A confession: I’m enjoying the “secret peace summit” storyline. I trust the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to make the correct choices for themselves and their children, so I’m not worried that they’re about to get shanghaied back to the UK. I pretty much take the “peace summit” at face value – there are conversations happening between representatives for the Sussexes and King Charles, a formal thawing of the relationship between father and son. That’s it. There’s no promise of anything more, but the speculation about the peace summit and what it all means is actually a perfect summer storyline. This is going to be a multi-month back-and-forth narrative and I’m looking forward to it. Anyway, the Sussexes want everyone to know that they didn’t leak any part of the story to the Mail. Duh. The story was leaked to the Mail by their former deputy editor Tobyn Andreae, who attended the peace summit as King Charles’s representative and communications director.
Team Sussex is understood to be frustrated after details of a “peace summit” were revealed in a newspaper, denying it was behind the leak. Senior aides working for the King and Prince Harry took the first steps towards rapprochement by holding sensitive talks last week. The meeting, at a private members’ club in central London, was an extraordinary development in relations between the two Royal households, which have been almost non-existent in recent years.
Details including the venue, timings and nature of the talks were leaked to the Mail on Sunday. This led to the aides being “papped” outside the club and even during the meeting as they enjoyed drinks on a balcony.
The leak has jeopardised the fragile peace operation, creating further suspicion and distrust on both sides and potentially sending them back to square one.
Sources close to Prince Harry insisted that the Sussexes were not responsible, and acknowledged that having the details of the meeting on newspaper front pages was hardly an ideal way to start what they had hoped would be a new period of peace. Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Meredith Maines, the Duke’s new chief communications officer, based in California, was joined at the meeting by Liam Maguire, who runs the Sussexes’ UK-based PR operation, and Tobyn Andreae, the King’s communications secretary. The meeting was orchestrated in a bid to start afresh, with both sides recognising that an open communications channel would benefit them all.
I assume this is Prince Harry publicly underlining everything for everyone in the cheap seats: he didn’t leak this, he didn’t set this up. You can tell that this whole thing is a Buckingham Palace operation because A) other media outlets refuse to acknowledge that Andreae was a long-time Mail editor; B) Harry is currently suing the Mail and he would never “leak” sensitive details to the Mail; and C) it was all perfectly timed as a screw-you to the Waleses, who are being punished by Buckingham Palace and D) the way the photos were set up, it was clear that a photographer had been told the exact time of the meeting and where to set up the camera IN LONDON!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- King Charles II and Camilla Queen Consort with Prince Harry and Meghan Duchess of Sussex The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Gun Carriage Procession, Wellington Roundabout, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724207135, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock/Avalon/Avalon
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- Prince Harry arrives at The Royal Courts Of Justice in London, England, UK on Tuesday 8 April, 2025 for the start of a two day hearing to appeal the decision over his security access at the Appeals Court.,Image: 985031329, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- Prince Harry departs The Royal Courts Of Justice in London, England, UK on Tuesday 8 April, 2025 after attending the start of a two day hearing to appeal the decision over his security access at the Appeals Court.,Image: 985133613, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- Prince Harry departs The Royal Courts Of Justice in London, England, UK on Wednesday 9 April, 2025 after attending the start of a two day hearing to appeal the decision over his security access at the Appeals Court.,Image: 985538956, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- 09-03-2020 Commonwealth Day Celebrations Westminster Abbey 2020
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- USA Rights Only – London, UK -20190404- Celebrities attend the global premiere of Netflix’s Our Planet, held at the Natural History Museum. -PICTURED: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Sir David Attenborough, Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex -PHOTO by: Anwar Hussein/PA Images/INSTARimages.com -42159452.jpg This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Sir David Attenborough, Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 04 Apr 2019 Credit: Anwar Hussein/PA Images/INSTARimages.com **USA Rights Only**
In other words KCIII had no intention of making amends with his youngest son and this was all a ploy to yank William’s chain. Gawd, Harry is on a different continent and time-zone yet, they still find a way to include him in their childish games.
I dunno…I can see Charles wanting peace, but Willy the Nobody becomes incandescent at the thought of Harry being back; I also doubt anything will come of it in any kind of formal way, but Charles set up that meeting, and he had the paps there. I don’t know what it means in this article, “…a screw-you to the Waleses, who are being punished by Buckingham Palace.” For what? Someone please explain…
Ascot, the AWOL, the sheer laziness, “forcing” the heir to attend events such as the Pope’s funeral etc.
Maybe Chuck was messing with William, and Camila was messing with Harry.
