The Royals with Roya and Kate - Kate’s return to public life

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

The Princess of Wales paid a visit to victims of and first responders to the Southport stabbing attack in a surprise first engagement since finishing her chemotherapy. William asks for a new Bourne movie (and gets a disappointingly firm 'no'). And the King and Queen prepare for their visit down under. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Royals with you, Kate Manzie. And you, Roya Nikal. How are you, Kate? I'm well, thanks very much. How are you? Looking forward to Australia? I'm going through my mental packing checklist and thinking of all the things I...

Pop note, check, visa, check, passport, check. Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves here Kate. Let's reel back to... What's been happening this week. This week. Which has been more exciting than I think anybody originally appreciated. Because it's been just over a month since Princess of Wales released her video explaining that she was relieved to be announcing that she'd finished her chemotherapy. We had the

family video and that long statement. And now for the first time since that announcement, she has carried out her first royal engagement alongside Prince William. It was a big moment, wasn't it? And we got the heads up on Thursday that she'd decided to join William up in Southport to meet the bereaved families, of course, that horrendous knife attack back in July, where those three little girls were tragically killed. And they met them in private and also went and met some of the emergency first responders who'd been involved in dealing with the aftermath of that attack and also who, some of the people who've been providing mental health support to the local community and those who are involved.

And I think as soon as it dropped into our inboxes, so to speak, we knew it was gonna be quite a big deal because of course there's been so much discussion around when she'll come back. The princess's phased return back. And each time we've seen her, we saw her at Trooping the Colour in June, we saw her at Wimbledon in July. We saw her of course with Liz Hatton last week.

And I loved your piece, the Orntu Jibbit Liz Hatton last week and I loved your piece, The Ornatea with Liz Hatton. Oh, that's very kind. Fantastic piece and I thought it was great for her and her family. But it's been really hammered home to us that it's not been her return to public engagements whereas this was very much. This did feel like the first proper one. It was filled as that, wasn't it? Absolutely. The first engagement proper. A few nights she traveled,

she went to see some people in, like you say, in private. So there's two elements to that day. They had the private element, so they had 30 minutes with each of the bereaved families, those three little girls. And then they met Leanne Lucas, who was the dance teacher on that day, on July the 29th, when an attacker came in and stabbed the children.

And Leanne, actually the dance teacher, was critically injured herself. She had stab wounds. She was trying to protect some of the children, as well as the three that died. There were eight other children that were injured. Horrendous attack. But then of course, the outrage from that then sparked the riots, which we saw in summer in Southport and then widespread disruption around the country. And I know at the time it was something that the king was monitoring daily. And he obviously went to visit in August, but we were told that this was something that Kate and William wanted to visit. But earlier in the week, we knew that William was planning to go. But on the day in question, the message came around, the princess feels well enough, she's gonna go.

And the mood music around it was, her reason for wanting to do that was, she wanted to show support to Southport and the community, show some empathy and compassion or that. But also it was very important to both of them, to William and Kate, that they want to show Southport it's not been forgotten, that the community's not been forgotten, that the community's not forgotten,

the families, all those affected. Because obviously, you know, it's time- That's a danger, isn't it, as well? It's time where it's on, stories fall off, fall out of the news agenda, but this is obviously something that is going to take a very long time for Southport to heal from. And what I thought was quite interesting,

and we'll get back into kind of what they talked about, but afterwards, when you saw some of the news reports on in broadcast last night, and in the aftermath, whether it was the emergency responders or you know, local community members, all of them said it meant a lot to us that they came because we know that they've had their own incredibly challenging year few months months, and for them to come and sit and take the time and talk to us, that meant a lot. But I wonder, it was quite interesting hearing the princess talk about, she was asked by one of the emergency responders, how are the families? Yes, she was. Yeah. And she said- That they're all very different, coping with it in different ways and different families. Yeah. And she said that they're all very different coping with it in different ways and different families. Yeah. Then there was that nice message wasn't there where she said, they've asked me to say thank you. Yeah, to you. Because then those first responders were the people who fought

to save their lives on the day. And obviously, a lot of them still clearly very traumatized, because William said, don't rush back to work. Obviously, a lot of them still off work trying to kind of process what happened that day. He was quite strict on that. He said, you know, make sure your bosses give you the time you need in the space. And it was interesting where their questions went, I think listening to Kate and William, because it shows what they're interested in. So Kate was saying, do you think there's still enough support? And the answers were interesting as well, because the firefighters sort of felt that, yes, they had had time to process it.

