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“Megxit” no more
Part two of the controversial BBC documentary The Princes and the Press screens on Monday, and the Sunday Telegraph reports the episode will be entitled, “Sussexit,” a possible cause for celebration for Prince Harry who has described the term “Megxit” as misogynistic, and said it was created by a troll before being picked up more broadly.
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Harry recently told an online forum hosted by Wired magazine: “Maybe people know this and maybe they don’t, but the term Megxit was or is a misogynistic term, and it was created by a troll, amplified by royal correspondents, and it grew and grew and grew into mainstream media.”
The BBC documentary, part one of which was screened last week on the BBC, has angered the royals, who have dismissed as “overblown and unfounded” allegations that their offices briefed against Harry and Meghan to undermine them as their departure from the royal family unfolded. The households of William, Charles and the queen were said to be considering boycotting the BBC in response.
The “Sussexit” episode is expected to make claims about “a senior member of a Royal Household helping a tabloid newspaper in its court case” against Meghan, the Telegraph reports.
This could refer to an untested claim made in court by a senior Associated Newspaper executive, Ted Verity. The Daily Beast reported at the time that Verity said in a witness statement submitted as part of Associated’s unsuccessful attempt to stop Meghan securing a summary judgement against them that he was leaked information by a palace source.
Verity claimed in his witness statement that he had a meeting within the previous three months with “a senior member of the royal household” whom he said “had direct knowledge of the matters they told me about” and that he had “absolutely no reason to think the source was being anything other than completely truthful.”
Verity said the source was “fully aware of the matters in dispute in these proceedings and how important they were to me and the company I work for. This was not gossip or tittle-tattle: it was what I considered to be high-grade information from a serious individual in a position of authority and responsibility who knew the implications of what they were telling me.”
Verity said the source told him that Harry and Meghan’s former head of communications, Sara Latham, “assisted the authors of Finding Freedom by performing a role that was essentially fact-checking, to make sure the authors got nothing wrong.”
Verity’s source also claimed that co-author Omid Scobie was given a copy of the letter that Meghan wrote to her dad. However, Scobie, in his own witness statement, denied this. The book only contained excerpts published by the Mail on Sunday.
The palace has declined to comment on the BBC documentary to The Daily Beast aside from reiterating a joint statement issued by the offices of William, Charles and the queen. It said: “A free, responsible and open press is of vital importance to a healthy democracy. However, too often it is overblown and unfounded claims from unnamed sources that are presented as facts and it is disappointing when anyone, including the BBC, gives them credibility.”
Some experts doubt a royal boycott of the corporation is truly tenable.
Dr Laura Clancy, lecturer in media at Lancaster University and author of Running the Family Firm: How the Monarchy Manages its Image and our Moneyrecently told The Daily Beast: “The monarchy needs the media more than the media needs the monarchy, and I would say this is also true for them needing the BBC.”
How Prince Andrew used his “P Albert” connections
Prince Andrew leveraged his personal connections with Prince Albert of Monaco to help his friend and private banker David Rowland get information on opening a branch in the principality, new emails published by the Mail on Sunday show.
A company controlled by Rowland, as The Daily Beast has reported, gave Andrew $2 million to pay off a loan of the same amount extended to Andrew by Rowland’s bank, Banque Havilland.
The Mail has published extracts from emails between Andrew and Prince Albert’s aide Heather Acheson, which indicate Andrew had contacted the office in late 2009 on the bank’s behalf.
In one email, Acheson wrote: “In answer to your question How difficult is it to get a banking license in and for Monaco? The Monegasque Authorities don’t restrict access to foreign banks on the territory; new banks are most welcome provided they fulfill the ‘fitness and properness’ criteria.”
Acheson also sent Andrew a link to the French central bank website explaining the process “one would have to go through” to open a bank.
“Please inform [me] if I may be of further assistance Your Highness,” Acheson added.
The Mail says that Andrew then sent Acheson’s reply on to Jonathan Rowland, David’s son, who also worked for the bank as a director.
“Here is the Monaco first response,” he wrote. “I will be going down in March to see P Albert so between now and then we can do more if required.”
In April 2012, Banque Havilland opened a branch in Monaco. Andrew attended the opening party.
Luxembourg authorities fined Banque Havilland €4 million in 2018 for not having adequate safeguards in place to protect against money-laundering.
Bye bye Barbados
The sun will set on a corner of the British empire this week, as Barbados formally replaces the queen as head of state with an elected president. The monarchy has munificently given its blessing to the departing realm, despite the queen saying she felt “sadness” and Prince Charles, who will attend the handover, admitting to “a twinge of regret” at the turn of events.
Dame Sandra Mason, the governor-general, will be sworn in as president Tuesday.
The Sunday Times quotes a source as saying: “The queen knows the world changes and moves on, Barbados is a symbol of that and she rolls with it. But there will be a tinge of reflection and sadness, as it is severing another link with the past.”
A royal aide said: “As Her Majesty embraced independence and welcomed countries to the Commonwealth, the Prince of Wales’ presence and the message that will be sent to the president from Her Majesty, shows it is a respected decision. They may have moved out of the street but they are still very much in the community.”
A source close to Charles told the paper: “He is sanguine about it—he doesn’t see it as a rejection of him personally but there is perhaps a twinge of regret and a sense that a link is being weakened. As the next head of the Commonwealth, the prince is determined it should be more than an emotional thing; it should be a practical thing that helps countries with issues like trade and climate change. If the realms were all going off to leave the Commonwealth, he’d be desperately sad, but that’s not the case.”
Another source close to Charles said: “He is pragmatic about realms going their own way. But he won’t like the aesthetics if lots more start to follow Barbados.”
Andrew accuser reportedly won’t give evidence at Ghislaine’s trial
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her multiple times while she was being trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, will not give evidence at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial, which begins tomorrow in New York City. Epstein’s former associate Maxwell is facing six charges, including sex trafficking of a minor.
Roberts’ lawyer David Boies told The Sun On Sunday that Giuffre was hoping to see “justice done” from afar, adding: “The one thing we don’t want to do, is do something that throws this trial off track—or give Maxwell’s attorneys any excuse to do anything. If you’re there in court, it’s so much harder not to say something. We’ll just have to sit back, light a candle and send positive messages.”
Kate Middleton’s bruised face features in abuse campaign
Kate Middleton is one of a group of famous women, whose picture is being used in a new domestic violence awareness campaign, TMZ reports. Kate’s face, as well as Kamala Harris, Queen Letizia of Spain and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen’s, have been used in the campaign, all doctors to feature cuts and bruises.
Words underneath read: “She reported him. But nobody believed her—but she was left alone. But she was not protected—but he was not stopped." Then in larger lettering: “But she was killed anyway.”
The doctored photographs—which in no way are supposed to reflect anything about the personal circumstances of the women—were edited by Artist AleXsandro Palombo, without palace permission. The artist said he wanted the images to “draw attention to the poor responses from politics regarding the problem of gender-based violence.”
“Why should a woman report the violence if after the report she is not protected by the institutions and ends up being killed anyway? How can a woman victim of abuse and violence still have faith in the institutions?” the artist wrote on Instagram.
This week in royal history
On November 30, 2017, Prince William presented Prince George’s wishlist for Christmas presents to Santa at an event at a Christmas market in Helsinki, Finland, as ABC News reported. George had written he wanted a police car, and circled he was “nice,” not “naughty.” William said to Santa: “I’ve seen you and I had to give you this letter. He hasn’t written down many requests, so I think one request is probably OK.”
Unanswered questions
Will Prince Andrew end up in more legal jeopardy, as Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial gets underway in New York this week?
