Monty inspired my close friend Nicholas Evans, who wrote the bestselling novel The Horse Whisperer which later became a film, with Robert Redford as the star.

I had the marvellous experience of seeing Monty with both the late Queen Elizabeth and her daughter-in-law, the then Duchess of Cornwall, now Queen Camilla.

When one of Camilla’s aides called me in October 2015 to ask if I was free the following afternoon, I had no idea why. At the time I was writing a biography of Camilla and they told me she wanted to surprise me, but it might not happen.

I arrived early as instructed at the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace. When Camilla appeared she said with a mischievous look in her eyes, “I think you will enjoy this.” Not long afterwards a surprise visitor came out to find us, looking very excited: it was Queen Elizabeth.

She and Camilla greeted each other with a kiss on each cheek followed by a curtsy from Camilla. She introduced me to Her Majesty, who also had a rather mischievous gleam in her eye.

The Queen said, “Let’s go.” Inside the stables, there was a rather irritable horse but that was just the beginning.

As the Queen went on ahead, Camilla came up to me and said quietly that she thought I’d like to see her and the Queen together. It was a time when people felt Camilla was still widely disliked, especially by the Queen, in the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death and Prince Charles’s remarriage to Camilla, a divorced woman. This was, I felt, a way to let me decide for myself how they really got on.

Her Majesty seemed to have slipped away from hosting the four-day state visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping, and hide from her guests behind some bushes so she could see something that would interest her much more.

Monty Roberts, then 80 and world-famous, had come along to demonstrate his innovative techniques with a five-year-old horse who had had minimal contact with people, and had never worn a saddle or been ridden. Monty’s goal was to show how the horse could be trained in a mere 20 minutes to accept a rider, rather than the usual six weeks.

It was a little chilly and both women sat with rugs over their legs looking transfixed as Monty made clucking and kissing sounds, waved his hands and then used a long stick with a plastic bag on the end. The horse responded by turning one way then another before coming to Monty just within the 20-minute time limit. It was unbelievable. Monty stroked him, then gently put a saddle and stirrups on him.

Finally, one of his team mounted and rode the horse, who by then was completely docile, both round the stables and the ring. Throughout the Queen and Camilla chatted enthusiastically to each other and when the amazing display ended rushed over to Monty first to congratulate him and then to ask a series of questions. The Queen, who as usual was wearing gloves, stroked the horse’s face while Camilla tickled his nose.

Camilla loves horses partly because they bring back happy memories of time spent riding with her father. It’s a passion she shared with the Queen and one that helped make their relationship less tense and formal. Both before and after her marriage she has always been able to find something to talk about in the horse world. Her own knowledge is vast but she still marvelled at the Queen’s expertise.

Monty Roberts learnt how to win a horse’s trust as a 13-year-old when he was employed by the California rodeo circuit to round up wild mustangs for their events. He would spend weeks at a time on horseback, following a single herd of mustangs, observing their behaviour, to develop his knowledge of equine psychology. In 2011 he was appointed an honorary Member of the Royal Victorian Order for services to the Queen’s racing establishment.

In 1956 he married Patricia Gail, his high-school sweetheart, who survives him with their three children.​

It was marvellous to watch him showing his unique skills in front of the Queen and Camilla, even though I knew nothing about horses. And it showed too that all was now forgiven and forgotten as far as Queen Elizabeth was concerned.

But even then, underneath his humour, charisma and keenness on flying (he was an Army helicopter pilot), he felt resentful and demanding. Now, despite being 41, he still believes most things have still been unfair for him and he wants to get his own back.

So he changed his life. In 2020 he and his wife Meghan Markle, whom he had married two years earlier, chose to leave the royal family for what they wanted: a free life. But Harry still expects to be treated as a royal, and sometimes like a spoilt child.

He claims to long to be with his father, King Charles, who has cancer, but expects him to drop everything when he chooses times that suit him to meet. He is known to shout at his father and keeps trying to persuade him to apologise to Meghan when, if anything, it should be the other way round.

Part of Harry getting his own back was to wipe out Associated Newspapers, who publish the Mail and Mail on Sunday, largely because the publisher, according to Harry, made Megan’s life “a misery.”

Harry gathered seven claimants to join him in a legal action against Associated, including Sir Elton John and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen was tragically murdered in a racist attack when he was 18. She backed Harry despite the dedication of the Mail’s editor Paul Dacre to everything he could to find Stephen’s killers, successfully in the end after a lengthy campaign.

High Court judge Mr Justice Nicklin presided over Prince Harry’s high-profile privacy lawsuit against Associated which stretched for more than four years. Harry insisted the Mail’s journalists had invaded his privacy. Due to Harry’s doggedness, 75 of the papers’ journalists went through a gruelling experience in court, being questioned over stories dating back decades in many cases.

But in his judgment Mr Justice Nicklin stated that it was facts and not personal feelings that mattered and there was no evidence in any of the 97 allegations made by Harry and his co-claimants.

Harry’s response to this shattering defeat was to state publicly that the judge’s decision was a “complete and obvious whitewash”, a very rude and possibly counterproductive comment given that Mr Justice Nicklin now has to decide who will pay the legal bill for the case, estimated at around £34.5 million. After a further two-day hearing on costs, the judge will announce his decision later this month.

Harry and Co have agreed to pay £8 million as an initial payment while Associated is seeking £10 million but wants a further £8 million to pay its full costs. (The rest is thought to be covered by insurance.)

Is it Harry’s problem to help the people who foolishly believed him when he persuaded them to join his action?

Harry’s entitled behaviour has made him much less popular. He is persistent in trying to get what he wants, so much so that Queen Camilla stayed with her husband all the time when Harry recently visited, to keep her eye on everything.

Although Harry had a privileged childhood, he is still complaining years later. He wrote in his memoir “Spare” that when he was a child he had a smaller room than his older brother Prince William and one less sausage for supper.

When I interviewed him for his biography a few years ago he said King Charles was “not a hands-on father,” which was tactless.

Far worse, he wrote in “Spare” that he wet himself just before he first saw Meghan. More recently in July he took part in a podcast conversation with rugby player Joe Marler and talked about soiling himself: “Normally once you’re 40 or older, never trust a fart.”

Despite this it seems quite clear that Harry believes he would be a better heir to the throne than Prince William and several times has questioned whether his older brother has the qualities needed to be king.

Many people feel that King Charles is too soft with him. Nonetheless, Harry will continue to say whatever he wants. He also keeps changing his mind about when and where he will stay when he comes to Britain, which makes difficult for the staff, upsets the king and takes him away from his work.

During their most recent visit Harry took Meghan and their two children, Archie and Lillibet, to Althorp, where his mother Princess Diana grew up, and where she is buried. Photographs were taken which will no doubt help Meghan and Harry’s documentary: Harry is expected to be producer, and it is planned to coincide with the 30th anniversary of her death in 2027. It will be cringingly painful for Prince William and King Charles.

Even worse Harry thinks Meghan could run the country because she is “wonderfully bright.”

When she originally arrived she assumed she would spend some time with the Queen and give her some modern ideas rather than follow the royal rules. Because they both think they know better than the King, William and Princess Catherine, they have every chance of breaking the promise to Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth, who died in September 2022, that they would not be “half in and half” as royals. Equally if they just stay in the royal residences and do not join the family it would be very hard to stop them doing what they want to do and going on endless pseudo-royal trips, especially trying to steal Charles, William and Catherine’s thunder when they go on major official visits and tours. They’ve done it many times already.

I respect and think greatly of our King but I plead with him not to let his son take advantage of him. Harry will just demand more at every level. Meghan will complain. Even though the King, like any father, loves his son, Harry and Meghan cannot be trusted. They could easily use access to their children for blackmail. If the King allows them back into the royal fold, the damage they can do is incalculable.

People love to criticise King Charles but more than a million people think the world of him. They are the beneficiaries of what may turn out to be his most successful and long-lasting legacy: the King’s Trust, formerly the Prince’s Trust, which has helped more than 1.3 million people up to the age of 30 to build confidence, get a job or launch a business since it was founded in 1976.

I recently met Festus Akinbusoye, a man whose life was totally transformed by a grant from the trust. His story is fascinating.

Now 48, he told me his story in a cool and impressive way, talking about his happy childhood and upbringing in Nigeria, and his feelings for the King, Prince Harry, Princess Catherine, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and London’s ups and downs.

Having been given a start by a grant from the Prince’s Trust, as it then was, he now runs his own security business, is a local councillor in Westminster and was England’s first black Police and Crime Commissioner, overseeing the work of the police in Bedfordshire.

“I was 13 years old when I left Nigeria,” he said, “and if anyone had said to me at the airport, ‘When you get to England somewhere along the line you’re going to stand in front of the monarch of the Commonwealth,’ I wouldn’t have imagined it in a million years.

“My opportunity and the journey of my life is thanks to King Charles.”

The King continues to serve as President of the Trust actively supporting its mission to help disadvantaged young people.

Festus’s father, Akinola, was a politician in Lagos but had to leave Nigeria in 1991 because of military rule. He was worried about the safety of his young family, so he and his wife, Festus and his twin sister, who became a teacher, came to London. Older siblings stayed behind.

It meant the family left a large, comfortable home in Lagos to squeeze into a single bedroom above a textiles factory in Upton Park in east London. Festus’s father worked round the clock as a cleaner at McDonalds, at Tower Hamlets council and the Burton clothing chain.

“But for me my parents insisted on three things: go to church, do my education and play sport which they felt would keep me off the streets.”

Secondary school wasn’t easy and Festus was bullied because of his African accent. There is no trace of it today.

When he was 16 he worked as a waiter, a security guard, and on construction sites, then went on to the University of Arts, London, and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

He also played professional basketball in the Budweiser British League.

“I then left the family as there was not enough room for me and I tried to get a real job but nobody would employ me. I started a business when I was 23 and asked several banks for a loan of £2,500 to help me get going. None were interested. I remember one bank on Threadneedle Street in the City of London when I was living in E16 (a rough, neglected area of London at the time) telling me: ‘I’m sorry, we don’t do business with people from your postcode’.

“My dad told me to believe in myself, and not to give up. I became a Conservative despite everyone around me in Canning Town being Labour.

