The Royals with Roya and Kate - Harry's war of words continues as a new Court appearance looms

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

This week has provided no respite in the saga surrounding Prince Harry's resignation from the charity he founded, as news broke that he he will be in the Court of Appeal next week in his fight for tax funded police protection on UK visits. Plus, an update on the King's diary following his hospital visit and the Queen meets domestic violence campaigners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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As we heard, this week he'll be back in court in his legal battle over police protection. The King gets back to action after last week's health scare. While the Queen meets domestic abuse campaigners. All that and much more on the Royals with Roya and Kate. And Roya, there really is only one place to start because as you said in the intro, the fallout from the Centibale saga from last week has very much resumed. So should we just remind everyone what has happened in this extraordinary war of words at Centibale between Prince Harry, his former trustees, and the chair, Dr. Sophie Chandalka.

That's been going on for over a week now. It's pretty ugly. It's got pretty ugly hasn't it? It has and it's still going on. So we just had a couple of hours ago the UK charity commission saying they're opening a case into a whole debacle. But just as a recap, so last week Prince Harry and his co-founder Prince Sezo of of Lesotho, and all the trustees announced their resignation. They said that their position was untenable. They'd fallen out with the chair of the board, Dr. Sophie Chandoka, and there was no way

forward they had to leave. So as it transpired, the next, within hours of the story breaking in the Times, she said actually there were bullying accusations that she had levelled against the organisation. She said that it was a cover-up, she said there was misogyny, misogynoir, so racism and misogyny, that there was bullying, harassment that there was bullying, harassment and that was her kind of riposte. She revealed that she had referred the charity to the UK charity Watchdog, the Charity Commission. She also transpired that she had launched legal action in the High Court. Essentially, the wheel started to come off end of last year. She was a chair who was put in there in July 2023 and then

for whatever reason the charity started to kind of unravel slightly. They lost a couple of donors and then there was a blame game as to what why that could have been the case. And then the accusations just in the ensuing days and over the weekend just flew, didn't they? So you had sources close to the charity, sources close to the trustees, briefing that she had manipulated minutes, board minutes, claiming that she had bullied some members of staff, alleging what she actually confirmed, the charity confirmed that reserves had fallen to below £600,000 at the charity, which was their safety net threshold they'd set, they were operating below that.

She then gave this extraordinary interview... On Sky News. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips, where she talked about, she claimed that Prince Harry and his former trustees, she accused them of harassment and bullying. And here's a clip of what she said. Prince Harry authorised the release of a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me, all my country directors, all my executive director. And can you imagine

what that attack has done for me, on me, and the 540 individuals in the centre Bali organisations and their family that is an example of harassment and bullying at scale and and so if the world didn't want to believe that there's such a thing as bullying this unleashing of the Sussex machine on me and the 540 employees at centre Bali who received this and have had to defend it. By the way, when you say the Sussex machine, what are you talking about? The PR machine that supports Prince Harry's efforts.

The only way we discovered of his decision was through the Sussex machine activating newspapers. You were not told that he planned and that Prince Caesar planned to resign? We were informed that they have the intention to withdraw if I went to the High Court and succeeded. So it really has just become this extraordinary war of words. We've had more in that war today. As you say, off the back of the announcement from the Charity Commission that they've launched an inquiry into

concerns raised about compliance on both sides over the former trustees and the current chair. We had Harry put out a statement saying, speaking of his relief, there's going to be an inquiry talking about the truth to come out, blatant lies. He described them to come out. Then we had statements from Dr. Sophie Chandowka, the chair from the executive. She's saying she welcomes the case as well. From the executive director as well. It is so damaging, isn't it, for the charity for Prince Harry. I think it's quite damaging for Prince Harry. It's so damaging for Prince Harry. It's damaging for the charity. I mean, him saying today, you know, what has transpired over the last week has been heartbreaking to witness, especially when such blatant lies hurt those who

have invested decades in the shared goal. I mean, it's, it's, it's so bitter and brutal. I mean, from a PR perspective, you know, you think of a story being on the front pages for sort of four or five days. That's a major crisis. If this has been going on for over a week, normally in political world, the political world, you would have a resignation. Someone would step down,

someone new would be appointed and you'd move on. In this situation, that isn't possible because Harry and his co-founder and all the trustees walked out, as we reported last week. She's the incumbent, she's still there. She's brought on a new board of trustees. And now we have this investigation, this tit for tat.

