Harry and Meghan - why can't the media leave them alone?

**Jon Sopel** (0:02)
This is a Global Production. I have great reservations about The Daily Mail, but you cannot look at that court judgment and think that it was anything other than a slam dunk for The Daily Mail and a humiliation, and a very expensive humiliation, for Prince Harry, in which case, it doesn't quite add up about why they're coming back.

**Lewis Goodall** (0:22)
This is a guy who did fight for his country. He clearly likes Britain, he loves Britain. He's been part of the British firmament, the British state all his life, literally since he was born.

**Jon Sopel** (0:31)
He's a great loss to the royal family, not being part of it.

**Lewis Goodall** (0:33)
100%, and I think we shouldn't lose sight of that. The fact is, for all of the joy and schadenfreude that the press have about these two being estranged, I don't think anyone can doubt that their estrangement was a catastrophic loss for them, as an institution that was seeking to renew itself. And we're told, there's reporting I saw today, basically saying that the relevant committee that's responsible for deciding whether political figures get security is backed up.

**Jon Sopel** (1:03)
That reporting is correct would be the British state at its very worst. I mean, you know, I'm sorry, we can't make a decision on this until nine months, because the committee won't meet before then. I mean, that is just nonsense.

**Emily Maitlis** (1:14)
When I first met my now husband, my friends were really happy, because I was so happy, but my British friends said to me, I'm sure he's great, but you shouldn't do it, because the British tabloids will destroy your life.

**Jon Sopel** (1:30)
That was Meghan Markle back in 2019, justifying, explaining why she and the Duke of Sussex, and her, the Duchess of Sussex, had moved to the United States of America. They're now coming back, but it comes as Prince Harry has lost a major court case against the Daily Mail, so the tabloids will be as red in tooth and claw as ever, and he's not going to get a security detail provided by the state.
So what has changed, and what will be different if they do come back? Welcome to The News Agents.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:10)
The News Agents.

**Jon Sopel** (2:11)
It's Jon.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:12)
It's Lewis, and this story about Harry and Meghan, which I think even for royal reporters took them by surprise that there would be a reverse Megxit, as it was called at the time. After, of course, back in 2020, Harry and Meghan decided to step back from royal duties, and they wanted a sort of half in, half out situation. That was something that was not apparently available from the royal household and the Lake Queen. Ever since then, of course, they've been living in a rather luxurious retreat in a $50 million home in Montecito in California, and at the end of the last week, we learned that both of them actually wish to return to the UK, apparently for just in time for the new school year to begin. And this has taken everyone by surprise because, of course, there has been such a, let's put it this way, I think it's fair to say a freeze in relations in the subarctic kind of territory between certainly William and Harry. And then we learned 24 hours later, or at least it was rumored, that one of the reasons that Harry might be returning to the UK or be in a position to be able to do so, is that Meghan may be returning to her former life, the Duchess of Sussex, as an actress with a potential role in the Netflix series, The Gentleman, which is subsequently there's been some confusion about whether that is actually going to happen or not. Nonetheless, it is something that for the royal world, and actually for reasons we'll get into, the British political world has come as a bit of a bombshell.

**Jon Sopel** (3:39)
Look, when they left, there were two things that were the barriers, it seemed, to their return.
One of them, and these have been publicly ventilated, was their resentment at the tabloid press. We played that clip of Meghan Markle at the top of the podcast back in 2019 talking about how ghastly they are. On Friday, the day after they announced they're coming back, Harry goes down in flames against the Daily Mail. The most excoriating judgment. He lost on all counts.
Damages are being awarded to the Mail with Harry is going to have to cough up to pay an awful lot of the Daily Mail's legal expenses that will run potentially into millions of pounds because the insurance policy that the claimants took out doesn't cover all of the Mail's legal costs. So that's one area where you think, well, that doesn't make sense and that doesn't add up as a reason for coming back. And the other is that Harry said that he wanted to have security provided by the state because he is a public figure and the pair of them have faced threats and therefore he would need the British state to provide security. And Andy Burnham was asked about this and skirted around it quite elegantly, but essentially said, Harry, mate, you're on your own.