Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on Meghan Markle using her HRH title when she wasn't supposed to

Meghan Markle has copped some backlash after new reports claim she was using her HRH title when she wasn't supposed to.

Sources close to the Duchess of Sussex say that when she used the title HRH on a card, it was sent with a personal gift and not for any public purpose.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey unpacks the controversy further. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin Gray is a UK correspondent. Hey Gevin, good afternoon.
They're head the well. Okay, so we've we've got the
old case of these guys who chop down the sycamore
tree at Hadrian's Wall. Has the trial just started, has it? Yes?
It has. It's likely to go on for a week.
But the opening submissions have been absolutely fascinating because it
is being said by the prosecution that the pair kept

(00:22):
a wedge of the tree as a trophy for felling it,
that they were described to be on a moronic mission
to take this tree down. For those that can't remember,
the Sycamore Gap is a famous piece of north East England.
It's a heritage site. Hadrian's Wall runs through it, built

(00:43):
by the Romans, and a tree while standing there for
more than one hundred and fifty years pictured between these
inner dip between these two hills. It's featured in lots
of Hollywood films and so forth, and really is a
very very famous site. And then one night somebody chopped
it down. And now two people are thirty nine and
a thirty two year old from Cumbria who traveled a

(01:04):
roughly forty or so minutes. It's been alleged in a
range rover to chop it down. Have effectively just decided
that they are now going to be on trial for this.
The tree was planted in the late eighteen hundreds. The
prosecutors are absolutely convinced that they have their people. There
was even a forty second grainy video on one of

(01:26):
the mobile phones. It's alleged off the pair that they
can be seen cutting this down. So the criminal act,
as it's been alluded to in court, was a moronic
mission that the pair were reveling in, delighted that it
made international headlines. As I said, the trial continues and
they deny their involvement. Devin, is there a mode of here?

(01:47):
There has been just like why did they do it?
I think a little bit of notoriety they found it,
I dare say, funny. Those are the allegations that the
prosecutors are putting through. Oh such lolls. Hey, now, Meghan Michael,
was she allowed to use the HRH or not? Well no,

(02:08):
as part of an agreement with the Queen not in public.
Now there's been the spit of a spat now because
on a video accompanying a podcast from a UK cosmetics entrepreneur,
Meghan has sent this entrepreneur some jam and goodies from
her collection, and it is attached with a card that

(02:31):
is signed from her Royal Highness or HRH as that's known,
with the compliments of HRH, the Duchess of Sussex. The
card says to this entrepreneur, Jamie Kern Lima. So all
of a sudden, people are like, ahhng on a minute,
because that was an agreement with the late Queen to
say you can keep the title, but you really mustn't
use it. And what Meghan and her sources are saying

(02:55):
anyway is effectively no, I didn't use it in public.
This was a private gift a private friend. I must say.
There's some dispute about exactly how friendly they are, and
that therefore it's not breaking the tradition. However, of course,
when the pair left the UK and they stopped being
working roles back in twenty twenty, this was one of
the conditions, and so plenty of people here absolutely furious

(03:19):
and suggesting that the King go the full tilt now
and remove the HIH titles as well. Interesting. Gavin, thanks
very much, do appreciate it. We'll talk to you in
a couple of Days Kevin Gray are UK correspondents. For
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