More excerpts have come out from Robert Lacey’s Battle of Brothers: William and Harry – The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult. The excerpts were published in the Mail, the same newspaper which is currently being sued by the Duchess of Sussex. We’ve heard that the Queen purposefully left Harry and Meghan out of her Christmas speech in 2019 – she merely referenced a new grandchild, and she didn’t even say Archie’s name. That, Lacey claims, was done purposefully, to send a message to the Sussexes that she was mad at them for all of their real or perceived shenanigans throughout the year. Shenanigans like… suing the Mail, and trademarking their titles. But that’s not all! The Queen, it seemed, was pissed off about tons more. They don’t call her Petty Betty for nothing.
The Queen’s new photos: The new royal picture that the Queen did release on January 3 to mark the new decade showed Queen Elizabeth II herself, the future King Charles III, the future King William V — and, going even further, King George VII in the shape of little Prince George, just coming up to seven years old. What a fascinating and historic image to remind us of the essence of the royal system! The current monarch with three future monarchs. All the living heirs — and not a suggestion of a ‘spare’.
Who came up with the idea of the Heir Photoshoot: According to insiders, this formal photograph, taken in the Buckingham Palace Throne Room a week before Christmas 2019, was the idea of Prince Charles, anxious to promote his cause of the ‘slimmed-down monarchy’. Palace sources have also let it be known that the plan of depicting the direct line of royal succession was enthusiastically supported by Prince William, which might be seen as sending his younger brother a message. The message was received and it was taken to heart.
The Sussexes in Canada, at that time: It was a sort of sabbatical. Before leaving London Harry had spoken to his father and grandmother with a few of his ideas about how things might change for himself and his wife within the royal structure. It was a pity that William was now so angry that he was not speaking to him any more. It was as if Harry had become un-brothered.
All the royals wanted Meghan to go: The harsh reality was that the gospel according to Meghan — as evidenced in the special issue of Vogue she had edited — was simply not royal, nor was it in harmony with mainstream, ‘un-woke’ British opinion. William and all the senior members of the royal family — not least Prince Charles and the Queen — had come to feel the same. This growing disapproval at the top had started seeping downwards. The honeymoon was over. On the talk shows, Meghan and Harry had become topics of national controversy instead of celebration.
Meghan kept her team: She still had her agent, attorney and accountant — to field calls relating to the professional side of her life. And she remained particularly close to Keleigh Thomas Morgan, a representative of the crisis management and PR firm Sunshine Sachs, with whom she had worked while she was acting in the legal drama Suits…as Meghan’s relationship with Buckingham Palace went awry, Keleigh moved into the vacuum to give Meghan the benefit of her professional advice. It was decided that for the South Africa trip, there were to be a minimum of smart clothes or fashionable costumes and poses that suggested Vogue. There must be no private jets — commercial flights only. And above all, let us see as much as possible of Archie. There was to be no more of this ‘secret baby’ nonsense.
But then the ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey happened. “But Meghan had gone into negative ‘victim’ mode… Her words tailed away as she tried to hold back the tears. It ended the Sussexes’ oh-so-promising tour of Southern Africa on a sad note. Self-pity and tears — which Sunshine Sachs playbook had they come from?
I actually didn’t know that Meghan was consulting with her old Hollywood representatives ahead of the African tour. Oh, and I guess I left out some stuff about how the Queen was super-mad that Meghan featured so many left-leaning women in her Vogue “Forces for Change” issue, because the Queen saw it as a campaign of “social upheaval.” The Queen was also super-salty about the “headline-grabbing lawsuits in pursuit of personal crusades” because “To be royal, sometimes, is to ride the punches, to take it on the chin — and to just shut up.” Yes, just like the Top CEO Duchess of Cambridge did when Tatler brought up William’s desire for rose bushes. She took it on the chin and rode the punches. *puts finger to ear* Yes, I’m being told that Kate did not take it on the chin, that she in fact threw a hissy fit and spent months threatening Tatler with a lawsuit to get them to remove huge swathes of their story.
As for the stuff about Heir Photoshoot… yeah. It was a message. As was the Christmas speech and the photos on the Queen’s desk. The Windsors were telling Harry and Meghan to GTFO. And then when Harry and Meghan did just that, the Windsors had another f–king meltdown. My God.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red and Backgrid.
Be great Harry and don’t look back.
Run. They absolutely made the right decision.
Be careful what you wish for, Windsors!
Right? They got what they wanted now. The question is why are they still crying?
They wanted Harry to ditch Archie and Meghan and go back to being the punching bag for Will. They got none of what they wanted. Instead the abused have left the family and established themselves successfully across the ocean. That’s why they’re still bitching about it.
the line of succession photograph is distasteful in the extreme.
You have in that picture, the future of the monarchy for the next 70 years (at least). All decided by birth. Time to say good bye to this archaic institution.
And it shows Charles talks out of both sides of his arse. This sends a message that he is right beside Wills.
Charles is right beside Wales but Wales is about to punch him in the gut and tear out his liver and spleen to make it as Monarch.
If you are Kate, you have to be concerned for Charlotte and Louis, no (though she may be sticking her head in the sand about it)? Already George is given special treatment. Given the royal family’s history with spares, I would find it deeply concerning.
I appreciate that this group of royal children will have a more “normal” childhood (relatively speaking, in the sense that they have at least one parent present most of the time) but I’m not sure it’s enough to make up for always letting it be known your younger children are second-best.
And when they are adults, there’s no future for ambition. They will always have to take a back seat to George. Will they leave, too? Harry has set the precedent.
Does she care though it seems she sees her children as props, allowing David Attenborough to give a special present only to George and all the other special special stuff they do to him at such a young age is a sign that they really don’t care about the equality all the plight of the other two he is going to grow up to be just like William, up his own arse.
Kate seems to encourage the singling out of George.
