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Caloroga Shark Media as well and welcome to Powers Injury.
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I am your host, Mark Francis. Megan Michael updated her
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Instagram profile photo for the first time since relaunching her
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account in early twenty twenty five, in what appears to
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be another carefully curated step in the ongoing rollout of
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her lifestyle brand, as Ever, the Duchess of Sussex, replaced
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her previous black and white portrait with a softer, more
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domestic image, showing her reclining in a patterned armchair wearing
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blue trousers and a white t shirt. The new image
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prominently features products from the as Eva line, including tea
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and short bread cookies, alongside flowers and home decort touches
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that reinforced the brand's homemaking esthetic. The timing was no coincidence.
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The updated profile picture arrived the same day as Ever
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unveiled a redesigned website and new promotional video content, which
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also coincidentally was the day before Kate's return to the
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international stage. The coincidental footage shows Meghan arranging flowers, sampling raspberries,
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opening jars of fruit spread, drizzling honey over dessert, and
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walking through an orchard or designed to reinforce the polished
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California lifestyle she has been leaning into since launching the brand.
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In an Instagram caption, Megan wrote, Welcome to the world
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of as Ever. What began with fruit from Megan's garden,
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similar in to preserves in her home kitchen, has inspired
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our curated collections to bring surprise and delight to your
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every day. The rebrand also quietly marks a shift away
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from the more family oriented imagery that accompanied the original
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launch of as Ever in twenty twenty five. At that time,
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the homepage featured Megan walking hand in hand with Princess
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Lilabert across a grassy field overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The
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new visuals placed the focus squarely on Meghan herself and
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the lifestyle identity she is building around the company. The
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article also revisits Meghan's long running creative partnership with Ryan Sason,
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made by article the branding agency that previously worked with
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her on the Tig Archwall Sussex Royal and travelist. Sax
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recalled Meghan personally delivering handwritten thank you notes and bottles
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of tignanello way into his team when the tig launched
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in twenty fourteen, Sax told people she had handwritten notes
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and a bottle of Tignanello, which is the one that
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inspired the name for everyone on our team. She was
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showing her appreciation for the work we had done on
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the project, and that doesn't often happen in a person
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like that with gifts while there are more people involved.
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We've been working hand in hand with Meghan as we
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always have on the creative and I think it's really great.
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Megan appears to have revisited one of the most memorable
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looks from her twenty eighteen Royal wedding, worrying what many
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believers her Stella McCartney reception gown in the new promotional video.
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The flowing, backless gown in the video closely resembles the
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Stella McCartney dress Meagan war to the evening reception following
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her wedding to Prince Harry at Frogmore House in May
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twenty eighteen. In the new video, Meghan paired the dress
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with an oversized green blazer and wore her hair in
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a low bun, similar to the style she chose on
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her wedding day. Harry and Meghan offered at Oddsborn celebrity
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photographers have shared new photographs from a family trip to Disneyland,
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offering another carefully curated glimpse into life with Prince Archie
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and Princess Lilibet in California. The images posted to Meghan's
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Instagram account to show that Sussex family enjoyed rides, meeting
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Disney characters, and celebrating the children's birthdays during a visit
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to the Anaheim themed park. Meghan captured the post simply
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with a red heart emoji. One of the most talked
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about photos shows seven year old Prince Archie appearing shy
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as he hides behind a pillar near Sleeping Beauty's Princess Aurora,
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while Princess Lilibet, who turns five next month, is pictured
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enthusiastically hugging Cinderella and meeting other Disney princesses. Other images
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show the family in said the Star Wars Galaxy's Age attraction,
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where Archie met Darth Vader and Stormtroopers. Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland,
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also joined the outing and appeared in playful photographs with
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Mickey Mouse. According to People, the Disneyland visit doubled as
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birth a birthday celebration for Archie and an extended Mother's
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Day outing for Megan and her mother. So I was
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told the magazine they were celebrating the kid's birthdays together.
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The kids did lots of rides and it was a
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special way to extend Mother's Day for Megan and her mom.
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Days earlier, Megan marked Archie's seventh birthday by posting a
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series of family photographs, including a previously unseen black and
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white image of Prince Harry cradling Archie as a newborn.
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The Duchess has previously spoken about wanting to create a
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sense of normalcy for her children In California, speaking to
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people last year, Meghan said, once you know us, I
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think you want us to have the same normalcy as
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parents and for our children as they do, despite however
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unique our situation is. Social media reacted as one might expect.
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One comment the editing was professional this time. The clothing
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is her usual neutrals, which makes it feel dull and boring.
