King Charles Hits Back at Harry? Royal Butler Memoir Sparks Drama

Former royal butler Grant Harrold’s new memoir paints a glowing picture of King Charles—and directly contradicts Prince Harry’s version of events in Spare. Is this a strategic royal clapback? Plus, celebrity chef Jameson Stocks slams Meghan Markle’s Netflix series, calling her “a liability.” We also dive into why critics say With Love, Meghan feels painfully inauthentic—and how one writer hoarded Meghan’s rare $14 crepe mix like gold.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Calarogu Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Palace Intriguga. I'm
your host, Mark Francis. A new memoir by former Royal
butler Grant Harold, is stirring headlines and reportedly ruffling feathers

(00:23):
within the Sussex camp. Harold, who served for years as
a valet to then Prince Charles, Queen Camilla and Princess
William and Harry, has released The Royal Butler, a behind
the scenes look at royal life that offers a notably
glowing portrayal of the king. But one detail in particular
has caught a tension. Harold's insistence that William and Harry

(00:45):
were happy about Charles's marriage to Camilla, directly contradicting Harry's
own account in his memoir Spare the four of Them.
I promise you got on so well, Harold rites. I
saw them having dinners together. I saw them having drinks together.
I saw them going to parties together. Now, according to
Shutter Scoop, palace insiders believe the book may be more

(01:06):
than just fond recollections. It may be part of a
strategic response. This is Charles hitting back. One insider told
the outlet Harold's book is a direct counter attack on Harry.
It's basically saying, don't believe in believe me. A friend
of Harry's didn't hold back in their assessment, telling Shutter scoop,
he knows it's a takedown. This is the King using

(01:28):
loyal old staff to trash his story and make him
look bitter and dishonest. Celebrity chef Jamison Stocks, who has
previously cooked for King Charles, isn't holding back on his
views about Meghan Mikle's Netflix series with Love Meghan. I
think Megan Michael needs Netflix more than Netflix needs her,

(01:48):
he told The Daily Express, adding bluntly, she's becoming a
bit of a liability. To be honest with you, they
don't really know what to do with her. Maybe an
actual chat show would be better suited the audience of
figures prove that a lifestyle show doesn't work with her
at the Helm. Frankly, I think people are more intrigued
by Prince Harry than by her. Lifestyle show centered around

(02:11):
him would probably have been much more engaging. Stocks concluded
with a prediction and a caveat. If I had to
guess what Megan's next show would be I'd say a
talk show, no cooking, no edible flowers, studio based. However,
I doubt that will happen because I think she wants
to be the center of attention, and as a talk

(02:32):
show host, the focus is actually on the guest. In
l decor Ingrid Abramovich writes why I hoarded my rare
box of Megan Michael crate mix until now. Somehow it
feels fitting that season two of With Love Meghan is
poised to drop on Netflix right before Labor Day. For me,
the last three months have been my Sussex Summer, a

(02:52):
season curated by a duchess with several HighRes, one low,
and some very delicious cookies. It started June twentieth when
I got tipped from a family member that Meghan's as
Ever site had a rare product restock. For once I
was in the right place, at the right time, in
front of my laptop, only three items were still available,
Meghan's short Bread cookie mix with flower Sprinkles, crate mix,

(03:14):
and apricot spread cause I ordered them all. The fourteen
dollar Crape Max arrived in early July along with the cookies.
The packaging, a simple white box, came with a note
from Megan explaining how Crapes reminded her of a student
days backpacking through France. We were on a tight budget,
but it was an affordable indulgence that I can still
taste to this day, she wrote. Then a funny thing happened.

(03:37):
Everyone started fighting over the crape mix. Friends asked if
I really needed it. Scarcity sells. Soon boxes were popping
up on eBay at multiples of the original price. I
tucked mine away, waiting for the right moment. The return
of Meghan's Netflix series coinciding with the end of my
summer Sussex seemed like kismut. Did the royal branding really

(03:57):
add anything? Or was it more or less a case
of letting meet crapes more balacing just a moment. Don't
forget to check out our new episode of Crown and
Controversy which drops on Sunday, and Crown and Controversy kind
of takes over where the Crown on TV left off,

(04:18):
and you can get that podcast every Sunday, and if
you're a subscriber, you can get seasons and episodes in advance.
So check it out wherever you get your podcasts, just
like this one. Crown and controversy out now. In Slate,
Imagen West Knights writes about Andrew Lowney's book about Prince Andrews, saying,

