Welcome back to the show joining us now is riter and broadcaster Esther krku Esther welcome back now look there’s been just so much fural this week about Princess Katherine and that photo look we know she’s taking time to recover from her surgery uh no doubt this has
Just been some extra stress do we know when she’s likely to return to Royal duties so when the the the Princess of Wales announced that she was taking some time off to recover from abdominal surgery back in January I believe it was January the the 16th she said that
According to to uh medical advice she would likely only be back in her royal duties uh after Easter and I suspect that Still Remains to be the case now this story has completely blown up for for reasons that remain unknown to me this is just a woman that that did some
Editing on a picture uh and suddenly the world has lost its mind it seems um but there is a lesson here and the lesson to be learned here is the fact that the Royals and the Royal PR machine is extremely fragile and they’re they’re always kind of walking this tight rope
Of being accessible but not too accessible to the public I I I mentioned before I think Kate felt the need um to release that picture because of these these rumors that were circulating about where she really is is she actually recovering from surgery uh someone a group of people online were were using
This as a as a way to speculate that she had a BBL and that she was going to come out looking like a Kardashian some people used this to link to the fact that the the no no one ever landed on the Moon I mean it was just ludicrous um
But at the end of the day the the royal family have to be very careful about not making themselves too accessible to the public or they will they might risk going down the route of Harry and Megan who have have effectively lost a lot of their public appeal because they just
Reveal too much they talk too much the royal family at the end of the day whether you’re a monarchist or not has a public role to play they are they’re effectively professional ambassadors and and to that end you know they obviously have to have a public profile but they
Have to to stay on task you know they’re they’re a media machine um just by their very existence and so anything that’s linked to them any sort of controversy or anything that can be newsworthy is is likely to blow up and unfortunately uh Kate had to experience this uh while
She’s recovering from surgery and I actually wish she didn’t feel the need or the the pressure to to to release some sort of photo to to uh effectively calm down the public which arguably had the opposite effects and and I’m not sure that that pressure is necessary subsided because
There’s been a couple of Snippets in the media over the last couple of days about a pending Royal announcement or an update is this just speculation or is there actually something in the pipeline so every year the the the Wales is release a picture for their
Children’s birthday so it’s a kind of a tradition that they they’ve cultivated with within their family and and Prince Louis birthday is coming up we’re expected to see a sort of family picture um within that same tradition again this could be kind of of a Redo for the
Walers after the controversy of of their Mother’s Day photo who knows um but we’re hearing that princess Katherine could be actually more open about her her medical uh intervention in in the coming uh days alongside this picture that we expect to be released um so you
Know the the wers are going to be a lot more careful about what the kind of information they release to the public again this is clearly a blunder on their side because they’ve been in the royal family as working Royals for for a number of years now they’re highly
Experienced they know how quickly the media storm can generate um so this seemed quite uncharacteristic of them but again you can you can forgive them for the innocent mistake of of of trying their hands at an Adobe Photoshop and there was an interesting piece uh in the times today about the
Palace Having learned some harsh lessons over the last couple of weeks which I think they absolutely might and how they might address them going forward you’d think some sort of protocol would have to be put in place to avoid this happening again of course but this is again
Uncharted Territory you know it’s not every day that a relatively healthy um woman in her early 40s under goes abdominal surgery now obviously her father-in-law uh King Charles was very open about his his cancer diagnosis and his prostate surgery and and many Charities and many groups across the UK
And and across the world you know congratulated him for that because it really Drew awareness to a very common issue that many elderly men face um and in contrast unfortunately this happened around the at the same time in contrast you had uh princess Katherine who’s perfect entitled to not reveal uh
Details of her medical diagnosis but she she did reveal that she had abdominal surgery and was going to be effectively Mia for for two and a half three months and unfortunately I think that broke the public in a way that no one ever anticipated the the the the palace is
Going to be more careful moving forward I think again the the issue here is string that F straddling that fine line between U making yourself available to the public but not too available and unfortunately the closest example you can draw to that are the sussexes the
