Prince Harry’s Royal Reconciliation Plea Backfires

0:03 Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host, Mark Francis. Paparazzo Meghan Markle is getting an early start on Christmas, sharing a video of candles, knitted stockings and presents as she prepares another release from As Ever. A little more holiday magic is on its way, she wrote on Instagram. Coming soon. Stay close. The clip opens with Megan taking a jam biscuit to have with her tea. She then lights a candle before appearing in a white knitted outfit to fill stockings above the fireplace. Her brand has already announced holiday gift baskets, an advent calendar and a parlor card set. Megan also introduced a limited edition chocolate assortment made with Los Angeles chocolatier Compartes alongside a reminder to pre-order the brand's advent calendar. Megan's message read, Sneak a first bite of our limited edition holiday chocolate assortment in collaboration with Los Angeles Chocolatier Compartes. Indulge in our treasures of the Orchard Chocolate Covered Fruit Gift Box featuring California orchard fruits picked at their peak and hand-dipped in fine chocolate. Enjoy the Botanical Confections Chocolate Bar Trio, a lovely set of chocolate bars inspired by our aromatic teas.

1:21 And lastly, don't forget to pre-order our 2026 Holiday Advent Calendar for a special countdown to the holiday season. All presented in exclusive as-ever packaging and made for gifting and giving because some of the sweetest parts of the season are the little surprises and the simple pleasure of having something special to look forward to. Royal biographer Andrew Lowney does not seem impressed by Harry and Meghan telling News 24 they're trying to build their profile. They think that there's more support for them than they realise. They don't seem to have a great deal of self-awareness. to realise that no one's interested in them, that they're just seen as phonies. Harry and Meghan's Nottingham walkabout has prompted a pointed accusation from the Daily Mail's royal editor, Rebecca English, who questioned whether publicising their movements was intended to strengthen their case for police protection. Speaking on Palace Confidential, English challenged the decision to release details ahead of the visit.

2:18 In light of what Harry and Meghan have said about serious concerns over their security, you have to question it. Why are they doing this? They clearly want the crowds there. Are they trying to provoke a situation where there is an incident by encouraging people to come down there and then saying afterwards, Look, we didn't have the police. We can't handle it. They are encouraging people to go down there. None of this makes sense unless, of course, you are quite suspicious of their motives. Why are Harry and Meghan doing it? It really does make me question their motives. In the Express, Emily Ferguson writes... Just over an hour after Harry's interview aired and was being dissected by journalists and commentators, the Duke's team issued a clarification that Harry had no intention of making an attack against the royal family.

3:01 In the interview, Harry says some people don't want him to reconcile with his brother when asked directly about whether he was grieving his relationship with William. But as speculation mounted as to who the people were opposing a happy family reunion, with even the most cautious gamblers going all in on the future king... the Duke's spokesperson issued a fierce rebuke. Harry's comments on others not wanting to work things out were absolutely not intended as a swipe at his brother or any other member of his family. They added, It's another example of the Sussex machine causing maximum damage.

3:46 Although sources are adamant that the timing of the interview was unrelated to them and entirely at the magazine's discretion, Harry and his team could have easily advised which days to avoid. Just as the King's opening of the Welsh Parliament was overshadowed last week by the return of Harry and Meghan in Nottingham, the state visit was eclipsed by Harry's reconciliation plea. If making amends is truly what he wants most, he should work on patching things up in private. No cameras, no interviews, just putting time and effort into proving to the royal family he has eaten humble pie and can be trusted again. Until then, it's just empty words and no one is buying it. Also in the Express, Emily Wright writes, It takes a staggering amount of gold to uproot your entire life, cross an ocean, denounce your homeland and family on global television, and then quietly slink back six years later pretending you were just out for a brief stroll. Yet, here we are. What Harry is packaging as an enlightened cultural comparison for his children is, in reality, a total surrender. Strip away the polished Montecito PR, and the core truth stands stark. Harry and Meghan Markle have finally realised that swapping the ancient, deep-rooted institution of the British monarchy for the hollow, transactional world of California celebrity was a catastrophic mistake. You can't buy history, and you certainly can't build a genuine support network out of Netflix executives, talent agents and Hollywood A-listers. Harry's sudden epiphany, citing a conversation with singer Joss Stone about the vital

