‘Unthinkable!’ Prince Harry and Meghan Markle react to Charles birthday snub | Palace Confidential

What is the real story behind Prince Harry's invitation to the King's birthday party? Is William about to shake up how the royals do things? And where is the disappearing Duchess of Sussex? That's right, we've got another fantastic episode with a rather fancy new look. Hello and welcome to Palace Confidential. I'm Jo Elvin and regular viewers might notice that things look a bit different. And yes, we've got a shiny new studio with a view of a certain palace out of our window. And while things might look new, we've still got the same brilliant royal experts here to talk us through the week's biggest news this week on the panel. We've supersized it. We've got the room now. We have Daily Mail's royal editor, Rebecca English, the paper's editor at large, Richard Kaye, and of course, the paper's diary editor, Richard Eden. Welcome to you all. Welcome. Welcome to my home. I feel like I should curtsy Joan. Yes, I think you should. Rather an oversight there. Now, a little reminder that if you do enjoy our show, please like and subscribe to our free channel to be reminded whenever a new episode arrives. Well, here at Palace Confidential, we love a bit of pomp and pageantry. And this week saw a return to one of the grandest occasions in the royal calendar. And that is, of course, the opening, the state opening of Parliament. Now, Rebecca, please help us all out with a bit of a bit of a crib sheet for those who don't know what this is all about. Can you explain it? Yeah, well, we had pomp and pageantry coming out of our ears this week, haven't we? So it's basically the opening session of the new parliament. But this is a really important constitutional duty for the sovereign. And of course, it was the first time that King Charles III has been doing it as king. He stood in for his late mother several times when she wasn't strong enough or well enough to do them. But this is his first time giving the king's speech, the first time we've had that for 73 years. And actually, interestingly, it was the first time we've seen a queen consort in attendance in terms of Queen Camilla since 1950. And we saw a big return to all the accoutrements that you would expect, the imperial state crown, the robes of state, the carriages, which, again, we haven't seen for a little bit because they were just too heavy, basically, for Queen Elizabeth to wear in the latter years of her life. So yeah, if you love royalty, this would have been your week to watch it. And were you in the room watching this? No, no, no, no, no. I was an avid viewer, like everybody else was. And this is the thing. It's a parliamentary matter. So although the king is giving a big speech, he's not actually written any of those words. It's written for him by the government, and rightly, given the way the British constitution works, he has no say over it. So he's literally expressing what his government hopes to do in the next session. Well, that moves us on nicely to what I wanted to ask you, Richard Kay. First of all, welcome. Thank you. It's been a while. It has. It's great to have you. It's good to be in the new home. But part of Charles's job there, as Rebecca was alluding to, is to read out what the government's plans are. And there were obviously one or two people waiting to see if the delivery of that speech gave away his feelings about those policies. I think I was one of many people watching avidly to see whether there'd be any rolling of eyes or muttering under the breath. And that's just you. Yeah. And there was none whatsoever. He was absolutely professional, right down the middle, as you would expect. I mean, he's the monarch. That's his duty. They aren't his words. They're Rishi Sunak's, the prime minister's words. He signed off the speech, and it was the king's duty to read it. But nevertheless, there were, oh, I think as an exercise in reading, something he presented to you, 10 out of 10. It's harder than you might realise, actually. Well, you're the expert. You're the expert. But you know, there were things in the speech which we all thought he might have had some difficulty with. For example, the idea that the government are going to have annual licences for gas and oil exploration might sit a bit uncomfortable with his green credentials. But he betrayed not a scintilla of emotion on any of these things. Well done, our king. Richard Eden, you're so far away. Can you hear me? I can hear you loud and clear. That's my first question. Oh, good. Okay. Well, let's move on, because some people were looking for the king to slip up on his recent visit to Kenya, weren't they? I think they really were. I mean, as Rebecca will tell us, it was a great success, and it certainly seemed to be from the Kenyan's point of view. But there seems to be every time that there's a royal trip abroad, there's all these, it tends to be the cheerleaders for Harry and Meghan that are desperately looking for them to slip up. And what we've had over the past week was we had one of those most outspoken cheerleaders, Omid Scobie, who was highlighting an image of King Charles and Queen Camilla on a red carpet that had been laid over a