I will never take Kate’s claims to want to raise the children in a normal way as anything but an excuse not to work. She has done nothing to stop the abject favouritism and prioritization of her eldest son over her other two children. Diana made efforts to not treat Harry poorly. Kate is acquiescing to a dysfunctional system that will certainly cause resentment in Charlotte and Louis later on. She is useless right now and it is bad parenting on her part to let this happen. William is a bad parent too in this, but he doesn’t use the parenting excuse to not work as much as she does. It is not normal to favour one child over the others and doing so affects them for the rest of their lives.
I agree Nic. She only copies Diana with her clothes and nothing else. Not Diana’s work ethic or parenting. Kate just does what William tells her to do. How pathetic.
Ginger
I wholeheartedly disagree. Kate does what she wants. She’s shown she can play the press to her benefit during the dating years or to lure William back home when married.
I think this is a case of Melania. We all wanted to believe she just did what her husband said to, but no. She has been an active and willing participant. I believe this of Kate. She has held on to William for ages. And to even get a date with him she had to be a side piece. There were never morals.
And I’ve yet to see anything to go against this.
Kate signed up for this life with eyes wide open. Having her children be unequal and consigned to particular roles in life is part of the deal and she chose that. These people don’t want to modernize or do things differently – they are interested in perpetuating their privilege and status and nothing more.
It’s not just the British that do it, though. I’ve seen an “heir” photograph by the Swedish RF and here’s one from the Danish RF.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8217001/Queen-Margrethe-Denmark-poses-son-Crown-Prince-Frederik-newly-released-portraits.html
That’s not new for them. I remember seeing a similar photo of Margarethe, Frederik, and Christian when I visited Denmark a few years ago. Christian was quite little in that one.
It is how monarchies work – they work by heredity. However, it is one thing to occasionally highlight the differences in rank (and the line of succession) in public, it is quite another thing to let the system of rank infect how people treat each other within the family, privately.
Personally, I don’t find the whole Christmas photo thing with the pudding making offensive. It is part of the visual propaganda of the monarchy. What I find offensive was how badly staged it was and how they all looked like ducks out of water because you could tell that these people (apart from George perhaps) have never deigned to cook for themselves.
However, treating children differently in terms of attention, gifts, etc. like they seemingly do in the BRF is extremely damaging for the individual and the family dynamic. But I won’t deny that the issue of a hierarchy of rank can be cause of friction in any royal family. Fx the late Prince Consort Henrik made no secret about that he was very unhappy that he had to defer to his son at public functions when the Queen wasn’t there and that his son, the Crown Prince, took over the Queen’s public functions when she wasn’t there instead of Henrik doing that. But that all boiled down to the fact that Henrik was very disappointed that he wasn’t made king when his wife became Queen – plus, that he came from a very paternalistic culture and generation and thus it galled him that he didn’t come before his son in the royal hierarchy of rank.
Treating children wildly different is something that happens in many dysfunction families, whether they are royal or not. Fx my sister and I were treated very differently than my cousins by our maternal grandparents and our uncle. And that had everything to do with the fact that my mother is suffering from an illness that they didn’t know how to relate to so it was easier to ignore us.
I agree, I don’t see how it is distasteful or even a slap to Harry…. he knew this is how it was to go down since birth.
I don’t think children can deal with this Heir is more important business. It is best to wait until they become teens before the dynastic pictures and special treatment happen.
Yeah, I don’t get what’s unusual or insulting about a photo of the direct line of succession. If anything it’s a bit ghoulish to include Harry, since you’re basically saying “Here’s the direct line of succession, but also, here’s the guy who’ll take over if William and his three young children die in a helicopter crash!”
It does seem that the particular dysfunction of the BRF is tightly bound up with rank – and that they pull rank on each in private. I’m a bit curious whether this may have anything to do with the fact that both Liz’ grandfather and father were second-born sons who were never meant to take the throne. George V became king because his older brother died as Prince of Wales and George VI became king because his older brother abdicated. So I do wonder whether there was some kind of imposter syndrome in play. Both men were also married to ambitious, dominant women who quite possibly had rank-related anxieties as well. Queen Mary was born royal but her father (a German prince) was disinherited and she was thus not royal enough for a marriage with a foreign RF. The Queen Mother was born into the British nobility but there were the nasty rumours about her parentage.
It’s not the heir photography in and of itself. It’s the institutionalized hierarchy and the importance that’s afforded to each child that’s the problem. George, as FFFK, is going to have certain responsibilities he must attend to at times. But he can’t be the only one who gets the sort of direct focus that comes from that position from the adults in his life. What this inevitably results in, and which we’ve seen for multiple generations at this point, is that the spares flounder for wont of an identity or a clear path or purpose.
George, as with William, and Charles, and the Queen herself, is going to be a monarch. But they can’t act like the monarchy is a team, while still prioritizing one individual above all else. That does not create team players. Imagine if, for example, both the Queen and Margaret had been instructed in the functions of a constitutional monarchy. Margaret had always been a smart individual–what sort of additional insight might she have brought to the Queen’s reign from her knowledge? Wouldn’t that have helped her provide better support to the Queen, a better understanding of what the Queen’s role is, so that she can define her own position with respect to that?
Same with Charles and his siblings, and same with William and Harry. If they’re all in this together, they should have been raised to believe they too have a stake in this institution. But when you, again, prioritize the heir alone, well, their siblings aren’t going to be very loyal to the monarchy that’s done very little for them, except make them into a public figure when they wouldn’t have chosen such a life for themselves. If the monarch, or the heir, or the FFM, or the FFFM are the only people who matter, there should be no surprise when the spares receive the message clearly and go off determined to do their own thing.
“It does seem that the particular dysfunction of the BRF is tightly bound up with rank ”
I think it is this exactly. A picture of the monarch and her direct heirs is no big deal. But the timing and context of putting such a photo out sure says something. This family doesn’t know how to function in the modern era, and they are backed/ egged on by courtiers who wish it were still the 1950s. I look over in Sweden at Victoria and her family and then in Spain at Felipe and his family, and I do not get the sense that their second born children are treated as afterthoughts or just future servants for their older heir siblings. The younger ruling and future ruling generations of a number of the continental houses seem to have figured out or are trying to figure how to move with the times and create healthy family units. Meanwhile the Windsors are clinging to outdated behaviors.