The interesting thing, I think, with the Sky News interview is that she talks a lot about bullying and harassment, but there haven't been that many kind of anecdotes or inferences or anything really tangible from her accusations yet. Apart from one thing in which she accuses, I was told that she accused, she accuses the charity of racism on the basis of one anecdote in which a white trustee told her that what she was doing to the charity in Africa was similar to the UDI. So this was the kind of white minority rule in then

Rhodesia in 1965 which then became Zimbabwe in which they tried to crush black opposition by kind of illegally divorcing from the crown in Britain. So to have something that's a kind of a colonial power struggle described as what she was doing and she's from Zimbabwe, that was hugely inflammatory to her. Harry is saying, you know, there's just been so many lies. You know, we found out that she was spending over £400,000 On consultants.

On consultants. Without they felt, the trustees delivering adequate sort of bang for buck of what she promised in terms of fundraising. Yeah. And not only not bringing in the donors that they thought this outlay would promise to bring in, but they're saying that they didn't sign off on that. They're saying that was her decision alone. The charity has said, well, yes, we are operating below £600,000 now, which is way below our threshold, but we have $1.75 million pledged. Now, it's

one thing to have, I just think it's one thing to have 1.75 million pledged by donors. Who's actually going to deliver on those pledges with all this going on? Who's gonna think that's a good place to put my money? That is a good charity to put my money despite the fact that the chair Sophie Chandler is absolutely committed and determined that the charity should continue as it is and you know will carry on without the founders, Prince Harry and Prince Aso. I think if you was to step back and you were a donor and you had a million dollars you wanted to pledge to like a great cause, you'd really look at that and think that's imploding.

Is that really where I want to send my money? Well, exactly. Do I want to walk into this massive storm, this massive PR storm? And the word race is so toxic, so toxic, the accusations flying about. Meanwhile, Harry has let it be known by various channels that if she can be removed, or she's no longer chair at some point, he would like to be back. He could come back. As Patron would say so.

Yeah, I mean, I think that was part of that initial statement when they left, wasn't it, that at the moment, it's a kind of untenable situation But the sort of inference being that perhaps if she shuffled off then they could come back in take over They wouldn't be that much damage done to the charity and they could pick up where they left off and put it all behind them She's not going anywhere anytime soon from from her statements that she's put out have a public kind of criticism of Harry So she would have to be removed in some way because she's put this stay in the High Court,

which prevented the trustees meeting to vote her out. That means that, and now they've left, it's difficult to see how that could happen. The timing couldn't really be worse from a Sussex point of view in terms of the fact. What's going on in Montecito? A lot of the news over the last week has been about Prince Harry, allegations of claims of harassment and bullying and you know even misogynoir. And meanwhile, Meghan is doing her very best and and it seems doing very well, flogging her as ever merchandise,

which has sold out. Sold out within an hour. Sold out. Don't know how many there were to sell. Perhaps. It's quite easy to say it sold out if you only had a few for sale. But we don't know.

I haven't got the numbers in front of me. But I can't think it would have been planned that a lot of the noise around the sausages for the last week has been more about Prince Harry and Santibali and less about raspberry spread. Because we can't call it jam can we? Suboptimal. No for FDA reasons we've learned that she can't call it jam. It's suboptimal but I'm sure there are celebrations afoot in the kitchens of Montecito that a lot of the stock has sold out so that's good.

