The Princess of Wales’ surprise visit to her favourite farm shop on a busy spring Saturday only piles yet more pressure on the Palace to update the public on her health as bonkers conspiracy theories about her rage online, experts said today.  

Kate was spotted looking ‘happy, healthy and relaxed’ as she picked up goods from the independent store just a mile from her Adelaide Cottage home on Saturday.

The future Queen was spotted by customers at the Windsor Farm Shop with Prince William after a morning of apparently watching their three children – George, 10, Charlotte, eight, and Louis, five, play sport.

Biographer Phil Dampier told MailOnline that while many will be happy to hear Kate is out and about, others will ‘now be saying if she is well enough to be seen by members of the public then why can’t we be told what is wrong with her?’

He said: ‘A report over the weekend said Kate will want to reveal her treatment when she is fully fit and back at work. That would probably be the best way but some will be impatient and want answers now’.

Royal expert and investigative journalist Tom Bower has said that Kate’s outing shows there is ‘panic at the Palace’, especially after the farrago of her edited Mother’s Day portrait. 

He said: ‘Her appearance suggests panic at the Palace. Just as last week’s furore has died down, they allowed her to reignite all the questions about her health which should remain private. Her advisors clearly can’t decide what their strategy should be, or agree it with the Wales’s. If they carry on like this – ducking and weaving – it will end badly’.

Kate has now been spotted four times in two weeks when Kensington Palace said  maintained that she would not be seen in public before Easter after abdominal surgery in January. It has been reported that she may return to royal duties by walking to church on Easter Sunday.

Mr Bower believes her aides are in a state of panic and every public outing only ignites more conspiracy theories and questions about her health, especially as there is no picture of Kate in Windsor yesterday and no update on her condition.

He has accused Kensington Palace of handling the Photoshop scandal ‘appallingly’ and failing to protect the Princess of Wales when she should have her ‘feet up’ at home while she recovers from major surgery. 

‘Yesterday’s unexpected “sighting” of Kate suggests that her Palace advisors have still not learnt their lesson’, he said.

The sighting at The Windsor Farm Shop will also provide a much needed boost to the British public who have been growing more concerned about the Princess’ health in the midst of a tsunami of speculation over her unknown condition.

A witness who saw the couple told The Sun last night: ‘After all the rumours that had been going round I was stunned to see them there. Kate was out shopping with William and she looked happy and she looked well.

‘The kids weren’t with them but it’s such a good sign she was healthy enough to pop down to the shops.’

While no pictures were taken of the couple – adhering to their request for privacy as Kate recovers – their reported appearance is an encouraging sign that she is taking her first steps towards a return to official royal engagements. 

Phil Dampier said: ‘It’s great that Kate has been seen in public and is obviously on the mend.

‘Lots of people will be relived that she is well enough to go to the farm shop and I expect she will soon be taking her kids to school or out and about during holidays.

‘Like anyone who has been convalescing for a long time after an operation she will be getting bored and would naturally want to resume normal life.

‘But unfortunately for some people on social media and elsewhere nothing will ever be enough and they will now be saying if she is well enough to be seen by members of the public then why can’t we be told what is wrong with her?

‘I remember several years ago Prince William got it into his head that he didn’t want anyone to know the name of their new dog.

‘A few weeks later Kate was visiting a hospital and told a patient the dog’s name was Lupo.

‘She is more open about things and I’m sure this is how she will reveal more about her health when she feels confident and thinks the time is right’.

The Princess, who made her last public engagement at Sandringham on Christmas Day, is expected to return to public duty after April 17, when her children start back at Lambrook School, near Ascot, following the Easter Holidays.

Yet there is suggestion that Kate could now make an earlier return and may even be seen walking into the annual Easter Matins service at St George’s Chapel on the Windsor estate. 

According to the Telegraph the Princess has not ruled out making a return to the public eye on Easter Sunday and could join her family for the traditional walk about, which would be photographed. 

A palace source told the paper there had been ‘no confirmation either way’ adding that anything else was speculation.

The reports of an early return and her Windsor sighting come just a few days after the Princess was pictured in the back of a car alongside Prince William as they left Windsor Castle last Monday. 

