It’s not every day a real-life lord comes to the CHEK News studios.
“It doesn’t get me any invites to royal weddings, I don’t sit in the House of Lords, it’s purely a courtesy title of landowners in Scotland,” Lord Stephen Rossiter of Highland Titles explains. “Laird means landowner and the English translation is lord or lady.”
While he might not be partying with the Queen or Will and Kate, Lord Rossiter has the power to bestow titles.
And your favourite weekend anchor team is about to become Lady Kori, Lady Tess and Lord Kevin.
“It’s very much a courtesy title,” Lord Rossiter says. “It’s hard to get it on your passport or driving license but I have it on my bank card.”
After managing expectations, the CHEK anchors are officially granted Scottish titles.
“Do people have to bow to us?” CHEK weekend anchor Kori Sidaway asks.
“They do now,” Lord Rossiter explains. “They must bow or curtsy to you.”
“So we’re basically above the law now,” sports anchor Kevin Charach jokes.
“Do people have to call us your majesty?” CHEK weather anchor Tess van Straaten asks, sporting a sparkling tiara.
“No, you’re not a member of the royal family,” says Lord Rossiter. “Lord and Lady is as far as we go.”
It’s enough to get Lady Kori, who’s Scottish and a former Scottish dancer, doing the highland fling.
“I feel like I’ve been working for this my whole life so it feels really good,” Lady Kori Sidaway says.
There’s even a Highland Titles tartan and the new lord and ladies each get a one-foot-square plot of land in the Scottish Highlands.
Touted as the perfect present for the person who has everything, proceeds from the $50 US land and title packages go towards the upkeep of the Highland Titles Nature Reserve near Glencoe.
You can even go visit your plot of land.
But it’s all already going to Lord Charach’s head.
“I guess technically I’m Jeff’s boss now so I get to tell Jeff King what to do on a daily basis,” Lord Kevin Charach says with a glint in his eye. “So that’s a lot of fun.”
Tess van Straaten
