Today is Day 2 of the Duchess of Sussex’s hearing for summary judgement for her lawsuit against the Mail/Mail on Sunday. Again, the crux of the lawsuit is a simple copyright issue: the Mail had no right to publish parts of Meghan’s handwritten letter to her father. The Mail has continued to smear Meghan at every turn, and they’ve used this lawsuit to go on a massive fishing expedition for more dirt and half-truths which they can then conflate and turn into more junk stories. Honestly, though, as soon as you guys start sending me links to witness statements and trial transcripts, I tap out. I realize that there’s a lot of royal-insider dirt and blind items in there, but I’m the same with all court cases in that I don’t care *that* much to play-act a keen lawyer.
There is one thing which seemingly came out of Day 1 of Meghan’s hearing: the fact that if the case goes to trial, several current and former Kensington Palace staffers will have to testify. Jason Knauf, Christian Jones and other KP staffers will have to talk about whether they “helped” Meghan write the letter to her father, or whether they simply advised her about writing it in a general sense. They would also open themselves up to cross-examination about who they leaked information to, etc. So… speaking of, many people are reading A LOT into the fact that Prince William’s private secretary is suddenly stepping down just hours after Day 1 of Meghan’s hearing.
The Duke of Cambridge is set to lose a second key aide in a year. Christian Jones, who replaced Simon Case as William’s private secretary last March after he was poached by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is leaving the royal household to join the private equity group Bridgepoint as a partner.
The 31-year-old, who was previously William and Kate’s communications secretary, will head up corporate affairs for the £18 billion company. It is understood he will remain an advisor to the royal couple, whom he is credited with protecting from the fallout from “Megxit”, helping them to maintain a visible presence throughout the coronavirus crisis.
A royal source said: “Whereas Simon was credited with making the Duke a statesman, Christian has really helped steer them through their public-facing roles during the pandemic. He’s helped them grow into confidence by gently pushing them out of their comfort zone.”
Jones is being embiggened as the person who steered William and Kate through their self-made “crisis” of… bullying Harry and Meghan out of the country, and Christian is credited with gently nuzzling these poor, delicate keen flowers to go out into the world and breathe on people during the Covid Choo Choo Tour. Christian was also the very same person who got caught leaking all kinds of anti-Sussex sh-t to Dan Wootton at the Sun through an intermediary. The intermediary? Christian’s partner/lover Callum Stephens. Christian told all of his keen secrets to his lover and Callum “sold” them to Dan Wootton, who ran them as Sun exclusives. Christian Jones is clearly compromised in a lot of different ways. Massively suspicious timing too, not just with Meghan’s hearing, but also… Charles just let go of his private secretary/PR guru as well.
So what *is* this all about? I would suspect that Christian Jones did more damage to his career with the Dan Wootton leaks and the simply horrendous advice to Will and Kate during the pandemic. The fact that he used his position as then-communications director at Kensington Palace to advise Meghan on her letter to her father (and leak the details to reporters) just seems kind of… normal, and not as scandalous as the other stuff. Also, it feels like Kensington Palace and Clarence House are doing some big housecleaning and possibly bringing in some new, fresh voices.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
I wonder if they are worried about what will come out during the trial and want to clean house while they can (so then KP can say “Christian’s actions were unfortunate but he is no longer employed here.”)
I do expect lots of stories about how the Keens can’t keep staff, considering Jones has only been in that position since March.
This is starting to feel like a housecleaning at the palates, wonder if the theory that they will all be combined under BP sooner rather than later is true.
And come on, we all laughed at the “statesman” comment, didn’t we?
Yes, yes we did!
If he signed an NDA then his actions would be more than just “unfortunate”, wouldn’t they? Aren’t there penalties for breaking such a contract? Otherwise, what’s the point of them.
That would be the sticking point, wouldn’t it? If Jones was leaking with the approval of William (which presumably would not violate the NDA) then that is something that KP would not want to come out. And even if Jones wasn’t there when the letter was written – the MoS is going way beyond the letter in their defense so I think a lot could come out and I think the RF is going to make some moves soon to end this suit.
The issue though is – how? Yes the royal family can apply pressure, but I would imagine there’s usually an element of quid pro quo involved. Here, what can the royal family give? Pictures of the Cambridge kids aren’t the huge draws they used to be. No one cares about an interview with Kate or William. It may be that the royals have overplayed their hand here and as a result, a lot of dirt is about to come out.