@ Sid. Then you have not been paying attention. In Spain pretty much the only people out in front are King Felipe, Letizia and the girls. Because of the events of their past, his father has had to self exile and his sister Christina and her family are also not representing the crown now. Only Queen Sofia and Infanta Elena are seen at royal functions. And as far as Sweden, Princess Madeline’s kids no longer have royal titles and she has also is more in the background. I think she moved at some point, then went back and now I think she moved again. I don’t know if because of Harry it was felt her status also had to change otherwise people start comparing royal households. All I know is things changed for her as well after Harry made his move.
This is not the first time I have seen line of succession photos. Other royal households do it as well. I very much doubt Harry was any kind of message. I very much enjoy seeing the photo that many of you feel is sending a “message”. Oh noes! I’ve seen the Spanish do it with King Juan Carlos, then prince Felipe and infanta Leonor. As well as Crown Princess Victoria with her father and daughter. In fact they do it all the time. I’m thinking if Harry read all of these comments he’d think they are hilarious.
@ Lizzythe2 : I agree – it’s just a succession photo, not necessarily reeking with secret significance. The queen has four children but three (Anne, Andrew, Edward) were not in the photo. She has eight grandchildren but seven including Harry were not in the photo. It was a photo of the heirs and nobody else. It was hardly aimed at Harry (and Meghan) exclusively as some kind of insult.
“nor was it in harmony with mainstream, ‘un-woke’ British opinion.”
“There was to be no more of this ‘secret baby’ nonsense.”
““But Meghan had gone into negative ‘victim’ mode… Her words tailed away as she tried to hold back the tears. It ended the Sussexes’ oh-so-promising tour of Southern Africa on a sad note. Self-pity and tears — which Sunshine Sachs playbook had they come from?”
Are these actual sentences from the book?
No BIPOC woman can marry into that family. Lacey does not see the “biracial recruit” as a human being. He does not see Meghan’s child as a human being either. He should be ashamed of himself for writing this.
If the BRF wants to only represent “unwoke” UK, then stop sponging off anyone who actually cares about social justice.
And what’s up with Kate seemingly supporting BLM? It’s only acceptable if any of the royals are taking a white savior approach while going home to their blackamoor paintings and statues? Is that sufficiently “unwoke”?
Exactly. The sentences sound like a DM reporter wrote it. I hope they’re not actual sentences from the book and instead just the DM just saying in their own words what it is. If it is indeed actual sentences then Lacey is just as bad as the average “tabloid hack”
As a historian he’s not great, he’s just (semi)popular.
Honestly? I dont think any woman with any sense of self can marry into this family. They wanted Diana to stay married to a man who didn’t love her, to dull her shine and to stay small and they wanted Megs to stay in the uk to be battered by the press, dull her shine and stay small.
Theres a lot of psychological manipulation going on in both cases that are sickening. The takeaway is: don’t be a fully formed woman if you want to stay. Sit down, shut up, and we will give you what we think you deserve. Don’t complain, don’t make waves, don’t defend yourselves even though we won’t protect you. Yikes.
It is literally bad for the mental health to marry into this family. Unless you marry someone who isn’t interesting to the public and who is far down in the line of succession.
I was thinking exactly this. These are actual excerpts from the book? Because it all seems incredibly one sided, and inflammatory. Not at all about the feud between the brothers, but all about the nitpicking issues the royals have with Meghan, almost all of which can be refuted with examples of members of the BRF doing the same. I’m surprised Lacey went this way. It actually reads like a Daily Mail article.
Peter Phillips is way down in line of succession but his marriage broke up. Maybe it’s just something about That Family.
The whole “mainstream, un-woke British opinion” thing made me seethe. If Robert Lacey wrote those actual words, well, fuck him. And fuck the whole rotten institution he wrote this book as a mouthpiece for. Because what they mean when they say “mainstream, un-woke British opinion” is, as far as I’m concerned, a covert nod to fascism, basically. And if THAT is the position the royals want to take–if they really want people to think that the royal family would rather be on the side of racist, misogynist, xenophobic bigots, well then, that says a lot about them, doesn’t it?
The entire concept of a “royal” family is anti-equality. They have literally positioned themselves as “better than you”, “chosen by God over you” and “deserving of riches while you starve” and “commoners” have been conditioned over generations to accept this status quo as normal even though God himself is all about equality.
Why is anyone surprised that the BRF are racist, sexist and classist? How can anyone be surprised they are dysfunctional?
The composition of that photograph is so terrible. They look like four people who don’t know each other at all.
Well…that’s not far from the truth ..
I don’t think the “line” photo was a snub directly to Harry and Meghan; it seems to be tradition. I feel for all the children, not just Archie, who are snubbed because of not being higher up in line. All the people who want to spread this story seem to not take into account that there are small children involved in this pettiness who could be hurt by it.
William wants to be normal but there he is pushing the eldest to do these photos and make him look more IMPORTANT than his siblings. He learned nothing at all from Diana who did not like to favor The Heir over the others. This sort of thing is so 19th century.
Very weird indeed it’s clear they treat George way better than the other two and give him special treatment even at this young age which is appalling.
Harry knows exactly how Charlotte and Louis feel. I hope they get to do special stuff too.
Agreed, this is just a photo of the (potential) future monarchs. It’s not like Harry ever had a chance to be king anyways.
Does the entire Cambridge family fly together? One airplane accident and Harry could be king. Unlikely and they’ve probably thought of that. W&K probably put the kids on a plane with Maria.
They overplayed their hand like the dimwits they are. They thought Harry would see that photo of the the heirs and come crawling back, but it just strengthened his resolve. He knew at that point what he was going to do, because they acted like they didn’t need him and he said fuck it. Now they’re all begging for the spare to come back, because the heirs cannot carry the monarchy in their own.