Yeah and she's launching her new podcast, of course, next week when we'll be in Italy with the King and Queen. Yes. We'll have one, you know, we'll be watching the King and do his maneuvers while listening to the podcast at the same time. There's all sorts of suboptimal timing going on next week for the King and Queen, but we'll get on to that. Well, quite. Anyway, no, I mean, all in all, I would say what a mess. It's not it's not been a great

week for for Centre Ballet for Prince Harry for something that was so close to his heart and we'll watch this space because that Charity Commission inquiry has only just been launched today. They don't move quickly is what we know about the Charity Commission they take their time and do things properly so everything that will come out from there will be really interesting to watch. I suppose with all this sort of negative publicity swirling around Harry and centre Barley and the charity, it begs the question, it's been five years now since Harry and Meghan officially left these shores and left the Royal Fold and official Royal Life,

if he still had his advisors around him here, people who'd been working with him on his charities for as long as he'd founded them, advisors who had his best interests at heart, who were across things like his charities that he was involved in. I wonder, do you think this would have, the fallout would have been as bad? It's hard to think that a charity within the Royal Fold, as it was obviously when he was part of the family, would be allowed for it to get to to this stage that the machine would kick in and something would have happened behind the scenes maybe but you made the interesting point last week that you know he hadn't been to centre barley for a long time one wonders

perhaps if he had had more of a handle on what was going on out there and what the charity was doing who knows who knows they, Dr. Sophie Chandoka, the chair, she was a known quantity, which is kind of a weird thing as well. But the idea that this could be allowed to happen to a royal charity from a working member of the royal family seems very unlikely. Do you think? I do. But it's still on the royal website, of course, and to barely you can look it up. It's still part of the official website And it's still on the royal website, of course, and to barely you can look it up.

It's still part of the official website. Speaking of Harry leaving the royal fold, well, that brings us to another story affecting Prince Harry and that is his desire for taxpayer funded security when he visits the UK because we're about to have the next round of that in court, aren't we? Again, next week, while the King and Queen are on maneuvers in Italy. So this is about the decision that Harry, when he left the royal family, said, ta-da, I'm off. They said, okay, well that you no longer have the automatic right to security when you come to Britain. When you come to Britain, you'll have to tell us in advance and it'll be assessed bespoke kind of case by case basis as to whether you get security or not.

And it'll depend on the sort of thing you're doing while you're here. That hasn't gone down well has it with Harry? He said no way. My threat risk to me and my family remains the same. I'm still the son of the kid, you know, then the son of the grandson of the monarch, now the son of the monarch. And that's not on. So he fought that. He lost, he's appealed, and we're back in court again very soon. So it'd be interesting to see how that, and that's another kind of repercussion unraveling him trying to unravel from his public life within the royal family. And five years on, these wrangles are still going on. Now there's sort of all sorts of sides to this wrangle because as you say when he comes back he still gets bespoke police protection from the Metropolitan Police

very often escorted from at the airport. He was when he came back over last February to see his father after he announces his cancer diagnosis but he has said we've heard in previous rounds in court, that when he's been back, he's been chased by photographers. He's felt sort of very unsafe at times, even though there is this sort of bespoke protection offered. What he wants is round the clock like he had before. What's interesting is when he last came back,

when we last saw him here last summer in May, when he came back for that anniversary of the Invictus Games, the 10th anniversary, and he did an engagement for Scotty's Little Soldiers, a charity he's still involved in. It seemed to go off without a hitch. But Harry maintains the position that it's not safe, he feels, to bring Meghan and the children back here. Which begs the question, if he doesn't get what he wants from this court battle, which hasn't gone his way so far apart from the ability to appeal, will Meghan and the children ever come back here? Will the King ever see his grandchildren again?

Will Meghan ever touch foot on British soil again? I think it's become a point of principle, and not just principle, but I think Harry feels very strongly that he doesn't want to put his children at what he sees seems to be an unnecessary risk. You know, other people might think that he'll be perfectly fine with the spoke system, but he's not going to do that. So it's a kind of, it does feel like a crunch point in his life. You know, if he doesn't get this, you know, this final kind of throw of the dice for this final appeal. Yeah. And they say no, you know, then what?

I mean, it's also very difficult. Because the king is not going to get on a plane as he can go to America to see his grandchildren. No, and the court case has been very difficult for the king, of course, because this is all about how, you know, about royal security and the king can't seem to be involved with that or making those decisions as such. And it's interesting, you're just talking about him coming back last February after the King's diagnosis, because he hasn't seen the King since. No, more than a year. He hasn't seen his father in more than a year.

In person. And we've had things such as- The children, the children haven't seen him since the Platinum Jubilee, 2022. Wow, I mean, we're coming up to three years. It's a long time, especially in the life of a very small child who then wouldn't have those memories, wouldn't be able to make those memories with the grandfather. And an aging king with cancer.

