"MR MISCHIEF": Harry's Journalist Friendship as Charles Confirms Trump State Visit - The week in UK royal news

0:03 Calorogus Shark Media now low and welcome to Palace Intrigue weekly edition. I'm your host, Mark Francis. Here's what happened last week. Prince Harry's memoir Spare has received an unusual accolade ahead of his upcoming trip to Australia. A survey commissioned by toilet paper brand Kushelle found that one in ten Britains chose Spare as their preferred bathroom reading material. Behavioral psychologist Joe Hemmings told The Express the toilet is one of the few places where people feel briefly removed from demands and social expectations, so they often gravitate toward books that are immersive, conversational or even a little provocative.

0:45 A memoir like Spare fits that perfectly. It's easy to dip in and out of, emotionally engaging, driven by personal storytelling. The Mirror went with a headline about Harry being first in line to the throne, you know, the bathroom throne. Meanwhile, Meghan faced renewed scrutiny after sharing a video of Princess Lilibet interacting with chickens at their Montecito home. The Sussexes have long spoken about their rescue hens kept in a coop called She's chick In, but the post prompted a mixed reaction online. One source said Megan intended her video as a warm, personal glimpse into her home life, but the reaction online quickly took on a very different tone.

1:25 Trolls began questioning the authenticity of what they were seeing. There was a growing chorus of voices online effectively telling her to cluck off Megan, with critics claiming the image being presented doesn't match reality. Some are openly suggesting that she isn't the one tending to the chickens day to day, in that staff are likely responsible. Another source suggested there is a persistent skepticism around anything she shares that is intended to appear relatable or domestic. Even something as simple as a moment with her daughter and a few chickens has been picked apart in question. In I News, Rebecca Reid wrote a piece title Meghan and Harry are living the Dream No wonder we can't stand them. She argued that Britain fundamentally doesn't like people like the Sussexs. The Sussexes are deadpan dreamers who take themselves fairly seriously and talk about their feelings a lot. They are openly ambitious, but overly therapized, and willing to talk about their private inner feelings. None of these are bad things, but they're the kind of characteristics which absolutely slay in California. While horrifying self effacing Brits. Reid added, how Harry, raised in the epicenter of British society, has turned out so naturally and spiritually American is anyone's guess, but whatever the reason for it, he's a natural Californian. But even California may be calling on them. Page six reports that Harry and Meghan are facing a caller reception from some Montecito neighbors.

2:48 Once source claimed they are avoiding them, though one wants to be seen with them. It's not hate, it's just a growing awareness that they're takers with zero's self awareness. Everyone's exhausted by them. A source to the Sussexes disputed that characterization, insisting they have a great relationship with their neighbors and love their community. Prince Harry is reportedly feeling increasingly discouraged about his relationship with King Charles. Once told Reality Tea there's no denying. There is a huge distance. He reaches out and doesn't hear back most of the time. It's disheartening. Royal commentator Ingrid Seward said, I think the King has probably slightly washed his hands of them. He's got plenty of other things to worry about. They do what they like up to a point. Royal biographer Tom Bower said Harry could in theory find a route back into the Royal fold, but only if he came back alone.

3:37 Speaking on the Royalist Podcast, Bower was blunt, I think Harry would like that solution, but Meghan definitely would not want to live in London. She doesn't want to be part of Britain. She wants to be a star in California. So I think as long as they're married, that has completely untenable solution. Bauer continued, It's only a recipe for more and more sensational danger because Megan would always look for a way to complain. She can't be satisfied whatever you do with the Sussexes. You couldn't rely on them to be discreet and silent and obedient for very long because of what their own needs. Selfishness. In the end would Trump everything that the Windsors might offer them. Then came the revelations from Harry's privacy case. Newly disclosed Facebook messages shown in court appeared to suggest Harry was on a much friendlier term with Mail On Sunday journalist Charlotte Griffiths than he had previously indicated. The messages, dating from late twenty eleven into early twenty twelve, reportedly show Harry calling her Sugar, signing off with kisses, and joking about movie snuggles. That matters because Harry had told the High Court he had only met Griffiths want at a party and cut off contact the next day once he realized she was a journalist. You also told the court I have never used the name mister mischief, but the messages painting more familiar picture. In one exchange, Harry wrote, I wish I was there, Sugar, but unfortunately stuck in Cornwall doing army stuff. Otherwise I would have been there playing and then drinking you under the tab. Just wish I could have been there, especially now that you're down there.

