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Queen Elizabeth and Prince William had a special connection, and in many ways, they were just like a regular grandma and grandson . But let’s not kid ourselves: They were still royals, which means the idea of “spoiling your grandkids” was likely next-level. At least, that was definitely the case when it came to William’s favorite dessert. According to the queen’s ex-chef Darren McGrady, when the young prince wanted his preferred sweet treat, the queen had a magical way of indulging him. And let’s just say we are totally getting into Willy Wonka territory here. So what did Prince William crave as a kid, and how did his doting grandmother fulfill those wishes? Read on to find out. Get  Reader’s Digest ’s  Read Up newsletter for more royals, humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long. How did Queen Elizabeth indulge Prince William’s love of dessert? With the push of a button! Yes, it’s the stuff of dreams...

Jenny Jackson has carved out a unique place in the literary world—not only as the New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street and The Shampoo Effect , but also as the vice president and editorial director of fiction at the prestigious publishing house Alfred A. Knopf. While she spends her days editing some of today’s biggest novels, Jackson writes her own bestselling women’s fiction after hours, bringing wit and emotional depth to stories about family, friendship and the messy realities of adulthood. Jackson’s 2023 breakout debut, Pineapple Street , became an instant hit and a Good Morning America Book Club pick, winning readers over with its sharp yet heartfelt take on privilege and family dynamics in Brooklyn Heights. She then returned with her highly anticipated sophomore novel, The Shampoo Effect , a Read with Jenna  pick that follows Caroline Lash, a short story writer who moves to the coastal town of Greenhead, Massachusetts, where she fa...

Marissa Stapley didn’t exactly get her spark for Lucky under fortunate circumstances. In 2019, the author was crafting a novel but felt too unmotivated and unfocused to stick with it. “The characters were so complex and sad—I knew it wasn’t working,” she says. Then her mom, Valerie, who was terminally ill at the time, gave her the encouragement she needed. “She always wanted me to push ahead with my career, even when I was caring for her,” she recalls. “So she was like, ‘Well, think of something else. You always have ideas.’” Stapley soon came up with a gripping thriller about a heroine who happens to be a world-class criminal. It became a bestseller and a Reese’s Book Club pick in December 2021. Now, Lucky has been adapted into a seven-episode Apple TV series, which premiered on July 15. Anya Taylor-Joy ( The Queen’s Gambit ) is Lucky Anderson, a scrappy reformed grifter who learned about the art of the co...

If you were a kid in the ’90s or early 2000s , Tony Hawk was inescapable. He lived in your video game console, he turned up on Rocket Power , and in 2003 he skateboarded off a ramp into an 11,000-gallon tank of green slime at the Kids’ Choice Awards, which is a sentence that only makes sense if you were there. But before Hawk became the rare athlete who could cross from skate parks to PlayStation to Nickelodeon without anyone blinking, he was just a kid in a sport where “old” arrived early. Very early . “The older skaters were in their 20s. That’s when they would quit,” Hawk, now 58, tells Reader’s Digest . He remembers seeing a photo of legendary skateboarder Mark Lake in Thrasher magazine with a caption marveling that Lake was “30 and still killing it.” “I remember thinking, ‘That’s crazy—he’s 30,'” Hawk says. Nearly three decades past that supposedly ancient milestone, the X Games icon is...

I am a cheapskate when it comes to kids’ birthday parties, and I am proud of that fact. Somewhere along the way, kid party culture went from “pizza and a piñata” to “Coachella, but with juice boxes,” and I refuse to participate. My parenting philosophy can best be summarized as: If the city already bought a playground, why would I rent one? So I’ve thrown my fair share of parties at the free neighborhood pool and park myself, thank you very much, and I regret nothing. Which is exactly why I had no business being as annoyed as I was a couple weeks ago, when I met a friend at our neighborhood pool for a low-key Saturday chat and instead walked into what can only be described as a birthday party with a production budget. You know, the ones that live forever on Instagram Reels, where the balloon arch alone probably cost more than my car. There were at least three dozen 6-year-olds. A unicorn pool floatie the size of a Buick. Tables groaning under ...

It’s hard to believe, but the buzziest movie of the summer—one that already has blockbuster written all over it—is based on a 3,000-year-old Greek poem called The Odyssey . You may have read Homer’s 12,000-line epic in high school, but if you haven’t given one thought since then to the saga of Odysseus and his return from the Trojan War (understandable!), this film will refresh your memory and spark tons of conversation on your social media feed. Christopher Nolan, the genius director behind Oppenheimer , Inception and The Dark Knight (though my personal favorite is Memento ), has been plotting his version of Odysseus’s struggle to return home for more than 20 years. And with a budget of $250 million, an all-star lineup and more than 2 million feet of film shot, his opus is shaping up to be quite the homecoming party. If you’re scratching your head right now—like, are we really trying to make an ancient poem happen? In 2026?—I g...