What a weekend.
First, the Sun printed that Prince Harry felt like “a formal visitor” during his brief tea with his father earlier this month. And that he gave his dad a family photo. While I thought that story was pretty innocuous, the Duke of Sussex thought otherwise.
He had a spokesperson issue an official comment:
Recent reporting of The Duke’s view of the tone of the meeting, is categorically false. The quotes attributed to him are pure invention fed, one can only assume, by sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son. [my emphasis] Presumably, those same sources have also chosen to disclose that gifts were exchanged. While we would have preferred such details to remain private, for the sake of clarity we can confirm that a framed photograph was handed over, however the image did not contain the Duke and Duchess.
Hauling out words like “sabotaging” and “pure invention” for a story that said the meeting may have felt a bit official and for not properly identifying people in a photo seems like an over reaction.
Soon, papers were quoting sources as saying the prince is again blaming “the men in grey suits,” his name for palace courtiers and staff, for poisoning his relationship with his family.
This intense reaction suggests that Prince Harry is sensitive to any stories downplaying the first tentative step at reestablishing his relationship with his family. The palace responded with sources talking of bewilderment to Harry’s claims of sabotage.
This fracas comes as Prince William was at Balmoral for his annual retreat with his father. One thinks that the topic of William’s brother was raised. (FYI: This also follows Harry officially shooting down a report in the Daily Beast that he’d put Archie’s name down for Eton, the elite private school where he and William attended)
IMO, Prince Harry needs to take his own advice about social media survival strategies and go offline as I can’t see how this latest example of take-no-prisoners attitude to public relations is doing him any favours.
THE IMMEDIATE HARRY-FATHER BACKSTORY
Guardian:
First, Prince Harry talked to the Guardian during his visit to the U.K. and Ukraine for an article published after he left (my analysis here). He made it clear he believed he’d done everything right. This is indicative of the tone:
“I don’t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public. It was a difficult message, but I did it in the best way possible. My conscience is clear.”
Daily Mail:
Then the Daily Mail published a piece that claimed of “high-level talks” designed to bring father and son together “in a public show of unity.” That seemed to imply that Harry would get his desired option of a “half in, half out” position that mixed royal work with commercial ventures.
Times:
Almost immediately, that was shot down. “The King has been absolutely clear in upholding his late mother’s decision that there can be no ‘half in, half out’ public role for members of the family,” a royal source told Kate Mansey of the Times.
Daily Mail:
Then Rebecca English of the Daily Mail offered the coup de grâce:
Referring to the briefings, however, a royal insider told the Daily Mail: ‘Whoever is behind them seems to have mistaken a brief tea and a slice of cake for the Treaty of Versailles.’
The May visit of King Charles and Queen Camilla to Canada garnered extensive favourable coverage around the world as Canada sought to bolster its political and social defences after attacks by United States President Donald Trump.
The visit is widely seen as a triumph of soft diplomacy.
Now, the bills are coming in.
The Department of National Defence spent at least $1.3 million on the visit to Ottawa, CTV reports. The costs include ground ground transportation, as well as flights to and from Britain (as a realm, Canada always flies its monarch to and from Canada) as well as a flypast over the Cenotaph by the RCAF after the King opened Parliament.
The amount also includes more than $70,000 in meals and snacks, as well as $14,000 in hotel rooms.
In addition, the Department of Canadian Heritage spent at least $436,000 on economy flights, hotel rooms, and more than $5,000 on the rental of bleachers, including some allowing the media to see the events during the 24-hour visit.
“You think the Oscars are a big deal, and then you come here.” (click on the video for more)
Last week, there was speculation about visits involving Vatican City (now confirmed), the German president visiting the U.K. and a regal visit to the United States.
Now, there’s even more news and speculation.
1. Vatican City:
King Charles III and Queen will go to the Vatican to see Pope Leo in October. That part of their trip to Italy and the Vatican in April was postponed because of the declining health of the late Pope Francis. (The regal couple met privately with the pontiff.)
2. The Wales family to Australia
On the weekend, Australia’s PM Anthony Albanese extended an invitation for the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children to visit Australia. The open-ended invite came as the Australian politician visited King Charles at Balmoral.
(William and Kate were last Down Under with a then-baby George in 2014.)
BONUS: The Australian republican ruled out another referendum on the monarchy. It’s no surprise: Polling on the topic is terrible and the last one was defeated in 1999.
The Daily Mail reports that the Prince and Princess of Wales took their kids to see the set for the Hogsmeade Station and 800 m of track that has been constructed in a wooded section of the Windsor estate near their future home, Forest Lodge. The Crown Estate, which manages the estate, regularly rents out land to film and TV sets.
Hmmmmm.
That was my first reaction after seeing a personal note from Kate wishing England’s team good luck ahead of the finals of the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Sure, she’s patron of England’s Rugby Football Union, but England was facing the team from another realm nation: Canada.
Given she’s going to be Queen of Canada one day, one would hope that she realizes that such small details matter, doubly so given that King Charles and Queen Camilla flew to Ottawa for a 24-hour visit in May to strengthen Canadian sovereignty.
Certainly, her father-in-law, King Charles III, didn’t make that same mistake. He carefully offered good wishes to the teams of both realms.
As if she or her staff had heard the social media criticism, the account didn’t make the same mistake twice. After the match, Kensington Palace congratulated the English team, and offered condolences to the Canadians.
After meeting with President Zelensky in New York, the American president appears to have changed his opinion of Ukraine. He now says that Ukraine can take back territory after long claiming that Russia was winning.
The Ukrainians believe King Charles — a staunch supporter of Ukraine — played a key role in that change of viewpoint. From the Telegraph:
Asked whether the Ukrainian delegation had changed Mr Trump’s mind, Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, instead praised the efforts of the King and Sir Keir Starmer.
“I’d like to mention that it was a great visit of President Trump to the United Kingdom, and I know the position of His Majesty, the position of Prime Minister Starmer and the people whom President Trump met… it was very important,” he said.
Princess Anne unveiled a portrait of her big brother at the Scottish Parliament. The photo, which was taken last year at Balmoral, features the monarch wearing a kilt made of the King Charles III tartan and holding a stick gifted by the Mey Highland Games.
It’s the second time that the Princess Royal has unveiled a portrait of a monarch in the Scottish Parliament: In 2011, she unveiled one of her mother, Elizabeth II.
Queen Margrethe gave truly artistic presents to her son and daughter-in-law: two chairs covered with embroidery — the monograms of King Frederik and Queen Mary — of her own design and made of her own hand. They were unveiled at Frederiksborg Castle.
Last week, Fergie (Sarah, Duchess of York) was in the hot seat as she was dropped by seven charities following revelations that she apologized to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein after publicly condemning him and saying she’d cut contact.
By the end of last week, the royal chapter of the Epstein scandal shifted back Prince Andrew when Congressional Democrats released new documents obtained from the Epstein estate that show that Andrew flew with Epstein from New York to Florida on May 12, 2000.
For Observer, Richard Palmer used the dates on the new documents to figure out that the prince was in the United States to “promote a £250m fundraising campaign for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children,” meaning “he’d mixed taxpayer-funded and private travel.”
Andrew and Fergie have reportedly been told to adopt an “out of sight” strategy when it comes to family events and that they should consider giving Sandringham a pass for Christmas.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source writeroyalty.substack.com ’
