May 3, 2026
Critics Turn on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as Questions of Relevance Grow
Columnists take aim at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, questioning their relevance and public messaging, with sharp commentary from across the British press. Harry’s Ukraine remarks are revisited, while Meghan’s social media posts and claims of hardship draw renewed scrutiny. Plus, astrologers weigh in on her star sign, and a revealing anecdote highlights King Charles’ approach to duty and danger during his U.S. visit.
Get episodes of Palace Intrigue by becommming a paid subscriber on Apple Podcasts. Click the button that says uninterrupted listening. Just $5 a month, and that includes many ofther shows on the Caloroga Shark network.
A new season of King William is available now.
Our royal newsletter written by Deep Crown is available for free.
Royal Books:
Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors by Tom Bower
William and Catherine: The Monarchy's New Era: The Inside Story
The Royal Insider: My Life with the Queen, the King and Princess Diana
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:12.880
Ah calorogus shark media all and welcome to Palace Intrigue.
2
00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:15.560
I am your host, Mark Francis. In The Times, Polly
3
00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:18.519
Vernon asks what's worse than the whole world hating you?
4
00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:20.960
Why the whole world not being bothered about you? One
5
00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:23.399
way or the other. Of course, no one wants to
6
00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.000
be irrelevant, but I suspect a few people want it
7
00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:28.960
less than Harry, Duke of Sussex Years after all, the
8
00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:32.719
man who called his twenty twenty three autobiography spare because
9
00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:35.640
that awful feeling of being at best a backup plan
10
00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:39.359
for the royal establishment, therefore not especially important in your
11
00:00:39.399 --> 00:00:42.119
own right, has haunted him for the whole of his life.
12
00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:44.880
Yet it would seem that not mattering very much in
13
00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:48.520
the end might be Harry's destiny. I feel more pity
14
00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:50.840
for him writing those words than I ever have before,
15
00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:54.000
give or take the time I watched him, heartbreakingly young
16
00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:58.039
and heartbreakingly pale, walk behind his mother's coffin. Obviously, but
17
00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:01.640
year a slip slide into inc significance might very well
18
00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:05.000
be Harry's fate. His fate and that of his wife Megan.
19
00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:09.120
Most recently, Harry's protests that he will always be part
20
00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:11.560
of the royal family, and that to the argument he
21
00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:13.920
is no longer a working royal, he is, in fact
22
00:01:13.959 --> 00:01:15.959
working and doing the very thing I was born to do,
23
00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:20.439
which loosely translates as a matter royal blood still runs
24
00:01:20.439 --> 00:01:23.840
through my veins. I exist. To be fair to Harry.
25
00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:26.280
He was in Ukraine at the time of those latest comments,
26
00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:30.560
visiting alongside the Halo Trust, the landmine clearing organization whose
27
00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:34.319
profile Princess Diana transformed in her nineteen ninety seven trip
28
00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:37.920
to Angola. The clearing of land mines is a desperately
29
00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:41.040
important cause, and Ukraine, a country whose ongoing plight is
30
00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:44.079
constantly pushed out of the headlines by other evolving and
31
00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:49.400
unceasingly dramatic international situations, could absolutely do with the spotlight again.
