Aug. 29, 2025

King Charles Hits Back at Harry? Royal Butler Memoir Sparks Drama

Show Notes
Transcript

Former royal butler Grant Harrold’s new memoir paints a glowing picture of King Charles—and directly contradicts Prince Harry’s version of events in Spare. Is this a strategic royal clapback? Plus, celebrity chef Jameson Stocks slams Meghan Markle’s Netflix series, calling her “a liability.” We also dive into why critics say With Love, Meghan feels painfully inauthentic—and how one writer hoarded Meghan’s rare $14 crepe mix like gold.

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Calarogu Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Palace Intriguga. I'm

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your host, Mark Francis. A new memoir by former Royal

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butler Grant Harold, is stirring headlines and reportedly ruffling feathers

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within the Sussex camp. Harold, who served for years as

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a valet to then Prince Charles, Queen Camilla and Princess

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William and Harry, has released The Royal Butler, a behind

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the scenes look at royal life that offers a notably

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glowing portrayal of the king. But one detail in particular

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has caught a tension. Harold's insistence that William and Harry

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were happy about Charles's marriage to Camilla, directly contradicting Harry's

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own account in his memoir Spare the four of Them.

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I promise you got on so well, Harold rites. I

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saw them having dinners together. I saw them having drinks together.

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I saw them going to parties together. Now, according to

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Shutter Scoop, palace insiders believe the book may be more

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than just fond recollections. It may be part of a

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strategic response. This is Charles hitting back. One insider told

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the outlet Harold's book is a direct counter attack on Harry.

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It's basically saying, don't believe in believe me. A friend

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of Harry's didn't hold back in their assessment, telling Shutter scoop,

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he knows it's a takedown. This is the King using

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loyal old staff to trash his story and make him

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look bitter and dishonest. Celebrity chef Jamison Stocks, who has

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previously cooked for King Charles, isn't holding back on his

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views about Meghan Mikle's Netflix series with Love Meghan. I

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think Megan Michael needs Netflix more than Netflix needs her,

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he told The Daily Express, adding bluntly, she's becoming a

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bit of a liability. To be honest with you, they

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don't really know what to do with her. Maybe an

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actual chat show would be better suited the audience of

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figures prove that a lifestyle show doesn't work with her

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at the Helm. Frankly, I think people are more intrigued

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by Prince Harry than by her. Lifestyle show centered around

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him would probably have been much more engaging. Stocks concluded

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with a prediction and a caveat. If I had to

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guess what Megan's next show would be I'd say a

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talk show, no cooking, no edible flowers, studio based. However,

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I doubt that will happen because I think she wants

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to be the center of attention, and as a talk

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show host, the focus is actually on the guest. In

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l decor Ingrid Abramovich writes why I hoarded my rare

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box of Megan Michael crate mix until now. Somehow it

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feels fitting that season two of With Love Meghan is

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poised to drop on Netflix right before Labor Day. For me,

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the last three months have been my Sussex Summer, a

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season curated by a duchess with several HighRes, one low,

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and some very delicious cookies. It started June twentieth when

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I got tipped from a family member that Meghan's as

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Ever site had a rare product restock. For once I

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was in the right place, at the right time, in

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front of my laptop, only three items were still available,

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Meghan's short Bread cookie mix with flower Sprinkles, crate mix,

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and apricot spread cause I ordered them all. The fourteen

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dollar Crape Max arrived in early July along with the cookies.

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The packaging, a simple white box, came with a note

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from Megan explaining how Crapes reminded her of a student

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days backpacking through France. We were on a tight budget,

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but it was an affordable indulgence that I can still

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taste to this day, she wrote. Then a funny thing happened.

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Everyone started fighting over the crape mix. Friends asked if

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I really needed it. Scarcity sells. Soon boxes were popping

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up on eBay at multiples of the original price. I

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tucked mine away, waiting for the right moment. The return

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of Meghan's Netflix series coinciding with the end of my

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summer Sussex seemed like kismut. Did the royal branding really

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add anything? Or was it more or less a case

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of letting meet crapes more balacing just a moment. Don't

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forget to check out our new episode of Crown and

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Controversy which drops on Sunday, and Crown and Controversy kind

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of takes over where the Crown on TV left off,

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and you can get that podcast every Sunday, and if

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you're a subscriber, you can get seasons and episodes in advance.

