The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have formed their own “rota” system of British, American and international reporters. The Sussex rota gets briefings from Prince Harry and Meghan’s team, often on background, and the rota also gets updates on Harry and Meghan’s schedules (mostly Harry’s schedule). Team Sussex has handed out details about Harry’s public events and itinerary in advance several times already since the Sussexes’ UK return. Well, it turns out that Team Sussex gave a detailed itinerary to Nottingham Live last Wednesday, the day before the Sussexes visited Nottingham. The outlet published the “minute by minute” schedule. Guess who’s mad about it? Becky English, the head of the royal rota and the Daily Mail’s main royal reporter. Fun sidenote: no Mail reporter has been included in the Sussex rota, probably because the Mail’s Australian branch published the Sussexes’ embargoed itinerary when they visited Australia this past spring.

On the latest episode of the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential, Royal Editor Rebecca English and a panel of royal experts discuss Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s quasi-royal tour of Nottingham, their first joint public engagement since returning to Britain in August.

Last Thursday, the Sussexes returned to the city where, nearly nine years ago, they made their first official appearance as an engaged couple, this time visiting three charities with which they have longstanding links.

The day before the Sussexes arrived, local news website Nottingham Live published a detailed itinerary of their tour, revealing exactly where the couple would be and when. English told the show that such a ‘blow-by-blow’ account published in advance was highly unusual, explaining that timings for royal engagements are never released beforehand because of security concerns.

Police were forced to intervene during the visit when crowds blocked Harry and Meghan’s car, Hello! Reported. As private citizens, the Sussexes are responsible for managing and promoting their own events. English said she suspected the couple’s own team had released the itinerary.

‘In light of what Harry and Meghan have said about serious concerns over their security, you have to question it,’ she argued. ‘Why are they doing this? They clearly want the crowds there. Are they trying to provoke a situation where there is an incident by encouraging people to come down there, and then saying afterwards: ‘Look, we didn’t have the police, we can’t handle it’? They are encouraging people to go down there. None of this makes sense unless, of course, you are quite suspicious of their motives. Why are Harry and Meghan doing it? It really does make me question their motives.’

Senior Editor-at-Large Richard Kay agreed with English that it was ‘hard not to be cynical’ about the Sussexes’ motives, given Harry’s determination to have his security reinstated.

Harry lost his automatic taxpayer-funded protection in 2020, after stepping back as a working royal and moving abroad. The decision was based partly on the fact that he would no longer be living in Britain full time. With the Sussexes now back in the country, a new review of whether the taxpayer should fund their protection is back under way.

‘Things could easily get out of hand,’ Kay said. ‘How useful that would be in Harry’s ongoing debate about how he wants his full-time security reinstated. It’s hard not to be cynical about that process.’

[From The Daily Mail]

My honest-to-god guess is that Nottingham Live probably did the same thing the Mail did in Australia – published something which was supposed to be embargoed information, a not-for-publication detailed itinerary which was only supposed to be shared with members of the press. That makes the most sense logically. It would also make sense for a Mail reporter to throw a tantrum after another outlet stole their whole “thing.”

I also find all of the twisting, turning and wailing on the Sussexes’ security issue to be so f–king stupid at this point, especially because by ALL indications, Harry stopped caring. It’s clear that the Sussexes’ plans in the UK are not contingent on police protection, which is still absolutely bonkers to me. Their risk assessment is still being slow-walked, and I don’t even believe that Harry and Meghan will get any kind of firm answer for months. And when the answer is “nope,” they’ll still stick around. Even without the Nottingham Live issue, Team Sussex announced this visit days ahead of time and clearly wanted their supporters to show up. Which is honestly a whole other security conversation.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.