5:03 Do you ever work? Hope you're really well, griff miss our movie snuggles. I'm off Colms all week in case you think I'm being rude, keep me postedskis kiskiss nine times. During his testimony, Harry had described his experience with the Bress in stark terms, saying he had been forced to perform for journalists he disliked. But in his Washington, d c. Speech at a privacy summit, he said, my connection to privacy and the lack of it begins in a different place than most. From Birth, Royle inside a Deep Crown wrote in his sub stack, from birth is doing a great deal of work in that sentence, it is constructing a self that was always purely on the receiving end. The Facebook messages do not disprove the harm. What they complicate is the portrait the man who said from birth was it appears voluntarily friending a male on Sunday journalist on Facebook, sending her his mobile number, attending parties with her, texting her in the small hours, and signing off his messages with kisses. What there is is a distance, a distance between from Birth and wah One Palace in a moment.

6:10 Hugo Vickers's new book Queen Elizabeth II, A Personal History, suggests the Queen would not take Harry's phone calls without someone else's present. Vickers writes whenever Prince Harry called his grandmother, she asked her lady in waiting to stay with her. The distress of the SUSSEXSS caused the Queen in the last years of her life cannot be overestimated. According to a Palace insider, the Queen became notably cautious during calls with Harry after the Oprah interview, the Netflix series and spare The insiders said there were lots of one word answers, yes and no. The Queen clearly wanted some kind of protection. Vickers also claims the Queen privately reduced Harry's new California life to a single role telling a friend, and now Harry has opted out and for what to be a career for Archie. On the Australia front, Megan's upcoming wellness retreat is facing fresh questions after reports suggested a t d these were not simply buying tickets, they were being chosen.

7:03 Several women claimed they had been selected after submitting expressions of interest explaining why they wanted to go. Tickets are reportedly selling for between roughly nineteen hundred and twenty three hundred dollars. Event organizer Jemma O'Neill has removed her primary Instagram account amid scrutiny over her financial situation. Her talent agency, Jemmy Agency, entered voluntary liquidation last November. Harry and Meghan have pushed back after a petition in Australia called for taxpayers not to foot any bill for their upcoming trip. The petition has attracted more than thirty five thousand signatures. A spokesman for the Sussexes dismissed the campaign, saying it's a moot point the trip is being funded privately. He added that approximately twenty six point five million Australians ninety nine point nine eight percent of the population haven't signed it, so one could equally hypothesize they must therefore agree with the taxpayer picking up the tab. Of course, that is another equal stupid assertion to make. Speaking on the Royalist Podcast, Royal commentator Bronti Coay said, people are basically saying that they're really difficult to work with and that's the theme here and it's from a number of sources. Now, they went to America with dreams of being TV producers and all they've really been able to do is try to monetize their lives through factual content. Journalist Marina High delivered a withering assessment on the Rest Is Entertainment podcast, dismissing the Sussexs as just rich people. She said, nobody cares about watching her make lavender biscuits for her ex hairdresser.

8:32 I mean they are out of fashion, They're not very talented, and they have a hugely overstated idea of their cultural relevance. The guy who used to run one of the biggest talent agencies said they're just not very good. Tina Brown warned in her sub stack the Sussex's revenue streams are starting to dry up. They will soon be heading for that hinterland of freebe hell that draws them further and further into cheesy commercial gigs, or worse, toward dubious transactional acquaintances willing to underwrite their faux royal lifestyle their astronomical security costs. And then came the announcement everyone was waiting for. According to reports in both the BBC and The Guardian, King Charles and Queen Camello will travel to the United States in late April for a state visit despite growing political unease around Donald Trump's rhetoric on Iran. Buckingham Pallas said, on the advice of His Majesty's government and at the invitation of the President of the United States, the King and Queen will undertake a state visit to the United States of America. Their Majesty's program will celebrate the historic connections in the modern bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, marking the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of American independence. The visit is expected to include Washington, a White House, state dinner, and an address to Congress, but the timing is what makes this more than just a standard royal tour. The trip lands at a moment when Trump has been publicly lashing out of Britain over the war in Iran, at one point telling the UK and other allies to get your own oil from the Straitor for Moose. He also mocked Prime Minister Kia Stamer as no instant Churchill. There is also a deeper irony

10:03 Britain is sending its king to celebrate the anniversary of the moment America stopped wanting one. Trump himself has made no secret of his enthusiasm, saying he's going to be here very soon. We're going to have a state dinner. It's going to be great. I think it's fantastic. Then there is the family subplot. The BBC notes there is already likely to be interesting whether Charles will see Harry while in the US. The Guardian points out this visit will inevitably raise questions about whether the King might reunite with Archie and Lulibert, whom he has reportedly not seen in four years. According to a report on rob Shooters Naughty but Nice, there has been behind the scenes talk about the possibility of Harry and Meghan being invited as part of the wider occasion. One source claimed Trump doesn't just host events, he casts them, and this would be his dream lineup. A King, rebel, Prince and Trump in one room. That's not a state dinner, that's a finale in his sub stack. Royal inside a d Crown says he does not believe this would ever happen, but indulged in playing it out. Deep Crownd writes one imagines a very singior aid entering the room with a specific facial expression of someone who has rehearsed their opening sentence several times in the corridor. Charles spent the better part of three years managing this situation, where a combination of public silence and private exhaustion. His response, delivered through channels and in language that would be entirely unprintable in its original form, would amount to no. William's view of the Sussex's situation is not at this point mysterious. He has wanted it resolved, contained and moved firmly to the past. The prospect of

