Calorouga, shark, media ballo and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host, Mark francis complete with summer allergies, so please bear with me. A newly decoded exchange between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is raising fresh questions about just how early the couple may have begun plotting their royal departure.
According to a new Channel five documentary titled Lipreading the Royals, the secret conversations the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were overheard via lipreading during the solemn event at Westminster Abbey in twenty eighteen. The occasion was the Service of Remembrance marking one hundred years since the end of the First World War, a formal moment with the entire royal family
in attendance, including Queen Elizabeth. But while the cameras captured polished expressions and respectful silence, lipreading expert Nicola Hickling says something else entirely was unfolding in hushed tones between the Sussexes. She claims Meghan quietly told Harry to take advantage of the situation, prompting him to ask today. Her reply, do
it tonight? Then, in what has become the documentary's most startling moment, Harry is said to ask, you do realize that this is the end, to which Megan reportedly responds, yeah, I do know. Harry's recent solo visit to Angola highlighted his commitment to a life of service, but it may have also brought about a quiet personal reckoning. Royal expert Jenny Bond reflected on the significance of the visit, telling the Mirror, I think this is precisely the sort of
work that Harry should do. It's not only a hugely worthwhile cause, but it also connects him with his mother, which is something he yearns for. Bond went further, suggesting that the trip marks a shift in Prince Harry's priorities and perhaps his self perception. I think he is coming to recognize that the la celebrity world is one in which he is not especially comfort and he seems quite
willing to let Megan take the limelight over there. Harry's trip took him to a remote village near Africa's largest minefield, where he met with families living in the shadow of the long buried explosives. The scene echoed the now iconic nineteen ninety seven images of Princess Diana walking through the minefield in Angola wearing a protective vest and viasor just months before her tragic death. For Sky News, Rhennon Mills writes, I can't help feel Harry's team are trying to push
the reset button. The unexpected headlines around Harry just keep coming, as when he popped up in Angola his second visit there, this time with no press pack in toe, So why the surprise visit. Harry has worked with the Halo Trust for some time and it's clearly still a priority for them to highlight the dangers faced by those living with the potential dangers of land mines in Angola, but it also feels like part of a push to get Harry
out on more public engagements. Some think Princess Anne might be the one that can bring Harry back into the fold by talking some sense into him. A source told The Times she often talked about how as children she was treated so differently from Charles. She was second to him and kicked further down the line of succession as a woman, but she forged her own path. In her twenties, she was boldly an upset about a lot of things, but she came through that he should talk to her
about her experiences. She is shrewd. She could tell him a lot about what she went through. Will Harry and Charles meet again? Royal biographer Tom Bawer thinks perhaps not saying whether they'll meet again in Charles' lifetime depends on how long Charles lives. I couldn't say never, because I'm sure Charles wants to meet his son, but so much
depends on how Harry behaves. Harry is seriously worried that when his father dies one day, William will literally banish him and he will have no status in Britain at all. He will be person and non grata. Harry needs a meeting with Charles to show he is part of the royal family and to establish his credibility in Britain, but as long as the Palace won't give him access to Charles,
he can't take the first step. They suspect that the moment he meets Charles, he will use it to establish his credibility, because that's what he desperately needs, and that's also why he's kept away. My money would absolutely be no if he did meet him, it would be in private. A lot depends on charles health. That is the unspoken issue in Britain today. Because Charles will be in Scotland, the question is will Harry be invited up to Scotland.
My guess is no. The interview he gave after he lost the security case and accused the establishment of a stitch up showed that he's completely uncontrollable. He is unpredictable and his own worst enemy. But he fears that once Charles dies he will get no help from William. I wouldn't be surprised if William won't have him at his coronation. Charles health is the prime concern and William's succession is the next thing. Harry's problems are irrelevant and they are
irritated by him. Harry can't just arrive at the palace and see his father. When Harry was in Britain at the time charles visit to France was canceled because of the riots, there was ample time to meet and one would assume charles diary was empty, but Harry was told his diary was full and he couldn't see him. He can't even get him on the phone because they don't trust him, and they're angry with him. They don't understand his motivations. Megan is tired of it all. She wants
it to be over. She doesn't give two hoots about what happens. It puts a great strain on their marriage and their relationship because Harry frets and becomes very unhappy about it all. Megan wants to get on, build herself up as a television personality and have nothing more to do with Britain at all. It doesn't interest her. In The Independent, Tessa Dunlop writes, the mirroring in recent history
is spooky. After the nineteen thirty six abdication, stumbling George the sixth never resumed a normal relationship with his charming callo brother Edward the eighth, who also wrote a biography, but emotionally is not on one way street, and the Prince of Wales would be foolish to take his familial cues from the unbending social structures of a bygone era. Today, william sits at the heart of Britain's most revered institution, and in the face of recent domestic adversity, enjoys enormous
public sympathy, but moods can change. As a nation, no matter how much we verbally kick Harry, affections run deep beneath it all. What really rankled was the Sussex's rejection of our most revered institution. Likewise, William surely knows that one day he must rediscover his affection for his younger sibling, protected by a preordained sovereign destiny. The longer he withholds the olive branch, the more churlish it could start to look.
At the moment, King Charles is Harry's best hope, and even then Sussex returned to the sunlit uplands of royalty may well prove short lived. For the Duke to make a meaningful comeback, good relations are required on two levels, with his father King and with his older brother, the future King. William is not a man for turns, unless the spare knows all too well, one day the Prince of Wales will have all the power but impressive kingship.
Like all, good leadership requires flexibility. If at the moment Harry steals all the negative headlines, it will be history that judges William his more powerful older brother only by genuinely forgiving and including the spare, will he be able to boast that his reign as the requisite hallmarks a modern monarchy, compassion and magnanimity, And most important of all, he will know it is what Diana, his mother, the self proclaimed Queen of Hearts, would have wanted. More palatin,
just a moment. Hey, don't forget. A new episode of Crown and Controversy comes out tomorrow Sunday. It's our new spinoff series and kind of takes off where the Crown on TV left off, and you can get that wherever you get your podcasts. Crown and Controversy. It's available now.
Harry did receive a rather unexpected show of public support, this time from European Royalty Princess Delphine of Belgium, speaking on the Its Reigning Men podcast, that said, they lost such an important figure, and I feel very sorry for Harry because I think that was traumatic for him. She was referring, of course, to the death of Princess Diana when Harry was just twelve years old. Delphine went on, I think Harry suffered so much, and I think he
was traumatized, and it's coming out now. He's just traumatized. He's doing these things, and everybody's bullying him but not thinking about his trauma. I just find it terrible because I feel like he's just been kind of left. Delphine herself has personal experience navigating royal tensions. She discovered in adulthood that her biological father was King Albert the Second of Belgium, and endured a year's long legal battle before finally being recognized as a member of the Belgian royal
family in twenty twenty. And there you have it. Tact to email us. Our address is the Palace Intrigue at gmail dot com. Please follow us the Spotify Apple or the apple of your choice. And Lives a nice review of him joining the show. I Mark frantis my thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace Intrigue and good Damns