Will commercial pressures force Harry to break his promise to the Queen? And will Andrew face boos at the Jubilee? We discuss all this and more in our must-watch royal talk show.
Reports this week suggest that Prince Harry’s long-awaited memoirs could be delayed. This follows news that the pair are under pressure from Netflix and Spotify to deliver on their multimillion-dollar commitments.
The Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English says that since signing their big deals the media companies have ‘precious little to show for it’.
‘I think it’s fair to assume that there will be a lot of pressure on them to produce,’ she tells Palace Confidential. ‘How much this will ratchet up the pressure on them to talk about their time as members of the Royal Family? To talk about what it was like to be part of the institution of the monarchy – which are things that Harry promised his grandmother he wouldn’t do?’
Meanwhile, there has been shock at the news that Prince Andrew intends to take some part in the Order of the Garter ceremony as part of his mother’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Given the reasons for his stepping down from royal duties, Rebecca English believes that he is taking a risk: ‘It’s the first time we’ll see him reacting up close and personal, reacting with members of the public. Could he even be booed?’
The Daily Mail’s Diary Editor Richard Eden says he was ‘shocked’ by the news.
‘The prospect of him, parading through Windsor in his velvet finery and feathers, my goodness! It’s horrendous, he should be playing no part in public life and certainly not for the Royal Family,’ he tells the programme. ‘Let’s hope wise counsel prevails and he is persuaded not to take part.’
Meanwhile royal biographer Robert Hardman, whose latest book Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II is out now, says that the buggy used by Her Majesty at the Chelsea Flower show this week should answer the ‘constant preoccupation with her health’.
‘I would turn it around and say “isn’t it amazing the amount of stuff she’s doing, not what she’s not doing”,’ he says. ‘To be well into your tenth decade and to be so engaged with public life that she is, I just think it’s remarkable.’