I don’t necessarily think those messages were GTFO but rather STFU and part of the continuing anger from the BRF is that they didn’t just fade away into the background but have shown that they can make it on their own.
I agree – the queen and Charles were reminding Harry of his place, which was to be a supporting player to William for the rest of his life. They didn’t expect him to leave. But its stupid because by that point he was already talking to his father about stepping back, so what the hell did they think the pictures were going to do?
I think the pictures were a “We don’t need you anyway!” message. The Windsor’s are a really vindictive bunch, Harry needs to watch his back and not let his guard down. Or at least the queen and William seem to be. But it’s weird, I keep remembering that message that the queen put out about how Meghan and Archie are “much loved members of the family “ and how proud she was of Meghan and her hard work. Who wrote that, I wonder because this book paints a completely different picture.
I don’t get why TQ is pictured with her handbag in both shots. She’s the Queen for heavens sake, a rank higher than any of the males with her. These pictures make it look like she’s leaving to do the grocery shopping right after.
this family is so frigging toxic, petty and awful. Run Meghan, run don’t walk, and don’t look back!
That’s what’s so weird to me. They really really thought that Harry would be like “yeah you’re right, my wife is unsuitable and I’ll send her and my son away and go back to being your whipping boy”????
They’re all nuts.
Yep, they really did think that. British royals have a history with “inconvenient” wives, and it’s not pretty.
the situations are a bit different but Margaret picked royal life in the end and no one in the institution seems to have progressed passed that time period so I’m sure they expected Harry to do the same.
Harry has always talk about how he didn’t want to be royal. I’m surprised they are so surprised.
Remember when Harry was single and we all speculated the hell his wife would come into? The Kate meangirling? The press attacking the spares wife? The BRF throwing her under the bus in Duchess vs. Duchess narratives? Yeah. Who knew it would have ever gotten this horrific?
Twitter on occasion reposts comments made pre Meghan on CB about how Harry’s spouse would be poorly treated. So this was always going to happen, but adding a biracial American with opinions made it 100x worse. I can’t blame them for going half way around the world to escape this mess.
Poor George. I don’t think this sort of thing is good for him, with his being “performing” for the cameras as a “direct heir.”
It can’t be good for Charlotte and Louis who will always be made to feel second best, either.
I think it might already make Charlotte ask questions about it. Louis will in future. It is so sad to treat youngsters that way that one is more “special” just because he was born first.
@Equality, the thing is ALL these 3 foolish adults have absolutely no idea how it feels to be second best, they all are the first child and heir to the throne. They have learnt nothing, absolutely nothing from their past abuse their “spare” children have always been subjected to and what that abuse affects the person. Harry has always been said to be the dim one but honestly Harry is the smartest of all the Windsors. He has learnt from his past experience/abuse as the “spare” and has taken his child out of that toxicity, Archie is a blessed child.
It doesn’t look good for Charlotte or Louis and I sincerely doubt that heartless man William loves/cares for these his “spare” kids at all, as its apparent he cares zilch how this abuse affects them in the long ran. Charlotte is already being excluded and segregated from her siblings and the parents don’t seem to care one iota. Archie is a truly blessed child.
William seems to be sexist also. Charlotte was so excited and she apparently is interested in Science maybe more so than George, but she is pushed aside and only George and Louis are seen with their father looking at the tooth. IT is bad when girls are discouraged from showing interest in science because Dad thinks it is for males only.
I found something odd about Lacey. He was on Larry King and he got flack from the callers in for saying it was a “good thing” DIana died young, she’d have just gone down hill anyway. So vile.
That is disgusting. I’m sick of these misogynistic British pig men and their inferior opinions when they were never asked. So enjoy your 15 minutes pig because it won’t be long until you are thrown back in the pen.
From what I’m learning of British white male standards (for my generation and up) that means Diana would have become even more influential, independent and powerful than she already had, and put Charles and Petty Betty even further in her shadow. And we can’t have a woman be successful unless we can credit an antiquated institution for propping her up in her role.
Yes, the fourking (fucking) photos on her desk at Christmas of her father, Charles, William and George served to put the sussexes in their place and remind them the future of the monarchy did not lie with them. Include with that, the monarch and 3 heirs photo and the baking pudding photo op.
the queen and Charles were fully on board with every smear that was happening.
So in light of all that, what happened at the Commonwealth service? The Cambridges were told no and Kate couldn’t handle it? What made the Queen and Charles finally say no? The optics of the final engagement?
Or was Kate still salty about Sussexit being announced around her birthday? (She had engagements for Harry and Meghan’s birthdays. I guess she wanted to skip those Zoom calls)
Good question. To be honest, with these excerpts, it sounds like the Queen was really unhappy with Harry so why would she “give in” and tell the Cambridges they weren’t part of the procession at the last minute? (if we go with the story that Harry was ticked about not being told he was excluded from it, and went to the queen over it.) Maybe someone else stepped in and said how bad it would look if the Sussexes weren’t part of it but the Cambridges were?
Becks – So no one has addressed in their books the commonwealth service and what really went down that set the couples off. We have no in depth idea. What we DO know is that the cambridges were supposed to be on the programme to walk in with the senior royals and the sussexes weren’t. that is the critical part. petty and chuck didn’t originally want the sussexes to walk in with them but somehow at the last minute it was changed to demote the cambridges rather than, say, to placate the sussexes. could have been a BP or CH official who read the room with the rousing farewells and appearances the Sussexes were getting on their return and the palaces decided it was going to blow back on them to publicly pick them out for demotion whilst they were still working members of the family, could have been some news of william’s bad behavior got to granny/pa who decided to punish him. he conveniently was in Ireland when his brother arrived and kept too busy to meet when the sussexes arrived, who knows. because we don’t know for sure, I feel safe saying it was a BP/CH decision to put Willie in his place. when BP and CH operate they are usually more stealthy and effective compared with KP, where willileaks leaves his fingerprints everywhere.