11:35 his father's American state visit being repackaged as a family reconciliation television event with Trump as the maestro and the global press as the audience, would strike and as a comprehensive description of everything he has been trying to prevent. His response, also delivered through channels, would amount to no, but with additional emphasis. And William has his own problems. He's reportedly clashing with Queen Camella over how hard King Charles should be working while continuing cancer treatment. According to Radar Online, William is deeply concerned that his father is maintaining two demanding a public schedule, and believes Camilla is encouraging the King to keep going rather than forcing him to rest one palace. Aid, quoted in the Peace, claimed William now feels almost at war with her over the issue and sees her as the main barrier to getting Charles to slow down. William is also facing criticism over plans to sell off farms on the Duchy of Cornwallll.

12:29 State officials say the aim is to give tenant to families a chance to buy the land they've worked for generations, but farmers say they simply don't have the money without taking on enormous debt. One tenant was blunt, saying I think the old Prince of Wales was better. Unfortunately the new one doesn't have his father's view of agriculture and everything else. According to a report from Rob Stooter, William has taken a firm stance regarding Andrew, with sources claiming the Prince of Wales has permanently barred his uncle from any contact with Kate and their children, and inside had said William has made a very firm decision Andrew will never be around Catherine or the kids again. That door is completely closed. The report also claims when the time eventually comes for King charles funeral, William does not want Andrew there. He doesn't want that shadow anywhere near Catherine or his children. But sources say Kate feels deeply unsettled by the possibility that Harry and Meghan could re enter royal life and believes King Charles has not taken a firm enough position. One source told Radar Online Kate has privately felt somewhat knifed in the back by the impression that Charles hasn't taken a stronger, more definitive stance on where the boundaries should lie with Harry and Meghan. Another inside had said, as someone who knows she will one day be Queen, Kate expected stronger backing and clearer signals behind the scenes about how the family should move forward. Instead, she feels the approach has sometimes been too cautious and that has left her feeling exposed. In other Andrew news reports say he is under instructions to leave no trace

13:59 of himself behind US Royal Lodge. According to The Mirror, source said Andrew was told everything has to be out and absolutely nothing was to be left behind. Everything has to be out by the weekend, and we've been told no trace of the former occupants or staff should remain. The Mail on Sunday reported that Andrew has taken delivery of a secondhand static caravan and has been spending time sitting in it. One source said Andrew uses it himself, would you believe? And what's more shocking is he likes it. He really is a changed man. He's enjoyed sitting in the caravan. Andrew has also reportedly angered King Charles after being seen out walking his dogs near Sandringham. One source told Radar Online Andrew has effectively agreed to stay out of sight a kind of informal house arrest, in return for the King continuing to fund his private life. Charles does not want to see images of him looking relaxed or happy in public. More Palace In just moment another royal news, bucking and Palace announced a series of garden parties for three events are scheduled in London on May sixth, eighth and twelfth, were the fourth in Edinburgh on June thirtieth, but reports suggest Princess Beatrice and Eugenie may not attend Royal Ascot this year. One source said, I've spoken to my friend who works at Ascot and they said the girls have been told that they can't be there. This year, Beatrice has taken at the hardest. She's been completely blindsided by all of this. In the Times, and a White Lock published a piece titled Scrap the Royal Family. A monarch and heir is enough, She writes, Andrew's arrest has

15:31 shattered the magic of the monarchy and daylight must now flood in. The notion of a royal family should be scrapped. It is no longer fit for purpose. It is not part of the legal or constitutional framework of the British state, though simply related to the monarch should live, work and be held accountable like everyone else. This is the week Spaar became Britain's top bathroom book. The week chicken videos became controversies. The week Harries mister mischief messages surfaced. The week the Queen wouldn't take Carrie's calls without a witness. The week Charles confirmed the US visit despite Trump's Iran rhetoric. The week William felt at war with Camilla. The week Kate felt knifed in the back by Charles, the week Andrew got a caravan, And somewhere up between from birth and ware, between Pallas strategy and Trump's casting instincts between institutional survival and the family fracture. The monarchy navigates another week where every move is scrutinized, every silence is interpreted, and every past message can become tomorrow's headline. And there you have it. If you'd like to email us or addresses the Palace Intrigue at gmail dot com, please follow us on your favorite podcast app. I'm Mark Francis, My Things to John McDermott. This is Palace Intrigue Weekly. Good terms,