There had been some counseling and things like that. It was a paramedic. So we're going from job to job. We never have time to reflect. We never have that. And then you're off work. So it was interesting to hear the different emergency services.

And obviously, this is something that William returns to quite a lot, having served. and we talked about it before as an air ambulance pilot himself and arrived sometimes first on the scene at really disastrous incidents where fatal incidents. Yeah, he's seen some awful things, I'm sure in his in his role. And he talked about, it was an interesting element between the two of them where he talked about, he asked one of the sort of experts and said, you know, should, do you find people talk to their pet, to their partner about it? And you can see Kate kind of looking on and sort of nodding. And I thought, I wonder whether he went home and talked about a lot of that stuff, because they sort of said, well, you try and protect your partner from some of the things that you see. So you don't always want to go home and offload onto them. Do you remember when he did that time to walk Apple? It wasn't a podcast was it? It was an audio experience.

They did lots of different celebrities where you can walk yourself and you listen to them walking and talking. You listen to William and it's William choosing music and then talking about his experiences and memories around each track. And one of the things I remember he said, just to go to your point there, as to whether or not he took it home with him, he said that when he was doing the RAF search and rescue job in Anglesey,

it sort of, you know, it fed into his growing interest at the time in mental health and what was, you know, causing issues and actually young male suicide is an area he's looked into a lot and done a lot of work on. He was finding himself taking the trauma of the day home with him. And he talked about how he found himself in quite a dark place at times

and how that was quite overwhelming. And so I think what's, we've talked about it before, but when he goes into those situations and sits and talks, whether it's, you know, paramedics or firefighters or people who've been first on the scene and seen traumatic things, he he can bring his own experience to it. It's not just the edge of the throne coming and going, how are you? Yes, it's not kind of have you come far. Oh, how dreadfully tough it must be for you.

This is somebody who's got kind of on the ground experience. Remember at the time, some elements of the media were quite critical because he was 35 by the time he actually started full-time royal duties. And I remember people thinking, oh, he's putting it off. Why is he doing that? I think, well, look, it's a long job he's got. You know, there is no retirement date. And actually, we're seeing now his preparation, that time that he spent with RAF Valley. And then after RAF Valley, people thought maybe he would now start Royal duties.

He said, no, I'm going to go and do the civilian role. So we trained and was the air ambulance pilot at East Anglian Air Ambulance. Now we're seeing that play out. I think that actually that was a really smart move for him to have done that and done that training. And I actually started my newspaper career in the Liverpool Post and Echo. Don't know if you know that about me. I do know that about you. I know everything about you.

That's worrying. As part of my training, I was stationed at the Southport Visitor for three months. And I can tell you that community is just so tight and it's such a lovely place that when it happened, I was completely shocked. Obviously, everyone was shocked, but to know those streets, to know that community center, to know the place where that happened, I think that will mean so much to that community. There's a lot of kind of the church comes together, the people come together, there's a real sense of pride about the town. And that will mean so much that visit.

I'm going to read out what William said to the first responders they met. He said, you're all heroes. Please make sure you look after yourselves. Please take your time. Don't rush back to work. You are all true professionals. And one of the things we talked about a few weeks ago was, I think we were reflecting on the King's visit to Southport, the role of the royal family when there are these national tragedies, these traumatic moments that aren't just moments in time, they have long lasting impact on communities.

Grenfell was one of them. This is certainly another one. The role of the monarch is head of nation and head of state, that sort of dual role. And the wider family in terms of bringing comfort and support but recognition. And I think it's interesting to see the staging of it is the wrong word.

Just sort of the way the king went first, then William and Kate would take their own experiences, their own interests there. A lot of people say, what's the monarchy for? I think probably that's one of the things it really should be for. Yeah, absolutely. When I think about the mining disaster

and the queen was criticized for going too late. So I remember thinking at the time, it's all playing out over them. Yeah, absolutely. Over the summer holidays, that the King's team was very keen to that they go at the right time as soon as is humanly possible, but also at a point at which it doesn't cause more stress on the ground. You're not taking police officers away from another much needed area because at that time, the riots were still unpredictable, wasn't known where they were going to spread next,

and the king didn't want to take any kind of police resources from one area to another, but there was this anxiety, I was sort of feeling from the palace, while the king was up in Scotland, that he wanted to get there as soon as possible to be seen, that sense of reassurance that the monarchy provides, and that kind of national kind of state of coming together

and leading the nation in that kind of morning or being that kind of figurehead. And William now coming up with Catherine, I think because it was so important, that's obviously she was, you know, happily feeling well enough to go. But that would have been playing on their minds. Interestingly, you talked about, you just read out what he said about not rushing back to work. Now, obviously we've seen this with the Princess of Wales. This is obviously key.

