However, I’m told that his hopes for his new life as a ‘private citizen’ in the UK involve taking tea with his father, King Charles, regularly.

The family arrived on Wednesday last week and are now settling into their new digs: a home on the vast estate of a friend where they will live while they look for a new, huge, private house near the school where Archie and Lili start shortly.

Buoyed up by the ‘success’ of their brief visit with the King in July (they took tea at his non-royal residence, Highgrove, for around an hour) Harry is apparently hoping to see his father once a month, with the children.

It’s all part of an effort to connect their children with their ‘British heritage’ - Harry is determined to raise them as outdoorsy, rugby-and-banter-loving Brits. He seems to be harking back to the happiest years of his life - when he was at Ludgrove prep school, before the death of his mother Princess Diana. Archie is seven - the same age that he was when he started there.

Despite reports suggesting that the couple have agreed to buy an exquisite £12million house, I am assured by three separate sources that there is no deal on that place – at least not yet.

But the Sussexes are house-hunting in earnest, with a gargantuan budget which strikes some of their Californian crowd as downright improbable, fearing they may have to give up their US base after all.

‘They will have to sell in Montecito,’ says one US-based source upon being shown the details of the house which the couple are said to be keen on. Adding, after closer inspection of its vast lands and being told the price tag: ‘What! That’s not possible!’

Friends insist, however, that they are keeping their £11.1million Montecito mansion and plan to spend school holidays there or at their £6.3million holiday house in Portugal. Christmas, meanwhile, will be in California as well.

As for their new home in the Cotswolds, I am told that Meghan wants nine bedrooms and a film studio and Prince Harry wants a lot – and I mean a lot – of land, and no footpaths going across it to protect their privacy.

Friends say that they are both ‘all in’ on the British dream. This is something which will strike those who remember their passion for a new life in California as deeply ironic.

Indeed, both are set on what I’m told is ‘Finding Freedom 2’ – a reference to the biography Finding Freedom that offered an insight into the couple’s decision to leave the Royal Family for a fresh start in America – and the dream of a new life in a new country on new terms.

Back in 2020 they had thought that California would be the answer to their desire to thrive and not merely ‘survive’, But, as we all know, it didn’t work out that way, with goodwill squandered, friendships fractured and media deals turning to dust.

This new vision is, say friends, an agreed common goal.

One says: ‘They have an English countryside dream. This will be the first time that Harry has lived in the UK as a private citizen where no one can demand any access to him.

‘It will be very different to when he was a working royal and living in Frogmore Cottage. Then the roof over his head was ultimately down to the country.

‘Now he is going to have a chance to enjoy all of the things he loves about the country, but as a private citizen. They will have more freedom now – it is like finding freedom again.’

The big decision is where exactly they will live.

I am told: ‘There is an agent involved but they have not seen anywhere yet, so they have not bought yet. Online viewings are all very well but the houses that they are looking at are so huge that you need to go in person and it’s also a really big commitment. I know that they have a number of requirements.

‘With houses you don’t know until you step into them if they are where you want to raise your children. Is this the snug where we will light a fire and watch a film; is this the kitchen where I will cook meals for the next ten formative years of my child’s life? You have to go in person which they will be doing over the next weeks.’

They have apparently been discussing the move since at least the early part of this year, and drew up a shortlist of schools with a lot of care in the early spring before viewing schools in July when they were visiting the UK.

So what do they want for the children?

A friend explains: ‘It’s not academia. That is very low on the list. A nurturing atmosphere is very high on the list. Probably the highest priority is the outdoorsy and sporting ethos. They want to put them in a secure countryside microcosm, so that they will have as normal a childhood as they possibly can.

‘Harry, I think, is thinking back to his time at Ludgrove (prep school). That was two and a half miles down a dirt track with fields on either side. There was a small police box on the track and a rather vanilla bodyguard who would peer out of a window while Harry played in the yard.

‘The fellow pupils treated him and his brother Prince William as absolutely one of their own. I think you could argue that those Ludgrove years were the happiest of his life until, of course, the death of his mother [in 1997, before his final year].

‘Being at Ludgrove was a solace to him in sad times.

‘That is what they are looking for in a school – that sense of community, where the 1st XV cheer the first year squad and vice versa. Of course, Meghan knows a very limited amount about rugby and Harry is a huge rugby fan. She knows even less about cricket!’

There will be a culture shock, again, for Meghan. A friend says: ‘At this time, Meghan is kind of shocked that they have school on a Saturday, other than that she is looking forward to it.

‘They both believe in this as the best decision for the family.’

So what comes next for them work wise? Crucially, says the friend, there will be no commercial activities in the UK for either of them during the years ahead.

The idea is that this will allow them to abide in some way by the deal agreed with the late Queen at the Sandringham summit – an agreement that they would be free to make as much money as they could, just as long as they no longer presented themselves as working members of the Royal Family.

Some will see this as a threadbare fiction, perhaps even an insult. The fact is that Harry is still royal and he will carry on working. Some of those engagements will look exactly like royal engagements.

His father the King appears to be adopting an ostrich approach where he ignores the way it looks, and it is briefed that Harry’s life is nothing to do with him and he knows nothing of his plans. Not everyone is convinced that this can be true.

The expectation at this point is that Prince Harry will ‘probably’ pick up some more charitable patronages, likely related to military causes. He won’t, though, take on any business deals in the UK.

As for Meghan, who will attempt to carry on running her As Ever lifestyle brand, if she films something in the UK friends say that any footage ‘will be only for her US website’. As Ever does not ship to the UK and there are no immediate plans to do so. The fact is that they are still trying to make the brand work in the US, a far bigger market.

One source this week said that they believe Meghan won’t be able to resist building a film studio at their new home – when they buy it – and will end up creating ‘home making content’ in the UK ‘because that is the heart of who she is’.

It seems a delicate line: that they are going to try to be in the UK as ‘private citizens’ and save their celebrity for America.

Read more on this story in the Daily Mail.

Sussex return to Britain

‘I’ve been in fashion now for 20 years, and I was in the Spice Girls for four years,’ she told the Call Her Daddy podcast in October 2025. ‘I’ve been so defined by that period and fighting preconceptions for 20 years. I love what I do in fashion and I take it really, really seriously.’

