What did the Royal Family know and when?

[LifeIsTooShort247]

With everything that has emerged about Andrew and Epstein, and now the allegations concerning Thomas Markle, I think there are some much bigger questions about what the Royal Family and Palace officials knew, when they knew it, and what they did with that information.

We are looking at two very different situations involving serious allegations of sexual abuse. One concerns a member of the Royal Family itself, Andrew, and the other concerns the father of someone who married into it, Thomas Markle.
In Andrew's case, there are still so many unanswered questions about the extent of the late Queen's knowledge, the protection he received over the years and the role played by senior courtiers. Who knew what, how far back did that knowledge go, and who made the decisions about how matters were handled?

Now with Thomas Markle. What I find particularly interesting is that the Metropolitan Police have confirmed the letter was passed to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in January 2019, rather than simply being handed privately to Meghan. At that time, Harry and Meghan were still part of the Kensington Palace household structure, which they shared with William and Catherine. Jason Knauf was communications secretary for both couples.

Given the seriousness and sensitivity of the allegations, surely it is reasonable to question whether the matter was discussed with senior Palace officials or brought to the attention of senior members of the Royal Family?

Who within the office received the correspondence? Who handled it? Was Jason Knauf aware? Were William and Catherine briefed? Did the Queen or her private secretary know anything about it?

We don't know the answers, and I'm not suggesting that everyone necessarily knew. But that is precisely the point.

The circumstances involving Andrew are different, but both situations raise questions about how sensitive information was handled within the royal institution.

What did the Royal Family know, when did they know it, and what did they do with that knowledge?

Surely these are questions worth asking of the institution with regards to both situations.

MM made sure that the whole world knew she had written to her father in 2025 when he had his leg amputated. She ensured it was delivered by officials and the sealed letter handover to TMs was videoed. TMs was in the care of TMj and SM at that time - 100% they would have seen the letter from MM to their father that she had told the world about. Did they then not believe MMs accusations / allegations about TMs.

It would have been another ROYAL FAMILY ARE RACIST narratives

None of it would have been believed

Maybe they would do a better job of it if they kept a tighter handle on their family members and kept them in line instead of sweeping their poor behaviour under the carpet and blaming others. They would certainly be embroiled in fewer scandals. If they can't control 10 people and 3 households maybe they should cut themselves down to just the monarch and heir, work under one roof and let the rest go. Including their many properties that they also seem not to be able to keep secure

The key person in The Office of H&M in 2019 when this letter dropped was their Private Secretary Samantha Cohen.

She had just come from QE2 after nearly 2 decades where she was her Private Secretary and would have been immersed in the relentless and escalating AMW crisis which was arguably reaching its peak at the end of 2018 when the Miami Herald’s expose on the huge then unknown scale and reach of Epsteins sexual violation and trafficking of young girls intensified the focus back on AMW. IMHO she would have known the sensitivity of this letter and shared it with sr royal officials on a need to know basis up the chain where she had strong links. Jason Knauf at that time was Communications Secretary for both H&M and W&C - I would have also considered he would be in the loop.

Whether PH, SC or any other RF official, or RF member beyond MM knew about the letter or were involved in discussions with the Met police and had any involvement in what the Met didn’t do next is yet to be clarified.

I don't trust any of them. They have, and always will, cover for each other. They're above the law, no matter what the crime...and yet there are still people fawning over them. I just don't get it.

If the palace knew I would expect MM to reveal this if the heat on her for not doing something gets much worse.

No one will believer her and the RF will close ranks. It's up to the Met to explain why they did nothing. It was their actual job, not Meghan Markle. If it comes out that the RF told them not to then whoever in whoever's office needs to say why. It might be that Meghan told them to hide it then she'll have to answer for it. Either way, the police are not the personal ' hide everything on behalf of the RF' police they are the Metropolitan police and have a duty to investigate crime. If they have done the bidding of anyone in the RF, including Meghan they need to answer as to why.

Might be in both of their interests for once to have kept quiet then and to keep quiet now.

The current big push for H&M right now, given the collapse of every financial and social effort to date, is seeking reconciliation and royal adjacency - any commentary will get that door slammed in their faces.

This might be the actual reality of them ‘collaborating with the Queen’

The Bodyguards knew!
All royal family members are followed and surrounded by highly trained body guards 24/7. So THEY obviously knew what was going on with Andrew.
However what they did with that information is anyone’s guess. Did they ignore it or did they pass it on the their bosses at the Met, did anyone tell other never if the household? Did anyone tell the Queen or Charles? Those are the questions I like answers to.