(04:38):
this is the kind of book you can write about
a member of the royal family only after they have
been thoroughly disgraced, and it is not unusual that a
member of the royal family has fallen so decisively. Lowney
reportedly approached about three thousand people for this book, of whom,
he says, only a tenth replied. But that is enough,
and what these people have to say about him is

(04:59):
damning beyond believe. Here follows just some of the claims
Lowney makes about Andrew, all of which are backed up
by testimony from people who know or knew the prince,
but still just allegations. I suppose he had a member
of the royal staff moved from his job for wearing
a nylon tie, and another because he had a mole
on his face. He had forty women brought to his
hotel room in Thailand over a five day visit, aged

(05:22):
twenty six. He had dozens of stuffed animals on his bed,
one of which were a vest that read It's tough
being a prince. He missed his daughter's twelve birthday to
hang out with Epstein at his Miami beach house. He
ran up a bill of three hundred and twenty five
thousand pounds on helicopters and planes in two thousand and
five alone, he let a Libyan gun smuggler pay for
a holiday he took to Tunisia and accepted a present

(05:45):
of bugged MacBook pro from an attractive woman who turned
out to be a Russian spy. He later tried to
get himself a free Faberschet egg on an official Kremlin tour.
In his role as a special representative for the United Kingdom,
he earned in the diplomatic community the nickname his buffoon
Highness by refusing to follow his brieves and perhaps even

(06:06):
read them in the first place. Once driving his eighty
thousand pounds range rover to Royal Lodge in Great Windsor Park,
he found that the gate's censor was broken, so rather
than taking a one mile detour, he ran them open,
causing thousands of pounds worth of damage. Name an undesirable
trait a person might have, and this book will demonstrate

(06:27):
Andrew having it. He is supposedly in addition to being
a sex offender, cruel, easily enraged, stupid, boring, naive, attention seeking, unfunny, childish,
arrogant and out of touch, as well as a misogynist,
a liar, a thief, a bully, a pervert, a bad lover,
a bad husband, a bad father, a brat as a child,
a brat as a teenager, and a brat as an adult.

(06:48):
Just when you're thinking that surely every possible slight has
been leveled at the Prince and that there can surely
be no greater depth to which your opinion of him
can sink, Lowley relates that the staff at Buckingham Palace
used to have to clear away collections of soil tissues
in his bedroom. The late Princess Diana once saw a
kindred spirit and another icon of the era, John F.

(07:10):
Kennedy Junior. The two reportedly met in nineteen ninety five
when JFK. Junior was in London pitching a cover profile
for his new magazine George. According to his former assistant
Rose Marie Toreenzio, writing in fairy Tale, Interrupted, Kennedy hoped
to feature Diana in a respectful and thoughtful piece. The
Princess however, declined the invitation, sending a handwritten note that

(07:31):
read simply, thank you so much, but not right now.
Diana was later seen lunching with Vanity Fairs Tina Brown
and vogues Anna Win Tour, where she opened up about
her sons and her hopes for how Prince William might
handle the media in the years to come. As Brown
later wrote in The New Yorker, Diana was increasingly concerned
with her family's relationship with the press. All my hopes

(07:53):
are on William now, Diana reportedly said, I don't want
to push him. I tried to din himself all the
time about the the media, the dangers, and how he
must understand and handle it. I think it's too late
for the rest of the family, but William, I think
he has it. I think he understands. She added. I'm
hoping he'll grow up to be as smart about it
as John Kennedy Junior. I want William to be able

(08:14):
to handle things as well as John does. Years later,
Prince William would reflect on those lessons in the documentary
Diana Seven Days. He acknowledged the difficulty of facing public scrutiny.
I can understand sometimes having been in those situations when
you feel incredibly desperate, the easiest thing is to say
or to go to the media yourself, or you know,
open that door. But once you've opened it, you can

(08:36):
never close it again. Diana's own life ended in tragic
proximity to the very media machine she feared. In nineteen
ninety seven, her car crashed in the Paris Tunnel as
the driver attempted to flee photographers. She died shortly after,
at the age of thirty six. And there you have it.
To email us addresses the Palace intrig at gmail dot com.

(08:57):
Please follow us on Spotify, Apple or the app of
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Intrigue on your Facebook pages or Facebook groups and you
can get the link in the show notes. I'm Mark
Francis my thanks to John McDermott, this Palace Intrigue and

(09:18):
good terms