There were so many amazing, heartbreaking and incredible moments in Prince Harry’s 60 Minutes interview. I’m so glad 60 Minutes posted the entire interview on YouTube (you can see below). It starts on a great note, with Anderson Cooper reading the passage from Spare where Harry wrote that William’s baldness was “alarming” and Will’s resemblance to Diana had faded. Like, we started the interview with “William is bald and ugly.”

My overall opinion on Harry and how he came across on 60 Minutes is that he’s being incredibly honest about his own damaged backstory, how grief warped him, his “years of magical thinking” where he believed his mother was still secretly alive into his early adulthood. He went harder on Camilla than I was expecting, but he went easier on William than I was expecting. Harry even admits that he wouldn’t have told Meghan about William’s assault if Meghan hadn’t seen the cuts on his back. Some particular quotes:

On William’ ugliness: “I don’t see it as cutting at all. Um, you know, my brother and I love each other. I love him deeply. There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years. None of anything I’ve written, anything that I’ve included is ever intended to hurt my family. But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.

On greeting people at KP after Diana’s death: “I think it’s bizarre, because I see William and me smiling. I remember the guilt that I felt. The fact that the people that we were meeting were showing more emotion than we were showing, maybe more emotion than we even felt. There was a lotta tears. I talk about how wet people’s hands were. And I couldn’t understand it at first. Their hands were wet from wiping their own tears away. I do remember one of the strangest parts to it was taking flowers from people and then placing those flowers with the rest of them. As if I was some sort of middle person for their grief. And that really stood out for me.

Why he wanted to see photos from the Paris crash scene: “Mainly proof. Proof that she was in the car, proof that she was injured and proof that the very paparazzi that chased her into the tunnel were the ones taking photographs of her lying half dead in the back seat of the car. All I saw was the back of my mom’s head, slumped in the back seat. There were other more gruesome photographs. I will be eternally grateful to him [his secretary] for denying me the ability to inflict pain on myself by seeing that. That’s the kind of stuff that sticks in your mind forever.

He visited the tunnel in Paris where his mother died when he was 23: “I wanted to see whether it was possible driving at the speed that Henry Paul was was driving that you could lose control of a car and plow into a pillar killing almost everybody in that car. I need to take this journey. I need to ride the same route. William and I had already been told, the event was like a bicycle chain, if you remove one of those chains the event would not have happened. The paparazzi chasing was part of that. Yet everybody got away with it. William and I considered reopening the inquest because there were so many gaps and so many holes in it, because it didn’t add up, it didn’t make any sense.

Whether he would still like to reopen the investigation into Diana’s death: “Truth be known, no. Do I need any more than I already know? No, I don’t think it would change much.

On not wanting his father to marry Camilla: “She was the villain, she was the third person in the marriage, she needed to rehabilitate her image. We thought that [the marriage] was going to cause more harm than good. If he was now with his person, surely that’s enough. Why go that far when you don’t necessarily need to? We wanted him to be happy and we saw how happy he was with her.

Camilla’s propaganda machine: “The need for her to rehabilitate her image made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press. There was open willingness on both sides to trade information. 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 on the street because of that…If you are led to believe as a member of the family that having positive stories written about you is going to improve your reputation or increase your chances of being accepted by the British public, then that’s what you’re going to do.

On his family’s reaction to Meghan: “Right from the beginning before they had a chance to get to know her and the UK press jumped on that. [The mistrust was based on] the fact that she was American, an actress, divorced, Black, biracial with a Black mother. Those are just four of the typical stereotypes that becomes a feeding frenzy for the British press. My family reads the tabloids, it’s laid out at breakfast when everyone comes together. If you have that judgment based on a stereotype right at the beginning it’s very very hard to get over that. A large part of it for the family but also the British press was like “He’s changed, she must be a witch” as opposed to yeah, I did change and I’m really glad I changed because rather than getting drunk, falling out of clubs, taking drugs I’ve now found the love of my life and I have the opportunity to start a family with her.