Why does she want to ditch ‘Posh Spice?’ Well, scratch the surface of any one of the Spice Girls’ many reunions, you will find fear and loathing. The Spice Girls were a pre-fabricated group, brought together when they all saw the same advert in The Stage. They were not a group of friends, not built to last, and were certainly never constructed with one eye on posterity.

What ensued, though, was magic. ‘We felt invincible,’ Mel B once said, and that was pretty much what Girl Power added up to.

Behind the scenes, as revealed in full in my forthcoming book Brand Beckham (published Aug 13th, link in article) the sisterhood was not quite so sacred.

A source close to the band says: ‘It was a girl band mentality in those days and all about who is the thinnest, the prettiest, who gets to sing lead, who gets the best shots in the videos. Victoria had a low status in the band and was virtually bullied by them, especially Mel B. The Beckham marriage very much elevated her above the other girls.’

Following Geri’s abrupt departure in the middle of the Spiceworld tour in 1998, the relative failure of their 2000 album Forever was enough to convince the remaining four that it was time to move on. Victoria was embracing a new life as one half of Britain’s most ambitious celebrity couple, and then tried, hard, to launch herself as a solo singer.

Despite selling more than 100 million records worldwide, an impeccable source says that the ‘girls’ walked away with a little over £5 million each. Simon Fuller apparently got more like £30 million. No wonder they were all so furious with him.

There have been attempted reunions – with a lot of talk about possible options around the 30th anniversary of the release of Wannabe, this summer.

But when they have reunited it’s gone so badly it’s little wonder that Victoria, who doesn’t need the money like the others, has quietly opted out of doing more.

Their first reunion was in 2007 and was put together by Simon Fuller, who by then was managing David and Victoria Beckham. Mel C only came on board when she was told that the others were planning to go ahead – with or without her. Tickets in the US and UK sold out immediately.

Starting in December 2007, in Vancouver, Canada, the tour was the highest grossing of the period, with $107 million in ticket sales and merchandising, plus sponsorship and other deals taking the total to $200 million. The fans didn’t seem to care that the show itself was relatively brief – featuring just twenty-two songs – and that Mel C was the only one fit enough to carry off the dancing and singing. Victoria declined to sing solo.

The worst fall-out during the tour was between Mel B and Victoria. They didn’t speak for at least two years afterwards. ‘By the end, none of them could stand the sight of each other,’ says a source. (Things are less than easy between the two still. Victoria was a no-show for Mel B’s third wedding last year, although her mum Jackie went along.)

Buy Brand Beckham here

On 1 February 2008, it was announced that, owing to ‘personal and family commitments’, their tour would come to an end in Toronto on 26 February 2008.  Planned tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were simply cancelled. The curtain had come down once more, rather suddenly.

‘The idea was to do seven continents, and I think we managed three,’ said a source. ‘They honestly couldn’t be bothered to do it anymore. The point about the Spice Girls is that they don’t live in music, they aren’t music artists.’

Time passed, and, in 2010, the Spice Girls were honoured at the Brit awards with a special award for their 1997 performance of ‘Wannabe’ and ‘Who Do You Think You Are’. Only Geri and Mel B were present to accept it.

The next - and final - get together was for the London Olympics in 2012.

David Beckham had agreed to bring the Olympic torch down the Thames in a speedboat – a James Bond-style flourish and one of the highlights of the event. Fuller was able to persuade the five girls to reunite again just for one night, to sing ‘Wannabe’ and ‘Spice Up Your Life’ at the closing ceremony.

They were driven onto the stage in specially personalised London taxis. Victoria found it an awful ordeal. She had a full-blown panic attack as they prepared to go on stage and had to be manhandled into her vehicle. For Victoria, who had always lacked confidence in her abilities as a pop performer, it was very much a full stop at the end of the Spice Girls chapter.

Emma, Mel B and Geri tried to get a ‘three-Spice’ tour off the grounds in 2016. It was cancelled when Geri fell pregnant with Monty, her son with Formula 1 executive Christian Horner. Over the ensuing years, the five were in touch, and it was largely friendly, but were not on close terms. Only Emma B made it to Geri’s big white wedding in Woburn in 2015.

Money was still a motivator for all the girls (well, those not married to a multi-millionaire footballers). In 2018, four of them announced a second reunion tour, minus Victoria. This one was to bring in a little more money – £12 million each – over just thirteen dates.

Mel B felt extremely let down by Victoria’s refusal to take part in the 2019 tour. She sent her a text message calling her a ‘f****** bitch’ and wore a little black dress and Posh mask for Halloween 2018.

Since that point, there has been endless speculation about a reunion for the 30th anniversary but all ideas have come to nothing. Victoria won’t set foot on a stage and has also not given permission for her likeness to be used in an ‘avatar’ idea, which would potentially be like the innovative Abba Voyage stage show.

A source says: ‘Victoria will never ever ever be part of a reunion tour. She might be in a documentary about the band, if it is made by the Beckham’s own production company. That way she would control it, and not have to perform.’

But Geri has apparently vetoed the idea of a flattering Netflix documentary about the band, which would have been lucrative, and also a planned Netflix drama depicting their early days. Both ideas were abandoned after talks got nowhere. Geri is said to have such ‘terrible stage fright’ now that, like Victoria, there is no way she will go on tour again.

A source says: ‘The reunion is at the point now where everyone is bored of it. They have been trying for years to do one final tour. The trouble at this point is that Geri won’t do it. She has her life in the country with Christian and her children, and she has her focus on books and charity work, and she is not interested in being a Spice Girl.  She’s in a different place. Victoria has never entertained it, not since the Olympics.

‘For around four years they have been offered Glastonbury every year, which they will never do, as its not good money, and other really big money deals. But there’s no realistic prospect of anything.’

There was a reunion in 2024, but that was behind the doors of Oswald’s restaurant in London at Victoria’s fiftieth birthday. Video footage posted on Instagram by both David and Victoria shows the five girls lining up and singing their 1997 hit ‘Stop’. Victoria wrote: ‘Best night ever!!’, adding, ‘Happy Birthday to me! I love you all so much! #SpiceUpYourLife.’

Mel B seemed to announce a tour coming, saying,' ‘About last night #tourdatescommingsoon.’

