Shuter: Prince Harry & Meghan ‘feel completely unleashed’ & refuse to be silent

Remember the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Montecito years? It took them a good four or five years to really get a competent communications team in place to execute a proactive comms strategy. The wilderness-comms years were rough, remember? We were regularly begging Harry and Meghan to issue statements or react to any of the terrible narratives being foisted upon them, and they refused. The real shift was in 2025, when Meghan promoted With Love, Meghan and launched As Ever. It was great – the people working with Meghan for all of that were very smart. Apparently, that was the same team which organized Harry’s 2025 BBC interview, and the subsequent London meeting with King Charles’ senior aides. Well, Harry and Meghan have been trying to bring their “new comms strategy” with them to England. Their team has been reacting to almost everything and giving almost daily briefings to a handful of outlets. All of this has the palace in a panic.

The Palace is bracing for a battle it has no intention of starting. Sources tell Naughty But Nice that Harry and Meghan’s increasingly aggressive strategy of publicly challenging Palace statements has alarmed royal insiders, who fear the Sussexes are prepared to turn every disagreement into another public confrontation.

“Harry and Meghan feel completely unleashed,” a royal source tells Naughty But Nice. “They believe silence failed them before, so now their attitude is: if the Palace says something they don’t like, they will answer. They’re no longer afraid of the consequences.”

But insiders insist King Charles has no intention of being dragged into an endless war of words with his younger son. The King’s strategy is simple: dignity, restraint and silence.

“Charles will not turn the monarchy into a reality show,” says the source. “He isn’t going to respond to every complaint, accusation or perceived slight. The Crown has survived far bigger storms by refusing to wrestle in the mud.”

Prince William, however, is understood to be more protective of the institution — and far less comfortable allowing Harry and Meghan to control the narrative unchallenged.

“William doesn’t want a war, but he also won’t allow the monarchy to become a punching bag,” adds the insider. “If lines are crossed, he believes facts should be corrected quickly and firmly.”

That leaves the Palace facing an extraordinary dilemma: how do you fight opponents determined to engage when your greatest weapon has always been refusing to fight?

“Harry and Meghan want a response,” says the source. “Charles believes the most powerful response may be giving them none.”

[From Rob Shuter’s Substack]
I mean… Charles isn’t staying silent. The palace isn’t staying silent. “Dignified silence” is not Charles’ style. There was the clarification letter, sent out on Monday, and at least a half-dozen briefings to the palace’s friendly reporters pushing back on Team Sussex’s briefings to the Telegraph, the BBC and People Magazine. It’s a legit communications crisis for the palace because the Sussexes are not letting the palace get the last word, nor are the Sussexes allowing the palace to dictate the narrative. That’s what happens when two people are outside the tent, pissing in. This is what they should have been doing for the past eight years. But here we are. A palace in crisis because Harry and Meghan’s comms team is super-chatty.

Photos courtesy of Instar.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

31 Responses to “Shuter: Prince Harry & Meghan ‘feel completely unleashed’ & refuse to be silent”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Jferber says:

    The only thing that will work is if William and Kate are exiled. I don’t care where.

  2. beautifully broken says:

    Yes, please keep slandering the Sussexes, Willy! Harry released all his potential scandals in “Spare” already. We can’t wait to hear the dirt he has on you!

    • Gtwiecz says:

      And as a private citizen, Harry can write any book or make any documentary he wants. And he probably knows things we don’t. He said so himself.

      • Mayp says:

        He needs to wait until he’s back in the US. We have much greater first amendment protections (when making allegations about the Royals) and there are too many embargoes in the UK, or at least England, about William and Kate.

  3. Puff Updater says:

    Hhahahahahaha! DIgnified! Hey Chuckles, we’ve got the vid of you during the Great Pen Tantrum. And let us not forget the Tampon Tapes. What boobs they all are.

    • Megan says:

      Charles picks a fight and then complains he’s stuck in a fight. His logic is dizzying.

    • MaisiesMom says:

      I think the SNL sketch in which Charles completely transforms himself into a tampon with the Queen’s blessing needs to be revisited.

  4. YankeeDoodles says:

    If the “working” royals would just be seen working — just doing regular volunteer work, the likes of which many of us do, week to week — this would not be a story. It would not be a drama. These people are giving an inadvertent and involuntary argument for the demise of the institution. Because it’s not a safety net. It’s supposed to be engaged in social work, and community organising. For lack of better words. Not image management.

    • Chrissy says:

      This! The British public need to assess whether the RF and their so-called work is worth the hundreds of millions of pound entrusted to them to do good works for the benefit of Britons and, if not, abolish the Monarchy and reclaim the assets!

