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Calorogus Shark Media now low and welcome to Palace Intrigue
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weekly edition. I'm your host, Mark Francis. Here's what happened
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last week. Prince Harry's memoir Spare has received an unusual
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accolade ahead of his upcoming trip to Australia. A survey
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commissioned by toilet paper brand Kushelle found that one in
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ten Britains chose Spare as their preferred bathroom reading material.
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Behavioral psychologist Joe Hemmings told The Express the toilet is
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one of the few places where people feel briefly removed
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from demands and social expectations, so they often gravitate toward
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books that are immersive, conversational or even a little provocative.
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A memoir like Spare fits that perfectly. It's easy to
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dip in and out of, emotionally engaging, driven by personal storytelling.
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The Mirror went with a headline about Harry being first
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in line to the throne, you know, the bathroom throne. Meanwhile,
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Meghan faced renewed scrutiny after sharing a video of Princess
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Lilibet interacting with chickens at their Montecito home. The Sussexes
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have long spoken about their rescue hens kept in a
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coop called She's chick In, but the post prompted a
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mixed reaction online. One source said Megan intended her video
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as a warm, personal glimpse into her home life, but
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the reaction online quickly took on a very different tone.
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Trolls began questioning the authenticity of what they were seeing.
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There was a growing chorus of voices online effectively telling
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her to cluck off Megan, with critics claiming the image
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being presented doesn't match reality. Some are openly suggesting that
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she isn't the one tending to the chickens day to day,
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in that staff are likely responsible. Another source suggested there
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is a persistent skepticism around anything she shares that is
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intended to appear relatable or domestic. Even something as simple
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as a moment with her daughter and a few chickens
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has been picked apart in question. In I News, Rebecca
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Reid wrote a piece title Meghan and Harry are living
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the Dream No wonder we can't stand them. She argued
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that Britain fundamentally doesn't like people like the Sussexs. The
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Sussexes are deadpan dreamers who take themselves fairly seriously and
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talk about their feelings a lot. They are openly ambitious,
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but overly therapized, and willing to talk about their private
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inner feelings. None of these are bad things, but they're
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the kind of characteristics which absolutely slay in California. While
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horrifying self effacing Brits. Reid added, how Harry, raised in
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the epicenter of British society, has turned out so naturally
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and spiritually American is anyone's guess, but whatever the reason
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for it, he's a natural Californian. But even California may
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be calling on them. Page six reports that Harry and
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Meghan are facing a caller reception from some Montecito neighbors.
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Once source claimed they are avoiding them, though one wants
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to be seen with them. It's not hate, it's just
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a growing awareness that they're takers with zero's self awareness.
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Everyone's exhausted by them. A source to the Sussexes disputed
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that characterization, insisting they have a great relationship with their
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neighbors and love their community. Prince Harry is reportedly feeling
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increasingly discouraged about his relationship with King Charles. Once told
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Reality Tea there's no denying. There is a huge distance.
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He reaches out and doesn't hear back most of the time.
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It's disheartening. Royal commentator Ingrid Seward said, I think the
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King has probably slightly washed his hands of them. He's
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got plenty of other things to worry about. They do
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what they like up to a point. Royal biographer Tom
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Bower said Harry could in theory find a route back
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into the Royal fold, but only if he came back alone.
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Speaking on the Royalist Podcast, Bower was blunt, I think
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Harry would like that solution, but Meghan definitely would not
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want to live in London. She doesn't want to be
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part of Britain. She wants to be a star in California.
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So I think as long as they're married, that has
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completely untenable solution. Bauer continued, It's only a recipe for
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more and more sensational danger because Megan would always look
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for a way to complain. She can't be satisfied whatever
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you do with the Sussexes. You couldn't rely on them
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to be discreet and silent and obedient for very long
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because of what their own needs. Selfishness. In the end
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would Trump everything that the Windsors might offer them. Then
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came the revelations from Harry's privacy case. Newly disclosed Facebook
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messages shown in court appeared to suggest Harry was on
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a much friendlier term with Mail On Sunday journalist Charlotte
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Griffiths than he had previously indicated. The messages, dating from
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late twenty eleven into early twenty twelve, reportedly show Harry
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calling her Sugar, signing off with kisses, and joking about
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movie snuggles. That matters because Harry had told the High
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Court he had only met Griffiths want at a party
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and cut off contact the next day once he realized
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she was a journalist. You also told the court I
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have never used the name mister mischief, but the messages
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painting more familiar picture. In one exchange, Harry wrote, I
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wish I was there, Sugar, but unfortunately stuck in Cornwall
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doing army stuff. Otherwise I would have been there playing
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and then drinking you under the tab. Just wish I
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could have been there, especially now that you're down there.
