Thomas Markle Reportedly Enters Dementia Care as King Charles Faces “Not Our King” Protests

0:01 Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host, Mark Francis. Today's podcast contains sensitive topics. Thomas Markle Sr. has reportedly moved to a Florida care facility specializing in memory loss, prompting questions about how investigators might interview him over allegations involving child sexual abuse material. Radar Online reports that the 82-year-old has been diagnosed with dementia and transferred from a rehabilitation center where he had been recovering from a lower leg amputation. The article does not provide medical documentation confirming the diagnosis. Markle denies wrongdoing. Florida lawyer Spencer Coven, who represents several victims of Jeffrey Epstein, told The Sun that questioning someone in such circumstances could present difficulties. He said, You can't just barge into a memory care facility and conduct an interview. Any decent lawyer would be able to get that interview struck, and the FBI know that. They say it is reviewing its handling of the matter. A nurse who cared for Thomas Markle Sr. in the Philippines reportedly left her job after being publicly described as his romantic partner, despite a colleague saying there was no relationship between them. The Sun reports that Rio Canedo was embarrassed by the international attention following an interview in which Meghan Markle's father said he had found love while recovering from a leg amputation. Speaking to the Daily Mail in March, Markle described himself as blessed and said, I feel neglected and sad for so many years, but now I am

1:33 enjoying life again. I never expected to find joy and happiness again. The interview included a photograph of him sitting in a wheelchair with Kanedo standing behind him at a rehabilitation centre in Cebu. Sky News Asia correspondent Cordelia Lynch subsequently reported a different account from someone who worked with the nurse. Writing on X, Lynch said, A colleague of that nurse, Rio Canedo, told me there was no romantic relationship at all. Rio doesn't speak English well, and had no idea she was about to be portrayed as the new love interest of an elderly man she was simply caring for. The colleague reportedly said the publicity left Canedo feeling so embarrassed that she quit her job. King Charles could not have anticipated how dramatically family controversies would develop during his reign, according to royal commentator Phil Dampier. who credits Queen Camilla with helping him manage the pressure. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Dampier said, It was always going to be a difficult act to follow. His mother, after a 70-year reign, but he took to it like a duck to water and stamped his authority in the first week.

2:35 It was all going well, and all these problems and challenges have come along subsequently. The main one is him getting cancer and Kate getting cancer as well, so there was a double blow for them. Then there's been all the family problems with Harry and Meghan's laundry airing and the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor scandal. Some of these things have been brewing for years, but I don't think he could have anticipated that they would have blown up so big. None of these challenges have derailed the King's reign, and he's had to be very resilient, but he has had a very strong support system in his wife. Without her, I think he would struggle. Camilla is such a strong support behind the scenes, which is her main role. She has kept him sane and is helping him to navigate each crisis.

3:16 King Charles has encountered both enthusiastic crowds and demands for an apology and reparations during his Caribbean tour, with residents expressing sharply different views about Britain's responsibilities for slavery. The New York Times found that celebrations surrounding the visit have taken place alongside calls for the British state to address the lasting consequences of its colonial past. In Guyana, more than 100 people gathered outside an indigenous cultural site to see Charles, while around two dozen protesters nearby held signs and chanted, Not our king! Among those demanding action was Elton Campbell, who said, They bought slaves, sold slaves, and made money from slavery, and then they paid the slave owners millions of dollars, and the slaves and their descendants got nothing. Let the King explain that to the nation and our black people around the world. The debate comes ahead of today's Commonwealth Summit in Antigua, where both Charles and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham are scheduled to address leaders.

4:09 Burnham has said that the government is open to a formal apology for Britain's involvement in the slave trade, which he described as brutal and barbaric, but rejected financial reparations. Writing in an opinion article, he said, I do not think the British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age, under different laws, and in which they played no personal part. In The Guardian, Raoul de Jong asks King Charles, If the Dutch king can apologise for slavery, why can't you? Three years ago, your Dutch counterpart... King William Alexander stood before an audience of people of colour, many of them my friends, dressed up like kings and queens. They listened solemnly, as he did what you will not, and apologised for the role of the Dutch state in enslaving our ancestors and for the failure of his own family, the House of Orange Nassau, to act against it. Slavery was a crime against humanity, he said, and the stadtholders and the kings of the House of Orange Nassau did nothing to stop it. It was a moment the people on whose shoulders I stand had fought for for centuries, often at the risk of their health or even their lives. You know the truth. William Alexander knows it. I know it.