“My father who followed Labour asked me why and I explained they didn’t answer my calls, but when I rang the local Conservatives someone answered immediately.”

Determined to keep going but not knowing how, by chance Festus looked through Yellow Pages, a UK business directory that no longer exists.

“I opened the first page,” he says, “and almost by divine providence, there was an advert from the Prince’s Trust. I didn’t know a thing about it but it said if I had a business idea, needed support, and I was between 18 and 30 I should give them a call.

“I phoned the following day and they saw me a couple of weeks later.

“I was asked about my business, how much money I needed from them, which was £2,500, and how I would repay it, something I did within about eighteen months.

“I was soon told I had unanimous support from the Trust and I could have the funding.

“Even better than that I was introduced to James Tolbert, a business mentor, to help me. He transformed my life.

“Nearly twenty-five years later we’re still friends. Without the King’s Trust our paths would never have crossed. I can never thank His Majesty enough for having the vision, all those years ago, to start what was then the Prince’s Trust with money from his military pension.”

Now a single father of four, Festus runs his business in the security industry with forty staff across England, Scotland and Wales.

He then rather quietly surprised me. “I’m generally very confident but I can honestly say that the one and only time in my life I’ve ever been nervous about meeting somebody was when I met His Majesty.

“He came to Bedfordshire where I was Police and Crime Commissioner. I’d told my story there and gave an interview to the BBC about how the Prince’s Trust had helped me.

“Apparently, His Majesty heard that story and when he came to Bedfordshire, I was invited to meet him.

“The King said, ‘I hear you’re the Police and Crime Commissioner here.’

“I replied, ‘Yes, sir.’

“As soon as I’d said it, I realised I should have said, ‘Yes, Your Majesty.’ All the protocol just disappeared from my head and I didn’t know what to do.

“The King took no notice, shook my hand and said: ‘So, does this mean you’re one of my graduates? If I get a speeding ticket driving through Bedfordshire, will you let me off?’

“It completely broke the ice. The King had a wonderful sense of humour. He was warm, human and incredibly approachable. Completely different from what I’d imagined.

“But I also feel very upset for the King. He’s got cancer and his son Prince Harry is deliberately making life awful for him but I think he doesn’t want to give up completely. Being a parent, it doesn’t matter how bad they are. But you can’t let a child attack you the whole time.”

Festus also praised Catherine, Princess of Wales. “Human beings need stable families, strong communities and adults to take responsibility. It’s one reason why I so admire the Princess of Wales, who focuses on first principles, common sense and strong families.

I asked if he thought he would like a bigger political role, London’s mayor perhaps, instead of Sir Sadiq Khan who has just been given a life peerage by the outgoing prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer. “Yes,” he said. “I’d certainly like to contribute more. London is still one of the greatest cities in the world, but I think we’re wasting enormous potential by allowing ourselves to become distracted by division.

“Imagine a doctor saying: “I’m not going to treat you because you’re black, Jewish or Muslim. We need to remove that kind of activism.

“Public services should belong equally to everyone and people should be treated with dignity.

“But whatever good I’ve achieved in this country, past, present or future, began with the Trust, which genuinely transformed my life.

“From that small beginning my work grew into something extraordinary. Now I can stand in front of young people and show them that it doesn’t matter whether they’re rich or poor, black or white, religious or not, you can still build a successful life and do something worth doing.”

The King has many times offered Harry a royal place in which to stay but until now Harry has firmly refused and chosen a hotel. But this time, surprisingly, he and Meghan have agreed to use either Buckingham Palace or St James’s Palace.

There are now huge concerns that it seems the King hadn’t told the heir to the throne, Prince William, or his wife Princess Catherine in advance about Harry’s arrival and are furious. Has Charles been too weak to reveal to him such a tough decision? William hasn’t spoken to Harry since 2022 and, it seems, still doesn’t want to talk to him or Meghan. Nor does he want Catherine to be troubled by Meghan. If there’s a chance of doing so, Harry could try to take over some of William’s important royal duties if the heir was away and even be planning for the future before the King dies. William is protective of his three children and wary of Harry trying to get involved with their upbringing. Once, Harry asked to help them if they grew up to be, like him, a “Spare”, the title of his bitter memoir. William said “no.”

Harris also wants to set up a rival court against William and feels that his and Meghan’s pseudo-royal tours abroad in recent years have promoted their personal brand.

Might the couple say they are so short of money that they need the King to give them millions? Meghan is hard to satisfy. Her behaviour may upset the King, but it is his fault. It is a surprise that Queen Camilla didn’t persuade Charles to keep them out.

Harry still feels grand as far as the royal family is concerned, but with Meghan he does as he is told. He might try to find out about the King’s cancer despite his father knowing not to confide in him because it is difficult to trust either him or Meghan.

In 2020 Harry was furious that the UK stopped paying for his journeys back and forth to Canada and Montecito, his California home, even though he was no longer working on behalf of his country. He has pestered his father to sort out his travel expenses and protection. But royal security is decided by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) and Harry is still waiting for it to decide whether he is entitled to full security as he is demanding.

Harry also wants a royal apology to Meghan (for what, is unclear) who has said she doesn’t want to ever go back to the UK. Many ordinary British citizens would have preferred an apology from her to the royals for her behaviour and comments towards them.

Meghan might want to turn up at Buckingham Palace with samples of her As Ever range of products of jams and candles for her in-laws. Her businesses are not doing well with $5m in unsold stock sitting in California. But if she could get a photograph of the King tasting one of her goods it would be a real boost for her.

As for the children, their first trip to Britain would give the public an opportunity for their faces to be seen at last. This depends if their parents manage to have the King photographed with the children and they can sell the pictures round the world and make a fortune.

Harry has three other things he wants to do when he is in the UK. One is talking about the next Invictus Games which are planned for July 2027 in Birmingham, in the English Midlands. Megan enjoys Invictus and making inappropriate speeches but wounded military veterans don’t enjoy her presence, and her taking too much attention away from those who have struggled to take part. Meghan’s demands, such as the cost of clothes and expensive hotels, are also annoying.

Harry also plans to visit Scottish Little Soldiers, a charity supporting bereaved military children, and WellChild, which helps very ill children to recover at home.

Harry made a speech in Kyiv just before President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump hosted King Charles and Queen Camilla in April for a historic state dinner at the White House to celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, highlighting the unbreakable historic bond between the United States and the United Kingdom. Harry, however, in his speech told Trump and President Putin what they should be doing to sort out the war in Ukraine. It could have had serious consequences but instead was widely mocked. “Putin must be quaking in his boots,” was a typical online comment.

Meghan has said she would like to have a chat with Queen Camilla. I doubt if the Queen will welcome it. Her aim is to look after her husband’s health and she isn’t likely to tell Meghan private information. Harry talked to the BBC in 2025 after a private conversation with his father to complain that he didn’t have proper protection, while Meghan has simply made up stories, such as saying the then Archbishop of Canterbury had married them in a private meeting before the official ceremony when in fact he was just giving them a little talk about marriage.

Harry and Meghan stopped carrying out their royal duties and responsibilities because they felt they knew best. But they may have to show a lot more humility if they want to be part of the Royal Family and that is highly unlikely.

He is “not a working royal” but will do the work he was “born to do” and will “always be part of the Royal Family”. But he wants to work “half-in, half-out”, breaking a promise he made to his late grandmother Queen Elizabeth who made clear to him he couldn’t do that.

.He wants to build up a reputation as an authority on global affairs, which often clashes with King Charles, Prince William or Princess Catherine when they have planned speeches or visits. Some people believe Harry deliberately gets his speech out first to grab the headlines and divert attention away from the official royals.

A couple of days before King Charles’s recent visit to Washington where he was due to give a very important speech to a joint session of Congress to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Harry slipped away to Ukraine unannounced to make his speech first, advising Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump what their next steps should be. His advice was ignored.

Harry’s credentials as an expert on geopolitics seem thin. His CV is not particularly impressive. He served in the British Army and has held positions on various organisations and charities but there have been problems. He and the Prince of Lesotho created Sentebale, a charity helping children with HIV/Aids, in 2006 in honour of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. It has, however, now resulted in a bitter fallout with the chairperson Dr Sophie Chandauka, plus a High Court defamation lawsuit.

Harry has also been on the Board of Directors of African Parks but is now being urged to resign due to allegations of rape and torture by staff members.

There are also problems with the Invictus Games, the organisation for disabled ex-service veterans, which he co-founded and are due to be held in the UK next year. Many comments have been heard that the Games have turned into a Meghan and Harry Show, with the couple taking up far too much attention. They are also believed to take some of the money donated by the public to cover their own expenses and especially Meghan’s expensive clothes.

Harry’s chances of being seen as a statesman seem extremely low. Writing a memoir like Spare full of spite and lies is not exactly quite how a stateman would behave.

These are reasons why it would be difficult to give Harry an important role now. Another is Meghan, who is his controlling wife and thinks she knows more than anyone. What they both have is being hypocritical and offensive to his family.

Meghan regularly interrupts Harry even when he is talking to someone else because her needs come first and she wants him to stop immediately. She pats or pushes his back as her signal for him to move on. She also grips his hand and claws his arm with another hand to make sure he stays close. She always wants to be first and pushes to the front even if it is to hold a male team trophy which she had nothing to do with.

There are rumours that the couple are quarrelling about coming back to the UK. When Meghan left the royals with Harry she said she had “no intention of moving back to the UK”. After eight years in America Harry very much wants to return to the UK. Meghan may not.

He will know his exact UK security status once the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) completes its risk assessment and issues a formal decision on his demand for 24/7 protection for him and his family. Since stepping down as a working royal, he is no longer automatically granted 24/7 taxpayer-funded armed protection and must currently rely on a bespoke, case-by-case evaluation.

Harry has trouble with critical press coverage. He tells other people to avoid taking planes to protect the environment, but usually takes private planes himself. He and Meghan have actively campaigned against the negative impacts of social media, particularly regarding the mental health of children. Yet they have utilised highly visible platforms like Instagram to promote their brand, and have prominently featured their young children in videos used for commercial marketing. Harry and Meghan continue to leverage and commercialise their royal titles for their business brand and have been accused of attempting to act like a parallel royal court in the US.

While Harry was a full-time member of the Royal Family, he said he felt “gagged”. Common sense dictates that a return on his own terms will not be acceptable.