The the pH Royals across the pond I mean they they kind of went for the American style let’s reveal everything let’s talk about our feelings and they didn’t really endear themselves to the public because in as much as they they saw their grievances as valid most people
Just saw the the the sheen whereof you had just a a couple of really rich wealthy um literally a prince and princess winging about their lot in life and many people couldn’t identify with that they you know they were talking about things that were clearly close to their hearts like climate change but
Then were taking a private jet every chance that they got um and so in many ways the Sussex the walers have had to learn from the Sussex blunder uh blunders there many of them um and not go down the same route now do you completely shut yourself off no because
Once you open Pandora’s Box and you make yourself available to the public to a certain extent you have to maintain it and so the the the walers have had to really kind of figure out what is the best way to do that and unfortunately this is one one instance where it didn’t
Go too well for them now the annual Diana Legacy awards ceremony was held this week it’s the great separated but double act by William and Harry how did it play out uh so in a move that surprised absolutely no one uh the brothers were completely separate I mean Prince
William left even before uh Harry’s virtual appearance at the award ceremony I mean I know a winner of the awards that actually had met Prince William in person and then had to go across London and to have a v like a virtual call with with Prince Harry uh clearly the the the
Rift between the two brothers have calcified it’s been rumored that they haven’t spoken um in over a year since the the publication of of Harry’s book spare we know that in that book there were many scathing allegations against basically uh Prince William and his wife uh princess Katherine which I’m sure uh
Prince William didn’t take lightly at all uh and I you know the the really sad irony here is this is not what uh Princess Diana would have wanted her Legacy to be she wouldn’t have wanted her two sons to effectively not speak to each other um but it just goes to show
You know how deep the Rifts goes I suspect when when uh William becomes king I don’t think that there’s going to be any kind of RMA on on the part of the brothers I suspect he might even um remove the titles of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and and kind of make
The excuse that if you’re not a working member of the royal family you don’t get a title he might actually strip prince Andrew of his titles as well um which would be his right to do so um but it’s really unfortunate because if you you’re having a ceremony to celebrate your late
Mother’s Legacy and you two are are no nowhere you know to be seen with each other I mean Prince Harry not turning up for that award is also quite peculiar because he’s he’s come to the UK for what you could argue are less important matters I mean he’s only popped in and
Out for his court cases or to see his father momentarily before he went to Las Vegas to present an award at a right qu award show that I I think was really quite beneath him um but you know the fact that he didn’t even turn up and clearly the two parties teams didn’t
Really communicate in any way that would signal that the two are back on speaking terms and learn good terms is is really quite sad and I think it takes away from the purpose and and I suppose the legacy of Princess Diana herself I think it’s ultimately very unfortunate now we’ve
Often talked on this show about polls and the popularity of various members of the royal family we haven’t had one of those in a while despite uh everything that’s been going on but what does the latest show so a latest poll uh that was commissioned by by the Express Newspaper
Here in the UK show that Harry and Megan are the fourth most popular uh couple well royal couple um after Prince William and Princess Katherine the king and queen and the Duke and duess of Edinburgh uh so it’s it’s you know I mean they they were only above I suspect
Prince Andrew and uh his no longer wife which wouldn’t make them a couple but effectively they’re the least popular couple um royal couple in here in the UK and that’s not surprising you know I’ve always said that this couple didn’t really uh stay as working Royals long
Enough to have any skin in the game you know a lot of their their grievances uh as they put it um seemed a bit trivial because it it felt like they kind of just had a go at it tried it didn’t like it didn’t feel like they were given
Everything that they wanted didn’t really stick around to actually try and make it work long enough I suspect the pressures on the couple to have children as soon as possible because obviously they were getting old in years also added an an extra Dimension that made you know their difficulties with
Adjusting to their roles in the royal family quite difficult I often say that Harry was quite irresponsible in the way that he tried to shoehorn Megan and their marriage into the institution I think they should have stepped back had children figured out their family life before they kind of delved into the the
Complicated circus that is being working Royals and actually taking it seriously and and knowing that it’s not something that you can just you know dip in and out of um but in effect they’ve really not endeared themselves to the public um and and you can see that in the way that