The fact that Jones was not asked to leave within days after the Leak story came out confirms that William approved his actions. When your bf is speaking to the press about your employer and getting paid for it that is a violation and warrants dismissal for most employers. It was not an accidental disclosure of information through carelessness. It was intentional. And of course now he’s been found a decent position despite helping organize one of the most disastrous and infectious tours ever. They fear what he might have to reveal under cross examination.
I think Christian Jones , KP and Willie are in a lose/lose situation of their own making, they are basically in a Mexican stand off and as soon as one shoots, they all go down. KP will never admit to authorising Jones to leak the dan wootton , it would make sense to publicly penalise him for breaching their code of conduct. I imagine jones has done a hell of a lot of dirty work for Willie and Kate that he could use at any time. I think he’s been loyal to them to the extreme, but you can’t side with dishonourable people and not expect them turn on you too. He will have to take the fall where he can, and I’m sure he’s been compensated for it. Jones leaving announcement is written very softly and KP are treading carefully not to piss him off.
Christian Jone’s new job is as a partner in a private equity group named Bridgepoint. Who knew the path to a lucrative partnership in financing was through being a communications secretary? Someone made a phone call.
One of the the royal reporters tweeted, upon hearing the news, that it looked like a clear out and then he quickly deleted his comment. I think that the fallout from leaking to the Sun that Harry and Meghan was going to leave made Christian Jones’ position at KP untenable. I think he got permission to leak the information but William didn’t like the result of them leaking it which was Harry and Meghan announcing that they were leaving the family. William wanted Meghan out of the family, he didn’t want Harry to leave. So Christian Jones has been made the fall guy. I didn’t think that Charles’ PR guy leaving had anything to do with Harry and Meghan but maybe it did because Clarence House had a part to play in the smear campaign against Harry and Meghan and again it caused Harry to leave the family.
Don’t expect the media to say anything about William and Kate’s inability to keep staff. Someone on twitter pointed out that KP has lost all their most senior staff in the span of 2 years.
Charles’s now former PR guy was seen liking ridiculous anti-Meghan posts on Twitter, so I think there’s something there.
My view was that Charles didn’t not have a problem with Payne liking anti-Meghan tweets. But now I’m thinking that although Charles sanctioned Clarence House’s participation in the smear campaign they didn’t want Harry to leave with Meghan so Payne has to fall on his sword for losing Harry.
my gut feeling has always been that Charles’ “support of Meghan” was just that—in air quotes. Self-serving because she was the hot new one everyone loved. Maybe it’s fallout from the Diana days (I am a slight Dianaloonie), but I see Charles as a self-serving bandwagon jumper. He’s the guy that will wear team gear the year they win the Super Bowl but drop them the next year.
@Susan. I agree with you. He used Meghan for his own image and her and Harry’s popularity became a problem for him.
It was Chris Ship, who said it looked like a “clean out” at both CH and KP. Then he deleted that line. Of more importance, the MOS said they met with a senior member of the royal household. And, that this palace contact knows the importance of this case to the MOS. But Meghan is a bad daughter, y’all! Bonkers.
The funny thing about the situation is the press accused Meghan of not taking advice from the Palace regarding her father. Turns out she was and look where it got her. The Palace threw her under the bus.
They’re even using Meghan consulting the advisers as part of their defense that she had no reasonable expectation of privacy.
Chris Ship followed up his cleaned up tweet with another tweet praising both Case and Payne. Yup, someone made a phone call.
MOS is trying to establish that Meghan wrote the letter knowing that its contents would be public one day. This does not affect her copyright claim, because the letter is still her work no matter who sees it or who she speaks to about it. I don’t think Jason Knauf understands copyright.
These journalists love to conjecture about what Harry and Meghan may be saying, who they are telling people to vote for etc. but now they suddenly delete their tweets? I know some of them don’t like to think of themselves as racist, but if you cannot bring yourself to treat a white person they way you have so gleefully treated a person of colour, then you’re clearly a racist.
Some in the press are now saying the situation between Meghan and her father is sad. There was no sympathy for Meghan before yesterday and there’s absolutely no recognition from the press that they contributed to this mess.