Meghan and Prince Harry have recently turned round and want to get back to life within the Royal Family, but in their own way. They want roles that they can control, showing that they are livelier and more knowledgeable about today’s world than anyone else in the family.

Harry has been nagging his ailing father to take over some of his responsibility, an irritation that does not help the King with his recovery from cancer. For example, after Harry spent time in Australia he went to Ukraine to give an inappropriate speech aimed directly at US President Donald Trump and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, telling them to stop their wars. British officials were forced to remind the media that “Harry’s view is not the British government’s view.”

The couple also want money. Harry has apparently nearly used up the $20m his mother Princess Diana left him, while Netflix has ended its partnership with Meghan’s lifestyle brand. Nonetheless, rather surprisingly Meghan is hoping they will help make a series to celebrate her and Harry’s eighth year of marriage.

Many people felt King Charles should not give a speech during his four-day visit to America to mark the 250^th anniversary of American independence. There was concern he would fail and Trump is difficult to anticipate. Nonetheless the King went ahead with his speech to Congress. Trump called him “the greatest king” and the King received a standing ovation, after hailing the “unique alliance” between the UK and the US.

Harry and Meghan, however, have apparently been “fuming” that the King did not invite them to join him in Washington for the anniversary celebrations, an example of their ridiculous bullying since they had previously been publicly rude about both the King and Trump. Nor are they working royals any more, which is their own wish.

On the fourth day of Harry and Meghan’s pseudo-royal to Australia they met survivors and emergency responders from the terror attack on Bondi Beach in which 15 people were killed and 45 wounded. Meghan, however, thought the visit was an ideal opportunity to sell clothes, some of which she wore on the beach, on the fashion platform OneOff, in which she is an investor. Many thought it was an appalling and disrespectful thing to do for a tragedy-linked event.

King Charles was reportedly furious. It was shocking behaviour from his son and daughter-in-law. Royals are expected to support, not take profit.

Back home, the King has appointed new staff aimed at healing the long-standing rift between Prince William and Prince Harry, with a key aide aiming to “knock their heads together”.

It is hard to believe. William and his wife Princess Catherine want nothing to do with Harry, while Harry believes Meghan is always right and has everything she wants, which makes her difficult. Meanwhile, Charles has had a photograph of Meghan removed from display at Highgrove, his country home in Gloucestershire.

Harry however is “very sad” that his children Archie and Lilibet are “missing out on life” by not seeing the wonders of the UK.

It was, of course, his own responsibility to march off with Meghan, their dogs and Meghan’s mother in a plane he called “Freedom Flight”. It’s been described as the ultimate “revenge” move.

They both seem know now that they got it wrong, but Harry was love-lost and Meghan didn’t want to walk behind Catherine at royal events.

Meghan’s popularity has sunk to a new low. She was not invited to the Met Gala, known as “the fashion’s biggest night out.” Anna Wintour, the Kardashians and Serena Williams are no longer interested in her, a shock as Meghan still thinks she should be with the top celebrity tier.

There are regular hints that Meghan is writing a memoir of her life with the royals, no doubt to keep as many people as anxious as possible. There might be another TV film, containing unwelcome surprises for the royals. Or just because she has to get her revenge she might just set out to hurt those who haven’t worshipped her, without, I fear, taking any notice of Harry.

Ghislaine had introduced Epstein to Prince Andrew, as he then was, in 1999. Andrew was arrogant, spoilt and a poor judge of people. He often invited Maxwell and Epstein to royal palaces and parties but proclaimed himself unable to remember if he had met vulnerable young girls.

Ghislaine knew even more. She was arrested in New Hampshire in July 2020 for sex trafficking and related crime and has now been in custody for nearly six years. Her projected release is estimated to take place in the late 2030s.

Ghislaine was the youngest of the nine children of the British media mogul and politician Robert Maxwell. She went to Oxford University, was an excellent helicopter pilot (like Andrew), and was always anxious to please her father. She was his favourite and when he bought a yacht he called it Lady Ghislaine.

In court, however, her lawyers said she had a dysfunctional upbringing and a “difficult, traumatic childhood.” Her mother, Elizabeth, was kind, but her father was not. He was a Czechoslovakian-born war orphan who was awarded the Military Cross in 1945 for his service in the British Army. After the war he made a fortune in scientific publishing, became a Labour Member of Parliament, and took over the Labour-supporting Mirror Group Newspapers in 1984.

He had a reputation as an overbearing bully, as I found out for myself when I interviewed him for the Observer magazine in the 1980s at his home, Headington Hill Hall, a large mansion in Oxford.

A member of his staff took me to an enormously long room with a table for more than thirty chairs. Maxwell was sitting at the furthest end of the table staring at me as I made my way down the room. He didn’t stand up to greet me, just gestured to the nearest seat close to him. Journalists need to quickly gather what type of person they are talking to and I felt Maxwell was hoping I would feel awkward.

“What job does your father do?”was his first question. I politely said I didn’t think it was relevant to the interview. He said loudly that if I didn’t answer, he wouldn’t speak to me at all and I “would get into trouble” at work. I said I wouldn’t and, taking a risk, got up to leave.

“OK,” he said, pointing at the wall. “I’ll talk if you tell me about that painting.” It was a Biblical scene, which I got right.

“I’ll tell you about myself but come nearer me at the table,” he began. After half an hour he stopped and said, “It’s your turn now.”

I replied, “I thought you wanted to show off your power and make me scared and embarrassed walking through this enormous room.”

He laughed and kept on trying to verbally trip me up. He was one of the most unpleasant men I’ve ever talked to.

He was a difficult father too, although he did suffer personal tragedy: one of his sons died in a car crash and another child from leukaemia.

The other seven were terrified of him and tried to stay clear. His son Ian told John Preston, who wrote Maxwell’s biography in 2021: “He would beat us with a belt — girls as well as boys.” If they also had poor school reports they would receive “physical punishment”.

He regularly bullied his children, often humiliating them in public. Although his favourite was Ghislaine as a child she was neglected as nearly all the parental attention went to her brother who was badly ill from a crash. Even when Ghislaine she was older she was banned from bringing boyfriends home and her father turned off the electricity at home during her twenty-first birthday party because he disliked the music.

In November 1991 Maxwell disappeared from his yacht near the Canary Islands. His body was found in the sea: he was 68. Some thought he’d been murdered or committed suicide, others that it was an accident. Three pathologists could not agree on the cause.

Immediately following his death it was discovered that he had raided the MGN Pension Fund and taken £440m that was meant to be preserved to pay the pensions of his 32,000 employees.

Her father’s guilt was obvious and left the family with little money, but Ghislaine continued to defend him. “He wasn’t a crook,” she kept saying.

His sons Ian and Kevin were charged with fraud but were acquitted in 1996. Meanwhile, Ghislaine’s world had collapsed. She moved to New York and became friendly with Jeffrey Epstein. One helpful move for the couple was for them to draw close to Andrew. It is said that Andrew and Ghislaine were “very, very close” in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Andrew has been under intense scrutiny due to his long-standing friendship with Epstein, who died in August, 2019, in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York, awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Whether he committed suicide by hanging is not confirmed.

Andrew shared confidential information with Epstein while serving as a UK trade envoy, which has been confirmed by the Epstein Files recently released by the US Department of Justice.

They also appear to confirm that the photograph of Andrew with his arm around the 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre is real, which he has always denied. However, he settled out of court in 2022, giving Virginia (who has since committed suicide) £12 million, though he continues to deny all allegations of sexual misconduct.

.Ghislaine was a frequent visitor to royal residences and in the early 2000s visited Buckingham Palace as often as four times in a single day. Young girls Ghislaine was believed to choose would arrive at out-of-sight staff entrances. Palace employees would be told: “Mrs Windsor will arrive shortly, please let her in and show her up.” The staff are said to have felt very uncomfortable. Sometimes the girls went into Buckingham Palace itself to see Andrew.

In December 2021, a New York jury found Ghislaine guilty of five out of six counts, including the most serious charge, that of sex trafficking of a minor.

Queen Elizabeth II stripped Prince Andrew of most of his military affiliations and royal patronages in January 2022. In 2025 King Charles removed his remaining titles, including His Royal Highness, and his final military rank of Vice Admiral.

Andrew also hosted Maxwell and Epstein at prestigious royal estates, including Sandringham and Balmoral. It was mutually beneficial for Ghislaine and Epstein. She could introduce him to her wealthy and powerful friends and he could acquire her lifestyle.

Much good it did her: both her father and erstwhile lover died surrounded by scandal in mysterious circumstances, while she contemplates spending most of the rest of life in an American jail having somehow tried to please two dreadful men.

A spokesman for the couple said the trip would “take part in a number of private, business and philanthropic engagements”.

Meghan will be at an event in Coogee Beach, a suburb of Sydney, called a “girls’ weekend like no other”. On April 17 she will speak at the “Her Best Life Retreat” to “dynamic women”.

She will have a chance to make contacts and even friends with fans who will be paying the breathtaking amount of £1,705, including hotel accommodation. They will even have the priceless opportunity to be photographed with Meghan herself. It sounds like a travelling show-woman displaying some of her tricks to the crowd

The weekend will be full of fascinating things including Meghan’s “globally celebrated” Netflix series With Love Meghan and As Ever. Netflix has now dropped her but Meghan has decided she will be totally in charge of them. She doesn’t want to try to sell them in the UK, which she considers too small for her. She thinks selling in ‘global’ Australia will do much better.

This will be Harry and Meghan’s second visit to Australia. When they went in 2018 it was their first tour and first official visit as a married couple.

Meghan found it all difficult but not where they chose to tell the world that she was pregnant with her first child, their son Archie.

While crowds were excited to see the new member of the royal family they were shocked when they heard her say about engagements: “I can’t believe I’m not getting paid for this.” Walkabouts allow ordinary people to shake hands with royals and even say a few words but Meghan thought they had no point. The staff didn’t like her because she sent them late at night to get ingredients to cook banana bread, which she likes. It was said she yelled constantly at them until they made one she liked

Apparently both Meghan and Harry were also angry that they had only been given one wing at Admiralty House, the official home of the Governor General, and said “loudly” they should have the whole house to themselves.

