Harry & Meghan Want Peace Talks as William Reportedly Wants Them Gone

0:03 Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host, Mark Francis. Brand expert Nick Eade says Meghan's best chance of establishing herself back in Britain is to build an identity that does not depend on comparisons with Kate. Speaking to New Magazine, Eade warns, the worst thing Meghan could do is try to compete with Catherine. If she starts chasing the same moments, she'll always invite comparison. His comments followed William and Catherine's appearance at the London premiere of Digger, where they joined Tom Cruise and members of the Beckham family. Around the same period, Megan was photographed at a Cotswolds pub with Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, with onlookers describing them as chatting and laughing. Eat said, Megan won't want to exist in anybody's shadow. She's an ambitious woman with her own goals and ideas, and I think the next chapter has to be about establishing an identity that doesn't rely on being a former working royal. This is the glamorous world Meghan understands incredibly well. Movie stars, premieres, beautiful gowns, cameras and global attention. William and Catherine looked completely at ease in that environment, surrounded by some of the biggest names in entertainment. Catherine can appear at a Hollywood premiere one evening, but the power of her position is that it's still firmly rooted in her role as Princess of Wales. She doesn't need celebrity to give her status.

1:24 Celebrity comes to her. The more Meghan creates something genuinely independent and successful... the less every appearance becomes a comparison with Catherine. That's ultimately how she gets out of the shadows. I think it's going to take a while for Meghan to decide where and how she launches herself into the UK celebrity world, but all eyes will be on her, whatever she decides to do. Tom Sykes and Robert Jobson have compared the celebrity guests at Harry's Invictus Spirit Awards with William and Catherine's appearance at the premiere of Digger and delivered a blunt assessment of Harry's return. Speaking on the Royalist podcast, Sykes questioned the impact of having James Corden host the inaugural awards in Greenwich. Who does Harry get? He gets James Corden. He's hardly a massive, massive star.

2:07 Sykes contrasted that with William and Catherine joining Tom Cruise on the red carpet days later. You can't compete with these two, can you? He asked. The discussion then turned to Harry's reception in Britain. Jobson described him hugging journalists and guests at the awards, interpreting that behaviour as a desire to rebuild goodwill. There's a sense of desperation, a little bit, about Harry at the moment, he said. Jobson argued that Harry had underestimated the effect of the past six years and believed he could just stroll back in. Radar Online revisited Harry's failed attempt to develop his own Spotify podcast, including one idea that apparently started with a simple request for hot chocolate. Harry and Meghan signed their Spotify deal through Archwell Audio in 2020, but the partnership ended three years later. Meghan produced archetypes while Harry never launched a regular series of his own. According to a source quoted by Radar, there was a sense that everyone was desperately searching for something that could become Harry's big podcast.

3:02 He was a globally famous royal with extraordinary access, but converting that into a repeatable entertainment format was proving surprisingly difficult. Some of the brainstorming inevitably became increasingly unconventional. And unconventional apparently included something called Harry and His Hot Chocolates, Radar claimed the idea emerged that Harry asked for hot chocolate during a development meeting. The proposed show would have sent him around the United States sampling and rating different hot chocolates. The source says, The hot chocolate idea sounds almost comical because it demonstrates how broad and desperate the search for ideas for Harry had become. There were enormous expectations surrounding the deal and a recognisable name wasn't enough. They still needed an idea capable of sustaining episode after episode. There were much more serious ideas as well. Bloomberg reported back in 2023 that Harry had discussed interviewing major and sometimes controversial figures, including Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, about their childhoods and how their formative experiences influenced the adults they became.

4:02 A separate concept would have focused on fatherhood. In the end, the source says, Harry was determined to come up with a podcast format that felt substantial and unmistakably his own. He didn't want to become another famous person sitting behind a microphone having predictable conversations with celebrity friends, the difficulty was finding a concept that was original, achievable, and capable of sustaining an entire series. As the search went on, the brainstorming became increasingly ambitious and at times pretty unconventional. Harry was considering everything from intensely serious conversations about people's formative experiences to much lighter entertainment concepts. There was clearly pressure to find the big idea that justified having someone of his profile tied to such a major podcasting deal.

4:46 What's ironic is that the pictures, which never made it beyond the development stage, ultimately generated an extraordinary amount of attention themselves. People are still talking about some of those abandoned concepts years later, even though Harry never ended up fronting his own regular Spotify series. Harry intends to mark Remembrance Day privately this year to avoid drawing attention away from national commemorations, according to Hello Royal editor Emily Nash. An unnamed friend told the magazine he's not going to do anything that would pull focus from the royal family or the national commemorations at the Cenotaph in London. More likely, he'll mark it in the same way that most veterans do, privately, either at church or at their local war memorial's annual service.

5:28 Harry served 10 years in the army, including two tours in Afghanistan. He has not participated in the National Remembrance Sunday commemorations since November of 2019, shortly before he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties. A Lowe's source says, For Harry, Remembrance Sunday is a deeply personal and important occasion, a time to honour those who have served, remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and stand alongside veterans. He has no desire to create drama or do anything that could distract from his family's role in the national commemorations. More Palace in just a moment. Harry and Meghan reportedly want peace talks with William and Kate, but reports suggest the Prince of Wales is in no mood for a reunion. Heat, citing an unnamed source, claims the Sussexes see the controversy over Charles Spencer's Diana memoir as an opportunity to reopen discussions with the family. The source tells Heat, Harry and Meghan feel it's time they made peace with William and Kate.

6:27 They think it's a good opportunity to have a productive and healing conversation. Now that Earl Spencer's book has drawn attention to the family's apparent failings, Harry and Meghan feel vindicated. They think it must be time for William and Kate to take them more seriously. They also believe that, now that they're back on British soil, they're entitled to have a foot back in the door. Harry genuinely wants to have a better relationship with his brother, and Meghan is eager for them to start being welcomed back into royal circles. They feel Earl Spencer's book backs their experience with the family and how it can be a very cold and unforgiving institution. Meghan in particular feels exonerated, and she thinks now is the time to have a dialogue with with the palace. This isn't about dragging up petty grievances. She just wants Harry to be in a room with his brother.

7:10 William and Kate have no desire to get involved with Harry and Meghan. They believe no good can come from it. What they're most suspicious of is how much they knew about what was in Earl Spencer's book. William finds it hard to believe Harry didn't discuss the memoir with his uncle on their summer trip. If they did know about it, it's going to drive William and Harry even further apart. It's caused the king so much frustration and pain at a time when His health issues are serious. Separately, Closer Weekly reports that William doubts the Sussexes will remain in Britain for long. Its unnamed source claims William doesn't believe they'll even last another six months. He's counting on them giving up and moving back to America as soon as they realise they can't just bulldoze their way into getting everything they want. It's very hard for William to watch his father being so soft on them. He truly cannot understand why Charles is giving them so much latitude after everything that's happened. Harry's being so blatantly disrespectful by cozying up to Charles Spencer right when he's putting out this dreadful book. Closer Weekly's source claims before referring to rumours about Harry going off on his own to do this Diana documentary. In William's view, they can't leave soon enough.

8:17 And there you have it. If you'd like to email us, our address is thepalaceintrigue at gmail.com. If you're on Spotify, leave us a comment. If you're on Apple, hit that button up there that says listen uninterrupted and get the show commercial free for just five bucks a month. I'm Mark Francis. My thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace Intrigue and good times.