Harry's Aussie Shoey, Fergie's Alpine Hideout & Charles Braces for Trump - The Week in UK Royal News with Mark Francis

0:00 Ah Calorogus Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Palace Weekly. I am your host, Mark Francis. If you want the full versions of these summarized stories, please check out our daily podcast, Palace Intrigue wherever you get your podcasts like this one. It's been the kind of week where the British monarchy stayed largely at home minding its business, while the people who left it flew to the other side of the world to prove they didn't need it. Results were mixed on both counts. Let's get into it. We begin as this particular week demands in Australia. Harry and Meghan arrived in Melbourne on a commercial Quantus flag from Los Angeles business class, Row three seats E and F.

0:46 Fellow passengers described them as friendly and understated. One noted they were and we are quoting directly here, super friendly around the toilet areas. This is the kind of detail that would not appear in Palace press briefing in his precisely why we cover the Sussexes. The visit was billed as a combination of private business and philanthropic engagements, with a leaked planning document confirming it would be privately funded and focused on, in the words of the couple's publicists, listening, learning, and supporting communities rather than promotion. That framing was tested almost immediately when ticket prices for Harry's keynote at the inter Edge summit in Melbourne were reduced from around one thousand to five hundred dollars ahead of his appearance owing to what was described as weak demand. The Duke earned approximately thirty six thousand dollars for the speech. For context, a corporate speaking engagement in twenty twenty earned him roughly seven hundred forty thousand. The direction of travel is noted.

1:43 Megan's Her Best Life retreat and Sydney price between twenty seven hundred and thirty two hundred was also reported not to have fully sold out, with organizers releasing additional places shortly before the arrival. The event, co produced with Jemma O'Neill of Her Best Life podcast, was marketed as an intimate, luxury experience centered on connection and well being. Megan spent approximately two hours there. VIP guests received a group photograph. One attendee, who left at seven in the evening, reported that Megan and Harry headed straight to a super rugby match on the ground, The charitable engagements were, by most accounts, genuinely warm. At the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, the couple drew what The Telegraph's Victoria Ward described as as big a crowd as I have ever seen on such an engagement. Patients and families packed the foyer when mother said the visit made her family smile for a minute, adding we're not getting many smiles at the moment. At a woman's shelter, Megan served food, sat down with residents and asked the room if anyone else was hungry. At the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Harry attended the last post ceremony and met Indigenous veterans, telling attendees that courage does not end when the uniform comes off. At the Bondai Surf Bathers Life Saving Club, the couple met survivors of the Bondai attack, heard personal accounts from those present that day, and visited the memorial at the pavilion. At one point, a volunteer accidentally introduced herself as Harry, to which the Duke replied, no, I'm Harry, you're Amy. Word had spread that they were in the area and hundreds

3:14 turned up. A man in budgy smugglers darted out in front of them to take a photo, then wrapped a tattooed reportedly slightly sweaty arm around Harry's shoulder, gave him a friendly slap on the back and pulled him into a hug. The Daily Male described this as in true Ossie style, we are inclined to agree. A separate lighthearted moment came at the Sydney Opera House, where an Invictus veteran's daughter began dancing, was encouraged by Megan and successfully recruited Harry to join in. The couple were also presented with personalized thongs, the footwear kind bearing the legends Gray Hazard and Gray Mags. Harry's football skills were assessed at Witten Oval by a bemused AFL midfielder, who gave him six out of ten and suggested he work on getting the ball to spin in the right direction. Not everything went smoothly. The Mastershif Australian Revelation landed on day two of the tour, precisely while Harry was laying a wreath at the Australian War Memorial. In camera. The optics were, as multiple commenters observed, not ideal. Network ten released a promotional image showing Megan alongside the show's judges, and the response online was immediate. Reported fees ranged from three hundred and eighty thousand dollars, which The Daily Mail disputed entirely, to a more modest ten to fifty thousand dollars range suggested by a former television executive, who also noted that whatever the number, the controversy had probably done the network more good than harm. Meghan polarizes people, he said. People love her, but a lot of people hate her, which means she is far from boring. That is not quite

4:44 the endorsement Archbald Productions would have written for themselves. But here we are. The broader question of what the tour was actually for dominated coverage throughout the Weak. Deep Crown addressed it on his substack with a thought experiment imagine. He wrote that it was William and Catherine arriving in Melbourne. William Try's AFL gets rated six out of ten, whereas the team scarf. Catherine appears on Master Chef as charming, laughs at herself, talks about cooking for the children, both activities Deep Crown noted would be filed without hesitation as institutional gold. That machinery exists, he wrote, it is very good at its job. It is simply not available to the Sussex's The full piece is linked in the show notes.

