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Queen may be asked to pony up if Andrew settles
Firm royal denials have followed the Telegraph reporting that the queen might be asked to contribute significant funds if Prince Andrew eventually settles with Virginia Roberts Giuffre in an attempt to pay her off. The queen is thought to have been footing her son’s legal bills with the annual income from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate, “which recently increased by £1.5 million to more than £23 million,” the Telegraph reports.
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Right now, of course Andrew (and the rest of the world) is waiting to see if a New York judge will throw out the case. But if a settlement does become a possibility, it would likely be in the region of millions of dollars. However, Giuffre has signaled she would not be interested in accepting a settlement, wishing instead to be a standard-bearer for other women who claim to have been abuse victims—and who cannot be paid off by the wealthy accused. Giuffre claims Andrew sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17, while she was sexually trafficked by his friend, Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew emphatically denies the claims.
Meanwhile, the Mirror reports that Prince Charles and Prince William, angry at the idea of the queen potentially funding Andrew’s legal settlement, are “absolutely furious” with him and want him to “sort out his own mess.”
“Some sources have already said she will not” pay out on his behalf, the Mirror adds.
A source told the paper: “It is crunch time for Andrew on several fronts. He is meeting all the costs himself, so he needs to raise cash fast to pay bills which are increasing by the day. If there was the potential to settle, well, that is an option, but it is in no doubt that the queen would not assist him in doing so.”
One source of funds for the disgraced prince could be the chalet he and his ex-wife bought in Verbier. The agreed purchase price was $22 million. The couple were subsequently sued by the former owner who said she had given Andrew and Sarah special permission to pay by installments but the final chunk of the money, $9.1 million, was never paid and legal action was launched. This action has now been withdrawn on the understanding that the property will be sold by the Yorks, and the account will be settled. After mortgages and the debt repayment, there is thought to be around $4 million of equity in the property.
Kate turns 40, prepares for life as Queen Catherine
In case you missed it, the Duchess of Cambridge turns 40 today! Kate was born on Jan. 9, 1982, at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. In recent days, the media have spent a lot of time putting various pictures side by side to show that Kate has become more outgoing and confident since entering full-time royal life.
Paolo Roversi/Handout/Kensington Palace via Getty Images
Paolo Roversi/Handout/Kensington Palace via Getty ImagesThe British newspapers today all devote plenty of real estate to stunning new pictures of Kate dressed in McQueen and channeling Old Hollywood glamor taken by Paolo Roversi.
The Mail on Sunday quotes a palace source as saying: “From the three photographs, you can see the three aspects of Kate’s personality. There is the regal side to her—as you can see in the classic shot where she is looking off into the distance (left); there is the more informal image in the red dress (centre) as a modern woman at 40; and then there is the close-up (right), which offers a more intimate perspective.”
There are lengthy hagiographies in most of the papers about what Kate is really like. The short answer: terribly nice, down to earth, and often re-wears expensive clothes.
The Sunday Telegraph has multiple pieces including one from a reporter who saw her on holiday and said she seemed very normal, the Sunday Times says she “doesn’t do” drama, but has a steely side, and the Mail on Sunday says that she gets on very well with the queen.
The most illuminating of these pieces is probably Camilla Tominey’s analysis in the Telegraph of how Kate is preparing to take on the role of Princess of Wales, a title that has been in abeyance since Diana’s death.
“The coming decade will see the careful planning of her lifelong work take root,” Tominey says, and it is hard to disagree.
The Daily Beast would also venture to note that her presence has also gifted us cool, hot siblings (Pippa and James), cool, hot parents (Carole and Michael), and the business known as Party Pieces.
Still, secretly we hope Kate is terrifying, stalking the corridors of Kensington Palace cackling and smashing Ming vases, while demanding bon-bons loudly at 11 a.m. every morning. OK, we know she really delights in heading to Pret for a flapjack, but a royal fan can dream.
Piers Morgan declares anti-Meghan campaign underway—again
Piers Morgan likes blustering at people, and haranguing interviewees so hard that the interviews he conducts are nothing of the sort—more one-sided punching bag sessions, with Morgan pummeling away.
Meghan Markle, of course, is his top target. The fact she didn’t want to have anything to do with him after they met casually seems to be at the root of his virulent dislike of her. Whenever somebody brings it up on air, he talks over them. Indeed, his notorious walk-off, never-to-return, from Good Morning Britain came when colleague Alex Beresford put it very simply, and non-rudely, to Morgan that his problem with Markle stemmed from her rejecting him.
Well, there is no escape. Meghan Markle has never publicly said anything about Morgan (which for someone so addicted to publicity and self-publicizing must also really rankle him). But she did complain, as many TV viewers did, after he claimed he didn’t believe anything she said in her and Harry’s Oprah Winfrey interview (which included claiming to have contemplated suicide). And now his campaign of vitriol will continue, Morgan says, as quoted in the Mirror; to justify it, Morgan implausibly makes himself out to be the victim, because Markle tried to “cancel” him and he is now allegedly fighting back.
Morgan will hold forth in his columns for the Sun, which will be called “Uncensored,” which is presumably ironic as Morgan has never been censored. And then there’s his Fox News show, a column for the New York Post, and a new show for a talk-TV channel in the U.K.
“The column is called Uncensored because it does what it says on the tin,” Morgan says. “Effectively I was censored at my previous job and told to apologize to Meghan Markle for an honestly held opinion, which obviously I wasn’t going to do. Pushy little Princess Pinocchio tried her utmost to cancel me, and she will be in for a very unpleasant surprise when I emerge, like Lazarus, from my den. It was a pretty bruising experience on Good Morning Britain, but I’m now working somewhere where I’m free to express my opinions.”
The truth: Morgan expresses his opinions all the time, and that’s fine. That’s what he does. That’s what his fans like, and his detractors can’t bear. Morgan has parlayed being a controversy vector into a lucrative career. In these polarizing times, he is a gleefully adept polarizer. But one thing Morgan has never been is silenced. Indeed, British TV regulator Ofcom cleared him after all those complaints about Meghan Markle. He had acres of airtime on Good Morning Britain, where he consistently talked over his colleagues and guests.
And so this will continue on his new media platforms, and Morgan will love every minute of not just doing the talking, but being talked about.
This week in royal history
Amidst all the fuss around Kate’s 40th birthday, let’s not forget the birthday of MC next week. Who, you ask? Why, Princess Michael of Kent, of course, born Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz. After being informed of MC’s distinguished Germanic lineage, HM is said to have responded that she sounded “a bit too grand for us.”
Less amusing are the persistent allegations of racism leveled against her. She was accused of racially insulting Black diners at a restaurant in New York by telling them to “go back to the colonies,” and in December 2017, she wore a brooch with a caricatured figure of an African man to her first meeting with Meghan Markle. In April 2018, it was alleged that she owned a pair of black sheep that she named Venus and Serena after the Williams sisters.
Unanswered questions
Will Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s case against Prince Andrew get thrown out in New York, or will it proceed? What will Andrew do if it proceeds—try to pay her off, or finally face the legal music and explain himself?