The Prince of Wales was on his way to Westminster Abbey for the annual Commonwealth Day service while MailOnline understands Kate was headed to a ‘private appointment’.  

In recent weeks wild rumours – fuelled by social media and the foreign press – have speculated over the reason why Kate has not been seen, despite the Kensington Palace’s laying out her recovery timeline.

‘Katespiracies’ online have ranged from claims she was recovering from a ‘Brazilian bum lift’ or in a coma, a theory sparked by a journalist on Spanish television. 

Some joked she was a contestant on The Masked Singer television show – or may have even been bumped from the Royal Family.

Other trolls and conspiracy theorists have used her absence and the lawlessness of social media to spread deeply sinister and highly libellous claims. Even Kim Kardashian has wade in posting selfies captured: ‘On my way to go find Kate.’

The absurd claims only intensified when the Princess took the blame for the family photograph released by Kensington Palace on Mother’s Day, which was ‘killed’ by six of the world’s top picture agencies over concern that it had been ‘manipulated’.

It came after it was pointed out that part of Princess Charlotte‘s sleeve and the misaligned edge of her skirt were missing, with other speculation including the positioning of Kate’s zip. 

In addition to the numerous imperfections in the image, viewers also spotted that Kate appeared to not be wearing her wedding ring, which sparked multiple unfounded theories online about the state of her marriage. 

The furor on social media led the Princess to make a personal apology on X, writing ‘Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.’ 

It is understood that Kate had only intended to ‘bring a bit of joy’ and release a reassuring image to thank the public for their ongoing support, and that she and William are both ‘shaken and devastated’ at the speculation about their marriage. 

William is said to have taken the picture in a 40-minute window on a £2,900 Canon camera on Friday before the Princess edited it twice in Photoshop to ‘make it the best it can be’. 

Despite calls for the original image to be published, Kensington Palace insisted it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children. 

One insider said: ‘I worry about all this attention on Catherine. She did not look happy at all in the car on Monday.’

Over the weekend, a source close to the Wales’ said that the couple will disclose more information about Kate’s illness and recovery in due course. 

‘In Kate’s case, there is almost nobody else in the world whose face, body, clothes are more judged than hers,’ the insider told The Sunday Times. 

‘What is happening is exactly what they said would happen — she would spend two weeks in hospital and be back after Easter. So what if they haven’t pushed her out there to wave from the back of a car? She is not a show pony.’  

A friend said the Waleses are fully aware about the circulating rumours but claimed: ‘They’re not like [Prince] Harry, obsessing and scrolling through Twitter, but they know it has broken through. 

‘They follow the news and see the BBC breaking news alerts.’

The insider added that the speculation around the couple’s marriage is ‘just cruel’, especially while William, Kate and their children are ‘going through the hardest time they’ve had to go through as a family’.

Kate was admitted to the London Clinic – the private hospital where the King underwent treatment for an enlarged prostate – for planned abdominal surgery.

She left the hospital on January 29 – almost two weeks later – and returned to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor.

Speculation grew online as she recuperated in Windsor which was only stoked further when William pulled out of a memorial service for his late godfather, King Constantine of Greece, for an unexplained ‘personal matter’. 

The Ministry of Defence also came under fire after it suggested that Kate would be attending the Trooping the Colour event in June before her appearance was quickly stripped from the Army’s official website.  

Details of her condition have not been revealed but Kensington Palace previously said it was not cancer-related and that the Princess wished her personal medical information to remain private.

Another friend said: ‘She and William are at their most open when out interacting with the public. I can see a world in which the Princess might discuss her recovery out on engagements.

‘If she was going to do it, that’s how she would do it. They appreciate the public’s love and affection for their children and know there is a public appetite to see them on their birthdays.’

Kensington Palace has maintained that Kate is ‘doing well’ and will only provide significant updates.

The couple are refusing to publish any details until they feel ready, with a friend adding: ‘They will want to be clear and more open, but they’ll do it when they feel ready. 

‘I would expect that to be her instinct and it will be her call. They are not going to be rushed.’ 

Sources told the Mail that that there is no pressure or hurry on her to do so and her focus remains on ‘what is important’ – her recovery and her three children. 