Why was a meeting even necessary? Charles can stop being such a dogsh*t parent and pick up the phone and call his son.
I think Charles is worried about his legacy unless there is some resolution to his estrangement. Instead of just calling Harry and doing the right thing, like giving him his security, telling the press to lay off and maybe even giving him back Frogmore. He just want the appearance of reconciliation. He wants to Harry to come back for a visit. Maybe the 1 year before invictus or at invictus, play nice and get a photo op. Basically doing it all for some good press and PR.
Or…could it be some red meat that Meredith handed them to be fed to the sharks (the tabloids/rota) in exchange for a on-background briefing of I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED THAT THIS WAS LEAKED! Both sides win without having to lose face, and Lord Rothemere, who is losing more and more money every day from the DM (read Popbitch for the deets) is learning that the Sussexes will play ball as long as they stop screwing around. Days and days of lucrative headlines. Everybody wins!
Nothing to do with the court case as evidence/discovery for that is finished and won’t affect the outcome
Charles only wants peace for optics. Harry called him out in the BBC interview and everyone knows Charles looks like a shitty father and grandfather. He is only doing it for himself only. He is still a shitty human being. William is a non factor. I think Harry knows his relationship with his brother is done. Harry didn’t even mention him in the BBC interview.
Ginger, I totally agree, with Charles it’s always about how it looks like. Charles is using Harry again to save his reputation and legacy. I do not think that Harry gives a hoot about Willi. I do not think that Harry has any illusion about Willi and their relationship.
It is obvious that for Charles, any relationship with Harry has to include the tabloids and the courtiers. He is incapable of having a normal family relationship without these institutions on his side. He faces Harry as king. It is how he compensates his shortcomings as a father.
The only thing that was secret about that meeting was that it was kept secret from William and his men, LOL.
I kind of love the idea of WIlliam not even knowing about the meeting until it hit the papers.
He has to because out of self-preservation during the War of the Waleses. Diana was winning that war before her untimely death.
His two boys agreed not to do the same until the heir outright lied to his younger brother.
🎯
This is why I dont understand why people cheered for this. It’s obviously a way to manipulate harry. I’m not sure if this whole reconciliation thing is real
There is no need to infantilise Harry. He sent his communications person to have an informal meeting with his father’s communications person. He didn’t rush over to the UK himself to beg for reconciliation. With Invictus coming up there is no harm in opening up the lines of communication in this way.
yeah, I think sussex supporters need to stop assuming that harry doesn’t know what his family is capable of or his father’s motivations.
Meredith Maines knew when they were having drinks on the balcony in full view of the street that there was a chance they would be seen, even if she wasn’t aware that there were photographers clearly already in place. If they had wanted this meeting to be 100% private, there were ways to accomplish that. Both sides knew what they were doing here.
@Becks1….you’re absolutely right. Sometimes we can be as bad as the British press🙄. Harry is a grown azz man who has walked through the fire that is his family. He knows what he’s doing. We need to trust him. Any way….its probably just discussions about invictus.
I get that the Sussexes and their camp might be ‘frustrated’ at the leak but I also imaging a complete lack of surprise that it did leak, they know exactly who they are dealing with and the standard MO of those involved.
I agree that this is a great summer storyline, H&M are having a great life and won’t do anything to jeopardise that. This is them very much on the front foot.
Frustrated? For sure. Surprised? Doubtful. Charles is that old dog who ain’t learning any new tricks. Harry can’t be surprised but is probably privately rolling his eyes at his dad’s games.
Harry’s case against the DM is still scheduled to happen and here’s his dad setting up a pap shot for that very paper. With his current communications secretary who used to work for said tabloid. LOL. Messy.
Exactly – I think harry probably rolled his eyes but isn’t surprised. I just said above – when their team met with charles’ people on a balcony in full view of the street, even if it was at a private club – they knew what might happen.
I think this story is just about Harry’s team wanting to make it clear they didn’t leak it, so that means Charles’ team did. But I think harry knew that was going to happen.
Definitely. It’s a situation of if nothing gets leaked, well wow, great but if something gets leaked, well, yeah to be expected. There will always be a certain level of game-playing in dealing with his dad and the royal institution. Harry knows that. So they were set and ready to confirm that they did not leak the story. Bc there was such a good chance that BP would leak it. And they did.
Sure, Harry’s known about BP leaks for decades and has gotten even more details from his law suits. It was totally expected.
When you’re in bed with the press you have to know that any secret meeting, you Chuckles should know, will not be kept secret. They are the press and your representative Chuckles was at one time the Mails editor. Let the Chuckles was blindsided by this leak commence. You can’t be blindsided by a leak you knew full well was going to happen given your representative involved!
