Tag: MEGHAN

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Prince Harry, Meghan “evicted” from their Windsor home

Harry and Meghan won't return as working royals.(photo:Instagram)

Charles, who has long favoured a slimmed down monarchy, is currently undertaking an overhaul of funding…reports Asian Lite News

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are being evicted from their home on the British royal family’s Windsor estate, leaving them without a UK base, reports said on Wednesday.

Frogmore Cottage, which they refurbished at a reported cost of £2.4 million ($2.9 million), had been a wedding present from the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2018.

It has now been offered to Prince Andrew, King Charles III’s disgraced brother, reports in the The Sun and Daily Telegraph said.

Harry and Meghan, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were reportedly told to vacate the property in January just days after the publication of the prince’s tell-all memoir “Spare”.

Charles, who has long favoured a slimmed down monarchy, is currently undertaking an overhaul of funding.

A possible axing of Andrew’s £250,000-a-year grant could see him forced out of his current residence, the 30-room Royal Lodge, also on the Windsor estate, due to its massive upkeep costs.

Harry and Meghan moved to California in 2020 after dramatically quitting royal life.

Since then, they have taken part in a string of projects — from an interview with Oprah Winfrey to a Netflix documentary — airing grievances about their experiences as members of the British royal family.

Harry’s autobiography “Spare” smashed sales records when it was published in January, but also saw his popularity ratings slump.

Andrew was forced out of public life over his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Last year Andrew settled a US civil case for sexual assault with accuser Virginia Giuffre. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the reports. A representative for the Sussexes was not immediately available.

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Meghan says she was ‘fed to the wolves’

UK royals had a problem with Meghan's acting career, reveals doc series

After the trailer shows Harry describing “institutional gaslighting”, the footage cuts to Meghan saying: “I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves.”…reports Asian Lite News

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, said she was “fed to the wolves”, and Prince Harry discusses “institutional gaslighting” in a new trailer for part two of their highly-anticipated Netflix docuseries, which airs on Thursday, reports CNN.

The series, which has put Harry and Meghan in the firing line of supporters of the British royal family, has attracted worldwide attention because of its potential to embarrass King Charles III, Queen Consort Camilla and Prince William.

In the clip, which was released on Monday, Prince Harry discusses stepping back from royal duties and ponders what might have happened to the couple “had we not got out when we did”. Meghan adds a controversial note when she says: “Our security was being pulled. Everyone in the world knew where we were.”

According to CNN, in what appears to be a video shot on board the flight of the Sussexes to the US, Harry smiles and says: “We are on the freedom flight”.

After the trailer shows Harry describing “institutional gaslighting”, the footage cuts to Meghan saying: “I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves.”

Harry adds: “They were happy to lie to protect my brother (Prince William), they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.” However, he stops short of identifying who “they” refers to in the short teaser.

But, according to the BBC, there is some confusion about the most controversial and headline-grabbing moment in the trailer, with its reference to lying to protect Prince William.

The commentary from Prince Harry claims: “They were happy to lie to protect my brother”, but without saying who “they” were or the context in which Prince William was being protected.

Another version of the same Netflix trailer, notes the BBC, seems to suggest an explanation — with a different subtitle for the same commentary that says: “The British media are happy to lie to protect my brother.”

The voiceover doesn’t change, but it might suggest that the context is going to be a more generalised attack on the press, rather than a more damaging accusation against an individual or the royal family.

Netflix, adds the BBC, has been approached for a response about the differences in this key moment between the two trailers, one on YouTube and the other on the Netflix website.

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‘Royals had a problem with Meghan’s acting career’

UK royals had a problem with Meghan's acting career, reveals doc series

In the docuseries, according to ‘Variety’, Harry says: “I think we all now know that [Diana] was deceived into giving the interview, but at the same time she spoke the truth of her experience.”..reports Asian Lite News

The first three episodes of ‘Harry & Meghan’, the highly-anticipated Netflix docuseries about Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, dropped on Thursday after a frenzy of speculative reporting in the British media about the content and how damaging it would be for King Charles III and Prince William, reports ‘Variety’.

None of the royal family members agreed to be interviewed for the series, which contains a number of revelations on the Harry-Meghan love story — they met over Instagram and Harry was late for his first date! — and also about the early bumps in their relationship with the family.

The first three episodes, however, do not contain anything that may upset the royal family, but it carries footage from Princess Diana’s controversial ‘Panorama’ interview with the now-disgraced BBC journalist Martin Bashir, which, ‘Variety’ notes, is “likely to anger” the Prince of Wales.

