Jan. 13, 2026

No Wick, Big Yikes: Meghan Markle’s Candle Fiasco, Jam Math Wars, and the UK Comeback Buzz

Show Notes
Transcript

Meghan’s As Ever takes a hit after critics claim her luxury candle arrived with no wick — and yes, two different unboxings are now being waved around online like evidence in a very dumb trial. Plus, the “inventory leak” saga continues: huge stock numbers, Reddit sleuthing, and experts arguing over whether big warehouses mean “booming brand” or “uh-oh.” Then the UK return chatter won’t quit, with reports tying any Meghan comeback to Harry’s security fight — and one columnist basically warns Kensington Palace to start war-gaming the wardrobe. We wrap with more cookbook side-eye and a fresh reminder that, in the Sussex universe, everything is always “one pivot away.”

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Calorogus Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Palace Injury Game,

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your host Mark Francis. Another public relations headache has emerged

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for Megan Markel after one of her most vocal critics

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claimed he received a faulty product from her lifestyle brand

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as Ever. According to reports, broadcaster Dan Wooten said he

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was surprised to discover that a centered candle from the

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as Ever range arrived with no wick. Wooton explained the

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candle had been bought by his fiance as a joke

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gift and sourced via eBay, as the products do not

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ship outside the United States. Posting online, wuten wrote, Meghan

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mikel is boasting about how successful her as Ever products are,

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but they're also cheap tat. My fiancee bought me her

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candle as a gag and it turned up with no wick.

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In a follow up video, he said he had initially

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hesitated to mention the issue. I wasn't going to mention

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it because I don't want people to think I was

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putting money into her pockets and all of that. He

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then held the candle up to the camera and added,

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but there's no wick again, no way to light this thing.

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Seriously look. Wooten claimed the issue was not isolated, pointing

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to a similar experience shared by American internet personality link Lauren.

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Lauren had purchased the sixty four dollar candle to unbox

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on his show and discovered the wick was missing Entirely

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laughing during the segment, Lauren said the wick was not

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pasted down and asked the camera to zoom in to

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show the fault. He later joked, I unboxed Megan Mirkle's

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new sixty five dollar candle on my show today. There's

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no wick. Kind of a metaphor for her career. Nothing's lighting.

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As we reported last week, online sleuths recently claimed they

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uncovered detailed stock figures for Megan Mirkle's lifestyle brand after

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exploiting a flaw on the as Ever website, prompting fresh

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debate about how the business is really performing. Screenshots appeared

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to show more than two hundred and twenty thousand jars

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of spread, thirty thousand jars of honey, thirty thousand mulling kits,

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almost ninety thousand and candles, over one hundred and ten

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thousand jars of tea, and around eighty thousand jars of

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edible flower sprinkles. For wine, the figures suggested more than

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seventy thousand bottles remain unsold, including nearly seven thousand bottles

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of Brute, forty six thousand bottles of Sauvignon blanc, and

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close to twenty four thousand bottles of rose. However, brand

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and culture expert Nick Ead cautioned that large inventory numbers

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do not automatically mean the brand is struggling. Speaking to

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the Mirror, he said, what looks like huge stock to

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the public can actually be perfectly normal behind the scenes,

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particularly if a brand is positioning itself for growth rather

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than staying Niche if claims of selling one million jars

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are accurate, that would suggest genuine consumer demand, but until

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figures are officially confirmed, they sit more in the realm

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of buzz than proof. It does feel like a very

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larger number, but as ever, does have a large following,

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as does Megan, so it may be that her loyal

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fans are repeat buying the product to Shortly after the

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Reddit post circulated, the asever website introduced new programming following

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the incident. It was claimed the signature fruit spread box

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alone showed one hundred and thirty seven thousand units still available.

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A source leater told The Sun that this figure represented

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leftover stock from an initial production run of one million jars.

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If accurate, that single product would have generated around twenty

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six point seven million pounds in revenue, with each box

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selling for thirty one pounds. Defending the Duchess, the source said,

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I think it's fair to see business isn't just successful,

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it's flying off the shelf. Megan inadvertently revealed that one

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million jars were ordered for that one product and has

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only one hundred and thirty thousand left. Eads stressed that

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inventory levels never tell the full story, explaining the real

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measure of success is sales velocity, how quickly product is moving,

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not how much it's sitting in a warehouse. He added

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that early fulfillment issues may have led the brand to

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overproduce in order to avoid future shortages. That view was

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echoed by Paul Galuley, a financial specialist and director of

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Dot Loans, who said large inventories are not unusual for

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celebrity brands. He explained, provided she is actually selling a

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million jars, then big inventory is an indication of good forecasting. However,

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when the sales are inflated, then carrying such inventory may

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reflect some overconfidence or false interpretation of the market demand

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that may be risky in cash flow. The Royalist reported

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that Meghan was considering a return to the United Kingdom

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as early as this summer. A spokesperson for Prince Harry

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swiftly dismissed the claims speculation, but the issue has not

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gone away. The Sunday Times is now carrying a closely

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aligned account, suggesting the idea is very much in circulation,

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even if the details remain fluid. The Sunday Times does

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not go as far as The Sun, which claimed Meghan

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could be back in Britain in the run up to

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the Invictus Games scheduled for July twenty twenty seven. What

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it does stay clearly, how, is that any return by

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Megan would be tied directly to the outcome of Prince

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Harry's negotiations with the British Government of security arrangements. The

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implication is simple, if Harry regains official protection, Megan would,

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follow a source quoted in the papers set of the Duchess,

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I think she would come back with him and the children.