sort of muddy field. And he was saying, oh, what a terrible look, you know, that they should have sort of refused to step on it because it kind of looked bad, looked very imperial. But I mean, how ridiculous is that? I mean, how disrespectful it would have been if he'd said to his hosts, well, I'm not standing on that carpet, you know, you roll it up before I go there. He can't be ordering the locals around kind of thing. And if he did, you know, the first ones to be complaining would be people like Omid Scobie. It rather sort of like smacked up what I like to call fracking for offence, just sort of like mining deeper and deeper. That's a brilliant phrase. I mean, it's true though, isn't it? But Rebecca, you were there, you were on that muddy ground, just off the red carpet. On the red earth in Kenya, yeah. First of all, back from Kenya, what did you buy us? Did you bring us back any presents? Well, as you know, Jo, I'm so busy on these trips, I don't have time for souvenir shopping. That's my excuse and I'm going to stick to it. I see. OK, we'll talk later. But it did, you sent us a report for this programme last week, which we enjoyed, but it did seem like a success. It was, I mean, there were a lot of pitfalls, especially going to a country where Britain doesn't have the most glorious colonial history, let's put it that way. But it was something that the palace were willing to address head on. Uncomfortable conversations need to be had about uncomfortable subjects and they don't shy away from it. And actually, I think the speech he gave on that went a lot further, was a lot more emotional than we expected to. As someone said to me, there was a cigarette paper between what the King said and a formal apology. So much so that President Ruto actually made a point of saying, you know, thank you for being willing to talk about this and for being so open to discussing how we move forward together in the future. So I think, as Richard said, it was, I mean, I don't like to get into kind of vilifying individual journalists, we've all got a job to do, but it was really disappointing to see some of, I think, really kind of naked attempts to try and stir up some controversy when there was really none. I mean, there were red carpets everywhere. And so much so, I remember kind of lightheartedly commenting to it with a Kenyan journalist who was standing next to me and he said, oh no, we do this for everyone, it's the way they like to show respect. So Richard's absolutely right, why would the King be so rude as to say, I'm not going to do that? I mean, a senior aide said to me, he's walked on everything over the years, you know, it wouldn't bother him whether... Water included. Yeah. He wouldn't bother him whether a red carpet was there or not, but if there is one, of course he will be courteous and walk on it. Let's launch a competition, if you can suggest what you would like the King to walk on next, we'll pick our favourites. Richard Kaye, let's talk about the Prince of Wales for a minute now, he's been travelling as well. He headed off to Singapore as part of his Earthshot Prize, which he's very passionate about, but he gave some interesting quotes to reporters about how he plans to do things differently when it comes to causes and campaigns. What can you tell us? Fascinating. I mean, William is really entering into territory we've never known a royal explorer before. He wants to do things, he doesn't want to just be, in his father's words, a convener and bringing the people together who can do the things that Charles would like, wants to see. William actually physically wants to do them. He gave this extraordinary briefing to the travelling media in which he talked about actually building homes, for example. One of his great issues, Rebecca knows it extremely well, is trying to tackle the crisis of homelessness. And here we have a young prince talking about actually building the properties which would help solve the crisis. And as a very large landlord, with the Duchy of Cornwall at his disposal, he can of course build many thousands of homes should he wish. But I'm looking forward to the day of seeing him out with a cement mixer and getting that mortar out and digging those foundations himself. But maybe there's something in this. Maybe this is the way he's going to go. It'll be a very different approach from that of his father, who's in many ways spread himself too thinly as Prince of Wales. William is going to concentrate on a few key issues, it seems to me. And if he is going to do this, well, good for him. Let's see. Rebecca, it did seem like it was slightly risking an insinuation that until now, the royals have done nothing. Do you know what I'm talking about? I think he could have maybe chosen his words better because it did suggest that all they've been doing is shining a spotlight and that almost made it sound a bit ineffectual. And I don't think that's the case. I mean, he was trying to make the point that over the years historically, royals have been patrons of hundreds of organisations, and he and Catherine want to focus on a smaller number and get more involved with them. But I do think he sometimes forgets when he says this thing what his father's