I noticed yesterday that many in the press chose the angle of what Thomas said when they reported on the day’s proceeding. Today many are choosing the angle of the palace four. It’s like they don’t even see Meghan as human. I didn’t see any report on what Meghan’s lawyer said about Dailymail/MoS. You can see that for many of them, this story isn’t interesting because of a privacy/copyright issue, it’s because of the juicy/gossipy details that come out of it.
Chris Ship went over and above the mess about private jets. Elton John provided private jet travel to his home in Nice, France. He also made a donation to offset carbon footprint. Now it is well known that Prince Charles USUALLY only uses private jet travel. He hates flying commercial. Nevertheless Chris Ship sought out and featured an expert to calculate to the last liter, the effect of Harry & Meghan’s private jet travel.
It is so disgusting. Not only was there clear bias in the way Meghan was treated compared to Kate regarding touching her belly, eating avocadoes, wedding flower choices – she was also subjected to similar double standards about traveling in private jet.
H&M left the Firm, not the Family.
Exactly! If the Sussexes staff leave their positions for any reasons, it is negative headlines all round.
I hope in a tell all book.
That’s all I have.
After getting burned in the past, the RF apparently have very strict NDAs. Also, so long as he keeps his mouth shut, he can probably get an equivalent (much better paying) job elsewhere.
Well, well. What interesting timing. Its classic move by the Royals. I bet you the Leaks were sanctioned and approved by the higher ups and now that it might come out, the lackeys need to fall on their sword.
A senior courtier supplied the DM with information about the case three months ago. People were questioning how Thomas Markle could work with the DM against his own daughter? Well, turns out Harry’s family is the same. I think the royals were blindsided that the DM outed them and that’s why we got Christian Jones’ departure the very same day.
The copyright violation is open and shut. The rest stems from Meghan saying her privacy was violated. It was obviously but the DM gets to mount a defense and has used Scobie and the book and Thomas, and the palace aides to make as much trouble as possible.
Turns out it’s not even a courtier, but A ROYAL. A senio royal aided the mail against Meghan.
I think senior member of a royal household means a courtier, not a member of the family.
I’m hoping if everything isn’t wrapped up today, we get the name of this source.
Would love to know who the Senior Royal is!
I hope William ends up wearing this entire thing around his neck, Kate too. They wanted to bully and malign so bad, now they can face the music.
May Harry, Meghan & Archie never step foot on UK soil again for this horrendous family.
I cannot believe it’s not a bigger story that some senior member in the royal household briefed the mail like 3 months ago to help them with the case against Meghan????
They must be getting something big in return to sit on top of a scandal this big.
Exactly. The palace claims that Meghan should drop the lawsuit to protect the family, but then we here that a palace source is giving evidence to the mail three months ago. The palace source is helping to aid the DM in prolonging the case and drawing it out. It seems the palace should be talking to their own people to shut this down. Their palace sources are dragging the case along, not Meghan. She just wants this wrapped up.
Of COURSE they want it dragged out. The longer they have THIS to write about, the less they will write about the BRF. It was in the BRF’s INTEREST to drag this out for as long as they could.
Christian Jones wasn’t at KP when Meghan’s letter was sent. Only Jason Knauf or Samantha Cohen of the staff who are potentially going to give evidence on the case, would have been there when the letter was written.
Does seem a big coincidence that news emerges of senior royal source giving Fail editor info for the case, that we hear of these comms guys moving on. Seems like Jones could be a fall guy like the one who took the fall for the queen with the Thatcher comments. But given a cushy job to keep him sweet.
I do suspect on this mess alone, the Firm will be consolidating the households.
I was wondering about the timeline a bit but I really don’t have the time to check. Sara was there later, right? Somehow I cannot see Samantha Cohen saying anything negative about them but why do these people all have the same lawyers? Are they coordinating their testimonies?
I saw the trailer for his Discovery+ movie/documentary last night…barf. Every time you see a shot of him gazing up to the heavens as if actually pondering all the ways that he can save the world, take a shot.
@jbyrdku
Lmao! I love that you came up with a drinking game to make the documentary easier to watch (probably the only way to watch, if we’re being honest). Ugh, this guy
The fact that the three heads of House Windsor can’t work together is a horrible look. Each one undermining the other. None leading. What kinda bs is this?