It emerged last year that the interview had been secured via fraudulent means. Earlier this year BBC publicly apologised to William and Harry, and donated the $1.6 million it earned from the interview. Prince William had then said: “It is my firm view that this ‘Panorama’ programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again.”

In the docuseries, according to ‘Variety’, Harry says: “I think we all now know that [Diana] was deceived into giving the interview, but at the same time she spoke the truth of her experience.”

In another segment, Harry says that male family members were unsympathetic about the intense press intrusion into his and Meghan’s lives because their spouses had suffered the same.

“Some of the members of the family were like, ‘But my wife had to go through that’,” Harry says. ” ‘So why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?’ And I said the difference here is the race element.”

Harry and Meghan also reveal it was Meghan’s career as an actor — at the time she was appearing in the long-running legal drama series ‘Suits’ — that was one of the “biggest problems” for the royals. Unnamed members of the family reportedly predicted to Harry that the relationship wouldn’t last.

The couple share intimate details about how they met and the first time Meghan met Harry’s relatives, including William and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, as well as her first interaction with Queen Elizabeth.

Meghan, repeating an anecdote from her interview with Oprah Winfrey last year, says the meeting with the Queen was sprung upon her unexpectedly, with Harry asking her on the drive to Windsor Castle whether she knew how to curtsy.

“How do you explain that to people?” Harry says to the series helmer Liz Garbus. “How do you explain that you need to bow to your grandmother? And that you would need to curtsy, especially to an American. Like, that’s weird.”

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Harry and Meghan hint Palace ‘leaked, planted’ stories against them

HARRY AND MEGHAN

The series, which is directed by ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ helmer Liz Garbus, promises an intimate account of the couple’s courtship — and unprecedented access to their tumultuous years as senior royals…reports Asian Lite News

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are about to pull back the curtain on their love story and subsequent retreat from life as working royals for a global audience, reports ‘Variety’. (And looking at the trailer, it seems quite apparent that the six-part Netflix documentary series may not amuse the UK royals.)

Netflix revealed on Monday that the series will premiere in two installments — the first volume of three episodes will drop on December 8, followed by a second batch of three episodes on December 15.

The series, which is directed by ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ helmer Liz Garbus, promises an intimate account of the couple’s courtship — and unprecedented access to their tumultuous years as senior royals.

In the second trailer, released on Monday, Markle says at one point, according to ‘Variety’: “I realised, ‘They’re never gonna protect you’.” She was presumably referring to the royal family.

In the minute-long trailer, Markle and Harry seem to indicate that the British media was supportive of the couple until they were married, at which point things changed. “And then [snaps fingers],” says Markle in an interview with Garbus. “Everything changed,” adds Harry.

“There’s a hierarchy in the family,” he continues. “You know, there’s leaking, but there’s also planting of stories.” Towards the end of the trailer, the Duke of Sussex says: “No one knows the full truth. We know the full truth.”

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Harry-Meghan’s love story doc trailer released

Harry, Meghan

Markle, a former ‘The Suits’ star, in an interview to camera, adds: “When the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?”..reports Asian Lite News

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are about to pull back the curtain on their love story and subsequent retreat from life as working royals, reports ‘Variety’.

After months of mystery, Netflix released a first-look trailer for the highly anticipated documentary series on Thursday.

The project, directed by ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ helmer Liz Garbus, promises an intimate account of the couple’s courtship — and unprecedented access to their tumultuous years as senior royals. (‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’, incidentally, is a 2015 documentary on the life and music of legendary singer and activist Nina Simone.)

In the trailer, which shares an array of romantic photos of the couple but none with their two kids, Garbus is heard asking, “Why did you want to make this documentary?” to which Harry responds — in voiceover — “No one knows what’s happening behind closed doors,” ‘Variety’ reports.

“I had to do everything I could to protect my family,” Harry says.

Markle, a former ‘The Suits’ star, in an interview to camera, adds: “When the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?”

The 50-second trailer, according to ‘Variety’, which is set to dramatic music and features a flash of Markle and Harry looking at one point visibly emotional during an interview, doesn’t provide a release date for the series, which is merely described as “coming soon”.