They're having those conversations at home as well. It's not just about her physical health, she's got to get her, you know, to feel like she's ready to go back as well. Kenston Palace said to us, you know, when we got that announcement and that film from her and her personal message saying, you know, I'm looking forwards, I want to, you know, my path to recovery is long. But she did talk about how important her work is to her and how her work is an important part of her recovery. And the Moon Music has always been that this will be a phased return,

it'll be a light program of engagements between now and the end of the year. But I think she will probably be, she's now done that first public engagement in front of all the cameras since finishing her treatment. probably be, she's now done that first public engagement in front of all the cameras since finishing her treatment. I think, you know, who knows how she feels, but it went well and she seemed very comfortable doing it.

She seemed sort of back. She looked well. She looked well, she looked how she, you know, she looked enthused to be there. I think when will we see her next? That's what everyone will want to know. We're told she will. They reiterated this line she wants to be there at remembrance Sunday in November at the Senate half with the rest of the royal family that's something obviously she's really keen to do.

And I think if she. Which is bold I think that gives us a sense of their reassurance that they're already pinpointing a specific point because they know you know the palace press office know that if she's not there on that day, people say, Oh, what's wrong with Kate? So they're obviously reasonably confident about her progress now that they are pinpointing that again, not just once or twice. There's a few times they've mentioned that now to us in guidance, they really hopes to do that. And I think if she feels well enough, I think we'll see her at the Festival of Remembrance on Saturday, Saturday night too. So I think that Remembrance weekend, we'll probably see her twice, all being well. So it's all hopefully fingers crossed going in the right direction.

Definitely a development. Definitely a development. Right, we're back. We're back. And you're still listening. We hope you're still listening to the Royals. I suppose if you can hear this, you are. Where are we off to next, Kate? Well, last week, I think we accidentally started an unofficial news segment.

Will's week. Oh, did we? Was better than the short-lived Will's beard, which we now won't talk of. It's got some Scott. I think it's got, I think that one's going to run and run. I think it's got a bit patchy anyway. On to other things. What has Will's been up to this week? Now, you, Roya, were at BAFTA, I gather, for William's event. That's a bit- Big event this week.

That's a bit informal, isn't it, Wills? Tell us what was going on there. Well, I was at BAFTA on Tuesday for an event that was co-hosted by BAFTA, which William is president of, and the Royal African Society, which William is patron of. Two for one. Two for one. And it was actually, it was a fun engagement. It was all about championing and supporting and highlighting the need to support young people working in the creative

industries, specifically film, TV and games. And underrepresented people, so diverse backgrounds. Exactly. Not the usual. And William was there meeting a lot of young people involved who are either film students or working in the industry. And a lot of them were recipients of the Prince William BAFTA Bursary Fund, which gives out

grants of up to £2 2000 pounds to people to help them fast track their career or accelerate their career or their training or their education or their course. Or just put them on a more equal footing with people who have more privilege in life. One of the things that he was surprised by when he asked one of the young people what they'd used their grant for, they said driving lessons and he said, that's niche. I was supposed to go and get around. And he asked one of the young people what they'd used their grant for. They said, driving lessons. And he said, that's niche. And they were like, well.

I suppose you've got to get around. They said, well, if I can't drive myself to an audition or to a film shoot, then I'm at a disadvantage. Not everyone's got a driver, Wills. So it's very practical. But while he was having that conversation with that group, he met. Wasn't there a cheeky question that he had back? Someone asked him how many times he'd taken his driving test and he said, thankfully

I passed first time. And I just stood there and thought, even if you'd driven in a slightly dodgy way, clipped a curb, slightly bodged your parallel parking, William, I reckon you'd have still passed. He's probably driving from age of five around Balmoral or something. Which driving instructor's going to be brave enough to go, your royal highness, you failed. Disgust. Anyway, I really wanted to pipe up at that point and thought best not worry, just let him crack on. But he was there with Paul Greengrass, the film director, who's made lots of brilliant films, including 1993. More importantly for William, the E is directed three of the Bourne franchise.

