the High Court ruled.

Paparazzi ‘car chase’

Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and her mother were involved in a “near catastrophic” car chase after being followed by paparazzi for more than two hours, a spokesperson for the couple claimed.

The incident happened after they attended an awards ceremony at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York on 16 May last year.

Ashley Hansen, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s press secretary, told Sky News at the time: “I have never experienced their vulnerability as much as I did last night. They were incredibly scared and shaken up.

New York Police officials played down the incident by saying they did not believe the chase was “near catastrophic” and described it instead as a “bit of a chaotic scene”.

What have the royals been doing today?
Let’s check in on where some of the Royal Family have been today.

The Queen has been pictured out and about in the Isle of Man, where she’s been officially confirming Douglas as a city.

In Windsor, Princess Anne has given broadcast legend Tony Blackburn an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

The honour recognises services to broadcasting and to charity.

‘Get behind the princess,’ government says
We’ve had some reaction from the government to the ongoing royal data story.

Asked about the alleged breaches at the London Clinic following the Princess of Wales’s treatment, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Clearly there are strict rules on patient data that must be followed.”

“I think we all want to get behind the Princess of Wales, and indeed the Prince of Wales, and we obviously wish her the speediest of recoveries,” they added.

Explained: What is the London Clinic?
We’ve been hearing rather a lot about the London Clinic in recent days – but what exactly is it?

The facility

We’ll get on to the high-profile patients shortly, but at its heart, the London Clinic is a high-performing private hospital.

Its website says it was “founded on the principles of providing excellence in one place”.

It is registered to provide surgery as well as diagnostics and screening, managing supply of blood and blood-derived products, and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

It has seven main operating theatres and three additional theatres, as well as six specialty wards for surgeries in urology, gynaecology, thoracic surgery, orthopaedics and spinal procedures.

According to the health watchdog, the hospital has about 23,000 inpatients a year, with a further 110,000 outpatients, and the latest inspection by the Care Quality Commission (in June 2021) rated the facility as “good” overall.

Since the 1980s, a number of facilities at the site have been officially launched by members of the royal family.

Discretion

The private hospital, which was opened in 1932 by the then-Duke and Duchess of York, has boasted a series of high-profile patients over the years – including the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, the late Queen’s younger sister Princess Margaret, and former US president John F Kennedy.

With such a roster, discretion is key to the facility.

The clinic will therefore not welcome the recent attention.

The Princess of Wales received abdominal surgery at the London Clinic in January, but it has since been reported that at least one member of staff tried to access her private medical records.

The King, who is undergoing treatment for a form of cancer, was also treated at the centre for an enlarged prostate.