Meghan’s Mysterious Swan, and Piers Morgan’s War With Earl Spencer

0:03 Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host, Mark Francis. When is a swan just a swan? The swan emoji in a post promoting Meghan Markle's As Ever products has become the basis for a royal theory. Some critics interpreted it as support for Charles Spencer and what the outlet describes as his new memoir, Swan Song, Diana My Sister. The promotional post showed shelves of fruit spreads, teas and honeys. Its caption read, All your pantry favourites bundled together. Made for stocking up, sharing and savouring at home.

0:43 And included a swan emoji. The swan doesn't seem to have any obvious connection to fruit spreads, tea or honey. But Charles Spencer's new book is titled Swan Song. Perhaps just a coincidence. Megan has been photographed enjoying a country pub lunch with Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. The three were spotted at the Three horseshoes near Burford in Oxfordshire, according to Page Six, which obtained the photographs. They were chatting and laughing, and an eyewitness heard Megan saying goodbye to the couple. One social media user asked, Was she spotted doing something nice with the children? No, spotted day drinking with another US export who is also known for being a bully. Another observed, Her bodyguard is carrying her bag.

1:26 Tell us you don't need security without telling us you don't need security. Harry and Meghan were offered a gig hosting a show on Magic Radio. Presenter Gabby Roslin made the offer directly to Harry at the Wellchild Awards in London on Monday night, according to The Independent. The idea followed Meghan's admission that she had missed listening to the station while living in the United States. Harry confirmed that Meghan was a fan and said he would pass the invitation on to her so they could discuss possible ideas for a program. They have not said yes, but they have also not said no. Piers Morgan says he is taking legal action over Charles Spencer's book, arguing that it wrongly holds him responsible for publishing intrusive photographs of Diana.

2:07 The dispute centres on pictures of Diana exercising in a gym. Published by the Sunday Mirror in November 1993, Morgan says he was working for The Sun at the time and did not become editor of the Daily Mirror until October of 1995. Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, he said, The photographs, which he says that I published, were printed by the Sunday Mirror on 7 November 1993. I joined the Daily Mirror in October in 1995. In fact, at the time of the Jim Pictures, I was doing a showbiz column on the Mirror's arch-rival, the Sun, about as far removed from responsibility for the Mirror Scoop as I could possibly have been. According to the Guardian, Spencer's book also recounts a telephone conversation in which he withdrew Morgan's invitation to Diana's funeral, Spencer writes that Morgan snarled with annoyance before he hung up, before linking him to the gym photographs.

2:58 Morgan rejected the account in forceful terms. Well, this is all pretty extraordinary stuff, isn't it? Very damning, particularly about me. I come across in the most despicable manner imaginable. There's just one problem. It's all bullshit, and very, very easy bullshit for me to prove it. He also described his contact with Diana while editing The Daily Mirror, including a lunch at Kensington Palace with her and William. After that, it wasn't uncommon for her to call my office or for me to run stories by her, he said. My question, though, is this. If all Spencer can be so incredibly defamatorily wrong about such basic facts involving me, well, why should we believe anything else he puts in this book? Harry and Meghan are reportedly welcoming Charles Spencer's criticism of the Royal Institution. The claim comes from Rob Shooter's Naughty But Nice reporting with an unnamed source saying, Harry feels completely vindicated.

3:45 For years, he was accused of betraying the family by speaking publicly. Now, Diana's own brother is opening the same vault and describing a Windsor world Harry recognizes immediately. Harry and Meghan believe Diana's story shows what happens when protecting the institution becomes more important than protecting the person. To them, this book doesn't just revisit Diana. It helps explain why they left. They're saying, this is exactly what we've been talking about. Royal author Tom Bower has gone considerably further. Speaking to GB News, Bower said, Earl Spencer is not only selling a book, but he's also undoubtedly formed an alliance with Harry and with the Duchess to somehow damage the King. Charles Spencer, not one to stir up any trouble, says he is not taking sides in the long-running estrangement between Prince William and Prince Harry. Spencer told the BBC, I think there is a perception in the media that I am on Harry's side. Well, I'm on my deceased sister's son's side, both of them. If either of them wanted anything, then I'd be equally there for them. And I never get involved in one camp or the other except as a benign figure, I hope. I hope one day it's resolved, he said. However, Spencer added that he does not know everything that has happened privately and would consider it intrusive to intervene without being invited. I certainly don't know what's been done in the finer detail, so I would feel intrusive if I got more involved than to say, of course, a mother would want her two sons to be happy together and love each other. Spencer says relentless tabloid coverage can have a cancerous influence on the lives of Prince Harry and Meghan, but despite one rather misleading headline, he was not describing the Sussexes themselves

5:19 that way. He told the BBC, If you look at an article in a tabloid about Diana or the couple that you were mentioning, Harry and Meghan, they can be really, really unpleasant, and I think it would be really beholden on people to learn from Diana's example. I'm not here to speak for Harry and Meghan, but for anyone who's being destroyed in this way daily. It must be such a cancerous influence in their life, he said. Spencer also reached to the statement from Buckingham Palace, which read, While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment, and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss. Spencer interpreted that response as an accusation that he was either mistaken or dishonest. It's not every day you wake up to find you've been gaslit by the king. I thought it was a rather poor imitation of the recollections of a very quote. King Charles is drawing firmer lines over who represents the monarchy, and according to a new report becoming more willing to challenge accounts of the royal family in public, Hello Magazine describes a more assertive approach from the king, linking disputes involving Andrew, Harry and Meghan, and Diana's brother Charles Spencer. Those are different controversies, but they raise a shared question. When does a family matter become something the institution believes it must answer? Royal commentator Katie Nicholl told Hello, he is flexing his constitutional muscle and he's establishing very clear boundaries and we've seen that at its most extreme with Andrew and the stripping of Andrew's titles. I think we are seeing an institution at

6:49 a moment of change. I think this is the king's way of perhaps taking hold of a narrative before it can run away and take on a new meaning altogether. So you're seeing them being proactive rather than reactive. More palace in just a moment. In The Independent, Sean O'Grady writes, It is not too great a leap of the imagination to think that additional, as yet unseen, material from the Spencer family archives could form the kernel of the new documentary produced, directed, written, and narrated by Harry himself. It may just be all about money, as Harry and Meghan need it for security and their luxury lifestyle, neither of which the palace will fund, but there comes a point in any story where you encounter the law of diminishing returns.

7:34 Minding the seam of grievances Harry, his uncle and Meghan have been doing for some time now is all very well, but sooner or later you will run out of material, and then you just end up with a lot of recycled and frankly one-sided gossip of growing triviality. The Sussexes are becoming the palace's worst fear, a rival court operating on British soil. Unlike those previous exiles, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, to whom George VI paid a great deal of money for them to keep away, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are swanning around the country and beyond, doing the kind of gigs that Prince William and Kate or Princess Anne might do. They are working royals in all but name, working for themselves, and don't have to do the boring ceremonials or expose their children to the tabloid press. Harry will never not be Diana and the King's son and a centre of attention. The media were beastly to his mother, but it's not such a bad life, is it? And there you have it. If you'd like to email us, our address is thepalaceintrigue at gmail.com. If you're on Spotify, leave us a comment. If you're on Apple, hit that button up there that says listen uninterrupted and get the show commercial free. Just five bucks a month.

8:37 I'm Mark Francis. My thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace Intriguing. Good times.