Kyota.
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Twenty twenty four was a difficult year for the royal family, with King Charles and the Princess of Wales both going public with cancer diagnoses which required lengthy treatment that took them out of the spotlight.
Things have been.
Looking rosier for the family so far this year, and the King is even flexing his diplomatic muscles in a visit to Canada amidst tensions between the country and the United States. However, in recent weeks, the friction between the monarchy and Prince Harry has made headlines once again. Today on the front page four King's Birthday. We're joined by
UK correspondent Gavin Gray. Gavin, we last touched base with you on the Royals a year ago, and that was when the cancer diagnoses were still quite fresh.
Where are the King and Kate at at the moment?
Well, probably the easiest one to start with is Princess Kate, the Princess of Wales, Catherine. She is now formally in remission, so great news for her.
She's been seen out more and more now.
Although I have to say that although she's back in the royal fold doing the duties and back on the roster, as it were, we are seeing much less of her than before the diagnosis. And I think that's a direct result of the thought that actually, you know, this was a very serious bump in the road for her, This was a very very serious health condition. I think it
could have been a lot worse. I think it was extremely serious, and I think it's probably made her and Prince William rather take stock of the situation.
So obviously.
In March twenty twenty four, she announced that she'd been die knows with cancer, and then announced that she was in remission in January of this year.
Since we've seen her.
Out in about a few times, as you can imagine, the scrutiny of her, how she behaves, how she looks as been enormous. So good news as regards her treatment for King Charles, well, he's continuing to have this treatment. That recent trip to Canada, which was only twenty hours long, was actually kept that short, not because he didn't want to stay longer, but because they were determined, I hear, not to want to interrupt the usual schedule of his treatments.
So the treatment is ongoing. He still is, you know, somebody being treated for cancer. Prince Harry didn't really help matters when he said he didn't know how much longer his father had got left, which was something that lots of people were quite shocked about. But there was that bump in the road for him back in March when he did have to cancel a couple of engagements, but that was quite simply because of a side effect to the most recent bout of treatment.
Well this might sound like a grim takeaway, but do you think that the openness about their conditions has perhaps helped humanize the royals a bit more.
I remember stories at the time about how.
There were just massive surges and visits to cancer websites after they both went public.
Yeah, I absolutely have no doubt, Chelsea. Actually that's been enormously important to people. I think it has made the Royals seem much more human, much more like you and I I think, as well, as made these visits that they made to cancer hospitals and to hospitals around the world seem that much more poignant. Both at the moment are so in the public eye. I mean, King Charles is seventy six.
You know, it's.
Exhausting going on travel, it's exhausting chatting to people and remaining on messages it were for all this time, and so I think it is something that his team are very careful.
Not to exhaust him.
But at the same time, he as well, is determined not to let cancer, I think, sort of identify him and not to let the cancer the thing take over his life. And that's why we're seeing him out and about so much and doing many more visits to hospitals than perhaps he might otherwise have done.
Well.
You mentioned the big news in the last week has been that the King and Queen visited Canada.
Can you explain to us what were they doing there?
Well, it was hugely symbolic, actually, because the main focus off his trip was the opening of the State Parliament and delivering the Canadian government's message as delivered by the new Prime Minister, the Liberal Prime Minister there, Mark Carney.
It was an interesting one because of course King Charles's head of state in Canada and his mother had given the previous speech from the throne as it's called, that throne being a wooden walnut throne, and over the years I suppose the ties between Canada and the UK part of the Commonwealth. They've always been pretty close, but I think things have been a little more distant over the
last few years. However, the reason for that trip, without doubt, was the fact that Donald Trump was trying to pressure Canada into becoming the fifty first state. That is something Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, said is not going to happen. But he would have been very pleased to be able to invite King Charles over in order to really round that home. At no point, to my knowledge,
did King Charles actually use the word Trump. But everything in that opening address to the Ottawa Building, the Ottawa Parliament, everything in that address was about Canada being independent, part of the Commonwealth, very happy being Canada, very happy not being for sale to America.
I've always had the greatest admiration for Canada's unique identity, which is recognized across the world, for bravery and sacrifice in defense of national values, and for the diversity and kindness of Canadians.
Well, I guess that's a sign of how the monarchy can utilize itself in these kind of diplomatic sendings. Hey, this is basically the ultimate power move by Mark Kearney. This is the extent of what the Royals can do to show support, though, isn't it. The King would never actually directly call out anything Trump is doing, would he.
Yeah.
And it's a bit of a tightrope though this particular trip because for King Charles, of course, Donald Trump has been invited to be a guest of King Charles and the country later this year.