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Do you ever work? Hope you're really well, griff miss
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our movie snuggles. I'm off Colms all week in case
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you think I'm being rude, keep me postedskis kiskiss nine times.
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During his testimony, Harry had described his experience with the
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Bress in stark terms, saying he had been forced to
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perform for journalists he disliked. But in his Washington, d c.
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Speech at a privacy summit, he said, my connection to
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privacy and the lack of it begins in a different
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place than most. From Birth, Royle inside a Deep Crown
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wrote in his sub stack, from birth is doing a
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great deal of work in that sentence, it is constructing
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a self that was always purely on the receiving end.
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The Facebook messages do not disprove the harm. What they
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complicate is the portrait the man who said from birth
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was it appears voluntarily friending a male on Sunday journalist
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on Facebook, sending her his mobile number, attending parties with her,
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texting her in the small hours, and signing off his
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messages with kisses. What there is is a distance, a
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distance between from Birth and wah One Palace in a moment.
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Hugo Vickers's new book Queen Elizabeth II, A Personal History,
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suggests the Queen would not take Harry's phone calls without
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someone else's present. Vickers writes whenever Prince Harry called his grandmother,
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she asked her lady in waiting to stay with her.
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The distress of the SUSSEXSS caused the Queen in the
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last years of her life cannot be overestimated. According to
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a Palace insider, the Queen became notably cautious during calls
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with Harry after the Oprah interview, the Netflix series and
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spare The insiders said there were lots of one word answers,
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yes and no. The Queen clearly wanted some kind of protection.
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Vickers also claims the Queen privately reduced Harry's new California
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life to a single role telling a friend, and now
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Harry has opted out and for what to be a
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career for Archie. On the Australia front, Megan's upcoming wellness
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retreat is facing fresh questions after reports suggested a t
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d these were not simply buying tickets, they were being chosen.
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Several women claimed they had been selected after submitting expressions
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of interest explaining why they wanted to go. Tickets are
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reportedly selling for between roughly nineteen hundred and twenty three
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hundred dollars. Event organizer Jemma O'Neill has removed her primary
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Instagram account amid scrutiny over her financial situation. Her talent agency,
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Jemmy Agency, entered voluntary liquidation last November. Harry and Meghan
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have pushed back after a petition in Australia called for
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taxpayers not to foot any bill for their upcoming trip.
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The petition has attracted more than thirty five thousand signatures.
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A spokesman for the Sussexes dismissed the campaign, saying it's
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a moot point the trip is being funded privately. He
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added that approximately twenty six point five million Australians ninety
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nine point nine eight percent of the population haven't signed it,
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so one could equally hypothesize they must therefore agree with
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the taxpayer picking up the tab. Of course, that is
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another equal stupid assertion to make. Speaking on the Royalist Podcast,
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Royal commentator Bronti Coay said, people are basically saying that
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they're really difficult to work with and that's the theme
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here and it's from a number of sources. Now, they
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went to America with dreams of being TV producers and
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all they've really been able to do is try to
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monetize their lives through factual content. Journalist Marina High delivered
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a withering assessment on the Rest Is Entertainment podcast, dismissing
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the Sussexs as just rich people. She said, nobody cares
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about watching her make lavender biscuits for her ex hairdresser.
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I mean they are out of fashion, They're not very talented,
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and they have a hugely overstated idea of their cultural relevance.
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The guy who used to run one of the biggest
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talent agencies said they're just not very good. Tina Brown
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warned in her sub stack the Sussex's revenue streams are
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starting to dry up. They will soon be heading for
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that hinterland of freebe hell that draws them further and
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further into cheesy commercial gigs, or worse, toward dubious transactional
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acquaintances willing to underwrite their faux royal lifestyle their astronomical
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security costs. And then came the announcement everyone was waiting for.