But nobody would bet on that happening again. Victoria is happy to indulge in some Spice nostalgia for a dose of social media likes, but as far as she’s concerned, it’s over.

‘Nobody thought Victoria would end up as the most important member of the Spice Girls – but she has become that by being the one who always says no,’ says a source.

Buy Brand Beckham here

Their wedding in April 2021 must be the most-talked-about nuptials in celebrity history.

To understand what happened that day, and why its misadventures landed with a force which eventually shattered Brand Beckham, you have to spool back a few months to a rather dry disagreement about image rights.

As I reveal in my book Brand Beckham, published on August 13th, that came into play as David negotiated to sell a stake in his firm, DB Ventures, to the Authentic Brands Group.

David’s legal team suggested that Brooklyn and his brother Romeo, both over 18, should sign a ‘live and let live’ deal which would allow both sides to use the famous Beckham name, which he was selling.

Romeo agreed but Brooklyn did not. By now he was taking advice from Peltz family lawyers. He felt that his parents, who should be protecting him, wanted to exploit him - as he made clear in that infamous Instagram statement this January.

The argument over the deal was so bad Brooklyn wasn’t on speaking terms with his parents for three months running up to the wedding.

According to Vogue Magazine, who were invited to attend, the wedding was picture-perfect nonetheless.

Around 500 guests came, including tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, actress Eva Longoria, chef Gordon Ramsay and family, and two Spice Girls, Mel B and Emma.

The wedding was set up across three huge air-conditioned marquees with ocean views. A floating aisle had been constructed.

Nicola came down the aisle on her father’s arm, with UK artist Sekou, accompanied by a string orchestra, singing the mournful Fleetwood Mac ballad ‘Songbird’. An odd choice, since it is more commonly heard at funerals.

Nicola wore a Valentino dress, Victoria having informed Nicola’s mother Claudia - by text - that it was too big a task for her atelier. That must have happened at least seven months previously, when Nicola and Claudia were spotted visiting the Valentino atelier in Italy.

In his bombshell statement, Brooklyn said that his mother had backed out ‘at the 11th hour’. In couture terms this may be true, but not quite as normal people would see it. As I reveal in the book, he didn’t write all of the statement and it seems likely that his wife - who nurses a lively dislike of her mother in law - wrote this passage.

The background was that the women initially made friends but Victoria had since taken against her son’s new bride. The feeling was mutual: Nicola pointedly didn’t wear Victoria Beckham for any of her other outfits on the day, and she certainly easily could have.

In the event, only Victoria, her best pal actress Eva Longoria and the model Mia Regan, dating second son Romeo, wore Victoria Beckham designs. Victoria said in an Instagram post that she was thrilled to have dressed her ‘favourite people.’ It was an obvious swipe.

Mrs Beckham wore a metallic silver slip dress with lace and a 21-carat diamond pendant.

You might have called the necklace spectacular, except for the fact that the bride’s mother, Claudia, was wearing the fabled 95-carat Star of the East diamond, a museum quality gem.

After the ceremony, the guests were offered cocktails decorated with white cherry blossoms as a jazz quartet played, and then moved into the wedding tent for a black-tie dinner. Halibut, filet mignon and a vegan osso buco were served.

After dinner came the speeches.

David made a long, heartfelt speech all about the groom.

On a day when it is customary to sing the praises of the bride, David made only a brief reference. Instead, he talked for longer than anyone else who spoke, and all about the joys of their father-son relationship growing up, and his fond memories of Brooklyn as a child and teen.

Was he trying to remind his son of the ties between them – almost trying to make up with him at this crucial moment?

One guest said: ‘The speech went on, and on. It was one of the oddest bits of the day. It was as if David was getting married to Brooklyn.’

The bride’s father, Nelson, then spoke, a short, serious speech, mostly about the suffering of Ukraine, which had been invaded by Russia two months previously.

He spoke about the couple’s donation page to the humanitarian organisation Care, which was funding work in the region. The contrast between the bride’s stoic, moneybags father and the groom’s tearful and emotive dad could scarcely have been better underlined.

The first dance followed. South African singer Lloyiso performed a cover of the Elvis Presley standard ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ as the bride and groom took a turn.

Next it was the turn of Nelson Peltz to dance with his girl, to Bette Midler’s ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’. The dancing continued.

At 11pm, the circular stage revolved 180 degrees and singer Marc Anthony – one of David’s best friends, who has known Brooklyn since he was small – ‘magically appeared’ for a live set. This performance was the Beckhams’ wedding gift to the couple.

Anthony had agreed to perform ‘for free’; however, speaking to sources familiar with the wedding planning, constructing the requisite stage had cost $200,000 – which was added to Nelson’s bill.

The bride’s cost- conscious father was also forking out for Anthony’s experienced, professional live musicians, and the costs of bringing them and their equipment to the venue.

In all, that ‘gift’ made a $250,000 dent in Nelson’s wallet.

According to friends of Nicola, the plan was always that the first dance to Marc Anthony would be her and Brooklyn. She even left the wedding to get changed out of her Valentino wedding dress and into a new Versace ‘party outfit’ specifically for the second first dance, as performed by Anthony.

In the event, of course, as is now legend, Brooklyn danced with his mother, after she was invited on stage by the singer, and Nicola ran from the marquee in tears, followed by her family.

Who asked him to call Victoria to the stage? The Peltz camp believe this was down to the Beckhams, and specifically blame Victoria for the hurtful turn of events.

One source says: ‘Victoria thought it was her event. Victoria is so attention starved or attention needy that this was viewed as an opportunity for her to shine and to find herself at the centre. My view is that she is very needy of attention and this was a way to satiate that need.’

He adds: ‘At some level, it was just alpha females fighting it out – but Nicola is the bride and it’s her wedding.’

This other ‘first dance’ – seen only by the 500 guests, who had all surrendered their phones ahead of the party – was, of course, later derided by Brooklyn, who described his mother’s dance moves as ‘inappropriate’.

Victoria was seen putting her arms around her son’s neck and around his waist, which is what Brooklyn found ‘very inappropriate’. However, two other wedding guests, both friends of the Beckhams, insist they saw nothing untoward.

The dancing went on until the early hours, before the bride and groom and their guests retired to their respective accommodation. The next day, everyone was assembled again for a post- wedding brunch, held in a marquee in the tropical gardens.

