In the days following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Oprah interview, a curious story popped up in the Daily Mail. According to “senior royal aides,” there would be no big staff change in any of the palaces. The senior aides – many of whom were responsible for the series of catastrophes we have covered over the past four years – were clearly looking out for their own jobs when they told the Mail sh-t like “My instinct is that no one should be expecting to see heads on spikes.” And it’s true – there hasn’t been any major staff turnover at Clarence House, Kensington Palace or Buckingham Palace in the past two months of utterly self-imposed shambles. Instead, Charles and William have decided that instead of reordering their dysfunctional staffs, they’re just going to add more flunkies. That should solve it!
The Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have appointed two NHS spin doctors to oversee their communications. Simon Enright, currently director of communications at the NHS and formerly the deputy editor of BBC Newsnight, will be joining Clarence House to take charge of Charles’ public relations.
Meanwhile, Victoria O’Byrne, director of communications for NHS Test and Trace, will be joining Kensington Palace to work with William and Kate. Both are expected to start in May. They are tasked with repairing the reputation of the royal family after the shocking allegations made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this month.
Harry accused his father of failing to return his calls and claimed William was “trapped” inside the monarchy. Another unnamed family member was accused of racism.
Mr Enright, 51, has played a pivotal role in managing the communications of the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic. He spent 16 years working for the BBC before joining the NHS in 2013. Mr Enright will take over from Julian Payne, who announced in January he was stepping down as Charles’ director of communications. Ms O’Byrne has been at the NHS for seven months, according to her LinkedIn page, which lists “crisis communications” among her specialities.
Both Enright and O’Byrne are being described as “crisis managers” in some quarters, people being brought on to manage the tsunami of sh-tty press in the wake of the Oprah interview. Which, frankly, tells you a lot about how incompetent everyone in the “royal institution” is too. Harry and Meghan giving an interview was one of the most predictable things ever. As soon as they were forced out last year, we all knew that H&M would eventually speak out in some kind of interview or documentary or something. Why not hire some new blood in advance of it? They also had the opportunity to bring in some fresh blood when they learned about the Oprah interview specifically. But no, they wanted to keep the crisis management “in house,” and as we could see, it was an utter clownshow. It continues to be an utter clownshow. Hiring two crisis managers to start weeks following Harry & Meghan’s ethering of the royal establishment just shows you how slow and unresponsive the royals really are. It also shows that Other Brother and Charles are starting to understand that their own communications offices are really, really bad at everything. OH WELL!
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red and Backgrid.
They need a far bigger clean up crew. Having said that, if they could just apologise and publicly acknowledge their wrong doing or just accept the biracial family member, there would be no need for a clean up crew in the first place.
It stands out to me that they hired TWO crisis managers. Can Charles and William still not work together? Who will hire a crisis manager to manage the the crisis managers?
William should hire Boris Johnson or Trump and be done with it. That’s what he really wants to be like: belligerent, mean, and avoiding accountability by attacking and using other people.
Since the windsors want to display themselves like a warm and loving family, working together might be their best option to get that message across. However its blatantly clear that the household are separate units without a main boss that the units have to answer to. That’s why it such a mess. And i don’t think that hiring 2 fairly inexperienced people who worked for the NHS is going to change that.
There lies the crux of the matter. Father and son with duelling PRs. No sense of unity. Dreadful optics. This will be very interesting to watch.
William will always work against Charles.
@Kalan They are going to need two large crisis management teams, like we have here in the UK (law firms that specialize in representing corporations that accidentally kill kids, etc.) but in what I know see is true BRF-style: they’ll under staff out of cheapness and hubris.
I think that there is a non-stop (invisible to us) car-crash occurring not only in the BRF, but in the UK government but ofc I don’t know what it might be. I knew something was up when the Spotify deal was announced (M&H can keep sh!t locked down, like the CIO job of Harry’s, when they choose to) – you can argue with me but I am a long-time observer and reader of the US gossip and national news, and the timing was, interesting. I think that H&M have been pumping out stories and updates, maybe 1 month, since the Fall and one logical reason to do this could be to ensure that whatever they are working is not tainted with whatever crap the rest of every BRF story will be when the spinning car finally stops moving and the story whatever it is (I am not predicting anything) when whatever is dead and rotting pops out of the still waters. This approach also sets the rhythm-and-flow of present and future stories about them personally and about their foundation. There are probably ppl on this board that develop these strategies for a living.
I think that lawsuit and the pregnancy dictated some of their announcement timing but – Harry LEFT THE COMMONWEALTH COMPLETELY and moved to a country where the most powerful political leaders and massively wealthy individuals know him and his wife and will protect his family. Going back to 2010, he talked about living in Africa, in the Commonwealth, when he threatened to peace-out. Then the plans abruptly change and they leave Canada (I know he explained this but the fact that he explained it and the facts he used, they don’t add up to me -sorry) and beat a path to CA and announce that they are staying there forever? I don’t think they caused whatever is happening, I think that just know what it is.