Royal watchers and the couple’s supporters will no doubt take note of the timing of the trailer release, which comes just one day after a member of Britain’s royal household, now identified as Lady Susan Hussey, resigned after making offensive remarks to a Black guest at Buckingham Palace during a private event hosted by Queen Consort Camilla. According to ‘Variety’, Ngozi Fulani, a British-born charity head, detailed on Twitter an uncomfortable exchange between herself and a “Lady SH”, revealing that the latter had repeatedly asked her where she “really came from”, to which Fulani kept repeating she was born in Britain. Hussey was Queen Elizabeth II’s lady-in-waiting

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Tom Bower’s audio book reveals startling facts on Meghan

According to Bower: “The tension troubled Kate when she arrived with Charlotte, her three-year-old daughter, at a fitting for the bridesmaids’ dresses.”…reports Asian Lite News

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has garnered the media spotlight for various reasons since her marriage to Prince Harry, younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. She is grabbing eyeballs for her differences with the other members of the British Royal Family, her fashion choices and so on.

Tom Bower’s recent audiobook Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors’, reveals some interesting and startling facts from the life of Meghan. Here are a few anecdotes from the audiobook:

“Meghan did not feel the same towards Kate. Within a short time, she complained that Kate had not adequately welcomed her.”

As both Meghan and Kate come from different family backgrounds and have a different outlook or values, they don’t come across having very good terms with each other. So, there were certain differences like about following the dress code as per the royal traditions.

According to Bower: “The tension troubled Kate when she arrived with Charlotte, her three-year-old daughter, at a fitting for the bridesmaids’ dresses.”

As per the audiobook, there was disagreement between the two regarding whether the bridesmaids should wear tights or not for the wedding. “Following the protocol, Kate believed they should. The Californian was uninterested in royal tradition. By then, Kate was also irritated by complaints of Meghan bullying her staff. That disagreement was followed by an argument about the length of Charlotte’s hem. Kate thought it was too short, and anyway did not fit,” adds Tom.

This escalated when Melissa Toubati, Meghan’s assistant, and the dress-fitters employed by Givenchy’s Clare Waight Keller, witnessed Meghan emphatically reject Kate’s observation. “The stand-offs, Kate decided, confirmed the complaints by Toubati and other members of staff about Meghan, Kate burst into tears.”

This doesn’t end here. “After leaving that unhappy scene, Kate decided to make amends. She crossed the Kensington Palace corridor and presented Meghan with a bunch of flowers. Kate also told Meghan not to speak rudely to her staff. That’s unacceptable.’ What followed can never be irrefutably established. In Kate’s version, Meghan slammed the door in her face and threw the flowers in a dustbin. Meghan would tell Oprah Winfrey that the tears were shed by her, not Kate, and the flowers were an apology. I think that’s where everything changed,’ Meghan rightly said.”

Kirstie Allsopp, a friend of Camilla, would later confirm that Kate was reduced to tears by Meghan bullying her staff.

“To please Harry, the Queen agreed to ditch centuries of tradition. Meghan would be fast-tracked into the Royal Family before the wedding.”

In the book, Bower describes the first meeting between the Queen and Meghan in great detail.

He says: “Two weeks after the Invictus Games ended on 12th October, Harry introduced Meghan to the Queen in Buckingham Palace. Over tea and sandwiches, the monarch formally approved her grandson’s engagement.”

He further shares: “The 91-year-old had no choice. Apparently, she had already met Meghan in Windsor Park. In a fleeting, unexpected encounter, Meghan would claim to have performed an unrehearsed botched curtsey. During the formal meeting in the Palace, Harry would describe how the Queen’s corgis, who had for the previous 33 years barked at him, lay at Meghan’s feet and wagged their tails. Meghan described the scene as very sweet’.”

“Harry’s request for his own office or court to build the Sussex brand of philanthropy and humanitarianism, separate from Buckingham Palace but financed by the Queen and the taxpayer, was rejected.”

Furthermore, Bower mentions various instances where Harry tried to fulfil Meghan’s demands that were at certain times against the norms of the royal family’s protocols.

He mentions: “A few months after the wedding, Harry asked the Queen’s permission to leave Nottingham Cottage and establish their lives beyond Buckingham Palace’s control. To accommodate her grandson, the Queen agreed that the couple should be allocated the Frogmore cottages on the Windsor estate. Although it was hard to believe that Meghan wanted to live 25 miles from London and under the Heathrow flight path, builders were contracted to rapidly convert the five dilapidated units into a luxury five-bedroom house.”

The audiobook mentions how the line was drawn, but Harry’s demands were still met. “On the Queen’s orders, he was told that he would be allocated a small office inside Buckingham Palace – and under the Queen’s supervision. While William had his own organisation, Harry was sidelined. The decision was supported by Charles.”

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Royals not to release Markle ‘bullying’ probe details

Meghan and Harry shocked the royal family when they accused unnamed members of racism during an interview with US talk show star Oprah Winfrey…reports Asian Lite News

The details of a probe into allegations of bullying by the Duchess of Sussex against royal family staff will not be published despite its outcome leading to reform in the palace’s administration, according to a senior family source.