Ahead of the bride and groom’s entrance, it resembled a post- mortem as guests gossiped and dissected what had occurred the night before. ‘Honestly,’ one said: ‘It was as if somebody had died.’

The two warring sides made up to an extent in 2023 and 2024 but Brooklyn and Nicola came to complain that: ‘nothing they did was ever enough’ and eventually, in May 2025, Brooklyn and Nicola flew to the UK for David’s 50th birthday celebrations only to refuse to attend.

A friend said: ‘It was intolerable for Brooklyn. He tried, but nothing was enough. You have to be an indentured servant. You can’t do 75 per cent of what is asked, you have to be all in.’ And, with the backing of his strong willed bride, that was a path which Brooklyn utterly rejected.

Pre order Brand Beckham here (published Aug 13th)

Read more here:

https://www.dailymail.com/tvshowbiz/article-16020069/Full-excruciating-story-wedding-SHATTERED-Brand-Beckham-ALISON-BOSHOFF.html

Her carousel of ‘happy’ images from that fraught, brief, private-but-not-private visit to the UK were shared on Thursday night. They included this picture of what you might have assumed was a private to the point of being sacred moment in her family history; her husband Prince Harry taking their children to visit the grave of their late mother. The children and Harry are carrying flowers to lay there.

The image was taken at Althorp, where Diana’s brother Earl Spencer lives. He hosted them (that looks like his swimming pool in another picture) and will of course have allowed them to go where paying visitors are not permitted. To the little island across the lake, where a temple is simply marked Diana, which is her final resting place.

The backlash has been furious. It comes, it must be said, from people who are not related to the late Princess.

If Prince Harry is happy for his wife to share, as we must assume he was, then it feels moot to criticise even if it is confusingly contradictory to the privacy he has always said he so passionately desires and requires.

That’s always, except for in eg the book Spare, where he has been willing to draw aside the veil for money. Naturally, everyone has taken the image as confirmation that the Prince is planning to make a documentary, surely timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of his mother’s death next summer.

However - and believe them or not as you wish - Sussex sources swear this aint so. ‘There is no film or documentary about Diana,’ they tell me. Senior sources at Netflix indicate that there isn’t anything in the works with them, and they have a ‘first look’ deal with the couple.

It’s been a confounding summer in the world of the Duke and Duchess with their plans and intentions shrouded in so much controversy, and misbriefing. They seem to want to reconcile, and to intend to spent much more time in the UK, and much more time with his father, the King.

But what on earth does this look like for his brother, Prince William? He’s the one person on earth who knows exactly the trauma which Harry has been through, but they are not walking this path together. Indeed, given the horrible state of relations between them, this almost looks like a piece of nastiness from the sister-in-law who apparently wants to reconcile…

The meeting at Highgrove on Friday July 10th was indeed sparked by Prince Harry’s concerns for the health of the King, and his realisation that it was past time to do something about the estrangement.

Of course it was driven by wounds which he and Meghan had inflicted - on Oprah, Spare, Harry & Meghan on Netflix, via the court actions against the Home Office and all the rest of it.

But what is emerging is that the Sussexes are seeking to reverse Megxit. A return to the UK is being contemplated in some form and that the couple’s holiday home in Portugal will be used as a staging post back to Britain.

A friend of Prince Harry says: ‘There is definitely a feeling in his camp that he has started to feel a bit unwelcome in America.

‘That has been an increasing and significant shift in sentiment, a feeling that the American dream might not be all that it was cracked up to be.

‘I am told that this is coming from Meghan as well as from him. I hear that Meghan is all for rekindling with and reconnecting with Harry’s English side. She is fully behind it.’

Their dwindling star power and the end of their deals with Spotify and Netflix must surely play a part, as must Meghan’s fading popularity among the supporters, like Ted Sarandos of Netflix, who had previously been her cheerleaders.

The source adds: ‘England is where Harry’s heart has always lain. It is no secret that they went to the States to try and seek their fortune, to try to capitalise on his fame and his royalty to some degree.

‘They have had successes. A $100million Netflix deal is not nothing.

‘But that American dream is cooling and she feels an outcast status as well.

‘She feels like she is trying to push fresh thoughts and projects but it is not easy. So maybe enough water has now passed under the bridge here for some form of a return.’

That’s not a permanent or imminent return, but to hear it being mooted still feels like a bombshell.

Another source, who is less sympathetic to the Sussexes, says they suspect a different kind of cooling may lie behind the manoeuvres.

The source said: ‘I don’t think he’s ever wanted to be estranged from his family. I think when he was madly in love with Meghan he could be blind enough to choose her. Now things are different, and the veil is lifting.’

Travelling to the UK is going to be made easier by the Sussexes’ purchase of a home in Portugal, perhaps allowing Harry and Meghan to be ‘half in and half out’

Harry’s friend says: ‘The house in Portugal is a foot on the right side of the pond and I believe that they spent time there after being in the UK last week and before it as well. It’s striking distance for them to get to London.

‘Harry has no desire to be Eurotrash, he is very proudly British and English and wants to be in England but Portugal could be a kind of a stepping stone for a couple of years.’

Harry will be back in September for another charity event, for Wellchild.

There is an expectation that there will be another meeting with the King, and that he will accept an offer to stay at Buckingham Palace – in good time, this time. Some sources think he will try and bring Meghan and the children again.

Next summer, he will be in Birmingham for all ten days of the Invictus Games and the plan is that Meghan will come with him for the whole thing. ‘If she is in the UK then they will want to bring the children too,’ says the friend.

Going forward what does this mean? Prince Harry still sees himself as a ‘working royal’, but there’s a growing acceptance by the Palace that he and Meghan will have to be busy commercially if they are to fund their expensive life, and expensive private security, in Montecito.

The couple want to carry on making money in the US and elsewhere, but to be treated as ‘working royals’ when in the UK. That looks very much like the ‘half in and half out’ status which the late Queen said was not acceptable.

What remains unresolved is the schism between Harry and his brother Prince William, the heir to his spare.

Friends of Harry claim the two men ‘do communicate’ and say: ‘It would have been the most amazing signal to everybody if William had managed to be at Highgrove.’