Despite this tumultuous few weeks for the Royal Family, it is expected that William and Kate will still uphold the tradition of releasing a new photograph to mark their children’s birthdays, the next being Prince Louis on April 23.

‘They appreciate the public’s love and affection for their children and know there is a public appetite to see them on their birthdays,’ an aide told the Times.

While there has been no official confirmation that Kate will be well enough to attend Trooping the Colour in June, the King, who is suffering from cancer, is determined to attend his official birthday celebrations.

The Mail revealed last night that aides are already exploring ways that Charles will be able to part within the constraints of his ongoing cancer treatment. 

This could include watching the military spectacular from a podium, instead on horseback as usual, and being driven to Buckingham Palace, like his late mother did.

A firm decision will be made at the time and will be dependent on medical advice. The event will take place on June 15 and the Mail understands the planning is a source for optimism. 

‘There are a number of key events His Majesty would love to attend coming up in the diary and this is at the top of the list,’ a source said. 

Insiders claim President Joe Biden is privately “talking” about his disastrous election numbers to his staff and is “angry and concerned” about his 2024 reelection efforts.

The story comes after Biden didn’t get the typical election rating after his State of the Union address last week — and his approval rating is now at a new low of 37.4 percent.

However, reports of the president’s anger date back to January, when aides told him that his voting numbers in the key swing states of Michigan and Georgia had fallen as a result of his handling of Israel’s war against Hamas, although he still believed he had done the same. right thing.

‘He started shouting and cursing’ NBC reports, citing a story that interviewed 20 lawmakers, current and former administration officials and Biden allies.

“President Biden makes national security decisions based solely on the country’s national security needs – and no other factor,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in response.

However, allies say Biden’s frustrations are growing as he questions travel choices and apparent inability to communicate his agenda to the American people.

His weak approval rating is well below the last three presidents who failed to win a second term: George HW Bush (39 percent), Jimmy Carter (43 percent) and his November opponent, Donald Trump (48 percent).

The 81-year-old Biden is reportedly unhappy with those who are said to want to “minimize the chance of catching the flu” and says he is cocooned and wants to make his case to the public and thwart Trump.

The president’s temper toward staff has been detailed in the past, with him often yelling at staff and shouting obscenities.

“He’s probably a little mad at himself for not being more forceful with the staff,” a Biden White House insider claimed, adding that he often gets conflicting advice on how to deal with the perception that he’s too old to do the work.

Many polled by NBC agreed that Biden simply needed to be clearer about what he has done for the country during his first term, citing clean energy projects, high-tech manufacturing and infrastructure.

“There’s a real story to be told,” said Biden supporter and ex-Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu.

‘It’s a winning message and it’s about jobs, prosperity and evolution. If that message can be delivered, I think the American people will respond.”

However, some Democrats, such as Washington State Congressman Adam Smith, are losing patience.

“Biden stood up in front of the whole world and said, ‘I’m ready. “I am the man who can take down Donald Trump,” he said.

“So he damn well better do it. We don’t have time for him to worry about whether or not people are saying things right or whether the poll numbers are at the right level. I want focused energy and not defensive anger.”

However, campaign chairman Jen O’Malley Dillon remains confident that once Trump is the clear opponent, Biden can beat him again.

“We know he lost in 2020,” she said. “To win, he must expand his voter base to find new people to join him. And that’s not something he’s shown he’s really focused on.”

Biden and former President Donald Trump both reached the number of delegates their respective parties needed for the 2024 nomination in Tuesday’s primaries.

This means that a rematch between the two geriatrics will take place in November, despite the majority of Americans saying they do not want that.

A Yahoo News/YouGov poll The survey, conducted just days after Biden’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, shows that the current president’s chances against Trump actually diminished following his fiery comments.

Before the speech, Trump was up 45 to 44 percent over Biden in the late January poll. While the latest recording from March 8 to 11 is still within the polls’ margin of error and amounts to a statistical tie, Trump is now at 46 percent to Biden’s 44 percent in a hypothetical election battle.

The same poll shows Biden’s approval rating dropping from 40 percent to 39 percent before and after the speech. His disapproval went from 56 percent to 55 percent.

