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Ah Calorogus, shark, media, hell low, and welcome to Powers Intrigue.
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I am your host, Mark Francis. Normally the media is
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pretty united on the Kate is Wonderful front. However, Princess
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Catherine's carefully curated public image is the subject of a
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new debate ahead of the release of a book examining
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the role of women within the monarchy. Author Katherine Mayer,
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whose forthcoming book explores the experiences of royal women through history,
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argues that the Princess of Wales has been particularly effective
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in shaping her relationship with both the public and the media.
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Writing about the Future Queen Maya suggested Catherine has played
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the royal game more cleverly than anyone, through a combination
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of image management and carefully selected glimpses into family life.
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The author contrasted Catherine's public standing with that of Megan Markel,
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arguing that royal women are often compared against one another
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in ways that can be unfair to both irreproachable. Kate
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is held up in contrast to flayed Meghan, an outcome
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damaging for both women, even if Kate herself has played
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in a stute role at creating her public image, Mayor wrote.
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A key part of that image, according to the author,
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is Catherine's use of photography. Over the years, the princess
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frequently released photographs she has taken herself, particularly family portraits
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of Prince William and their children, George, Charlotte and Lewis.
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May argues that those images help create a sense of
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authenticity while giving a public controlled glimpse behind palace walls.
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Mayor argues those images help create a sense of authenticity
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while giving the public a controlled glimpse behind palace walls.
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Courtiers credit her with what has proved to be a
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wise strategy of providing the media with photographs of her
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family on a regular basis. She added that the images
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project authenticity and help present the Whales family as more relatable.
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According to Mayer, Catherine understands the power of visual storytelling
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and uses it effectively. There is no doubt she understands
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art and imagery as a tool of communication, the author wrote,
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noting that Catherine studied history at the University of Saint Andrew's.
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The comments come as Catherine continues to use photography as
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part of her public work and personal messaging, regularly releasing
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family photographs for birthdays, anniversaries in major royal milestones. Mayer's
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book Divide and Roll Royal Women in Their Battles examines
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the lives of several royal women across history and explores
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how they have navigated public scrutiny, power and perception within
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the monarchy. Whether one views Catherine's approach as strategic image
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management or simply a talented amateur photographer sharing family moments,
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the author argues, there is little doubt that Princess of
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Wales has become highly skilled a communicating through images. Part
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of the image control was not being photographed with controversial figures.
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A source told Rob Shooter that Kate and William made
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little effort to socialize with Beatrice and Eugenie at last
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weekend's royal wedding. There was no effort to mingle, no
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catching up, no private conversations, no attempt to create a
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family moment. The same source pointed to a brief interaction
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between William and Beatrice, saying that's quick kiss Prince William
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gave his cousin, Princess Beatrice as he arrived at the wedding,
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before he quickly walked away. Another insider alleged William and
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Kate weren't seeking them out, and they certainly weren't interested
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in being photographed with them. A further source went even further,
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claiming if it had been entirely William's decision, they wouldn't
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have been there. The invitation came from Charles and Anne.
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Daniela Elsa wondered about Beatrice and Eugenie writing for news
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dot com Dot a You, Daniella tells us, for the
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last couple of decades, the Yorks have looked like they
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had won the Royal lottery, nabbing all the shiny good parts,
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like the permanent invitations to Royal ascot, but never being
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expected to do the drudging, deeply dull parts of being
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an hr age, like having just spend a wet Wednesday
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making small talk with the Winchley Women's Institute. But now
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Beatrice and Eugenie could be about to face a true reckoning.
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They could see them being dumped from Princess Tom, turfed
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out of their royal palace homes and left go God
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forbid find their own tickets to Glyndenbourd The man who
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could be behind the hurtling down to Earth their cousin,
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Prince William, who just might be photograph warmly greeting Beatrice
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and their cousin Peter Phillips recent wedding. Looks like he's
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getting set to stage of pallace push on the chopping
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block when the new reign starts will be be and
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used as royal homes, the grand real estate they have
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been allowed to occupy for decades despite never having been
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working members of the royal family. This news has seemingly
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gone down in the UK about as well as a
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vegan Scott Jag, and William has proved he knows never
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to let a pr crisis go to waste. When he
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becomes king, his Kensington Palace team told The Times he
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will consider stopping letting non working royals live in crowned
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state properties. You hardly need to be a Royal kremlinologist
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to read the writing on the wall. The same goes
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for Beatrice and Eugenie's titles, despite their father being downgraded
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to nothing but a plebby Mister last year, a deeply
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deeply satisfying taking down a peg for the ages the
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gods have held on to theirs. Likewise, you have to
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wonder about the York's place in line of succession. They
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are currently ninth Beatrice in twelfth Eugenie and their children ten, eleven,
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thirteen and fourteen or sitting ahead of Princess Anne eighteen
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and it's Edward fifteen who under talk along with Edward's
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wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh Oney twenty six engagements
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in twenty twenty five and Beautyson Eugenie officially zero, a
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big fat zero. There are ongoing reports that Buckingham Palace
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in Downing Street are working on plans to officially remove
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Andrew from the line of succession. So that's come to pass,
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and once King William's faces on the stamps, just what
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might happen to the Yorks more palasing just a moment.
