Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Gavin Grey on King Charles, William and Harry

Episode Date: September 11, 2022

Gavin Gray is our UK Correspondent, and he's had 3 days of constant reporting with the passing of Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. He chats about reactions to King Charles ascendence, protocol around the Queen's burial, and the grandchildren - will their relationship improve?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to a bonus podcast from Jono and Ben on The Hits. It's the biggest news in the world right now, Queen Elizabeth II passing away. It was a sort of early Friday morning New Zealand time. I'm across live to the UK, our UK correspondent Gavin Gray. Good morning. Good morning, Jono. Morning, Ben. Jeez, you just must be sick of just saying stuff out of your mouth. How much talking have you done, Gavin, over the last three days? My voice is still going. That's the main thing.

You are a royal reporting machine. New Zealand, there's been a lot of coverage on the news, just rolling coverage. I imagine it's the same and more in the UK. Yeah, very much so. The BBC and indeed the main news channels recorded, I think, more than 30 million people viewing on the day of the death itself when prior to the announcement and then just after the announcement of Her Majesty's death. And certainly it is page-to-page coverage. It's very difficult to see any other news being covered,

certainly around the UK at this particular time. Now, Prince Selwyn was Prince Charles. Now, King Charles has made his first speech. You know, he's done his first royal duties as king. What have you thought so far? Yeah, well, I have to say, I think many people have warned, actually, to Prince Charles in the last few days.

He has worn his emotions on his sleeve. He's looked visibly upset. He's shown to be much more human. There was one slight moment of perhaps a little temper when he was signing at the Council. Yeah. Yeah. And one of his flunkies, dare I say, didn't remove the ink pot, which I think he was worried about spilling. And he gave him a very short, short look and a glance to get this thing moved now sort of thing. But look, other than that, I think everyone thinks it's gone very well thus far. There are always concerns, of course, as we approach the funeral, which we now know to be in a week's time on Monday the 19th. Plenty

more to go before then. Today, the Queen's Her Majesty's coffin was taken on a six-hour journey, driving very, very slowly in a circuitous route from Balmoral, where she passed away, to the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. And lots of people were lining the route, as you can imagine, to pay their respects to Her Majesty. The coffin will be flown to London on the Tuesday after a sort of commemoration service held at St. Giles Cathedral in the city of Edinburgh

at which those royals will all be present. So after the body is flown down the Queen will then lie in state at Westminster Hall for four days for people to pass by the closed coffin and pay their respects. And there are a lot of people paying their respects over the weekend but I have noticed there are groups of people too who weren't entirely happy with the Queen's reign and the effect that it had on their countries. Any backlash over there, Gavin Gray? There's been one or two. One radio presenter got into a lot of trouble.

He is black and said that no black or brown person should be mourning the death of Her Majesty. Well, he immediately got taken off air. He is a former England footballer working for a sports station, and the backlash was pretty severe. And then he did apologize and said, you know, I said the wrong thing at the wrong time sort of thing. There has been a bit of that.

There's been a bit of that abroad as well with many people saying, you know, well, I'm afraid she stood for the empire and the empire isn't what we like. But I think by and large, even looking from the UK in slightly rose-tinted glasses of somebody who held the nation's affection, I think we'll see at the coffin, I think we'll see rather at the funeral, how so many people from around the world are coming to pay their tribute. Now, is she going to be buried, cremated? Is there protocol when it comes to what happens to the body afterwards?

So it's going to be, first of all, there'll be service at Westminster Abbey. She will then be taken by a horse-drawn hearse to the Wellington Arch, which is the one you see if you look out of Buckingham Palace straight along the Mall, and from there by car to Windsor Castle, where she will be interred beneath the floor of St George's Chapel in the family vaults, and that is within the grounds of Windsor Castle. And just quickly, I know you're very busy, Gavin Gray from the UK, but William, Kate out there with Harry and Meghan all together, the four of them, does that mean that maybe some of the ill feelings

have been put aside? If they have, I'm afraid it's pretty minimal. Look, I think it's a great thing, the rapprochement. Hopefully they realize they can actually talk to one another. But, you know, I also hope none of this appears in Harry's forthcoming book or Meghan's forthcoming interviews about what exactly happened, because so much of this is private to the family not private because it's you know top secret sensitive but it's just so emotional but yes i think the queen

would have been absolutely delighted my sources say prince charles asked prince william to approach prince harry and one hour before prince william and kate which you'd go on that walk around he phoned harry invited him and me Megan and I'm delighted to say they accepted Megan's got a podcast mate and listen, we do a radio show, we know what it's like having to fill content, this will all be on her next episode, trust us Oh I hope you're wrong but I suspect

it might be and it's those conversations between the royals, the private ones, that's what they're so worried about Oh Gavin Gray, thanks so much for your time, you go off to your next interview. Keep talking, Gavin. Keep talking. You've been listening to a podcast from The Hits.

For more audio, search up Megan Pappas on the 3 p.m. pickup or Brad and Laura on The Hits. Available now on the iHeartRadio app.