Remember when I used to call Jason Knauf “Poor Jason”? I did that because he was tasked with embiggening the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Knauf has been with William and Kate for years now in various capacities, and he’s currently a chief executive at their Royal Foundation. Years ago, Knauf’s reputation was as some kind of communications whiz, a PR rainmaker for the Keens. Basically, he couldn’t convince Bill and Kathy to work so he just spent his time embiggening himself. He was a senior aide at Kensington Palace when Prince Harry married Meghan, which is how he became the Sussexes’ “senior aide” for a year, from spring 2018-spring 2019. Knauf kept a lot of his communications with Meghan, which he turned over to the Mail’s lawyers this summer, months after the Sussexes’ Oprah interview aired. Knauf did this willingly – the Mail did not get a court order or anything. Chronologically, Knauf went to the Mail AFTER he masterminded the unhinged and blatant character assassination of Meghan as a “bully” in the weeks before the Oprah interview.

Royal aide Jason Knauf dramatically broke ranks to reveal bombshell texts and emails from Meghan Markle just weeks after her devastating Oprah interview aired. Mr Knauf, 37, had repeatedly refused to help the Mail on Sunday in its bitter legal battle with the Duchess of Sussex – insisting he wanted to stay “neutral”. But court papers revealed he had performed a screeching U-turn in the aftermath of THREE major royal crises.

First, in February, Meghan won her High Court case against the MoS over a leaked letter to estranged dad Thomas, 77. In March, Buckingham Palace launched an official probe based on a complaint by Mr Knauf that she had bullied three members of household staff. And days later the Duchess’ two-hour interview to US chat show queen Oprah Winfrey was aired, packed with explosive royal revelations.

At the time, Mr Knauf was being represented by lawyers acting for three other royal aides dubbed the “Palace Four”. On April 16, they made clear Mr Knauf still wished to stay “strictly neutral” despite repeated approaches from the MoS’s parent company, Associated Newspapers. But on May 12, Mr Knauf announced he was stepping down from his royal roles. Then at the end of July a “confidential source” approached the newspaper to tell them Mr Knauf had undergone a dramatic change of heart. Harry and Meghan’s former press secretary had ditched his previous lawyers – and was now ready to talk.

In a statement filed in the Court of Appeal, Keith Mathieson, a lawyer acting for the newspaper, said: “At the end of July 2021, the appellant received information from a confidential source that Mr Knauf regretted not providing a witness statement in these proceedings. As a result of that information the appellant sought again to make contact with Mr Knauf and subsequently with Mr Knauf’s new solicitor, Mr Pollard. In due course, Mr Pollard sent to us and to the claimant’s solicitors the signed witness statement which is the subject of this application.”

Mr Knauf’s decision raises major questions as to what finally prompted him to speak out.

His six-page witness statement yesterday set out in detail how the Duchess had carefully crafted the letter to her dad over several days. It included text message and email exchanges with Meghan revealing how she called Thomas “Daddy” because “it would pull at the heartstrings” if it leaked.

[From The Sun]

So Knauf went to the Mail with a new lawyer and his cache of texts and emails in JULY. I’m looking through our archives now… that would have been after Meghan gave birth to Lilibet Diana, after Prince William and Knauf successfully “co-opted” Robert Lacey to write sh-t about Meghan and claim she’s an “unhinged sociopath.” This was around the time that Buckingham Palace was still refusing to include Lilibet on the line of succession AND the news of Prince Harry’s book deal was breaking. I suspect that Knauf had already decided to turn over evidence against the Sussexes before Harry’s book deal was made public, but that news clearly sent the Windsors into an absolute tailspin.

What’s also funny (to me) is that the bombshell evidence isn’t really all that much? Knauf had some texts back and forth with Meghan about the letter to her father. She thought her dad could possibly leak/sell the letter. And the Sussexes played fast and loose with what they contributed to Finding Freedom. None of this changes the fundamental issue at the heart of Meghan’s lawsuit, which is the copyright on her handwritten letter. What it does significantly change is Jason Knauf’s career – it’s astounding that he’s this pathetic, that he’s this happy to slavishly weaponize himself in the service of William and Kate. All this does is make it even clearer that William and Kate are petty and incapable of hiring competent, discreet professionals to work for them. Gee, I wonder what those palace crisis managers think about all of this?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.