Sept. 13, 2025

King Charles Health Fears, Harry’s Race for Peace, Meghan’s Netflix Woes, and Princess Anne’s £12M Rich List

Show Notes
Transcript

Royal watchers are buzzing after Tom Sykes suggested King Charles’ health disclosure has shifted power toward Prince William, putting pressure on Prince Harry to reconcile while there’s still time. Meanwhile, a new survey shows public support for the monarchy has dropped to its lowest in 40 years. Meghan Markle faces criticism on two fronts — royal experts say she was never prepared for the sacrifices of royal motherhood, and her Netflix series has failed to boost sales of her As Ever brand. The LA Times even wonders if Meghan should ditch lifestyle projects and return to acting. Plus, Channel 5 names Princess Anne to the Royal Rich List with a fortune of £12 million.

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Calorogus Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Pallas Intrigue. I'm

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host Mark Francis. In The Royalist, Tom Sykes had a

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very keen observation about the king's meeting with Harry. Sykes writes,

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there is a reason monarchs don't usually say they have

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a terminal, incurable disease. The moment people know a king

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is dying, power starts to drain away from them and

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flow to their air. So why did Charles make the disclosure?

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It has been portrayed as him being a modern, transparent mortal,

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but I have been told that the truth is actually

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more nuanced than that. I have little doubt that a

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king student of royal history like Charles would understand the

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foolishness of a king pre announcing his own death. This

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context explains almost every current royal subplot, most notably Harry's

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attempts at making peace with his father by meeting him

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during his UK visit. William hates Harry, so Harry's only

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hope is to get a settlement with the family done

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while his father is still alive, Even while William is

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asserting his authority and giving interviews about his plans for

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reshaping the monarchy in his own image. Charles has been

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looking increasingly tired and weak in recent months. I was

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actually shocked by how hollow his eyes looked in official

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photographs released yesterday of him with an MBE recipient and

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the premiere of South Australia, and I wonder how Harry

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felt seeing him in person for the first time in

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nineteen months. I'd say it brought home to him the

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political foolishness of the way he publicly detonated his relationship

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with his father for the sake of the book and

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the Netflix films. I honestly suspect that when Harry wrote

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that book he thought he would have twenty years to

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make up with his father, and why not his father,

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who he now resembles so vividly, lived to ninety nine.

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We can all now see that that is not going

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to be the case. Harry took a critical first step yesterday,

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but he might not want to leave it too long

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before he takes the net and brings his kids over

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to meet their grandfather the King. Public support for the

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monarchy has dropped to its lowest point in four decades,

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in what is being described as a major setback for

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King Charles According to the latest British Social Attitudes survey

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by the National Center for Social Research, just fifty one

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percent of people believe it is important to keep the monarchy,

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compared with eighty six percent when the question was first

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asked in nineteen eighty three. The data shows that one

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in three people thirty one percent, now believe the monarchy

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is not important, while fifteen percent say they favor outright abolition,

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up sharply from just three percent in nineteen eighty three.

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When asked to choose directly, however, a majority still back

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the monarchy, with fifty eight percent preferring it to an

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elected head of state compared with thirty eight percent who

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favored replacing it. The findings come just days before the

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state visit of US President Donald Trump. Royal commentator Duncan

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Larcom has suggested that Megan was never prepared to make

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the kinds of sacrifices often expected of royal mothers. Speaking

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to Okay, he said, Meghan clearly hates being apart from

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her children, and when Harry has come to the UK,

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Meghan hasn't come with him and has been blamed for

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snubbing Britain as a result. I think it runs deeper

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than that, she wants to be a hands on mum

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and was never prepared to make the sacrifice that Royal

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mums have to make. Larcom added that senior royals also

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face the difficulty of giving their children freedom without exposing

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them to overwhelming scrutiny. If you've got children and you're

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a senior member of the royal family, your biggest challenge

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is to stop them growing up in a prison. Keate,

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for example, can't just pop down to the shops with George,

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he said, pointing to the ever present need for protection,

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officers and planning. Meghan's Netflix series appears to have bombed,

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and a leading brand strategist suggests the link between show

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and shop was never made plain enough. Nick E, an

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UK brand and culture expert, told Newsweek she had not

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done enough to make it clear those were as Ever products,

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and after a lackluster response to season two, she may

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now have missed a golden opportunity that could matter for

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Netflix as well. The streamer holds a stake in as

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Ever and by extension, its profits. He said. The viewership

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is down. People don't really care about with Love. There's

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some fans who will always be appreciative of it for Netflix.