Lacey is peddling the Cain made the decision to not walk at the last minute in order to make the Sussexes feel better BS.
@RoyalBlue – at the time I thought it was what you are saying, that it was a decision from BP/CH to put William in his place. Part of me wonders if Harry brought receipts re: the leaking from KP (maybe had proof that William leaked the plan for them to step down to Dan Wootton) and William was publicly slapped down as a result.
I think William may want people to think it was his idea, but no way that’s true, Kate’s face at the service made it clear it wasn’t their choice.
Kate looked like a sour faced bitch at the commonwealth service so there’s no way it was William who decided not to walk in the procession. Charles likely told them to.
Whatever happened on the day or with the procession, my bet is Kate was already pissed because: 1) the Ireland tour that the Cambridges set up hoping to both avoid the Sussexes and divert attention from them, was a dud; and 2) Meghan ditched the previous muted clothing palette and came back in fabulous outfits in vibrant color, looking like a million bucks. Remember the worldwide attention that picture of Harry and Meghan under the umbrella got, then Kate being papped going out book shopping in a bright blue outfit right after?
She probably figured she could at least lord it over Meghan by walking in the CW day procession, and when that was taken away…
Also there was a family photo of the Cambridges with Charlotte and Louis included. Two spares, yet she could not include Archie as well.
That’s still focusing on the heir line and his children, whereas Harry and Archie are not part of the main heir line.
Nota I agree with you, but if we ever see photos of Eugenie’s baby on that table then it’s going to look even worse.
Those pictures absolutely sent a message, as did the pictures on the Queen’s desk for the Christmas message in December 2019 – she had a big picture of the Cambridge family but none of the Sussexes. If it was just about “the heirs,” then a picture of William and George would have been better or a picture of the Cambridge kids without Kate there. And someone said during Sussexit (Tom Bradby?) that the message of a slimmed down monarchy without the Sussexes was received loud and clear.
I would be more impressed by Liz if she put pictures of all the children and mentioned them all. Isn’t Christmas supposed to be about love, family, inclusion?
Becks1, the slimline always included Harry and Spouse. I think Charles still wants Harry and Meghan as part of his working team. Trouble is, they didn’t count on Harry and Spouse continuing to outshine the Heir-to-Heir and Spouse. Meghan came in, showed them all up easily, and W&K freaked. It was that freakout, and whatever threats William made, that was the root cause of Harry and Meghan being out.
yeah, Charles wanted H&M as working royals, but not as the superstars of the royal family. I feel like the pictures were very much a “know your place” kind of message.
It’s so obvious now that the leaks were coming from family members themselves while other family members did nothing as they have their own skeletons to hide. The lawsuit gave receipts and its those receipts that are having them all (and the press) bricking it – we’ve already seen them being dropped against Christian Jones. Who is next???
Also, let’s not let go that over the weekend their was a piece in the Fail that Kate sic’d her lawyers on the Fail about the ‘freebie’ jewellery from that Irish designer.
Robert Lacey claims to exhaustively document the brothers’ difficulties but his failing to mention Prince William’s affair with R Hanbury means the story is fundamentally incomplete.
Rose Hanbury & Prince William not being addressed is a giant hole in the center of the story.
Rose Hanbury has nothing to do with Harry.
Except that they used M&H as fodder in the tabloids to cover for the wandering royal ween.
They’ll continue to cover up the failed W&K marriage, William repeat affairs, all of it. Because heir vs. spare. William had to have something to throw the RRs, to keep them from revealing what they know. Now that William’s sources re. Harry and Meghan have dried up, he is afraid of what the RRs will start to publish about him.
I hadn’t taken the “monarch and 3 heirs” photo as a swipe – I saw it as basically just that – the Queen & the next three.. perhaps I was wrong given the context and other comments. I was suspicious of the lack of photos at Christmas. Hadn’t caught the not mentioning Archie by name, which is really…childish to vent on a baby.
The comment about them not liking Meghan & Harry’s progressive views I figured but it was still disappointing to read. As if equal rights for women, people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, the differently abled is a bad thing. Trying to claim that the majority of Brits don’t agree is a circular and cowardly argument – “oh, our base is racist, sexist and homophobic and we want to continue to be classist and live off them so we will use pejorative terms to downgrade progressive views to further our own ends.” Abolish the monarchy!
However, Charlotte and Louis were also included in the photographs during that address.
Oh I agree about the address and the lack of photos of the Sussexes there. I’m saying the photo of the Queen and three heirs – on its own – didn’t strike me as a big deal. They’re the heirs. Anne, Edward, etc weren’t in the photo either. No reason for Harry to be in that photo.
Tessa, the two younger kids are also part of the main line. That’s why including them isn’t a huge snub. Harry’s children were never going to be working royals, no matter whom he married.
I see the as spares. Charlotte was not allowed in the “dynasty” photos even the video of the making pudding. It was made clear she was not in the direct line. ANd then George as the heir was the only one of the three to get a present the other day. Louis may not be given royal work nor even Charlotte, down the road. Louis may be directed to a military career.
They’re spares, but they’re still in the main line, while Harry and his child(ren) are not. That’s a difference worth pointing out.
By not having photos of the Sussex’s and not mentioning Archie by name she was throwing a shot over the bow. You want privacy? Don’t want to play with the RR? Don’t want to parade your baby around? Fine. I’m writing you out of Christmas in accordance with your wishes.
I agree with nota and others who say the photo was more the direct heirs and their immediate family. With the Cambridge kids Harry isn’t direct anymore. That said, and I mentioned this above, if Eugenie’s baby shows up on the table, all bets are off and it was a Petty Betty moment.
So I do think the smear campaign was designed to get Meghan to leave and only reason the Firm is angry is that Harry went too which they don’t seem to have anticipated. Maybe wasn’t smart for William to have allegedly ‘washed his hands of Harry’ around the time of the office split as Richard Palmer claimed& stopped talking to him if their plan was for Harry to stay& support him. Why would he if people in the Firm didn’t seem to support or talk to him even if not a fan of his wife? They aren’t very smart.