But a FiveThirtyEight average shows that the number of Americans who approve of Biden’s job as president has fallen to a new low of 37.4 percent.

A post-State of the Union Harris X poll estimates Biden’s approval at a flat 37 percent and disapproval at 58 percent. But among those in that survey who did watch the State of the Union, 13 percent more approved of Biden’s job as president, compared to those who did not tune in.

In previous years, State of the Union addresses were a way for presidents to address everyone — and often the comments were accompanied by a backlash.

For example, Trump’s approval rose a few percent after his 2019 speech in February of that year.

Before his State of the Union address, his approval rating was about 37 percent, according to Gallup polls. But after the comments, the same poll showed the then-president rising to 44 percent.

Overall, Biden’s final speech of his first term wasn’t exactly the reset the White House was hoping for amid low approval and mounting criticism of the president’s age and fitness for office.

Fifty-one percent of those who watched the State of the Union say Biden looked 81, according to the YouGov poll. Another 24 percent say he seemed “older” than they expected. Only 17 percent say he didn’t seem that old.

Most polls from the past year show that Americans do not want Biden and Trump (77) as two options in the 2024 presidential election.

But after Tuesday’s primaries in the states of Georgia, Mississippi and Washington, that is exactly the general election ballot Americans will receive in November.

Royal aides have spoken out to condemn the ‘madness of social media’ as conspiracy theories continue to circulate about the health of the Princess of Wales.

While officials have declined to provide further updates on Kate Middleton’s health due to medical privacy, royal aides have insisted she is “doing well.”

After abdominal surgery, Kate has remained out of the public eye for two months while she recovers.

But frenzied speculation began circulating online shortly after Prince William withdrew from the service of the late King Constantine of Greece, who died last January, with his father King Charles also absent as his cancer treatment continued.

The Prince of Wales had not been seen since the Bafta Awards in London earlier this month until he visited the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in central London. The Princess of Wales was last seen at Sandringham at Christmas.

However, social media users came up with a slew of wild theories about Kate’s absence, with speculation that the princess may have been in a coma, dabbled in cloning, had a ‘Brazilian butt lift’ treatment or had a bad haircut and in hiding until it grows out.

The sun reported that royal aides said: ‘We were very clear from the start that we would not be providing a running commentary on the health of the Princess of Wales and would only be providing important updates.

“Clearly we have seen the frenzy of social media and that will not change our strategy.

“A lot has appeared on social media, but the princess has the right to privacy and asks the public to respect that.”

An earlier statement from Kensington Palace said: ‘The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will generate.

“She hopes the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normalcy as possible for her children; and her desire for her personal medical information to remain private.

‘Kensington Palace will therefore only provide updates on Her Royal Highness’s progress if there is important new information to share.

“The Princess of Wales would like to apologize to everyone involved for having to postpone her upcoming engagements. She looks forward to reinstating as many people as possible as soon as possible.”

The family’s health problems have exposed the reality of a stripped-down monarchy. There has been a sudden shortage of frontline royals since the start of the year after Charles and Kate both went to hospital around the same time in January.

It saw the Prince of Wales take on a greater share of public duties, while supporting Kate and caring for his three children, George, Charlotte and Louis.

Charles was admitted for surgery last month for a benign prostate condition but was subsequently diagnosed with an unrelated cancer.

The monarch has withdrawn from public duties while he undergoes treatment. Kate underwent abdominal surgery at the same time and is currently recovering after a two-week stay in hospital.

The Prince of Wales joined Hollywood star Rob McElhenney for a pint and a whiskey in a Wrexham pub today as his wife Kate recovers from surgery at home – with Kensington Palace insisting she is still ‘doing well ‘.

Prince William traveled to The Turf pub next to Wrexham AFC – the world’s oldest pub in a sports stadium, which featured in the Disney+ ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ series – as part of a visit to mark St David’s Day.

He met with staff, charity workers and locals to find out more about the venue – before visiting the pitch at the team’s Racecouse Ground to hear stories about the club’s rise since McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds took over in 2021, and to meet staff and players.