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I think she's either trying to soft launch her fashion
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line on a website or do a collaboration. Get Ready
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looks like the next reinvention. Another said the more she
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tries to look authentic, the more she fails. In The Royalist,
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Tom Sykes pulled no punches, writing under the headline desperate
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Megan sells her kids as brand launches from chaos to mess,
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Sykes writes, there she is in the garden collecting flowers
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in her jeans and white T shirt. There she is
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opening a cupboard stacked with an enormous supply of jam,
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perhaps all the jam Netflix gave her in the way
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out of the door. And then halfway through this bucolic
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Montecito fantasy of jam making and marmalade stirring, she changes
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into a forty five thousand dollars oscar Della rented gown,
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because isn't that what we all do when we're eating
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a spot of jam and looking wistfully into the middle distance.
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But the video is only half the story because at
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the same time the as ever content dropped, Meghan posted
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a batch of photos on her personal Instagram account, the
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one she told Emma Greed has nothing whatsoever to do
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with her business, showing the children of Disneyland little Bit
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meeting Cinderella Archie apparently hiding behind a pillar, looking less
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than thrilled about the whole production. Mouse ears on an
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official photographer presumably in tow and Dorry willed in for
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a Mother's Day narrative. Social media engineers will recognize a
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classic marketing funnel. Meghan's personal Instagram has four point five
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million followers, as Ever has eight hundred and eighty one thousand.
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The personal account is the funnel, the children of the bait.
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The as Ever website is the destination and the product. Well,
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that's where things get complicated, because if anyone out there
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has any idea of what Meghan's brand is actually supposed
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to be at this stage, I'd love to hear it
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fair enough. But then Sikes drops the hammer, writing what
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makes all of this so hypocritical is what Harry himself
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has said. He told a court under oath that he
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was damaged by being commercialized without his consent, that it
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was a process he had no control over, that it
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affected his psychological well being as a child. He warned
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parents on Hassan Minaj's podcast that social media platforms were
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run by evil men who wanted farming children's minds. There
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was no free will on social media, he said. While
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his wife's four point five million follower Instagram account a
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substantial and valuable piece of the attention economy drip fed
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partial images of their children to build what the marketers
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call a curiosity gap in his substack Royal inside of
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Deep crownd Rights. On the day before the Princess of
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Wales stepped back into the international stage, the Duchess of
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Sussex updated her Instagram profile photograph for the first time
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since relaunching her account earlier this year. This was not,
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we are told, a coincidence of timing. Accompanying the new
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image was a redesigned website for her lifestyle brand as Ever,
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and a suite of new promotional video content. The footage
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shows that Duchess arranging flowers, sam and Raspberry's, walking through
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an orchard and drizzling honey over a dessert with kind
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of unhurried serenity available only to those with a professional
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lighting team. The machinery behind the Duchess's brand operation is
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not unsophisticated. There are not people who update a profile
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photograph without considering the calendar, the redesigned website, the new
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video content, the wardrobe callback to the wedding reception gown.
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The family photographs. Although arriving in the same week the
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same days as the Princess of Wales returned to the
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international stage. One is permitted a raised eyebrow because let
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us set aside for a moment the brand mechanics and
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consider the man standing behind the flower arrangement and the
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orchard walks in the Stella McCartney callback. Prince Harry has
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built a considerable portion of his public identity in exile
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around three propositions. First, that the media is toxic and
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the predatory institution that damaged him, damaged his wife and
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will damage his children, have given the opportunity. Second, that
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social media is a particular menace and engine of herncassment
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and misery that responsible people should treat with extreme caution. Third,
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that his own childhood, conducted under the glare of cameras
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and oppressions of institutional expectation, was a form of harm
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when he has determined his own children will be spared.
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He has said these things in a memoir, he has
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sent them in documentaries. He has said them to lawyers,
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to interviewers, to anyone within range of a microphone. He
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has on occasion said them under oath. And then comes
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this week more palace. In just a moment, Sir Rod
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Stewart had a blunt assessment of President Trump's recent interactions
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with King Charles, telling the monarch he had put that
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little rat bag in his place during the king's state
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visit to the United States. The remark came Monday evening
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at the Royal Albert Hall during celebrations marking the fiftieth
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anniversary of the King's trust. According to the Telegraph, the
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eighty one year old singer congratulated the King on what
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he described as a superb performance during the four day
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American visit. So Rod told the King, may I say,
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well done in the Americas. You are superb, absolutely superb.
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Put that little rat bag in his place. The King
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appeared amused by the comment, while Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie
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Wood reportedly grinned a nearby so Rod later turned to
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Queen Camilla and added, I was just congratulating your husband
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on his wonderful performances in the Americas. So great, so brave,
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so proud, and thereh it. If you like to email
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us addresses the Palace Intrigue at gmail dot com, please
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fence on Spotify, Apple or the app of your choice.
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I'm Mark Francis my thanks to John McDermott. This is
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Palace intrigue and good terms