Elizabeth should’ve abdicated 10 maybe 15 years ago. She’s holding the family back. Almost holding them hostage. Charles isn’t willing to make tough decisions because of how it will look in the media. So his house is divided. And doesn’t have a solid foundation. And his heir is weak and insecure. Willie’s flailing. He can’t decide a path forward. He doesn’t stand for anything and really isn’t a leader. If Charles doesn’t get his house in order, there will be nothing for George.
I feel like we’re missing something here, and I’m not quite convinced that it’s related to Meghan’s case. Though the timing is so suspicious, it has to be intentional. Red herring?
Anyway, I cannot believe some royal courtiers are really willing to testify for The Mail against Meghan. They’ve been cruel, but I didn’t expect betrayal of this magnitude. Like, the MoS would have NO case had this senior royal household figure not given “evidence” directly. I guess harming Meghan is more important than preserving the dignity of the Firm.
Tee – I think you are spot on. This is a diversion and a deflection!
Am I the only one shocked at how bad the BRF PR machine is these days? Maybe I wasn’t paying as close attention in the past, but this place is a sh&*( show. I have friends that worked in low level local PR (certainly not British aristocracy level PR!) and my goodness, they did a better job of managing their clients than these asshats. What is wrong with these people? Between the Meghan/Harry hard drop, the Covid superspreader train tour, Andrew (enough said), I am appalled. Did these people not study PR 101?
As we like to say here – for a family whose whole lives are based on PR, these people are really bad at PR.
F*cking awful. Millions in taxpayer funds for this bullsh*t. As we also say here, if the palace was a company they’d be bankrupt and investigated by now. Unbelievable.
@Susan: Their brand started unraveling (or, rather, started unraveling again) when Charles and Andrew forced Christopher Geidt out in 2017.
I think that’s exactly right: none of them took PR 101. They were chosen for their jobs because their family backgrounds are “correct,” not for any great skill or talent. The RF’s PR flacks may be blue-blooded, or at least blue-blood adjacent, but they’re not exactly what would be called consummate PR professionals.
If I were Meghan, I would so throw every single one of those conniving, deceitful,racist, backstabbers under the bus . I mean I have nothing left to loose . The only reason she probably won’t is because of her love and respect for her husband and his relationship to that family of vipers.
One of the reasons why I have so much respect for harry and Meghan is that they have gone about this the right way. She could have trashed them and leaked all their dirt and done a tell all interview but she didn’t. Going though the courts and going about things the right way has given Meghan so much credibility in all this. And now the chickens have come home to roost. I really admire their strength in all of this because I would have just trashed them straight back and leaked all their dirt.
My thoughts exactly. And while the Sussexes refused to participate in the nonsense, KP predictably tripped over themselves with their ineptitude, playing out enough rope to hang themselves again and again.
Megan and Harry walked away with their heads held high. And the house of Windsor with staff are falling over each other trying to still talk shit about them.
The sad part about this is that is all could have been avoided if only William and Kate were just nice to Meghan. They just couldn’t welcome her into the family and continued with their lives. Same with the courtiers. They created this smear campaign based on what grounds? It didn’t need to happen. I re-watched harrys and meghans wedding where they said their vows, and when harry was saying his, non of his family even looked up. I think Charles might have, but William and Kate had their heads turned away though out, Kate didn’t look up once at them whilst meghans side were smiling. That’s worse than the commonwealth snub.
William, Kate all the courtiers, KP staff and British media deserve to get dragged to hell but I have a feeling they won’t. The best thing we can hope for is that they all start to turn on each other.
I remember that, too, especially how Kate was sour looking throughout the whole wedding. There is probably only one photo of her smiling when she is next to Charlotte. And during the vows, Kate was looking down at the wedding program. I remember being quite surprised at the time, but I didn’t make the connection that something was up yet.
Yes, hopefully they will turn on each other and hopefully the press starts to turn on Will and start posting things about Rose lol
Yep the signs were there even back then, they were just never going to accept Meghan. Back then the only excuse the trolls had to justify theirs and the royals hate towards Meghan was that they didn’t ‘trust her’. So nothing based on her actual actions towards them, just and irrational fear. Now that excuse seems so redundant becauseHarry and Meghan have been together nearly 5 years now and still going strong.
Yes and yes.
