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“A lot of hurt on both sides” in Harry/royal family rift
Perhaps Prince Harry and Prince William don’t mind their buddy Tom Bradby revealing their business to the world; perhaps they welcome how he conveys their feelings. After all, it was in Bradby’s 2019 documentary, Harry and Meghan: An African Journey, that Harry confirmed he and William had a difficult relationship (though would “always be brothers”), and Meghan revealed that no one—until Bradby—had asked if she was OK. The documentary laid bare Meghan and Harry’s unhappiness, and effectively lit the touchpaper for “Megxit.”
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Sunday morning, Bradby took to the airwaves in the U.K. and revealed that Prince Harry is “heartbroken” over “the situation” with the rest of the royal family, that the last year had been “painful,” and there were still “a lot of hurt feelings on all sides.”
Bradby, speaking on TV show Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh, also said that Harry and Meghan are “pretty happy” with their new life in Montecito.
First reported by the Daily Mail, Bradby told the program, “I think they are feeling better, yes. I mean there has been a huge amount that has happened over the last year that I can’t talk about and I don’t want to talk about and an awful lot of what has been said is kind of not accurate and not right. So are they unhappy? No, I think they are content, the things they are doing they are quite excited by. I think he is heartbroken by the situation with his family, you don’t necessarily need to have knowledge to know that, but I think it is true.”
Bradby not only talked about the state of Harry and William’s relationship, but also revealed that William, like Harry, struggles with royal life.
“The situation with the family clearly isn’t ideal and it has been a very difficult year for them all,” Bradby said. “To some extent, I felt a little bit caught in the middle of them with that [2019] documentary, which is a deeply uncomfortable place to be. And that is, in a way, why I am always reluctant to say anything more because I don’t want to make anything worse or get in between anything or anything like that.
“But are they unhappy out there? No, I don’t think that’s right, I think they are pretty happy actually, but I think they wrestle with their position in life, I think they all do. I think William does too, I don’t think he finds it easy.”
Titchmarsh commented that people just want Meghan and Harry to be “at peace,” leading Bradby to say the events so far have been “just been incredibly painful, that is obvious to everyone. It is painful all round, painful for everyone, difficult to manage. Effectively they have just decided to completely leave the royal family, that has never been done. You could go back to the Duke of Windsor, but that was in very different circumstances. It’s never been done voluntarily before and no one still is absolutely clear how it is going to work.
“There are still a lot of hurt feelings on all sides and it’s very difficult. And I agree with you, I think the public desperately wants them to be OK and everyone to be happy and clearly that hasn’t been the situation over the past year. It is not a very easy or comfortable situation.”
Thomas Markle “making Meghan movie”
Thomas Markle, Meghan’s father, is making a movie about his life and Meghan, the Sun on Sunday reports. The sound you just heard was a collective “FFS” from Montecito, especially as a hearing for a summary judgment is set to begin Tuesday in Meghan’s case against the Mail on Sunday. (Meghan claims that her privacy rights were breached when the newspaper published extracts from a letter Meghan wrote her dad in 2018.) So, Meghan will not relish the news of the documentary—especially as she prepares for half-sister Samantha’s alleged tell-all, The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister Part 1.
Barnes & Noble, which appears to be the platform Samantha has chosen to self-publish her work, promises the following: “Amidst a firestorm of fake news and media mayhem, Samantha Markle shares the truth about her life and family against all odds and ultimatums, as a royal fairy tale plummets from the tea towels. Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.”
Thomas has already taken part in a British TV documentary, and the Sun quotes him saying of the new documentary: “It begins with my life, my family, my love of theatre and television and how I got there. Then my life with Meghan, growing up, her school days until she went off to college, and when her career began. We had a good life together, up through her first marriage and her move to Canada. Then a new story begins! It’s kind of like ‘What happened to my baby girl.’”
Andrew and Fergie leave no rock unturned
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s top aides sought help from a notorious online troll in an attempt to discredit Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who has accused Andrew of having sex with her on three occasions when she was 17, the Mail on Sunday reports.
They hoped Molly Skye Brown, who attacked Roberts Giuffre on Twitter for several months last year, might be able to prove the photograph of Andrew with his arm around Roberts Giuffre was manipulated as he has suggested and whom he has said he does not recall meeting.
Brown, 42, a former teen beauty queen from Florida, has accused Roberts Giuffre of working for Epstein to recruit vulnerable women for him. Roberts Giuffre has dismissed the accusations as untrue and blocked Brown on Twitter.
Ferguson aide Antonia Marshall reportedly saw a tweet from Brown stating that the photo was a fake and emailed her on Dec. 14 asking for a chat and thanking her for her “online support.”
Mark Gallagher, Andrew’s crisis management specialist, also tried to win over Brown, who claims Ghislaine Maxwell tried to recruit her as a masseuse when she was 14 and exercising at a children’s gym in Palm Beach, Florida, close to Epstein’s mansion.
The Mail on Sunday said that Andrew’s representatives declined to comment on the record. However, a source close to the prince said the exchange with Brown “went no further than an initial discussion.”
Charles’ PR guru quits
Julian Payne, who can be credited with improving Charles and Camilla’s public images over the last five years (not volcanic shifts, but y’know, just fine), has quit his job to take up a new job of chairman of corporate affairs at PR firm Edelman, the Mail on Sunday reports. The MoS says Payne helped align Camilla with issues like domestic violence, while Charles… well, he was voted GQ Man of the Year during Payne’s tenure. Good stuff.
It’s certainly not the easiest PR gig in town, with Charles still a king-in-waiting at 72, Diana very much present in people’s minds thanks to The Crown, and all the reported conflict over Harry and Meghan’s departure from the royal family. So, whoever succeeds Payne, bonne chance!
This week in royal history
The end of “Megxit” brutally unfolded on Jan. 18th last year, after the queen made clear to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle just who made the royal rules.
Suddenly no longer working members of the royal family, Harry and Meghan were stripped of their HRH titles, official military appointments, and informed they would no longer receive public funds for royal duties—reasonably enough, because they wouldn’t be doing them anymore. Harry and Meghan also made clear they would be repaying the roughly $3 million of public money spent on their British home, Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.
The queen released this statement: “Following many months of conversations and more recent discussions, I am pleased that together we have found a constructive and supportive way forward for my grandson and his family. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family. I recognize the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life.
“I want to thank them for all their dedicated work across this country, the Commonwealth and beyond, and am particularly proud of how Meghan has so quickly become one of the family. It is my whole family’s hope that today’s agreement allows them to start building a happy and peaceful new life.”
Translation: Things are done my way, but lots of love and all the best on the highway.
Since then—as we wrote a few weeks ago—Harry and Meghan’s lucrative media deals have meant any chance of future royal roles for the couple is “dead in the water,” according to royal sources talking to the Daily Mail. “It’s solely down to the choices they have made,” one told the Mail.
“There is no anger or animosity [on behalf of the Royal Family]. But every commercial deal that has been done by the Sussexes has been a nail in the coffin of any kind of return to royal life.”
Unanswered questions
What will happen this week when Mr. Justice Warby at the British High Court begins to hear (on Jan. 19th) Meghan’s application for a summary judgment in her case against the Mail on Sunday? A judgment now would mean no blaring headlines resulting from father and daughter facing off in a full court case further down the line, which would be likely welcomed by not only Meghan but also the whole royal family.