Again Lacey acts like Archie was hidden which is press BS because they didn’t get to make money off his image & pick apart his features. George was seen officially at birth, christening and not again until Australia tour when he was 6 months old. Archie was shown at birth, christening, in a Father’s Day photo on insta and at 4 months in South Africa.
That line suggesting she was acting in the Southern Africa tour documentary clip where she looks to be fighting back tears was something Piers Morgan said. A few commentators said on Fridays post on this book that Lacey didn’t seem to see her as human and feel like this shows in his depiction.
The Queen & other royals definitely do not keep a stiff upper lip about the press. Does anyone remember when there was BBC BTS footage of Queen leaving a Annie lebowitz photoshoot in what looked like a huff and the BBC had to apologise as it was misleading?
https://www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-28442120070712
But no complain no explain right.
And to suggest this coming off the back of Tatler having to remove paragraphs of the Kate the Great article that may not have been defamatory etc but just to keep the peace with the royal family. Ridiculous.
Nothing in Harry’s life has suggested he’s desperate to be a traditional royal – he strayed from Will’s path many many times through his choice of military college and service, Invictus games, exploring the arctic circle, women he dated, speaking about mental health issues, etc. They liked him when he was the happy 3rd wheel to Will and Kate but the second he got serious about anyone (and even I think he rushed into Meghan a bit fast) they tried to bring him to heel.
Thinking that Meghan’s issue was “too woke” is a sad commentary on BRF and UK in general. The rest of the world is wrestling with civil rights and they’re like “whoa, too early!”
You can’t have is it your way all of the time and NOT expect Harry to be hurt and angered by his family and expect him to take it on the chin as he has been forced to do so in the past and expect him to bow down. The Firm, especially his own brother, worked tirelessly to continue and encourage the smear and hate campaign against Meghan. Their proven history of pettiness, hatred and racism placed his family in jeopardy, Harry chose his wife and child over The Firm. We should all applaud Harry for leaving his abusive family in the past and moving forward to his future with his incredible wife and son!
What I take away from all these excerpts is that ALL 3 namely, Petty Betty, Charles and William all agreed and worked together and collaborated on the smear campaign in efforts to run off the black woman and her black child, ALL of them were in agreement that Meghan had to go. They just never anticipated Harry leaving with his black wife and child. There is no doubt any longer in my mind that Charles or the queen liked Meghan, they never did. And their love for Harry is in question, in my opinion at least, because they never wanted Harry to become anything other than William’s lesser than a person spare. Harry was very smart, he saw how he had been abused and knew if he didn’t remove his family from these people’s claws, what was awaiting him, his wife and child was abuse and cruelty for the rest of their days. He chose to save himself and his family and I have a lot of respect for that man.
Maybe she should’ve stayed with tradition and decapitated the whole lot.
Are these actual excerpts from the book? It sounds like all Lacey has done is gather all the Royal Rota and courtiers nonsense and regurgitated a bunch of tabloid fiction. I guess cause he’s a “legitimate Royal historian” this book will be held in higher regard and considered more fact based and truthful. But it smacks of racist, classist, sexist garbage against the married in woman of color. Wonder who put him up to get the palaces side of the story out.
I’m wondering that too. If this is what is actually in the book, then it seems the book is just breathing new life into the smear campaign.
Yeah it does read like he’s scored the royal blogs to get his ‘scoops’, saying that he does have sources within the RF – he has written biographies of members of the family (current and previous). PLUS he’s well connected with the aristo’s.
I said this upthread too. I think this might be the palace wanting their own version of Finding Freedom
This makes the royals look terrible though. If this was their version of Finding Freedom it has blown up in their face (once again). I think this should have been called “The Revenge of Christopher Geidt”. I wonder if the royals will complain ala Tatler?
I mean does it really? It says “yeah they’re really whiny and angry” but then it also justifies said behaviour by saying the Sussexes are incredibly difficult to handle, annoying, are whiny, have overhyped their own importance and don’t follow the rules.
It’s not working, I agree but he’s still doing it.
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Agree. It sounds like a book written with all the complaints from the Royal Rota. They have not gotten over being pushed away form Archie’s birth , and his Christening. According to them, this is way the UK turned on Meghan. What they always forget to mention is the abuse they put her through until she gave birth. They don’t seem to see the connection between their smear campaign that resulted to the Sussexes shutting down access to their life.
Every revelation makes the house of Windsor look more awful. I don’t know what this book is expected to do, beyond exposing the British royals for the horrible people they are. I wonder if Robert Lacey understands that this is not a defense of the monarchy, it is a take-down of epic proportions.
That was my thought. This makes the royals look racist af. Not that they care but dang….
And what is funnier is that they don’t realise, which honestly just shows how racist they are. Omids book was the most complimentary thing that could happen to them
For a family who takes pride in adjusting to ‘survive’ they really messed this up. They don’t like Megan, but she worked her ass off, and the only people (besides the rabid press) who can’t get along with her is the BRF and her crazy father. They made it bad for her to stick around and when they left, and are living their lives, their still mad. So which is it? This girl had no choice to keep some of her contacts because the courtiers couldn’t be trusted/professional enough to actually do their jobs. At the end of the day, it’s the BRF that come off looking petty, unprofessional and racist. It’s a shame, because it could have been really good, but they just couldn’t get out of their own way.
“She still had her agent, attorney and accountant — to field calls relating to the professional side of her life.”
Smart girl! She even had the folks who made the Tig still around as they put together the Sussex Royal website. Meghan didn’t give up the things that counted (her US citizenship, her team Pre-Harry, her friends, etc).
I think the photos at Christmas was a message. I mean the general public picked up on it so I’m sure Harry did too. He got the message as we all did and acted accordingly. Be careful what you wish for.
She needs to file taxes every year because she is a US citizen, so she would definitely need an American lawyer and accountant to deal with that. No one in the UK would be qualified to handle it and it can be quite complex considering her royalties from Suits.