Don’t forget they mocked the ceremony from their seats. All caught on tape… shameless.
Kate posing with a bitchy look in the formal wedding photo when she normally does hyena smiles on the drop of a hat was confirmation for me that she had issues. And the practically white dress was more passive aggressive bs from her.
The Cambridges could not be nice because they were consumed with jealousy, and it also pointed to the cracks in their own relationship.
I Believe that William and kate with the help of Courtiers we’re hellbent of getting rid of Meghan at any cost . They leaked gossip and lies To the Royal reporters who loved that they had someone to ruthlessly Bully without any push back for the royal family because William and Kate Wanted Meghan gone . I hope all those courtiers are called to testify and it’s comes out the rotten things they did to Meghan and Harry I think that what the royal family is afraid of they don’t wanted the general public to know what they did because then people might actually side with Meghan and Harry .
When FF came out it was said that the RAF were relieved vector could’ve been a hell of a lot worse. Even Bradby said if people knew the reason why H&M left the public would be on their side.
@ Vanessa, absolutely!! I think that every quote, communication, article, interview and pay-to-play should be put forth for all to see. There are too many sensitive and private matters that have been made public from sources deep within The Firm and company. It would be interesting to see exactly how deceitful, hateful, revolting, envious, and underhanded PWT and Lazy Keen this entire time. The truth will expose them for exactly the type of people they are and how unworthy PWT is to be seated as king.
If the palace aids did help to write the letter, it kind of explains why Meghan sent it. It was such a bonkers strategy that never made sense to me. Obviously someone with a history of betraying her, and being mentally ill, was going to leak a personal letter. You can’t negotiate with a narcissist.
all this, just to get rid of one person. i hope it was worth it willileaks, you are putting the firm through the ringer.
Thomas said he had a Fail reporter in room with him to record a phone call from Meghan so she couldn’t call him. The press wanted a repeat of when they had those squidgygate & tampongate tapes.
Im guessing a physical meeting was a no no as doubt he would get on the plane to them& if Meghan went to him media circus guaranteed as a Fail reporter moved next door to him. so that leaves written communication & to set out to him all her points knowing that Thomas manipulates info- think that explains her long wedding texts to him reminding him of all steps etc.
I think the senior royals who advised her to write the letter were actually trying to be helpful. no doubt the fact that the letter seemed to dispute Thomas’ account, it might have been thought he wouldn’t actually reveal the letter as it proved he was lying about no contact, no support etc & he seemed super concerned about his image.
Given that the KP comms strategy for Meghan seemed to be no comment/ prohibit her from defending herself- I doubt they wanted reveal of a letter confirming that Meghan had in fact contacted her father, which was contrary to the media narrative at the time.
@Myra think Christian Jones joined KP in January 2019 and Sara Latham was hired around March/April 2019. It’s interesting that the Fail claims someone from the palace has specifically been assisting them with info for their defence. The press either have the firm by the balls or they legit hate Meghan.
Ooh definitely feels like a clearing out before sh-t hits the fan. 🤔 Throwing staffers under the bus is a time honoured tradition for the RF, the fact that they’re handling him with kid gloves def implies he knows too much.
As for Charles, I think he wants the credit of being “woke” by walking her down the isle – without any of the work of being a decent human being.
I can’t believe these jerks were getting all that Black girl magic for free. Thank goodness Harry is made like his mom and has a heart. Diana would be thrilled for them, I’m sure. Imagine going from crusty old “men in grey suits” to hiring your own crack team of professional women in California – media capitol of the world. In Hollywood they say you’re as good as your team, and these RF “gold standard advisors” are ANTIQUATED.
This is one treacherous family, my fingers are pointing at Jason Knauf, with the encouragement of William and Kate. They are conniving backstabbers. The letter was leaked to the mail, then, they manipulated Thomas M, to leak it to cover the trail of KP. How is it possible that the royal family will side with a newspaper at the expense of a family member, they are no better than Thomas Markle. The Royal Family, started all this mess even before the marriage. I feel for Harry, because his family does not care for his happiness.
NO ONE’S happiness comes before the crown. That is what is so pathetically sad. No human being comes before the Institution. As long as the “head” is supported. What they don’t consider is if the body crumbles, there IS NO SUPPORT.
