Podcast 121 – The Princes and the Press, Part 2 – Yes, the UK Royal Family do leak stories to the Press

This is the second podcast about the UK BBC 2 television documentary Princes and the Press. Podcast #117 of mine covered Part one of this two-part series. 

As I said in my earlier podcast,  nothing  that came out in part 1 of the TV program was really new.  We had confirmed from UK newspaper reporters themselves, what we already suspected,  that members of the UK Royal Family work in silos, are highly competitive over the amount of positive press coverage that they receive, and that they occasionally leak stories to the press  - both to push their own agenda’s and / or to make other members of their family look bad. 

 We also learned that William glad handles the press recognizing that the Royals and the press somewhat rely on each other,  whilst Harry loathes them, with this linked back to his mother’s death and the treatment of his former girlfriends and now his wife Meghan.  

The first program touched briefly on the actions of members of the Royal Family and their staff,  briefing the press about other Royal Family members, but without saying which royal household was doing it. The newspaper reporters, the ones providing the narrative in both episodes of the documentary, being extremely protective of their highly placed sources.

Despite this vey casual mention on back briefing the press, after the airing of episode one there was an immediate fall-out for the BBC in that Prince William and Kate (Catherine) decided to have Kate’s Christmas Carol concert aired by rival UK TV channel ITV as opposed to the BBC . We all wondered why? It seemed such an over-reaction to the content of the first episode. 

Well, after finally viewing the second part of the documentary, William and Kate and their Kensington Palace staff do not come out smelling of roses. Here’s what we learned from part 2 of Princes and the Press:

1.   The allegations levelled against Meghan of bullying royal staff were discussed as well as the timing of these revelations,  just before Meghan and Harry's March 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview. 

2.   The documentary takes us back in time, to when Meghan had good press in the UK, and then the sudden change. Why this change took place, as far as news reporters were concerned. 

3.   We learned that the UK press love Kate. 

4.   Meghan’s so called 'missteps' are discussed - how  this modern princess that the press and the public so very much wanted, didn't act like other princesses.

5.   The creation of the soap opera by the press in comparing Meghan and Kate, and comparing the household of William and Kate v Meghan and Harry. 

6.   Meghan and Harry’s handling of the birth of Archie and how this annoyed the press. 

7.  UK reporters in the documentary admitting  that they have been deliberately targeting Meghan and Harry with negative news stories, and printing positive ones for Kate and William.

I end by asking why any of this is important and ponder are the Royals playing a dangerous game in leaking stories  - are they risking their own survival?

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili.  Reach out to me through my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/ and on twitter https://twitter.com/JeanetteSongolo