I checked out Daily Mail to look at reports about Lacey and I noticed now Junor is blaming Diana because Harry got her ‘impulsiveness” so he wants to protect Meghan and Archie. How awful is that
William is the one who got Diana’s worst qualities, not Harry.
William got the worst qualities of both his parents, and managed to surpass them all by himself. I wonder if that is why he was protected by the royals from the media. Now they can’t hide it. And William is showing his true colors. Wharfe wrote William was sneaky as a child.
If Harry was impulsive to protect his family, I would call that sort of impulsiveness a great virtue.
That’s who it was! Thank you- I was trying to remember who said William was a sneaky child.
Charles’ friend Junor is blaming Diana for it. No surprises there. Kate better watch her back if she ever falls out of favor with William.
Junor was the first one I heard calling Diana “mentally ill”. She will probably do the same to Harry.
William already did the gaslighting of his brother calling him “fragile.”
They can take all the heir photos they wish. I truly believe that the queen will be the last to reign on the British throne. They just don’t know it yet. If by some luck charles becomes king, it will be an extremely short reign. I still don’t see charles reigning…ever. There is zero possibility that the others will reign (unless Charles dies prematurely…in the next year or so). There is one factor that none of these people are taking into account.
Planet earth will not survive if humans remain in charge……from the destruction of our plant (which cannot be reversed by humans because of greed)…..mass poverty everywhere ….. corruption …. sicknesses. The rightful ruler of all the earth WILL take control. The house of Windsor should be more concerned about surviving what lies ahead.
I don’t know about the UK wising up but I wonder if a lot of those in the commonwealth will want their own head of state after her death.
This citizen of a Commonwealth country – Australia – has wanted our own head of state for some time. Betty Windsor has long passed her use-by date IMO and the more I find out about her and her dysfunctional family, the less I even like her. I strongly dislike the fact that my country’s head of state is a hereditary position, and I was not pleased with those four generations of sovereigns photos. I still quite like Charles, but his elder son is a nasty piece of work and we can do much better than him with one of our own. We don’t need a foreigner as our head of state, especially not one who will only hold the position because of accident of birth.
Mother nature has been drawing up eviction papers for some time.
They also show that they don’t see Meghan and Archie as “worth protecting.” Think of how AWFUL it will look if Harry did leave his wife and childe and crawl back to be the 3rd wheel for William and Kate. There would be celebrations in the tabloids. Celebrations. For breaking up a family. No one over there in Royal Crackland is thinking any of this though. No one is thinking of the short or long term implications for themselves. The rota’s biggest shock is that Harry, gasp, actually loves his “showgirl wife”? There have been things said by both the reporters and likely his family that are completely unforgivable. It may soon be time for the Sussexes to go No Contact if they haven’t already. The Royals have nothing that they need. It would be criminal to subject their child to this dysfunction. And if the RF are angry about the Sussexes anti-racist stance, then, well, we all see that.
I often say that the WOC who follow Meghan aren’t in it for the Disney fantasy–we all wanted to see how a POC would be accepted into the RF–the answer is NOPE! NOPE! NOPE! They should have told Harry he couldn’t marry her, let him leave the RF, and dealt with the consequences. Yes, they would have been called racist, but hey, they ARE racist!! Claiming to accept her, then trying to chase her out is utter cowardice. And they have only shouted their racism louder to the world. Racists of the world, stand up and announce yourselves already!! Why hide it? let all of the rest of us know where you stand. As we see, there are still plenty of people who will still accept you.
Typical behavior of abusers: “GTFO- how dare you leave!”
This is how families break apart when the (grand)parents are passive aggressive. Some stay and say how dare you leave the abuse, some come to realize the game and have the self worth to opt out.
I don’t think the picture of the heirs was concerning. I think it was the Christmas speech where the queen removed all pictures of the Sussex’s and didn’t mention their names. How pathetic.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
It makes sense that Megan still had some of her “Hollywood connections.” There are still business affairs to handle even after she left her career – residuals, image rights (from her career), and all the other various contractual issues that come up from a long running TV show that is syndicated. Not to mention the Firm had proven it could not be trusted, and she needed advocates on her side.
I wonder if this was the start of BRF deciding they wouldn’t protect Meghan. She may have been requested to turn everything over to the BRF hands, including her “Hollywood connections” (agents, managers, people who handle that stuff and know what they’re doing) and she said thanks but no thanks. Knowing from the very start she wouldn’t place all that she is under their control to do with as they wanted must have put them in a huff.
No British accountant would even be able to handle her US taxes. These courtiers are so dumb they don’t understand there is a world outside of the royal bubble. One where people pay taxes and don’t take from the taxpayer.
“These courtiers are so dumb they don’t understand there is a world outside of the royal bubble.”
I feel like this one sentence describes the root cause of the BRF’s mismanagement of their dealings with and treatment of the Sussexes.
I think that line of succession photo is probably something that they were overdue in needing to create for the historical record. It kind of makes sense for that purpose. And left there, it would have been fine.
The fact they had the photo heavily publicized as well as had the other photo ops turned up to full blast all at the same time that things with Harry were building to a head, shows each one of the adults is a special kind of petty. Charles is beyond disappointing. He’s learned absolutely nothing from the messes he’s made in his life. What a bunch of emotionally stunted morons.
I agree, I’m most disappointed in Charles. Of all of them I thought he was the one most likely to understand the bigger picture here. And maybe he does. But knowledge alone without the courage to act is just as useless.
When l think of all the goodwill Charles garnered when he walked Meghan down the aisle at her wedding and escorted Doria to the chancery for their signatures, l just shake my head at the waste of it. I really thought that he would have been a staunch and understanding ally to Harry and Meghan. But this dysfunctional firm is indeed the priority.
