‘Hypocritical!’: Harry and Meghan’s cry for security won’t wash

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1:08Harry and Meghan have been accused of milking their latest paparazzi scare to get the taxpayer-funded protection they so desperately want. But will it work? Meanwhile, Define L. Spencer hits back at the king over his aggressive statement after claims in his new book. Another week, another royal circus. Welcome to the Royal Tea with Meekum in Atomini. Hannah Furness. Hannah, you said in your newsletter that you were overusing the word circus. But I think we can appreciate why, because the Sussexes have again hit the headlines. This time they're criticizing extraordinarily reckless paparazzi at their children's school. Archie Lillibut left one school after a couple of days because they realised that the school run wasn't safe. They were sitting ducks on a country lane and it wasn't ideal because when it was wreckied they did it in the school holidays. That wasn't representative of what the roads are like when school term is on.

2:10But now we hear two men with backpacks using a white van that they had rented and were spotted by private security and school staff near the new school. And the couple have said that that's unacceptable intrusion. I agree with that. I'm not sure whether I agree with the spokesman suggesting that it may in some way be linked to the incident at RAF Fairford. Yeah, well, let's start with total clarity here. So no child at school should have paparazzi walking around the perimeter of the school. You can Dutch subsets. I've got a seven-year-old and a five-year-old who had the total right to live and breathe and go to school in privacy. Nobody in the British media uses paparazzi pictures. We don't authorise paparazzi pictures and we don't send people to children's schools. So let's just clarify that before we get into the more nuanced parts of this. And just a quickie on that. We haven't needed to because Megan and Kate and others give us these perfect family album shots of their children.

3:10We're not going to be in the Sussex case taken from behind, but whatever. We have such good imagery of these children produced by their own parents these days that there is no need for long lens photography. And also post-Diana's death in Levison. It's just completely frowned upon now to use really intrusive pictures. Yeah, there's no public appetite for it. This is something that the Wales family or the Cambridgeers as they were then went through years ago, and Cambridgeers, George, was a baby and they've come up with the system which worked pretty perfectly for them now. It didn't back then. There were some horrible years where we had paparazzi, European paparazzi photographers creating hides in the back of cars to get photos of George on the beach or in playgrounds. It was really grim and it caused them a lot of turmoil. It was really frightening. Can we also make a distinction when we keep on saying European photographers we're not being like Brexit is about it, but we're basically saying that there's different rules for European publications than there are in the UK. In part of the rules in the UK are down to kind of, I would say privacy law precedent. This idea that we have evolved into a fleet street in a verticals that now doesn't use those sorts of intrusive tricks.

4:19Yes, but I was going to just say the bar is, you know, would the subjects have a reasonable expectation of privacy in any given setting? Behind school gates, there is of course a reasonable expectation of privacy, but the European pap are a bit more gung-ho, aren't they Hannah? Yes, and they end up, these sorts of photographs certainly when George and Charlotte would end up in European magazines. And they're always used alongside a story of, look at these cute children, aren't they adorable? So they're spun in a way that if you're buying those magazines on the continent quite far removed from the day to day of the royal family over here, you can easily look at them and just think, oh, what lovely photos without understanding the background of how the photos have come to be. Over here, I think the public have a much better understanding of that and there's no appetite for it. And the British press just solid line. We do not populate that. And I think actually the Wales is understand that distinction all too well because of, let's call it boob gate. Why not? Kate being photographed topless back in the day sunbathing out at a property that was owned by Lord Lindley in the South of France,

5:24and the British press wouldn't touch such images. She's the hair, she's topless. I think she's smoking a couple of marble lights. You know, go for it. You're on your holidays. She's allowed. And there was a big hull of blue and they were published in Europe, but not in the UK. And Prince William particularly found this all quite grotesque, but it did establish that start contrast between how we behave and how some of these European publications do, who tend to publish more with impunity than we ever would. Yes, the Wales isn't being really successful in bringing the market for photographs of their children to almost nothing over here because it's exactly as you say, they provide these moments, these very carefully controlled moments through the year, where the public feels like they see enough of the children, that, you know, their public, really funded lives and taxpayer funded security and everything. It is all a little bit of a relationship that makes sense to people. They, you know, people just want to see a little photo and see, you'll have a Negro and what lovely children look, isn't she look like her mom, doesn't he look like his grandma?