Camilla is displeased KCIII has attempted to circumnavigate her designs and has leaked trying to torpedo even the possibility of her husband reconciling with his child.
Harry has her number too bad Chas has his head in the dirt.
He has the heir he deserves with William (and way to knock the triumphant Wales family return to Wimbledon off the front page – well played Camilla)and any manly bits the King possessed are firmly and securely locked away in Camilla’s purse.
Any possibility Chas tries to reclaim them she tugs them back and wags her finger at him via a “leak” to the press. This one is designed to blame Harry and sew mistrust against Charles. The old divide and conquer strategy. Harry’s hip to it but until Charles pulls his head out, he will continue to believe the Rottweiler’s lies the Sussexes leaked this story….and so it goes…..port Harry. And the British taxpayers who pay for all this…..
This has Camilla’s fingerprints all over it. She’s the only one with a real motive to keep this family she’s helped destroy in tatters.
It’s their standard playbook. The way to scupper progress is to leak it to the press. Charles pretends he wants reconciliation but oh no the press found out so it can’t happen. He did the same with Harry’s attempts to move abroad.
That’s why it was wise of Harry to send his aids and not go personally. Meredith is a professional and used to cut throat boardrooms. She can make sure the Sussexes don’t get shafted like they did with the Sandringham summit. Not getting involved personally means it will be easy for Harry and Meghan to walk away unscathed. They have nothing more to loose where that family is concerned
My first reaction to this story is that if Charles was truly interested in any reconciliation with Harry, he would pick up the phone (or have his lacky do) and call his son. Having intermediaries attempt to broker reconciliation, is not a good reflection on Charles as a father. If that is what it takes, then it doesn’t bode well for the relationship, especially if you’re leaking it to the tabloid media.
And NO Harry is NOT desperately looking to RETURN TO THE ROYAL FOLD!! Sorry trolls!!!
Team Sussex are not idiots. They know BP could never resist leaking. Any plan would have to take this into account. So, of course Team Sussex would deny leaking so as to point to Charles, but I highly doubt they were frustrated.
I mean yeah, duh. Did anyone really say I wonder who leaked this? The person who has a staff member who used to work for the paper that got the scoop or the person that’s actively suing that same paper?!
I’m not worried about the Sussexes being taken advantage of it I’m not sure why so many people seem to think that they are so naive. The days of them taking the word of the courtiers and their family members are clearly over and have been for a long time. Still doesn’t mean that Harry doesn’t genuinely want to reconcile with his father before he dies, which isn’t unreasonable regardless of how from the outside you may think about Charles.
I think this is someone letting Charles know that it doesn’t matter what he wants, Harry is out. Having experienced backstabbing organizations, the supposed all powerful figurehead is rarely as in control as outsiders believe. Courtiers are not running this all by Charles before going to the media. Friends, yes, but not necessarily “the Palace.”
@Tis True Tis True
This.
In a nutshell.
As you say:
“….. the supposed all powerful figurehead is rarely as in control as outsiders believe. Courtiers are not running this all by Charles before going to the media.”
And no one knows this better than H, as he revealed in Spare about the Fly, Wasp and Bee. Those 3 had accrued power onto themselves and had become so drunk on it that they considered themselves to be the monarch, especially while betty was aging out.
Well 2 of that lot are out now but best believe they have been replaced by others who think exactly like them. Its how the british monarchy has survived for 1000 years. The “poor” windsors……poor sods……throughout the generations theyve been merely tools….pawns in the hands of the senior courtiers who really run things. But the greedy lazy windsors and their ancestors went into this with eyes wide open. Theyre the ones who made the calculation that they will gladly trade their soul (and the souls of those further down the LoS) for the perks of the gilded cage.
Harry really and truly put them into uncharted waters when he left. As he said, they always knew M would leave, based on how they were abusing her, but they were shocked and discombobulated when H left with his wife.
And now the institution will never stop hounding the Sussex family until theres a reckoning.
Not a peace summit because they have to acknowledge that the Palaces have been waging the press war against the Sussexes.
The rats like labelling all these as “summits” when they are dysfunctional family members meeting. And this one didn’t even have the family members involved.
This one ain’t the Treaty of Versailles but the rats sure like to exaggerate so they can get more clicks.
The firm needed to feed the tabloids so this is convenient for them, I highly doubt they want any sort of peace with the Sussex’s.
