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Royal aides hope “racist” question goes unanswered
More revelations from the updated version of Harry and Meghan bio, Finding Freedom, which is out this week. Now a royal source has told co-authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand about what the royal family hopes for when it comes to the enduring mystery of who the alleged royal racist is—this is the member of the royal family Harry and Meghan said to have speculated about the color of their then-unborn child’s skin, as the couple discussed with Oprah Winfrey in their bombshell interview earlier this year.
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“There is a feeling that if it’s ignored it will go away, but surely by now they should have learned that that never happens?” the royal source says, quoted by Newsweek. That same source says they were “horrified” by the allegations.
The authors write: “The queen’s ‘recollections may vary’ comment ‘did not go unnoticed’ by the couple, who a close source said were ‘not surprised’ that full ownership was not taken.” A “friend of Meghan” then says: “Months later and little accountability has been taken. How can you move forward without that?”
The ball seems to be squarely in Harry and Meghan’s court on this one: will they name the person, or keep it unknown?
Pass one’s begging bowl
To be embroiled in one cash for access scandal a month may be regarded as a misfortune, to be caught up in two looks distinctly like carelessness.
That, however, is the situation Prince Charles finds himself in this weekend after the Mail on Sunday published an extraordinary email which appeared to show a middleman offering introductions to Charles conditional on payments to his favored causes. Earlier this month it was revealed that Ben Elliot, Camilla’s nephew, had been organizing access to Charles for wealthy donors.
Now, the Mail on Sunday has published a damning email from society fixer Michael Wynne-Parker, sent on November 15, 2019, which specifies that 5 per cent of any donation made to Charles will go to him or, allegedly, William Bortrick the editor of the society genealogy journal Burke’s Peerage. Bortrick has denied being part of the scheme or having had any knowledge of the email.
Charles’ spokesman told the Mail on Sunday he was “unaware of the cut being taken by middlemen and his foundation has now severed links with two men involved in the scheme.”
The email lays out a detailed mechanism by which rich benefactors, prepared to donate £100,000 ($135,000) or more, would be able to have dinner, an overnight stay and a photograph with Charles at Dumfries House, his country mansion in Scotland.
The Mail on Sunday says the email “includes 14 bullet points setting out precisely what a donor can expect in exchange for paying £100,000 for two people to visit Dumfries House.”
The program includes transport in “a Royal car,” a conversation and photograph with Charles, a lavish formal dinner, and some after-dinner entertainment such as “a piano recital.”
Wynne-Parker told the Mail on Sunday it was “normal practice” for fundraisers to be paid a percentage of donations.
Bortrick denied any impropriety and of having any “business arrangement or agreement” with Wynne-Parker, telling the paper: “This is not something we’ve ever discussed and if he had talked to me about what he was sending out to people, I’d have hit the roof because it’s completely inappropriate.”
Keeping a low profile
Serving papers on Prince Andrew in person is not a legal necessity, but star lawyer David Boies knows a good piece of theater when he sees one.
So there seems no reason to doubt a story in the Sun that Andrew is hiding himself away at Royal Lodge to avoid being served documents in the civil case against him, which alleges he raped Virginia Roberts Giuffre when she was 17.
Security guards stopped “multiple attempts” by lawyers last week to hand the documents over, the paper says.
The Sun quotes a source saying “more attempts will be made” to physically present the papers to Andrew, adding: “There’s no way he will risk poking his head outside right now. He will stay out of view.”
The Daily Beast exclusively revealed that British media organizations hoping to snap a picture of a disgraced Prince Andrew at Balmoral earlier this month were warned off by the queen’ solicitors. We wrote at the time that the palace was “believed by some journalists to be acting out of an abundance of caution for fear that Boies could stage (a serving of papers) spectacle to humiliate Andrew.”
It seems he hasn’t given up hope.
Relocating royals
Prince William and Kate Middleton are “seriously considering” moving home to Windsor as they prepare to take on a more pivotal role.
The Mail on Sunday says the couple have been “eyeing up” accommodation options in the area, although we assume that Harry and Meghan won’t be rushing to loan them Frogmore Cottage, even if vacated by Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank, who are currently living there along with their new baby boy, August.
Currently the Cambridges divide their time between London and Norfolk. But a source tells the Mail: “Anmer Hall made sense while William was a helicopter pilot in East Anglia and it was useful for Christmases at Sandringham, but it doesn’t really work any more. It’s a little too far away for weekends, but Windsor is a perfect compromise. They are eyeing up options in the area.”
A new Windsor base would put the Cambridges just 40 miles away from Kate’s parents and her sister Pippa.
This week in royal history
The years continue to roll by. This August 31 marks the 24th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death. Thanks to The Crown, and projects like Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, whose trailer was released this week, her spirit remains very much alive and dominant—particularly when it comes to her warring sons, their bitterness over the media (rooted in how she was treated by the British tabloids), and Charles’ eternal wait for his kingly crown.
Larrain’s film features familiars so many Diana-revisited projects share: a bunch of clothes that kind of look like Diana’s most famous duds, and the voice… the first sound of Kristen Stewart’s accent as Diana sounds like a very good American actress being terribly careful with English vowels and consonants. And... the royal family looks ghastly, check, Diana looks trapped, and then liberated, check. Also: the soup looks good, and the gun-metal grey English skies even better. We cannot wait.
Unanswered questions
Will the “royal racist” question go away, as royal aides hope? It may sit brooding in the corner for as long as it remains unanswered, but given the gravity of the allegation, and the fact that it has not been answered, royal aides are quite wrong: it won’t go away. What they mean is that they really hope it remains unsolved, i.e., they hope Meghan and Harry never name the alleged culprit. In other words, it’s an unexploded bomb, entirely in Meghan and Harry’s hands.