There is no guarantee that Australians, whether they pay the huge price or not to attend their events, will warm to Meghan. Life has changed and Harry and Meghan are well down the royal popularity list, especially because of the way that Meghan behaves towards the royals and Harry’s memoir Spare, which is full of hurtful lies.

Harry will be away from Meghan, working in Melbourne, not a bad idea as we won’t see him sulking or tapped on the shoulder by Meghan wanting him to move out of her way. Harry will be speaking on mental health at the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit on April 15 and 16. Tickets cost from £1,053 to £9,000 and you can hardly expect anyone who really has a mental illness themselves to manage to pay such a huge amount.

Meghan told her friend Emma Grede when they shared a podcast that she “doesn’t think about failing”. It’s a useful attitude for her to get over obstacles, people she suddenly dislikes, and, most of all, phoney royal tours.

After trips to Nigeria and Colombia in 2024 she and Harry went to Jordan for two days this past February. It is incorrect behaviour as they do not represent the Royal Family or hold royal positions. Since they have not been royals for six years, there was little they could offer. In Jordan Meghan looked at a patient waiting for an amputation – the same operation her 81-year-old father underwent last year, but she has no interest in him. Harry usually looks sulky at these visits but keeps by her side as she holds his hand or grips his elbow.

Harry was furious that Jordan’s royal family were not interested in seeing either of them. Nor were they welcome at the British Embassy in Amman as, whether they like it or not, they are now private citizens, not royals.

Few thought that the couple would have the nerve to go off on another quasi-royal trip less than two months after their Jordan jaunt.

King Charles and Prince William are believed to be furious with these unofficial royal tours as they could put them in a difficult position. Is their behaviour a way of drawing attention away from King Charles to them? The King and Queen Camilla should be in America for a state visit at about the same time as Meghan and Harry are in Australia. It was planned to be a state visit for engagements with President Donald Trump ahead of celebrations marking 250 years since American independence next July but Downing Street has refused to confirm it will go ahead and Buckingham Palace has yet to formally announce the engagement.

The Thames Valley Police took no notice of his 66^th birthday on that day. Instead, they said there was a “suspicion of misconduct in public office”, the alleged sharing of confidential material by Andrew with the American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It was the first time the former prince, who has faced numerous allegations over his links to Epstein, had been arrested.

Neither Andrew nor his brother King Charles were given advanced notice and Andrew, no longer a member of the royal family, was dealt with like a common criminal. He was likely to be both furious and scared.

He was led to a car and taken to a police station for about 11 hours’ custody. Handcuffs were not used but a saliva swab was taken, as were fingerprints and a photograph for the police record. He was formally read his rights after he was detained and he had a single cup of tea. He was also allowed one phone call, which could enable him to call his lawyer and he was put in a holding cell, a small room with a bed and toilet.

He was driven home in the dark, looking dumfounded slouched near the car floor, no doubt so he couldn’t be seen

A statement from the King about the shocking event was ready unusually quickly. It didn’t include the word ‘brother’ but it did say, “Let me state clearly: the law must take its part.”

After Andrew was arrested the police thoroughly searched Wood Farm and then Royal Lodge, which is deeply humiliating of the biggest scandal in 380 years for the royal family.

Sarah, who has always seemed in financial trouble and persuaded Epstein to support her in full, disappeared into the most expensive rehab clinic in the world in Switzerland, costing about $17,000 a day. It is not known who picked up the bill.

Andrew has always been a relentless womaniser and his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, always had a soft spot for him, but she didn’t want to know about his despicable behaviour to many girls.

When her Platinum Jubilee was nearing, in June 2022, the Queen didn’t want to hear of any problems, so no one told her. In February 2022 Andrew stated he had no recollection of Virginia Giuffre, who had steadfastly declared she had sex three times with him when she was only seventeen. To settle her claim out of court she was paid £12 million, reportedly with funds from the Queen and the late Philip’s estate. She later committed suicide. King Charles did not contribute.

Some people in Britain want the King to abdicate and Prince William to take over, although Charles has immediately shown no sign of stepping down from the job for which he had waited more than seventy years.

William recently said: “change is on my agenda” when he succeeds to the throne. He and the Princess of Wales are “understood” to support the King’s statement after Andrew’s arrest. The coldness of their comment clearly revealed they don’t support Andrew.

Andrew was once the second in line to the throne, but as time has passed he has grown more seems annoyed that other royal children have automatically pushed him down the line; he now stands eighth. There are so many younger royals ahead of him that it is virtually impossible he would ever become king, and there is growing political pressure for him to be officially removed from the line.

But he is still a Counsellor of State, who could stand in for the monarch if he is unwell or overseas. At the present only working royals are called upon to carry out those duties, but Andrew still holds that status.

Andrew is not apologetic. In fact, he still repeatedly denies doing anything wrong at all. The King’s biographer, Robert Hardman, says he was told by a source that Andrew has done nothing but complain about his treatment since he arrived in his new home, moaning about where his horse will go and also about his car. He also shows no gratitude to his brother for giving him financial support.

After his service in the Royal Navy, in 2001 Andrew was made the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, which involved promoting British business interests abroad. Charles, then Prince of Wales, felt it wasn’t at all appropriate for Andrew but Tony Blair, Prime Minister at the time, thought his status as a member of the royal family would impress people. Peter Mandelson, who is now also in deep trouble because of his links with Epstein, was a senior Labour figure and Blair confidant and reportedly pushed for Andrew’s appointment. He got the job in 2001and quit in 2011 after his close relationship with Epstein was revealed.

There are concerns that a secret business deal has been sent to the Chinese state and confidential information has been passed on from a UK trade envoy to Jeffrey Epstein

.

The King made a surprise appearance at London Fashion Week just hours after news broke of Andrew’s arrest. He looked stressed and was generous with his time, but it could hardly have taken his mind off things.

It’s important to remember that King Charles cannot testify or be a witness in his own courts. But it will be very difficult to rebuild the monarchy’s reputation for integrity and there are likely to be many more revelations still to come about Epstein’s links to the highest ranks of British society.

Although he was inevitably spotted by the press, the now ordinary citizen Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was moving to Wood Farm, a secluded five-bedroom cottage, well out of people’s way, that Andrew’s father Prince Philip often used and for months before he died. Andrew’s permanent home will be Marsh Farm, a five-bedroom, two-bathroom residence on the Sandringham estate, when renovations are finished.

What won’t disappear is the continuing stream of documents highlighting his nauseous behaviour with women, nor the secret papers that highlighted his connections in China with the help of Yang Tengbo, a suspected Chinese spy who placed himself in the highest circles of the British establishment. He also ‘leaked confidential trade envoy docs’ to Jeffrey Epstein. Or his ridiculous comment in October 2025 that he “always put my duty to my family and country first.”

Andrew began life on 19 February 1960. He was a handsome child, second in line to the throne and a favourite of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, who had a blind spot for him

.

By 1970 he was a philanderer regularly caught in the girls’ boarding house at Gordonstoun school in rural Scotland. The British press seized the opportunity to call him “Randy Andy”. He moved on from boarding-school girls to having ‘fun’ with actresses, models and socialites and was soon also labelled the “party prince.”

In 1979 he joined the Royal Navy where he stayed for 22 years. He was a helicopter pilot, served in the Falklands War in 1982, and retired with the rank of Commander.

Prince Philip liked his action-man image but as Andrew grew older he worried about his son’s negative effect on the family.

Andrew and Sarah Ferguson knew each other from childhood but had gone their different ways. Princess Diana wanted them to meet again and in 1985 invited them both to a party at Windsor Castle during the week of Royal Ascot. They married a year later.

Recent biographies have alleged that even during the first year of his marriage Andrew was involved with multiple other women, a pattern that continued into his post-naval career and his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, American financier, child sex offender, serial rapist and human trafficker

.

Andrew’s navy career meant he was often away at sea for several months at a time and only with Sarah for about 40 days a year. She found it difficult to accept and began to find her own fun. In 1992 she took her young daughters Princess Beatrice, four, and Princess Eugenie, two, to a private villa in St Tropez along with John Bryan, a Texan millionaire financial advisor

.

Prowling paparazzi took photographs showing Bryan kissing and sucking Sarah’s toes, with Eugenie in the picture in at least one

.

The Queen was furious and told Sarah to leave the Royal Family and banned her from Balmoral. Instead, she and Andrew curiously decided to live together at Royal Lodge in Windsor, calling themselves “the world’s most friendly divorced couple”.

After the navy Andrew served as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment from 2001 to 2011.

He also spent time nagging the Queen about his status, role and money. He tried to persuade her to drop Prince Charles as heir to the throne and let him take over. He disliked Camilla Parker Bowles and endlessly told the Queen she would not be suitable for Charles to marry.

He didn’t, however, think that Jeffrey Epstein was an unsuitable friend despite him spending 18 months in jail for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14. A couple of years later in 2010 Andrew was seen peering around the front door of Epstein’s Manhattan mansion and giving a young woman a cheerful farewell wave. He claimed he went there to tell Epstein he was ending their friendship, but he soon sent a message saying “keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon.” Epstein died in jail in August 2019, the same year Andrew had to step back from royal duties.

Despite his disgrace, the Queen put on a public show of support to protect him by allowing him to accompany her into Westminster Abbey for Prince Philip’s memorial service in March 2022. But that same year she also stripped him of his military titles, royal patronages and his title of Royal Highness. She died the following September.

Andrew has continued to deny any wrongdoing, often with a superior impression of entitlement. This included a photograph with his arm around a young girl called Virginia Giuffre, who, at 16, had worked as a masseuse for Epstein. In her posthumous book Nobody’s Girl she says that Andrew thought it was his “birthright” to sleep with her at 17. She alleged they had sex three times. He insists they never did and claimed to know nothing about the photograph

.

But the Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice reveal that Ghislaine Maxwell, a close friend of Epstein’s, stated that it was indeed Andrew whose hand was round Virginia.

In another email from the DoJ files Andrew tells Epstein he wants to be his “pet”.

Andrew also invited Epstein and Maxwell to several high-profile royal events and private residences between 1999 and 2006. Notably, he continued these invitations even after the US authorities began investigating Epstein for sexual offences in 2006.

