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The Crown: What Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher’s Relationship Was Really Like

Season 4 explores the complicated connection between the most powerful women in Great Britain—here’s what really went on between them….

What about those trips to Balmoral? It is true that, shortly after visiting Scotland in 1981, Thatcher fired three of her ministers. They included the highborn Lord Soames and Sir Ian Gilmour. Also, yes, she wasn’t one for countryside pursuits: Tabloids say she walked around in high heels, had to borrow wellies, and seemed puzzled at Balmoral etiquette. (When learning they had a strict bedtime of 11:15, she apparently said, “Bed? What would we do up there?”) But it’s a stretch to say there’s a direct correlation between that trip and the cabinet reshuffling. The affected men had been vocal critics of Thatcher, and the prime minister wanted to consolidate both allies and power: “The consensus among Conservatives last night was that the Prime Minister, while shifting the centre of gravity of the Government perceptibly to the right, has strengthened her own position,” reported The Times at the time. And although Thatcher may have not fit in at Balmoral, her husband, Denis, did: It’s said he got on delightfully with the queen mother due to their mutual love of a stiff drink.

Speaking of The Times—in July 1986, they did indeed publish a story with the headline “Queen dismayed by ‘uncaring’ Thatcher.” It caused shockwaves with claims that the monarch believed “that a compromise must be reached between Thatcher and the other Commonwealth leaders” and that she felt that Thatcher’s approach could be “uncaring, confrontational and divisive.” At the time, Buckingham Palace denied the report. But it didn’t matter: The prime minister was said to be “crushed” by the story. Later, it emerged that the queen’s press secretary, Michael Shea, was the source, and members of parliament called for his resignation. He left Buckingham Palace the following year. Did Shea have the queen’s go-ahead on the leak? It’s unclear—but, as a trusted advisor, he certainly had insight into her thought processes.

At the end of the day, the two admired each other due to their mutual sense of duty and work ethic. “A senior Buckingham Palace official at the time recalls being struck by how vigorously they would talk together,” Andrew Marr wrote in his 2012 book, The Real Elizabeth. “Another says: ‘The Queen always saw the point of Margaret Thatcher. She understood that she was necessary.’” After Thatcher was ousted from power in 1990, Queen Elizabeth awarded her the Order of the Garter and the Order of Merit—a scene shown in the final episode of The Crown.

A professional courtesy? Perhaps. But consider this: In 2005, the queen attended Lady Thatcher’s 80th birthday party—an invitation that, with her busy schedule, she certainly could have turned down.

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Entertainment

A$AP Rocky Turned An Entire Manchester City Kit Into His Album Rollout

A$AP Rocky at South by Southwest 2019
Photo: DannyB Photos / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

A$AP Rocky doesn’t do album rollouts quietly, and this one recruited an entire Premier League club to help. Manchester City, PUMA, and Rocky teamed up on a limited apparel run tied to “Don’t Be Dumb,” his 2026 album, timed around his September 5th show at Co-op Live.

The centerpiece is a long-sleeve PUMA King jersey in black and archive gold, with “DON’T BE DUMB” running down the sleeve and AWGE branding worked in throughout. A bold “MANCHESTER” graphic covers the back. Fans could also add limited “A$AP 11” name-and-number printing onto the club’s actual Home, Away, or Third kits, while supplies lasted at retail.

There’s a players-only version too, and it never went up for sale. That one sticks closer to City’s usual sky-blue identity, with its own sleeve detailing and back graphic — the kind of piece that exists purely because a handful of people got lucky.

The whole rollout kicked off with a one-night pop-up on September 4th, when PUMA turned a spot in Manchester’s Northern Quarter into a pop-up cafe for the night, mixing football, music, and street style into one room before the wider release hit the stadium store the next morning. Some of those jerseys even came with golden tickets to the concert or that Saturday’s match.

Rocky has called the project true to his own design language, and it’s not even his only club collaboration this cycle — a similar drop with AC Milan landed around the same time. At this point, the line between fashion week and matchday has basically disappeared.

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Entertainment

Quavo And Lids Are Going All In On Atlanta With Their New Cap Pack

Quavo photographed in 2019
Photo: Finish Line / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Quavo has never been shy about his hat obsession, and Lids just gave him another outlet for it. Their new “Atlanta” pack drops September 12th, marking another round in a partnership that’s been running strong since 2019.

The collection is a love letter to the city, spread across three very different caps. One mashes up pinstripes, script lettering, and Braves branding into a single design, working navy, red, white, and light blue into the mix. Another goes the opposite direction entirely — fully iced out in crystal detailing, done up in black and red, with both the Falcons and the Braves showing up in the design. The third strips things back to an old-school “ATL” trucker cap in red, white, and gold, the kind of understated piece that lets the city’s name do the talking.

None of this is new territory for Quavo. He’s talked before about waiting on hat releases as a kid, and that same excitement seems to be what’s kept this partnership going years past most celebrity collabs. His earlier Lids run leaned on one moment — the Braves’ 1995 World Series win — but this pack pulls from the city’s whole sports history instead of just one highlight.

Lids has called Quavo one of the rare voices who can blend music, fashion, and sports without it feeling forced, and this drop backs that up. Given how fast his past releases have moved, Atlanta might want to set an alarm for September 12th.

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