What were you doing in 2016? It’s the question everyone is answering online this week as social media users escape the bleak reality of January, heading to the (psychically, at least) warmer climes of a nostalgic past.
A quick flick through the Royal Family’s camera roll from 10 years ago reveals a House of Windsor that’s almost unrecognizable today: Prince Harry, Prince William, and Kate Middleton were a three-headed dream team; no one had heard of “Megxit”; and Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating her 90th birthday with her beloved Prince Philip by her side.
There were so many senior royals still on the roster (Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor among them), that Prince Edward and Sophie, countess of Wessex (now the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh) were relatively minor public figures and had yet to see their profiles bloom. The then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge started the year with a private family ski holiday to the French Alps and delighted royal watchers by sharing adorable photos of a 2-year-old Prince George and a 10-month-old Princess Charlotte frolicking in the snow. The following month, Prince William and Kate welcomed Barack Obama to Kensington Palace. (2016 was also the year Donald Trump was first elected president of the United States, and the year of Brexit.) A triumphant tour of Canada followed for the Waleses, as did a trip to India and Bhutan. That summer saw the Rio Olympics and a particularly spectacular Trooping the Colour as the nation gathered to toast to Her Majesty’s nonagenarian milestone.
Prince Harry with Prince William and Kate at an event commemorating the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in July 2016
Pool/Getty Images
There was heartache for Princess Beatrice, who split from boyfriend Dave Clark after a decade of dating, and Mike and Zara Tindall were struck by tragedy when a pregnancy ended in miscarriage. It was also the year Prince Harry met a Californian actress from a US legal drama for a first date at Soho House—Meghan Markle, of course—a meeting that led to a royal wedding, Meghan Mania, and eventually a rift in the royal family that, a decade ago, seemed unimaginable.
Originally published in Tatler.