Mmm I think we will see a lot more stories like this emerging about some members of the RF now that the Queen is dead. The press held off reporting some things out of respect for her, but now it’s a case of no holds barred!
It’s been noted ever since that disastrous ‘It’s a Royal Knockout’ that Prince Edward is tone deaf! He comes across as rude too when he refuses to shake hands with people in crowds when that is literally the only thing he is employed to do and which earns him and his family the right to live in Bagshot Hall, worth £30 million!
And remember Sophie’s dodgy sheikh scandal? It was quite rightly reported as a scam in which she was entrapped BUT, if you read the transcripts, she said lots and lots of of additional nasty, unnecessary and very unprofessional things about major political figures of the time, which demonstrated arrogance as well as stupidity. She even criticised William Hague’s accent in a rather snobby way. Sorry, but it was a lot more than an entrapment! It was such a disaster not only because of the attempt to gain money (which was bad enough but at least kind of understandable given her circumstances at the time) but because it showed her up to be (allegedly) a rather unpleasant person. Or that was the sentiment at the time anyway.
Since then, to be fair, she has at least appeared to put her head down and work a bit which is more than can be said for some of them!
But where do you think all those little puff pieces about Sophie being a trusted confidante of the Queen came from? (Bearing in mind that S’s former career was in PR.)
Richard Kay alludes to this in an article he wrote in the Fail that didn’t garner a great deal of interest at the time it was written, but it speculated about why Charles seems reluctant to gift Edward the Duke of Edinburgh title;
”There is one other issue, of course: sibling rivalry. After two high-profile interviews in which Edward talked about the challenge of inheriting his father’s dukedom, it does seem as if there is a bit of ‘Wessex fatigue’ among some members of ‘the Firm’ and Charles has fired a warning shot. It doesn’t help that Charles and Camilla are not very close to Edward and Sophie. It has been that way ever since the Prince insisted his brother and sister-in-law give up commercial activities after the 2001 ‘Fake sheikh’ newspaper sting when the Countess was recorded making disparaging remarks about senior politicians.
The Wessexes’ PR campaign blew up in their faces: The Wessexes’ physical proximity to the Queen at Windsor Castle and a discreet PR campaign which has emphasised their closeness to the Sovereign and that they are considered a safe pair of hands, has irritated some at Clarence House. ‘It has been noted that they are often described as ‘indispensable’,’ says a figure close to the Duchess of Cornwall. ‘It feels strategic.’
Not a done deal: ‘Charles is making it clear that his brother may have jumped the gun [over the title of Duke of Edinburgh],’ says one of Charles’s circle. ‘It is not a done deal.’ “
I should be clear that I am no fan of Charles’s either for that matter. The whole family set up is toxic anyway! Imagine your brother deciding your role and status in life and income, not based on his superior intellect or capacity for work, but purely on serendipitous order of birth? That’s good cause to grind your axe alright! Time for the whole lot to go imho!