PRINCE Harry has helped release a report into the digital “avalanche of misinformation” that calls for “accountability for ‘super-spreaders’ of online lies”.
Stop laughing at the back.
Begging the question: What about those who super-spread several proven mistruths during an interview with Oprah Winfrey and “forget” to give important evidence to a court of law?
Just when you think the breathtaking hypocrisy of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (a title they’re milking for all its commercial worth) has hit its apex, they elevate it to even dizzier heights.
And aside from the misinformation emanating from both himself and his wife, will Harry also address Netflix show The Crown’s tenuous link with the “truth” of his mother Diana’s life?
I doubt it, because he and Meghan are trousering a reported £110million fortune from the streaming giant to “make documentaries”.
No, yet again, the Montecito millionaires are seemingly showing an arrogance that suggests they think their status protects them from the rules/laws the rest of us “ordinary” folk are expected to abide by.
Associated Newspapers is appealing against a High Court ruling made against it for publishing extracts from Meghan’s supposedly “private” letter to her father Thomas.
As part of the appeal, the Sussexes’ former press officer Jason Knauf has released texts and emails he exchanged with the couple that provide an alternative narrative to the one they are peddling.
But to be honest, the content came as little surprise to me.
Back when Meghan’s letter to her father first came to light, I commented on this very page that the carefully calligraphed handwriting and choice of words suggested it was a letter that the author expected might be made public.
Narcissists ploughed on, taking us all for fools
Read our Meghan and Harry live blog for the latest updates
Indeed, snippets of it were put in the public domain by five of Meghan’s “close friends” and, at the time, I suggested that no one within her inner circle would dare to speak to the Press without her permission, for fear of excommunication.
Then came the “unauthorised” biography Finding Freedom and I cast doubt on Harry and Meghan’s claim that they had nothing to do with it, despite it containing their innermost thoughts about scenarios only they had been involved in.
Mr Knauf’s emails reveal that Meghan “authorised specific co-operation” for him to meet the authors and gave him a list of things to discuss.
I’m not pretending to be Mystic Moore here. It was blindingly obvious that something was not right at the heart of Den Markle.
Pretty much everyone knew, or at least suspected it.
Yet on these two narcissists ploughed, trying to control the narrative around their public image while clearly thinking they are taking us all for fools.
So what happens now? Well, Meghan has apologised for “misleading the court” and we await the consequence of that.
I sincerely hope that the royal status she’s clinging on to does not protect her from her privacy claim now being properly tested in court.
It’s clear that Harry and Meghan think it’s one rule for them and quite another for everyone else.
But the “justice” system should show this couple exactly what it thinks.
Grief is private Alice
I ADMIRE Alice Evans for refusing to go quietly when her actor husband Ioan Gruffudd walked out on her after 14 years of marriage and two children.
So often, women are told that showing anger or any form of extreme emotion makes them seem “hysterical” – a description never levelled at men, originating as it does from the Latin word hystericus, meaning “of the womb”.
But seeing Alice’s raw pain on TV last week, it might now prove wise to step back from public outpourings and take some time to rebuild her emotional strength in private.
After all, the greatest revenge in life is to just get on with your life and be happy.
Brit of caution needed
CELEBRATING the end of her conservatorship, Britney Spears says she has enjoyed her “first glass of champagne” in 14 years.
The post was the latest in a series of excited outpourings at finally having freedom since her father Jamie first took control of her affairs in 2008 following her very public breakdown.
Her devoted fans, who helped facilitate the move by applying public pressure, see her recent posts about searching for wedding venues, gyrating in her undies and drinking champagne as a celebration of her new, unshackled status.
While others have posted comments such as “uh oh” and “the train wreck is leaving the station”.
Let’s hope for Britney’s sake that the cynics turn out to be wrong.
How Rose made the silence golden
WE frequently talk about the power of music.
But the power of no music on Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing took my breath away.
At first, I thought it was a sound issue, but rapidly realised it was a conscious decision by contestant Rose Ayling-Ellis to convey what it’s like to live in a world of silence.
Rose, 26, was born deaf and is immensely likeable, relentlessly hard-working and a beautiful dancer.
It’s highly likely she’ll win this year’s glitterball trophy, but it will be in spite of her deafness, not because of it.
Back to bite BoJo
THERE’S an old French proverb that says “no man is a hero to his valet”.
The wry sentiment could be attributed to said man’s teachers, lovers and aides too, given that they see him at his most vulnerable.
When Boris Johnson attended Eton, his housemaster commented: “I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else.”
This week his former right-hand man, Dominic Cummings, wrote that “within a month of the election he was bored with the PM job and wanted to get back to what he loves while shaking down the publishers for some extra cash.
“In February as Covid spread, he was in Chevening writing about Shakespeare and messaging No10 that Covid was ‘the new swine flu’.”
Meanwhile, his ex-lover Petronella Wyatt has likened him to “an increasingly bent copper on the beat” while another former amour, Jennifer Arcuri, also re-emerged from the woodwork this week to let it be known (via her diaries) that Boris allegedly offered to promote her business when he was Mayor of London in the apparent hope it would lead to a sexual relationship.
Crikey. Whatever the truth behind these acerbic observations, it’s clear that Boris’s reported tendency to love-bomb those in his immediate orbit then ghost them as soon as they’re out of sight leaves them feeling bamboozled, under-appreciated and downright cross.
- MUCH debate over whether the Queen will return to royal duties once she has fully recovered from whatever ailment is currently troubling her. Some say that, at 95, she’s done enough for her country and should be allowed to retire and enjoy simply pottering around her many gardens. But while plenty of people relish the prospect of retirement, others fiercely resist it, fearing it will only hasten their demise. While we retire from a career, we rarely give up a calling, and one suspects that Her Majesty’s acute sense of duty places her firmly in the latter camp. So it will take a very brave aide indeed to suggest she stops for good.
