A fledgling royal peace deal between Prince Harry and King Charles lay in ruins Monday, after it emerged that details of a meeting at a London club between their key aides were leaked to the Mail on Sunday.
Neither side would comment on the record to the Daily Beast but a source in Harry’s camp forcefully denied that they had leaked details of the meeting to the paper, which photographed the encounter. They stopped short, however, of directly accusing the king’s office of leaking the details.
Given that one of Prince Harry’s main grievances about his family has been the claim that his father’s aides have planted stories in the media about him, the publication of the photographs in the Mail is likely to infuriate him.
The Telegraph reported Sunday that all the details of the meeting were leaked to the Mail, resulting in attendees being photographed as they arrived at the London club. In a further breach, it appeared the group took a table on an external terrace, open to public view from Green Park, where more photos of them were taken.
There are signs that the peace meeting itself has now become a source of further discord: while Harry and Meghan’s camp insist they did not leak the details, a story in the Mail Monday quoted royal author Phil Dampier suggesting the meeting was indeed leaked by Harry in an attempt to “portray himself as the one who is trying to patch things up.”
The pictures of the group talking could be published without an issue in the U.K., as under British privacy laws, individuals cannot claim to have had a reasonable expectation of privacy if they can be clearly seen from a public space such as a park.
The meeting was hosted by the king’s press secretary Tobyn Andreae, who, before taking his role as the king’s chief press officer was a senior editorial executive at the Mail.
Andreae arrived carrying a bag from wine merchants Berry Bros, which the Mail said confidently was a gift.
The members-only club selected for the meeting was the Royal Over-Seas League, a club of which the king is the patron and a member and is a short walk from King Charles’ residence and office, Clarence House. It has long been a favored spot for Charles’ courtiers to conduct discreet meetings. As is the case with all London clubs, rooms and tables can only be booked by members.
Harry’s reaction to the meeting being leaked to the media and his aides being photographed can be well imagined after he alleged his family members have a penchant for revealing secrets to the media in his book.
In Spare, Harry said Camilla “sacrificed me on her personal PR altar,” and described her as “dangerous.”
In remarks to Anderson Cooper on the show 60 Minutes to promote the book, which is estimated to have made Harry some $27 million, Harry said: “With a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being queen consort, there was going to be people or bodies left in the street.”
Harry also claimed that Camilla leaked details of her very first private conversation with Prince William to the press shortly after the meeting.
According to Harry, as late as 2019, William was left “seething” after learning that Charles and Camilla’s staff were caught planting negative stories about him, his wife, and their children to the tabloids.
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