And you know, the worst part about all of this is that this is just completely unnecessary. The Queen’s ideas about what constitutes self-sacrifice and duty are so outdated in this day and age. No one wants a figure head that is unfeeling and stoic. That is not what people admire today. No one needs to overshare, but there was a reason why people the world over responded so overwhelmingly to Diana’s public vulnerability.
So much is said about how the RF is so modern, and how capable it is of evolving with the times. But in reality, very little of their ethos has actually changed. And the worst thing, like I said, is that it’s not necessary for them to torture themselves like this at all. But they do it anyway, for no reason other than they can, and will. It’s all so bizarre.
I wonder if this means that the palace believes that the judge will not grant the summary judgment? They would not need to insulate themselves from the alleged leaker if they thought he wouldn’t have to testify.
Or maybe they think she will win and that the papers will release his name in retaliation? I would like to see the royal reporters start taking some swings at the people they’re actually supposed to be covering, rather than the ones they claim are irrelevant.
Ooo interesting. I always wish we knew more about the staffers/behind the scenes!! I would loooooove to hear what Catherine Quinn has to say about Kate….But I wonder if this is more related to the emails that came out last week from people in the Scottish government telling W&K to stay the f home and not do the Covid Choo Choo tour than anything Meghan related.
Catherine Quinn left after barely two years and stated she was leaving to do charitable endeavours. That tells you what she thinks of Kate right there.
Dollar bet the BRF throws Bad Dad under the bus as a distraction or as leverage to Meghan: drop the suit or we’ll destroy him.
No. This time they don’t win.
If only someone in the firm is intelligent enough to talk to meghan and harry.
“I am sorry but you two are too famous and have good work ethic, you two made willie and katie look bad. We have to ask you to leave the firm and the country.”
Meghan and harry will go to the USA and keep their relationship with britain as an ambassador to both countries.
If only the firm had an intelligent leader.
End of a story.
“Christian is credited with gently nuzzling these poor, delicate keen flowers to go out into the world and breathe on people during the Covid Choo Choo Tour.”
I. AM. WHEEZING.
Magnificently put, Kaiser!
“Whereas Simon was credited with making the Duke a statesman”
I really don’t think that KP should go with this line. Simon Case is a Tory party member, a Brexit architect, and BoJo’s personal secretary. Whatever lessons in statesmanship he’s giving to William are basically going to be something along the lines of “the poor can go fuck themselves,” and nothing else.
Also, the fact that Simon Case is a politically aligned individual, and that he was hired by William, is something that is just never going to get commented on, is it? Does it not bother the British press that the FFK is hiring staffers to be in such a close, personal position to him, when they are clearly so political? Is this appropriate then? Again, the BRF continues to show their true colours every step of the way. This is an institution that is increasingly aligning itself with interests that are against the good of the British public. Why does this not alarm anyone?
Christian Jones is another mediocre white man who failed upwards, it seems. Just the same as Simon Case. I do think that KP and Clarence House are clearing up their staff in the event of any fallout from the court case. There is a great deal of rot, and it’s deep. The RF is being poorly led and poorly advised in every conceivable way right now. What a fucking clusterfuck.
I cannot believe this guy is being credited with infusing these two 40 year olds with “confidence.” How many times do we have to hear that one of them (especially Kate) of so and so giving her more confidence?! Sounds so damn pathetic!!
If a guy who is 31 has to tell the privileged 39 year olds with access to elite education how to be confident, it tells you just how useless these two are. They should be embarrassed that the media is saying this. This guy has less life experience than them. They should be more confident than him already.
@Nic919
Exactly! You said it better than I could. And seriously, how are they not embarrassed by this angle? As others have said, their PR is so freaking pitiful.
These people make me sick! They keep speculating Meghan probably knew the letter would be leaked and wrote it with that intention.
Unless Meghan swears such a thing under oath, I don’t know where these people think their assumptions of her mindset = fact? The entire modus operandi of the UK press is to make a huge headline based on speculation. They then get outraged at whatever they speculate the offended party might have intended. Then next they have panel discussions, op-eds, etc., about the merits or flaws of this speculation. Now they are attempting to make their speculations fact in a court of law. How can they with a straight face have an attorney say the justification for their copyright violation is the fact that they THINK Meghan had certain intentions when she wrote the letter. Smh.