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Harry and William’s Two Royal Courts: Is it War or Peace?
Late last week, as Britain was consumed by the ongoing Brexit crisis, Buckingham Palace dropped some huge news; Harry and Meghan are going to separate their court from William and Kate’s entirely.
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Don’t let the rather Tudor-sounding vocabulary obscure the fact that this is a massive power-grab by Harry and Meghan. Setting up a whole new office based at Buckingham Palace not Kensington Palace is a clear sign they won’t be William’s servants.
While the palace insisted in its press release announcing the new Royal Household that this was a long-planned change, it seems rather odd that they said exactly the opposite thing back in November, when it was announced that Harry and Meghan had decided to make their full time home Frogmore Cottage in Windsor rather than Kensington Palace.
Back then, the palace were adamant that William, Harry, Meghan and Kate would continue to share offices and staff at Kensington Palace. At the time a spokesperson told The Daily Beast: “The Duke and Duchess’s office will continue to be based at Kensington Palace.”
As recently as three weeks ago, the palace told The Daily Beast there were no plans to even separate the two royals twitter accounts.
That’s all been conveniently forgotten now, and we Kremlinologists are moving on to the next challenge: trying to figure out exactly what all this means.
A key clue is that Meghan and Harry’s brand new office will be headed up by a brand new staff member, Sara Latham, who is joining from British PR giant Freuds, where she was previously a senior exec with the title of managing partner. Latham is a heavy-hitter, with, importantly, huge experience of the American media, serving as chief of staff to John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2106 presidential campaign. She has dual American and British citizenship. Make no mistake, Latham is in a completely different league professionally to the third-raters who often end up in the royal press office.
The Royalist hears that being a royal press officer for Meghan and Harry will no longer involve saying ‘no comment’ a million times a day. Meghan has shown she has little truck with ‘never complain, never explain’ as a press strategy and is planning to establish a rapid rebuttal unit to shoot down false stories as soon as they appear, if the chatter is to be believed.
The first signs of this new strategy were apparent when her friends told People magazine they were standing up for Meghan against a campaign of ‘global bullying.”
William and Kate have no intention of changing the tried and tested routines of royalty, hence the big formal split.
The Queen will have her reservations but her decision to sanction a full new court for the Sussexes complete with their own press operation shows she is, at the very least, ready to allow Meghan to give it a go.
In trying to spin this as merely the iteration of well-laid plan, the palace’s goal is to avoid feeding the Meghan and Harry vs Kate and William feud narrative. However, many observers will jump to the conclusion that the separation of operations is intended to provide the two couples with the same professional space as they will soon have personally.
Charles Determined ‘Not to Repeat’ Mistakes That Saw Him Isolated From Prince George
Prince Charles wants to forge a much closer relationship with his new grandchild in its earliest years than he did with Prince George, and is determined not to repeat with Meghan and Harry the mistakes he made with William and Kate which left him feeling excluded from Prince George’s life.
Charles reportedly complained to friends that he “almost never” got to see William and Kate’s first child. Charles was accused of being cold and distant; when George turned one, Charles was famously photographed attending a squirrel conservation project in Scotland, rather than joining the Queen and the Middletons at George’s birthday party at Kensington Palace.
A friend told The Sun: “At the time Prince George was born, Charles was less easy in the role of a grandfather. But now he welcomes each new arrival with a wider grin and even more open arms. He loves the happy chaos of it all.”
The Sun’s sources say the Sussexes are frequently invited to Charles’ home for informal chats over tea and cake. A friend says: “He prefers to entertain them in his homes rather than darting into Nottingham Cottage and tripping over their two rescue dogs.”
Priorities
The Daily Mirror, Britain’s most left-wing and Republican minded newspaper, made a surprising tack towards monarchy this weekend as veteran journalist Paul Routledge urged HM to end the Brexit nightmare by dissolving Parliament, sacking the government and calling an immediate general election. The royals: good for something at least!
George Clooney: Media ‘A Little Unjust’ To Meghan
As we recently reported, George and Amal Clooney are close friends with the royals, and George has now spoken out again in defence of his friend, Meghan Markle. He told Good Morning Britain the press has been “a little unjust” in criticizing Meghan as she “hasn’t done anything except just happen to live her life.” He added, “I’ve seen it when the press can turn on you for sort of ridiculous reasons... Most of it you can just shrug off and not pay attention to, but sometimes it’s unkind.”
Clooney called Harry and Meghan a “really wonderful, loving couple” and praised Meghan as a “kind and smart and intelligent young woman.”
Clooney joked about the Prince’s Trust event at Buckingham Palace he recently attended with his wife Amal, saying: “Charles got really crazy and started dancing on the tables… I was surprised to see that.”
And, showing he is an ever reliable arbiter of good taste, he also weighed in to the who-should-be-the-next-James-Bond debate, saying, “I’ll say it 1,000 times—Idris Elba should be Bond, period.”
Royal Fashion Watch
The cameras and column inches may seem all focused on Meghan and Harry right now, which may explain Kate and William’s recent flurry of public appearances; the royal equivalent of ‘We’re still here.’ Kate’s notice-me fashion renaissance continued this week with this lavender Gucci pussybow blouse, worn on a visit to Henry Fawcett Children’s Centre in London.
Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge visits the Henry Fawcett Children's Centre to learn more about the work being done to support young children and their families.
ARTHUR EDWARDS/AFP/Getty ImagesThis week in royal history
On March 18, 1986, Prince Andrew’s engagement to Sarah Ferguson was announced by Buckingham Palace. A popular coupling, for all their dysfunction they at least seemed like they were having fun (in comparison to Charles and Diana). Andy and Fergie weathered so many scandals (her toe-sucking, most notoriously), but now seem the very model of the happily divorced. And Fergie seems to be back in the fold of the royal family, too.
Next week
On Wednesday Harry will join schoolchildren as they take part in a tree planting project in support of the Queens Canopy initiative, together with the Woodland Trust. Nothing has yet been announced for Meghan, triggering speculation she could be embarking on maternity leave soon.
