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Harry and Meghan to be honored for fighting ‘royal racism’

The royal rumble is back on, and America is hosting the bout. A week from today, Prince William and Kate Middleton land in Boston for a few days of good works and glamor. Then, on December 6, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will receive an award at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation Ripple of Hope Gala in New York.

Kerry Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy’s daughter and president of the foundation, says the award is for their “heroic” stance against the “structural racism” of the royal family, the Telegraph reports.

Kennedy told the Telegraph: “They went to the oldest institution in U.K. history and told them what they were doing wrong, that they couldn’t have structural racism within the institution; that they could not maintain a misunderstanding about mental health.”

Kennedy added: “Few would have the courage to question their colleagues, family and community about the power structure they maintained, and this is what Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have done.”

“It’s a bewildering choice,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., RFK’s third child, told the Mail of the decision to honor Harry and Meghan earlier this week. However, Kennedy added, the pick was “still an encouraging step up from 2020,” referring to the choice to honor Dr. Anthony Fauci that year.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reports that William and Kate’s is the most important royal trip overseas for years. However, whatever they achieve in their Boston sojourn, the spotlight will be comprehensively co-opted by Harry and Meghan with an award that revives the racism accusation they made against an unnamed senior member of the royal family during their explosive 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview. Then there is the imminent release of the Netflix series about their lives together, and then—in the new year—the publication of Harry’s memoir, Spare.

William and Kate’s Boston engagements “will cover sport, green tech, vulnerable young people, climate change and Kate’s interest in the early years,” the Times reports, and then be rounded off with the award of the Earthshot Prize to a leader in environmental innovation on December 4. A source close to William and Kate told the Sunday Times: “They are excited about being back on American shores, and as their first overseas visit since the passing of the queen, they appreciate there will be a lot interest, and they welcome that. This is a huge moment for them as they assume their new roles. When the prince launched Earthshot, he was very ambitious about the platform it would achieve, and is really looking forward to going out there and talking about the urgent optimism around it.”

In a quintessentially British piece of understated bitching, a source, speaking to the Times about the proximity of Harry and Meghan’s engagement, said that William and Kate “won’t be distracted by what others are doing or other activities that are coming up.”

Tina Brown, The Daily Beast’s founding editor in chief, told The Sunday Times that William and Kate needed to go maximum glam to win over America. “While Harry and Meghan have captured the tabloid imagination here, interest in William and Kate is low boil,” she said. “I would like to have seen them hit more cities than Boston, where sizzle factor is quiescent to say the least. To win America, I would recommend a White House dinner, with Kate hitting the dance floor with [the actor] Bradley Cooper, as Diana did with [John] Travolta, preferably in the dress Kate wore to the James Bond opening.”

Charles ‘displeased’ with Anne and Edward over Andrew shooting party

King Charles wants Prince Andrew off the public stage, and apparently as isolated as possible—with stern looks for those who show him any support at all. The Mail on Sunday reports that the king is “displeased” that Princess Anne and Prince Edward joined Andrew at a shooting party in Windsor last week two days before Charles turned 74.

A source told the paper: “King Charles was said to be displeased that Edward and Anne had been publicly meeting up with Andrew and wanted it made clear that he had not been part of the shoot. Anne and Edward had been privately concerned about Andrew and wanted to check on him. But Charles’ view is that he should not be in the public eye. His Majesty was not thrilled at all.” Charles will reportedly welcome Andrew at Sandringham for Christmas, but Andrew will not be seen on the traditional royal family walk to Mary Magdalene Church on Christmas Day.

The Mail says Edward is also feeling the cold shoulder of the new king, despite his and wife Sophie’s dutiful royal works. The fact Edward has not been accorded the title of Duke of Edinburgh as had been expected “hasn’t gone unnoticed,” one royal source told the paper.

Prince Andrew’s secret trip to Bahrain

Prince Andrew has clearly decided the quiet life is not for him, and has freed his controversy magnets from storage. The Sun reports that he has secretly visited Bahrain “amid claims he is targeting an unofficial role as intermediary between the West and oil-rich Gulf states in the energy crisis.”

According to the paper, the prince—who was recently told by King Charles that there was no way back for him to be a working royal—flew to Bahrain last week “on a billionaire Swiss contact’s jet to be pampered in five-star, all-expenses-paid luxury by his long-standing friends in the kingdom’s royal family.”

Supremely self-deluded as it may sound, one source tells the Sun that Andrew “fancies his chances” of reviving his role as a special representative for international trade and investment—beginning with convincing Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production.

Others told the Sun Andrew was in Bahrain on holiday as a “privately-funded” guest of honor. Others surmised he might even choose the Middle East as a future home, given his crashed-and-burned reputation in Britain following being accused of rape by Virginia Roberts Giuffre when she was underage and being sexually trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew later settled with Giuffre for millions of dollars, and has always emphatically denied the claims. Without the queen, Andrew has no significant royal support.

Secret plan to protect queen from Boris

When ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson was mulling calling a snap general election to maintain his grip on power as scandal mounted upon scandal, “a magic triangle” of Establishment figures reportedly got together to make sure he would never be able to ask the late, then very frail Queen Elizabeth, for permission to do so.

Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 group of Tory MPs, Cabinet Secretary Sir Simon Case, and Her Majesty’s Private Secretary Sir Edward Young formed a plan to prevent Johnson from being able to contact the queen, according to the Sun’s reading of a new book, The Fall of Boris Johnson by Sebastian Payne.

The Sun says Sir Graham would tip off the Palace “that Mr. Johnson would be triggering a Tory confidence vote and advise the Queen should make herself ‘unavailable for the day.’ And if the PM then rang the Palace, he would be advised the monarch ‘couldn’t come to the phone.’” Truly, the perfect blend of camp and political intrigue.

Charles aide got pay-off

A big payday has been revealed for King Charles’ former aide, Michael Fawcett, who, the Mail on Sunday reports, got a £60,000 ($71,000) pay-off when he was forced to step down from The Prince’s Foundation over a “cash for honors” scandal. The charity’s accounts reveal that in his last five months in office, Fawcett received £190,000 ($226,000) from the charity, including his six-figure salary, the paper says.

Fawcett resigned as chief executive in September last year after the Mail on Sunday revealed he offered to help a wealthy Saudi donor obtain a knighthood and British citizenship. An email showed Fawcett saying he would obtain an honor for Saudi businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz and help his application for British citizenship in return for donations of more than £1.5 million ($2.1 million) to Charles’ Scottish charities.

In a letter, reportedly sent in 2017 when Fawcett was chief executive of Charles’ Scottish charity, Dumfries House Trust, which manages the Dumfries House estate, Fawcett wrote to an aide of bin Mahfouz, “In light of the ongoing and most recent generosity of His Excellency... I am happy to confirm to you, in confidence, that we are willing and happy to support and contribute to the application for Citizenship. I can further confirm that we are willing to make [an] application to increase His Excellency’s honor from Honorary CBE to that of KBE in accordance with Her Majesty’s Honours Committee.”

This week in royal history

November 20 is a big royal date. On this day in 1992, a fire caused major damage at Windsor Castle, capping a year the queen called her “annus horribilis.” In 1995, it was the day Princess Diana gave her infamous interview to the BBC’s Panorama program.

Unanswered questions

Will Harry and Meghan make a speech at the RFK Foundation gala finally identifying or elaborating on the incident where the so-called “royal racist” queried their then unborn-child’s skin color? Can Will and Kate enchant America?

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