You know when you lose your mojo? Well, me and this site lost it a little while ago and we've been trying to reconnect ever since. I am hoping this is the moment. No editing involved.
Maybe everything we do has a deep, personal connection that we might not sometimes realise. Right now, that photo at the top of this post is everywhere. It's become literally the only thing in the world that anyone wants to talk about and that's even with war, human suffering, destruction, crazy politics. Oh, and also Ryan Gosling as Ken at the Oscars. There is actually so much happening now it's insane. And the most lunatic part is that the world is obsessing over Kate photoshopping a Mother's Day image.
And yet here I am. It's not like I haven't written about it. I am now editor in chief at Royal Central and I have written plenty on it there as well as on our socials. I've edited other work on it. I'm currently shoe horning it into a proposal for a proposal for a chapter in an academic book about modern royalty. And after today's binge of Emily in Paris (two episodes max so more like a slightly large lunch really), I'll be scribbling in my ideas jotter to see if I can't come up with a proposal for my own book on royalty and social media. But despite all that, today I just kept opening up this old blog of mine and wanting to write here again. So I am.
Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months.
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 10, 2024
Wishing everyone a Happy Mother's Day. C
📸 The Prince of Wales, 2024 pic.twitter.com/6DywGBpLLQ
I think it's because this story has touched me and, on reflection, brought me back to the very place where I started this blog, almost eleven years ago. In spring 2013, I began writing about royalty here. I called it Queens of England because I was going to make a website all about just that, the Queens of England. I didn't really even know about blogging. Then I tried out blogger and liked it. And made myself post three times a day. And after a week, it was a habit. Then all the big royal stories started to happen and people started to read it and I loved that.
But how does that link me to the photo frenzy of 2024? Well, poor Kate has been under huge pressure to show herself after several months away from the public eye following major abdominal surgery. I have not been under pressure to show myself which is handy cos I started eating chocolate again at Christmas and now I'm three days into a keto plan that might mean I feel like me again by Easter. Which is when we were told Kate might be well enough to appear again. No, my link is abdomens, knives, stitches and getting well again.
In March 2013, I had an emergency C section. The only thing that mattered to me as everything went haywire was that my baby was OK. He was. I am eternally grateful for that. I got sewn back together and was kept in hospital for a very long time and then went home where I stayed for weeks. I didn't leave my house for over a month. I couldn't. I can still remember the first time I went out. My mum took me and my son out. He was in his pram, I was tottering alongside very slowly. She pushed the pram cos I couldn't. I managed a tiny little part, holding the handles. It felt magical, just for those few seconds, to be able to do something normal again. I didn't drive a car until the summer and even then, very slowly and with the added bonus of not being able to get out again without putting the seat all the way back and rolling on to the pavement. I ended up in hospital again with complications. I could go on. My life shrank to looking after my child and the tottering steps I could manage. So I feel very strongly about Kate. I don't know what happened to her but I know being sliced across your middle is hard and takes a lot to recover from. And seeing this pile on about her not bouncing through social media videos on demand is really hitting me. I know, to an extent, what she is going through. She needs to be left alone.
I don't know how she's making herself feel good about her life being turned upside down by physical issues. She tried taking photos but ended up being hounded by people around the world with nothing better to do than bully someone over their physical disability. I tried writing. I started the blog as something to do. It was an attempt to revive my once zealous passion for writing. It became a great joy.
It was also a place where I could have my own voice, where I didn't have to conform. I had spent over fifteen years by then as a journalist for organisations. They had rules, they had styles, they had branding. I had to fit in. Here, I could just write how I wanted and I loved that, too. And then, as time went on, I began to feel I had to up my game and that's where it all went wrong. Instead of doing what I loved, I began to try to conform again. If this was called 'Queens of England' then, surely, that is what it had to be about. I tried to come up with plans about writing only on this country's queens and soon realised that the research involved was epic if I wanted to be good. I also worked out, most importantly, that this wasn't what I wanted my blog to be. I wanted to just write about royalty. Should I change the name? Should I rebrand? Was I reaching a target audience by using a name I loved for something I loved, even if they didn't match?
The end result was paralysis. I just haven't written here for three years. I have written plenty elsewhere and it hasn't all been doom and gloom. But the world is changing again and I miss my lovely blog. And the bullying of England's future queen, Kate, has fired me up. So let's fire this bad baby up again and just do it. My blog is called Queens of England. It's about royalty and the bits of that I love or I'm interested in or I just want to explore right then. And it's about me. That healing woman of 2013 is more solid now. Her voice has changed but her heart hasn't. She loves to write. And she'll be doing it right here. Hello again.
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