This is a blood-born prince and a veteran and he f’in moved to California in the dead of night. This is the action of someone running from something, not someone running towards a shiny new future with his growing family. Fight me. Worst case scenario: he legit thinks someone wants his wife dead and wasn’t taking any chances. My $ is on some big-f’in story or stories that will bring the BRF down and he is distancing himself in every way possible.
I think you’re right, Elizabeth Regina. A heartfelt apology, and honest admission of mistakes, would go a long way. But I don’t think they have it in them.
The first thing I would do is shut down the Middleton clown show. It’s messy, amateurish, and it makes them look stupid.
I love the Middleton clown show. How else would we know of Uncle Gary’s many shenanigans. Carol Kardashian for all her ambition, airs and graces knows they are all on shaky ground. She might think Princess William will never divorce Kate for fear of a public backlash but William will always be a prince and if the same firm can smear Meghan, they surely have PLENTY of ammunition against Kate. All they have to do is wheel out the waity Katie years photos, lack of work ethic, her meanness to other royals and hey presto public opinion starts to change. Kate’s new found saintly status is not built on solid ground and is in grave danger of being damaged.
Speaking of shaky ground for Kate, I did something petty and googled Victoria. She is attractive, 30ish with long, dark hair… Will certainly has a type… maybe Kate should be focused more on Will than on Meghan
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They have crisis managers who probably have no idea how to clean up racism and any crisis manager that says they can, is lying.
The only way to clean up racism is to clearly stop being racist. And the only way to stop being racist to sincerely, believe that is it is wrong and to do the work to be un-racist.
And you have to truly do the work. No crisis manager can do that for you.
So this will be a fail for most people. But the racist people who will unfortunately remain racist, this is all they need.
Exactly. When I read the article, it sounds like they’re not interested in changing so much as communicating a positive image. They would do much better to hire people to counsel them and make them aware of their problematic ideas and behaviors.
100%.
The challenge for the royal family is that they don’t only have to apologize for how they treated Meghan, but centuries of racism to address. It’s easier for them to double down on image than do real work because the real work is going to create an existential crisis: the monarchy shouldn’t exist in modern society.
Elizabeth Regina, I completely agree. Do these people not understand that everything went sideways, and all Harry and Meghan really want is ONE SINGLE family member, who says they are sorry, and actually means it, and WANTS to fix it. Never mind, pay a six figure salary for fluffers to fluff you more. Carry on.
Both of these people can only be effective at their jobs if their bosses are willing to actually take their advice, and I don’t see that happening in at least one case.
I came here to say the same thing! Asking for advice does not equal with taking it – just as we saw in the case of PedoAndy. He had a very competent crisis PR advisor, but he thought that he knew better. Doing so cost him his entire royal working “career”. I hope these two dumbsters are cut from the same cloth, so we will have excellent gossip for the next couple of months.
You are absolutely right! Their staff do not have the major problem. They are themselves the cause of their problems because of their attitudes, they can change as many staff who want but the image problems will never change.But if they really want to change staff there, they must trying to find a young staff outside aristocratic and conservative circles.
It’s the same issue with them hiring a diversity tsar but then not including the actual royals in any diversity/inclusion training. All of these underlings work for the royals and have to do what the royals tell them to do, and no diversity tsar or crisis manager is ever going to rank higher or loom larger than the actual HRH the staff work for.
Totally true!
Neither palaces trust each other so this problem will get worse with two managers going in opposite directions. Second, neither have access to Sussex’s calendar anymore so they will always be in reaction-mode or playing defense. Cue to William offering up kids, hence the pony riding story yesterday.
This is the essential problems with the BRF – you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Both Charles and William have a reputation of surrounding themselves with yes-men. The heir in the House of Windsor has always had smoke blown up their asses, leading to them thinking they are much smarter than they actually are. I suspect that these new hires may face a challenging time because I bet neither Charles nor William like to be told where they go wrong.
So this.
Good luck with the new job.
Yeah, it will be interesting to see if we actually notice any changes in their PR, my guess is we wont. William and Charles are not going to like hearing someone say they messed up.
Also, they really should have hired one person. Or hire two or three, but they work for both. Having two different crisis PR people working for the different “courts” is just going to make the problem of the competing narratives that much worse.
@Becks, right?! The fact that each of them will have their own, pursuing their own (competing) agendas, is a terrible idea, destined to make things worse. Again, if people like us can see that, how can none of these teams of communications professionals?
Thoughts and prayers to Victoria and Simon. Whatever the BRF is paying them for this thankless job is not enough.
Agreed. Best of luck. Is it too early for us to start taking bets on how long these crisis managers will last?
Also, being a spin doctor for the NHS is not the same as being a spin doctor for this mess. The NHS is the UK’s sacred PR cow – especially at the moment. It’s so untouchable that, actually, things that should be sorted out aren’t because no-one wants to be the person who criticises it publicly. That said, ironically, Test and Trace did NOT have great PR so…..