Three of the five Bourne movies. So the reason Paul Greengrass was there. Matt Damon stars as Jason Bourne, if you've never seen them. If you don't know them. The action thriller. Now Paul Greengrass was the founding donor to Prince William's Birth Refund. Was he? He made the first donation.

And how much did he give on that? I didn't ask. That's interesting though. 2021. Yeah, so he made the first donation. And how much did he give on that? I didn't ask. That's interesting though. 2021. Yeah, so he made the first donation. And one of the things William said was, any chance you might make another born, any more borns, Paul Greengrass?

And he said, computer says no. No. It's no, Your Royal Highness. Wow. He doesn't hear that word that often. He did from Paul Greengrass. Goodness.

But the other people who were there. That's a shame. I wouldn't mind another Bourne movie. Yeah. Stephen Merchant was there. Celia Emery was there. Andy Serkis was there, of course, and Lord of the Rings fame.

They all three have donated to the Bursary Fund. And actually what was interesting was Celia Emery said, I didn't realize BAFTA did this. I thought it just gave out awards. I didn't realize it actually, you know, granted funds to people from disadvantaged backgrounds who aren't all privileged. I think that's the thing about acting, isn't it?

A lot of people feel that it's only people from certain backgrounds that get a leg up in the industry. Yeah, it's a bit of a closed club. But there was a bit of banter. You have to go to RADA and to get into RADA, you have to go on to a posh school. There was a bit of banter. To get into Rada, you have to go to a posh school. There was a bit of banter between Stephen and William because William's pretty tall. He is surprisingly tall. I think a lot of people don't realise until they meet him

how tall William is. I'm not sure he's six foot three. I don't think he feels short often, but compared to Stephen Merchant, who's six foot seven, who said he had his built-up shoes on because he didn't want to be outdone by Prince William. Anyway, that was the start of Wills Week. Well, that's quite a good one for him, isn't it? I think he's been associated with Bath for a long time. Will he be at the awards ceremony? The next one, do you think? There's always that thing every year, is William going to go? Is he not going to go? I remember there

was a wonderful one where him and the Princess of Wales went and they walked down that red carpet and it seemed to be walking forever and she had a sort of white flowing ball gown on. I tell you it's not quite the end of Will's week. Come on. Let's briefly discuss. You said you thought his beard was looking patchy. Well. It was looking quite bushy at Bafta I can tell you. I feel like it's had its time.

I think it's here. I feel it's here to stay. I think he thinks it's here to stay. But you, Kate, have other ideas. Yeah, well, if you look at him in the documentary. Kate has other ideas on Will's beard. We're talking about this one. We're not allowed to talk about the details of it yet, but the sneak peek we had at the documentary that's coming out.

That's because it was all filmed before he grew his beard. Well, yes, and he looked better without it. Disgust. Sorry to say. Disgust, disgust and none. But this time next week, we will both be in sunny, hopefully it'll be sunny Australia in Sydney. And more importantly, not just us. I know everyone's very keen to know

about our travel itinerary, Kate. But their Majesties, King Charles and Queen Camilla, will also have just arrived in Australia for the start of what's being seen as a very significant tour. It is the King's first trip to a realm as monarch. First trip to a Commonwealth realm. They're then going on to Samoa, and that will be his first visit to a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, Shogham, as head of the Commonwealth. So it's a big trip. We'll be there. Incidentally, so will King and Queen.

The Royals with Warren Kate will also be there, dear listeners. Yes, we will be doing a podcast or two. But let's look ahead. Let's have a little taste of what that trip's going to look like and what we're going to be up to. It will be different from Royal Tours of old. I think in Australia, we're not going to see evening functions. So there's no state dinner in Australia, which is unusual. It is.

And that's because... They're paring back for health reasons. So there's no late nights. The King is still having his cancer treatment, isn't he? Although he's pausing it for this tour. Yeah, they've said that he's pausing his treatment during the tour, so they must be reasonably kind of reassured that he can go that period of time. He's been having treatment for quite some time now, since the beginning of the year,

and on medical advice, he said he can pause it while he goes away and he will resume it when he comes back. This doesn't mean that he's finished his cancer treatment. There's no announcement from that point of view. But it is a sign that perhaps he's well enough. The fact that he's going actually is quite a sign, reassuring sign from his doctors and from the palace because- I mean, that was very much in doubt, wasn't it, in February when we were told he had cancer? I think a lot of us would have thought this trip might not have happened. But it's been pared back. So it's tight, isn't it? It's Sydney and Canberra before we go on to Samoa. Yeah. So it's just all taking place in a very short period of time and very kind of close. So he's not going to go to Uluru. He's not going

