DYNASTY: The Royal Family’s Most Challenging Year

Kate Middleton and the Future of the Monarchy Aug 01, 2024

This spring, Catherine, Princess of Wales, ended a long silence and rampant public speculation with a solemn video announcing her cancer diagnosis. In the final episode of DYNASTY: The Windsors’ Most Difficult Year, hosts Claire Howorth, Katie Nicholl, and Erin Vanderhoof explain why the message that accompanied her diagnosis was the most important speech of her royal career, and what it says about the Catherine we will see in the future. After a year of struggle, is the monarchy emerging into a new, calmer era? And what lessons will the Windsors take away from their brushes with ill-health and public speculation?

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The Truth About Meghan, Harry, and Their California Dream Jul 25, 2024

It’s been four years since Meghan Markle and Prince Harry walked away from their royal roles, sparking an endless stream of media attention and second-guessing in the UK. This year, the biggest headlines—from historic health challenges for Kate Middleton and King Charles III to royal banquets and honor ceremonies—have been coming from Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been carving out their own luxurious, semi-royal, and very philanthropic path thousands of miles away, in the court of Montecito.

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Has This Year Changed King Charles? Jul 18, 2024

When King Charles III announced his cancer diagnosis in February, there was an outpouring of emotion in the UK, along with some concern about what it would look like if the monarch not wasn’t able to greet his public on a daily basis. From the beginning, the king balanced his treatments with his duties, and privately he told his medical team that attending Trooping the Colour, the parade that marks his birthday, was nonnegotiable. By the time the June celebration rolled around, the king was out on the Buckingham Palace balcony with Queen Camilla at his side, and the clouds over the Windsors’ future seemed to part.

On this week’s episode of DYNASTY: The Royal Family’s Most Challenging Year, hosts Claire Howorth, Katie Nicholl, and Erin Vanderhoof return to the unprecedented events of the year, and Charles’ embrace of radical (for royals, anyway) transparency.

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Prince William’s New Role In the Family Jul 11, 2024

After a year in which the British Royal Family has been forced to foreground its humanity and vulnerability, DYNASTY is returning for a special four-episode series to examine the events and share behind-the-scenes details. On this inaugural episode, hosts Claire Howorth, Katie Nicholl, and Erin Vanderhoof discuss Prince William’s role as the royal responsible for holding the family together amid a maelstrom of illness and personal rifts. How has William balanced his public role with his private challenges? Has he recovered from the hit to his reputation when Harry spilled in his memoir, Spare? And if his reign were to come sooner than anyone imagined, would he be ready?

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Introducing: This is Uncomfortable Feb 15, 2024

At what point do you walk away from your dreams? Kashy gave himself a deadline: if he didn’t become a pop star by the time he turned 25, he’d give up music. But years after he left his music career behind, the universe gave him a second chance, thousands of miles from home.

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From In the Dark: The Runaway Princesses Jan 30, 2024

The wives and daughters of Dubai’s ruler live in unbelievable luxury. So why do the women in Sheikh Mohammed’s family keep trying to run away? The New Yorker staff writer Heidi Blake joins In the Dark’s Madeleine Baran to tell the story of the royal women who risked everything to flee the brutality of one of the world’s most powerful men. In four episodes, drawing on thousands of pages of secret correspondence and never-before-heard audio recordings, “The Runaway Princesses” takes listeners behind palace walls, revealing a story of astonishing courage and cruelty.

“The Runaway Princesses” is a four-part narrative series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. To keep listening, follow In the Dark wherever you get your podcasts or via this link https://link.chtbl.com/itd_f

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The Rebranding of King Charles May 16, 2023

The king’s speech? That may mean far less than what has so far gone unsaid over the days of celebration and circumstance. What comes next for the man and his family?

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The King, the Queen, and Their Country May 08, 2023

The DYNASTY hosts recap King Charles’s coronation, the highs and lows, and the Prince Harry of it all

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The Palace and the Press May 02, 2023

After Harry and Meghan’s royal exit, the royal family doubled down on “never complain, never explain,” but there are a few signs that the Buckingham Palace public relations strategy is undergoing a reset. Can King Charles change the Palace’s relationship with the press?

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King Charles Ascends—For Better and Worse Apr 25, 2023

On a special episode of DYNASTY, cohosts Katie Nicholl and Erin Vanderhoof break down some of the king’s successes on the world stage and some of the threats to his new reign.

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Special Coverage: Will Prince Harry Have Regrets? Jan 17, 2023

After taking a few days to savor Prince Harry’s eye-opening memoir Spare, cohosts Katie Nicholl and Erin Vanderhoof sit down to explain the book’s revelations and debate whether Harry will come to regret his disclosures. Can the Firm weather more controversy? And will the royals ever make up with Harry and Meghan?

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Still Watching: The Crown Season 5 Nov 09, 2022

All ten episodes of season 5 of The Crown are now on Netflix, and Dynasty's Erin Vanderhoof joins Vanity Fair reporter Julie Miller for a special Still Watching breaking down the first five episodes of the new season. Catching up with the royals in the 90s, the decades of Charles and Diana's bitter divorce and the Queen's "annus horribilis", the new season includes plenty of drama for every adult member of the royal family, plus the introduction of new key figures like Mohamed Al-Fayed and Hasnat Khan.

Vanity Fair's royal correspondent and Dynasty cohost Katie Nicholl also joins for a conversation about how the real-life royals are feeling about the new season, and why the show may be much more than just an inconvenience for the newly crowned King Charles III.

For more on The Crown, read all of Vanity Fair's coverage.

Vanity Fair’s Still Watching podcast is also recapping this season of HBO’s The White Lotus every Monday - head over their page to hear the latest episode featuring an interview with Beatrice Granno.

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King Charles on the Cusp Sep 23, 2022

As the splintered family mourns its matriarch, Vanity Fair's DYNASTY examines how Charles, William, and Harry are planning for their respective futures.

For more DYNASTY, visit VF.com/dynasty.