achieved over the years. For example, 1976, he set up the Prince's Trust with his naval pension, which has arguably gone on to become one of the most effective youth organisations in the world, is the Sustainable Markets Initiatives. I mean, Richard's right. He probably has delved into too many issues at once over the years, but it doesn't mean he's not been effectual in those areas. This chimes with something that you've said before, Richard Eden, that things are inevitably going to have to change for a lot of charities. I mean, let's be clear. This is radical. This is a really different view of the monarchy in the future. We've got more than 600 charities and organisations that Queen Elizabeth was patron of. They haven't been redistributed yet. We don't know if they will. There's an awful lot of organisations that really value that royal patronage and it really helped them get noticed, get work done, that possibly won't have a patron now. And will the future King William, will he be pleased for others to become patrons, other members of his family? It would seem not. If he's going to be just concentrating on a few causes, where does that leave the other members of his family? I think it's a really radically different view from Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and all their patronages, which, as I say, still to be redistributed. And quite valuable for the charities as well. It's like, yes, you might not be able to go and dig a hole for every environmental charity, but if you've got a royal patronage, surely that helps you have cut through. Definitely. And the problem is that they are in limbo, essentially. If your patron was Prince Andrew, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth, you don't have one and there's no sense yet of when that might change. So it is quite a difficult situation for a lot of organisations. I think you're right, having that name on that letterhead does make a difference. I hear it from so many charities. I was at an event last night at Buckingham Palace for the humanitarian causes. When are you not at Buckingham Palace? Oh, when you're in Kenya. It's like another office, though. But there was a reception for humanitarian causes and you had lots of organisations there, like the British Red Cross, the DEC. People are there because having that royal patronage matters to them. Even if it is only one visit every three years, they've still got the power that that conveys to call on in terms of raising funds, getting investors on board. So I think it's a balancing act that's yet to work out. I'm afraid a lot of these charities are simply not going to have royal patrons. As Prince of Wales, the King made this crystal clear more than 20 years ago. His idea of a monarchy is a slimmed down one and that means that all the multiple charities that have had the Queen and Prince Philip as their patrons simply won't in the future. And I think William has bought into this as well and there will be a shift away. It's bad luck for the charities, but I think it will happen. There simply isn't going to be enough. There aren't enough royals to go round. Richard Eden, a word now on a story that you reported on and one that might upset fans of the Waleses. Oh, they don't need to be too upset. This is just... Oh, don't spoil anyone's fun. This is Nicky Haslam, who's a real society figure. He's a friend of the royals. He's a good old friend of Queen Camilla. And he's made some comments about Prince William and Catherine, a little unkind perhaps. He's saying they're very unsophisticated, childish. He hates the way that they're always seen kind of kicking a football or running round. He thinks that's not how royals should behave. They should be more sophisticated. He kind of highlighted Camilla's work with literacy and reading and he thinks they should go to the theatre more often than this type of thing. The reason for it, the reason he's made these comments is every year he produces a tea towel, mainly for his friends at great expense. One of the things he's included this year is the Wales family in blue. So he was referring to the time when they seemed to sort of colour coordinate their outfits with the children and it looked very sweet. But I think Haslam just finds that kind of twee and he was sort of harking back to... He thinks royals should have a more interesting sense of style and he just finds that kind of boring. Anyway, he's not a fan at all. One of the things on a previous tea towel that he derided as common was loving your parents. So I think we're sort of like nowhere we stand with Nicky's views. It's very interesting. We would love to hear what you think about that. And there is lots more still to come, including a couple of stories that might upset fans of the Sussexes. Don't shoot the messenger, just telling you. Before that, let's turn quickly to a couple of your comments now. We love getting them. Steffa Shayla had this to say on the suggestion that the Yorks might step in for the senior royals on overseas tours. She says, as a Canadian, a visit by Beatrice and Eugenie might attract some younger fans, quote unquote, but in no way would it replace a visit by the head of state. I hope the royal family has