Charles wants to be king more than he loves his children and grandchildren. He would sell his soul to be king and so he will sneak around and do whatever he has to do to ensure it happens. These people are so repugnant and makes me rage because in the end they win no matter what because they rule in a world where their subjects are condition to overlook all their repugnance. People keep saying that British citizens don’t care about he royals, that’s not what I see. Instead I see a people who it’s part of their identity to have them and just take it all for granted, it’s not the same as not caring. They care, or they would have gotten rid of them when the world changed a ways back. The royals are part of British identity and the Brits ignore all the horrible things these people are about to retain that identity.
No, no, BnLurkN- don’t look at it as winning. They always *lose*- they carry their prisons around in their own heads and will never escape. Sit back with me and enjoy watching what’s left of their precious empire fall away piece by piece.
If this book is supposed to be the BRF’s answer to Finding Freedom, it is pathetic. Lacey will get his 15 minutes of fame but no more – the book will be a flop. As for the “battle of the brothers” all I see is a Meghan bashing, Royal Rota talking points so nothing new will be revealed in this book.
Abolish the monarchy! Fed up with these nitwits and their foolishness!
There are so many legitimate complaints to be made, but this seems rather grasping. The royal family in my (much more socially progressive and egalitarian) country has done the exact same thing, and I don’t think anyone thought for a second that it was a slight against the other siblings. Including Harry just wouldn’t have made sense, so yeah let’s find other things to take issue with.
Contextualization is the difference.
Exactly. In and of itself the photo is a non-issue.
Sounds like Harry was ghosted by William. Hmmmm interesting.
Lucky Harry will never have to dress his son Archie in that terrible outfit George is wearing. Someday, George will destroy all photos of himself in those clothes.
That is an incredible photo. Three Kings and a Queen. Wow. I really do wonder: How long will this monarchy stand? And not just this one.
I recently learned there are 29 monarchies still in existence around the world. TWENTY-NINE, including the BRF. Does anyone else find this strange? A reminder that Monarchism and the absolute rule of kings are far longer-lived institutions than our baby Democracy. I have to wonder if the royal families of the world are all hoping to retake their thrones and power one day?
Meanwhile, the fact is once William produced multiple offspring, Harry got bumped way down in the “Spare” lineup. Hence I don’t see this photo as any kind of a message to him. It’s just how things work in Heir World. These are the future rulers. Harry has always known his destiny was to be bumped, and Charlotte & Louis will be taught the same. It’s simply the monarchy game, played by the rules.
sometimes the eldest children do not get to be monarchs and sometimes the throne is not inherited through the eldest child’s line. Abdication for instance. If George has no heirs, then it will go to Charlotte. George IV’s had no survivors when his daughter died, So his brother got the throne, then his niece. One never knows.
I don’t think the pictures were a direct message to Harry, kind of. But that Harry saw those pictures and had an awakening. Or rather the final straw. It’s tough being a 30 something and not having the freedom like normal people. Once he finally realised fishbowl life with his wife and son has all to do with making these petty people look good, he stepped out and said no thank you. Once you have a child, you put up with less BS.
That being said, I do think whoever that decorates the tables and writes the speeches did it intentionally to slight Harry and Meghan.
I think Harry was working on the exit plan well before that photo so I don’t see it as that important to what has gone on here.
This! Charles, William and George are the heirs after the Queen dies, period. Harry knows that he is sixth in line and will fall further down the road once the Cambridge kids marry and have children. If not for the nastiness from the British media and jealousy from with the Royal family, I suspect H&M would still be living in the UK and working as Senior Royals.
Exactly!
Then why won’t they let H/M live their lives without sending their dogs out to attack them constantly. From the smear campaign that was designed to drive them out, you would think these people would be happy with this result, but it’s a neverending constant attack still, what the heck do they want.
My heart breaks for all the lost potential and capacity for good works, just tossed aside. Big loser is UK. Two very charismatic and energetic people attempting to start a new life are kicked on their way out the door. Who treats family like this?
Who treats family like this?! Hello! The Royal family did the same thing to Diana! No one can be more popular than the Queen, Charles and William and we all know how things turned out for Margaret, Diana and Fergie.
“..William’s desire for rose bushes.”
Oh, what you did there!
Sometimes, it’s not about what you say but how you say it. For example, I don’t think anything is or was inherently wrong with the photo of all the heirs together. However, if background talks were hostile and accusatory and about a forced diminished role for H/M versus H/M initiating talks to voluntarily diminish their role, then the photograph (albeit routine PR) would have spoken emotional volumes on a different wavelength and frequency to Harry–if not Meghan.
On a side note: William and Kate were allowed to just flounder for too long. As the heir apparent, he should have already had his “territory” of PR and causes he supports long staked out. Instead, by being allowed to take a slow boat to no where, he and Kate were competing head to head with Harry and Meghan. Also, the BRF simply anticipated another Sophie, at best, or Kate at worse. Meghan was completely unexpected and therefore a game changer for them all. Arguably, I think, the BRF’s game had gotten stale. They needed change.
They did harry a favour with this stunt. I doubt he is as insecure as billy about rank and theatrics. I feel bad for charlotte and louise who are already being singled out and how George is being treated differently than the others. The toxicity will continue and I bet the firm will also use the kids to improve the heirs image
Ugh, poor George. He’s such a darling little kid. He has grown out of that twee toddler look. He’s SEVEN. Please Kate. Please stop with Peter Pan collars and golfing trousers. I’m not saying dress him for a photo shoot in gym shorts and sneakers, but there’s definitely a middle ground.
I think the UK press and palace courtiers place so much emphasis on that picture because they WANT it to be message to Harry.
There was no reason for Harry to be in the picture, just like they didn’t include Charlotte or Louis. Both of them are above Harry in the line of succession.
Why exactly would Harry be “upset” when the two above him weren’t there? The UK tabloid press wanted this to be a snub, so they creative the furore and then gleefully reported it.
Nitpick here. Charles will be Charles IV. Charles III was fascinating ; a suspected Catholic monarch whose father was beheaded, lived in exile until he was restored to the throne and had a dozen or so bastards with no legitimate heirs.
That is Charles II. There have been no other monarchs called Charles since him.