William assaulting him in 2019: “He was being told certain things by people within his office. At the same time he was consuming a lot of the tabloid press. He had a few issues which were based not on reality. I was defending my wife. He was coming for my wife, she wasn’t there at the time, but through the things that he was saying. I was defending myself. We moved from one room into the kitchen. His frustrations were growing, he was shouting at me, I was shouting back at him. It wasn’t nice, it wasn’t pleasant at all and he snapped and he pushed me to the floor. He knocked me over, I landed on the dog bowl. I cut my back, I didn’t know about it at the time. He apologized after. I wouldn’t have [told Meghan] until she saw my back.”

[From CBS’s transcript & CB’s transcript]

Every part of his statements about Diana were heartbreaking. I didn’t know that he still believed she was alive well into his 20s, that every day he woke up thinking “maybe today will be the day she’ll call.” What’s left unsaid is that his family’s need to clam up and carry on like nothing happened reinforced Harry’s trauma – he wasn’t allowed to process anything in his childhood, so he would drink and take drugs and fall out of clubs. As for Camilla… “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 on the street because of that.” Yiiiikes.

A few more things – Harry talked about the Jeremy Clarkson mess in both his 60 Minutes interview and his ITV interview. In 60 Minutes, he was like “thank you for proving our point” about how the misogynistic and racist British media treated Meghan. Cooper also asked Harry about “”renouncing” his titles and Harry’s cold line delivery of “And what difference would that make” was brilliant. He’s right – it would make no difference.

And finally, the Palace “demanding” a copy of the 60 Minutes interview – what an utter clownshow. It just shows how the Windsors think nothing of their open collusion with the media, to the point where they think they have the right to “demand” advanced copies of interviews or Netflix series. As utter clownshow.

60 Minutes reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment. Palace representatives demanded that before considering commenting we provide them with our report prior to it airing, which is something 60 Minutes does not do. https://t.co/JK98Zzaopk pic.twitter.com/VylhJ7SIz9

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) January 9, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar, CBS.

Jen Shah, from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, has been sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for leading a phone scheme scamming people out of their money. Jen and her assistant were arrested in March 2021 over the scam, which targeted people over 55 and purported to offer a job training course. Though Jen’s assistant pled guilty in November 2021, it wasn’t until July 2022 that Jen finally admitted her role. Now Jen’s been sentenced and her attorney offered some pretty milquetoast and performative apologies on her behalf.

Jen Shah has been sentenced to 78 months (6.5 years) for her role in orchestrating a fraud scheme.

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star appeared in a New York court on Friday after pleading guilty to her role in the telemarketing conspiracy.

Shah’s husband Sharrieff and their sons, Sharrieff Jr. and Omar, were in the courtroom as the decision was handed down.

Shah’s attorney Priya Chaudhry issued a statement to PEOPLE after the decision: “Jen Shah deeply regrets the mistakes that she has made and is profoundly sorry to the people she has hurt. Jen has faith in our justice system, understands that anyone who breaks the law will be punished, and accepts this sentence as just. Jen will pay her debt to society and when she is a free woman again, she vows to pay her debt to the victims harmed by her mistakes.”

Earlier Friday morning, Judge Sidney Stein spoke to the packed courtroom. According to Inner City Press’s Matthew Russell Lee, Judge Stein told attendees: “Jen Shah’s role on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, which I guess is why the courtroom is so full today, is just that, a role. People should not confuse the character she plays on an entertainment show to the person before me.”

When given her own chance to speak, Lee reported that Shah said, “I am sorry. My actions have hurt innocent people. I want to apologize by saying, I am doing all I can to earn the funds to pay restitution.”

Before Shah was sentenced, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman called her crimes “brazen fraud.” Per Lee, Sobelman added, “Every cooperator told us, ‘Jen Shah is the boss.’ They all knew who she was.”

