Prince Harry’s Podcast Cringe, the Royal Media Circus - and Was Charles Crowned on a Fake Stone?

0:00 A calorogus Shark Media. He long and welcome to you, Palace intrigue. I am your host, Mark Francis for Slate. IM the gen West Knights writes, last week a grandfather received a visit from his grandchildren who live overseas. Such things happened all over the world, every single day, with no fanfare whatsoever. If those people are members of Britain's royal family, however, the fanfare cannot be dispensed with. Such is the life that Harry and Meghan have been trying to avoid since they moved out of the UK and renounced royal duties in twenty twenty. Have they stayed out of the spotlight altogether? Far from it. If you've had the misfortune of watching with Love Megan, you may have come away with more knowledge about the potential uses of edible flowers and anybody needs, and a bad taste in your mouth. To boot. It would be difficult to argue that producing endless Netflix documentaries and sitting for a tell all interview are the actions of people who want to be left alone. The tabloids are I think probably budgetarily mandated to churn out analysis of who won this visit.

1:07 Take this article from The Express, one of the UK's bigger red top papers, headlined Meghan and Harry just got shown Whose boss? King Charles has played a blinder, apparently by not releasing public images of this meeting. The kick has best at his son in the pr battle, and the columnist writes that she wouldn't be surprised if they have brought her sneaking Netflix camera crew to film the children at Dianna's grave. It ends with this suspictake worthy line. The message from London is quiet, but clear and perfectly managed. You are always Welcome's family. But the days of turning the British monarchy into a media circus are officially over. The Daily Mail is running a poll for readers on whether it was right for the King to meet his grandchildren in this manner, and one of its columnists has declared the Sussex's agents of chaos for not confirming to press definitively enough whether the private family visit was going ahead.

1:57 What can be gleaned about the state of the relationship between the British King and the second son from this visit Practically nothing new, and yet so heightened is the obsession where the royals that gleaning must be done. It never ends. Prince William's son Prince George went to Wimbledon to watch the tennis this weekend and wore a suit. Hugh Colin inches about the fact that some people thought it was too hot for him to be wearing a suit. Kate's use of a fan in hot weather at the tennis match was according to whatever species of brainworms is de rigueur among royal reporters at the moment, a dig at megan somehow, And of course none of the writers of these articles believe a word of this. They just have to turn out some slop to feed the machine, because people have been trained since birth in this country to click on information relating to the royal family. Like Puvlov's dog. The media circus will never close its doors so long as selling tickets to see the performing monkeys is profitable. In The Express, Dasmond cry writes, I'm going to be honest. After the end of this UK visit last week, I was actually starting to really like Prince Harry again. After the drama and the chaos at the start of the week. The Duke of Sussex showed his old self again, especially on Friday, the one year countdown to the Invictor's Games event. We all love a podcast, Harry included, so to be asked to go on Joe Marler Will See You Now was probably exciting for the Duke, and maybe it was that excitement that took over and left him yet again saying things a prince just shouldn't say in public. Not long after confirming his full royal name enlisting his occupation as Prince of England, Harry began saying things that are better off said to the lads

3:28 at the pub than on a podcast that could be watched by thousands. One of these is explicit details of his grooming routine, which he describes as a shit shower shave. I actually cringed when those words came out of his mouth, not once but twice. Yes, I have heard that saying before, but not from the mouth of a prince on a public platform like that. Again, I'm not saying Harry can't have the kind of conversations men around the world have every day, and many things he said on the podcast about his children and exercise and trauma were very relatable and showed the sight of Harry. I do really like, but he seems to always sabotage himself by forgetting that his words, because of who he is, will fly around the world quicker than it takes a microwave mill to heat up. In The New York Times, Arian Chernock, and associate professor of history at Boston University who specializes in the modern monarchy, says the media has long been drawn to setting royals against one another. She points out that even Queen Elizabeth II was frequently compared with her younger sister, Princess Margaret. Professor Chernock said, we almost invent these foils, even if they don't exist. And again, because we're looking for this drama, we expect this drama from them, and we kind of almost demand it. Sometimes, according to Chernock, William and Harry fit neatly into a familiar narrative, the dutiful heir versus the rebellious young brother who chose to leave royal life behind. She says, many people have developed a sense of ownership over the princes, following every new development in their relationship, as if it were the latest episode of a television drama. There's this jarring, unedited version that sometimes gets out into the public and I think

