Welcome to The Royalist—all the latest royal news and gossip with Tom Sykes and Tim Teeman. For Beast Inside members only.
Media War
Harry and Meghan did little to ingratiate themselves with the royal press pack this week, as The Daily Beast revealed in this inside account of how relations with the press melted down.
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One question above all continues to baffle, however, which is why did the palace make the announcement that Meghan was in labor at all, when, 45 minutes later, Harry was going to announce she had actually given birth?
Said one hack: “What they were actually saying was, “She has given birth already, so get in position.” But they couldn’t actually say that because then we would have all reported she had given birth, stealing Harry’s thunder. We didn’t appreciate the subtlety of their message.”
The royals appear to have forgotten the advice to never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel. As Monday’s news turned into Tuesday’s news drought, desperate reporters plied officials at the palace with appeals for guidance, but received zip.
Things got so heated that some employees in the palace press office, caught in the middle, burst into tears, one newsdesk editor told The Daily Beast.
In the absence of any confirmation as to where the baby had been born, The Sun ran a two page spread on Meghan’s home birth. The paper was hastily changed when the Mail’s exclusive, that she had Archie at a London hospital, dropped, but half the day’s copies had already been printed and were in trucks; they went out with the incorrect story.
The palace knew what The Sun was running—making them look like total idiots won’t be swiftly forgotten.
Harry and William: It was a ‘real blow’ having phones hacked
William and Harry felt it was “a real blow” to have their phones hacked by ex-News of The World royal editor Clive Goodman.
Their former press secretary (and later William's private secretary) Miguel Head told the Harvard Gazette that the phone hacking exacerbated the feelings of mistrust the princes had held for the press ever since they were children, seeing reports of their parents’ various scandals sprayed all over the tabloids.
Head, who is now a spring 2019 fellow at the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, told the publication, “The princes were very hurt by that because they had rather hoped that the excesses of intrusion into privacy that had ultimately led Diana, Princess of Wales, to be chased down a tunnel, which led to her death, would have calmed over the years and that they would be treated with a little bit more respect—not respect because of their position, but respect through dint of their humanity, of knowing what happens to people who are intruded [on] at that level. The phone-hacking scandal was a real blow to their trust in the mainstream media.”
Head spoke candidly about his experience of working for the royals. “I have to say, the job was very easy because the two princes were delightful to work for. They are the same in private as they are in public, very popular, and they have a genuineness about them, a compassion about them which people relate to and respond to. Very seldomly did we ever felt like we were fighting a rear guard.”
He indicated the princes felt differently toward the media in some respects. About William, Head said: “He felt that the competitive nature of the British press leads them to be excellent on a world stage, to produce some of the best journalism and journalists in the world, but it leads them to conduct some great excesses, as well. The way in which his parents, particularly his mother, was treated. The way in which, of course, she died.”
About Harry, he added: “He has a similar view of the media to Prince William in that he believes that freedom of the press is very important. But he has always found the personal relationship harder. He always wears his emotions on his sleeve. You know how Prince Harry’s feeling and that’s one of the great qualities about him, which people respond to.”
In reporting Head‘s comments, Camilla Tominey in The Telegraph noted that the phone hacking trial jury in 2014 heard that Goodman hacked the phone of Kate Middleton 155 times, William’s 35 times, and Harry’s nine times.
Not Amused
A friend of the Queen’s tells The Daily Beast that they suspect she will be horrified at the choice of Harry and Meghan’s name, Archie Harrison. “A diminutive as a first name and a made-up second name? What is the world coming to,” they tutted.
Passions
It has long been rumored that Prince Philip had an affair with showgirl Anna Massey. Now, a source tells The Daily Beast, that Anna’s husband, Jeremy Brett, knew all about the affair and wasn’t particularly bothered; he left her in 1962 her for a man. From 1969 until 1976 Brett was in a romantic relationship with the actor Gary Bond. Brett, who was famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, died in 1985 from heart failure.
‘We talked about our shared experience of missing a mom’
Harry touched on his sadness at the absence of his mother Princess Diana on a visit to the Netherlands on Thursday when speaking to former soldier Dennis van der Stroom, 31.
Mr van der Stroom, who served in the army from 2006 to 2011, said: “Harry talked about how having a small child was his new focus and new goal... Above all he said he was just amazed by the miracles in the world, and how his child has made a lot of people happy. I told Harry about my mother and we talked about our shared experience of missing a mom. He said missing a mother is like missing some kind of security, how you need that as a son and it falls away when you lose your mother.”
Royal fashion watch
This is one of the loveliest royal pictures of modern times, with multi-generations together looking fabulous. Here, Meghan and Harry are pictured with with baby Archie Harrison, alongside the queen and Prince Philip and Doria Ragland. Everyone looks happy, and it is also a powerful statement of change and evolution.
Meghan and Harry posted the image on the SussexRoyal Instagram account in order to also announce their baby’s name.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are pleased to announce they have named their first born child: Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor,” the caption reads. “This afternoon Their Royal Highnesses introduced Her Majesty The Queen to her eighth great-grandchild at Windsor Castle. The Duke of Edinburgh and The Duchess’ mother were also present for this special occasion.”
This week in royal history
On May 15, 1981, Zara Phillips, Princess Anne’s daughter, was born. This year, she turns 38, and—with the arrival this week of Archie Harrison—is now 18th in line to the throne. An accomplished equestrian (she is an Olympic silver medalist), the queen's eldest grand-daughter is married to former England rugby captain Mike Tindall.
They have two daughters, Mia and Lena, and the two are very close friends with William and Kate and their kids.
Coming next
On Tuesday, Prince William will show his conservation credentials, attending a United For Wildlife meeting. We wish him luck avoiding the event turning into a baby Archie symposium.
