Robert Hardman has updated his terrible book, Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story, with three new chapters and a new contract with the Daily Mail. Hardman is a Charles-loyalist more than anything, and all of his stories have the stink of Charles and Camilla’s narratives and outright lies. One of the big headlines from Hardman’s new chapters is that QEII planned on evicting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from Frogmore Cottage herself. That is never-heard-before lie straight from King Charles. It was one of the most unpopular and cruelest decisions he made in recent years, to evict the Sussexes from their safe home in the UK. The Sussexes had a valid lease and they paid for everything in the renovation of Frogmore. QEII “gave” them Frogmore as a gift. Now Charles would have everyone believe that QEII would have taken it away from them to give to Prince Andrew. That’s not all – Hardman also has some convenient lies about how much “help” was offered to the Duchess of Sussex. More highlights from Hardman’s book:
QEII’s plan for Frogmore: However, it transpires that even [QEII] wanted to find the Duke another home. ‘Had she lived another year, he would have been out,’ says a former adviser to Elizabeth II firmly. ‘It was her plan to move him out, to end the lease for the Sussexes at Frogmore Cottage and to move Andrew in there. It was mainly a money thing, as she could see it was becoming unsustainable.’ Many of the late Queen’s staff were more than happy to make it happen, too, given the Duke’s conduct prior to his disastrous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview and the end of his career in public life. The Queen’s staff had wasted no time annexing his rooms inside Buckingham Palace.
Who will live in Royal Lodge if Andrew finally moves out? Since the Prince and Princess of Wales have shown no interest, for the time being, in moving into what would certainly be a suitable home the question has continued to be asked: who would live at Royal Lodge if the Duke was indeed prevailed upon to leave? An intriguing suggestion began to emerge during the course of this year: what about the King and Queen themselves? ‘The King loves his brother, of course,’ says one senior source. ‘But the Duke is living in an enormous house on his own and it used to be the Sovereign’s house. George VI and Queen Elizabeth never moved out of there.’ Aides are adamant that the King has no wish to take up residence there himself, Queen Camilla even less so. However, he is also determined to ensure that a house with a distinguished regal past is not left mired in uncertainty.
Harry’s visit in February to see his father: The King had been due to leave with the Queen for Sandringham, but delayed his departure so that he could see his son at Clarence House. It was not a long meeting – less than an hour – and the Palace released no details. Crucially, nor did anyone in the Sussex camp. Given the vast amount of awkward baggage to be unpacked following the Duke’s multiple swipes at the monarchy over the previous three years, this was not a moment for anything other than simple, urgent expressions of love and compassion….Within Buckingham Palace it is accepted that the King is open to some sort of rapprochement with the Sussexes – not least because he has barely seen his US-based grandchildren Archie and Lilibet, now aged five and three. And any sort of serious medical diagnosis tends to focus the mind on the passing of time.
Charles is so disciplined about the Sussexes: ‘He always had an iron discipline about not stirring things up with the Sussexes,’ says a former member of staff. ‘It can take a huge effort to do nothing when you’re being criticised.’
Harry stayed at a hotel during his visit in May: The King and his staff had been well aware of Prince Harry’s travel plans, however, to the extent that the monarch had even offered his son accommodation at Buckingham Palace. The Prince had chosen to stay at a hotel instead. ‘We were told it was for security reasons,’ says a member of the King’s staff. ‘I’m not sure you could get anywhere more secure than the Palace. Maybe he was worried about the mice.’ Sources close to the Sussexes explained that any Palace accommodation would, by definition, be inside a high-profile location and, without appropriate ‘security provision’, it would be safer to stay at an anonymous hotel.
They’re still swearing up & down that they offered help to Meghan: Yet some of those very same officials had tried to give both the Duke and Duchess extra support during their brief royal existence. ‘It was Clive [now Sir Clive Alderton, private secretary to the King] who said that if we could get this right for Harry, we’d be creating a blueprint for future younger sons for generations,’ recalls one staffer from those days. ‘And Clive said, ‘These two need more staff.’ And we seconded people from Clarence House, very expert people, to help them, but the Duchess wouldn’t trust them. Those two were offered considerable resource, and then later said that they had been offered no help. And that was completely wrong.’
“And Clive said, ‘These two need more staff.’ And we seconded people from Clarence House, very expert people, to help them, but the Duchess wouldn’t trust them.” I know this is false. Clarence House didn’t do jack sh-t to help Meghan in 2018-2019. They tossed Meghan to the Kensington Palace staff, who basically had nervous breakdowns whenever Meghan asked them to complete a simple task. It was so bad for Meghan that QEII “gave” Meghan one of her own trusted advisors, Christopher Geidt, who was once QEII’s private secretary. One of the complaints I had back in 2016-17 was that no one in Windsor-World seemed to understand that Harry needed his own dedicated office and staff. They kept Harry boxed in at Kensington Palace so that William and Kate could hide behind him and take credit for his work and his ideas. Besides, Charles never would have given staff to Harry and Meghan because his big concern was that he (Charles) couldn’t “afford” for Harry to get married, remember?
What else? At this point, I do believe that Harry was offered a room in the palace when he visited in May, and I also believe that the security situation was janky enough that Harry didn’t trust his father or anyone at the palace. As for all of this sh-t about Frogmore and QEII wanting to evict the Sussexes… lmao, again, this is Charles blaming his dead mother for one of his most unpopular decisions.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Cover Images.