That seems the faintest of prospects but Harry must be serious indeed about reconciliation to even talk about aiming for this outcome. As one Sussex source observes: ‘Everyone knows their future is not in his dad’s hands – it’s in his brother’s.’

Read more here https://www.dailymail.com/news/royals/article-15985633/Harry-estranged-love-plan-reverse-Megxit-ALISON-BOSHOFF-messages-William.html

Harry, Sir Elton John, Doreen Lawrence, Liz Hurley, Sadie Frost and others said that the newspaper had hacked their phones, bugged them, even burgled them, in jaw-dropping allegations mostly going back around 20 to 25 years. Had even one of their awful stories of Daily Mail journalists carrying out these serious criminal acts been believed, the consequences would have been grave to a life-changing degree.

They were not believed by the judge for the very simple reason that there was no evidence at all that any one of the 97 articles complained of had been put together on the basis of criminal activity. The case was brought because these plaintiffs had won against the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, and had received fat settlements over similar allegations involving The Sun and the News of The World.

They were encouraged to believe that the Daily Mail was the same by an unholy ragtag of convicted former journalists, activists and celebrities. These people were paid for their ‘evidence’ of Daily Mail wrongdoing, and it turned out not to be evidence at all.

They took over four years building a case with the aid of the finest legal brains, and vast swathes of information - invoices, payments, emails etc. And yet there was not one piece of evidence which directly showed that any of the journalists had hacked or blagged their way to the information published. It came from confidential sources, from research, from ring-ins, from friends and family, PRs, lawyers and agents - in other words, the articles were the result of normal, legitimate journalistic enquiry.

I spent two hours being questioned by the eminent KC, David Sherborne at the High Court in March. The complaint related to an article published in the summer of 2003 - yes, 23 years ago - about Sadie Frost’s divorce from Jude Law. I don’t have a clear memory of writing it, but was able to guide Sherborne about how it would likely have been sourced and written, that I would have read all the cuts and telephoned people who had knowledge of the story.

He looked exhausted, defeated even by this point, after six weeks on his feet trying to prove a case for which there just wasn’t any evidence. The simple reason for that lack of evidence, is that it never happened.

Eventually, Sherborne said I could come off the witness stand. I was on my feet ready to go when the judge demurred - you’ve not put the case to her. Sherborne at that point said that the information published in my article was the result of either phone hacking or a pretext call.

I replied: ‘Well, those are two very serious things to say. I’ve never hacked a phone. I have never asked anyone to hack a phone. I’ve never been asked to hack a phone and I completely reject that I would have anything to do with that. It’s not who I am, it’s not who the Daily Mail are, so that’s a no.

‘The other suggestion was that somebody got those quotes via a pretext call to Sadie Frost. I can’t imagine the pretext call that would lead to somebody sharing the details of their divorce with someone who’s pretending to be arranging a milk delivery. I mean, that’s just absurd. Also, no. Briefly, no to both.’

Mr Justice Nicklin agreed in his judgment that it was indeed: ‘absurd.’ He said: ‘These were serious allegations of criminal conduct. No article-specific evidential foundation was put to Ms Boshoff when they were made. I accept her denial. In my judgment, it was convincing. Her response was firm, specific and inherently plausible.’

Sadie Frost has released a long statement on Instagram saying that she is ‘naturally disappointed.’ ‘I believed it was right to seek to have these matters examined through proper legal process.’ Someone else might reflect that bringing a case to court without evidence, in what is an attempt to smear and ruin others does not feel proper.

Someone will now have to pay the bill - costs for both sides apparently top £50 million. None of those who participated in this disastrous attempt to close down a national newspaper have said sorry, or feel like doing so. Prince Harry has apparently casually issued a statement saying that the judgment was ‘a whitewash’ - an attack on the independent judiciary who are one of the absolute foundations of our society, by a member of the royal family who ought to uphold it.

Further reading here:

https://www.dailymail.com/columnists/article-15960437/conspiracy-Daily-Mail-enemies-free-Press-STEPHEN-GLOVER.html

He confided that Team Sussex and the Palace had been working together quietly and with ‘cohesion’ since January on what was going to be a ‘low key family visit’, with Prince Harry being joined by wife Meghan and their children Archie and Lilibet. Prince Harry and wife Meghan would also discharge a number of public events, the most important of these being for his Invictus charity for injured servicemen and women.

At this point, the source made were two startling assertions: one, that there was a ‘growing acceptance’ that Harry and Meghan could act as they wished - and needed - outside the UK to earn money, but that as long as they didn’t do that in the UK, they could come back to the fold.

A ‘line in the sand’ would be drawn.

Harry could be the ‘working Royal’ which he said in Australia this spring he regarded himself as, but still make money in California where he now lives. There was a path, here, towards unpicking the outcome of the Sandringham summit which the Prince has found such a source of resentment.

The other startling assertion by Prince Harry’s friend was that on this visit he might even see his brother, Prince William, and that the two men could begin the process towards normalising their relationship (after Harry had of course repeatedly torched it in interviews and books which made him a fortune, and had cruelly involved William’s wife, Catherine, to whom Harry was once so close.)

Both of those developments would be huge, and hugely beneficial to Harry. My source, who one of many in the UK who retains ties with him via his charity works, is a great supporter of the Prince and hopes - hoped - that he could in time regain the public popularity which he used to have once he was on good terms with his family again.

All of that now lies in ashes. A significant step away from Megxit has been thrown away because Prince Harry believes that his issues around security have still not been resolved.

As Tom Sykes points out with great clarity in his excellent Substack The Royalist, the operational note confirming the visit explicitly said that he knew he hadn’t got a Ravec decision in his favour, but was coming anyway. And yet, within less than 24 hours of that note being issues, on his say-so, the plans were junked.

For reasons which nobody, not even the Guardian who are the only publication still being briefed by Team Sussex, can pinpoint, Harry is said to be ‘in tears’ over security again, having not got the assurances he wanted, and now believes he cannot bring Meghan and his family here safely for the trip.

Apparently a compromise by which they come in for a day is being thought of.

I cannot understand why this would be any safer than the family coming and staying put in a Royal palace, as offered, which would protect them as long as they stayed within those walls. Which surely you would do on a ‘low key family visit’ but might mean Meghan didn’t join Harry on the Invictus podium.