Test and trace in the UK was not handled by the NHS, it was privately run by Boris Johnson’s cronies.
Yes, Charles has a history of listening to PR experts at least once, the embiggening of Camilla (to Camilla’s credit, she actually puts in the work in a way W&K won’t don’t didn’t never will). I wouldn’t want to work for Charles from the stories I’ve read, but he has a degree of humanity that William is totally lacking in.
William won’t listen. William knows everything.
Agree with Izzy. And just wanted to add that “incompetence “ is the word that constantly comes to mind to describe these palace PR people like Knaupf. And other commenters are probably accurate in saying that for the crisis mgrs to be effective, these incompetent grey suits have to first accept their help. The grey suits may continue with their incompetence with that too, unfortunately. MM’s people ran circles around them in terms of job product quality and who wants to hazard a guess about the possibility these crisis mgrs are competent? The only thing that will save them will be losing interest in the story or the RR ignoring stories
They won’t start until May? Logic would say both palaces should lay low until they come on board, but they’re idiots are will probably continue their knee jerk tone deaf responses and destroy the monarchy even further.
God, imagine how much worse their PR is going to get over the next month as the employees desperately grapple to prove their worth to avoid being fired once the professionals get started by carpet-bombing us with supposedly positive stories.
@Jane my thoughts exactly— they need people who can start before May. Ideally yesterday.
William has done so much damage in, what, two weeks? Yeah, let’s give him another couple of months. Should go well.
@Snuffles, I agree and posted somewhere below – MAY??? That tells me all I need to know in regards to how much of a “Crisis” they have.
I mean april is pretty much a win for the Cambs. Isn’t it Charlotte’s birthday in may? As well as their 10th wedding anniversary. So not much can go wrong there.
Baby girl Sussex is due in summertime, I truly pray this isn’t set in motion against the Family Sussex for when the baby comes. It sounds so low and icky to think but I have seen no “high ground” with the RF or institution.
@Cecilia that’s a good point. No doubt they will make an enormous fuss out of W&K’s 10th anniversary, plus they also have Louis’s birthday in April and Charlotte’s in May.
We’ve learned, however, that William can always find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Just said this up thread. It was clear they didn’t have a crisis manager up until now, but once you realize you need one you need to get them onboard ASAP. Like last week.
That’s the part where I did a double take! Waiting until MAY? They should have hired one firm to oversee this whole response as soon as they heard about the Oprah interview.
If I were an actual pr professional (as opposed to playing one in the comments section here) , I wouldn’t want my name linked to any of this, because it’s waaaaay too late to be effective and we know the royals do not actually seek or follow good advice, then they blame the messengers.
I agree. A smart PR person knows the importance of their client/s laying low. Charles, William and Kate need to lay low now. Unfortunately, their egos and tabloid relationships don’t understand this in the court of global opinion.
May? Yeah, that’ll be useful for the current shitstorm. Maybe they can hire the Australian PM’s “Empathy Consultant” while they’re at it. Clearly worked for him. /s
@Red Dog – ha!
Those two new hires aren’t going to last long. I predict them leaving by the end of the year because Charles and especially William won’t put in the work necessary to deal with the PR crisis properly. their egos won’t allow it.
Don’t underestimate Charles. He had the best spin doctor in Marc Bolland. Camilla has gone from being the most hated woman in Britain to where she is now. Charles plays the game and shifts goal posts like all fk.
Well, what helped Camilla’s cause somewhat was the unexpected death of Diana. This is a totally different set of circumstances. Different eras, different attitudes, and Millenials not caring about the royal family.
I don’t see how these new hires are the right people for the job. Why not hire people whose specific position is PR? Surely there are exceptional PR firms in the UK who could take over? Doing communications for the NHS and doing PR for the RF are two different things and a spin doctor is not what the palaces need at this point. And Kaiser is right, the pace at which they move is glacial. Waiting one year after H&M step down to get their house in order is amateur. Waiting well over a month after the Oprah interview is just stupid.
They waited because Plan A was to make Harry’s life in the US so difficult that he would come crawling home. They didn’t consider for one moment that he would succeed. Now they’re a flailing hot mess.
There’s always the quote: “There is no Plan B…it distracts from Plan A”.
This is the BRF.
The royals heard the term spin doctor and literally thought they needed a PR honcho with real-life healthcare experience, thus the purge from the NHS.
Well, that was a good laugh
@JT im surprised they’ve both worked for the NHS. I simply do not see how you can make the step from the NHS to royal household. Its completely different
@snuffles I’m sure that was what they thought when Harry first left but once he bought that house and signed that Netflix deal, they should’ve pivoted if they had real PR at that point. You don’t sign a $100 million dollar contract to go back to ribbon cutting.
@cecilia I’m also not sure how working from the NHS to the RF translates. It’s an entirely different ball game, especially with H&M having the American press on their side. I don’t see this working out long term, when all they have to do is stop briefing the press against them and STFU.