The invitations included a stay at Balmoral in 1999 and to Windsor Castle: Dance of the Decades, several royal birthdays including Andrew’s 40^th in June 2000, and a shooting weekend at Sandringham in December 2000.

After the Queen’s death it was difficult for King Charles to maintain his patience with a brother who felt he was superior. He has managed the task, but slightly late. The royal staff also now have the option not to work for him. Andrew is very curt towards them, using the phrase, “Staff are there to serve.” Most had left Royal Lodge, leaving him with just a valet, butler and chef, as he cannot cook at all. Should anyone make his bed, they will also have to line up 72 teddy bears in correct order.

His food is simple. He likes prunes for breakfast, meat and potato pie, or salmon and salad during the day, and cheese twists and crème brulé for a treat.

Staff at Buckingham Palace have made it clear that media inquiries about him will no longer be answered. He will have to handle such requests for himself.

Sarah will not be with him any more. She behaved shockingly by taking Eugenie and Beatrice with her to see Epstein when they were 19 and 20 a few days after he was released from prison for child sex offences.

The documents recently released show that she wrote to him in June 2010 after she said she would have nothing more to do with him. “You are a legend. I really don’t have the words to describe, my love, gratitude for your generosity and kindness ... I am at your service. Just marry me.” She asked him twice to marry her.

Not surprisingly her charity ‘Sarah’s Trust’ has now closed. She was asked to resign from positions in other charities last September. She also, it seems has a ghost writer who will help produce a memoir with ‘secrets’ about the royal family.

Beatrice and Eugenie are devastated but have to decide how to behave towards their appalling parent

It’s not known where Sarah is. But Andrew has an invitation to go to Abu Dhabi from its ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, where he has use of a 16,000 square feet palace with a gym, pool, cinema and private chefs as gratitude for a long-standing friendship and his previous work as a UK trade envoy in the region.

It would be no surprise if Andrew prefers such comforts to a medium-sized house in a remote corner of Norfolk. A large percentage of the public might welcome it too.

The result is a 90-minute documentary called Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, a work that showcases his interest in the environment throughout his life. Amazon Prime will launch it this month in collaboration with the king’s education charity, the King’s Foundation.

Charles doubtless hopes that it will highlight the positive side of the monarchy and deflect attention away from the scandals that continue to surround his disgraced younger brother Andrew over his links to the financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In the documentary, the King talks about the closeness of nature: “It all boils down to the fact that we are actually nature ourselves, we are a part of it, not apart from it, which is really how things are being presented for so long.

“Maybe, by the time I shuffle off this mortal coil, there might be a little more awareness ... of the need to bring things back together again.”

The film was premiered with the very stately background of Windsor Castle in a cinema set up for one night in the Waterloo Chamber.

The King, with Queen Camilla at his side, threw open the castle doors for a glittering night.

Camilla was dressed in a green velvet evening coat over a similar green trouser suit while the King wore a strict Windsor uniform of dark blue jacket with red facings, worn by male members of the Royal Family when in the castle.

The guests included Kate Winslet, the narrator of the film, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sir Rod Stewart and Dame Judi Dench, who entered on a green carpet rather than the usual showbusiness red one.

The film is very much about Charles, for him and worked on by him. There are plenty of photographs when he was young but only a few of his family.

What also has pleased him is that his undisclosed cancer has improved. So why are there now several negative comments floating about his life?

Prince Harry, for example, has not yet apologised to his father for the disgusting comments he made in his memoir Spare and leaked to journalists. He has also been rude about Queen Camilla, who has been so supportive of his father.

Yet it is rumoured that the King is offering his “most personal residence”, Balmoral in Scotland, to Harry so that he and his family can spend plenty of time there in the summer. It is a generous gesture that Meghan and Harry don’t deserve because they can’t yet be trusted or forgiven. None the less, Charles is reportedly standing firm, perhaps believing that he should offer Harry and Meghan “trust, forgiveness, and a genuine desire to heal.”

Prince William however is “strongly opposing” what his father is doing, believing such generosity is too much, too soon.

Has Harry asked for forgiveness? No. Does he intend to? At the moment he is too arrogant. Harry has said he felt trapped with the royals and is unlikely to change. Nor did he want his children “to inherit any sense of duty, expectation, or pressure simply because of their birth.” But Meghan strongly believes they should retain their titles.

Harry is also renowned for asking his father for money. The king has told his friends “I’m not a bank”, and stopped talking to him. Meghan is a huge spender. Neither of them would be likely to fit into the royal routine as they would only do what suited them.

A few months ago Harry told his father he longed to be with him then soon afterwards gave a brutal interview about him to the BBC. Would Meghan like time in the quiet Scottish countryside without photographers? I doubt it.

Another thought has been that Harry and Meghan might take over Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home, Royal Lodge with its 30 rooms in Windsor Great Park.

Most worrying of all, however, is that the King is said to be relying on Princess Catherine, whom he adores, who doesn’t put a foot wrong and has also had cancer, to re-befriend Meghan. What a demand, considering Meghan’s cruel and jealous behaviour towards Catherine

The King knows there have been missteps between the family and Harry and Meghan but he is now willing to forgive them and he feels that Catherine is the only person who could do it. I hope she keeps well away, and avoids putting the monarchy at risk.

In 2023 Harry became the first royal to give evidence in court in more than 130 years. As his legal battle against Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, begins in London’s High Court before Mr Justice Nicklin, he says he is “confident and ready”. He will be called to testify on Thursday.

The case could go on for more than two months and cost as much as £38 million. Joining Harry are some well-known individuals who must make their case in court one by one. They include the pop star Sir Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, actresses Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, a Labour peer whose son Stephen was murdered in a racist attack.

Doreen Lawrence joined the group in 2022. It seems astonishing she is still with the group, which has made me feel it is about time to tell my story.

Stephen Lawrence, a black 18-year-old, was attacked in the street by a gang of young white men at 11pm on April 22, 1993, in south London. The unprovoked racial attack was devastating for his parents, Doreen and Neville. Their feelings were made even worse when the police did next to nothing to try to find the criminals. Nor were newspapers interested in Stephen’s death.

Paul Dacre, then the editor of the Daily Mail, felt differently and was determined to find the culprits, reveal what exactly happened and help Doreen and Neville. Dacre believed the public should be aware of what happened to a young black man who was well-behaved and hard-working, and also get the police to reopen their investigation. I was a feature writer on the Daily Mail at the time so in March, 1997 I was asked to interview both parents separately, which they agreed to do. Four years had already passed since Stephen’s murder.

I met Doreen in a hotel room close to the Mail’s offices. Her searing grief made it difficult for her to talk about such a hideous event and the interview took four hours. I wrote: “She cried a lot and gave a glimpse of the raw emotion that lurks deep inside her like a waiting volcano.” She told me she “blamed the police” and how devastated she felt. “The person I was died with Stephen” she said.

She was obviously emotionally and physically torn to pieces and brave to pour out her feelings about what had happened.

Neville was affected in a different way. He is a quiet man who was so traumatised that for some time he blocked reality from his mind. A man with modest ambitions, he did various jobs until he went to night school for three years to train as a toolmaker.

In July 1996 he left the family and went back to Jamaica, where he was born. There he could focus on the situation before returning home. He said to me: “Some people feel that because a father doesn’t carry a child for nine months he doesn’t have the same feelings as a mother. They are wrong.

“The whole thing has put a strain on my relationship with my wife. We live together but we haven’t been able to sit down and talk about what has happened.” They divorced in 1999.

In July 1993 the Crown Prosecution Service charged two young men with Stephen’s murder but then dropped the case. Doreen and Neville took out a private prosecution in 1996 but that too fell apart.

In 1997 the Daily Mail placed photographs of five suspects in Stephen’s murder on the front page under the headline “Murderers”. It was one of the riskiest and most daring acts in British journalistic history. I and other journalists were hugely worried in case there would be a massive libel lawsuit, but the Mail’s lawyers believed the case against the suspects was strong enough to proceed and none of the five men ever sued the newspaper for libel.

Doreen was very grateful at the time and wrote a thank you piece for the Daily Mail on 13 February 2017. She wrote: “It was a proud moment for me: a national daily newspaper had the courage to put on its front page what others were too frightened to do. That front page made a lasting impression on our struggle for justice. It made everyone in Britain listen to us and support our fight.

“I will be forever indebted to those that made the difficult decision to put the murderers of my son on the front page of their newspaper.”

The Mail’s bold action brought results. The Metropolitan Police reopened their investigation and eventually two men, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were convicted of Stephen’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Doreen’s attitude changed when Prince Harry texted her in January 2022 to tell her that he had found evidence suggesting she was a victim of illegal surveillance by the Mail. He wanted to tell her as he felt she “would want to know” that she had allegedly been spied on. As his legal team investigated for his case against the Mail her name “kept cropping up”, he said.

This information persuaded her to join the legal action against Associated, despite all the help the Mail had given her in the past. We will soon know if that was a wise decision.

Despite Harry’s apparent confidence in his case, cracks have started to appear in it. Gavin Burrows, one of the private investigators on Harry’s side, has since recanted his evidence and alleged that his signature on a key witness statement saying he bugged cars was forged. He believes there has been a blatant attempt to intimidate him on the eve of the trial.

According to the Telegraph, Mr Burrows has told the court that a witness statement dated August 2021, in which he appeared to admit targeting “a large number of private individuals” over a number of years, including Prince Harry and Sir Elton, by hacking phones and bugging cars, was “prepared by others without my knowledge.”

This court case may be Harry’s last in his campaign against British newspapers, but it won’t be his easiest.

The ostensible reason is to help Harry promote the Invictus Games if he is given security by the British government. The Games are scheduled to take place in Birmingham, Britain’s second city, in July 2027.

Meghan’s visit is surprising as a few months ago Harry told the BBC: “I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK.” We know that Meghan dislikes Britain and everything about it. Is she doing us a favour? Hardly: an opinion poll in October 2025 revealed that only 21 per cent of people in Great Britain liked her.

We don’t know yet if their children Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, will also come and meet some of their family and especially their grandfather Charles. Harry wants the children to be educated in the UK despite hating his time at Eton. Will Meghan let them come and how difficult would it be for them both who are rarely out and about, if they are sent to boarding school in England while their parents stay in California ?