Before that, Judge Stein had told Chaudhry that her client “was a leader of this conspiracy,” according to Lee. Judge Stein continued, “So this cuts against you, not for you.”

Chaudhry later responded, “Jen has spent month reading the names of those she has hurt. She has prayed for their forgiveness. But she cannot forgive herself. Jen understands she cannot undo the pain or repay them today — but today is about justice for them. Measuring the pain.”

Explaining her client’s motives, she later said, “Jen hoped that the TV spotlight would hide her pain. She spent years trying to hide her feeling, to fake it until she make it. She tried not to see the people who lost money. Her original fraud was on herself.”

Stein countered, “Her activity in this crime took place years before The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City started. So you are saying her hunger for trinkets predates the show?”

[From People]

I’m glad the judge and prosecutor pushed back on Jen and her lawyer a lot because what she did was awful. Like, the shamelessness, the temerity of this person! My friends and I have a group chat where we discuss any and all Bravolebrities and though we sometimes disagree on our Housewives, everyone agrees that Jen is the absolute worst. Aside from her defrauding strangers, Jen also allowed her mother to drain her own retirement savings for Jen’s legal defense. And Jen’s actions endangered her children, causing her Black sons to be held at gunpoint and handcuffed while the police were looking for her. Terrible. And the fact that she was able to keep filming and try to spin the incident makes it even worse. Jen doesn’t seem remorseful at all, even having the gall to request a specific prison (Elizabeth Holmes’s, unclear why) and celebrating her light sentence with a big group at at nice Midtown restaurant. Wanting to have a “last meal” and say goodbye before prison is understandable, but doing it publicly at a place like this is tacky, especially considering the charges. Rent an event space and get some catering if you must, instead of bopping around Midtown Manhattan of all places and then pretending you don’t want to be seen.

Photos credit: Janet Mayer/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images and via Instagram

One thing is for sure: Prince Harry has been waiting to write his memoir for decades. He’s kept a list of all of his grudges, no matter how minor or how major, and he has been waiting to settle all of his accounts. Even I am surprised and shocked by the level of detail in some of these Spare excerpts, and I covered a lot of this stuff as it was happening. Picture it: Toronto, September 2017. The third Invictus Games, being hosted in the city then-Meghan Markle has called home for years as she’s worked on Suits. Kensington Palace gives the okay – Invictus will be the first official public outing for Harry and Meghan. Doria Ragland even flies in to support Meghan and Harry at the games, and all of the photographers get the money shot at the wheelchair tennis match on Day 3 of the games. Harry and Meghan sitting together at the match, holding hands, talking to each other, laughing, being natural and loved-up. The next day, the British media complained about the fact that Meghan wore ripped jeans.

Prince Harry revealed in his memoir, Spare, that he feels his family should have done more to defend wife Meghan Markle against public backlash.

In the soon-to-be released book, Harry, 38, opened up about his and Meghan’s first official public outing — the 2017 Invictus Games — for which the California native, 41, donned a classic button-up shirt and ripped jeans. While onlookers were mesmerized by the chemistry between the couple at the event, the “British press” quickly criticized Meghan’s distressed denim, Harry recalled in his tell-all. Online trolls even slammed the casual getup as inappropriate.

Turns out, Meghan’s Mother jeans, Misha Noonoo blouse and Sarah Flint flats were all “pre-approved” by the palace, he alleges. However, “no one” from the royal family expressed support publicly or denied claims that the former Suits actress had broken protocol. “I mean not anyone at the palace,” Harry wrote. “One statement, that week, in defense of Meg … it might’ve made a world of difference.”

[From Us Weekly]

While I think ripped jeans would have been inappropriate or worth mentioning if this was some formal event, it was literally just… a sporting event, and Meghan was still Harry’s civilian/celebrity girlfriend. She wasn’t even a royal fiancee at that moment. Days beforehand, Meghan had attended the Opening Ceremony and she wore a completely appropriate ensemble – a burgundy dress and a leather jacket. Anyway, it’s interesting that Harry is giving KP credit for stage-managing the first official outing, even writing that KP approved of Meghan’s outfit ahead of time. Of course KP didn’t defend Meghan about the ripped jeans commentary – KP was probably behind the commentary in the first place.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, WENN.