They’ve struggled to adjust afterwards I mean they left on the kind of their freedom flight as we saw in on the in the Netflix documentary and ever since then they’ve really struggled to find their feat I mean Harry released spare it looked like for I mean a good two
Years after they left the royal family all they did was complain about the royal family and then when they did try and do something for themselves it it fell through you know their Spotify deal got canceled unceremoniously U Megan has launched this new Lifestyle brand which
Is like take 2.0 and but she’s still using the Dutchess of Sussex title which again for a lot of people looks like a form of opportunism because she has wants nothing to do with the royal family but it’s still happy to to tout her her her title um which I think
Should be stripped um Prince Harry is you know other than the Invictus games he really seems to be quite listless and drifting in the wind um and it’s probably a lesson about sticking to something even when it’s difficult and not always having your way but effectively the public are not very um
Happy with the Duke and Dutchess of Sussex I don’t think they care about them very much but I don’t think they’re anything to write home about and like I said the Sheen has worn off and clearly that is reflected in these poll results and look while we focused uh on numerous
Litigation proceedings involving uh princess Harry that he’s been engaged in there’s been in the background this defamation action which was commenced by samith Michael against his sister Megan now that action is being dismissed what’s happened here yeah so the the significant aspect of this this case being dismissed is
That it’s been dismiss uh with prejudice which means that she cannot retry it um the judge found that Megan markle’s claims were of an honest opinion and didn’t liel Samantha marle in any significant way at the end of the day she did use a a different surname up
Until two months um before Megan announced that she was dating Prince Harry and which and and then she changed her name to marle so you know and the judge’s eyes it was a genuine opinion why would you go by a different name and then one time dating this this man and
And my own name has has suddenly skyrocketed in terms of commercial value um you you’re now choosing to adopt my my surname even though as as Megan states that they weren’t close at all so I’m not surprised that the judge uh threw this case out but you know the the
The the uh wider conversation about Megan marle and her family relations it was always going to remain an interesting one because you know many people used that as a way to justify why it was so easy for her and uh Prince Harry to walk away from the royal family
Because she doesn’t seem to have any kind of family loyalties outside of her mother I mean the only person that attended her wedding was her mother not even her cousin she had all these aist celebrities that I’m sure up until the The Royal Wedding really weren’t
Interested in Megan marle at all she had you know George Clooney and his wife and Oprah and all of these well um Serena Williams and all of these people and you just think how do you know Megan Markle how is this sort of person that’s only known for one from one series suddenly
Been mingling with all these aist stars um so you know the wider conversation about her family relations still still a bit of a mystery to the public everyone remembers that lawsuit and that letter that she wrote um to tug at the heartstrings that she forgot that she
Wrote and and leaked to the press and all of that drama so in terms of Megan’s entire sort of family setup we will never know but it looks quite complicated and too complicated to get into but I’m not surprised that the judge throughout this case because it is
A valid point she didn’t use the the last name Markel up until two months Megan two months until Megan announced that she was dating Harry now another week and another celebrity connection to the sussexes this time Harry is spotted hanging out with Chris Jenna’s boyfriend are they
Just friends or is there some sort of commercial relationship here I highly doubt there is a commercial relationship there and unless Prince Harry wants to disgrace himself even further um they were seen skiing together in Aspen in Colorado um alongside the founder of Bumble and a
Few other kind of uh I would say beat zist celebrities uh I don’t think it’s anything to write home about again a lot of this and from a lot of the kind of images that we’re getting from Harry’s um jet setting uh lifestyle he just seems quite listless he seems quite Lost
In The Wind I mean this is someone who grew up in the world family who then joined the army and I think he should have stayed in the Army um you would think that the life in Britain in the royal family in the kind of service that
He was allowed to do in his role would have meant a lot more to him I don’t think it’s particularly satisfying to be seen with Chris Jenner’s uh now partner um a family that are known for prostituting themselves and for having ludicrously proportioned backsides I don’t think that’s exactly where he
Thought his life would go but you know this is this is where he’s LED himself Mr krku thank you for those insights as always
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