The suspicion has to arise that the whole trip was designed to blackmail and bounce the Home Office into giving him the security he wants, or even worse to blackmail and bounce his father into asking for it, even though this is one point on which Royal sources are absolutely clear: it is not in the King’s gift, and he is not going to ask for it.

What Harry has done has left everyone feeling betrayed: his friends who have been ‘misbriefed’ the press who have been lied to, the charities whose important plans have been wrecked, and his family whose reserves of patience and charity are surely wearing thin.

What I think nobody is really regarding in this giant mess though, is the why of it.

Why has Harry - or his team - been so manipulative? Why have the lies been told? At the centre of this mess is a man whose formative life experience was utterly tragic and traumatic: the death of his mother.

There are still many who think that the security services had a hand in what happened; that Princess Diana was killed because that was in the national interest. I am starting to believe that the only explanation for what we are seeing playing out is that Harry himself believes that conspiracy theory.

No amount of therapy, or diplomacy, is likely to heal the divisions if that is the case.

According to a long-standing and well-informed friend of Harry’s the idea was warmly welcomed by his father, the King.

Despite Harry’s fading popularity, his wife’s strong unpopularity and the fact Charles’ heir, William, wants Harry to stay in exile and fade from view, the King said yes.

‘Charles has let him know that he is really looking forward to seeing his grandchildren. Harry is really looking forward to the visit, and to building bridges. That is what everyone wants,’ said Harry’s friend to me this week.

The visit will be Harry’s first time with the King since September last year; before that they met 19 months prior. The King has only met Lilibet once, when the family were here in 2022 for Platinum Jubilee events.

The King’s aides, on his instructions, then set about supporting Prince Harry in making arrangements, offering (once again) the use of a Palace. The visit is being planned with ‘cohesion’ between Team Sussex and the Palace. It’s an extraordinary outcome and there is much to unpack.

It has come about because some bright spark on Harry’s team has been able to sell the monarch an idea: that you can ‘geocache’ Prince Harry’s commercial activities.

The new idea will see Harry and Meghan free to flog jam and make speeches-for-cash when they are in America, but treated as cherished members of the Royal family again in the UK.

The price for that, is an assurance that there won’t be any hard-sell in the UK.

A source who is close to the Prince said: ‘Harry is determined to play this one with a straight bat by which I mean that there will be no commercial activity around this visit – that goes for him and Meghan.

‘There is going to be no nonsense, no shenanigans on either side. Absolutely no Meghan selling her jam here. There is a line in the sand.’

The source adds that Harry believes that the royal family’s stance on commercial activity: ‘has shifted considerably - not over everything, but there is a widening acceptance in senior circles of the court that activities in the UK and US are different things.

‘There is some acceptance that in the UK he can act as a semi-working Royal as long as there is nothing commercial going on here.

‘He is going to create a very firm line between the UK and the US and the rest of the world. In the US he is a gun for hire and can take the money. In the UK, he will not.’

Harry hopes that this will neuter the Megxit deal as hammered out in January 2020. If what his friend suggests comes to pass, it truly will.

The late Queen was adamant in 2020 during the Sandringham summit that the Sussexes could not be ‘half in and half out’ meaning that if they wanted to earn money from commercial interests they could not be working Royals. So off they went, to Canada and then California, with the Sussexes remarking bitterly that they still intended to live a life of service. ‘Service is universal,’ they fumed.

The outcome caused huge resentment, and waves of damaging scandal, as Harry and Meghan repeatedly told – and sold – their story to get funds, first to Oprah Winfrey, then in the Netflix series Harry & Meghan and then in Harry’s book Spare. Accused of a number of serious grievances, the family felt unable to defend itself. All that was mustered, in 2021, was the famous formulation: ‘Recollections may vary.’

His supporters argue that there is some precedent and that the Royal family have always been allowed to make some money in America (‘although not to the degree that Harry and Meghan have needed to do it,’ the source demurred.)

It seems only pragmatic - and wasn’t the Queen the arch-pragmatist? - to now accept that Harry and Meghan need to make lots of money for their life abroad, so they need to be allowed to do so without ‘punishing’ them by keeping them outside the family.

But the shockwaves if the King continues on this course will be huge. The King is acting in the name of family unity, and professing love and forgiveness. But the fact remains… almost nobody wants this.

Surely the possibility of William forgiving his brother - for Spare, Oprah and all the rest of it - is vanishingly small. Harry’s friend sounded optimistic that it would be done, and tells me that there is contact via - of all things - a family WhatsApp group.

Read more here

https://www.dailymail.com/news/royals/article-15933083/Harry-Meghans-Megxit-deal-ALISON-BOSHOFF-Sussexes-agreed-return-UK.html

Harry has long since announced that he will be coming to launch the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham in July.

Straight away, the triumphant briefings began. One said that the King had paved the way for this to happen by ‘paying’ for Harry’s security (in fact it is not possible to pay for this security.)

Another that the King had ‘given assurances’ over Prince Harry’s security. He has not, and this is exactly what he won’t do because he will not get involved in countermanding the Home Office, who determine it, which is why the whole problem has dragged on and on.

On Friday afternoon writers apparently briefed by the Sussexes said that Harry and Meghan will be staying in a Palace provided by the King.

Not quite - they have been offered a Palace to stay in, as Harry always has been on previous visits. He has always declined. As of Friday night, they had not actually let the Palace know if they were going to accept.

The Prince’s position previously was that Buckingham Palace was not safe enough for him. So how could it now be safe enough for him, Meghan and the children? But the triumphant symbolism of it is now, perhaps, just too ripe to be resisted, especially as the Sussexes star is falling.

Sources in Royal circles say that the King felt ‘bounced’ into his last meeting with Harry, which was in September last year. That meeting lasted under and hour and the Queen pointedly did not attend. It does not seem that it moved the dial in terms of the personal relationship between them.

And here the King is being bounced again. Nobody at the Palace had the first idea that the announcement was on its way and that Meghan and the children would be joining him. Of course he will be delighted to see the grandchildren he doesn’t know, and who Harry has long refused to bring citing security concerns.

But the words ‘emotional blackmail’ are being used about the announcement and the briefings which have followed.

Not for the first time when it comes to Harry and Meghan there is astonishment from sources in Royal circles over untruths being spun.