So King Charles really very difficult trope.
Walk because he's got to say all the right things for Canada while he's there while not directly angering Donald Trump. Now,
as you say, ros go around naming and shaming. But at the same time, you know, the UK is pretty dependent on good trade with America and it's seen pretty much a soft power to use the Royal family, who we know Donald Trump is a massive fan of in order to try and build bridges, and King Charles very careful in Canada not to destroy any of those bridges before the second visit by Donald Trump over to the UK as part of his second presidential term.
Do you think the visit to Canada will quell any Republican sentiment that seems to arise whenever the Royals tend to visit any of the realms.
Really, it won't have done any harm, that's for sure.
A lot of people interviewed on the streets of Canada are saying things like he's bringing us together.
Hearing from the king has been very good. I think there is a.
Universal dislike of Donald Trump, almost universal in Canada, and certainly an almost universal denial of wanting to be part of America. And by tapping into that and by reinforcing that with this visit, I think that's bound to have
gone down well. Canada is always an interesting one for the king or queen to visit, for any monarch to visit, because of course of its French British ties and being you know that sort of really unusual combination part of the Commonwealth, but you know, very strong French contingent among some of the states in the Canada. So that's a
very difficult balancing act that he's had to walk. But it is one that I think will have strengthen the monarchy's grip as part of the Commonwealth for Canada, and I think it's a I don't think it's been a great trip. I know there's all sorts of talk that the King will revisit Canada, possibly next year.
I think they we're talking about later this year.
I can't see that happening, but next year and then it won't be that whistle stoctor. I mean, a twenty hour visit on a vow of kilometers travel is almost unheard of in royal circus. So I think this is all to do with the cancer and the treatment and not disrupting that the regulation appointments.
But it is something that I.
Know perhaps when that is all over and that treatment is done and Dustin and King Charles is feeling better, he will want to go back for a longer trip.
Well, I have to say as well, Gavin the King did skip New Zealand on his royal visit last year. I know that Odawa is a little closer to London than we are, of course, but have you heard any rumblings of a visit down south.
I do know that he's absolutely desperate to get around as much of the Commonwealth as possibly, particularly the much closer members.
So yes, of course New Zealand.
And I do know at the time from sources he was absolutely gutted actually not to be able to complete the tour, as was initially envisaged, although he didn't make it there this time. I think New Zealand's going to be pretty much top of the list for places for him to visit when he's fully better. I think it is simply the length of the flight's Chelsea at the
age of seventy six as well. I mean, I know they're flying, you know, in the superb luxury and so forth, but when they get there, they're really busy and they can't just turn up at these events without having thought about what they're going to say, without knowing who the main players are. So the idea that it's just a sort of jolly jaunt is rather wide at the mark, and I think that the King is going to be very keen to get back to New Zealand, but only when he can do it justice.
It does feel like two conversations have dominated the royals in recent years. One is, of course, death, illness, succession. The other, Gavin is Prince Harry. About a month ago, Harry gave an interview to the BBC where he said that the King won't speak to him and that he'd love to reconcile with the family now that all went down a bit like a lead balloon, didn't it?
Yeah, it did, and I think reconciliation is a long way wide at the mark. And let's not forget. He made those comments in an interview about how he had failed in an appeal against effectively the British government and that was all about his security level. Now, when he and Megan left back in twenty twenty, they simply decided that they no longer when they revisited the UK were entitled to the same level of protection as they were when they were a working royal. Now Prince Harry has said, look,
I get the most awful hate mail. You don't appreciate how dangerous it is for me and my family, And the Roles are saying, well, it's not like we're not going to give you any protection. We're going to give you the protection which we think is adequate for your
individual visits and each visit is measured independently by this committee. Well, Harry lost his appeal again a louder another hearing with regardless security, and we got a very terse statement from the Royals at Buckingham Palace effectively saying we've looked at all this time and again the review has come back with the same conclusions that it did. It sounded like a very weary parent and that's why I think reconciliation
is still wider than mark. It was a very odd time to bring it in, having just tried to sort of talk about how the government and needs to do more and how Buckingham Palace is a bit of a broken machine.
I've seen constituents in the UK rights to their mp saying I don't want to as a taxpayer, I don't want to pay for Megan and Harry's security at this cost. They're literally quoting headlines from British newspapers. Those figures are
obviously grossly exaggerated by about eighteen nineteen times. And further to that, if you know that other people being protected, people that have made a choice for public office, would you'd be comfortable happy with with with someone in my position who's given thirty years thirty five years so this to his country.