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They love to do stuff as a family. Whenever they can,

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and when they do things philanthropically, they often take the

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kids along privately. I can't see a reason why he'd

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come over with the kids without her. Quickly, you need

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to know that. The Mail on Sunday has reported that

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Prince William has strengthened his communications operations by bringing in

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an experienced crisis specialist, Liza Ravenscroft. She runs Edelman's UK

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Crisis and Issues team and has been described by a

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former boss as bulletproof sunshine, with a career built on

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supporting high profile figures through their most challenging moments. Will

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cover that in this Afternoon's episode, but in The Times,

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Shane Watson ties all these storylines together, writing we assumed

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that the vastly overpriced Gaie had been dropped off in

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moss filled trugs on the doorsteps of everyone in more

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than eight bathrooms in the Montecito area. But it turns

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out she has legitimately sold a ton of it, and

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that's just the as ever preserves. Who knows what the

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figures are on the edible flower sprinkles. Some of us

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may have spent the past year mocking her compulsion to

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craft and elevate and personalize but it turns out that

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against all the odds, or should that be all our hopes,

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Meghan is kneeling the lifestyle brand game, all of which

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is important because security or no security, Megan was not

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coming back to the UK as the dutiful wife of

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the Invictors Games founder. She was never stepping on to

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the tarmac at hethrow as the Yoko owner of the

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royal family. Somewhat chastened by the canceled Spotify deal, the

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reduced Netflix deal, and the alleged backlash in the US

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where Wills and Keep's popularity polling outstrips theres by some

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considerable amounts, she will happily return now because it will

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be as one of the Californian business elite, flying the

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flag of mindful wealth and success, all of which is

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going to make it even harder than it would have

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the whaless to swallow and even more gripping to watch

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for the rest of us. I think we can say

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with some certainty that lies a bulletproof sunshine will at

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this moment be war gaming every scenario in the book

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for the Sussex's visit on the fashion upstaging front, it's

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hard to tread on the Princess of Wales's toes since

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she has made a point of stepping back from serious fashion.

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But Megan won't be able to resist finding a way.

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As we know from her appearance on the front row

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and parents during the collections, Megan is on the maneuvers

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in that area, so we can expect dramatic monochromeed statements

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in the evenings and appropriate Kate nudging stuff in the day.

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There are five months to work this out, but there's

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an awful lot to think about once you get started.

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More palas in just a Moment. Royal commentator Lee Cohen

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tells The Express any rumors of Megan authored cookbook were

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already raising eyebrows. He argued that cookbooks rely on trust

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and authority, something he believes Markel lax. He said, then

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comes the rumored cookbook. Cookbooks suggest trust, authority, A whisper

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of this person knows their stuff. Markl brings none, just

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styling and sanctimony. We've loved Meghan was a bust, critics

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calling it unrelatable and exhausting. She was trying for Martha Stewart,

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but without the charm, authenticity, or skill. The actress returned.

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Entrepreneur narrative once relied on novelty, that novelty is gone,

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long gone, without royal proximity to monetize or fresh grievance

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to weaponize. Markel's ventures must stand on their own merits,

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of which there are painfully few. So twenty six in

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a nutshell, more launches, more breathless announcements, more delusional insistence

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that breakout successes one pivot away, but zero breakthroughs, no relevance,

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just diminishing returns. In public exhaustion and alienation, Prince Harry

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has been reduced to a mere cameo whenever Meghan Markle

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takes center stage. According to royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams, who

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has delivered a blunt assessment of the Sussex's post royal life,

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he said the couple lost their hate alone. It became

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clear that they had few celebrity friends. Though Serena Williams

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was an exception and she wisely avoided Meghan's cookery series.

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Harry has started to look like an extra who sometimes

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longs for home. The bond between them remained strong, but

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one of the legacies of Megget is that the couple

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are actually pretty mediocre save for projects such as Invictus,

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which predate Megan. Harry resented being a spare with William's Air.

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He's a mere cameo where Megan's on screen. And there

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you have it. If you'd like to email us, address

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is the Palace Intrigue at gmail dot com. If you've

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got some sinus meds, send them this way. From my allergies,

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I'm Mark Francis my thanks to John McDermott. This is

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No Wick, Big Yikes: Meghan Markle’s Candle Fiasco, Jam Math Wars, and the UK Comeback Buzz

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