6:27I mean, we get quite a lot of very harmless and we get enough that everybody is completely happy, I think, any reasonable person is happy with the situation. What's difficult for the Sussex is, is of course, they've opted out of that system. There's no justification in their minds for having, for sharing photographs of their children with their faces, they don't do it. They do it on their own terms, backs of heads, sides of faces, careful angles on Instagram. But they've opted out of a system that William and Catherine kind of pioneered, they forged this path that has worked, and they could have followed if they stayed in the royal family, but they didn't want to. What's not clear now is how they're going to be able to manage this situation, not with the British media, as to be fair to them, they have made that distinction themselves. They have explicitly called this European paparazzi. How they're going to manage that without going back to the system that they absolutely wanted out of, they just want to feel like they were handing over images of their children. No. Although they did willingly do so when both children were born, this is the curious thing. We did see their faces as babies.

7:33We saw them, I wouldn't say we willingly saw them. Right, so they felt they were heranged into doing that because it was part of royal protocol. They found that difficult. Right, the idea. They felt like, as I understand it, they were sort of being compelled to hand over images of their children, and serve them up on a plate for a media which they hated, and they wanted out of, at the time, they seemed to be in quite a different mindset now about the British media. And I just don't quite know, I can't predict how they're going to manage this situation actually. No, but then they illustrated your newsletter with a picture of Harry and Meghan, and she's there with a mammoth t-shirt on. So she's very much wanting to push the whole kind of, you know, can I remind everyone that I am a royal mother. And yet at the same time, we have this bizarre situation of backs of headshots. I'm not saying that's the parents. No, they were reserved the right to do that. But I'm also quite curious about suddenly the spokesman dropping into conversation, while this incident has happened at RAF Airford, therefore dot dot dot.

8:34Now, we know that the couple are on a quest to have their security paid for by the taxpayer. They want that official home office security wrap around that involves armed officers from the Met Police. So I'm, let me just caveat this before I start getting Sussex orders attacking me, which is a daily occurrence anyway. I'm not saying this didn't happen. I'm sure it did. But it's actually obviously the timing is useful to the couple. They're trying to make an argument for more protection. And now they can add paparazzi, chasing their children around to the list of grievances to justify this claim. Yes. I'm not sure how seriously Ravik, which is the committee that is currently carrying out a risk assessment into both of them. I don't know whether they take that on board or not on Hannah. So this is the nuance here is that this has happened. There's no reason to believe this didn't happen, as you say. But rogue paparazzi taking photos or trying to take photos is not the same as a security instant. Ravik have made that explicitly clear. There was a high court ruling in 2024 where they said, which I will paraphrase that paparazzi photos are bad.

9:40But there's nothing to do with rabbit. There's nothing to do with security. So is Ravik's looking at loan-fixated individuals, terrorists, legitimate sort of security threats to the couple who are trying to cause them harm. Yes. And the idea about paparazzi is that it's very challenging and it's difficult and there may be harm caused in other ways by them. But they're not setting out to target these children and cause them harm. And I don't think that the due cassava would agree with that argument. No, but that is the argument. I mean, Ken Whalfer, Princess Diana's former bodyguard, used to say, you know, nobody ever got killed by somebody taking a photograph, which is why they came to agreements with paparazzi in private moments to basically allow them to have a picture and then say, get lost. Of course, Harry would disagree with that. He will say, no, actually the taking of an image may have contributed to my mother's death in August 1997 in a tunnel in Paris. Yeah. The thing at the moment is there's almost nothing that the Sussexes can't and won't link to security.

