Does the royal family understand the depth of clownery coming out of Kensington Palace these days? Prince William and Kate’s short-sightedness, vindictiveness and pettiness will be the end of the monarchy. That’s been my biggest takeaway from the appeal hearing for the Duchess of Sussex’s successful lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday: Jason Knauf, William and Kate clearly have not thought this through. Their aim was to smear Meghan and help the Mail – that’s why Jason Knauf was authorized to break his NDA and provide an incomplete account of Meghan. This has opened up a can of worms and (to mix metaphors) there’s no way of unringing that bell.
At the moment, the Cambridges (and perhaps the whole Windsor clan) believe that they’re closely controlling the message about Meghan in this saga. Which is why “royal sources” ran to Roya Nikkah at the Sunday Times for this article. According to those royal sources, Meghan’s appeal is going poorly and she should have known better, because she was warned about all of this. Nevermind that Meghan literally won the summary judgment and one of the Cambridges’ longest-serving senior aides went to the Mail to trash Meghan and help the Mail’s appeal!! Some highlights from this insane Times story:
On Meghan’s Finding Freedom apology: Harry and Meghan previously denied any collaboration with the authors of Finding Freedom but a source said “a lot more” could emerge on “what was briefed for the book” if the case proceeds.
The Windsors are frustrated: The royal family is frustrated by the fallout from the case and Meghan’s decision, backed by Harry, to take legal action. A royal source said: “There is frustration all the way to the top, because a lot of people told them that it was unwise to proceed with the case. Now you have been found out. They [the royal family] will think they should never have taken it to court.”
How dare the Sussexes go with outside lawyers: One of the royal family’s most trusted lawyers, Gerrard Tyrrell, and several senior Sussex aides attempted to dissuade them. A royal source said: “Before Harry and Meghan pulled the trigger, we wanted to walk them through what it would look like if it went all the way and face up to that.” The advice fell on deaf ears and the couple turned to Schillings, a firm known for its aggressive tactics on behalf of celebrity clients.
Charles wants people to know he didn’t “berate” anyone: Sources close to Charles said he was unlikely to give family members specific advice on handling the media, suggesting he would be “sympathetic to the issue, but not didactic about the solution”.
On the whole Finding Freedom debacle: A palace aide said: “Perhaps this gives them the understanding of why the royals don’t like to get into court cases. It’s not like this wasn’t going to happen. There is no gleeful dancing about it, nobody is wearing the “told you so” T-shirt, they are family members, but in the long run this is probably why you don’t want to get involved.”
This is the endgame, to make Meghan sound like a liar who lied about everything: Another royal source said: “If you can’t trust the witness evidence of a member of the royal family, if that unravels, then you’re b*****ed. To anyone who follows their story closely, it’s obvious that if she didn’t tell the whole story in court, and got caught out, of course it casts doubt on anything she has said. A lot of us who follow it closely know a lot of what she said to Oprah [Winfrey] wasn’t true.”
[From The Sunday Times]
Again, because it’s absolutely worth emphasizing: Meghan won the summary judgment back in February. She WON. The only reason why the royals are now gloating about how terrible this is for bad-decision-maker Meghan is because Jason Knauf – who is STILL EMPLOYED BY THE ROYALS – decided to trash his former boss and break his own contractual NDA. You can’t argue that Meghan should have known that “it would all come out” when you’re the people releasing the (highly selective) information about her!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and WENN.
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