Well, Harry in that interview also alleged that his father could help resolve the security issues that he says are preventing him from returning to the UK. And you mentioned that quite terse weary parentage kind of Buckingham Palace statement that they said, all of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts. How high up does a statement like that need to get signed off?
Wasn't the weary parent that signed that off?
Well, I suspect somebody by the cast an eye on it. But I think if King Charles had demanded there were a change in security, there probably would have been.
But you know, as he as was.
Pointed out by lots of royal watchers and lots of royal experts, myself included, the King can't is not part of the committee that makes the decision. And if that sounds rather administrative and rather the it is the case. I mean, you know, the security and the funding for the roles is not for the royals to decide themselves. It is for others, and King Charles getting involved would
have been, I think a very slippery slip. So he took the attitude that the right people on that committee know what they're talking about, and they are the ones that should make the decision. And I think it really has been another wage between father and son and also
between brothers. Prince William absolutely unimpressed by Prince Harry's constant going back to the courts appealing these decisions, and let's not forget Chelsea who's putting the bill From the government side, the answer is the UK taxpayer, And if Harry wanted to win over people, it just seems a funny way
of doing it. Plus the fact while he was in the UK, admittedly not with Megan and his family, but when he was in the UK he was found or reported to be found in London buzzing a number of front doors trying to find a friend whose address he couldn't remember. Well, if you were really worried about your security, would you really, as a royal somebody worried that they were going to be attacked, would you wander down a busy London street ringing on doorbells to see if your
friend lived there. It seems very odd, But there is video doorbell footage of these exchanges. These videos purport to be from the time he was in London for the court case, so it does seem more I think probably in Harry's defense, what he means is he's worried about the safety of his children and Meghan, among whom There is a lot of.
Scorn from some people at the UK.
But whether it's as realistic and violent as Harry's making out, I don't know. Sadly, he says he can't see a time at the moment when he would bring his children back over to the UK because he doesn't believe the security is enough.
And I do remember a few years ago writing in my piece and I'd put a source in there, and some magazin nurse rang me up and said, can I just double check this? This feels very close to the source. Who's the sauce? And I said the sources X And they're like, ah, okay, So you have to be very careful with how you go about it. And I would say the most important thing in this job, with what you think it is.
Trust Now, Gavin, I often see reports quoting royal sources or royal insiders who are sharing bits of gossip or supposed feelings from a family member of the royal family, someone close to the royal family, and I do I always wonder who these sources are, How real are they are, these proxies for the royals sharing stuff on their behalf or is it like a made eavesdropping on something than dming the Daily Mail.
It's a combination of different things.
First of all, there are tip offs that you get, and they often come from people in and around the starf of Buckingham Palace and the theyre households. There are the communications teams, of course, who put out their statements, but they also too may push a particular story or an angle one way or the other. And Prince Harry was always deeply, deeply against that and thought, you know, it was Prince William's press officer against his press officer
and all the rest of it. It is, and they do tend to work together, after all, they want to maximize the publicity of the good that the roles are doing. It. If they all went on high profile state visits all together, only one of probably the King's visits would make headlines. The others wouldn't get a headline. So they of course they coordinate diaries. Of course they coordinate causes that they
want to support and lend publicity to. But yes, there are those people then I think, frankly, you know, I think there are some people who sit at home and probably make quite a lot up and put it on the internet as though a fact. So I think there's a whole load of combination about these things.
It's been a tumultuous period for the royals.
You've got megxt, the Prince Andrew Epstein controversy, the deaths of the Queen, and of course Prince Philip and the double cancer diagnoses. Does it feel like the monarchy is getting any closer to stability.
I think you're right. I think at the moment it's in a state of flux. And part of that is the uncertainty over the King's health. After all, he's not been that long in the job. And the one thing that you like with stability is a stability of the cast, you know, the main players in the royal family. So it has been now a decade, as you said, Prince Andrew, Prince Harry, the death of Prince Philip, the death of
the Queen. It's been a very very difficult time for the royal family to hold it together, particularly as I said, in the eyes of the public. And it's a very very deeply scrutinizing public and deeply scrutinizing social media world that we live in. You really can't have any secrets and everybody is watching your remove and I think we're seeing that accidentally with Princess Catherine returning to work after
her remission a diagnosis for cancer. About everywhere she goes, you know, the cameras are trying to zoom in and see how she's looking and how has she changed in the last year or so, and that must be very difficult when you've got a she has three young children.
Thanks for joining us, Kevin.
My pleasure. Thank you very much, Chelsea.
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enziherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also a sound engineer.
I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.