And they are clear that this is not the way to repair relations. The Sussexes will have their meeting …but their behaviour likely damages the chances of a reconciliation, if anything.

For more, read here https://www.dailymail.com/lifestyle/article-15914671/Harry-Meghan-children-return-UK-Archie-Lilibet-manipulation-cousins.html

He had by far the bigger career and as the dust starts to settle on the whole mess, there are a number of ugly truths which emerged during the legal wrangling …and cannot now be ‘unseen.’

Sure, Reynolds had a reputation for getting his way, creatively even before this mess. Remember Tim Miller, the director of Reynolds’ smash hit film Deadpool? He left Deadpool 2, and later explained that it had become clear that his leading man wanted to be in control of the script.

Wasn’t the take-over by Blake Lively of the It Ends With Us movie straight from the same playbook? And remember it started with rewrites by Reynolds of the ‘rooftop scene’ which the couple strong armed into the script.

The take over ended with Baldoni and his family sitting on Dasani bottles in the basement of the cinema on premiere night while Reynolds walked down the red carpet with his wife and his best pal Hugh Jackman. An outcome which he had insisted on.

We now know that in the weeks leading up to that day, Reynolds had furiously lobbied his powerful agents at WME against Baldoni who he called a ‘bucket of dumb dumb juice’ a ‘melon baller lobotomy’ and a ‘human rounding error.’

Faced with passionate pressure from their big money client, they dropped Baldoni.

At this distance, doesn’t the ‘nice guy’ Ryan Reynolds look like a bully for what he did then - and what happened next? And if audiences see him that way, will they buy him in the roles which have made his fortune, as a nice guy, a romantic lead, a regular Joe who has an abundance of charm?

He has just week finished filming on the film Eloise, a kid’s movie based on the beloved books about a girl who lives in New York’s Plaza hotel.

The film – for Netflix – has been made by Reynolds’ production company Maximum Effort and marks a new, family-friendly direction for the actor. And - probably to a sigh of relief from Netflix - he’s not the star. His role is relatively small and when it reaches the screen you can expect the rest of the cast to do press.

Before the It Ends With Us mess he quietly worked on an Apple film, Mayday, about the survivors of a downed jet. That is going to stream in September after being quietly moved around the schedule while the scandal raged. Apparently Apple were slightly hesitant about when to release it and it’s not coming out in cinemas.

Which means that the acid test will be a a remake of the classic movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, to star him and pal Hugh Jackman in the roles originally taken by Jeff Bridges and Clint Eastwood.

It was announced just before the legal action commenced that he was developing it, and planned to produce it again through his company Maximum Effort, and star in it. But who would want to join a film run by Reynolds? As The Hollywood Reporter wrote (albeit about Baldoni and Lively) ‘Who wants to work with people who go this far?’ Might Hugh Jackman suddenly find his schedule is busy?

That’s sort of true, but in this instance the twist is that the ‘family’ will be mostly royal. The groom’s mother, Princess Anne, is the sister of the King. His cousin Prince William is the heir to the throne, and his uncle is the King.

There will be a press pen outside the church, and you can count on media coverage of the wedding party - the bride and groom, their bridesmaids and ushers, and their familiar guests. After the ceremony, everyone will disappear into the private Gatcombe estate, owned by Princess Anne, for a reception away from prying eyes.

A formal event like a wedding always provides a snapshot of relations in a family, and this is no different.

The yawning fault lines will remain unhealed. Prince Harry, also a cousin of Peter’s, will not be there. It’s thought that the two men haven’t had any contact in years, not since Megxit.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew, and his ex wife Sarah Ferguson will also not be invited. Their disgrace following revelations about their links with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein remains too fresh, even though Princess Anne is one of the few senior figures in the family who can stomach seeing Andrew.

Andrew and Fergie’s daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie apparently have been invited with their husbands and children and it looks as if they may go.

But the wedding will also mark another turning point for the Royal family. Phillips sold his first wedding to Hello! magazine for £500,000 - but not this one.

It caused a sensation, and not in a good way. Many of the royal guests were apparently not aware that the photographs being taken were going to end up in the magazine’s 100 page special. That took readers behind the doors of Frogmore House - also the scene of Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle a decade later. Here we saw Prince Harry glowing with pride with his sparky girlfriend Chelsy Davy. Chelsy was even pictured dancing with Kate Middleton as she then was - some three years before Kate married his brother Prince William.

The pictures showed us the young Royals as we’d not seen them, at ease and at play. No wonder Prince Harry, already highly sensitive to media intrusion, was outraged.

At this distance of time it comes as a bit of a jolt to see Harry so relaxed and smiling at the centre of his family. The miseries which he described in Spare seem a long way distant from these images.

There will be no peek behind the curtain this time around. I’m told that the idea of a non-working royal trading on the royal family has become such a thorny topic, thanks to Prince Harry and Meghan and all of their activities, that the idea of selling this wedding was a non starter. As a well-connected source remarks, nobody wants to get on the wrong side of Princess Anne. Meghan and Harry cashed in with their Netflix series about royal life and with Harry’s tell-all book, Spare, and with the Oprah interview. Some would argue that they are continuing to cash in via some of the As ever offerings, such as candles dedicated to their wedding anniversary.

That’s probably a matter of passing regret for Peter Phillips. The late Queen doted on Peter, her oldest grandson, but he hasn’t been shy about the chance to trade on his status for a buck. See the advert for Jersey milk, below, filmed in 2020.

His sister Zara has done multiple covers of Hello! magazine as well. Both of them make a living which manages to milk interest in them for their proximity to the royal family without - usually - drawing accusations of nakedly cashing in. Neither have ever discussed the family in print, as Harry has, or on television. But the chance to do a celebrity magazine shoot is, thanks to Prince Harry, now off the table, it seems for good.

That platform allows featured celebs - who are typically influencers, models, stylists and sportswomen - to show their looks which are shoppable.

OneOff say that they want to become the ‘Spotify of fashion’ (they’ve a long way to go yet) and the clever thing which sets them apart is that they use AI to source alternative looks if the featured ones sell out.

Their partners get a share - NOT the lion’s share - of between 10 and 25 per cent of the price of the items, while the tech bros take the rest. The cut is comparable to that which a department store might take for instance, but the influencers and platform owners don’t have to staff and rent a shop, so this should be ‘easy money’. In theory.