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Lady Marina Windsor is set to become the second royal
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bride of twenty twenty six when she marries Nico McCaulay
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later this month. The wedding is scheduled for June twentieth,
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just two weeks after Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling's wedding
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brought members of the royal family together in Gloucestershire. Lady
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Marina is the granddaughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Canton,
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first cousin of Queen Elizabeth, making her part of the
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extended royal family. She is the daughter of George Windsor,
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Earl of Saint Andrew's and Sylvana Windsor, Countess of Saint Andrews.
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Until two thousand and eight, Lady Marina was in the
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line of succession to the British throne. However, she lost
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her place after being received into the Roman Catholic Church.
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Changes to succession rules introduced years later did not restore
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places that had already been forfeited under the previous rules.
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Substacker Matta O fact took a moment to recognize Lady
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Pamela Hicks. Amanda Mada writes, Lady Pamela Hicks died on
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June fifth, twenty twenty six, at the age of ninety seven.
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The headlines have reached for the obvious framing cousin of
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Prince Philip, bridesmaid and lady in waiting to Elizabeth second,
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and all of that is true. Sally Bedel Smith, who
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interviewed her across multiple years, called her royal several times over.
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Through her father's side, she was a first cousin of
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Prince Philip, a third cousin of Elizabeth the Second and
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a great great granddaughter of Queen Victoria. As of this year,
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she was the oldest living descendant of Victoria and Albert.
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She was also a great niece of the last Empress
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of Russia, Alexandra Fyodorovna. All of which is to say
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that Lady Pamela's family tree ran straight through both the
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survival of one dynasty and the slaughter of another. But
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I want to make a slightly different case for why
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Lady Pamela's death is worth pausing on, because it isn't
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only the loss of a person who saw extraordinary things.
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It's the closing of a particular kind of royal life
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that the modern monarchy has very deliberately stopped cultivating. Lady
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Pamela belonged to a generation whose proximity to the sovereign
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was a function of blood and breeding, rather than a
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job application or an election. She didn't marry into the family,
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and she wasn't hired any sense would recognize. She was
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simply born into the bloodstream of European royalty and grew
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up within the inner circle. There are very few people
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left who can say that, and there will be fewer
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still by design of King Charles's vision of a slim
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down monarchy comes to pass in February nineteen fifty two.
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She was lady in waiting to Princess Elizabeth and Kenya
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during the Faithful Trip when George the sixth died and
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a princess walked down from the treetops as a queen.
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This is where the historian in me wants to slow down,
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because lady in waiting sounds decorative and was anything but.
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The role was a holdover from a much older court,
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the gentlewoman of the Georgian and Victorian households who were
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the human infrastructure of monarchy. They were the companions, secretaries, fixes,
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shock absorbers, and were drawn almost entirely from the aristocracy.
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They served as much out of dynastic obligation as aptitude.
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They were also the connective tissue that made a court lady.
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Pamela was one of the last of that line to
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serve at the very top on the most demanding tour
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of the modern monarchy ever attempted. The job belly exists
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in that form anymore. Elizabeth the Second's last ladies in
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waiting were reclassified after her death into something more like
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part time volunteers. Under Queen Camilla, they had been officially
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rebranded to Queen's Companions. She was, by the accounts now
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emerging no admirer of Diana and a quiet fan of Camilla.
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As a sensible, useful presence, she traded in the kind
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of detail that can bring monarchy to a human scale,
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the small complaints, the unflattering glimpses, the affectionate eye rolls,
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and knowing smirks of family. My favorite example came years
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earlier and turned the candor on herself. Attending the twenty
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eleven Cambridge wedding, she remarked that in a family as
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large as the Queen's, there comes a moment when you
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just have to have a cull and cut out all
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the people over eighty. It was a joke, so turned
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out of prophecy and there have it. Hey all this
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month more encouraging listeners of Palace Intrigue to help spread
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the word. If you're enjoining the show, tell a friend
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about us, Betty, Yeah, just share an episode with someone
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who loves following the royal family. You know who they are.
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Be sure to follow Palace Intrigue on Spotify and Apple
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You can leave comments for us on Spotify. My Mike
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Frantis thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace Intrigue, Good Times,