5:16 But many of your subjects do not. The truth is my ancestors were kidnapped, chained, trafficked across the ocean, sold, torn from one another, turned into property, brainwashed, silenced, mocked, cursed. But the fire inside us was never extinguished. Despite the plantations, despite the Atlantic, despite the slave forts, that is why I am alive. That is not a small thing. It is enormous. That's why the people receiving William Alexander's apology were dressed up like kings and queens. They know what a huge gift it is to be alive and how important it is to take care of what you have been given. They know that they have not been put on this earth in order to wither. They have been put on this earth to blossom. And even if all your freedom is taken away from you by other people, you can find ways to flourish because the spark of life itself is on our side. Its fire will keep burning, Your Majesty, whether you apologize or not. The true heroes in this history were rarely born as royalty. But of course, being born as royalty doesn't prevent you from doing the right thing. You cannot stop the truth from coming out.

6:18 But you can choose whether history remembers you as someone who stood in its way or someone who stood with it. More palettes in just a moment. In the Express, Chris Richards writes... Anything Prince Harry and Meghan Markle can do, Prince William and Princess Kate can do better, and it must really be starting to get on the Sussexes' nerves. Before Megxit, even when we had the fab four of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan, it felt like the Sussexes were ahead in the schmoozing with the stars' stakes. Just look at Harry and Meghan's celebrity-packed wedding. George Clooney, Idris Elba, David and Victoria Beckham, Serena Williams, Tom Hardy, Oprah Winfrey, Carey Mulligan, James Blunt and James Corden. Frankly, it was embarrassing. Why would you invite someone to your wedding you don't know?

7:02 I think it was because Harry and Meghan were already planning Megxit back in 2018 and looking for celebs to ingratiate themselves to. So celebrity cosying up has become a Sussex brand. And Meghan continued it on her doomed Netflix lifestyle show with Love, Meghan. By inviting a string of US B-listers to watch her bake party food and snacks in her supposed kitchen while giving inspirational speeches about friendship, fun and cakes. Now Harry and Meghan are back in Blighty, having moved to the famously celebrity-heavy enclave of the Cotswolds, with one clear purpose in mind, to become the go-to royals for the rich and famous. There's only one problem. William and Kate have got wires to their PR machine, and are not only doing the same thing, they're doing it better, and with that extra touch of class and humility.

7:46 Only the other week, Prince William appeared on BBC's The Graham Norton Show to discuss his Earthshot Prize with its worthy Green Credentials. But he also let down his guard a little to discuss his love of Premier League side Aston Villa and his friends hoping to get free tickets to games, but also that he secretly posted on Villa online forums. He laughed alongside Cate Blanchett, Hannah Waddingham and Robert Irwin Jr. when told somewhere out there was a 12-foot crocodile named after him. A clip from the show about his fantasy of being a DJ despite a predetermined destiny received 1.2 million likes on Instagram as fans praised him. In contrast, Prince Harry wrote an entire memoir spare about his misfortune at being born after William. Harry turns a positive at being born into one of the most historic, privileged and wealthiest families on the planet into a negative, while William turns the negative of his unfulfilled personal dreams into the positivity of now being able to help save the planet with the Earthshot Prize. Harry's losing the celebrity PR war with his brother. He must be raging. His older brother has done him again. He'll probably want to write another book about it. The Duchy of Cornwall has apologised to tenants over its handling of plans to sell the Bradnitch estate in Devon and agreed to commission fresh valuations on their homes and farms. The Observer reports that Prince William was not happy after reading about the tenants' concerns and spoke to the Duchy's Rural Director, Matthew Morris, about how to respond. The 3,000-acre estate is being sold as part of a wider restructuring of Duchy holdings with investments intended to support priorities including homelessness and the climate crisis.

9:19 Tenants have been offered the chance to buy their properties, but some say they cannot afford the prices, while others argue that the valuations do not properly recognise improvements they have paid for themselves. William is selling around a fifth of the land he inherited from Charles in 2022 to concentrate on five geographic heartlands. The Isles of Skilly, Cornwall, Dartmoor, Bath and Kennington in South London. Bradninch has belonged to the Duchy since the 14th century, and the proposed sale has prompted criticism from people concerned about the future. of its rural community. And there you have it. If you'd like to email us, our address is thepalaceentry at gmail.com. If you're on Spotify, leave us a comment. If you're on Apple, hit that button up there it says listen uninterrupted get the show commercial free i'm mark francis my thanks to john mcdermott this is palace intrigue and good times