Co-founder Bobby Maylack said: ‘Meghan has a very clear and consistent point of view when it comes to style, which aligns closely with what we’re building at OneOff. She’s also been a great thought partner, especially around how to support the designers behind what she wears.’

Let’s be clear about what’s going on for the Sussex brand. This is her third try to move into the ‘fashion space.’ First she was with ShopMy, a similar and well-established fashion platform. That came to an end because I hear the returns were too small and Meghan, after an initial flurry, posted too infrequently on social media.

Then she tried to launch herself in high fashion, with the Harpers Bazaar cover (so badly lit you couldnt even see her Dior bar jacket, also simply terrible styling) ..

..and that trip to Paris to see the Balenciaga show.

As designer Pierpaolo Piccioli confirmed, she invited herself, although I believe that Balenciaga stumped up for the private jet to carry her and bestie Markus Anderson to town. Around three months later Balenciaga confirmed eleven new ambassadors, mostly hot young things but also actress Winona Ryder. It feels like a blow that Meghan did not make the cut.

And so, with the backing of lawyer Rick Genow who is a veteran of fashion contracts for stars, she has tried again to get a foothold in fashion, this time with OneOff.

Here you can see on Crunchbase that the global attention she can bring to anything is staggering. Look at their heat index and what happens to it:

For that week in Australia, it seemed as if EVERYONE was talking about her clothes. Taking a leaf from the Princess of Wales’ playbook, she favoured a lot of Australian designers. The outfits were all photographed and found their way onto the site.

Then, on May 11th, another six full outfits were uploaded. These images were taken when Meghan was doing a ‘refresh’ of the As ever website, with lots of new footage of her drinking tea, arranging flowers etc.

Also, her OneOff profile was quietly added to with a number of outfits from years ago. One was of an ensemble she wore in August 2024. That’s not, really, how the business of fashion works, the point it to show current looks from current collections which people can buy. But never mind.

How has she done? The striking thing is… not very well. I can only find four sold out items out of around 80 posted. They are an Oscar de la Renta halterneck dress, which will only have had a handful made. A navy Dior shirt for $500. A pair of earrings for $300. And a Victoria Beckham rust coloured silk shirt from August 2024 - well I should hope that the stock has been sold two years on!

All of the many pairs of inexpensive jeans, items from brands like The Row and Anine Bing, the affordable stuff - not sold out. I’m not suggesting that people are going to be snapping up her $62,000 diamond tennis necklace, but the point is that familiar items like striped shirts, classic cream knits and so on should be flying out of the door.

As a point of comparison, see this outfit worn by Olivia Palermo. It’s been on the site for only two weeks and the whole thing is sold out, except for the handbag.

And it’s expensive - the jacket is $900.

One interesting thing to note about OneOff by the way. One of the other celebrity partners announced on April 20th, so post-Meghan, is tennis player Aryna Sabalenko. Her manager also looks after Naomi Osaka, who you’ll remember made an awkward-as-you-like appearance in that embarrassing last gasp holiday special of With Love, Meghan on Netflix. Are the two things related? Hard to believe in coincidences.

On the plus side Meghan has got in, early, to a hot start up which has a chance to make serious money. On the minus - it looks as if people are not buying what she is selling.

THIS week’s ‘photo dump’ of 24 intimate never-seen-before images from their 2018 wedding, plus a video shot at home in their Montecito kitchen, was some way to mark an anniversary. It wasn’t a landmark moment - eighth? - but in another way, it was.

For what Meghan did on her Instagram account (4.6 million followers) is highly significant. It marks a new direction, critics would say a new desperation.

Put simply Meghan, an influencer before she met and married Prince Harry, has gone all-in.

Her life, including the parts which intrigue the world the most, when she was a member of the Royal family, is now all up for sale; it is all to be used to try and drive sales in the businesses which she - and she alone - is trying to get off the ground.

As I noted on the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential newsletter this week, that photo dump of anniversary content served to ‘funnel’ interest into her anniversary candle, which was advertised on her Asever website a few hours later. Named ‘519’ in a nod to their wedding date, I’d argue it goes even further than the candles in tribute to her children towards attempting to nakedly trade on her Duchess status.

It was described: ‘Our signature scent. Modern and elegant. Love at first light. No. 519 is the feeling of warm sunshine and blue skies, surrounded by love and laughter; this signature candle is inspired by the ease and joy of a day that holds Meghan’s most cherished memories — her wedding day, May 19th. Bright and refreshing, with quietly grounding notes of Moroccan mint, white tea leaves, and a back note of woodsy cardamom, No. 519 fills the room with a soothing, welcoming fragrance that remains our founder’s tried and true favorite. Housed in a beautiful ceramic vessel, this candle is hand-poured in California.’

Yours for $64. But there’s more - and arguably it’s going to be more significant.

Because on the eve of her trip to Geneva last weekend, Meghan posted this picture from her walk-in wardrobe. On the face of it, it’s a sweet picture of ‘mama’s little helper’ as Meghan calls daughter Lilibet.

There were immediate accusations of hypocrisy, as Meghan was about to fly out to make a speech in front of the World Health Organisation about online harms… to children.

Leaving that aside, though, this is also Meghan taking a step towards what some in her circle are calling the ‘mom space.’ I was told earlier this year that this is her direction of travel.

She can’t launch a business at this point - her priority is to sell the existing stock in Asever and its an open question whether she would need investment to launch any new lines, and now that Netflix have ankled, who wants to give her cash?

But I hear that she believes that her role as a mother is her most powerful and relatable, and the plan is to move into that crowded arena of ‘mom influencers.’

Maybe there will even be another book? Meghan certainly believes that - although as she puts it she was inadequately parented by Doria and estranged father Thomas - she’s become an expert.

I’m working on some fascinating new information about her commercial activities which should be ready next week.

But bear in mind what she said to Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles on the final episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, in June last year.

The Duchess of Sussex pondered: “I wonder if one day I’ll be in business with Lili and we’ll be building something”, to which Knowles replied: “Yeah, that’s the best.”

How on earth will she sell this to Prince Harry, who is still angry about the way that he feels he was exploited and indentured by the Royal family, and who believes it is a priority to free his children from any such ‘generational trauma?’