It's a long time. And one who was very recently in hospital. So, you know, Harry must be watching this from afar, wondering how this is going to play out. He's got a lot invested in it. There's a lot invested in it, a lot to win with every spinner and a guaranteed winner by 11pm every day. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600.

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So join us every Monday on the Sonar Network. Or wherever you listen to podcasts. And let's see what spicy things people get up to. See you there! ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. ACAST.com Like we said, this is going to play out next week, the next court hearing next week while the King and Queen are in Italy, Kate. Indeed.

And so will we be. Yes. There was a moment last week when we thought that might be in doubt. This hasn't gone so smoothly, not because of the Pope's ill health. We already been told that the Vatican state visit is off because the Pope is unwell. But at one point last week it looked like maybe the Italy state visit might not be going ahead as well. We had the King in hospital albeit briefly after he experienced some sort of side effects of his cancer treatment.

But we were told he is fine. He's been back up doing investitures this week. He's back on maneuvers today. However, this week he has been out and about doing quite a lot. Because he's a workaholic, as all of us wrote last week and into the weekend. We were told he had a restful weekend at Highgrove. Restful weekend in the garden. Wading through his red boxes, deadheading a few roses, probably laying a few stone walls, bit of hedge laying. Yeah.

And then on Monday. Without Camilla, incidentally, who went to Raymere for the weekend. Which I think is a sign that the King's all right, isn't it? Yeah, it is. The fact that she didn't feel like she had to be there. And then there was some more pruning going on on the Monday when when Pallas Aides got together to try to prune some things out of his diary. Did he yank them back into his diary? Yank them back into his garden basket?

To try to make it as restful a week, so not to jeopardise presumably the the state visit so that he would have enough energy to do that. So today we've got him at RAF North Holt. He's hosting a reception at Windsor Castle tonight and then tomorrow it's all going to be about planning for the trip which starts next Monday. Too much? Doing too much do you think? He did look tired when I saw him last week at an engagement. He looked very jolly at the engagement he did with Camilla, which he didn't have to be at. He was sporting at the reading room and he was very animated with all the guests but he looked tired. And I wasn't that surprised when two days later he ended up in hospital from as we were told side effects

from his cancer treatment. Yeah I think it probably is too much I think most people around him his nearest endurists and his aides think it is too much but someone said to me if he's not doing he doesn't feel like he's being king and wants to feel like he's being king for as long as he's got left as he said in, in his own, it's not being morbid, in his own accession speech to the nation and the Commonwealth, the day after the late Queen died, he said, just as my mother served you, I pledge in as long as time as I have, God grants me remaining, I'm going to do the same level of that's what that's what he's doing. I think he's decided He's making the most of it. Yeah, since he got his diagnosis More than ever doesn't know, you know, you don't know what happens with with cancer treatment. It could be very successful It could be you don't know He's decided I'm gonna pack it in when I can when I'm here pack it in

Yeah, just get that kind of jam-packed diary. Yeah,'t want to, you know, he doesn't want to be the stop stocking, does he? He wants to know he's a king in a hurry. Isn't he? Let's face it. You can see he's he's he's setting out what he wants to do. He's finally got to the top job. And he's not going to he's not going to give it up and let it go. And I think it's what drives him on as well. Definitely. It's definitely where we they've seen your aides have told us previously that it's a tonic to him. So Italy will be... And that's busy though, we're just looking

at how we're going to factor in doing the podcast in, while we're in Italy and actually just looking through the timings just now, it's going to be quite tight because he's busy, you know, he's doing lots while he's there. Yeah, he is. It's not, it's not a D's there. It's not a DOS trip. It's not a DOS trip. And the fact that he was supposed to have the Vatican visit in, they somehow managed to then fill in those gaps with other things, which is interesting. Filling in a void space, as Charles is classically always asking his aides to do. Anyway, don't worry, we will fit in a podcast with the listeners, possibly with a glass of Chianti and a pizza as well, when in Rome, etc.