to go to other parts of the country. It's Sydney. and then he's got a day essentially in Canberra. I have to say, looking at the itinerary though, and I don't know if you agree with this, those days are pretty jam-packed. So although he's in Canberra just for one day, he's hitting quite a lot of engagements in that day, he's making the most of it. He'll be giving a speech in Canberra and then back to Sydney. So you've got the, you know, the big ticket stuff, the official sort of, you know, parliament house events, the speech, the things you would

expect from a world tour. Then you've got some fun elements. So you've got him going to a barbie barbecue in Northern Sydney. Which is always something that the Queen did, didn't she? There was always a big Aussie barbie somewhere on an Australian tour. There's lots of opportunities to meet the public, which is what they're calling the walkabout. We used to call them walkabouts. They used to be called walkabouts, but now because of, you know, indigenous sensibilities and the fact that they're used by Aborigines to discuss something more spiritual going off into the bush, they're not using the term walkabout. They are going to be meeting the public, but there's quite a few of those

events. So Charles is obviously keen to get that into the program that he wants to meet much of the Australian public. Yeah. And there's always this issue with Australia, isn't there? The Republican agenda out there. We know the prime minister has made a big deal saying that he wants to move away from the monarchy. Although, although Anthony Abernese has slightly put that on hold, hasn't he? There was a referendum on giving people, indigenous people, more political rights and the country overwhelmingly voted against that. So that was a big defeat for the government.

So I think a bit shaken by that. They're not minded to throw another referendum at the public for fear of being defeated again. He said he'll have a referendum in the next term, because he'd have to win another election to get there. And he's also got Matt Thistlethwaite, who was initially designated as a minister for the Republic. This was part of this politician's brief that he was going to be looking at a way to make Australia a Republic and move away from having Charles or British monarch as their king. But now Mathiselswaite's brief has changed somewhat. So it seems to be kicked into the long grass.

It's been a long time. 1999 was the last referendum in Australia on the monarchy when they narrowly voted to keep the monarchy. And if you speak to constitutional experts and most Australians, the reason it fell down was because they could not decide on what should replace the constitutional monarchy, what mechanism, how that should work. So anyway, it's always a life subject whenever you go on these tours. It was when we went with Harry and Meghan back in 2018.

It sort of simmers, it brews, and then seems to fade away. So watch this space. We shall be reporting back, won't we, Kate? What are you looking forward to most about? Apart from hanging out with me, and recording our first foreign dispatch of the Royals of the Royal and Kate in Australia and Samoa, I'm excited.

What else apart from that are you looking forward to? I think it's Samoa. I think it'd be interesting to see how he handles being head of the Commonwealth, his first Chogham as monarch. The speech that the words he uses there will be very carefully chosen. I think it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. But also because, you know, from a purely practical point of view of what we're going to get out of it for, you know, producing online and print reports, they're going to be some brilliant pictures.

There's going to be much more fun. There's going to be a lot more color in Samoa. I think Australia is going to be a bit more what we would expect of a kind of a standard royal tour, but I think Samoa will be really exciting. Now, you and I were last at Chogham a couple of years ago in Rwanda. Rwanda.

It was really interesting. Charles, then the Prince of Wales, was representing the Queen, her late majesty, and gave a big speech on her behalf. Yeah, because it was June, so it was just a couple of months before the queen died. And Boris went out then. There was a bit of a hoo-ha about the Rwanda plan.

Wasn't there, and discussion that perhaps the king, well, then Prince of Wales didn't really agree with that. But as you said, I think it would be interesting to see. And now Boris is out and Charles is in. To see how he holds court as monarch. And now whether there's any sort of shift there, so that that will be very interesting. What are you looking forward to?

I'm looking forward. Hanging out with me? To obviously hanging out with you, top of the agenda. Naturally. I'm looking forward to seeing a new country somewhere. You know, these tours do take us to extraordinary places I wouldn't go off my own bat. I mean, going with Harry and Meghan to Australia and then on to Fiji and Tonga, I think I'd probably got myself to Tonga, unless if it were on a tour. And Samoa is, you know, it'll be fascinating to see how that common Commonwealth country sees itself in the Commonwealth, how it responds

to the King and the Queen. I'm looking forward to just being back out on the road again. Yeah, back out on the road because I think it's been such a strange year from illness and we haven't had those foreign tours. The fact that they're resuming, okay, albeit on a kind of tightened, watered down schedule. Still a big old trip. Still a big trip. 11 days, if you can count the travel for the King and Queen, longer for us, you have to sort of schlep it around on various different commercial legs. But I think to see it sort of to see the machine back in action, I think will be really interesting and what that looks like. Well watch this space, listen to this space although very sadly our producer Callum isn't coming we will still by hook or by crook we'll get him into the episodes I think we have to make him either stay up really late or really early to produce it from from

