Prince William can’t take any more hurt from Harry – reconciliation will never happen.
And I’m not sure how much more hurt William can take with his brother. This would have hurt him deeply, that, uh, you know, Harry wants to have a final cut-off. It would be a nice ending to this terrible story. It’s just not going to happen.
There’s been a report this week that Prince Harry was considering changing his name to Spencer. Uh, obviously, that’s the name of his late mother, Princess Diana. And it would presumably mean that he was ditching the family name Montbatton Windsor. And, obviously, it comes at a time where relations between Harry and the royal family are seem to be at an all-time low. He ultimately decided against the move, according to this report. But the fact he even considered it sends quite a message. Yes, it does.
And I think, as well, that this is another, uh, Harry not knowing what he wants to do. It was only, you know, less than a month ago that he was pleading for reconciliation with his father and his brother. And the next thing we hear—and, and, I think the story was well-sourced—and the next thing we hear, he wants to change the name from Mountbatten Windsor to Spencer. Well, that is sending a terrible message to the royal family—that he doesn’t really want reconciliation. He wants to be completely severed from the royal family. And I think the king should grant his wish. I think he should sever him from the royal family.
Yeah. I mean, I think this is really sad if this is true. We don’t know exactly when this conversation happened, but it’s reported to have been during a recent visit back to the UK. He was advised by his uncle, Earl Spencer, Diana’s younger brother, that it just would be legally insurmountable to do so. And I mean, I didn’t see this one coming. I don’t know about you, Charles, because there’s been so much controversy over the use of the name Sussex and whether or not they still have the right to do so, and Meghan saying, “Look, I’m a Sussex now.” But that they might have considered changing their name to Spencer.
Why? I mean, is it to send a message to the royal family? Is it to say, “Okay, fine. You don’t want to talk to us, then we’re not a part of this anymore”? Is it because he feels much closer to his Spencer relatives? They are the ones who turned up for the 10th-anniversary Invictus service at St. Paul’s, for example; there weren’t any members of the royal family there. Is it to honor his mother? Some more cynical commentators have suggested, well, it would be very good marketing in the United States to have the Spencer name, and—sorry—”Libert” would then be “Libert Diana Spencer.” We know that Harry has ultimately decided not to take the name Spencer, if this report is correct. Uh, but how do you think this whole claim would have gone down with Prince William, as he’s his mother as well?
I would have thought he’d be furious when he heard it. I mean, I have to say that, you know, we don’t actually know if this is a true story, but I believe it to be true because you’ve got to look at where the story came from and who wrote it. Um, and it that is a very, very good royal reporter who wrote it in the Mail on Sunday—uh, Katherine Griffith, I think, Charlotte Griffith, sorry—who is, um, very well placed, uh, and the Mail tends to get away with an awful lot of good royal stories. And Spencer, nor Harry, have issued any denials—even through their friends later on, you know, when others have tried to follow it up. So, I believe the story to be true. And I think, well, I’m not so sure how much more hurt William can take with his brother, but I think this would have hurt him deeply—that, uh, you know, Harry wants to have a final cut-off. We’re just going to do quick answers. Whoever wants to go first can jump in. We’ve just talked about Meghan discussing possibly going into business with Lily in the future. Which parent-child royal business would you have liked to see, or would you like to see?
I think the ultimate would have been Blake Queen and her mother, the Queen Mother—handbags and headscarves, maybe.
Oh, what a shame. I would have loved that. That’s a good one. I would have, um, I’m against the, uh, working royals setting up any business at all with their children because they don’t need to. They have a job. They have a family. They have a family firm anyway. So, it’s all right for Meghan because she’s not a working royal, and what she does in America is up to her. And, uh, best of luck to her. We’re working in hypotheticals, and we can dream; we can only dream of that.
Should Harry and Meghan change their family name and move away from any royal connection entirely? I think that would be really sad because I think everyone’s long-term hope is that there can be some form of reconciliation. And, uh, you know, it doesn’t look like it at the moment, does it? And certainly not after Prince Harry’s most recent interview. But, for the sake of the king—let’s not forget he’s continuing to undergo cancer treatment and is deeply saddened about that rift with his son—I think we do have to hope that there can be some kind of reconciliation between them in the future, and for the children too, for Archie and Lilibet, to know their roots. Yeah.
I agree with Sarah on that. It would be really nice. It would be a nice ending to this terrible story—that they all get back together and sort of turn back into the hills, holding hands like something from The Sound of Music. But, for me, it’s never going to happen. It’s just not going to happen. And I totally agree with Sarah when she says that the worst thing is that Archie and Lilibet will not only not get to know their grandfather, but they won’t even get to know their uncle, who will be king. You know, no matter what happens in the future, they will still have those royal connections. However severance comes, they will still be related by blood to the king and his son. So, I feel it’s a no across the board—that we keep the royal connection. Yeah.
Okay. So, lastly, if Meghan’s podcast does get a season two, who would you like to see her have as a guest? Well, she’s just had Beyoncé’s mom, so why not Beyoncé then? I mean, Beyoncé and Meghan, we saw in the Netflix series, that Beyoncé, you know, texts Meghan. She called her B. Yeah. Harry and Meghan just went to Beyoncé’s concert recently, so I’d like to see her. I think I don’t disagree, but I would like to see Taylor Swift. That is the biggest name going. I mean, it’d be hard to say who’s got more clout—Taylor Swift or Beyoncé. But if you get Taylor Swift on a podcast talking about it, it’s box office, and that would sell out in 45 minutes. You’d have been sold out in half an hour. Absolutely. So, we’ll move on now to our last topic.
Staying on Prince William, though, he and Catherine had quite a scary incident over the weekend. An intruder broke into Windsor Castle, just yards away from their home, Adelaide Cottage. The man is said to have climbed over a wall to get into the grounds around lunchtime on Sunday. It’s understood the Wails were at home with their three children. Now, a similar event happened at Windsor Castle just, I think, six months ago, last October. Does the palace need to tighten security? Well, I think we have to sort of say to the police that they did a very, very good job. The trouble is, at Windsor, they’ve removed the armed guards at the main gates. Now, I know this guy didn’t come through the main gates, so you’ve still got armed guards who patrol the inner circle of the castle. Um, and every time I think, this is about the fourth or fifth time that someone has, uh, gotten into the grounds.
Um, I think the guy who had the crossbow, on Christmas Day 2021—the one who said he wanted to kill the Queen—got arrested, I mean, within feet of a door that would have led him into where the Queen may have been. And it reminds me of years and years ago, of a guy called Michael Fagan, who climbed the railings at Buckingham Palace and actually sat on the Queen’s bed while she was still in it. And, you know, she had to call her butler, Paul Wroth, to get them out. So, your question about whether the police need to tighten up? Yes, they do, because it’s always under review. They can never cover every brick of Windsor Castle or any royal residence, but I think the police do an excellent job in protecting the royal family.
And you mentioned the incident six months ago in October—that was when intruders managed to get in through the Shore Farm gate and stole a pickup truck and a quad bike. This was a burglary, really, but they used that pickup truck to ram the gate. That one was pretty close to Adelaide Cottage.
This one, Town Gate in Windsor, was quite a bit further from the main house, but it’s a vast estate. There is a security cordon within the Windsor estate, protecting most of the properties. Not, of course, Royal Lodge, where Prince Andrew lives, and that’s why there’s been so much controversy over his continued residence there. But, you know, there have been a number of incidents now, and let’s not forget that, as Sarah says, there is this outer ring of protection. William, Catherine, and the children would have their own personal protection officers with them in any case. So, there is a second line of security that would have hopefully dealt with any serious problems.