  5. Lady Digby says:

    Once upon a time Charles advised Meghan to hop on a plane and go and see her father and sort it out face to face. Why doesn’t Charles take his own advice and speak to Meghan and Harry face to face and agree an amicable way forward? Isn’t that the adult and mature way of discussion and negotiation because no one wants or needs this drama (apart from the press!?) Give and take, live and let live, generosity, grace, kindness, understanding rather than an exhausting, endless war of briefing attrition which is distracting and damaging? Turf wars or both sides supporting good causes and charitable endeavours? Isn’t it time to come to a reasonable agreement about a mutually beneficial way forward where both parties could win? Surely they are both on the same side as regards public service?
    Perhaps t

  6. Mairzy Doats says:

    If “Charles believes the most powerful response may be giving them none” why, then, did he rush out a statement that he really does support veterans after the Uganda withdrawal from Invictus shortly after the letter was issued?

  7. Andrea says:

    I read an article last week stating the best strategy is for Harry and Meghan not to comment on everything. lol. This move can’t be because British education is superior. I wish they would just state why. Archie and Lili deserve the best education possible and the US would provide that.As an RN I’ve worked with nurses educated in the UK. For those that have been able to be licensed in California and actually get a job have said it was a steep learning curve. My midwife was from New Zealand and educated in the UK, she was a sweet woman but my baby nearly died because I was not tested for Group B Strep. He was in the NICU for a month. This was a decade before I became an RN. I only went home from the hospital to shower, so I was privy to the NICU nurses gossip, all I heard was nurses educated in the were on the level of a CNA with an IV certification. Now I believe that to be true, if higher educationis lacking then what can be said for primary and secondaryschopls!

    • MaisiesMom says:

      I didn’t know this! My daughter is a nurse. Nursing school in the US is very tough.

      • Bqm says:

        Mom of a nurse here too! Nursing programs in the US are no joke. They are rough. Hard to get into and hard to get through.

      • minx says:

        Yes. My daughter is an admissions counselor for the university she attended. Their nursing program is rigorous, in demand and the spots fill up fast. My daughter often deals with disgruntled applicants who applied early, thought they did everything right and still got turned down. But that’s what we want, isn’t it?—qualified nurses.

  8. QuiteContrary says:

    Dignity, restraint and silence — ah, yes, the Windsor way LOL.

    Charles ripped a sink out of a wall once because he lost a cufflink down the drain, he was so “restrained.” And William probably can’t even spell those words.

    • Lady Digby says:

      Dignity always dignity as his wife flashes Mrs Fuzzy at another war memorial and he head butts her in public when she attempts to hold more than his hand! How will the lip reader explain either action as dignity, restraint and silence!

  9. MidnightSuperNova says:

    “Harry and Meghan feel completely unleashed,” a royal source tells Naughty But Nice. “They believe silence failed them before, so now their attitude is: if the Palace says something they don’t like, they will answer. They’re no longer afraid of the consequences.”

    As PRIVATE citizens have a right to…

    *sips tea with pinky up* 🫖

  10. Lauren says:

    This article starts by saying that H&M plan to respond to Palace statements and then spends the rest of the article acting like H&M speak first. Also Charles is primarily to blame for the BRF’s reputation as a trashy reality TV family

    • Lady Digby says:

      Honey to be petty, Chuck started divorce wars briefing before Harry went to Eton! He collaborated with Dumbledore on his memoirs trashing his parents and admitting that he never loved his wife without any thought about impact on close family and his school kids. Oh and he and Dumbledore did a two hour yawnfest to promote said book.

      • MaisiesMom says:

        People seem to forget that Charles published a memoire before Harry did. And he was the Heir. The future King. Harry is fifth in line and almost certainly never will be. I think it’s worse for someone who gets all the benefits of the system to trash it from within.

      • Androsoul says:

        Wasn’t Chucky’s interview with Dimbleby a few years before Diana’s panorama interview? The selective amnesia is annoying

  11. Amy Bee says:

    The Palace thought Harry and Meghan would remain silent like they were forced to do when they were working royals. The Palace failed to realise that time has passed and they don’t have control over Harry and Meghan. They thought that Harry and Meghan would have remained silent when they released that letter.

  12. Becks1 says:

    I mean…..they’ll put down their gun when the palace puts down theirs. Their team is just responding to the palace. so this article makes no sense on its face – first they have an insider saying “if the Palace says something they don’t like, they will answer.” and then the rest of the article is about how poor charles and william dont know what to do when the sussexes wont just let the palace lie about them endlessly.

    Honestly i wonder if part of their return was just the mindset of “they’re going to talk shit about us anyway, so lets just live where we want.”

  13. Brassy Rebel says:

    “Charles will not turn the monarchy into a reality show.” Sorry. That’s all it is in the 21st century. Their best hope of preserving it for the future is to lean into the celebrity culture it has embodied at least since Diana was alive.

  14. bisynaptic says:

    “Charles will not turn the monarchy into a reality show…”
    —AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH…