To those who know code, these comments were interesting, because Hugo Vickers would not have been saying any of the things he did, had these sentiments not been shared by the palace. I have known Hugo for many years and know how well connected he is. I also know to what extent he values his palace connections. I’d go as far as saying that I wouldn’t want to have a baby with him and give him a choice between our progeny and his palace connections, for I know which one he’d choose. He is not only a lay steward at St. George’s Chapel, but is also a Deputy to the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire.
The following month, Meghan and Harry found themselves embroiled in even hotter water when they managed to score a whole series of own goals with one football. Not only did they spurn the Queen’s invitation to take Archie up to Balmoral for some family time with the other royals, on the grounds that the baby was too young to travel that distance, but they gave the press the opportunity to accuse them of hypocrisy by then flying, at the very time they should have been up at Balmoral, a greater distance with Archie, to stay with Elton John and David Furnish and their kids in the South of France. As the Queen was known to have been disappointed that her grandson and his family would not be visiting her at her beloved Balmoral, where she can really let her hair down and relax, this was seen as a slap to the face. When Harry and Meghan then managed to use private jets four times in eleven days, while lecturing ordinary people about the need to keep their carbon footprints small, they set themselves up for pillorying.
In for a penny, in for a pound. No sooner did Harry park Meghan and Archie at Frogmore Cottage, than he put both his hands and his bare feet in the stocks by hopping onto yet another plane to join what the Sun called ‘the hypocritical superstars travelling to the Google Camp conference in Italy in [114 separate] gas-guzzling private planes. And dozens of A-listers are reportedly choosing to stay on giant polluting superyachts’ while being ‘ferried to-and-fro from the tech giant’s seventh annual jolly at an exclusive Sicilian resort in fuel-sucking Maseratis.’ Amidst glamorous conscionables such as Stella McCartney, Orlando Bloom, Diane von Fürstenberg, Chris Martin, Katy Perry, Bradley Cooper and Leo DiCaprio, a barefooted Harry, whose feet gleamed thanks to a recent pedicure, gave a rousing speech confirming that he and Meghan were so concerned about the state of the planet and the effects of climate change that they would never be immoral enough to have more than two children.
Up to now, the British press had been having a field day condemning Meghan and Harry for inconsistency and hypocrisy. They now found a third charge to add to the roster. They decided Harry had finally joined Meghan in casting shade on William and Catherine, who had three children and were rumoured to be considering having a fourth. Competitiveness, spitefulness and point-scoring were the latest adjectives being used to describe the couple’s conduct.
None of the reports credited Harry with being the instigator. They pointed to how Meghan had begun the year by leaking private information to five of her friends, all of whom remained anonymous, though there was speculation that one might be Suits actress Abigail Spencer. They had boosted her profile while rubbishing her father in a cover story published by People magazine in the first week of February under the headline The Truth About Meghan. She was portrayed as a ’selfless’ person whose friends’ sole concern was to ‘speak the truth about our friend’ and ‘stand up against the global bullying we are seeing.’ The picture these friends painted was of a simple, self-abnegating, down-to-earth girl who is so self-sacrificing that ‘I’m not even allowed to ask about her until she finds out about me.’ They described how ‘much she loves her animals, how much she loves her friends, how much she loves feeding you, taking care of you.’ They stated how worried they were that Meg’s health and that of her unborn baby might suffer unless the press stopped saying negative things about her. And they plunged the knife into Thomas Markle Sr, who had been claiming that his daughter was refusing to respond to his calls and letters. They stated, ‘He knows how to get in touch with her. Her telephone number hasn’t changed. He’s never called; he’s never texted. It’s super painful, because Meg was always so dutiful. I think she will always feel genuinely devastated by what he’s done. At the same time, because she’s a daughter, she has a lot of sympathy for him.’ Twisting the knife for maximum damage, Meghan’s friends continued, ‘At no point [following exposure that Tom had cooperated with a paparazzo to improve his image] was there talk of “Now that he’s lied, he’s in trouble.” Tom wouldn’t take her calls. Wouldn’t take