10:40Right. There is a sense among the public as far as I hear it of a little bit of weariness about this and pudding's being over eggs left, right and center and is sitting in a traffic jam on the way to school. Would most people recognize that as a really serious security threat? Well, that's hard to explain. Princess of Wales, wouldn't because I assume that they are sometimes caught in traffic with children in the car. I mean, the trouble is with this. We can't make close comparisons because we cannot actually discuss the security arrangements in detail because we don't want to give anything away to people that might have some kind of malicious intent. Yes. But let's be honest, William and Kate, go about their daily lives traveling around the country. They've got a place up in Norfolk seemingly without incident. But then the Sussexes will say, well, yeah, that's because they've got taxpayer funded to secure this. And I think what I find quite challenging is how much we hear about the flaws in the Sussexes security arrangement. We know exactly where they're vulnerable because they keep telling us, yes, it's the school run, it's traffic jams.

11:44And I find it very challenging to understand why if you want to take your security very, very seriously, why you let this stuff be known. Why mention furford because of its geographical location, why mention as well that some children of Americans attend the school as well, which again leads to a degree of being able to identify it. There are very serious things that Ravik need to think about and have been thinking about for six years, or the juke of Sussex doesn't believe that to be true. There is a lot of frustration behind the scenes of people who are working on this stuff and take people's security really seriously. The juke and Dutch Sussexes are not the only people who require taxpayer funded security. No, there are politicians. There are all sorts of people who they are also looking at. There is a lot of frustration behind the scenes, I think, that the Sussexes don't seem to be taking their own security as seriously as they want taxpayers to take it. Well, this is back to the whole South Park, well, privacy-tour thing.

12:46You know, they want their privacy, they want people to not know they were about so yet they are constantly courting headlines which may invade their privacy and indeed give away details of their wereabouts. I mean, it's funny because Liz Truss was in here earlier this week. And obviously she's got a whole security detail. And if you think about her and how she's viewed by the public and how controversial she is and the fact that she's become this betnwa for the left, she crashed the economy, her mini budget. And I sort of looked at the security operation around her and thought, well, gosh, that's quite difficult being her out and about in the public, isn't it? When you think about people that could do something stupid. So comparatively, they're off in the Cots' world, so nobody's really paying the much attention. I think the public could be forgiven for feeling at the moment through the media that they are in the middle of Harry's own security battle. This isn't our country. He's having with Ravek three people like us. So bring us into it, mate. Yeah, it's not that that's quite right. However, on the plus side, and this is something I think we need to get our pre-orders in for, Megan's brand as ever is launching an Advent calendar.

13:49Yes. Now, Advent calendar is, Hannah, I don't know if you remember, used to be a thing that you bought for a pound. They initially had windows without chocolates. Then they had chocolates inside. Now they have become these things that include, you know, 25 days worth of beauty products. And your children might not be old enough. My youngest said to me last week, hello, it's still September. No, it's the first of October, whatever. It's too soon for this. I've already selected my Advent calendar. I thought, oh great, we'll remorchish the house for that. So she's come out with a collaboration with Gourmet Los Angeles Chocolateeer, Compatres in their newsletter with an image of Megan next to the box, Shades of Deal or No Deal. And it is basically an as ever mass chocolate collection in Advent calendar form featuring numbered labels in what appear to be, wait for it. Megan's caloric horrific handwriting. What's not to love about that? It looks love to be there. It looks absolutely delightful. I'm really quite British.

14:52And I think we should get one. Can you get me one? Every day of the day, of the day, of the royalty, you can open a new window. Right. How much joy would that bring us? Put that alongside my FATURE and other icons on the right Advent calendar, 2026. AI is transforming sales, support, and every customer interaction in between. But too often, you're sold a different AI agent for every job. That changes with FIN. FIN is a single customer agent that works across the entire customer journey. From qualifying sales leads to resolving support issues, FIN works across teams, carrying context from one conversation to the next. Meet the agent making perfect customer experiences possible at FIN.AI. Netflix's new series, East of Eden, is a bold reimagining of John Steinbeck's masterpiece, following generations of the Trask family through love, betrayal, and the choices that shape our humanity.