As he poured the pint, William said: ‘Still has a terrible head on it, but there you go. That’s why I don’t work behind the bar.’ He also told McElhenney that he “loves” cider.

Reynolds was in New York today and was unable to attend the editing of the next Deadpool film, but MailOnline understands he hopes to meet William later this year.

McElhenney told William that Reynolds would have wanted to be there today, but the prince: “Since Ryan isn’t here, you can tell him I think Hugh Jackman is funnier.”

The Prince also met with Welsh speakers from Patagonia – and at the stadium was presented with a Wrexham AFC shirt from footballers Ben Tozer and Luke Young.

On the road outside the pub, a three-year-old girl named Florence Boyle handed William a daffodil and blew him a kiss, before the prince thanked her with a high five. They then posed for a photo with her mother Katie, 35, and father David, 37.

William then spent time with pupils from All Saints’ Primary School to see their traditional ways of celebrating the day, which celebrates the patron saint of Wales.

The students gave him Welsh dragon toys for his three children – as well as flowers for Kate. He said to them, “I will pass them on to Catherine as well, thank you very much.”

The children also took part in the traditional Welsh folk dance Dawnsio Gwerin and baked Bara Brith, a Welsh tea bread flavored with dried fruit and spices.

Kate Middleton returned home today after a two-week stay in hospital following abdominal surgery – with flowers and a gift bag left by well-wishers driven back to Windsor by a royal aide.

The Princess of Wales, 42, is not expected to carry out any official engagements until after Easter, with her husband Prince William clearing his diary of official duties while she recovers at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Great Park.

Kate attended the London Clinic 14 days ago on Tuesday, January 16 – with royal sources saying she was 'making good progress' and would now continue her recovery from home.

MailOnline understands her return to official duties will be subject to medical advice closer to the time, and William will return to public engagements once she is settled.

The Princess of Wales was discharged from hospital just hours before King Charles also left the London Clinic after a three-day stay to recover from prostate surgery. The beaming image was seen as he left the clinic with Queen Camilla by his side.

Charles visited Kate last Friday morning before his operation and has also been visited four times by his wife, Queen Camilla, at the hospital in Marylebone.

A spokesperson for Kensington Palace said: The Princess of Wales has returned to Windsor to continue her recovery from surgery. She is making good progress.

'The Prince and Princess would like to thank the entire team at The London Clinic, and especially the dedicated nursing staff, for the care they provided.

“The Wales family remains grateful for the good wishes they have received from around the world.”

Charles left the London Clinic in Marylebone today with Queen Camilla at his side after three nights of observation.

The 75-year-old monarch was admitted around 9am last Friday morning as he underwent a corrective procedure for the benign condition.

The road had been cleared, but a large crowd of children and onlookers had gathered to watch as they got into a waiting car.

There was a strong presence of uniformed police officers standing guard as the royal couple were driven away.

It has been reported that Charles could take up to a month off from public duties while he recovers.

The King was visited twice by Queen Camilla yesterday, the third and fourth time she has visited him since their arrival at the private hospital.

Buckingham Palace released a statement following the King's discharge from hospital, saying: 'The King was discharged from hospital this afternoon following planned medical treatment and has postponed upcoming public appointments to allow for a period of private recovery make possible.

'His Majesty would like to thank the medical team and everyone involved in supporting his hospital visit, and is grateful for all the kind messages he has received in recent days.'

The king arrived in London from Norfolk last Thursday, ready for the proceedings after carrying out a number of official duties behind the scenes.

He was diagnosed with the benign condition on January 17 during a stay in Birkhall, Aberdeenshire, after going for a check-up because he was experiencing symptoms.

NHS England said the 'enlarged prostate' page on the NHS website received one visit every five seconds on the day the King's diagnosis was announced, with another huge increase in visits in the days that followed.

Camilla had previously said her husband was doing 'fine' and was looking forward to returning to work.

News of his diagnosis came on the same day Kensington Palace announced the princess was in hospital on January 17.

Many of the late queen's granddaughters and great-granddaughters have proudly been given Elizabeth as a middle name, in tribute to the family's beloved matriarch.

But Harry and Meghan took it a step further when they named their daughter Lilibet, the deeply personal term of endearment for the former monarch used only by her closest family and friends.

