It was her final [jubilee].
I cant remember which, he recalls.
He smiles, hyper-nonchalant, always respectful.
Photographed by Kate Martin, BritishVogue,October 2024
Oh, what a difference a decade or three makes.
Now 49, a touch of the eternal partier remains.
I still look back on those raving days as some of the happiest of my life.
It was ten thousand people in a warehouse, or a field, dancing together.
I still love dance music, I still love Ibiza, but things are very different.
I think DC10 has got a VIP area now.
He looks absolutely disgusted.
Trips to the islandas he made this past summertend to involve one too many roses at the villa now.
I was like: Right, Im getting too fat.
He fretted, cameras looming.
Its called reformer Pilates, he emphasizes earnestly into my recorder of his routine.
He feels lots better, even if he was hoping for more dramatic results.
He just went, Fuck off.
Parker Bowles honks with laughter.
Youre a food writer.
All these excess calories are coming from booze.
I said, But I dont drink three days a week!
Its the other four days Im worried about, came the reply.
He worked out that the [weekly] rose in summer is equivalent to, like, 18 cheeseburgers.
Anyone for turtle soup, a trilogy of mutton, or oeufs Suzette?
Yet we also get Queen Camillas chicken broth.
And simply: kippers.
Its a family affair at this point.
Yeah, I know full well: nepotism, blah, blah, blah.
Fair game, he says, meaning it.
But I thought, You know what?
In my defense, I can say that Ive had 25 years of keeping away from it.
If Id come in and said, Hey, guys.
But I approached it as I approach every other book.
Hes super close with his mother: they speak all the time; she adores her grandchildren.
It has not, he says with no little understatement, been the easiest of years for her.
They worried for her in the run-up to the coronationall those eyes, all that unkind history.
Shes tough, he says.
But then came genuine woe.
The Kings having the best treatment.
Hes a great man and a tough man, and youve just got to get on with it.
Of course, anyone who has someone they love with cancer is going to worry.
You just want everyone to be happy.
He hasnt had the easiest of times himself.
Brutal, he says, shaking his head, an A tattoo visible on his wrist.
A good lunch is usually a pretty good place to start.
Sittings editor: Honey Sweet Elias.
Grooming: Louise Lerego.
Production: Matthew Riley.
With thanks to Mount St Restaurant