There may be another reason for Meghan’s visit. An increasing number of people are no longer interested in her or her work, and a trip to the UK for some royal togetherness might boost her and her brand.

One of many problems if she comes is that the Invictus Games could change to a “let’s watch Meghan” event rather than concentrating on the competitors, disabled and injured military personnel, both veterans and those still serving.

Harry’s timing is not a surprise. He has asked his father to open the Games which will take place from July 10-17, 2027. One difficulty is that Queen Camilla’s 80^th birthday is on July 17 and the King is bound to want to organise a celebration for his wife. The late Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother all had huge parties to celebrate their 80^th birthdays and Charles wouldn’t want anything less for Camilla. Which event is the more important?

Some think that Harry’s gesture of inviting the King to join him at the Invictus Games is an ideal way of repairing their relationship. I think he has put his father in a difficult situation, especially if Meghan is around. Can the couple be trusted? After Harry’s last conversation with his father a few months ago, which he was supposed to keep private, he gave an interview to the BBC and ruthlessly criticised him and the Royal Family. Meghan is used to taking large amounts of money from the charity for clothes: she changes more than once a day, she wants a top hotel and travel. It doesn’t go down well with the charity.

Then there is the question of who will want to make the opening speech: the King, Harry or Meghan, who usually takes over as a surprise? Last time, she walked in front of a group of competitors in the shortest of short shorts. Harry and Meghan like to use the Games to show their affection for each other, so photographers turn their cameras on them and they get the media attention instead of the athletes and the charity. If the King attends, the media are likely to concentrate on how he and Harry and get on, rather than on the competitors.

The full trial of Harry’s legal action against Associated Newspapers is due to start in London on January 19 and Harry will attend. It makes sense that the King won’t meet him while the legal proceedings are continuing.

As for Harry’s protection, some are saying that it has been agreed, while others report that Harry must take a risk assessment which has not yet been finished.

Another worrying issue is that Harry and Meghan are planning to produce a documentary for Netflix next year to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, with Harry hosting and narrating it. Harry was only 12 when she died.

It’s a shocking idea. A few years after Diana’s death Harry and William promised each other that they would never take part in any more documentaries or talk on TV about their mother. It was just too painful. If Harry goes ahead he will be breaking his promise, which he knows has been very close to his brother’s heart.

Meghan will be the documentary’s producer, not her expertise. She did say, however, when the couple got engaged and were interviewed by the BBC, that she felt she was very close to Diana. Harry thought she and his mum would have been “best friends”

If it happens, he will have exploited his mother’s life and taken the opportunity to make money out of her. It will certainly deepen his rift with William as well as hurt King Charles and other members of the Royal Family.

Harry has spent six years trying to get his own back on his family. He wrote very nastily about them in his memoir Spare, and continues to keep rubbishing them, which they don’t deserve.

Harry has also started using the surname ‘Wales’ instead of ‘Sussex’ for himself. He did so when he recently played polo. It sounds similar to William’s title of Prince of Wales and understandably the heir to the throne is furious about it. Is it done out of spite? No wonder Prince William won’t have anything to do with his younger brother.

Before restoring the relationship with his father Harry has to publicly and privately apologise to his father for all the false accusations and vindictive comments he has made about him and the rest of the family. Meghan should too but this is unlikely. Gradually Meghan, who very recently wants everyone to call her the Duchess of Sussex despite withdrawing from the Royal Family, behaves as if she is the more important member of the couple. Coming back to Britain, she might demand an important role. Meghan felt it was wrong for her to take second place to Princess Catherine, despite her being married to the King’s heir, as she was more self-made. Unless the King lets them go “half and half”, which the late Queen refused, they need to be aware they are neither working royals nor do they represent the monarchy.

Anyone who genuinely longs to go back to his family after a controversy would try to please them. Harry, however, has done nothing yet and appears to remain uninterested in compromise. Yet he has also said he has “felt isolated and overwhelmed” living in the US with Meghan. Their demands and behaviour are very worrying, as is Meghan’s manner towards her frail father Thomas Markle, now slowly recovering from a life-threatening knee amputation.

.Some even think Prince Harry and Meghan are enemies of Britain, the countries of the Commonwealth, and of the Royal Family. And that they have tried since they stood down from being working royals in 2020 to weaken, challenge, damage and if possible destroy the monarchy.

Princess Charlotte may only be ten years old, but her instincts and character belong to someone much older.

It was something one could feel when she and her mother, Princess Catherine, played the piano together at the recent Christmas carol service held at Westminster Abbey.

They played a beautiful duet called Holm Sound by Erland Cooper, a Scottish composer whose work is inspired by nature. One would imagine it would be quite nerve-wracking for someone to play for the first time in public. Not leased that at Charlotte’s age, getting the right note on the keyboard is one thing and adding essential emotion another.

Yet the audience were very moved. Catherine sat very close to Charlotte as they each played with one hand, which makes it less stressful as you only have to worry about notes for one hand. To help a little more, Catherine gently put her non-playing hand round Charlotte’s back to help her confidence. I know this because I played the piano myself and taught beginners as a teenager.

It worked brilliantly, so much so that when they finished they gave each other a loving happy smile that made many of the audience wipe their eyes.

On Christmas Day, five hundred or more people turned up on a cold morning at St Mary Magdalene Church in Norfolk with flowers and presents for the royals and their children, spending the holiday at nearby Sandringham.

The regular line of royals processing into the church was different from previous years. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie with their husbands were moved forward in the line. The King and Queen walked first as usual, followed by Princess Anne with her husband Sir Timothy Laurence. Next would usually have been Prince William and Princess Catherine with their three children. But instead it was Beatrice and Eugenie’s turn, perhaps a small gesture of warmth from the King. They were, however, told not to converse with onlookers. They both left soon afterwards: Beatrice, it was reported, was going skiing.

The children supported each other. When 12-year-old Prince George was told by a member of the public that his grandmother Princess Diana would have been proud of him, Charlotte quickly put her arm round him, as Catherine does to William, as if to say, “Well done.”

Eight-year-old Louis beamed as he was given a large box of Lindor chocolates by another onlooker.

Charlotte gracefully accepted presents and then rushed back when other people eagerly held out more. Some even tried to try to give her a kiss. She accepted very carefully by moving her face to one side perhaps to avoid being kissed too closely.

King Charles delivered his annual Christmas message from Westminster Abbey rather than any of his homes. I thought that like last year, when the venue was the Fitzrovia Chapel in central London, it was a way of not using as backdrop a table covered with family photographs which could end in Prince Harry complaining he wasn’t included.

The King suggested that we would all benefit from a digital detox to “allow our souls to renew”. He marked the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War Two and urged us to remember the past, but not many people now can remember that historic date.

He also mentioned that he “meets people of different faiths” and said it was “enormously encouraging to hear how much we have in common”. Not really, I thought, but I liked his comment that we must “find the strength to ensure right triumphs over wrong”.

I also pondered on a few hints. One message was that we should cherish “compassion, reconciliation” and peace. Could this have meant Prince Harry and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor “doing to others as we would have them do to us?”

The good news for the future is that it is hoped that King Charles and the Prince of Wales will make separate trips to the US in 2026 as part of a campaign to revitalise a trade deal with Donald Trump and to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence.

It’s believed the King will go in April and William during the football World Cup which will be held in the US, Canada and Mexico between 11 June and 19 July.

If he is well enough to go, it will be Charles’s first visit since 2018, when he was Prince Charles and represented his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at President George H.W. Bush’s funeral.

The King is very likely to take Queen Camilla along for the trip. President Trump, who is very fond of the British Royal Family, plans to host a lavish welcome for the state visit.

The royal visit is said to be a “major moment” in the run-up to the July 4 Independence Day celebrations.

Prince Harry and Meghan will not be on the guest list. Nor is it likely that the King will find time to see his son. He will have a packed schedule and will be focusing on the visit and avoiding arguments. And as Harry isn’t a working royal he won’t be invited to any celebrations.

George is now twelve and beginning to join his dad on carefully chosen engagements. Homelessness has been a very important issue to William. In 1993 his late mother, Princess Diana, introduced him to homeless people, very different from those he was used to. She wanted William to acknowledge that not everyone was rich like they were and didn’t have enough food to eat or somewhere to sleep.

He was only eleven but Diana wanted him to be gently trained for when the time came for him to succeed to the throne.

It was a very important visit for George.

He had practised when he was eleven, when he attended a special VE Day tea party last May, marking 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe.

It took place at Buckingham Palace and he accompanied his parents Prince William and Princess Catherine. The public was told George particularly enjoyed hearing World War Two stories from veterans themselves and learning about their service.

Both visits have been quiet events but they are significant steps in George’s future involvement in royal duties.

George seemed delighted to help prepare a Christmas lunch with his father. When he was six he stirred a Christmas pudding with such energy that the late Queen Elizabeth quickly got out of the way.

.For this event William prepared the sprouts, while George concentrated on the Yorkshire puddings.

.They then both baked cupcakes, helped to decorate a donated Christmas tree and laid the table. The Premier League football team Aston Villa, whom William supports, provided crackers. For homeless people the Christmas tree and the Christmas lunch are much looked forward to as they have nowhere of their own to go to.

Apart from the cooking George was excited by signing a visitors’ book which contained Diana’s signature four years before she died. When George saw his grandmother’s name he said, “Wow!”

The fact that the event went so smoothly is evidence of how well Catherine and William are planning their children’s introduction to their royal duties.

George and Charlotte began to get involved with volunteer activities from the age of about five. From 2019 William began talking to them about poverty and people who lived on the street. At five Princess Charlotte helped her parents deliver cakes to the needy, while during the Covid-19 lockdowns the children helped deliver home-cooked meals to elderly neighbours.

George, Charlotte and later Prince Louis have all been told it’s important to give, not just take. As a result, they can cope with some things that might be quite a shock to other children.

One member of the royal family was in no doubt that Prince William’s children would soon be taking centre stage.

When I was talking to their uncle Harry about the biography I was writing, Harry: Conversations with the Prince he told me he was in a rush to make his mark and was treating life as a race.

He explained: “I want to make something of my life. I now feel there is just a smallish window when people are interested in me before Prince George and Princess Charlotte take over and I’ve got to make the most of it.” Sadly, since his departure for California he doesn’t seem to have done so.