15:52During my fight then Christopher Abbott as the conflicted Trask brothers, and Florence Pugh's capy aims, the complex, dark, and fascinating anti-heroine determined to build the life she wants, no matter the cost, dark, epic, and impossible to look away from. Watch East of Eden now, only on Netflix. Cooking up a storm, dressing to impress, staying fit and healthy. Whatever interests you, you'll find it in the telegraphs newsletters, explore the complete collection, from recipes with Diana Henry to fashion and beauty with me, Lisa Armstrong. Get the best of our journalism, delivered to your inbox, visit telegraph.co.uk slash newsletters today. Can we speak about Earl Spencer who's given an interview to Tina Brown, which is interesting because Tina Brown's epic book on Diana did sell very many copies, and she famously spoke about the last time they met in New York and Diana wanted to become this kind of global ambassador and she'd made up with Prince Charles according to Brown, and they were having tea regularly at Kensington Palace.

17:09And Brown said that Charles and her were so close that Diana had entertained the idea of them getting back together, said she would take Charles back in a heartbeat. And now she lands this interview with Diana's brother after the rar with the king. He's still claiming that King Charles is gaslighting him by casting down on the accuracy of his memories of the time of her death where he thinks that the king was giddy, elated and acting like an lottery winner. Yes, safe to see has no regrets about anything. Goodness me. I mean, where are we with this because actually Tina Brown was quite kind of straightforward with him. Wasn't she sort of said, well, this is caused a bit of controversy. And this is the latest in a very long series of interviews that Earl Spencer has done about this book. He's done a lot of overhears on a lot of American television. And he said broadly the same thing in every one, which is the king is gaslighting me. It's all true.

18:09He's gone to war with his Morgan or his mother has gone to war with him. And he's got a lot of rage gaslighting. It's terrible. It's just one people chuck it now. My husband says this about mansplaining. It's like, why has me explaining something that you don't understand become something called mansplaining in the same way? Why has people disagreeing become gaslighting? Yes, past, I don't know. He says, oh, the king's response was really aggressive. It absolutely wasn't. He's been a racist in the kind of palace speak that we associate with recollections, may vary. I mean, recollections, may vary was just a very, very elegant way of saying, you're making this up. This was what was the word something about it was fraternal grief, con Cloud judgment. I mean, there's no aggressive language. Is it fraternal grief? Maybe it is. Maybe it is aggressive as palace speakers. It's meningracies. I love the idea of it. Yeah. I love people who find this aggressive language. Also, he suggested, and we had Pierce Morgan on last week.

19:10So please do watch that show because it was very funny. Pierce Morgan basically going into the hypocrisy of a spencer attacking him for attacking him over his claims in the book. Basically, a spencer doesn't seem to know that Pierce Morgan is still trying to sue him because a spencer claimed that it was Pierce Morgan, who was editor at the mirror when some grotesquely invasive photographs were taken of Princess Diana at the gym in a leotard. Pierce Morgan pointed out, I wasn't even at the mirror then. I was still at the sun. Why have you got this basic piece of information wrong? Your whole book must be wrong because you haven't fact checked. Spenser then apologized, and he says, yeah, but as far as I know, Morgan isn't suing me. And now Morgan's put the legal letters on X. Yes, which is into the publishers, I think. So maybe a spencer didn't know if we're going to be fair about it. Yeah, it's just, if there's one person you don't want to get something just clearly factually wrong about in your book, Pierce Morgan would be up there probably, wouldn't it? Yeah, I do. Do you think that the palace have got away with this?

20:10Do you think people's opinions have changed about the king after this book? Have they or not? I mean, I think, I think they think it's a classic he said, but I think they think that our spencers made a bit of a wally of himself. And when I've spoken to people about it just kind of in everyday life, so to speak, because even at the Labour Party conference, met up with some girlfriends who are used to play football with them, they're like, give us everything you know about. El Spencer versus the king. And I said, listen, you know, facts have come to light that don't surprise anybody. The king was clearly in shock when his ex-wife died very suddenly in a car crash. The king is prone to anger and has a short temper. Most of the winters do funny enough. El Spencer has been four times married and can be a bit tricky. Oh, shock horror. The two men have never really got on. Quite a few people have been citing the whole, well, didn't Diana fall out with her brother towards the end and did he or didn't he give a accommodation at all four? And wasn't that why she ended up in the arms of Dodie, Alphired in Paris and all the rest of it?

