Harry's £60M Legal Bill, the Elton John Rift, and What Really Happened at Highgrove — Plus an Epstein Banner in Buckingham Palace

0:00 Ah calarogus Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Pallace and Weekly. I'm your host, Mark Francis. It's been a week in which Prince Harry lost a court case, lost a fortune, possibly lost Elton John, and then got everything he actually wanted, anti monarchy campaigners, and fell the banner about Jeffrey Epstein inside the throne room of Buckingham Palace. The King quietly rewrote the description of his own job. Prince William was reported to be furious while being photographed enjoying himself at Wimbledon, and Harry was flattened by a goat. The central question of the week, and the one everything else orbits, is this, did any of it actually change anything? Hold that thought.

0:47 Let's get into it. We begin with Harry, because there was no other way to begin. The Duke of Sussex and his six fellow claimants lost their case against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail. The judge found against them. Harry's was sponse was to suggest the outcome amounted to a whitewash, which Royal biographer Tom Bower described as a churlish reaction to losing the case, in which, as Bower put it Harry couldn't prove any evidence. Bauer went further, and Bawert generally does. He said Harry had betrayed his family, betrayed the country, and betrayed the institution of the monarchy, and that the case had destroyed his reputation as someone who could be trusted. Then came the arithmetic, which is less rhetorical and considerably more permanent. News Nations Paula Frolic reported the costs could exceed sixty million dollars. Insurance may cover part of it. Tens of millions may remain. When Insider offered the sentence that will follow this story for months, people think Harry and Meghan have unlimited money, and they don't.

1:43 They've earned a fortune, They've also spent one A palace. Source told Robshooter's naughty but nice that some people close to the situation fear this is the beginning of a financial downward spiral. Nobody is saying broke tomorrow, but the blockbuster paydays have slowed, while the legal bills keep arriving. That eventually catches up with you, which brings us to the saddest small story of the week. Frolic reports that Harry's friendship with Elton John is under strain, and the strain is money. Elton, who was close to Diana, who offered the Sussexes his house in France, who performed at their wedding, who stood beside Harry, is a fellow claimant in this very case. Elton was reportedly asked to donate to Invictus Birmingham. Elton said no, Harry was hurt, and now the two of them share a legal bill, and one source noted that Elton is the only member of that group who could plausibly absorb it, and is himself a little tapped out. The sources summary was four words long, Elton is not a bank. The Guardians Stephen Bates observed that the Prince might reflect he has brought many of his troubles on himself that for a crusader for personal privacy, he has outed himself considerably more comprehensively than the tabloids ever managed, between the interviews, the Netflix series and a memoir that told the world rather more about his frostbitten anatomy than the Daily Mail ever did. Bates also noted it is unlikely Charles will pay his estranged son's debts the way the late Queen apparently settled Andrews, and he added drily that at least Harry did not learn the news whilst staying at Buckingham Palace. That last line is

3:13 the whole week in miniature, because Harry wasn't staying at Buckingham Palace. He'd asked, he'd been refused, and then on Friday none of it mattered more Palace. In just a moment, Harry and Meghan took Archie and Lilibert to Highgrove and met King Charles and Queen Camilla. It was the first time the families had been together in four years. The King has seen Lilibet once. He last saw both children at the Platinum Jubilee in twenty twenty two, when Lilibert was one. Here is how it happened, and it is genuinely funny. I Grove was hosting a Chanel event that afternoon, honoring students who had completed an elite twenty four week embroidery course. There were cars everywhere, so that Sussex's car simply joined the que and drove in unnoticed. One insider explained that the volume of traffic for the Channell event allowed the Sussex's vehicle to blend in. The most scrutinized reunion in modern royal history, was made possible by a needlework graduation ceremony. They arrived between three thirty and four in the afternoon and stayed a little over an hour.

4:13 There is no photograph, there is no statement, there is no redoubt. According to Vanity Fair, Charles told almost nobody in advance, not the Prince and Princess of Wales, not his own household. Camilla was at ray Mill House when he asked it come, one source said, she told no one, not even a family. She simply got in the car. Sally budel Smith, writing in her Royals Extra Substack, offered the more precise reading. Camilla was there not only for moral support, but as a witness, exactly as she had been in February twenty twenty four, when Harry came to London after the King's cancer diagnosis, a witness to a family reunion with a grandfather and two small children. The people who wanted this to be a surrender said it was a surrender. Tom Sykes and the Royalist described two camps in the King's court, the Hawks, led by Clive Olderton, who agree with William that Harry should be kept nowhere near the King, and who regard it as their duty to protect the sovereign from his own softer instincts, and the Doves gathered around theo Ryecroft, the man being lined up to succeed Olderton. By Friday, Sikes wrote, the Doves had won, led ultimately by the King himself, but the Hawk's fingerprints were everywhere. The existential mistrust about the Sussex's motives the courtiers wore gaming the fallout and a refusal to offer a room at Buckingham Palace, partly because aides feared Harrywood stage what Sikes memorably called is a Vita moment on royal turf. Don't cry for me, Montesito. Sikes's larger point deserves attention because it was the most interesting argument of the week. The engine of all this, he suggests,