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The headache here is that this is going to convert

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into sales for their product. Are they actually going to

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make money from this? If you think about it, they

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haven't really made any money just yet. Their investment must

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have been huge into actually creating the product and building

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the brand, rebranding it and putting it up there, and

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this season two is a missed opportunity which could have

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been a glorified infomercial if they'd got it right. It

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is a problem because obviously they filmed it back to back.

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If they had done two separate seasons, they could have

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done a lot of product placement with her as Ever

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a brand. But obviously when the show first started, they

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didn't have any products. So you would see her using

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some flower sprinkles, or you would see her drinking a

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glass of rose, but you wouldn't actually attribute that to

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as Ever, So there isn't crossover here. That's why there

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is that's a massive problem. Obviously, she's got a Christmas

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special and hopefully she'll be able to include some of

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her actual products in there too, he said. In The

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La Times, Mary McNamara wanders why is Megan mikeal wasting

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her time with love when she could just go back

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to acting. Her suggestion, Call Ryan Murphy. He knows what

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it's like to have a slow start with the streamer,

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and I can't imagine he would turn down the chance

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to have the Duchess of Sussex appear in one of

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his many franchises. I would definitely watch Mircle face off

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with Nash. Should Grotesque Arie get a season two Horror

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is Chic right now? Call Shonda Rhymes. Marcare would fit

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right into Bridgeton Hell. She could double up as a consultant,

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follow the path of Lee's resistance, and commission a mystery series,

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Murder in Montecito Say, in which a winsome young woman

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recently married into a powerful family tries to break into

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a wealthy and prestigious community, only to be ensnared in

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a web of deadly secrets. Greb Olivia Coleman make her

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the Texan matriarch of a political dynasty, and do a

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thinly disguised fictionalized version of actual events. It seems a

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shame Michael can't exploit or leverage the kind of aims

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Suddenly royalty and it's not that great tales that helped

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launch the careers of Claire Danes and Anne Hathaway and

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keep the Hallmark Channel in business. Just think about how

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mad the British press would get about that more palaceing

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just a moment. A new Channel five documentary has placed

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the Princess Royal fifth on its Royal Rich List twenty

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twenty five, estimating her fortune at around twelve million pounds.

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Despite being described as notoriously thrifty, Princess Anne is said

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to have quietly built significant wealth over the decades and

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began her work as a full time royal at just

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twenty one, with her early salary valued at about one

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hundred thousand pounds in today's money. Her finances grew following

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her nineteen seventy three marriage to Mark Phillips, when she

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was gifted Gatcombe Park, a seven hundred and thirty acre

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Gloucestershire estate now thought to be worth six million pounds.

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In addition, the program claims she held a jewelry collection

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valued at around five million. This includes a pearl necklace

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worth one million given to her by the late Queen Elizabeth,

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as well as several historic tiaras, among them the Diamond Festoon,

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the Aquamarine Pine Flower and the Meander Tiara, and has

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also been recognized for her work ethic, having carried out

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more than eleven thousand engagements over five decades. Charlotte Griffith's

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editor at large for The Mail on Sunday, remark, Princess

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Anne is the best value for money the Royal family has.

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She works more than any other working member of the

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Royal family and she's completely frugal. I don't think she's

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been on a shopping trip for decades. The Royal Rich

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List twenty twenty five Who's Worth the Most will air

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today on UK's Channel five, And before we wrap up

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Today's Palace Intrigue, I want to tell you about something

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special we've been working on. You know, we love covering

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royal stories from around the world, and we've just launched

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an incredible news series that goes deep into one of

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the most shocking royal scandals in recent history, Crown and Controversy.

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You've seen the first season. Season two is also starting

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next week. You can get all these seasons ahead of

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everyone else if you're a subscriber. But we have another

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new one, Crown and Controversy, Norway's Royal Rebels, tells the

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true story of Princess Martin Luise of Norway and her

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relationship with Hollywood Sharman direct verret. When the princess, who

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claimed to talk to angels, fell for the shaman, their

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fairy tale became a nightmare. The divided Norway and forced

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Norway's Royal Rebels will be available tomorrow wherever you get

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your podcasts, and there you have it. If you like

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to email us, our address is the palaceintrig at gmail

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you're enjoying the shows, I'm Mark Francis my thanks to

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King Charles Health Fears, Harry’s Race for Peace, Meghan’s Netflix Woes, and Princess Anne’s £12M Rich List

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