As we discussed, soon after the photos of Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor came out on Monday, the Sun was already stridently claiming that Prince Harry and Meghan were “banned” from taking photos of their kids and the Queen. As in, a source claimed out of nowhere that Harry and Meghan barged into Windsor Castle with a photographer and demanded to pose their children with the frail queen, and some brave, incandescent Men in Grey screamed “not on my watch!” Yeah, none of that sounded plausible. What does sound plausible is that Meghan and Harry prioritized visiting the Queen privately and her aides have no idea what happened during those visits, so they’re just making sh-t up as always. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the royal rota demons from screeching about the Sussexes’ audacity. Angela Levin had her panties in a bunch about it, but when doesn’t she? Interestingly enough, the NY Post has some new information about Private Lilibet/Lilibet Photos-gate.
Depending on whom you ask, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were either cruelly rejected by royal aides when they asked Queen Elizabeth II to pose for photos with their daughter Lilibet Diana last week — or they were just too polite to bother her royal grandmum majesty.
Contradicting claims over an alleged picture request have gone viral since the California-based couple introduced baby Lilibet, 1, to the queen for the first time last Wednesday, after jetting to the UK to partake in Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Reports from multiple other outlets claim Harry, 37, and Markle, 40, wanted their personal photographer to take happy snaps of the queen and Lilibet — but were shut down. According to one anonymous source, they were told: “No chance. It was a private family event,” the Sun originally reported. That leaker also claimed the queen’s minders were worried that Harry and Markle would leak the photos to US television networks.
However, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post that claim is bunk.
“They just enjoyed a private and intimate visit with the queen,” the source said, adding that Harry and Markle didn’t even bother with asking for photos as the 96-year-old monarch wasn’t feeling well. Elizabeth’s Communications Secretary declined The Post’s request for comment about the conflicting reports.
The source told The Post that Harry and Markle also took Lilibet to meet Elizabeth for a second time on Friday.
[From The New York Post]
This reminds me a lot of the post-visit reporting from April, when Harry and Meghan shocked everyone by turning up in Windsor for a day and having tea with the Queen. The Queen’s aides fumbled and didn’t know what to confirm or deny, and Clarence House ramped up their briefings about what happened during Charles’s brief time with the Sussexes. There are briefing wars on top of briefing wars and everyone in every royal court has their own agenda. They are treating Harry, Meghan and the children as pawns to feed their own narratives. The thing is, all Harry has to do is call up Gayle King or Omid Scobie and say “this is what actually happened.” And then all of these same people will lose their minds because Harry SPOKE to a media outlet, GASP! And then the outrage over “photos with the Queen” will smoothly transition to outrage over Harry denying their bullsh-t stories.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar, Misan Harriman/The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
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