5:45 is the King's recovery. When everyone believed Charles was dying, he had neither the strength nor the standing to attempt any of this. Now that his treatment is going well and he believes he has been given time, he is taking back control and the message to his air is unmistakable. I mean I like it, son, this is my family, and this is how I'm going to run it. History is full of impatient heirs. What history has not seen as a monarch who faced death, was rescued by medicine and returned determined to wrestle power back from an air who had developed a taste for it. And the people who wanted this to be nothing said it was nothing, and inside of told Rob Shooter, don't believe the hype. This wasn't a surrender. It was a grandfather wanting to see his grandchildren, and people confusing compassion with capitulation. Then the list of what didn't happen. No official photograph, no public embrace, no balcony, no joint statement, no restored role, no change to security, no constitutional shift. The monarchy gave away absolutely nothing, And the closing observation, which is hard to argue with. If the Palace had wanted the world to read this as a reconciliation, there would have been a picture. Angela. Levann's assessment was blunter. Still, Harry sent in a list of what he wanted. He didn't get a thing. There might have been a vague conversation, she said, but not a warm one. A source quota by the National Examiner claimed Charles used the hour to make sure Harry and Meghan understood exactly where they stand. Things happen on his terms now or not at all, and if there are any more leaks or public tantrums, that is the end of it for good. Andrew Lowney more soberly said the meeting was encouraging, but that everything depends on whether Harry's side begins to leak, at which point one

7:17 notes that we know about the length of the meeting, the arrival window, of the traffic camiller's car journey, and the contents of the agreement not to share any details. Someone is talking. Someone is always talking. One social media user put it best. Nothing says keeping quiet like a Sussex source yapping to Vanity Fair and William was twelve miles away at one point last week and did not close the distance. USA Today's Jennifer Hassan cataloged a Prince of Wales who visited a school road, a funicular railway, played crazy golf, discussed warming seas with fishermen on a charity polo MATCHI and took the family to Wimbledon, a schedule with one glaring omission. Hillary Fordage said William remains adamant, Harry isn't to be trusted. Helena Child argued the absence wasn't a snub, but a strategy, because you cannot have an institutional reconciliation without the future King. Roy and Nicker in The Sunday Times asked what William would make of his father's olive branch and answered her own question, he won't like it, that's for sure. Mark Dollan reported William was furious, calling the meeting a reward for treachery. Royal observers tell Palace intrigue that William attended Wimbledon, went home to one of his several houses, and got on with being a billionaire. Both of these things may be true.

8:28 Only one of them was photographed. So did anything change structurally? No, not one arrangement, title protection detail, or constitutional line moved to millimeter. Nothing was given, but Harry's friends say he woke on Saturday, bullied, happy and energized, and as Sikes noted, of course he did. He had just endured the worst week of his public life and received the only verdict he actually cares about his father ruled in his favor more Palace in just a moment now to the rest of it, and there was a great deal of it. To members of the campaign group, Republic entered the Throne room at Buckingham Palace an unfolded a banner showing Andrew mount Batten Windsor alongside Jeffrey Epstein, bearing four words what did you know? Republic's Graham Smith said, it's simply not believable that Charles and William weren't briefed years ago about the allegations against Andrew. Given the security, blackmail and national security implications, the group is pursuing the possibility of a private prosecution. Meanwhile, New Mexico prosecutors have ordered more than two dozen companies Google, WhatsApp, Yahoo, American Express, Speeding among them, to preserve records connected to Epstein's Zoro Ranch and its visitors.