Charles’s office briefed about his first meeting with Lili when he needed to bury corruption stories about his office. Of course, he was gonna use this meeting to bury another story or for some other reason. I would be surprised if Harry didn’t anticipate this. He is still sending his reps over there, probably the end result is more important than giving headlines to the tabloids. I don’t think this is about making peace. Charles can do that with just one phone call, no middleman required. This is security issue most definitely. Someone yesterday mentioned that one of the Sussex reps is working for Invictus.
Charles’ office leaked that he had met Lili because it looked bad that Harry was publicly acknowledging that his children had met the Queen but not him. I still very much doubt that he has ever met Lili – I think the courtiers lied – and I doubt that he has met Archie more than that one time at the christening.
@Magdalena, he shared the details about how emotional the meeting was at the same day the new corruption stories were popping up. Lili stories got more traction as a result. We discussed the timing here, I remember.
Charles is just looking for a positive storyline for himself. Now he can claim that he tried to make peace even if nothing happens. Did he even know about this meeting or is his team just trying to change the storyline. When Charles dies the main thing people will talk about his treatment of Diana and of the Sussexes. No one will care about being ahead of the game on organic farming or any of his legitimately impactful charities. Sorry bud…they won’t.
Chuck’s “impactful charities” funded with decades of forgone duchy tax revenue, and cash from Arab oil sheikhs donated in exchange for… something?
I mean it’s blatantly obvious that BP leaked this to the Mail on Sunday. I’m glad that Harry’s team spoke out about this and it’s been clear for months that William and Kate have fallen out with Charles and Camilla. I hope Harry knows that the only reason Charles is attempting this “reconciliation” is because the situation between the heir and King is not good.
Have the Sussexes said they are frustrated by the leak or is it just another headline made up by the Press.
Perhaps Archie’s old enough to start asking questions about where his grandpas are.
And this is the man he wants a relationship with? You know he will leak it, he leaked it and you still want a relationship? After what he did and still does to your wife. Not my life, not my marriage but yikes. Even if it’s about security it doesn’t make much sense to me. He has denied harry security and hasn’t changed that and if he does he’s not doing it for free. As soon as he’s dead any deal is gone. And if pleasing tabloids is the only way he will have a relationship with you, how is that something worth your time and stress. I guess I can’t relate or understand why you would want a relationship you know is not genuine and is for show. I enjoy that it clearly pissed William off though.
The mistake that many simple-vocab, know-nothings make is in believing that chucky & H’s relationship is defined by the fact that theyre biologically related.
It is not.
This actually works to Harry’s advantage — it’s pretty blatant proof that it’s the palace, not Harry, that leaks to the press. It undermines the palace narrative that it’s Harry who can’t be trusted.
The palace played itself.
“Sources close to Prince Harry insisted that the Sussexes were not responsible, and acknowledged that having the details of the meeting on newspaper front pages was hardly an ideal way to start what they had hoped would be a new period of peace. Buckingham Palace declined to comment.”
— LOLs
I assume that Ms. Maines, who has significant experience, has gamed this out. Hopefully she is playing 3D chess, because that is what is needed in this situation.
Isn’t Harry’s case against The Mail coming up in early 2026?
I hope the Daily Fail’s lawsuit is not in the mix as a condition for reconciliation .
@Is. That so? I very much doubt it. Even if (and it’s a gigantic if) Harry did pull out there’s Elton John Doreen Lawrence and several others involved with that law suit. In that law suit it’s Doreen Lawrence which most surprised the Mail and the one they would most LOVE to drop out. The Mail eavesdropping on a grieving mother behind her back while supposedly supporting her will not play well at all.
Leaking and weaponizing the press is so ingrained in the Palace apparatus they can’t actually do anything with discretion. Harry knows what his family is like and they will never change and will always leak like sieves. At least he came out swinging and letting everyone know he didn’t leak this. Why would he?
The Sussexes don’t leak. Had they wanted to make this public, they would have announced the meeting themselves.
By leaking, Chuckles is trying to make some brownie points with both the rota and those who criticize him for being a dogshit father and an insidious grandparent.
Too little, too late.
Question according to U.K people in the know that balcony where the picture was taking of the aides to Charles and Prince Harry and Meghan is on a inside courtyard of the club. It’s not facing the street and could only be taken by someone in the club that had access to that courtyard. This is how stupid these aides to the RF are.
Are they frustrated, they don’t really leak their feelings to the press, esp the British ones. Or Just another speculation for the tabs to get clicks, impressions and engagements for mentioning H and M. I mean if one looks at numbers they have way more clicks and views than the leftovers.