Britain. We will be making some episodes and we will be getting our dispatches. Are you in there somehow, Callum? Yes, we will. So anyway, looking forward to that. But somewhere the king won't be, very soon after that big trip, is COP29, Kate. And where's that and why is he not going? Azerbaijan.

He's always invited to COP, or if he goes to COP, I should say, it's always on the invitation of the British government. So they will decide whether he should go or not. And obviously he's made a big deal of going to COP and he's really supported these annual climate change conferences and summits. He gave a very big speech last year at COP, didn't he? At Dubai last year, yeah.

He gave a great kind of opening speech, a sort of tub thumping speech saying that, you know, enough's being done, we need to, you know, redouble our efforts to stop the world sliding into sort of environmental chaos, really. But this year, it seems that he hasn't been invited by the government and certainly he's not going. The mood music from the palace is that, while these things are up to government, you also have to bear in mind that he would have come back from a huge trip.

It's not really the same point because I think Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, could have made, could have invited him or allowed him to do some sort of video address. There's a ways and means of involving the King and these conversations haven't happened. It always throws up some interesting narrative. The time that he didn't get invited,

which I think you wrote about. Yeah, me and Caroline Wheeler, our political editor, turned into quite a big story and there was quite a lot of you turning. So, Liz Truss, Prime Minister for four and a half minutes, decided as Prime Minister, one of her early calls was that the King, well known globally as a climate activist and authority and expert on these matters for decades, who, you know,

was responsible for, you know, pulling together various accords at very different cops, particularly cop 22, should not go. And this did not go down well. It didn't land well. It didn't land well. We got wind of this and took it to the palace and the palace did their very diplomatic, well, this is... With mutual disrespect. It was mutual and you just knew it wasn't mutual because you knew that, you know... Charles would have loved to have been there. Charles, the climate change king, would want to be there. Anyway, it was our splash, I think. It was our big front page story and you just knew that there had been discussions there.

And the King was said by others close to him to be very disappointed that he wasn't going. Anyway, fast forward four and a half minutes. Liz Truss is no longer Prime Minister. Rishi Sunak is Prime Minister. And Rishi, he said, if it was up to me, had a very different view. I probably would have invited you.

But it was all a bit too late. Your majesty. It was all a bit too late. So instead, Charles did a very clever pivot and hosted a lot of very important people at Buckingham Palace. And I did that reception, I did the road trip with Rishi Sinak there.

And a lot of people who were on their way to cop, if they get an invitation from the king, they're gonna go and have a cup of tea with the king to chat about climate. So he sort of got his own back slightly and had what was interesting about that reception was it was the first time you saw him in that big role and how he'd adapted the role.

He would normally have given a speech, he didn't. He stood to one side and Rishi Sinha gave the speech. But he was there convening. He was there having those conversations with the likes of John Kerry, with other people there, with heads of state, with preminences who were all going to Cobb. And he was back in business in Dubai last year. He was back in business giving a big speech. So. So although he's been away, he obviously had to cancel the New Zealand element to the trip.

We haven't spoken about the Kiwis. No. Because I was there at the Palace when he had the hug from the women's rugby team. The women's gram. Yes. One of them said, can we have a hug? And he said, yeah, why not? And one of her fellow players have misunderstood or misheard the question or

something, misunderstood it. That when she said, shall we have a hug, she all the others thought involved them too. So it ended up being more of a tackle and they all kind of hugged him. But he was quite sad to have to, to cut New Zealand out of his trip. When he goes to Australia and Samoa. But I think Azerbaijan might be, might have been a step too far. Anyway, but it's not the point is it doesn't matter if you want to go to the party or not, if you, it's the invitation it's the invitation it's the invite it is anyway so

we'll see how that plays out well see watch this space on that yeah kate i will see you next down under on the other side of the world look forward to it g'day hooroo what's the hooroo me what does the hooroo mean i feel like i need my dictionary with me for this trip. Goodbye, thanks. Well, thanks for listening, and we'd love for you to join us down under too. Cheerio.