9:37 Any messages between Andrew Epstein and Gleam Maxwell now cannot be destroyed. A source told The Mirror that Andrew visited the ranch a number of times and that former staff have already been questioned about who he was with and how much he moved around the property. Separately, Thames Valley police are reportedly preparing to travel to the United States to speak informally with Virginia Jeoffrey's brother and sister in law. Andrew has always denied wrongdoing and has never been charged. Andrew's own week consisted of sneaking into the Sandringham driving challenge to watch Sophie compete, and leaving before anyone could photograph him with a royal. One onlooker said he sneaked in and sneaked out and definitely didn't want to be seen. He was also photographed back on a horse brought up from Windsor on temporary loan, a source explaining that his board rigid in a few days with his horse beats, sitting around doing nothing, and in the week's most quietly devastating statistic, the name Andrew has fallen to its lowest recorded level of popularity in England and Wales. Just one hundred and twenty five baby boys received it last year, ranking at three hundred and thirty fourth, tied with Zorawa Water in Hussein. In nineteen sixty four, it was third in nineteen ninety six. There were two thousand, six hundred and seventy six of them. Camilla by contrasts went from four babies to sixty six William clanned to twenty fifth.

10:51 There were no babies named Kir for the second consecutive year, which Sir Kia Starman May wished to consider, alongside his other recent news the most consequential story of the week arrive. All these things do buried in an account's document. Buckingham Palace has quietly rewritten the official description of the King's role in the Sovereign Grant Report last year Head of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith, this year Supreme Governor of the Church of England, who protects the space for faith within the multi faith nation. The report also describes him as a catalyst for charitable action, recognizing the degradation of nature, and providing pastoral support to the armed forces rather than simply heading them. Narle Gooch's writing for Unheard, argued that the people calling this a storm and a teacup were missing the point. The Sovereign Grant Report may be a dried document largely written by accountants, but it will have been checked by senior members of the King's staff, and the explicit declaration therefore carries weight.

11:46 The King has taken a side on contested questions of identity and nationality. The Washington Times went further, asking whether the redefinition amounts to a rejection of God. The coronation oath is unchanged. The description of the job is not Charles's saying this for forty years, he has now written it down elsewhere. William marked the third anniversary of Homewards by carrying a dining chair up three flights of stairs in Aberdeen, mishearing a mention of donated air fryers and replying that some of us don't need hair dryers. They said homelessness is not an individual failure, but a systemic one, and that if systems help create the problem, systems can help prevent it. Nearly two million pounds invested, three and a half million attracted, two hundred and fifty people helped into work, thirty one people housed in Aberdeen alone. Lord Simon Case recalled William refusing to let counsels tidy the needles away before a visit, insisting it was important to see what life is actually like. Charles made his first visit to the Isle of Man as Monarch and Lord of Man, addressed Timball party and Manx Gaelic, while apologizing in advance for massacring it, met a rare breed of multi horned sheep and wrote one hundred and fifty year old horse tram along Douglas Promenade. The Venus Garden opened at Windsor, replacing a monoculture of rose bushes and wildflower meadow.

12:59 Its design and inspired by the orbit of Venus, complete with a returned statute of Hercules wrestling a river god. Samuel Chattow, Princess Margaret's grandson, announced his engagement to Eleanor Escadigion with a ring he made himself. The King is delighted. Kate presented the trophies at Wimbledon and introduced her children to a ten year old wheelchair tennis player simply as George and Charlotte. Prince Loui was not there again and Kathleen Walsh in The Cut Has Questions. England reached the World Cup semi final and lost two to one to Argentina. William called it the most complete England team in a tournament and told them to hold their heads high. Spain's royal family watched their semi final at home in matching jerseys and were filmed Erupting and Harry at the end of the week was trampled by goats during a yoga session in Warwickshire, one of which landed squalling in his lap, prompting an entire genre of a headline. He was instructed to fill the goat within him. He then joined a water balloon fight and told a boy who hit him in the face, what's your name? I'll remember you, which leaves the question Jeene west Knights asked in Slate, and it's the right one to end on. Last week, she wrote, a grandfather received a visit from his grandchildren who live overseas.

14:09 This happens all over the world, every single day, with no fanfare whatsoever. If those people are members of Britain's royal family. However, the fanfare cannot be dispensed with. Professor Arianne shun It meet the same point in the New York Times. We almost invent these foils even when they don't exist, because we're looking for the drama and we've come to expect it. There also real people, you said, and this is their life. And there you have it. If you'd like to email us her addresses the Palace intrig at Gmail dot com. Please follow us on Spotify and Apple. If you're on Spotify, you can drop us a comment. If you're on Apple, that button up there that says listen uninterrupted and get all these shows commercial free for just five bucks a month. Hey Mike Francis, No thanks to John McDermott. This is Powace Weekly. Good terms,