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Meghan and Harry’s friends cooperate on new book
“Written with the participation of those closest to the couple.”
These 10 words, taken from the online description of a new biography of Meghan and Harry to be published on Aug. 11, will strike a deep chill into British courtiers.
Sources close to Harry and Meghan have spent the week trying to play down the cooperation of the couple on the new Harper Collins book, revealed Sunday to be entitled, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family and authored by two of Meghan and Harry’s favored journalists, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
Earlier this week, when details of the book first broke, a confidante of the couple told The Daily Beast, “This all seems rather over-exaggerated to be honest.”
The source said that the book was “not an official or endorsed biography,” and added, that it “does not claim to feature interviews with the duke and duchess.”
The precise form of words—if they didn’t give an interview why not just say they didn’t give a damn interview—stirred up our suspicions, and, when asked by The Daily Beast directly to clarify if Harry and Meghan had not given an interview for the book, the source wouldn’t say (although now the same source is somewhat firmer, saying the book didn’t include interviews with the couple).
So while the book is perhaps not going to be an empire-crumbling dish-fest on the scale of the 1992 Andrew Morton book Diana: Her True Story—for which Princess Diana made secret tape recordings detailing her innermost anguish, which were passed to Morton on her behalf—the description of the new book will do little to calm royal nerves.
It says: “Finding Freedom goes beyond the headlines to reveal unknown details of Harry and Meghan’s life together, dispelling the many rumors and misconceptions that plague the couple on both sides of the pond.
“With unique access and written with the participation of those closest to the couple, Finding Freedom is an honest, up-close, and disarming portrait of a confident, influential, and forward-thinking couple who are unafraid to break with tradition, determined to create a new path away from the spotlight, and dedicated to building a humanitarian legacy that will make a profound difference in the world.”
The extent to which Meghan’s pals briefed the media on her behalf with her knowledge is set to be a pivotal issue in her ongoing privacy and breach of copyright suit against the publishers of the Mail on Sunday.
The Mail claimed that it was entitled to reproduce a letter Meghan wrote to her dad because she had already effectively put its contents in the public domain by, they said, briefing some of her friends about its contents who then sat down to do an interview with People magazine.
Meghan stunned observers when she responded in a written filing that she had no idea the friends were doing an interview with People, suggesting that she was claiming five of her friends had sat down for an extensive media interview without even contacting her for her approval.
It is, therefore, interesting to see that Meghan’s camp are effectively making the same claim about her friends’ alleged co-operation with this new book, saying, “We don’t know who they have spoken to.”
Harry and Meghan’s office declined to comment.
Prince Andrew ‘ignores’ lawyer requests
Prince Andrew has played a dangerous game when it comes to the Jeffrey Epstein inquiry, publicly saying he will do anything he can to help the authorities but then not actually submitting to questioning when asked to.
This issue came up in January this year after Andrew denied claims made, very publicly, by the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, Geoffrey Berman, that he has refused to cooperate with American authorities investigating Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse. Andrew said no request had been received, and he was ready to talk.
However, a spokesperson for Berman’s office told The Daily Beast they stood by the prosecutor’s comments, specifically the claim that they had “made several attempts to contact” Andrew’s representatives.
Now, David Boies, a lawyer who represents more than a dozen of the U.S. financier’s victims, including Virginia Giuffre Roberts, tells the Mail on Sunday that Andrew has ignored “at least three formal written attempts sent to his address in London and also to his lawyers in the past few months.”
Andrew, who denies any sexual impropriety with Giuffre Roberts, has hired Clare Montgomery, one of the U.K.’s leading extradition lawyers, whose former clients include the Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Doria comes first
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s people have made it pretty clear they won’t comment on the real estate stories doing the rounds as the couple house hunt in L.A., but the latest rumor is that the couple are looking to buy a $13 million Pacific Palisades mansion round the corner from Tom Hanks and Ben Affleck, complete with a “granny annex” for Doria Ragland, Meghan’s mom.