Last November, we learned (officially) that Chris Evans is dating Alba Baptista, a 25-year-old Portuguese actress. Chris is 41 years old. At the time, I hadn’t seen Alba in anything so it seemed kind of showmance-y to me, the established American movie star and the European ingénue. But since then, I did see Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris, and Alba plays the young Dior model (and she’s a philosophy student and full-time existentialist) and she was very cute in it. In any case, the pairing makes a bit more sense to me now. As it turns out, Chris and Alba want people to see how cute they are together. Chris posted this supercut of their year together, where they’re constantly jump-scaring each other. It’s kind of… adorable?

Chris Evans and Alba Baptiste via Instagram pic.twitter.com/IWSTDZAhiz

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) January 6, 2023

We’re getting a glimpse of Chris’s house, I think? Especially in the first few clips, although I think some of these locations are hotels or on-location housing situations. But yeah, they’re cute. I like that they’re doing it with “babe!” too – it’s sweet. Anyway, I know all of the Chris Evans fangirls are in shambles. Alba’s a cute young lady though, maybe this relationship is the real deal! You never know. Also: I highly recommend Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, it’s a sweet movie! Lucas Bravo from Emily In Paris is in it too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, cover courtesy of People.

A year ago, an American civil court was gearing up to litigate Prince Andrew’s sexual abuse of a then-teenaged Virginia Giuffre. Virginia sued Andrew and he was throwing everything at her and he still lost all of the preliminary hearings. The case was headed for trial and the judge seemed very amenable towards Giuffre’s side. That’s when Prince Andrew settled out of court with Giuffre. We never learned (for sure) the amount Andrew paid out, although we did learn that Andrew “borrowed” the money from his mother. Considering Virginia held all of the cards in the negotiations, I’ve always believed that she made a deal for low eight-figures combined with no gag order, or a merely-temporary gag order. Considering Virginia’s silence over the past year, I do think we can safely say that there was a gag order as part of the settlement. Now the Telegraph (via the SMH) claims that the gag order was only for one year, and Virginia is gearing up to speak out even more against Andrew.

The Duke of York is braced for his sex abuse accuser to return to the public eye as a gagging clause signed by both parties is lifted in February. Prince Andrew paid millions to settle a civil case with Virginia Giuffre last year, securing a deal that bought him just one year of silence.

However, that agreement will come to an end within weeks, meaning that Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, is once again likely to be free to talk about the years of abuse she suffered at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. It raises the prospect that she could resume television interviews, or even write a book.

Giuffre sued the duke for unspecified damages last year, claiming she was forced to have sex with him on three separate occasions in 2001, when she was 17. The duke, who denied any wrongdoing, was determined to take the civil case to trial and clear his name. The duke did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the civil case settlement. But Buckingham Palace urged him to settle as increasingly damaging and lurid claims dominated the news agenda and threatened to overshadow Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The late Queen was becoming increasingly frail and may have known at the time that she did not have long to live.

The duke came under intense pressure to strike a deal – eventually announced on February 15 – that would draw a line under the case and allow him to retreat from the public eye. In order to facilitate the deal, the late Queen contributed to a hefty financial settlement that was accompanied by a 12-month gagging clause, ensuring that neither side could discuss any aspect of the case or the financial deal. The majority of the £9.9 million ($17.6 million) settlement went to Giuffre, while about $3 million was donated to her sex-trafficking charity, it is understood.

The inclusion of the gagging clause was considered critical and is understood to have been a prerequisite for borrowing sufficient money from his family to settle the case. However, some aides were said to be “incredulous” that the duke could have paid so much money only to have the allegations repeated after such a relatively short space of time.