Meanwhile, the Queen's also had a busy week and there was a very poignant moment on Tuesday when she met the parents of Holly Newton, a 15 year old who was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend in January 2023. What was said, Kate, and why is this such an important issue to the Queen? You were there, weren't you? I was. It was at Clarence House and it was a reception that the Queen was having in honor of the 21st anniversary of Safe Lives. This is a domestic abuse charity that she supported now for five years and she said I'm not going to give a speech but of course then stood up in Camilla style

and gave a kind of off-the-cuff speech talking about how we've moved on from it being a taboo. But there was this really poignant moment where she met Michaela Trussler and Lee Trussler, who are the parents of Holly Newton. She's the girl who was stabbed by her ex-boyfriend, like you say, January 2023. But because she was 15 years old, it wasn't classed as domestic abuse because in British law, English law, both perpetrator and victim have to be aged over 16. So Holly Newton's parents have now set up this campaign to try to get that changed because you know any teenagers who die in these circumstances as a result of a relationship like that, they're saying that should be classed as a domestic abuse situation. It was a really interesting conversation with the Queen because they came

out of it afterwards and said, she's really supportive and passionate about our campaign. And she said she just sort of apologized to them and said, I'm really sorry that you're that you have to be here that you're in this situation. And I thought that was really, that was really interesting because I thought it was quite bold of her to say that she was supporting their campaign in that way. What's interesting about that is that she knows the power of those kind of interventions. And it reminds me on a very different level of, do you remember when she made the intervention about the publishers who tried to downplay, change the language, some of the Roald Dahl

language. And she gave a speech at Clarence House saying, you know, effectively saying freedom of speech for authors is really important and long may it continue. And the next day, the publishers did a u-turn and changed their minds. And like, actually, we'll just leave the original language as it is. And I remember writing a profile of her quite soon after that. And someone said to me, she knows now as Queen that the power of her words are much more effective than when she was Dutch the Cornwall. If she said these things Dutch the Cornwall, people listen but it has a very different impact.

Yeah, the level that she's operating on now as Queen. Gently giving that support there. Yeah, I mean afterwards the panacea was sort of saying well look she was supporting the family in their campaign rather than you know, not rather than a queen calls for age limit to be lowered on domestic abuse classification as such. Nevertheless, I think it was really powerful that she did that. It's hard to think she wouldn't support that move, isn't it? Absolutely. I mean, this is what she's she's been banging the drum about for ages. And

she was Diane Parks was there, whose daughter died. Her estranged husband came back into the family home and killed her daughter. And she was there in Queen Camilla's documentary on domestic abuse as well. And that was an interesting conversation between those two, because the Queen said, oh, it's terrifying what's happening now with social media, which seemed

to be a kind of a play on this drama that's been playing out in the UK adolescence, which looks at how social media is impacting on violence, you know, against women in particular. But that was really interesting that Camilla is very bold, you know, bold when she says those sorts of things. And she knows, I think, the power, you say, of her position. She does. And she's going to use it in whatever way she can to help people. So I'm really looking forward to Rome, Kate. But we're also off to Rio.

Do you remember Rio with Harry? So I do. It's where you and I first properly met and bonded. 2012 listeners, 2012. Back on Copacabana Beach soon, Roya. And why will we be in Brazil, can't tell us. We're gonna be in Brazil in November because the Earthshot Awards, Prince William's Environmental Awards are headed to Rio. And we assume, we've got to assume Prince William is also headed there with the awards.

Let's hope so. Let's hope so. Otherwise we'll be there. On our own. No, we'll be heading to Brazil with Prince William. And we heard from William last year that he was very keen to play a part in… Play a significant role.

…COP30. …COP30. So I think one can safely assume that Prince William will be in Rio for his Earthward Awards and COP30 is being held in Belem, which is the northern city in Brazil. So he could do, you know, two birds with one stone while he's over there. I'm excited. Make that carbon footprint work for him with those two jobs.

I do like Brazil. I do too. It's great fun. It's great fun. But anyway, listeners. It's like a lifetime ago since we were in Sao Paulo watching Harry Pei Polo. There we go.

Power times change. Power times change. First up, Rome. See you there next week, Kate. See you next week. How times change? First up, Rome. See you there next week, Kate. See you next week. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling,

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