32
00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:52.359
In all those respects, Harry did the right thing. But
33
00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.079
if only he hadn't made it about him, if only
34
00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:57.959
he'd just done it, Although maybe not making it all
35
00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:59.680
about you was a lot to ask from someone who
36
00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:03.840
is discovered therapy, privilege, mental health, victimhood and so forth,
37
00:02:03.879 --> 00:02:07.640
all at once, rather quickly and rather recently, found himself
38
00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:10.479
initially rewarded for it. Some factions of the public hasn't
39
00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.639
yet noticed that times and sensibilities have changed. It all
40
00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:17.960
now plays like irritating introspection and repetitive self pity, ensuring
41
00:02:18.039 --> 00:02:20.759
even those who once supported him in it now June out,
42
00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:25.360
drift off, turn the page, scroll down the feed. In
43
00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:28.960
the Telegraph, Celia Warden writes, another day, another chance to
44
00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.159
remind the world just how much hardship you've endured if
45
00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:35.240
you're a megan. Although when I glimpsed the headline on
46
00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:38.840
Sunday Duchess hints at the hardest seven years of her life,
47
00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:40.879
I genuinely had to check they hadn't picked up an
48
00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:44.159
old paper by a mistake. The Duchess of Sussex, who
49
00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:47.120
was a Leo, felt duty bound to share two astrological
50
00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:51.080
Instagram stories. The first depicted two men dancing to Selene
51
00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:55.120
Dion's hit That's the Way It Is, with the caption Taurus, Leo,
52
00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:57.919
Scorpio and Aquarius ending the hardest seven years of their
53
00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:01.159
lives on April twenty fifth, and the second insisted that
54
00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:04.360
from the very same date the pressure lifts, you get
55
00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:07.560
the space to just exist without fighting for it. Now,
56
00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:10.240
reading between the lines, it has a guess that this
57
00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:13.879
is about Meghan herself and the hardship she's endured, but
58
00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:16.759
he is the good news. If the hardship ended on Saturday,
59
00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:20.080
that presumably means that she can finally stop complaining about
60
00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.159
how ghastly her life as a royal was. But don't
61
00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:25.919
you dare try and take away her title. How terrible
62
00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:28.639
the PTSD has been. After all, the strings on that
63
00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:31.680
violin must be almost worn through at this point. If
64
00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:34.599
there is a statue of limitations and winging, we've surely
65
00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:38.080
reached it. Also, and at the risk of stating the obvious,
66
00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:40.919
Meghan's current life looks pretty damn good to most people
67
00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.159
right now. She and her husband are still very much
68
00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:45.840
in love and have a combined and net worth of
69
00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:49.599
approximately forty five million pounds. They have two beautiful children
70
00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:52.759
and a nine bedroom estate in an exclusive enclave of
71
00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:56.719
Montecito where it's sunny most days a year. There, Meghan
72
00:03:56.759 --> 00:03:59.639
can continue to live out one ambition after another, whether
73
00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:02.080
it's pre tending to be Martha Stewart flogging jam or
74
00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:05.000
plotting trips to Australia to deliver speeches at young women
75
00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:07.960
at fourteen hundred pounded ticket retreats called things like her
76
00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.560
best life and she never ever has to set foot
77
00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:13.120
in another musty smelling British church for as long as
78
00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:16.240
she lives. Sounds peachy to me, and I'm convinced she
79
00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:20.040
would instantly be ninety nine percent more appealing to people
80
00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:23.879
if she dropped the winging. So how about that happy rebrand, Meghan.
81
00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:29.360
Even the astrologists think it's a good idea. Astrologers don't
82
00:04:29.399 --> 00:04:32.120
agree with Meghan's reading of the stars. Astrologer inner Bal
83
00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:35.680
Honeyman tells Hello that while Meghan's star sign Leo may
84
00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:40.000
have experienced disruption, it was not uniquely affected. She said
85
00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:43.839
Leo's had faced intense and unexpected changes due to Uranus
86
00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:48.360
and taurusts, but added that other science were more heavily impacted.
87
00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:53.639
Honingman explained Taurists have had the roughest because this planet
88
00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:57.240
was directly in their sign, ushering unwelcome surprises, and added
89
00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.839
Aquarius have had a tough time too because Uranus is
90
00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:03.920
their ruling planet. Scorpio and Leo have certainly felt the
91
00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:08.000
rough edge, but not as acutely. Looking ahead, she suggested
92
00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:10.399
a more positive period could be on the horizon, saying
93
00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:13.360
in the middle of twenty twenty six, Jupiter, planet of
94
00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:16.199
luck will go into Meghan's star sign Leo, meaning that
95
00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.839
Meghan and other Leos will enjoy a lot of good fortune.
