00:00 A friend of Charles tells the Daily Beast, if Meghan is threatening to reveal further
00:04 secrets, saying "I can say anything I want", it's not surprising they are being frozen
00:09 out.
00:14 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle face being frozen out of the royal family both during
00:18 and after their visit to the U.
00:20 K. next week, a friend of Prince Charles told the Daily Beast, after Meghan appeared to
00:32 threaten the royals with the revelation of further secrets in her interview with The
00:35 Cut.
00:43 The friend told the Daily Beast, Charles adores Harry, and would like nothing better
00:47 than to get the relationship sorted.
00:56 But a meeting next week is unlikely.
00:58 Everything was already on hold until they saw what was in Harry's book, but if Meghan
01:02 is actively threatening to reveal further secrets, and telling interviewers "I haven't
01:07 signed anything, I can say anything I want", then it's not surprising they are being frozen
01:11 out.
01:19 The couple's decision to visit the UK on a quasi-royal tour next week has been greeted
01:24 with irritation behind the walls of Buckingham Palace.
01:34 While outsiders may simply see the couple as altruistically giving their time to support
01:38 causes that are, as they say, close to their hearts, Crown loyalists and their critics
01:43 argue that the couple is provocatively treading on the territory of the actual royal family.
01:55 The couple certainly has a packed itinerary.
01:57 They are expected to arrive in Windsor on Sunday, and Meghan is being advertised as
02:02 the keynote speaker, at a charity youth event on Monday in Manchester, which Harry will
02:07 also attend.
02:15 On Tuesday, the couple is due to fly to Düsseldorf in Germany for an Invictus Games preview event.
02:27 One evening, fashion sources say, will be given over to attend the launch of her friend
02:31 Edward Ennenfels' memoir.
02:40 The British Vogue editor invited Meghan to guest edit the September 2019 issue and has
02:44 consistently been one of her most ardent supporters.
02:54 Wednesday is free of pre-announced engagements.
02:56 In the unlikely event the couple does make a dash for Balmoral, Scotland, to meet Queen
03:01 Elizabeth, this is their window.
03:07 However, the fact that on Tuesday, the Queen is due to perform one of her most solemn constitutional
03:15 duties and swear in a new Prime Minister, gives her a pretty solid alibi if she chooses
03:20 not to issue an invitation to the couple.
03:27 Strategically, the Queen is likely to be keenly aware of the risk of welcoming Harry and Meghan
03:33 to Balmoral the day after what may be her historic final anointing of a British leader.
03:42 Indeed, the Queen's declining health, illustrated by her decision to anoint her new PM at Balmoral
03:50 rather than in London, for the first time in her 70-year reign, hangs over everything.
04:02 It was notable that Her Majesty issued the news that she would not travel to London to
04:06 bid farewell to Boris Johnson and anoint his successor on the day of the 25th anniversary
04:11 of Diana's death, comprehensively sweeping away that small matter, which the Palace defiantly
04:16 refused to mark, from royal news feeds.
04:26 Appearing in the traditional photo of the hand-kissing ceremony, immortalized in the
04:30 2006 film The Queen, and making some small concession to her health, holding a stick
04:35 or sitting down, for example, would blow away coverage of Harry and Meghan in the domestic
04:40 press for days.
04:48 On Thursday evening, Harry is due to attend the Wellchild Awards, an event he used to
04:52 go to when he was a working royal.
05:01 Critics say the couple is attempting to continue casting themselves as, to all extents and
05:05 purposes, full-fat royals.
05:14 It will be interesting to see which British newspapers, if any, choose to devote Friday's
05:18 front pages to Harry and which to William and Kate's children, all three of whom have
05:23 their first day at their new school, Lambrook, on Thursday, following the family's move to
05:27 Windsor over the summer.
05:29 William and Kate are likely to do the school run themselves, their presence an implicit
05:40 rebuke to Meghan's assertion in the cut that to do the school run in the U.K. would have
05:51 involved her running a gauntlet of 40 photographers.
05:55 One photographer will be present for the official photo that will then be distributed to all
06:00 media.
06:07 The British publicity strategist Mark Berkowski told the Daily Beast, "I've regularly advised
06:12 people in adversarial situations to be the bigger person and invite the other party round
06:17 for a cup of tea.
06:26 But in this situation, to do that would be a risky thing for the British royals, as there
06:30 is a significant chance confidentiality could be breached.
06:40 They are extremely risk-averse, so I have no doubt they will just carry on as normal,
06:44 safe in the knowledge that Meghan, in particular, is coming into a country where she has little
06:49 support or empathy."
06:57 The interview may have been designed to threaten the royal family, but it could end up helping
07:01 the Cambridges in particular.
07:10 The mad quote about her wedding being a cause of celebration equal to the freeing of Nelson
07:14 Mandela in South Africa (Meghan claimed a South African told her, "I just need you to
07:19 know, when you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when
07:23 Mandela was freed from prison"), a claim which has been refuted by Mandela's own son, completely
07:29 plays into the hands of William and Kate.
07:38 All they have to do is not do anything, and they seem authentic and relatable in comparison
07:42 to Meghan, who is rapidly becoming a caricature media monster.
07:50 Ultimately, it seems the British royal's response to Harry and Meghan's quasi-royal tour will
07:58 be best encapsulated by that old World War II maxim, "Keep calm and carry on."
08:03 - William and Kate, 1982, "Keep calm and carry on."
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