Hopefully all will become clear after the IOPC investigation. Until then we won’t know for sure who knew what. Probably safe to say that Meghan knew since she admits that. Probably also safe to say that the Met only shared it with the office of the Sussexes, since they have been very clear about that. And I would say probably safe to say that Meghan did not share it with other RF members - firstly because they were in the midst of a big falling out, and secondly because I’m sure if she could shift the blame for this shitshow onto the Waleses or the RF in general, she would have done it by now.

All the Met had to do in this case was to refer the allegations to law enforcement organisations in Mexico and the USA. What the independent enquiry should root out is whether the Met was incompetent or whether there was intervention that halted the referral. If the latter, though, the cover-up will continue.

Well Virgina Roberts did and they said she was lying.

I read that anyone who questioned anything is transferred out sharpish.

The MET office may have only shared it with the office of the suxxes. But as explained up thread it would have be3n passed to senior aides in other offices.

It also beggars belief that a woman who cared so much about details like nail polish, would not have made sure she knew everything else that was going on.

The more I read the more questions I have .
but one thing for certain its quite impossible RF were not made aware of the letter.
7 years later the story comes back to life, so probably the RF respected Meghan’s decision to keep the matter private.
H&M must be regretting leaving the RF right now .

In 2011 an aide noted the queen viewed prince Andrews friendship with Epstein as unwise, but still fully supported him.
There were complaints from staff to Elizabeth about guests and Andrew at the palace over the years, but she brushed them off.
Charles contributed to Virginia guiffries pay off.

The royal family have known for a long time about Andrew but just ignored it.

I disagree @queenofarles A plausible scenario is that the letter was opened by a PA, the PA discussed it with Meghan, and Meghan took charge of it and said 'no further action' because at that point it didn't suit her to have it made public. No way would a PA have dared act independently and discuss with, say, Simon Case or Jason Knauff, given what we know about her working style and the bullying allegations.

It was sent to the mets royal protection team, not a pa for harry and Meghan

If the Met were on top of their GDPR training then I am not sure that it was 'quite impossible' that all the RF didn't knew. It might well be that the data breach they refer to.in their statement was sharing the contents of the letter with the Sussexes.

I am not an expert on how to interpret the lawful bases for info sharing, but it's not as simple as 'the letter is about your dad so I will show it to you'.

@Baital sharing the letter within the royal household is not a breach of gdpr.

The RF are so dysfunctional that the current king counted Laurens van Der Post, Peter Ball and Jimmy Savile as his confidantes.

He supported Peter Ball after he was removed from his post when he was cautioned following a sexual assault on a young man, bought a house for this perpetrator to live in, and pressured the Archbishop of Canterbury to get him reinstated. Charles also wrote a letter of support for Ball that was scathing about the victim.

Laurens VDP got a 14 year old child pregnant when he was decades older and was known to be predatory.

As for Savile ...

Either Charles didn't know () or didn't care. Even if we are to think the best of him, surely there would have been enough intelligence to warn him off these three.

I think the royal family don't care about nonces who prey on underage teenagers. They may blame the victims. But they don't see them as victims. They may have drawn the line at some of savilles very young victims. But not at 14 year olds.
The whole family seem steeped in misogyny and racism.

For the Met to share the letter outside the Met - I.e. with the Royal Household, is a breach of GDPR unless it falls within one of the lawful bases for sharing info.

The Met and the Royal Household(s) are separate data controllers (separate organisations) so can't just pass on whatever info they fancy whenever they fancy.

Think about it - if someone sends a letter to the police accusing you of a crime, the police are not free to show it to all your friends and family.

They decide to investigate or not. I am sure they have plenty of communications every day with accusations, and will have a protocol for deciding what action to take - by the sound of it the Met didn't follow the protocol in this case.

@baital I have no idea if there were separate data controllers. But I understand gdpr and have written too many gdpr policies and processes.

Data controllers simply need a legitimate reason to pass on information without the consent of the data subject. Passing on information to the queen to protect the royal family, is a perfectly legitimate reason.

Gdpr is a smaller barrier to sharing information than many people seem to think. If the letter had been personally given to Meghan in the first instance, it would have been a different matter. But the letter was given to the Met royal protection team. They then passed it to office of the sussexes. That will already have passed from one data controller to another.