96
00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:23.120
In the Express, Hanisha Sathi writes, I do have a
97
00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:26.360
huge amount of sympathy for Megan Markel's online abuse can't
98
00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:28.639
be easy to phase damaging a critical comment on a
99
00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:32.040
daily basis. However, her pr should warn her that her
100
00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:36.600
hyperbolic statements won't do her any favors. Either difficult or
101
00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:39.480
traumatic periods in a person's life donet simply lose relevance
102
00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:42.240
because they are no longer recent. For Megan, her time
103
00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:46.040
within the Royal Institution represented a profound life transition that
104
00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:49.600
she clearly wasn't ready for. On the other hand, critics
105
00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:55.240
argue that repeatedly revisiting these grievances risks appearing counterproductive. Since
106
00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:57.759
stepping back from royal duties, Meghan and Harry have built
107
00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:02.000
new lives, careers, and platforms. Some feel that continued focus
108
00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:06.879
on past conflicts undermines their stated desire for privacy and independence.
109
00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:11.360
A balanced view, however, might acknowledge both truths that, yes,
110
00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:14.720
Megan's experience are hers to share, but the public reaction
111
00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:17.720
will inevitably be shaped by when and how often those
112
00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:26.120
experiences are revisited. More pounds it just a moment. An
113
00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:29.360
interesting anecdote appeared in the Sun during the King's visit
114
00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:32.439
to the United States. Arthur Edwards shared that the King
115
00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.160
once told him, if a bullet has my name on it,
116
00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:38.639
so be it. Edward writes, he is very unruffled about
117
00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:40.560
these things, and I never for one moment doubted that
118
00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:43.759
King Charles and Queen Camella would be getting on that plane.
119
00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:46.839
He just feels duty is the most important thing, which
120
00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:50.279
he learned from his mother. I remember in nineteen ninety
121
00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:52.680
four I was in Sydney, Australia, when David King ran
122
00:06:52.759 --> 00:06:55.000
from the crowd with a cat pistol and I was
123
00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:56.839
just walking off. I heard the two shots ring out
124
00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:59.680
and heard people screaming. I ran around the front to
125
00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:01.800
see a pile of bodies on the stage, thinking it
126
00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:04.480
was the Prince. When I tried to climb onto the stage,
127
00:07:04.519 --> 00:07:06.959
a policeman physically threw me off and I look around
128
00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.480
and there's Prince Charles adjusting his cuffs. Calm as can
129
00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:13.240
be totally unfazed by it all, and it was quite amazing.
130
00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:15.959
If there was an hysterical person. That was me. He
131
00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:19.439
was as calm as a cucumber. He's very philosophical about
132
00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:22.560
these things. He's never going to stop doing his walkabouts.
133
00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:24.800
He's never going to stop having people into the palace.
134
00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:27.560
If it's unsafe to go somewhere, he'll certainly take the
135
00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:29.959
advice of his protection team. If they say it's very
136
00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:32.959
unsafe to go there, so we won't go there, he
137
00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:34.800
will listen to them. But at the same time he
138
00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:37.079
will not be put off doing what he feels his
139
00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:40.319
duty is to be king for everybody, not just somebody,
140
00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:43.160
but the whole nation, and he's doing a brilliant job
141
00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:48.319
so far. King Charles and Donald Trump are reportedly distantly related,
142
00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:52.839
according to newly highlighted genealogical research. The connection traces back
143
00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:56.519
to a shared ancestor, a Scottish nobleman known as the
144
00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:59.759
third Earl of Lennox. Royal Author Robert Hartman said the
145
00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:03.279
two men shared descent from the same Scottish noblemen, making
146
00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:06.759
them distant cousins. He explained, we know that the avowedly
147
00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:09.560
royalist President Trump already regards the King as a great
148
00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:11.920
guy and a fighter, but his affection for the monarch
149
00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.839
and the royal family may now become even more pronounced
150
00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:16.800
when he learns that he and the King shared descent
151
00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:21.160
from the same Scottish nobleman. The research suggests that link
152
00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:25.360
runs through multiple generations of Scottish nobility, eventually connecting to
153
00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:29.120
Trump's maternal lineage through his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who
154
00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:32.200
emigrated to the United States in the early twentieth century.