the sense to understand that. State visits by minor royals would herald the dissipation of the monarchy, a sad devolution. Stick with the King and Queen, Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh for overseas visits. Wow, they're going to be tired. Muriel Neve is pleased at reports that the King is talking to David Beckham about becoming an ambassador for his charities, saying David Beckham waited in line for hours to pass by the Queen's Coffin. That speaks well of him. While Jay Barron was one of a few of you advocating for a role for Zara Phillips. I wonder though why no one ever mentions Zara Phillips. Is it to do with her not having a royal title? I think she would be wonderful, hardworking, just like her mum. Perhaps she just prefers her life as it is. Our loss, I think. I think you might be onto something there. Richard Kaye, presumably they have to give Zara a title if she or her brother Peter took on roles. They aren't going to give them titles. I mean, that was a decision taken. You just look appalled at the very idea. No, no, no. I'm not appalled at the idea. I just think it's, you know, they're too settled in their lives now. They've made independent lives outside royalty and I don't think either Zara or her brother Peter are destined for any kind of official duty. It is quite hard to imagine Mike Tindall as an earl or something, isn't it, I should say. Why? You sound very Nicky Haslam there, Richard. Yeah, exactly. Is he coming up on Richard Eaton's new tea towel? No, I think if he had that sort of title he'd have to sort of stop making so many of the kind of jokey, rude comments he often does. And nobody wants that. He'd just be the new Prince Philip, wouldn't he? Casting for the role. Thanks for those comments. We do love them. Please keep them coming in. Back to the panel now, now, Rebecca, we've had another extraordinary will they or won't they over Harry's attendance at a birthday party for the King? Yeah, I mean, this was a, it kind of came out of nowhere and it originated because there was a story in the Sunday Times saying that Harry had been invited to celebrate the King's 75th birthday next Tuesday and that he'd declined. This obviously pressed all sorts of buttons in California and unusually Harry's official spokesman came out and made it very clear that he wasn't even aware there was any celebrations going on. What was even more surprising is, especially for a couple who had grandly announced that they would never, never brief off the record, there was suddenly a flurry of quotes from sources and friends saying that they felt maybe this information was slipped out deliberately to try and take people, deflect away from the troubles in Kenya the previous week. I think as we've discussed, I know, it was genuinely a resounding success. The palace have not got dragged into this, they haven't discussed what he's doing privately, although if you read the Daily Mail on Saturday hopefully I can give you a little bit of indication of what it might be, because they just don't want to get into another war of words with the Sussexes. But it just seemed one again that was a bit self-generated that just really didn't need to be. Families, eh? Richard, Eden, whatever the truth is, it looks pretty clear that Harry's been a bit wound up by the whole thing. I think what was extraordinary was his decision to let his spokesman comment on it. They could have easily just ignored it, shrugged their shoulders, but instead they got involved and that gave it a whole new lease of life. I think that's what's so significant and what shows that there has been no mending offences at all, that they really are 5,000 miles apart. The idea that he would come back for some sort of small family celebration, it's become almost unthinkable, hasn't it? Richard Kaye, obviously the King will celebrate his birthday in one way or another. Are we going to have this every time there's a significant occasion? It's a very good question. It just shows you, to my mind, that Harry's got a lot of time on his hands if he can be bothered to engage with something relatively trivial as this. He really should rise above this kind of stuff. Of course the King likes a birthday. He likes a birthday party, but I'm pretty confident, and Rebecca will tell me if I'm wrong, that there aren't plans for a massive party as there have been for previous landmark birthdays and therefore, because it's a smaller arrangement this year, it wouldn't have been expected that Harry would have received an invitation anyway. What on earth do you buy the King as a birthday present? Well, I don't know if I should say here, but... Oh, you definitely should. It sounds like you should. In previous years, the journalists, and this was way before my time, the journalists and photographers clubbed together for one of his landmark birthdays and bought him a garden gnome with a camera around its neck, which I have subsequently seen in his stumpery and high growth. Is that the one in the tree hole? I've got a picture of that from when I edited a magazine here. I love that gnome. And then for his 70th, because we're there working journalists, we're not there as kind of fans, so to speak, but for his 70th, he