A spin doctor is just more of the same. Isn’t their entire operation just a bunch of spin? That’s all they are good for. Just spinning all of their f*ck ups into reasonable excuses.
You are so right. The NHS is in a shambles right now with a 37 billion pound track and trace that does not work and many, many reports of other financial improprieties. I think the new hires are very politically aligned with the current government as we’ve seen KPin particular share hires with government departments. I think they have another bunch of yes men on their hands and to be fair it doesn’t matter who KP and CH hire. Their tunnel vision and unwillingness to listen will forever be their undoing.
Hey that’s not fair. Our dreadful Track & Trace system was set-up & run by the shambles that is Serco &, yes, has wasted billions. However us at the NHS are doing our bloody best under hellish circumstances & could do without people slagging us off for this Tory Government’s many, many cock-ups.
Let me guess, both of them are white…
Why do I fear they’re putting on a show, while taking the guy in the middles advice on crisis management?
Oh for Gods sake! All you have to do is apologize. No need for stupid, transparent pr. And does anybody else think we should prepare ourselves for a 1000 thank you tours to hospitals once the UK gov allows it? That is going to be their pr charm offense.
The government is going be too busy with the aftermath of Brexit, the returning Expats, jobs.
Boris said he was not going to cut the military, now it going to be 10000 less, not cutting in boris’ double talk.
At the rate boris and his cronies are wasting money, the treasury will be empty.
I find that photo of Willy Boy horsing around in the wheelchair with his father quite offensive.
So do I but I find the one with the murderer sheik/prince even more so!
Yeahhhhh I was side-eyeing that. Even if it wasn’t originally offensive, I’m sure Charles or William said something awful to make it so
Yes. I wondered why he is cosplaying a disabled person. It’s especially remarkable given Harry’s work with the Invictus Games.
Huh.
I agree, and if they act that way in public, imagine what they are like behind closed doors.
I’m in a wheelchair and I can tell you it makes my blood boil when I see this photograph. Tip – wheelchairs aren’t fun for those of us who need them and watching able-bodied people jump in and out of them laughing makes me want to do bad things to them – preferably slowly and painfully.
I sincerely hope you don’t run into a lot of that crap, The Hench. There are some ignorant human beings out there.
Very offensive!
@India, I do too.
But we know that William is just missing whatever filters keep most people from saying or doing offensive things like this.
He joked about how all of the peasants would get home from Wimbledon during a transit strike, publicly admitted to the staff at one of his engagements that he hadn’t bothered to read his briefing papers, joked about Covid, the list goes on and on — so yeah, not realizing that cosplaying someone who needs a wheelchair for a “cute” photo op is offensive is exactly something I’d expect from him.
He has no sense of how these things come across to normal people. And his team doesn’t seem to, either.
Sounds positively Trumpian.
@India I do too. My son became quadriplegic this year and I just can’t with this photo. Not funny. Not cute.
Are two crisis managers enough, though? I mean, they seem to be up Schitt Creek, what with all their machinations not having the desired effect. I vote we leave them to flounder. I’m enjoying seeing them squirm and trying to disentangle themselves from the sticky situation they’ve made.
All they have to do is lay low and stop briefing the papers against the Sussexes until these people come on board. Hopefully they have hired people with some competency.
That’s what I don’t understand. They need to stop fighting the Sussex’s in the press. They need to lay low, quietly do their work, and close their traps for a little while. The dust hasn’t had a moment to settle since the interview because they will not stop kicking it up more.
I can be a crisis manager for the BRF:
Keep Calm and Carry On
Never Complain, Never Explain
England expects that every man will do his duty.
@Lara some of the comments I’ve seen from people on this site tells me they are so much better at PR rather than whoever the royals have hired
If they had done that – just issued their post-interview statement and then just SHUT UP, so much of this would have gone away by now. Instead we have Uncle Gary ranting to the papers about how spectacular Kate is, William pushing himself as some sort of wannabe dictator or something, the Queen wanting to hug Archie, charles wanting to issue a point by point rebuttal – just SHUT UP.
Ok, say what you will, but, I stand by the, “something is up with the Cambridges’ marriage.” All these articles about how great Kate is seems to be aimed at Wills. Remember a pic of the kids looking surprised to see Wills like they definitely didn’t have breakfast together that morning. Time will tell.
I’m with you @bamaborn. There’s a reason that the theme of “Kate the Great” is being pushed so much. We know that we do normally get a couple articles like this a year, but its reached a different level in the last month, and I dont think that’s just because of the Oprah interview. Time will tell like you said.
Just stay silent for a while and then publicly apologize. It’s just not that hard. Instead we get Dodgy Uncle Gary, sexy prince baldilocks, Prince I have a black friend, and unwanted trips to Greece. That’s after granny Diana and maskless pap shots on a women’s grave. Just stop.