Buckingham Palace launched an investigation last year and gathered testimony from staff about their experiences of working for Meghan, before she and husband Prince Harry quit frontline duties in January 2020.

During a briefing on the annual royal finances report, published Thursday, a senior palace source said the details would remain hidden to protect the privacy of those who took part.

“Because of the confidentiality of the discussions we have not communicated the detailed recommendations,” they said.

“The recommendations have been incorporated within policies and procedures wherever appropriate, and policies and procedures have changed.”

Meghan and Harry shocked the royal family when they accused unnamed members of racism during an interview with US talk show star Oprah Winfrey.

She denied the bullying allegations, which first emerged in March 2021, just before the Oprah interview, and called them “a calculated smear campaign”.

The allegations and the interview deepened a crisis for the family, which has been hit by revelations about Prince Andrew’s links to late billionaire financier and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Relations between Harry and his father Prince Charles have reportedly been strained, but a royal source said he had a “very emotional” first meeting with his granddaughter Lili earlier this month.

Harry and Meghan were low-key attendees at the queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, jetting in from California with their children Lili, aged one, and Archie, aged three.

Charles’s charitable foundation is currently under investigation for an alleged cash-for-honours scandal.

Separately, the Sunday Times last weekend reported Charles had accepted £2.5 million ($3 million) in charitable donations from Qatari former prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani in carrier bags and holdalls.

The royal source said at the Wednesday briefing the cash was “passed immediately to his charities”.

“For more than half a decade, with the situation as it has evolved, this has not happened and it would not happen again,” the source added.

The briefing was held as the family released its 2021/22 report on the Sovereign Grant, which pays for the monarch’s official duties and upkeep of royal palaces.

The report showed the pandemic was still curtailing the family’s earning power, with income below 50 percent of pre-coronavirus levels as public visits to palaces took a hit.

Keeper of the Privy Purse Michael Stevens warned that the family finances were also likely to be squeezed by rising prices.

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Harry and Meghan voice concern to Spotify over Covid-19 misinformation

Rogan has stirred controversy with his views on the pandemic, government mandates and vaccines to control the spread of the coronavirus…reports Asian Lite News

Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have expressed their concern to Spotify about COVID-19 misinformation on its platform and are committed to continuing to work with the company, a spokesperson for their Archewell foundation said on Sunday.

Singer-song writers Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are removing their music from Spotify in protest that the popular streaming service has allowed the airing of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

Harry and Ms Meghan signed a series of corporate deals, including producing and hosting podcasts for Spotify, as part of their efforts to make a living following their split with Britain’s royal family announced in 2020.

“Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of rampant disinformation every day. Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform,” the spokesperson said.

“We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis. We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does.”

The Swedish company has previously said it worked to balance” both safety for listeners and freedom for creators” and had removed more than 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid-19 in accordance with its “detailed content policies.”

Young objected to his music being played on the same platform as Joe Rogan’s top-rated podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience”. Rogan has stirred controversy with his views on the pandemic, government mandates and vaccines to control the spread of the coronavirus.

Earlier this month, 270 scientists and medical professionals signed a letter urging Spotify to take action against Rogan, accusing him of spreading falsehoods on the podcast.

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Harry, Meghan announce birth of baby girl

According to Variety, Lili was born on Friday, June 4 at 11:40 am at the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California…reports Asian Lite News.

Members of the Royal Family of Britain congratulated Duke Prince Harry and Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, for the birth of their daughter, Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.

“Congratulations to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the birth of Lilibet Diana! The Queen, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall and The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted with the news. Lilibet is Her Majesty’s 11th great-grandchild,” tweeted The Royal Family.

According to Variety, Lili was born on Friday, June 4 at 11:40 am at the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. At the time of birth, representatives for the couple told Lili weighed 7 lbs 11 oz., and that both mother and child are in healthy condition, settling in at home.

“Congratulations to Harry, Meghan and Archie on the arrival of baby Lilibet Diana. Wishing them all well at this special time,” tweeted the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Credits (IANS)

His brother and Duke of Cambridge Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton also congratulated Harry and Meghan.

“We are all delighted by the happy news of the arrival of baby Lili. Congratulations to Harry, Meghan and Archie,” tweeted the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Lili has been named after her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, whose family nickname is Lilibet. Lili’s middle name, Diana, is in honour of her late grandmother, the Princess of Wales.

Meghan and Harry officially stepped down from their roles as senior royals last year. Since last summer, they have been living with Archie in their new home in Southern California. Lili joins older brother Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, who was born in 2019. (ANI)

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