was doing something very publicly and we thought we'd better give him something. And one of my colleagues in another paper had been given, because he's a keen gardener, a bottle of hot nuts spray, which was... Please do tell. Please, can I just explain that? Can I just apologise? I mean, I've tried to keep a high brow around here. It's an anti-grey squirrel spray and King Charles notoriously loathes grey squirrels. Oh, they're cute. He's a very big fan of red squirrels and is a patron of all sorts of organisations. So we gave him this hot nuts thing with a balloon attached to it and there were some people who were being a bit snotty about it. It got the biggest laugh from him all day. He thought it was absolutely hilarious there was a fluffy squirrel to go with it. You heard it here first. What does the king get for his birthday? A box of hot nuts. I was going to let you say that, Jo, not me. Let's just back to Harry for a minute, Rebecca. He's also been on the front pages for the way in which he travelled to a Katy Perry concert recently. Yes, another private jet. Oh, nice. And not a private jet to go away for a few days, a kind of private jet with other celebrities to go to a concert and straight back again that night. I mean, I will leave others to draw a conclusion from that. But yeah. I bet Richard Eden's got something to say about it. Well, it wasn't just a private jet. It was also a private jet that was co-owned by an oil heir as well. So you've got that double wind up for the eco, you know, lot. But I mean, remember, this is this is the man who founded Travelist, which was a sustainable travel initiative. And he's lectured us all on how we should try and cut our travel. I remember him giving a long speech at a conference in Italy where he was, you know, talking about tourism and how we've got to try and travel less. And here he is just jetting off to a Katy Perry concert. Well, they're just so convenient private jets, aren't they? But also, of course, let's not kid ourselves that he's some huge Katy Perry fan, because you might remember that Katy Perry performed at the coronation celebrations at Windsor. Where was Harry? No, he'd already left. He left within about an hour of the coronation service. He didn't hang around to watch Katy Perry then. So what's interesting is that Prince William's been out in Singapore this week for his Big Earthshot Awards. And when we did a briefing with Kensington Palace, we rightly, as journalists, asked the question, how can you juxtapose an event about solving climate change when you're basically bussing a load of people in, celebrities, Prince William, others? And actually, very interestingly, Kensington Palace's answer was, look, we are not going to tell people how to travel. We're not looking back to the Ice Age. We're looking forward to a Green Age. But it's how can you, I suppose, best incorporate those principles in your day-to-day life as best you can. None of us are perfect, but I thought it was a very mature attitude to what's a very complex subject. Because they know they're always going to get that question. Particularly for the royals. They have to travel around the world for work, and there is always that balancing act. But I think that's very different to getting on a private jet, as you say, owned by an old tycoon, to and from a concert for a night. That looks very, very extravagant. And it's notable that Prince William did travel on a scheduled British Airways flight. So that was a plane that was flying anyway. If you've got to get to Katy Perry, you've got to get there. Efficiency. Richard Kaye, there was also a piece in the Sunday Times on our Meghan, dubbing her the Disappearing Duchess, and saying that we still don't know what her next move will be. Do you know? We don't know. No, I don't know. I mean, she's taken pretty much all this year off. We've had multiple reports that she's going to restart her lifestyle blog, The Tig. That she's going to do a tie-up with Christian Dior. I mean, neither of these have come to fruition, because neither of them appear to be accurate, at least not yet. I think we can be sure of one thing, what she's really doing, is being a mum. And spending time with her children. But it's interesting, is it because she wanted to give a bit more space to Harry, who had so much to get off his chest this year, with his ghastly book, and his interviews about his family. Maybe she wanted to put a bit of clear blue water between what he had to say and what she's going to do next. Didn't want to taint her brand. However, what is her brand? And will that brand still be there? The longer she's out of the public eye, the harder it will be to kick-start it. Well, we'll have to watch this space for 2024, I guess. Well, let's come back from Montecito to London now, via scheduled travel of course, for some more of the best shots of the state opening of Parliament. That's right, it's montage time. Now a reminder that if you do enjoy our content, remember to like and subscribe, and that way you will never need to miss another episode. Imagine, imagine! Now, I want to thank my guests, Rebecca, the two right Royal Richards, and of course to you for watching. Bye, we'll see you next time.