5:18 importance of community, British schooling and raising children surrounded by family, is the ultimate irony. It is as if he has just invented the concept of home, completely ignoring the fact that he systematically spent half a decade burning his to the ground. In the Telegraph, Melanie McDonagh tells us, If Prince Harry is serious about reconciliation, he needs to stop talking. She writes, The prince makes much of wanting to help other people by sharing his own experiences, be that of relatable sibling disagreements or broken relationships between kids and their parents, and he's fluent in therapy speak. Trying to make an impact in the world, he told GQ, that energizes me.

6:00 In particular, the interview was focused on grief about which Prince Harry has conducted a masterclass, And so most of it was the Duke of Sussex sharing his thoughts about how to move on. Certainly after losing a parent as a boy of 12, he knows about devastating loss. Most of us will relate to his observation that losing your mother really sucks. Others, however, will balk at his insistence that therapy gave me permission to grieve. That may be so, but it's this kind of psycho guff typical of California that alienates so many. How to break this? No one particularly wants Prince Harry, still less Meghan, to advise on letting go of the past. People fall on his terrifically irritating interviews, myself included, for what they tell us about him and the royal family. And by talking about his difficult, fraught relationships with his father and brother, even if he thinks his observations are uncontroversial and no matter how he dresses them up, the Duke of Sussex makes it impossible for the royals to trust him. On social media, Piers Morgan said, Flamethrower wants to make peace with the people where houses he torched and is baffled they're not interested.

7:05 More Palace in just a moment. In the iPaper, Jenny Bond writes, He says he's not naive, at least not any longer, but Harry dear, dear Harry, you should surely realise by now that life is not so simple. You can't say the things you've said, do the things you've done, write the things you've written, and then come swanning home and expect everyone to welcome you with open arms. That's just not how it works. Let go of the past, Harry. Did you hear yourself say that? You wrote 416 pages of the past in your vitriolic book, Spare, detailing every aspect of your earlier life that caused you grief. Is that what you call letting go? More like letting rip.

7:46 Harry is engaging and likable in the interview, just as he was when I reported on him when he was a little boy. He seems endearingly down-to-earth and unassuming. He's funny, too. However, I can't help but come back to that impression that he is naive. You can't go firing off sentences such as, Some people don't want it to work out, with reference to family reconciliation, without questions being asked about what that means. It sounded very much like a dig at his brother and or father. His spokesman insists that Harry was not pointing a finger at either. It was, we are to understand, a general point. If that's true, then Harry should have thought it through more clearly beforehand and explained himself far better. As it is, we are left wondering who he's talking about.

8:29 If not his family, then is it the men in grey suits in the palace? is that the universe in general, or anyone who happens to be at odds with their own relatives, clumsy at best. I don't want to seem unkind, and I have a lot of time for Harry, but this was not his finest hour. I think he's better than this, but he's going to have to find a way to show it before any hope of reconciliation with his family can bear fruit. Royal Watcher Tom Sykes tells Page Six, Will William respond? I would be astonished if he responded publicly. He never does in his silence. Is itself. The response. Will it have frustrated him? I'm sure it will. Being lectured in public about reconciliation by the person who has caused the problem is exactly what William finds so hard to forgive. Putting the onus on him through the pages of a magazine is not how you repair a relationship.

9:19 And there you have it. If you'd like to email us or address us at thepalaceintrigue at gmail.com If you're on Spotify, leave us a comment. We read them all. If you're on Apple, hit that button up there that says listen uninterrupted and get the show commercial free for just five bucks a month. We appreciate your support. And if there's a creator or a podcaster in your family and they're looking for a program to make them a better creator, or if you yourself want to be a podcaster, we've released a program called Linnet made by the folks here at Calaroga Media. It's an all-in-one web browser application. that we produce this show on, and we find it could be a valuable asset for everyone who likes to create media. Check it out at linnetmedia.com that's l-i-n-n-e-t media.com and it's free through november i'm mark francis my thanks to john mctermott this is palace intrigue good times