This is in conversation from Apple News.
I'm Shemitah Basu.
Today, the future of the British monarchy in the face of family turmoil and scandal.
This year, Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee, 70 years on the throne.
She was crowned at 25 years old, and ever since then, she's had one maintain the monarchy, make sure it survives, no matter what.
There's been plenty of turbulence over the decades, but nothing like the challenges of the last few years.
The Queen's son, Prince Andrew, was stripped of his royal titles for his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew recently settled a lawsuit in which a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor.
Then there's Meghan and Harry, who left the royal family after what they say was abusive and racist treatment from the monarchy and the British press.
Plus, with William and Kate's disastrously received tour of the Caribbean Commonwealth nations and the Queen's failing health, many are questioning the legitimacy of the monarchy and whether it has a future.
Longtime palace journalist Tina Brown is out with a new book called the Palace Inside the House of the Truth and the Turmoil.
She's been covering the crown for decades, and she says she spoke to over a hundred sources inside and close to the royals for this book.
The COVID says everything about who Brown thinks are the real power brokers in the family, aside from the Queen, the women who married into royalty.
Well, clearly these women are the real driving force behind the modern monarchy.
There's Camilla, married to the future King Charles, which makes her the future Queen Consort.
She has really done an extraordinary amount in the last 20 years.
Now she's married to Charles to really kind of stabilize him after all of his years of misery, you know, during the Diana years and the post Diana years.
There's Kate, married to William, who is next in line to the throne after.
His father, Charles, a girl from the middle classes.
You know, people said, oh, how could this middle class young woman possibly marry the future king?