155
00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:35.480
Hardman noted that the shared ancestry would make the King
156
00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:40.399
and President approximately fifteenth cousins. There you have it if
157
00:08:40.440 --> 00:08:42.919
you like to email us addresses the Palace Intrigue at
158
00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:46.960
gmail dot com. I'm Francis by thanks to John McDermott.
159
00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:49.240
This is Palace Intrigue and good time.
1
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:12.880
2
00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:15.560
3
00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:18.519
4
00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:20.960
5
00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:23.399
6
00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.000
7
00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:28.960
8
00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:32.719
9
00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:35.640
10
00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:39.359
11
00:00:39.399 --> 00:00:42.119
12
00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:44.880
13
00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:48.520
14
00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:50.840
15
00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:54.000
16
00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:58.039
17
00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:01.640
18
00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:05.000
19
00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:09.120
20
00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:11.560
21
00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:13.920
22
00:01:13.959 --> 00:01:15.959
23
00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:20.439
24
00:01:20.439 --> 00:01:23.840
25
00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:26.280
26
00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:30.560
27
00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:34.319
28
00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:37.920
29
00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:41.040
30
00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:44.079
31
00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:49.400
32
00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:52.359
33
00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.079
34
00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:57.959
35
00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:59.680
36
00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:03.840
37
00:02:03.879 --> 00:02:07.640
38
00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:10.479
39
00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.639
40
00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:17.960
41
00:02:18.039 --> 00:02:20.759
42
00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:25.360
43
00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:28.960
44
00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.159
45
00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:35.240
46
00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:38.840
47
00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:40.879
48
00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:44.159
49
00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:47.120
50
00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:51.080
51
00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:55.120
52
00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:57.919
53
00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:01.159
54
00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:04.360
55
00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:07.560
56
00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:10.240
57
00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:13.879
58
00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:16.759
59
00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:20.080
60
00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.159
61
00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:25.919
62
00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:28.639
63
00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:31.680
64
00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:34.599
65
00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:38.080
66
00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:40.919
67
00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.159
68
00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:45.840
69
00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:49.599
70
00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:52.759
71
00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:56.719
72
00:03:56.759 --> 00:03:59.639
73
00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:02.080
74
00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:05.000
75
00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:07.960
76
00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.560
77
00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:13.120
78
00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:16.240
79
00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:20.040
80
00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:23.879
81
00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:29.360
82
00:04:29.399 --> 00:04:32.120
83
00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:35.680
84
00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:40.000
85
00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:43.839
86
00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:48.360
87
00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:53.639
88
00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:57.240
89
00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.839
90
00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:03.920
91
00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:08.000
92
00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:10.399
93
00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:13.360
94
00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:16.199
95
00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.839
96
00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:23.120
97
00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:26.360
98
00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:28.639
99
00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:32.040
100
00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:36.600
101
00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:39.480
102
00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:42.240
103
00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:46.040
104
00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:49.600
105
00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:55.240
106
00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:57.759
107
00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:02.000
108
00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:06.879
109
00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:11.360
110
00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:14.720
111
00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:17.720
112
00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:26.120
113
00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:29.360
114
00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:32.439
115
00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.160
116
00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:38.639
117
00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:40.560
118
00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:43.759
119
00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:46.839
120
00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:50.279
121
00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:52.680
122
00:06:52.759 --> 00:06:55.000
123
00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:56.839
124
00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:59.680
125
00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:01.800
126
00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:04.480
127
00:07:04.519 --> 00:07:06.959
128
00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.480
129
00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:13.240
130
00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:15.959
131
00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:19.439
132
00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:22.560
133
00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:24.800
134
00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:27.560
135
00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:29.959
136
00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:32.959
137
00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:34.800
138
00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:37.079
139
00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:40.319
140
00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:43.160
141
00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:48.319
142
00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:52.839
143
00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:56.519
144
00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:59.759
145
00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:03.279
146
00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:06.759
147
00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:09.560
148
00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:11.920
149
00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.839
150
00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:16.800
151
00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:21.160
152
00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:25.360
153
00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:29.120
154
00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:32.200
155
00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:35.480
156
00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:40.399
157
00:08:40.440 --> 00:08:42.919
158
00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:46.960
159
00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:49.240