A friend said when the deal was signed: “If you’re going to go for legal resolution at those sorts of prices then you want silence – but what we’ve got is silence for the Platinum Jubilee.”

[From The Sydney Morning Herald]

As I said, when the settlement was negotiated, Virginia was in a position of strength – Andrew had failed to get the case thrown out of court, and the judge had rejected all of Andrew’s legal arguments. They were headed for a trial in open court. That is when Andrew came to the settlement negotiations, from a position of weakness. So… I could totally see Andrew’s lawyers pushing for a lifetime gag order and Virginia balking and threatening to walk away. Andrew could probably only get a one-year gag order or else Virginia would have walked away from the negotiations and dragged him into a trial which the Windsors really, really did not want. Anyway, I hope Virginia is well and hopefully she spent the past year writing a book, which she’ll promote by giving tons of interviews.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, ABC and Backgrid.

Nicholas Hoult is such an underrated comedic actor – here he is in the trailer for Renfield, a horror-comedy based on the Bram Stoker characters. [OMG Blog]
Some fascinating background on how the Guardian got their hands on Prince Harry’s memoir before anyone else. [LaineyGossip]
Julia Fox still wants to happen in 2023. [Dlisted]
Emily Ratajkowski’s hilarious belted ensemble. [Go Fug Yourself]
Lenny Kravitz gives us a cheeky look. [Seriously OMG]
Joaquin Phoenix’s new film looks… like a whole lotta Joaquin. [Gawker]
Congrats to Noah Schnapp, live your truth, bb. [Just Jared]
Imagine going viral because you looked cute at a college football game. [Egotastic]
If a boss ever tries this, get a lawyer. [Buzzfeed]
Trailer for Poker Face, Natasha Lyonne’s new Peacock show. [Pajiba]
The Speaker vote shambles has led to some funny jokes. [Jezebel]
All of Vladimir Putin’s associates keep getting accidentally defenestrated. [Towleroad]

Remember, the Sun got their hands on a copy of Prince Harry’s Spare because some Spanish bookstores put the book out early. Which means that all of the Murdoch-owned media is furiously translating En La Sombra (the Spanish title of the memoir) to English so they can be the first to report the juiciest parts. Which has made for some pretty crazy reporting around Spare. The Sun and the Daily Mail both tried to parse Harry’s comments about the big “Kate made Meghan cry” story, which was a centerpiece of so many smears from 2018 to present day. In his memoir, Harry does get into some of the dirty details about just how Meghan and Kate’s fallout happened. These sections are pretty crazy, and again – that’s because most of this is coming from Rupert Murdoch’s cracked-out team of translators. From the Telegraph (which isn’t Murdoch-owned, but I’m using this piece because it seems the most complete):

The Baby Brain incident: The Princess of Wales demanded an apology from the Duchess of Sussex after she suggested Kate had “baby brain”, according to Prince Harry’s autobiography. Harry claims Kate told Meghan: “You talked about my hormones. We are not close enough for you to talk about my hormones!” when the two couples met for a reconciliatory tea at Kensington Palace in June 2018. He suggests the “offended” Princess of Wales was holding onto the upholstered side of her chair so hard that her fingers had gone white. The altercation allegedly took place over the phone when the two women had discussed the timing of the wedding day rehearsals just weeks earlier. Harry claims Meghan recalled the conversation, acknowledging that when Kate said she had forgotten something insignificant, she had suggested it might be “baby brain”. According to Harry, his wife looked perplexed that her sister-in-law had taken such offence and insisted it was the way she spoke to her friends.

William gets aggressive with Meghan: Harry goes on to suggest that William then pointed at Meghan and said her “rude” comment were not the way things were done in Britain. The Duchess then apparently told William to “take your finger out of my face”.

Fashion contacts: In the same chapter, Harry suggests that there was tension between the two women from the “early days” due to a misunderstanding over Kate thinking Meghan wanted her “fashion contacts” when in fact she had her own.