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So check it out wherever you get your podcasts, just

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like this one. Crown and controversy out now. In Slate,

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Imagen West Knights writes about Andrew Lowney's book about Prince Andrews, saying,

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this is the kind of book you can write about

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a member of the royal family only after they have

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been thoroughly disgraced, and it is not unusual that a

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member of the royal family has fallen so decisively. Lowney

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reportedly approached about three thousand people for this book, of whom,

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he says, only a tenth replied. But that is enough,

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and what these people have to say about him is

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damning beyond believe. Here follows just some of the claims

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Lowney makes about Andrew, all of which are backed up

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by testimony from people who know or knew the prince,

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but still just allegations. I suppose he had a member

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of the royal staff moved from his job for wearing

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a nylon tie, and another because he had a mole

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on his face. He had forty women brought to his

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hotel room in Thailand over a five day visit, aged

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twenty six. He had dozens of stuffed animals on his bed,

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one of which were a vest that read It's tough

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being a prince. He missed his daughter's twelve birthday to

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hang out with Epstein at his Miami beach house. He

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ran up a bill of three hundred and twenty five

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thousand pounds on helicopters and planes in two thousand and

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five alone, he let a Libyan gun smuggler pay for

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a holiday he took to Tunisia and accepted a present

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of bugged MacBook pro from an attractive woman who turned

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out to be a Russian spy. He later tried to

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get himself a free Faberschet egg on an official Kremlin tour.

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In his role as a special representative for the United Kingdom,

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he earned in the diplomatic community the nickname his buffoon

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Highness by refusing to follow his brieves and perhaps even

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read them in the first place. Once driving his eighty

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thousand pounds range rover to Royal Lodge in Great Windsor Park,

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he found that the gate's censor was broken, so rather

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than taking a one mile detour, he ran them open,

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causing thousands of pounds worth of damage. Name an undesirable

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trait a person might have, and this book will demonstrate

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Andrew having it. He is supposedly in addition to being

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a sex offender, cruel, easily enraged, stupid, boring, naive, attention seeking, unfunny, childish,

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arrogant and out of touch, as well as a misogynist,

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a liar, a thief, a bully, a pervert, a bad lover,

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a bad husband, a bad father, a brat as a child,

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a brat as a teenager, and a brat as an adult.

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Just when you're thinking that surely every possible slight has

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been leveled at the Prince and that there can surely

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be no greater depth to which your opinion of him

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can sink, Lowley relates that the staff at Buckingham Palace

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used to have to clear away collections of soil tissues

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in his bedroom. The late Princess Diana once saw a

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kindred spirit and another icon of the era, John F.

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Kennedy Junior. The two reportedly met in nineteen ninety five

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when JFK. Junior was in London pitching a cover profile

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for his new magazine George. According to his former assistant

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Rose Marie Toreenzio, writing in fairy Tale, Interrupted, Kennedy hoped

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to feature Diana in a respectful and thoughtful piece. The

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Princess however, declined the invitation, sending a handwritten note that

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read simply, thank you so much, but not right now.

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Diana was later seen lunching with Vanity Fairs Tina Brown

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and vogues Anna Win Tour, where she opened up about

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her sons and her hopes for how Prince William might

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handle the media in the years to come. As Brown

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later wrote in The New Yorker, Diana was increasingly concerned

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with her family's relationship with the press. All my hopes

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are on William now, Diana reportedly said, I don't want

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to push him. I tried to din himself all the

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time about the the media, the dangers, and how he

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must understand and handle it. I think it's too late

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for the rest of the family, but William, I think

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he has it. I think he understands. She added. I'm

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hoping he'll grow up to be as smart about it

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as John Kennedy Junior. I want William to be able

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to handle things as well as John does. Years later,

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Prince William would reflect on those lessons in the documentary

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Diana Seven Days. He acknowledged the difficulty of facing public scrutiny.

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I can understand sometimes having been in those situations when

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you feel incredibly desperate, the easiest thing is to say

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or to go to the media yourself, or you know,

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open that door. But once you've opened it, you can

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never close it again. Diana's own life ended in tragic

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proximity to the very media machine she feared. In nineteen

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ninety seven, her car crashed in the Paris Tunnel as

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the driver attempted to flee photographers. She died shortly after,

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at the age of thirty six. And there you have it.

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To email us addresses the Palace intrig at gmail dot com.

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Please follow us on Spotify, Apple or the app of

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your choice, and you can follow us now on Facebook

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Intrigue on your Facebook pages or Facebook groups and you

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can get the link in the show notes. I'm Mark

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Francis my thanks to John McDermott, this Palace Intrigue and

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good terms

King Charles Hits Back at Harry? Royal Butler Memoir Sparks Drama

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