Since November 2018, when some aspects of the British news media went overboard with their all-out disgraceful frontal assault on the Duchess of Sussex, most of her supporters have equally taken up ‘arms’ to defend her, which is understandable and well appreciated.
There are those who think the Monarch or Prince Charles should have shown their support in public as a sign of support to warn off the news media. It has been said Buckingham Palace issued statements of denials on behalf of the Duke of York when his infamous case came up and would not do that for the Duchess of Sussex. The problem with that is that did not come from the Monarch.
After Prince Andrew left the Royal Airforce all those years ago, the Monarch agreed to him setting up his office at Buckingham Palace. He has a full staff, including media-savvy people. They have operated since the middle of the nineties. When they issue press releases, like the recent denials, they are described as coming from Buckingham Palace, which is technically true, but not from the Monarch.
It is the same as the Sussexes do now, issue statements of upcoming events through their Instagram account, but also as announcements coming from Buckingham Palace as general press releases. On the outside looking in, one would think that would come from the Monarch, but as their offices are now based in Buck House, they come from the Sussexes. The Monarch has a particular way of issuing official statements. She has never issued denials, not for her children or anyone else.
The Cambridges and the Sussexes shared Royal Foundation based at Kensington Palace until the breakup, which is semi-autonomous from Buckingham Palace. It is still autonomous even after the change by the Cambridge. They issue their own media releases of whatever without any reference to Buckingham Palace. There, they practice the dark arts of trying to destabilise the Sussexes. They also use it to promote the lazy and ‘not much of a clue’ Cambridges. I have no earthly idea what they do, maybe their supporters do.
Prince Charles and his wife have Clarence House. Contrary to what some have said, he is a very keen supporter of the Duchess. She is her daughter in law after all and a grandfather to her adorable son, Master Archie. There is nothing he can do to stop the dirty brigade concoct their stories. He has been a victim himself of their wretched stories since the seventies. He has taken all those in his stride and only sued in the naughties when a tabloid quoted extensively from his private diary. They still print inaccurate stories about him.
I do remember seeing Princess Anne, now Princess Royal, being harassed almost daily when she was in her early twenties by the tabloids until after her second marriage. She, at one point in her twenties, swore in public at a silly harassing journo out of frustration. She has been left alone these years because she is a grandmother and kept her head down to concentrate on her charities. Besides, there are younger royal women now for the journos to keep their dirty minds at work.
When Diana, Princess of Wales started getting flack from the tabloids and conservative newspapers and commentators, well before her divorce from Prince Charles, the Monarch did not say or do anything in public. After divorce and officially detached from the Royal Family, nothing really was said or done in public about Diana, Princess of Wales. Immediately after her death, the Queen took her sweet time to respond until a wave of criticism from the public, and some newspapers forced her to return to London from Scotland to discuss the burial arrangements.
In all of the travails about the Royal Family, never did the Monarch raise concerns with the proprietors or editors of those newspapers. When her youngest son, Prince Edward, married, his wife Sophie became the latest victim of tabloid harassment. She was working as a Public Relations practitioner at the time of courting and after marriage. The tabloids, as they do with any new royal wife, decided to entrap her with a business proposal from a fake Arab businessman and succeeded. That caused a big scandal, which forced Countess Wessex to quit her profession.
[thetig_ad1_widget]
What we have to know and understand is that the Monarch, as the Head of State, cannot and will not call in newspaper editors to read the riot act to them because of their disagreeable behaviours. Nor would she intervene. She did not do that for her sister Princess Margaret, who was also under considerable tabloid harassment until her death. She has to be seen as caring for all the citizens of the United Kingdom and not only her family. We have freedom of the media, and nothing can detract from that.
The fortunate way forward for the Sussexes is, they are under no obligation not to respond to any misinformation or lies about them. They have their own office and great staff, even though not as semi-autonomous as the Cambridges, but have full rights to defend themselves vigorously. They can sue, as they have done recently, or complain to the UK Press accountability authority for redress. They have not done much of it in the past but hopefully would respond hard where possible in the future. The Cambridges use that right to quash even the mere rumour of a botox or the serious case of an affair with a friend’s wife.
There is no such thing as a courtier. The staff at the various palaces have titles. There are senior and junior staff members. The royal reporters would not talk to the Monarch’s senior titled officials. Even the middle and lower-ranked officials would be careful to talk to the dirty brigade. They swore to the official Secret Act.
Prince Charles has his bugbears with the dirty brigade for as long as fifty years. His office hardly issues press release to the news media, unless he is traveling or doing something about his Duchy business. His officials would not dare betray the Sussexes, while in the employment of the Prince. So no so-called ‘courtiers’ or ‘insiders’ here.
We are left with the only palace dwellers that have image problems to worry in the ‘battle’ for ratings of British public opinion, although that should not have been the case, as there is no competition for the throne from the Sussexes. Kensington Palace of the Cambridges is an extension of the dirty brigade, where they plan fake stories about the Duchess and leak to their favourite journos. The Duchess’s tabloid problems have mainly emanated from Kensington Palace, not from anywhere else.
The position of the Monarch and Prince Charles is not an excuse for anyone to lie and abuse a pregnant woman, who is new to the country. The Sussexes, at least now, do have the tools to defend themselves from any quarter. They do not have to use their valuable time to destroy anyone but deploy it to the benefit of those without. They have been doing that successfully since they got engaged. When someone in the papers snort at their charity endeavours or says something silly on television, says much about them than about the Sussexes.
[thetig_ad2_widget]