Whatever way you look at it, their behaviour gets worse and worse.

Meghan hangs on to her title Duchess of Sussex, which keeps her a member of the British royal family, despite making it clear she dislikes the monarchy. It also reminds the public that for a mere 72 days she was a working member of the most respected monarchy in the world, which she is never grateful for.

Such women, however, are not expected to wear a thin see-through white garment as she did recently for all to see her white pants and bra. Was her exposure to make mischief and displease senior members of the family?

Was it carefully timed to try to outdo Princess Catherine’s Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey? Or just extremely silly?

Her behaviour towards her father, Thomas Markle, is unbelievable. He hasn’t seen her since before her wedding more than seven years ago, and not once met Harry or his two grandchildren. Aged 81, he fell dangerously ill in the Philippines, where he now lives. He had a blood clot which cut off his circulation, a three-hour operation as his left foot had turned black, and an amputation of his left leg below the knee.

Meghan claims she had sent him an email but it didn’t make sense to send a message to someone who was under sedation in intensive care. He has now come round and would no doubt love to hold Meghan’s hand. After all Meghan has no trouble getting on a plane to go to an awards ceremony but apparently not to the Philippines. It’s not a case of whether she likes her father or not, it’s her duty to do so for a sick man who brought her up and loves her.

Her latest excuse is that she has lost the phone number. Thrown away no doubt. Thomas Markle has said he never changed his phone number in the hope that Meghan might call, and appealed to her to see him ‘one more time before I die’. He told The Mail On Sunday newspaper that he also dreamed of seeing Harry, his son-in-law, and grandchildren Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, ‘before it’s too late’. One of Meghan’s staff has said she has been trying to reach him since the wedding, but that’s not believed one jot.

Harry’s current behaviour is also bad. During the 15 months I was writing his biography, I found him quick-thinking with a natural way of being positive and making people laugh, whether they were young, old or wounded veterans. Several depressed veterans who felt they would never be the same again told me Harry gave them the wish to live.

Since then he has gone so fast downhill that he agreed to be seen on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a man who dislikes the UK and mocked Princess Catherine when she was having chemotherapy treatment.

Watching Harry trying to make fun of himself was pathetic and unnatural. Perhaps Meghan, whose suggestions he listens to and usually follows, suggested he should try to be a comedian so they could both be entertaining performers. She should have known better. He is also a member of the British royal family and mocking the royal family is so un-funny many people might think that King Charles is part of the joke. He was also extremely rude to the American Present Donald Trump, describing him as ‘the new king of the United States’, a risky thing to do as he doesn’t know how American politics work and Americans are not interested in a prince making suggestions.

Meghan and Harry made a mistake letting Oprah Winfrey interview them when they first returned to the US as the interview contained so many lies. Harry shocked a great many people with his memoir Spare, much of which was also lies. And now he has made a fool of himself with Colbert, whose TV slot will be dropped in May 2026. If he really wants a reconciliation with his family, as he intimated not long ago, he has a weird way of going about it. How could you trust either of them?

She has worked hard to help people with mental health issues, talking about it more as if it is an illness than something anyone should be ashamed of. Perhaps too, some of her comments about the importance of love come from her problems of cancer.

The interest began when she and Prince William assembled a ‘Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry’, as the latter was close to them at the time. Catherine’s name was not included in the title as she and William were not yet married. They did philanthropic work, developed a range of charitable activities and focused on problems like mental health.

After their marriage in 2011 Catherine’s name was included in the title. It was a success and useful as it gave people enough courage to seek professional help.

After Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018 Meghan also joined the foundation, but not for long. She and Harry both quit a year later to follow their own path.

.Since then Catherine has expanded her work for other charities that deal with issues that can often be traced back to problems in childhood.

I can understand her wish to try to help the deprived. I felt the same way and joined the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of Wormwood Scrubs, a famous London prison for men, in the hope that I could be useful to the inmates, but in reality they seemed totally trapped by life.

Many of the prisoners were severely mentally ill alcoholics, individuals who were unable to cope with the world or themselves. Some had never known their parents or had long since lost touch with them; some had lived on the streets. An ordinary conversation was hard for them: they could not express themselves because they were not used to being part of any sort of group, and sometimes they just screamed and shouted. Some prisoners who were high or drunk told me long stories of how people were allegedly poisoning them.

I could come and go at any time with my own set of keys, help prisoners with issues from feeling suicidal to trying to make you believe their £100 shoes had been stolen.

Rather than having been weaned off drugs while inside, many addicts left the prison in the same state or worse. Many had no family or home and if they were in a bad mood they found talking frustrating. It was common for them to smash the toilet in their cells to cause floods. Another option was a “dirty protest”, which meant spreading excrement on the walls of their cells. Amazingly, I was able to persuade some of them to come out of their cell – I never went inside – and have a shower. But no love was involved. I was more like a headmistress who they listened to when they felt angry with themselves.

Some turned to religion, particularly to Islam.

Most men about to leave the prison told me they were going back to where the drugs came from. Inside, there were usually drug dealers around and nowadays delivery from outside by drones. Once in my time at the Scrubs, there was great excitement from prisoners when a dead pigeon stuffed with heroin arrived outside.

.Suicide attempts were regular. One prison lay in the foetal position on the floor in a corner of his cell. I tried over some time to talk to him but he wouldn’t answer. I was told he hadn’t spoken for weeks and wouldn’t let anyone know what was wrong.

One man asked to change prisons. He wasn’t allowed to and I thought he would be very angry. But he told me: “Don’t worry. I decided to go back on heroin instead. Would you like some?” I shook my head and left him.

I joined the IMB because I wanted to see people who were trapped by life and how they were looked after. On an average morning I locked and unlocked cell areas about 85 times. I left after 10 years because I tried but failed to persuade the Ministry of Justice to give the prisoners enough decent food. Dryish beans served in a container the size of an egg and a few slices of bread wasn’t enough for anyone and I believed caused more fights and temper. I wrote a book instead about my experiences.

Catherine has done wonders with the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. It was founded in 2021, and has supported families in their early years which helps cope with long-term social challenges like addiction, violence and homelessness, as these often have roots in poor mental health during early childhood.

She has encouraged business leaders to prioritise the value of relationships and time, as this can create more nurturing environments for families.

She has also recently gone to the Anna Freud Centre, of which she is patron, to launch a new project supporting children’s mental health and to use the skills of health visitors to support early social and emotional development. The country desperately needs it.

.Despite such a drama she was surprisingly pleased with her title ‘Duchess of Sussex.’ She’s still using it for signing letters and occasionally with the prefix HRH which is used for high-ranking members of the royal family, despite the late Queen Elizabeth telling her she could not use it once she left the royal family.

It’s no surprise that Meghan has remained pompous, so much so that her house manager has begun to announce ‘Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’ when she enters a room to meet a visitor.

It is, however, her mistake rather than her gain. Decorum experts have been shocked as the protocol as laid down in Debrett’s New Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners is that the visitor should be introduced first.

Meghan, however, follows her own protocols. As Harry has said, “What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.”

She also misses detail and truth

.

Three years after her marriage she and Harry were interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. Meghan felt her life with the royals had been too unfair on her. She even sneered at the £32m wedding itself. Meghan said she hadn’t wanted their large public ceremony in 2018. It was she said a “spectacle ... planned for the world” but not for her. She wanted their own special “union” in their backyard with Justin Welby, then Archbishop of Canterbury, marrying them before the official ceremony. I wonder if Harry agreed as he had enjoyed being in the army.

The Archbishop was in such a difficult position that he made a public statement that it would be a “serious criminal offence” to wed people twice in a week and said he had just given a few prayers. Nor were there any witnesses. The couple had, however, specifically requested a horse-drawn carriage procession through the streets of Windsor after their wedding service, but obviously didn’t let anyone know they had changed their minds

.

Meghan still hangs on to her title while living in a large mansion in Montecito with 16 bathrooms. Despite this she often acts like a martyr, moaning how he gave up her career and life for Harry, but hasn’t yet grasped that there wasn’t an acting career waiting for her. It’s said her talent has not helped her make it in Hollywood.

For the last year or so she has talked a lot about making jam, which was eventually revealed to be mostly made in factories. Her other goodies include honey, herbal teas, crepe mix and alcohol. She’s keen on flower sprinkles for decorating food but they are not popular and far too dry to eat.

There have been candles too, which unfortunately have been sent out without a wick.

.

For Christmas, Netflix is showing a Meghan video called With Love Meghan Holiday Celebration. There have been many complaints that it doesn’t use the word ‘Christmas’ at all but the decorations and food are all Christmasy. There’s even a Santa mug for her children, Archie and Lillibet, although she said they don’t believe in him now.

.

Meghan looked thrilled when recently she went to the 70^th birthday of Kris Jenner, one of the Kardashians, hosted by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon billionaire who married Lauren Sanchez last June.

Meghan hoped that Bezos could give her some help in becoming a billionaire too. All was going well until photographs of the party were taken. Initially they were shown on the premises, then moved to Instagram. Harry and Meghan wanted them removed and started making a fuss. The party spotlight turned onto Meghan because she was determined to get what she wanted. It may make future friendships less easy.

At the same time Harper’s Bazaar ran a cover story on Meghan with a series of photographs that were an example of how to look negative and expressionless. In the accompanying article Meghan mentioned that Harry’s “childlike wonder and playfulness” drew her to him: it was a huge put-down for him and a revelation of how she sees herself.

Duchess of Sussex or not, having her name announced as she comes into a room is far less powerful than having a pleasant manner. And an increasing number of people remember the times she has been dishonest and hurtful.

There has been plenty of murmurs that William and King Charles were not getting on, so it was heartwarming to hear William speak so affectionately of his father.

Charles, who is still struggling with cancer, must have felt deeply moved to hear his heir praising him. It also gave him a pause from the crisis with his brother Andrew Mountbatten Windsor whose title of Prince has been removed, and some respite from his nagging son Harry, eaten up by resentment, who wants to come back to the UK but won’t compromise or conciliate.

Prince William landed in Rio de Janeiro on November 3 for a visit largely devoted to environmental issues, including the fifth anniversary of the Earthshot Prize and the COP30 climate summit.