If this is the current strategy, let me
be the first to say that this ain’t it. It is and will continue to be amateur hour with a side of Streisand effect over there.
Don’t they have enough incompetent idiots to stroke their egos and leak all sorts of shit about Meghan already? What are these new ones going to accomplish even if they are good at their jobs? They should have cleaned house, hired new staff that’s hasn’t sold their souls to the tabloids and personally called and sincerely apologized to Meghan. This is just a really bad attempt at saving face with their archaic PR
Clearly they felt they needed at least one more incompetent idiot in each household. That’s about their speed, isn’t it?
Not surprised at all. Isn’t Liz hiring someone too? And then we have the diversity czar of course! Actually contacting Meghan and apologizing and getting rid of the Cambridge team would have worked wonders but William loves having minions with no morals to order around and revere him and Charles has no backbone to speak of and let’s him do whatever. This is really going to backfire on him the most when he’s king and he realizes people don’t like him. A good relationship with the Sussexes would have helped him a lot, but now everyone knows that Harry is disappointed with him and everyone suspects he’s one of the people who asked about Archie’s skin tone
They always hire tories or tory connected folks, and for the most part, those hires don’t rely on meritocracy, hence they are pretty bad at their jobs, because no knowledge is required for said role. But then again that is the whole story of the rf, a bunch of mediocre people that happened to win a genetic lottery. If I were them I would contact a legit PR firm and be done with it.
Five more weeks till they arrive and one or two extra weeks before they can “hit the ground running” (™Kate Middleton) to start trying to fix this mess. Hence, the clown show continues for the immediate future.
There’s going to be no change to the Palace’s communications and PR with these two new hires.
Another Tory Hires. Ive noticed they have a lot of Tory/Tory connected people working for them. Isn’t that itself them being political? Especially when the press and royal fans love to say the Royal family are not political and show no preference.
NHS Track and Trace consultant? You mean, the track and trace that has failed egregiously at every step despite billions of public money being spaffed at it?
Yeah. This’ll work.
(Rubs hands gleefully.)
Do you think that they couldn’t find any one reputable to take this position? Because, like you, I cannot see how these people are the right folks for the job. Maybe the other PR firms knew that the royals wouldn’t listen to reason or something, because this looks like they are scraping from the bottom of the barrel.
YES! That’s what I came here to comment on.
This is what barrel scrapings look like. Should fit right in at KP where incompetence is a key criteria to get hired.
SERCO TRACK & TRACE – not us at the NHS. We’ve done our absolute best & could do without being dragged by association with that shower.
But that’s precisely the problem, Pip — From what you say, this should NOT be on NHS at all, but public perception is/has somehow placed it with NHS more than with SERCO. And these geniuses have just hired communications specialists from the NHS who have not been able to protect it from these negative perceptions. They have not done their jobs for NHS and now they’re off to fail upward for the Palaces. Honestly, maybe it’s good news for NHS that they’re leaving, if it allows NHS to hire competent comms people?
They need Olivia Pope
Yea, but they don’t know they need Olivia Pope.
Plus, that would mean they’d have to listen to a Black American Woman, and The Firm is like the klan Version of The Guess Who
lol Helen, I’m slow–it took me a moment to get your joke. 🙂
Sadly, I predict none of this will work for one reason and one reason alone–they need to clean house of ALL the employees and start from scratch with a new crew, but they can’t. They can’t fire any of them because all of the employees have dirt on the royals and have seen all the shenanigans up close. So they’re trapped in this cycle of dysfunctional employee operations, and even a dozen crisis managers won’t help that.
Unless one of them is a Malcolm Tucker, nothing is going to change and those two might become unemployable in the future because it seems working for Willnot and Chuck shows you are incompetent to begin with. Whether that is true or not.
Both Charles and William would spontaneously combust with outrage if someone like Malcom Tucker yelled at them when they fuck up. These guys don’t like to be told when they make mistakes. That is why things NEVER change in the BRF – they won’t take advice because they’ve been brought up to believe that they the best, that they are always the one who’s wronged and not the other way round. That’s why Charles has learned absolutely NOTHING from the fall-out of Diana’s death. And William seems to be much more like his father than he likes to admit (didn’t a friend say this at Will’s wedding?).
If you can’t even admit that you make mistakes (it is, after all, human to err), then you are never going to learn or change – no matter the amount of crisis PR you hire.
Whilst I have little sympathy for the clowns in the circus, I did read something the other day from an ex member of the Royal Household where he said that it “wasn’t for lack of trying” on the part of advisors that the Royals take no notice of their advice.
Do they genuinely not see the correlation between them ignoring advice from the professionals they’ve hired, and the reputation of the BRF being the lowest it’s been in decades?
They probably think it’s allllllll Harry and Meghan’s fault. Or at least they tell themselves that.
“They probably think it’s allllllll Harry and Meghan’s fault. Or at least they tell themselves that.”