“Once quarantine and lockdown are over, Harry and Meghan will be moving into their new pad, and they want Doria to be included in these plans,” a source told The Sun.
The source said, “The family have been joking that Meghan and Harry will now have a babysitter on tap, but the reality is Meghan doesn’t trust many people and Doria is her rock and her biggest champion.”
Kate campaigns for new mothers in age of Covid-19
It must be strange to have Kate Middleton pop up on your laptop for a chat just after you’ve given birth. But that is what just happened to new parents Rebecca and John at Kingston Hospital in south west London recently.
Kensington Palace released a video of Kate’s chat with them, congratulating them on the birth of baby Max, as part of a campaign she is leading for the U.K.’s Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (running this Monday to Friday).
In a 10-minute video, Kate spoke to the parents, noting how cute Max was and how exhausted Rebecca must be having given birth at 10 p.m. the preceding evening.
Kate then talked to a range of experts about the mental health challenges new mothers face, especially giving birth in the era of COVID-19. She also spoke to frontline medical staff—midwives, health visitors and others—about their jobs, especially in the context of coronavirus.
“Over the last fortnight The Duchess has heard from frontline staff about an increase in maternal anxiety and isolation as a result of the pandemic, with midwives, doctors, health visitors and clinicians urging mothers and families to speak up and ask for help when they need it,” a statement from Kensington Palace read.
Happy 5th, Charlotte!
She is, we sense, a mischief-maker in training; sharp, funny, and adept at keeping her brothers on their toes.
Princess Charlotte’s fifth birthday on Saturday was marked by birthday wishes from the queen and Prince Charles. “Happy Birthday to Princess Charlotte who is celebrating her 5th birthday today!” the Buckingham Palace Instagram account announced, with a short bio note that “Princess Charlotte is the queen’s fifth great-grandchild.”
Other pictures in the post included one of Charlotte with the queen in a portrait of Her Majesty’s two youngest grandchildren and five of her great-grandchildren. Two other portraits feature Charlotte on her own, and with mom Kate, alongside the queen and Prince Philip on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the “Trooping the Color” ceremony in 2017.
Charles, Charlotte’s grandfather, added his good wishes via the Clarence House Instagram account. Like the queen’s birthday wishes post, the image was one taken by Kate last month; Prince Charles even handily provided a link to the Kensington Palace Instagram account to see more of Kate’s pictures—she took four to mark her daughter’s birthday.
Charlotte was set to enjoy her birthday Saturday at Kate and William’s Norfolk home, Anmer Hall.
“The family has arranged a Zoom party for her, so she can speak to family and friends,” a source told The Sun. “Then, they have put together a full plan that will give her all the fun of a birthday—including cake and games—despite the extraordinary circumstances we are faced with. Her great-grandmother (the queen) will be joining the family call on the big day. As far as Charlotte is concerned, the important part is that her whole family are by her side to say: ‘Happy Birthday.’”
The day before her birthday, Kensington Palace released more pictures of Charlotte taken by mom Kate, this time delivering pasta to pensioners near the family’s Norfolk home.
This week in royal history
On May 6, 1960, Princess Margaret and photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones married at Westminster Abbey. If you’ve been watching The Crown, you know how that turned out—fun, passion, and la vie bohème in the beginning, a marriage of extremes, rows, and affairs, and divorce in 1976 after photographs were published of Margaret sunning herself on Mustique with gardener Roddy Llewellyn.
Margaret died in 2002, the former Lord Snowdon in 2017. They are survived by their two children David (Viscount) Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto (whose resemblance, as a little girl, to Princess Charlotte has been recently noted).
Unanswered questions
What next for Meghan Markle, after she lost the first round of her court battle against Associated Newspapers, owners of the Mail on Sunday. So, what will happen when father and daughter come face to face in court? And was this week’s ruling a sign of how things will continue in court?
