Prince Harry and me: Why I wish I could forget our brief friendship
Posted by Xanariel
Prince Harry and me: Why I wish I could forget our brief friendship
Posted by Xanariel
9 Comments
[Archive link as well.](https://archive.ph/n5c67)
This is a fairly staggering piece (the DM is really out for blood) but here are some choice bits:
> According to the table plan, the prince and I were to sit next to each other at dinner. And because Harry was doubtless wary about being introduced to an H&M-clad stranger, he decided to kick start our relationship by subjecting me to a little test.
From his pocket, he removed a small white pill. Then he held it up to my face, popped it on to my tongue, and said with a smile: ‘Now I know I can trust you!’
> …Take that white pill he’d so brazenly stuck in my mouth (which I discreetly removed and folded into a napkin soon afterwards). It was almost certainly paracetamol, rather than something more sinister. But I couldn’t be entirely sure.
Trying to make small talk over the champagne, I therefore found myself pondering two questions. Had a senior royal just attempted to give me a Class-A drug? And, as a result, would I remain in possession of my marbles during what was a pretty swanky do, complete with butlers and outside caterers?
And:
> The weekend was memorable for a second reason: Catherine’s absence meant Cressida was required to sit next to William at lunch. Inevitably she felt that she was being assessed as a potential addition to The Firm, so found the experience extremely awkward. Not least because, despite being Prince Harry’s semi-official consort, she, at the time, remained very much in love with her then ex-boyfriend Harry Wentworth-Stanley.
In the months and years to come, I would become quite friendly with Cressida, who is a fun and generous woman.
> Pressure from Prince Harry’s friends, who were understandably keen for him to find a happily-ever-after, meant she kept their relationship going for longer than it might have, but she eventually extricated herself from the whole thing, and in 2020 married Wentworth-Stanley.
And of course:
> I can now reveal that, during the summer of 2025, a close adviser to Harry and Meghan had contacted me out of the blue and invited me to lunch at the Ivy restaurant in London.
> As a result of information given to me at that lunch meeting, I placed a series of stories in The Mail on Sunday that portrayed the couple in a positive light. This included a front-page article, which ran in July, suggesting that Harry and Meghan were attempting to rebuild their relationship with King Charles. It revolved around the fact that Liam Maguire and Meredith Maines, Harry and Meghan’s US PR chiefs, were to hold clear-the-air talks with the monarch’s aide Tobyn Andreae in London.
> I was duly tipped off about the meeting, which was held at the Royal Over-Seas League near Clarence House. The attendees settled themselves on a balcony plainly visible from the public park below. The Mail on Sunday arranged for a photographer to capture the cosy but very embarrassing scene.
What a surprise, Harry and Meghan’s camp WERE the ones who planted the story about their advisors meeting.
There is a lot to process in this article 😳 and I’m sure there will be a lot of comments but in a more lighthearted moment I just want to point this out:
> After dinner, he rudely interrupted a performance by a society magician named Drummond Money-Coutts by starting a noisy conversation with a fellow guest.
Drummond Money-Coutts is one of the best British aristo names I have ever heard, not to mention his occupation as a society magician. Right up there with Sir Marmaduke Hussey. Yes, his family is the founder of Coutts bank and his father is named Crispin Money-Coutts, which is also great.
Obviously the stuff about Harry from his twenties is pretty icky. Not surprising, given what he know about him. But still some pretty shocking behavior for a man well into his twenties.
HOWEVER, the bit that got me going “hmmmmmmmmmmmm” was the part confirming what many of us suspected which is that the reconciliation stories from last year were coming from Team Sussex and they were the ones behind the staged photos of the meeting between Sussex and Palace aides.
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Everyone but Sussex fans know they leak info as much as any other celebrity, the random pap walks are coming from their camp too, it’s not organic. HOWEVER I am surprised they leaked to a writer from one of the papers they fight with the most?? Maybe it’s because of her connection to Harry that they decided to go with her but that’s just so weird to hate the Mail yet give them exclusive info.
Wow. The DM is just nasty. They won. I guess they feel like they can up the smear campaign.
That palace staff or the different members of staff they each have are fierce in the way they operate. They know they were tapping the phones of the family members and some on the staff had to be leaking information. Paparazzi is part of the “culture” over there it brings in big $$$. They have it in for Prince Harry and are determined to never hand him a win in anything. I don’t blame him for leaving. Look how those demons treated his wife and him. For anyone to be upset with him for wanting out I say place yourself in a fishbowl and try to live. See how fast you break out.
The pill thing is weird. Surely there’s some element of cooperation if someone drops a pill on your tongue?
Otherwise just reflects the whole ‘recollections may vary’ statement. Feels like truth is slippery.