He visited Sugarloaf Mountain, played football at the Maracana stadium, and took off his shoes and socks for beach- volleyball on Copacabana beach in which he showed an elegant athleticism. All of which was hugely enjoyed by children and adults alike.

He also went to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking the city, in the footsteps of his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. He was astounded by the view and re-created a photograph taken of Diana on a visit to Rio de Janeiro 34 years ago

.

Although he was full of smiles in Brazil, plenty of people round the world are sceptical of his prophecies of climate disaster. William, however, along with his father, is not about to change his mind. He said firmly that the world was “edging dangerously close to climate disaster” but also offered a note of optimism: “A world without hope and a world without positivity is a pretty depressing place.” Stars including Shawn Mendes and Kylie Minogue were there to cheer him on.

William had a difficult early life, losing his mother in a car crash in 1997 when he was only 15. Losing her, he has said, was “like no other pain”.

His parents had a turbulent marriage that ended in divorce. Diana needed William to be an adult when he was still young and had little experience to help her, which affected him.

His father and his wife, Princess Catherine, have both had cancer and William has described 2024 as “probably the hardest year”, although it seems both he and Catherine are upbeat and positive about dealing with her ill-health.

He holds a powerful commitment to the planet’s future that will belong “not to us but to our children and grandchildren”. At the Earthshot awards ceremony he mentioned his children, 12-year-old George, Charlotte, aged ten, and Louis, aged seven, and said: “The planet is going to be in a healthier, better state because of the brilliant people in this room, [which] is something that I love to tell them when they go to bed: ‘It’s going to be great. Your future is going to be as bright as futures gone by’.” A very important message to impart.

William has usually kept personal things to himself but he had an unusual interview with Brazilian TV host Luciano Huck, and told him he and Catherine have been totally honest with them about their mother and grandfather’s cancer.

He said: ‘We decided to tell our children everything, both the good news and the bad. We explain to them why certain things happen and why they might feel upset.

‘Many questions might come up without answers - I think all parents go through that. There’s no rulebook for being a parent, and we chose to talk about everything.’

William was also given a moving photograph of Princess Diana, taken during her 1991 visit to São Paulo.

Diana was gently holding a child with HIV.

‘She became a very important figure in the fight against prejudice,’ Huck said, and William replied: ‘I carry her social and humanitarian legacy with me every day.’

Next year William wants to go to India which, although its president is not attending COP30, he is starting to support environmental agreements. William wants China too to back them as it is apparently getting interested in climate change despite being one of the world’s biggest polluters.

William knows he carries an important duty on his shoulders, one he could barely face when he was a teenager at the University of St Andrews. He certainly didn’t want to just cut ribbons, but gradually Catherine, then his girlfriend, helped him find worthy things he would grow to feel were important and suited his nature. It hugely helped him and built his feelings about his role, his country and his family. Rumour has it that both he and Catherine have become more religious, something many individuals do when they or their loved one recover from a severe illness.

William has a great sense of humour and a quiet dignity which is very likeable. One source said: “Unlike Harry, William doesn’t air the family laundry in public.”

Being positive isn’t always easy and William has always felt that the press has pestered him from childhood. A classic example came from Christiane Amanpour, the CNN anchor, who seized the opportunity of his trip to Brazil to try to find out what was going on in the royal family. Despite her pressing him about Andrew, Harry and Meghan, he managed politely not to discuss the royal family’s troubles in public, saying instead: “I want to surround myself with people who want to make change and do good in the world.”

He praised the Earthshot Prize winners, calling them “action heroes” and declared: “Change will come from backing them, not by what I do.”

This year, nearly 2,500 nominees were submitted from 72 countries. Of these, 15 finalists were selected, from whom the five winners were chosen.

William has committed himself to the prize, worth £1million each year, for 10 years, to help repair the climate, with Rio marking a halfway point for the venture.

.

In his impassioned speech, William said: “I understand that some might feel discouraged in these uncertain times. I understand that there is still so much to be done.

“But this is no time for complacency, and the optimism I felt in 2020 remains ardent today.

“Because our finalists are a shining example of how we can build stronger economies, design healthier cities, and create better jobs for the next generation.”

If his rock star reception in Rio is anything to go by, perhaps plenty of young people around the world will be inspired by his example.

.

He felt that his finest hour was as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot on active duty in the Falklands War of 1982. But he was equally proud of attracting women and of his various nicknames: ‘Randy Andy’, ‘Royal Hottie’, ‘Sexy Andy’, ‘Playboy Prince’ and ‘Party Prince’. It’s alleged that he slept with more than a dozen women just in the first year of his marriage to Sarah Ferguson.

Despite being almost ten years younger than his brother Charles, Andrew felt he should be heir to the throne rather than his serious sensitive, rather awkward brother who loved classical music, painting and plants.

Andrew kept nagging his mother, Queen Elizabeth, that he would be a much better king than Charles. Although the Queen had a soft spot for Andrew, who seemed to have a way of persuading her to do what he wanted, he didn’t always win.

When he lost, he became extremely unpleasant to the Queen. He also tried to persuade her to block Charles from marrying Camilla Parker Bowles, claiming, among other things, that she was insufficiently aristocratic and not to be trusted. When the Queen didn’t agree with him, he again became very angry.

He continued to lobby hard in the hope that Charles would not become king and that William would take the crown. Andrew was furious that he couldn’t have more of a say in the running of the country and also remained hostile to Camilla.

Andrew pushed his arrogance too far. When the King asked him to change homes in Windsor from Royal Lodge with its 30 rooms and move to a more suitable home for him and his ex-wife Sarah, he refused. When Royal Lodge needed urgent repairs he took no notice.

When he was accused of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl called Virginia Giuffre, he denied he’d heard of her, despite a photograph showing them together, and wanted everyone to believe that he did nothing wrong. Virginia Giuffre had been one of the “sex slaves” working for financier Jeffrey Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now in a US prison.

Aged 41, Virginia committed suicide but left behind a memoir Nobody’s Girl that covers the tragic details about how she was treated. In it she writes: “I was habitually and humiliated - and in some instances, choked, beaten, and bloodied.” She accused Andrew of being “entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright”. She claims that Epstein gave her to Andrew and that he abused her three time. He denies it but is believed to have instruct his Metropolitan Police protection officer to investigate Virginia using her date of birth and her Social Security number in an alleged attempt to find “dirt” on her?

Camilla is involved in several charities that try to help people who have been raped or assaulted. She read Virginia’s book and felt she couldn’t continue her work when her husband’s brother was being accused of such behaviour.

Charles and Camilla made it distinct in two sentences: “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and upmost sympathies have been and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.” There was no mention of Andrew. I must have been a stressful and hard thing for the king . who is still undergoing weekly cancer treatment, to do. Something powerful had to happen and it did.

Andrew could live on the Sandringham Estate where there are several properties the King owns. But there are rumours he will vanish from public life and live in 6-bed Abu Dhabi palace with Fort Knox-like security Sarah, however doesn’t want to be with him. Their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, have been shocked but can keep their titles, being the granddaughters of the late Queen Elizabeth. It’s not known what Andrew will do there. He has never looked after himself or even made himself a meal. Some people think he will go abroad, even though he is in a very vulnerable state.

The King had to take the action he did because there were growing concerns that the scandal could undermine the monarchy itself. Constitutional monarchs can only survive with the support of the public and that can easily be lost, as ex-King Juan Carlos of Spain found out to his cost. Due to public pressure he abdicated in 2014 and has written a memoir, Reconciliations: Memoirs of Juan Carlos I of Spain, which will be published in France this week.

Now 87 years old, Juan Carlos was known for his numerous extramarital affairs throughout his marriage to Queen Sofía. It was one reason for his loss of public support and now he wants people to know the details of his reign and his relationships.

It all looked very different when in 1975 the monarchy, which had been in abeyance since 1931, was restored and he took over the throne after the death of the dictator General Francisco Franco. In the following years he played a crucial role as democracy returned to Spain and started to take root. For much of his reign, he was widely popular and respected. But his later years were marked by financial and personal scandals. In 2012 he was on an elephant-hunting trip to Botswana with one of his women friends and broke his hip.

The Spanish public were furious when the news broke as it had taken place during a severe economic crisis in Spain. This led to Juan Carlos’s abdication in favour of his son Felipe in 2014

.

One mystery in his memoir is about his relationship with the late Diana, Princess of Wales. There was a lot of speculation about them in the early 1990s. But very few individuals would ever describe Diana, as he does in his new book, as “cold, taciturn, distant, except in the presence of the paparazzi.” Perhaps he was trying to cover up her lack of interest in him. Diana told friends after a visit to Majorca: “I felt uncomfortable being left alone with him in a room, although I can assure you that nothing happened.”

Felipe married Letizia Ortiz, a television journalist and divorcee, in 2004. They have two daughters, Princess Leonor, 20, the heir to the throne, and Infanta Sofia, 18. Understanding the damage his father’s fall from grace was doing to the monarchy, Felipe has been ruthless in ostracising him and other members of the family who have been caught up in scandal. King Charles may be wishing he had acted as decisively with Andrew, and sooner.

Juan Carlos is still married to his wife, Queen Sofia. However, the couple lead completely separate lives, with Juan Carlos living in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates and Queen Sofia continuing to live at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid. The two are rumoured not to have shared a bed for over 40 years

Norway has another troubled monarchy. Marius Borg Høiby, 28, is the stepson of Crown Prince Kaakon and son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship. He has been charged with 32 criminal offences in total, including four counts of rape, domestic violence, making threats, filming women without their consent, and drug use.

He denies the most serious accusations, including rape and domestic violence, but plans to plead guilty to some lesser charges.

The trial is scheduled to take place in Oslo early next year. If convicted of the most serious charges, he could face up to10 years in prison.

The Royal Palace has stated that it is a matter for the courts to decide and has no further comment, adding that Høiby’s status should not affect the judicial process. No other members of the Norwegian royal family have been charged in this case or are expected to appear as witnesses.

Høiby does not hold a royal title or perform official royal duties but the charges against him are a huge embarrassment to the Royal Family. It remains to be seen what long-term damage the affair will do their reputation or if it will even affect even their very survival.

The roots of the monarchy are deeper in Britain than in Spain and Norway but the scandals that have hit the three ruling families show that the public’s tolerance is not unlimited.

.

.