– I suspect so. Charles is known to be self-pitying – and I wouldn’t be surprised if William is a bit like that as well. It is a way to avoid taking any kind responsibility. Not to mention that Charles self-pitying ways look extra horrendous in the context of the abusive moves he pulled on Harry (cutting off his funding while also removing his security), I consider Charles to be an abusive person after learning this and I bet he’s privately positioning himself as the victim (which is another abusive tactic).
They are just getting bad advice. Between that Other Brother mess, the whole sexiest man thing, Charles talking to black people at a hospital, and then them using articles to prop up Katherine, it’s a triple yikes everyday with them now.
Just apologize, call your son and work through it. Stop leaking to the press. It’s not that hard.
I saw some nonsense about Thomas Markle again and sigh, that dude is somehow still running neck and neck with Vanessa Bryant’s mom as worst celebrity parent ever.
It’s an opportunity for them to do some diversity hire and do things differently but I’m sure they’ll go with the usual mess that got them to their crisis points. How things would have turned out differently had they hired people of colour in those senior advisory positions, but then they would have subjected that person to the same gaslighting toxicity.
@myra im actually fine with them going down the same destructive route🤷🏽♀️
hahahha rooting for chaos!
Yeah. Couldn’t happen to more deserving people + giving us plenty of entertainment on the gossip circuit. *Snickering*
Business schools, corporations, and PR programs will be studying the royal response as an exercise in “what not to do.” Really, their response couldn’t have been worse. They absolutely look like the racist incompetents they are, and everything they have done has made the problem worse–they have only confirmed the truth of what Meghan and Harry said.
All they had to do was say nothing. All they had to do was wish their son/grandson/brother well in his new life. That’s it. Now, their idiotic response has a)brought the provenance of the royal jewels into question (and the jewels are a big part of their appeal!) b) highlighted Cain and Unable’s lack of work c) highlighted their inability to function without Harry, d) shown the world their utter lack of messaaging and their grandiose sense of entitlement.
Their “mental health” work is going down as authentically as Melania’s “Be Best” campaign. The british royals are a joke, and they have no one to blame but themselves.
I keep saying to start, not a fan of Meghan but the royal family doesn’t understand it’s not about her, she brought to a head what was inevitable, that the royal family is no an outdated institution. All the crisis managers, and change even if it is deep and not superficial just delay the inevitable, monarchies are inherently unfair.
The queen once said you can’t lift the veil of the royal family or it will lose its magic (paraphrasing). But lack of sunlight leads to rot, and H and M’s interview exposed its rotten core. I think the monarchy won’t be able to spin its problems away and inevitably they will be forced to make some changes that aren’t just performative. But yes, this monarchy will end—it may not last past George.
The problem is that these are not decent and moral people. Furthermore, they are dull and the cannot conceal their general arrogance and entitlement. You can lift the veil a bit of the royal players are decent and charming people – like we see in the Scandinavian RFs. I love when we get a peek behind the scenes in documentaries on the Danish RF. However, the Danish royals are actually interesting to watch, especially QMII.
@JT You would think but I’m pretty sure their next move was to try and scupper the Netflix deal. Which included making SUCH a big fuss about The Crown and how damaging it was to the monarchy and trying to guilt Harry into dropping the deal.
Every move they made was to upend the roots Harry was putting down in the US.
They only have control on Shutter Island.
Netflix is a Worldwide business, run by real business people.
They had a video of Diana in her own words, that was coming to the end of its run, after all the attacks on the Crown, Netflix continued to run the video and viewers used it, to compare against the Crown, well the BRF can’t stop shooting themselves in their feet.
@snuffles You’re probably right but Netflix isn’t some business in the UK that they can put pressure on like they are used to. They should’ve know it was a losing battle, but they are just so dumb they don’t even know how to sabatoage right. And all of their shenanigans probably just strengthened Harry’s resolve. He had to succeed no matter what, because at that point there was no going back. You trap more flies with honey. All they had to do was be kind, even if it was just surface level.
All true, but we all know that didn’t stop them from trying. They’re that stupid.
A simple apology or even empathy that maybe they did not know the extent of the torment and stress the new Sussex family were under.. except they choose to act cold and like they are the ones wronged answering tears with anger and more slanted passive aggressive quotes and leaks. The RF has major issues for sure, they have no problem shielding PA behind the throne and corrupt “institution”, while they vilify the Sussex’s like they are criminals instead of a young family that want to make a difference instead of pay lip service to causes.
No article (read on a news feed) will convince me that the “bags and bags” of mail the RF is receiving after the interview is all anti Sussex’s as they twist you to believe.
I’ve repeatedly said that the way the institution of the British monarchy is managed by both the Windsors and their senior staff is essentially a system of emotional abuse that eventually produces emotionally stunted people. It is no coincidence that the Windsors are knows as cold people generation after generation. It isn’t genetics, it is nurture! The way the family/institution has been reacting to Harry and Meghan’s action (them leaving, the interview, etc) has really laid bare just how emotionally abusive the institution is, and this institutional abusive is amplified by the toxic tabloid press.
