Anyone who spent five years of their lives watching Serena and Blair end and restart their relationship will be able to tell you that friendships can often be just as tumultuous as love stories. An abrupt end to a close friendship can sometimes leave you yearning for closure - though not everyone is lucky enough to get it. This summer, however, has marked a turning point for several high profile platonic relationships.
Firstly, after four years of reported tension, Kate Middleton is said to have rekindled her friendship with Rose Hanbury (Marchioness of Cholmondeley). They were said by diarist Richard Eden in the Daily Mail to have had dinner at the Hanbury residence in Norfolk. Before their alleged fall out, during which Kate was said to have 'phased' Rose out, the Cholmondeleys, whose group of friends have been dubbed the 'Turnip Toffs', lived close to the Waleses Norfolk residence Anmer Hall.
This week'sreport detailed that Kate ‘secretly went to the upper-class 24-hour music festival’ held on Hanbury’s estate called the Houghton Festival. According to reports, Kate had been dining with her former friends the Marquess and Marchioness of Cholmondeley, or David Rocksavage and Rose. A source told the Daily Mail, ‘After dinner, one of the guests suggested that Catherine go to the festival. Catherine was nervous about the idea, but, after much discussion with her protection officers, she went with lots of security. William wasn't there.’ This is huge progress from where their friendship allegedly stood four years ago.
In 2019, reports emerged that Kate was embroiled in a bitter ‘rural rivalry’ with her neighbour, Rose. At the time Richard Eden was the first to report that Kate's friends had claimed that Rose, who was once represented by Kate Moss’s modelling agency Storm, was ‘a rival to her rural crown’. The next day, a Sunday newspaper described that while Kate had 'phased out' Rose, ‘the cause of the apparent friction remains a mystery’. Now, with reports of a jaunt to a music festival, it appears the unexplained feud has been dismissed.
Similarly on 9 August, the internet stood still when Karlie Kloss was spotted in the audience at former BFF Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour in Los Angeles – notably in the stands and not in the celebrity populated VIP section. The pair haven't been seen together or publicly acknowledged each other since 2019 which is notable as, in the late 2010’s, Taylor and Karl were joined at the hip. Karlie was such a big part of Taylor’s trusted inner circle that she was even part of the ‘Bad Blood’ music video 'girl squad' with the likes of Selena Gomez and Zendaya.
However, in 2018 whispers of a rocky friendship began to mount. In February, Karlie was spotted hanging out with Katy Perrywith whom Taylor had had a monumental fall out with. At the time, their fall out was the biggest female friendship breakup in the entertainment-sphere and practically shaped 2010’s pop-culture. In October 2018 Karlie got married, but Taylor didn’t show. Page Six reported that Taylor was unable to attend due to ‘prior commitments.’ It was reported that their friendship came to an end after Kloss appeared on music manager Scooter Braun’s Instagram in 2019. This was allegedly the final nail in the coffin considering Taylor and Scooter's ongoing battle over her music rights.But, with Karlie in attendance at Taylor's concert last week, could a reconciliation be on the cards.
And Just Like That's season 2 finale is perhaps going to give us the biggest friendship U-turn of all when it hits our screens next week. TheSex and the City universe will be whole again when Kim Cattrall reprises her iconic role as Samantha Jones in the concluding episode.
In the scene, Samantha, who has moved to London, will have a phone conversation with Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw after a long friendship hiatus. In the first season of And Just Like That, we learnt that Carrie and Samantha had fallen out over Carrie's decision to switch PR firms. Later on in the season, we see Carrie engage with an estranged Samantha over text, and in the finale, the two made a plan to see each other in order to reconcile. Fans of the show of course were overjoyed to learn that the former BFF's were attempting to rekindle their friendship.
A friendship u-turn is looking slightly less likely for Samantha and Carrie's real life counterparts. Four years after Sex And The City ended in 2004, a report in theTelegraph stated that Parker and Catrall fell out over money. SJP negotiated a higher salary after being given an executive producer title which reportedly didn't work out for Kim. Years later, after Kim didn't sign on to star in the SATC revival, rumours of a feud between the pair have continued to dominate the headlines, although SJP recently said in an interview that there had never been a 'catfight'.
There's a reason why celebrities, and the rest of us, might look backwards instead of forwards. Rekindling with an old friend after time apart is not always an easy move, but harvesting a new, deeper connection after you’ve grown into the person you are today can be rewarding and worthwhile. The lovely thing about rekindling an existing friendship is that you and the person that you’re reaching out to already have some shared history.
And when it comes to high profile friendship U-turns, there's just one more we'd like to see: Heidi and Lauren. Well, we can dream.