Weird grievances: He suggests William and Kate were also put out because the Sussexes didn’t give them Easter presents – and admits that they took offence when the Prince and Princess of Wales switched place cards and changed seats at their wedding. Harry says the couple had followed the American tradition of placing couples next to each other but that William and Kate had insisted spouses sit apart on their table. Acknowledging the pettiness of the squabbles, Harry writes: “Had it really come to this? Shouting at each other about place cards and hormones?”

The bridesmaids’ dress fitting tears: Acknowledging there was a disagreement, Harry suggests Kate demanded that Meghan have the ill-fitting dresses completely remade four days before the wedding and then initially refused to take Charlotte to see the Duchess’s tailor, Ajay, for adjustments, even though he had been waiting since 8am. He claims he returned home to find Meghan, who had also been dealing with the stress over her father pulling out of the wedding after suffering a heart attack, on the floor sobbing. He adds that Kate came round the next day with flowers and a card to apologise. Echoing Meghan’s insistence on Oprah Winfrey that it was Kate who made her cry, and not the other way round, Harry claims Kate acknowledged the story was “completely false” during another meeting between the two couples in December 2018, allegedly telling Meghan: “I know Meghan that I was the one who made you cry.”

Good lord: He also admits the couple were envious of William and Kate’s lavish home furnishings, referencing their walnut bookshelves and priceless art 0- while they had to make do with an IKEA lamp and discount sofa, bought from sofa.com with Meghan’s credit card.

[From The Telegraph]

They really stuck the spare in a dilapidated shack and they made Meghan buy the couch? Ladies, I would have been like “you know what? Enough.” As for all of the weird energy baby brain, Easter gifts and fashion contacts… it sounds like Kate had her back up from the word go. I still remember Kate’s panic when Harry and Meghan got engaged – she literally made her mom come over to help her plot. Let’s see…imagine throwing a tantrum about… sitting next to your husband at a wedding. Well, Kate probably didn’t want to be near him. And at long last, we have some context for the fakakta bridesmaid fight. It wasn’t AT a fitting, it was because Kate refused to take Charlotte to a fitting even though Kate “demanded” that an entirely new dress be made for Charlotte. It’s giving Wedding Karen.

As for Meghan telling William “Take your finger out my face” – I bet that went down like a lead balloon. Why the f–k is a grown man putting his finger in his SIL’s face because she made a completely harmless comment about “baby brain”? From the suspicious lack of context in all of the careful excerpts, I honestly think Meghan probably made the “baby brain” comment as a way to soothe and show support for Kate, like “it’s okay, girl, you’ve got baby brain, sh-t happens, the rehearsal wasn’t important.” Of course Kate threw a f–king tantrum about it. It definitely feels like William and Kate were both going out of their way to start sh-t with Harry and Meghan.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Remember these photos? They’re from 2018, the very first time Prince Harry, then-Meghan Markle and the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge appeared together at a public forum where they had to actually SPEAK. They appeared together at the Royal Foundation’s summit, and it was supposed to be the launch of Kensington Palace’s big “Fab Four” branding. The problem is that the big issue was apparent to everyone in the audience, including the royal reporters. That issue? Meghan was self-assured, beautiful, confident and well-spoken. William and Kate looked dull and sputtering. Hilariously, in his memoir, Prince Harry wrote about a moment that went down behind-the-scenes before the Fab Four went out to speak. It involved Meghan asking to borrow Kate’s lip gloss.

The family that shares lipstick together… In Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir, “Spare,” out Tuesday, the Duke of Sussex remembers a tense moment between his wife, Meghan Markle, and his sister-in-law, Kate Middleton.

Prince Harry recalls an uncomfortable encounter before the fab four’s Royal Foundation Forum appearance in 2018 when his new wife asked to borrow Kate’s lip gloss when she forgot hers, calling it an “American thing.”

“Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and reluctantly pulled out a small tube,” the “Harry and Meghan” Netflix star says. “Meg squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced.”