@ArtHistorian, even though I’ve followed the royals for a while, it’s only within the past couple of years that I’ve realized how their staffs actively work against each other; that they each have an agenda for whichever royal they report to, and will trash the others — even though it only results in them harming the institution as a whole more and more.
I think that between the Sussex debacle and knowing the backstory of Charles ousting Christopher Geidt really showed how clear it is that they are not working together for the good of the firm; it’s every man for himself, basically. Until then I just hadn’t realized the extent of how siloed their teams are.
I don’t understand how they don’t see that this will be their downfall, and they will have brought it all upon themselves because of their own egos.
I can’t forget Harry saying his father stopped taking his phone calls. The Sussexes had Diana’s inheritance but the cost of security would eat up a major chunk of that and they didn’t yet have any financial deals in place to support themselves. That is Charles’s son! Charles’s mother is one of the richest women on the planet! He could have at least provided a bridge until they were financially independent. He is cold, cold man.
What they need is a firm take-charge, one that isn’t drenched in Middleton ambition or Incandescent revenge. Charles needs to lay hold of it, assume control, and stop hiding behind his mother’s skirts. If he’s to be king, he should be king, and that starts with getting the lesser households under control.
I don’t think he’ll do it. It’s interesting to watch it burn, though.
Is anyone else just floored that these 2 experts agreed to leave real careers to take these palace “jobs”? It’s like taking a baseball bat to the kneecaps of your own career. In this day and age, a job at the palace is a stain on one’s CV. They will see that when the gig is over and they want to re-enter their real careers.
As an aside Prince Charles needs to hire a crisis dermatologist to get that Rosacea under control. You can tell when he is particularly stressed his face is beet red.
A crisis crew…..to start in May. That tells me all I need to know in regards to how much of a crisis they believe they have.
I think they’re hoping they wont be needed at that point. My guess is the royals are banking on the people feeling emotional and sentimental towards the royals in April, with Will and Kate’s 10 year anniversary, Louis’ third birthday, and the Queen turning 95.
If they’ll start off by wishing archie a happy birthday im going to scream
@Cecilia: at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they totally ignored Archie’s birthday. It will be interesting to see how they handle it, and if KP will acknowledge it at all.
@lorelei. I want them to ignore it. how are you going to racially profile a baby in the literal womb. Not offering it any security despite fueling death threats against his mother and in extension to him and then wish them a happy birthday? They can shove it up their ass.
These poor PR people won’t be able to change anything. They will be walking into an archaic institution inhospitable to change with bosses who think they know more than they do.
They need an overhaul of staff, HR policies, and diversity training. A new PR team is just a bandaid for an open wound of current and future liabilities.
They actually need an overhaul of the top level because the top brass won’t change, i.e. the royals themselves – but that can’t happen because that’s not how monarchies work. Unless government institutes a Glorious Revolution 2.0.
How do you use crisis and start in May in the same breath?
If you’ve got something so important that you’re labeling it a crisis, presumably you’d like someone to step up and manage it like yesterday, right?
exactly
They are no slow or reactive, they simply didn’t think there would be a crisis. They didn’t think anyone would care about the awkward biracial woman – the reaction caught them by surprise.
Exactly, They truly underestimated H&M’s sencerity and believability. But most of all, they grossly underestimated the abundance of low level bitterness and hatred many many countries and citizens felt towards them. The reports of the abuse made it swell up into a roar of hatred and now they …think it will be fine by May……ummmm kaaaaa
First, two crisis managers each reporting to a different palace do not have the same goal. One is to save Charles and the other to save Bill. Setting the palaces against eachother to a greater degree is certain. Second, they need to unbend enough to ask Harry and family to quarentine then come for family talks – and really talk to them. Do not exclude Meghan. I think they could get away without making any public statement, which seems like the last thing they would agree to, if all were all sincerely back in good graces with eachother.
Another pr campaign that excludes Harry and Meghan is doomed to fail.
Maybe if they are so busy in crisis pr with each other they will leave the Sussex’s to enjoy this child’s arrival.
No spin doctor worth their salt would wait until May. The RF is in the dark ages. Bad press, lasting stigma, happens within HOURS now. JFC these people.
And “spin doctor”? So they’re politicians now. Interesting.
Where did the idea that William is a p.r. genius come from?
From William. He’s convinced himself he’s a genius.
Is that why he is always referring to his brother as “dim”, so he’s a genius for name calling?
William has decided he’s the PR genius. If you see him described as such by commenters here, we’re being sarcastic.
By the time these folks start working, William & Kate will have well and truly f&cked up theirs and the BRF’s reputations with their heavy handed and obvious stunts.
How are the ‘gold standard advisors’ going to react to a new crisis manager coming onboard and taking over? Not going to happen, the courtiers will sabotage anything that is not what they are already doing.