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According to reports in both the BBC and The Guardian,
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King Charles and Queen Camello will travel to the United
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States in late April for a state visit despite growing
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political unease around Donald Trump's rhetoric on Iran. Buckingham Pallas said,
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on the advice of His Majesty's government and at the
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invitation of the President of the United States, the King
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and Queen will undertake a state visit to the United
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States of America. Their Majesty's program will celebrate the historic
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connections in the modern bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom
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and the United States, marking the two hundred and fiftieth
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anniversary of American independence. The visit is expected to include Washington,
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a White House, state dinner, and an address to Congress,
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but the timing is what makes this more than just
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a standard royal tour. The trip lands at a moment
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when Trump has been publicly lashing out of Britain over
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the war in Iran, at one point telling the UK
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and other allies to get your own oil from the
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Straitor for Moose. He also mocked Prime Minister Kia Stamer
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as no instant Churchill. There is also a deeper irony
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Britain is sending its king to celebrate the anniversary of
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the moment America stopped wanting one. Trump himself has made
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no secret of his enthusiasm, saying he's going to be
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here very soon. We're going to have a state dinner.
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It's going to be great. I think it's fantastic. Then
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there is the family subplot. The BBC notes there is
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already likely to be interesting whether Charles will see Harry
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while in the US. The Guardian points out this visit
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will inevitably raise questions about whether the King might reunite
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with Archie and Lulibert, whom he has reportedly not seen
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in four years. According to a report on rob Shooters
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Naughty but Nice, there has been behind the scenes talk
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about the possibility of Harry and Meghan being invited as
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part of the wider occasion. One source claimed Trump doesn't
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just host events, he casts them, and this would be
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his dream lineup. A King, rebel, Prince and Trump in
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one room. That's not a state dinner, that's a finale
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in his sub stack. Royal inside a d Crown says
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he does not believe this would ever happen, but indulged
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in playing it out. Deep Crownd writes one imagines a
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very singior aid entering the room with a specific facial
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expression of someone who has rehearsed their opening sentence several
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times in the corridor. Charles spent the better part of
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three years managing this situation, where a combination of public
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silence and private exhaustion. His response, delivered through channels and
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in language that would be entirely unprintable in its original form,
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would amount to no. William's view of the Sussex's situation
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is not at this point mysterious. He has wanted it resolved,
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contained and moved firmly to the past. The prospect of
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his father's American state visit being repackaged as a family
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reconciliation television event with Trump as the maestro and the
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global press as the audience, would strike and as a
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comprehensive description of everything he has been trying to prevent.
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His response, also delivered through channels, would amount to no,
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but with additional emphasis. And William has his own problems.
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He's reportedly clashing with Queen Camella over how hard King
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Charles should be working while continuing cancer treatment. According to
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Radar Online, William is deeply concerned that his father is
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maintaining two demanding a public schedule, and believes Camilla is
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encouraging the King to keep going rather than forcing him
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to rest one palace. Aid, quoted in the Peace, claimed
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William now feels almost at war with her over the
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issue and sees her as the main barrier to getting
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Charles to slow down. William is also facing criticism over
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plans to sell off farms on the Duchy of Cornwallll.
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State officials say the aim is to give tenant to
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families a chance to buy the land they've worked for generations,
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but farmers say they simply don't have the money without
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taking on enormous debt. One tenant was blunt, saying I
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think the old Prince of Wales was better. Unfortunately the
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new one doesn't have his father's view of agriculture and
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everything else. According to a report from Rob Stooter, William
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has taken a firm stance regarding Andrew, with sources claiming
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the Prince of Wales has permanently barred his uncle from
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any contact with Kate and their children, and inside had
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said William has made a very firm decision Andrew will
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never be around Catherine or the kids again. That door
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is completely closed. The report also claims when the time
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eventually comes for King charles funeral, William does not want
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Andrew there. He doesn't want that shadow anywhere near Catherine
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or his children. But sources say Kate feels deeply unsettled
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by the possibility that Harry and Meghan could re enter