4:59 we being a particularly strong version of that. Right now, there are also real people and this is their life more palace in just a moment. Some believe King Charles may have been crowned on a replica of the famous Stone of Destiny rather than the original. The claim centers on the Stone of Scone, the historic block of sandstone traditionally used in the coronation of Scottish and later British monarchs. King Charles was crowned on the stone during his twenty twenty three coronation at Westminster Abbey. A documentary part of the series Weird Britain explores a long running theory dating back to the famous nineteen fifty theft of the stone by four Glasgow University students. After removing the stone from Westminster Abbey, the students accidentally broke it into during their escape.

5:50 According to the official account, the stone was repaired by Glasgow stonemason Robert Bertie Gray before being left at Abreth Abbey, recovered by police and eventually returned to Westminster. It was officially returned to Scotland in nineteen ninety six and is now housed at Perth Museum. However, the documentary examines claims that Gray created replicas during the restoration and that the stone returned to authorities may not have been the original. One of the strongest believers is Glasgow pub The Arlington, which proudly displays what it says is the genuine Stone of Destiny. Pub manager Rory Watson said the people who stole it were Glasgow University students who popped into the Arlington with the Stone of Destiny for a quick plant on their way, and it's lived here ever since. Who really knows, but we believe we've got the Stone of Destiny.

6:37 Watson acknowledged that the mystery may never be solved, saying the last surviving member of the group involved in the theft has now died. The documentary also features producer Matt Everett, who asks whether the theory would change the symbolism of the monarchy. The question in the show is if the monarch sat on a substitute, does that make the coronation and the king any less legitimate in the eyes of ancient Scottish tradition. We know fakes were made and could the royal stone be in the Arlington Pub? We will probably never know the truth, but it's a fascinating story. If you've ever spotted one of the Royal family's distinctive burgundy helicopters arriving for an engagement and wondered exactly how they operate, there's actually a fascinating system behind them. The aircraft a part of what's known as the King's Helicopter Flight, a dedicated service that transports the King and other senior working royals around the UK. Their purpose is simple to make it possible for members of the royal family to visit places that would be difficult to reach by road, and in many cases, to fit several engagements into a single day. Since last year, the fleet has consisted of two Leonardo aw Ie thirty nine helicopters, replacing the Sikorsky aircraft that had served the royal household for around fifteen years.

7:48 The helicopters feature VIP interiors with upgraded communications equipment, and can operate using up to fifty percent sustainable aviation fuel. During the first nine months in service, the two aircraft roughly four hundred and twenty flying hours, covered about fifty eight thousand miles and completed approximately three hundred and forty journeys. Palace officials have defended the level of the helicopter use, arguing that the aircraft are essential if the King and other working Royals are to maintain busy schedules across every part of the country, particularly in areas where rail or road travel would take significantly longer. The King's helicopter flight is managed by the Royal Travel Office, which coordinates flights around the royal family's official diaries. Although the helicopters are operated by civilian crews, they fly under special Royal flight status, using dedicated transponder codes and designated flight corridors that allow them to work safely alongside military and civilian air traffic.

8:44 Not every helicopter journey appears separately in the Sovereign grant accounts. Shorter trips below a certain cost threshold are grouped together with recent financial reports showing more than one hundred and seventy such flights in a single year at a combined cost of more than one million pounds. And then you have it. If you'd like to email us addresses the palasintrig at gmail dot com, please follow us on Spotify, Apple if you're on Spotify and leave us a comment. If you're on Apple, hit that button up there that says listen I'm interrupted and get us commercial free for five bucks a month. You appreciate your support, My Francis, My thanks to John McDermott, This Air's Palace, Intrigue and Catas