Harry goes on to write that they “should’ve been able to laugh about” the moment but the press “sensed” it was “something bigger.”

“I think it had Kate on edge while putting her and everyone else on notice that she was now going to be compared to, and forced to compete with, Meg,” Harry admits.

[From Page Six]

In story after story, William and Kate come across like the dullest, prissiest, most nitpicky people you’d never want to meet. I get that “sharing lip gloss” isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, much like the hugging issue. Harry seems to think that these things are uniquely “American.” They’re not – I wouldn’t hand out my lip gloss to just anyone. But Meghan and Kate were literally about to become sisters-in-law!! You hug your sister-in-law and you let her borrow your lip gloss without making a prissy face about it. This too was probably some huge “protocol disaster!!” The monarchy will fall if the sacred princess lip gloss is shared with an American peasant! Y’all know that Kate simply didn’t want a Black woman touching or using her makeup too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Remember in Netflix’s Harry & Meghan series, one of the big stories was Meghan talking about when she first met Prince William and Kate? Apparently, the first meeting happened in Nottingham Cottage, when Meghan was barefoot and cooking dinner. Meghan didn’t curtsy to Will and Kate, and instead she hugged them, which apparently caused Kate to have some kind of meltdown. This moment was discussed and dissected by Prince Harry in his memoir too, and according to Harry, William was upset about the hug as well. William and Kate really expected Meghan to follow curtsy protocol when this American woman was standing in her boyfriend’s cottage?

Another surprising revelation. Prince Harry claimed Prince William was “freaked” out to meet Meghan Markle for the first time — in part because he was a big fan of Suits.

The Duke of Sussex, 38, recalled his brother, 40, and Princess Kate‘s initial introduction to the former actress, 41, who hugged William upon meeting him. “[It] completely freaked him out,” Harry wrote in an excerpt from Spare exclusively obtained by Us Weekly. “He recoiled. Willy didn’t hug many strangers. Whereas Meg hugged most strangers.”

The BetterUp CIO explained that a curtsy would have been “protocol” for meeting a member of the royal family for the first time, but he didn’t think such formality was necessary for a casual audience with the Duke of Cambridge.

“When meeting my grandmother [Queen Elizabeth II], I’d made it clear — this is the queen,” Harry continued. “But when meeting my brother, it was just Willy, who loved Suits.”

The Invictus Games founder revealed that when he first told William and Kate, 40, about his romance with Meghan, the Cambridges were shocked to find out that he was dating an actress on one of their favorite shows. William, he claimed, told him it was “impossible” he could be in a relationship with the California native.

“I was baffled, until Willy and Kate explained that they were regular — nay, religious — viewers of Suits,” Harry recalled. “Great, I thought, laughing. I’ve been worrying about the wrong thing. All this time I’d thought Willy and Kate might not welcome Meg into the family, but now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph.”

The former military pilot told his sibling that he hoped he and Meghan could “become a foursome” and start spending more time together. “I’d said this to Willy so many times, and he’d always replied: ‘It might not happen, Harold! And you’ve got to be OK with that,’” Harry claimed. “Well, now I felt that it was going to happen and I told him so — but he still said to slow down. ‘She’s an American actress after all, Harold. Anything might happen.’”

[From Us Weekly]

Yeah – we already dissected this in the story from the Netflix series. I don’t think it’s a particularly American trait to be a hugger, but I do think it’s particularly American to not give a f–k about protocols and deference, especially in private situations. Harry didn’t tell Meghan to be deferential towards Will and Kate because he believed – as did Meghan – that it would be a warm, gracious, family introduction. Also: this really does tell you that Meghan did zero research on William and Kate beforehand, because anyone could have told her that they’re two frigid, icy stiffs who don’t want to be hugged by commoners.

The stuff about William and Kate being Suits fans is interesting though. They seem like big TV-watchers. I guess they have to fill their time with something (other than work).

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, WENN.