5:26 The Daily Mail's Richard Eden suggested the tour is the latest phase of something he has been tracking for some time, which he called Project Thor, an alleged effort supported by unnamed senior politicians and palace figures to gradually rehabilitate the Sussex's standing with the British public and the institution. Iden's view is that using six children as backdrop for a commercial tour is, in his words, extremely dangerous for the monarchy. Others in the Australian press were more sympathetic. Nine's Natalie Olivery argued the tour had shown just what the royal family is missing before or adding that the Master Chef timing had undone much of that good will. The assessment that settled most accurately on the week's ambiguity came from daniela Elsa at news dot com dot Au, who described the whole enterprise as a litmus test for where the Sussexes can go now that their tell all years are behind them, and noted simply they have pluck. Commentator Kinsey Chowfo perhaps inadvertently offered the most interesting framing of all after suggesting Harry should stop pretending to be a royal.

6:30 She paused and reframed, what a glorious admission of regrets. This was Australia's we miss being Royal tour. It truly tells us they missed up big time when they left the royal family and they desperately miss it. Whether or not that reading is correct, it captured something the Week made hard to ignore. The closer Harry and Meghan get to performing royal duty, the more the absence of the institutional machinery around them becomes visible, more palace in just a moment. Meanwhile, back in the UK, life continued at its own pace. King Charles made an unannounced visit to a newsagent and whiskey shop near Bow Murrel to mark the business's one hundredth anniversary. He told locals he had visited the shop as a child. Residents described hearing sirens and being surprised. The King was described as delighted. It was his first public outing since Easter, and it was, by every available measure, a very nice visit to a local shop, and nothing more complicated than that. The bigger domestic story this week centered on Andrew Mount Batton Windsor, and specifically on whether the royal families approached to him sibling visits, cautious phone calls, sympathetic briefings constitutes genuine concern or something more strategically convenient. Prince Edward and Sophie reportedly visited Andrew at wood Farm over Easter, sharing dinner and checking on his mental health. Prince William, in a development that surprised many, is said to have called Andrew to offer condolences following his loss of titles. Andrew was reportedly very touched Kensington Palace to decline to comment. Tom Saykes,

8:02 writing in The Daily Beast, was immediately skeptical of the Edward visits story, noting that it landed in both The Mail and The Times simultaneously, which he described as a tell. He argued this follows a familiar patternum sympathetic palace briefings designed to soften public opinion, and warned that every such story makes the likelihood of Andrew facing serious consequences. Slightly smaller. Royal author Nigel Cawthorne added a different dimension, observing that Andrew knows where the bodies are buried and that the unanswered question of where the twelve million dollars used to settle with Virginia Gjuffrey actually came from continues to hang over the family. Hugo Vickers, in his new biography, claims Prince Philip referred to Andrew's situation in expletive filled private tirades and considered him a loose cannon and a threat to the legacy of the crown. Philip apparently called him, among other things, gullible and easily led. Sarah Ferguson meanwhile, was photogogpu for the first time in months at a ski resort in Austria, looking subdued and attempting to keep a low profile. Reports suggest she has been moving between Zurich, Cork and the Alps during what is described as a period of near constant movement, when sources said she is desperate and not in a good mental place, with concern about potential legal pressure from both sides of the Atlantic.

9:20 In a development that should perhaps surprise no one, she's also said to have reached out to Tiger Woods following his own recent legal difficulties. Sources close to Woods described his inner circle as extremely selective about who gets through and suggested they would not welcome any additional complications. That appears to be a diplomatic way of saying the answer was no. Questions were also raised this week about Princess Beatrice's husband, EDUARDA Mapelli Mozzi, with reports that he is not expected to inherit his family's eighteenth century Lombardy villa, that the property has fallen into disrepair in any case, and that speculation about the couple's relationship has resurfaced. Sources close to them deny it any difficul couplty, with one saying the only distance between them has been physical distance because of work. His father, when asked about the marriage, said it's not my affair. You should go and talk to my son about it. More palace in just a moment.

10:15 Finally and looking ahead, King Charles will deliver a national address on Tuesday to mark what would have been Queen Elizabeth the Second's one hundredth birthday. A major exhibition of her wardrobe and personal collection has opened at the King's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, and a new national memorial in Saint James Park is nearing completion. Senior royals, including William, Catherine and Anne are expected to attend the commemorations. Behind the scenes, sources describe the king as feeling the weight of the occasion acutely, not only the personal loss, but the sense that much has changed since his mother's death, and not all of it for the better. And then on April twenty seventh, he flies to Washington to address Congress, attend a state dinner with Donald Trump, and attempt the diplomatic equivalent of, in one columnist's phrase, never getting a room full of lasers with no map and a constitutional requirement not to touch anything. We'll be covering every step and there you have it. You got to email us or addresses the Palace Intrigue at gmail dot com. Please follow us on Spotify, Apple or the app of your choice, and check out Deep Crown on substack. Just google him or search for Deep Crown on substack. I'm my Francis my thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace Weekly and good Times