There is no such thing as NHS Test and Trace. That’s pure Tory propaganda. It’s run by a company called Serco and, guess what? It was hugely expensive and doesn’t work. Perfect fit for the Cambridges.
Thank you! Serco has wasted our billions not the NHS. We’ve been a bit preoccupied trying to save people’s lives & not lose our own in the process.
This. Serco has wasted billions whilst the real NHS has been working its guts out. There’s a reason the vaccine drive has been successful whilst track and trace has not.
Note that William has employed the Serco PR person. Hence surrounding himself with more Tory cronies.
Charles’ new employee seems more legit and experienced and worked for the actual NHS
Thanks for having my two favorite staged PR fake-love photos of Cambridge and Cornwall. The head on the shoulder pic and the wheelchair pic. Charles and William do. not. get. along. Never forget.
Notice how William doesn’t actually smile in the pic where Charles leans his head on him. William just bares his teeth. He does that a lot in lieu of a smile – and it low-key freaks me out.
Now what is a crisis manager starting in May supposed to do about a crisis that erupted in March? Honestly, a crisis manager should’ve been hired by the end of 2020 cause H&M made it obvious they weren’t coming back and we all knew what was coming.
Ok, don’t come for me, but I think Kate looks really good in that white outfit.
No one is coming for you. It’s just… money and photoshop can be appealing. And that’s all she has going for her so, yeah.
The Windsors are waiting until May to clean up this mess? And with crisis managers with a bad track record and no experience for this level of crisis management? I think serious crisis managers said no thanks, this is too much for us. Apologize you idiots.
Victoria O’Byrne is gorgeous – ruh roh…Waity’s going to be jelly!
I missed the news about Julian Payne leaving. Isn’t it interesting how staff changes by certain members of the royal family are treated as routine instead of as scandals. The Julian Payne departure is significant because his tenure coincides with the Sussexes relationship so presumably he would have been giving Charles advice on how to deal with the tabloids and the Sussexes. Hmmm. I wonder if he thought it was a good idea for Charles to stop taking Harry’s calls. Also, he was caught by the squad liking mean tweets about Meghan. So it’s not a leap to presume he was one of the palace sources who did not like her. Allegedly, he is one of Palmer’s sources. So he had to get out before those things came to light by more media.
The new hires demonstrate that they don’t get it. This isn’t about good or bad pr. It’s about accountability. An above poster stated that Charles had successfully used PR before for Camilla. Actually what Charles did was sell out sons in exchange for the good PR. Public opinion of Camilla is not great. Charles just colluded with the media to ensure they weren’t writing negative stories about her and that they completely avoided her roles in the damage to his marriage to Diana. That’s not the same as authentically building a positive reputation. The hyping of Camilla individually began recently, probably in anticipation of the Crown covering the Diana years. Previously, her coverage was minimal and almost exclusively as “wife of” Also, we are in a different time now. People are seeing and calling out the bias in the coverage.
I agree with everyone that the separate hires are a clear indication of the divide between William and Charles. I actually think that BP staff is trying to reign in the sh*t realizing that it is a bad look for the Queen. I think that is what the Magnificent seven PR was all about. But BP can’t get in reigned in because they’re just as bad at PR and they also don’t get that bottom line it’s about accountability. And they are as complicit in the Sussexes mistreatment as KP and CH.
That header picture of them in their top hats and tails is giving off Harry and Lloyd vibes from Dumb and Dumber.
Well if these spin doctors are worth their money, their first recommendation should be to get rid of Jason Knauf if he’s still around.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
Outside of that dumb story which said Charles wanted to do a point per point rebuttal of the interview, Charles has generally laid low and done appearances. He actually could wait until May for the new person. And if he got rid of Julian Payne because he doesn’t like how Payne handled things… then he’s somewhat aware that change needs to happen.
PR genius William has been the true disaster with the help of Jason Knauf. They were behind the dumb bullying allegations prior to the interview and since it has aired it has been one massive disaster after another. From Other Brother, to Kate hijacking a vigil, to uncle Gary to the sexiest bald man disaster, it was been the worst PR ever seen. Americans who don’t normally pay attention to the royals see how bad his PR team is.
I had to search Uncle Gary… OMG tell me it isn’t The man that hit a woman and was “fined” for a closed fist punch to his wife’s face while intoxicated? This is Uncle Gary?
Hiring a crisis manager because you are too much of a horse’s a$$ to apologize. God the stupidity mixed with the racism and malicious behavior is exhausting and so so cruel.
In order for any of this to work the RF have to do as they’re told and they won’t. This will continue to be a PR dumpster fire and they’ll bring the monarchy down with them.
These public pronouncements are quite telling. For all their denials, they’re running scared.
Why poached experienced NHS spin doctors when we are still battling covid 19 pandemic.
Don’t forget, they Q and Prince Phillip are also getting pretty old…these crisis managers may be there not as much to actually deal with the M&H fallout specifically but to deal with the larger fallout after the funeral goodwill is over…