In Spare, Prince Harry devotes a section to everything that happened around his grandfather’s funeral. Just weeks after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Oprah interview aired, Prince Philip passed away at Windsor Castle. Meghan was heavily pregnant with Lili at the time, so she was never going to travel to the funeral. Harry flew alone to the UK and he stayed for about a week (because of Covid travel-protocols, etc). There was some kind of summit between Harry, Prince William and then-Prince Charles. Before we get into that, let’s enjoy Harry writing about seeing William in person for the first time in more than a year, and Harry noticing how William looks so bald and ugly:

As you may have noticed, Prince William is bald. And join the club because Prince Harry also noticed, and decided to chat about it in his memoir, Spare. According to The Daily Mail, who got their hands on the book, Harry recalled meeting his brother and father during a trip to England for Prince Philip’s funeral, saying he was shocked by how much hair William had lost.

“I looked at Willy, really looked at him, perhaps for the first time since we were little, taking in every detail: his familiar scowl, which had always been the norm in his dealings with me,” Harry wrote, adding that William’s baldness was “alarming” and more “advanced than mine.” He also claimed that William’s resemblance to their mother, Princess Diana, had “faded.”

My dear brother, my archenemy, how did we come to this?” he allegedly wrote. “I felt overwhelming tiredness. I wanted to go home.”

Unfortunately, Harry’s conversation with William and Charles didn’t exactly go well. Especially when Frogmore Cottage came up and Harry said, “Willy, this was supposed to be our house. We were going to spend the rest of our lives here.”

William shot back, “You left, Harold,” and replied, “Yeah, and you know why.” Despite probably knowing why, William said, “Honestly no. Harold… not really” while Harry says Charles “was looking at me with an expression that said, ‘Me neither.’”

[From Yahoo]

First of all, William is bald and ugly. Don’t come in here with a #NotAllBaldMen rant! I didn’t say all bald men are ugly – many men can really pull off some hair loss or a shaved head. William isn’t one of them. His inner ugliness has affected his looks and his hair follicles went on strike, that’s all I’m saying. As for the Windsor summit during Harry’s visit in 2021, what I’m getting is the same thing the family made clear at the time, that they were gleeful that Harry traveled alone, that they could get him away from Meghan and try to gaslight him and bully him. That man said: no, I want to go home to California and my pregnant wife. Here’s more about the meeting/summit:

The Duke of Sussex, 38, wrote in the book’s introduction about the “secret meeting” following Prince Philip‘s funeral in April 2021, revealing that his family members had “come for a fight” as they attempted to reconcile — or, at least, come to an understanding about why Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, had departed from the royal family earlier that year.

“I tried to explain my side of things. I wasn’t at my best. For starters. I was still nervous, fighting to keep my emotions in check, while also striving to be succinct and precise,” Harry wrote about the meeting, which took place at Frogmore Gardens. “More, I’d vowed not to let this encounter devolve into another argument. But I quickly discovered that it wasn’t up to me.”

Before they “got down to business,” King Charles III spoke with his sons about the weather and exchanged pleasantries about his late father’s funeral. The Archewell Foundation founder recalled being cut off by one, or both, members of his family every time he tried to speak. Eventually, Harry and William started getting “heated.” So much so that King Charles stepped in and begged his sons not to “make my final years a misery.”

Continuing their discussion, William claimed that he had no knowledge of why Harry and Meghan decided to leave the royal family. “Staggering. But maybe it was true,” he wrote. “And if they didn’t know why I’d left, maybe they just didn’t know me. At all. And maybe they never really did.”

[From Us Weekly]

William and Charles were stuck on this idea that Harry was never going to change from the damaged boy they could bully, humiliate and manipulate. They thought Harry would never grow up and become his own man. Charles thought the same about Diana, that he married a young girl who could be managed, gaslighted and tossed aside. That’s what Harry means when he talks about how there’s a lot of Diana in him – he found himself, he grew up, and he was done with the institutional dysfunction. Charles and William are pieces of sh-t.

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