21:13Actually, El Spencer addresses that in the book. She wasn't on good terms with her brother at that time, but she wasn't on good terms with lots of people because, of course, that panorama interview with Martin Bichier had made her think that her nearest and dearest, including Spencer and key members of staff, had been selling information about her to the press. So that whole period was sort of clouded in so much turmoil. It's very hard to see the word for the trees. But overall, I think the public probably believes the king more than they believe El Spencer. What do you think? What I found interesting is how quickly people have gone to their own periods of grief. Like, quite often when you talk about it, people will say, well, when this awful thing happened to me, I behaved in this really odd way. I said these things and I must have appeared completely mad at the time. Everyone seems to have an example of that. And I think there is some sympathy. More sympathy than you might have expected on the first day of this story towards the king of, it's an unusual circumstance where I think quite a lot of people are thinking, well, maybe he did say that.

22:14But actually, we can understand why. Yes. Rather than I did say it or I didn't say it. It was like Ingrid Suezce to us in our interview with her last week about her book, which kind of compares and contrast Diana and Catherine. She lost her husband, Rosbenson, very, very suddenly had a heart attack. There were both the toast of the journalistic scene. And suddenly he was dead and she said she went into such shock. She actually became quite hyper and started behaving quite oddly because she just didn't know how to process it and one can imagine that happens. It's interesting, isn't it, that grief and loss of family members has been a theme of this month with Andy Burnham also choking up during a kind of barbed-storming speech to the Labour Party conference where he references his late father Roy. I think actually when people in the public eye, when we kind of delve into these very personal and intimate moments, they become more relatable, not less, don't they? Because we've all been there, we've all lost someone. Yeah, and certainly post the King's cancer diagnosis and treatment,

23:14the palace talks about how he's become a very human king. He's much more touchable, if you like, than the late Queen was. And I think the public nowadays or the public mood nowadays, particularly when compared to 1997, is so much more forgiving and so much more empathetic and understanding about the personal vulnerabilities people might have in a situation like that. I wonder if Earl Spencer has been surprised that there hasn't been this outrage and outpouring against the King. He thinks it's still 1997 and it isn't when nearly 30 years of attitude towards the King and Camilla actually have changed markedly. Just a quick final end note. Catherine, with the old ladies. Oh, lovely. That was cute. It was so nice. I actually loved that engagement because it felt so different to see the things they've done recently. It was a really surprising format to me. Pop on a mini bus. You know, we're tricky in the media because we keep calling things a surprise. This wasn't a surprise. We knew that it was happening because the press go along.

24:16It's an engagement. But the old ladies were surprised. The people who were there. And a nice surprise. So she popped herself on a mini bus, went to pick up a lovely old lady from her house, tried to help her. The old lady said no thanks. Yeah, I can do this. And they went to lunch with them, ate some crisps, talked about washing up. And you'll have seen the videos of it. It was just a really charming, exactly the sort of thing that the royal family should be doing. Yes. And I found it just a really nice reminder of why they do what they do. Like take away the circus and the headlines and the security and the successes and the spences and strip it down. They've been to leads and wakefields, see Kevin Sinfield, DVZM and D challenge. Incredibly emotional, incredibly important cause. Catherine has gone to hang out with some elderly folk in a bit to highlight community and ending loneliness. Yes, that's about a lunch club that takes women and men who are widowed and alone and give some lunch for the day so that they don't have to cook and be can see people. I also love it.

25:16I also love covering engagements with old people. You never know what children say. They just don't care what they say. And one woman's saying to Kay, I bet you don't eat Christmas. She's like stuffing some kettle chips down her neck. Actually, they're fine. Quite like salted ones, which is all good value. Hannah, I'm sure we'll be back in the studio to discuss the latest installment of the Sussex drama. Let's hope. Let's hope. Plan B made over-the-counter emergency contraception legal more than 20 years ago. It's a safe, effective backup birth control option that helps prevent pregnancy before it starts by temporarily delaying ovulation. Plan B is the number one OB-GYN recommended brand.

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