The Times

[Rushingfool]

Anyone else think The Times should not be printing extracts from this new book about Royal Courtiers at this time? Incredibly stupid given that H&M are trying to mend fences? I feel really quite cross for everyone involved - William's efforts to build bridges etc, all going to be in vain now. Very naughty.

Jason Knauf and Dan Wootton are old friends, they are NZers who were at university together - Victoria University of Wellington. (Knauf then did a masters at LSE).

How did Wootton break the story that H&M were going to Canada? - I’d say Knauf is a plausible source.

Jason Knauf was the Cambridge’s comms secretary for 5 years. In 2019 he was promoted to CEO of their royal foundation. In 2021 he stepped down…

the book is about courtiers, so quite rightly it is talking about the RF from their perspective. They are entitled to their truth too

Exactly as Serenster said, the royal family follows a set of guidelines regarding the acceptance and ownership of gifts. Under this policy, the diamond earrings given by the Saudis to Harry and Meghan constituted an official gift.

The policy says this type of gift would remain in the personal possession of the family member who received it.

Items that are stored as part of the Royal Collection (e.g. tiaras) require advance permission from the monarch before they are released.

As per the policy, the earrings were not in this category. Should a family member want to use/wear the personally gifted item, they would not need to ask permission to 'borrow' it as they would already have it.

The full policy is available from the Royal Family Website.

the earrings were not controversial when they were given to the Queen as a wedding gift for Meghan.

And should have been removed as soon as they became controversial. That is the job of the helpers/staff who take care of the jewels..

or someone had in fact misled Sam Cohen herself (a very senior employee), knowing that what she told the press wasn’t true.

To me this sounds more accurate. She was working well under the queen's old regime of staff (especially after Diana's death, changes were made). She had been working for hMQ for 17yrs, it was at the time the queen requested that the family members are taken care of.

just assumed . also is it not "alleged"
just wondering if they still work for the rf thats all.

Jason Knauf is an American from Texas - not a New Zealander. Get your facts right!!

I had my first dc at 34 & second at 38. Dc2 I was a geriatric mother. I went from being outraged to laughing.

People say young mother when talking about Meghan. No she isn’t, but she is a mother of young children. A significant difference.

I expect this book to focus on other royals at some point if it’s about courtiers but we shall see.

The supposed victims never talked directly to VL. He says several people (JK) came to him concerned about the 'victims' - not the victims themselves. He keeps on saying ' I have been assured' when asked how they are etc. he never saw them or spoke to them.

Also, VL was leaked that MM suffered from MH, I wonder if he will cover that as a gross breach of privacy and what the courtiers did to prevent this. All before the OW interview.

@Serenster the people who sneak the stories are given promotions and frankly, it looks like they are acting on command.

Apparently it's critical of other royals as well.

I'll be sad if there's much criticism of Kate. She seems very well-mannered and pleasant.

Frankly it’s a relief that this will force the issue rather than the constant poisonous drip feed of allegations on both sides. Simple choice for H&M - if the bullying allegations are untrue then there’s no reason not to sue is there. No legal proceedings = all true.

This is very telling, I agree any publication would have to be so confident in their content, knowing that H&M will sue where possible.
It is a soap opera, and I'm not proud of myself for enjoying the drama and the gossip but they put themselves out there.

He was born in Texas but went to Uni with the ghastly Dan Wootton in NZ. They are friends. And DW has said he gets info from the RF from a 'source'
Ho hum... I wonder who

couples with children under 5 are usually called a young family.

No need to fill up the thread with this, is there?

it's called parents with a young family. Apparently, the oldest woman to give birth, via IVF, was 74. Would you still call her a young mother when she was 75?

Jason Knauf is now working with Conservation International supporting their work in South Asia and Africa which would suggest being comfortable in diverse cultural environements

I think Charles was right if he wanted to do a formal rebuttal. I get the 'never explain, never complain' stance of the Queen, and I get that it might look like mud slinging. But without it, it emboldens them to do it again and again. The less access H&M have to the RF the better, lack of things to complain about will eventually mean the endless complaining stops.

If its true that Harry missed the flight as he was arguing about MM being up at Balmoral, then the family must be fed up. At a time like that, to still kick up a fuss, they must be exhausted dealing with them. If it's true that Harry is rewriting bits of his book it means the outpouring of grief for the Queen and support for King Charles as caught him off guard.

Wasn't Callum, Christian's boyfriend who was friends with Dan W as well, and supposedly gave him the scoop on the exit.

Byline wrote the story on him. Wooton said he would sue, but there is still no explanation why the sun paid him.

bylineinvestigates.com/2020/06/05/royal-exclusive-prince-harrys-legal-move-over-cash-for-briefings-claims-at-the-sun-the-story-murdoch-tried-to-bury/

You mean like they sued with Lady C and TB?
Don't think so. This is unlikely to be given any oxygen by the Sussex's.

It also means the bullying report may be subpoenaed, and this may show things about other royals you don't want to see, while possibly clearing MM. Anyway, the whole point of that report was HMQ wished to keep it hidden, hence her paying for it privately, and belong to her.

so do they still work for the rf or not.

You correctly say that the earrings are not M’s personal property they are the property of the queen. As gifts belong to the crown, they are borrowed by family members for personal use.

The queen (or rather her secretary) decides who gets to ‘keep’ which official gifts as they are given. If that family member wants to use that gift - they are placed on loan for them them to use.

Gifts of value are generally held in storage, and there is an annual review of every gift on loan to each royal household member performed by a panel headed by the head of the royal collection.

So who has ultimate control of these gifts - the crown.

I actually agree with you that no-one joined the dots. Not M, nor her staff, not the queen’s staff. I think that’s far more likely than M intentionally using jewellery that would get her into trouble. What would be the point? She has access to so much other jewellery.

It also suggests he was fired.

that's rather a leap, isn't it, even for you?

That’s not true though, is it? There’s no-one on this thread who doesn’t think that Prince Andrew didn’t have sex with Virginia Giuffre, and that was entirely a case of “he said” “she said” which was never proven in court - anyone on the threads who challenged this was hounded for not believe in her, and for despicable victim blaming and minimisation.

Stop pretending that the supposed victims came out. They did not. It's a 'he said, she said vs she said'. VG came out with the accusations herself, not via anyone els, and went to court on top of that. This accusation come from Jason Knauf. The documents you are talking about also come from him and both times, were denied. HR said they never received any complaint. The 'victims' wanted nothing to do with the whole thing.

They only person who seems to have had their sights on anyone is JK towards MM.

He was born in Texas and moved to NZ.