In fact, I understand that the Queen was so upset by the Sussexes' decision that she told aides: 'I don't own the palaces, I don't own the paintings, all I own is my name. And now they've taken that with them.'

In any case, Harry and Meghan would not have intended to cause her grief.

Barricaded in their Californian cocoon, covered in the cozy schmaltz of their new showbiz life, it simply wouldn't have occurred to the couple that such a gesture would be offensive.

But it appears that it did – as well-placed sources made clear to me and others at the time.

This week the row broke out again thanks to my colleague Robert Hardman's excellent – ​​and well-researched – new biography of King Charles III, published in the Daily Mail.

Hardman says a member of the late queen's staff told him she was “as angry as I'd ever seen her” after the Duke and Duchess publicly stated they wouldn't have used her private family nickname if she wasn't “supportive ' Has been.

They were responding to a story published not by one of the popular British newspapers that the Sussexes so openly despise, but by the BBC.

The national broadcaster's royal correspondent Jonny Dymond reported that a 'Palace source' had told him that the Queen had 'never been asked by Harry and Meghan' about the use of her childhood nickname.

Dymond said his source had “disputed” reports after the name announcement that Harry and Meghan had spoken to the Queen to obtain her blessing.

It's what many of us said in 2021, one way or another.

But the fact that the BBC – the world's largest public broadcaster – now declared it had added a whole new level of seriousness.

The Sussexes' spokesperson wasted no time in denouncing the report, insisting the Queen was the first family member Harry called with the joyful news of the birth of his long-awaited daughter.

He said that during their conversation, he “shared their hope to name their daughter Lilibet in her honor.” If she hadn't supported her, they wouldn't have used the name'.

They then used their favorite law firm, Schillings, to send a letter to the BBC and other media threatening action, suggesting that the report that the Queen had not been asked for consent was “false and defamatory and should not be repeated may be'.

It is striking that the BBC has not intervened.

There were further questions for the couple when it later emerged that they had registered Lilibet Diana as a 'domain name' on the internet before their daughter's birth and had apparently asked the Queen for permission.

To be honest, I wasn't told at the time that the Queen was 'angry'. That was a word I personally never used.

But what at least two sources made clear – reluctantly, I might add, since in the aftermath of their score-settling interview with Oprah, everyone at Buckingham Palace was treading on eggshells for fear of further hostilities with the Sussexes – was that the suggestion that they had done which sought the Queen's approval was a rather one-sided interpretation of what had actually happened.

As described to me, the then 95-year-old monarch was surprised when her grandson told her that he intended to name his daughter Lilibet in her honor, but she felt, given the circumstances, that she could not . say no.

You could describe it as being pushed into an impossible corner.

And that certainly makes sense when you now consider her comment about “palaces and paintings” which, like most of her jewelry, cars and even furniture, were never hers.

In most respects, she was simply its steward for future generations on behalf of the nation.

But her pet name, Lilibet, which stuck after she could never pronounce her own name correctly as a toddler, was hers – and hers alone.

In fact, until then it had only been used by her grandfather, her parents, her late husband and a handful of her closest friends and relatives.

As someone who had enjoyed a flawless career as an international stateswoman, the aging queen still seemed ready to bite her lip (in public, that is) – until she saw her name being weaponized by lawyers in a battle against the British public service. broadcaster.

And according to Robert Hardman, despite posting their well wishes on social media, Buckingham Palace flatly refused to be 'co-opted' into 'supporting' Harry and Meghan's version of events.

They firmly 'rejected' their requests to do so, which ultimately led to the Sussexes' threats of legal action quietly disappearing.

In reality, it's quite sad that a child's name continues to cause resentment. Little Lilibet doesn't deserve any of this.

But the fact that loyal aides are still talking about it even now shows that many regard the Sussexes' behavior towards the late queen in the waning days of her reign as misguided at best and inexcusable at worst.

In yesterday’s Mail on Sunday, Robert Hardman revealed how the Government developed secret plans for a regency if the late Queen could no longer rule. Today, a raft of insiders tell how the royals have dealt with a torrent of allegations from the Sussexes…

As the world discovered almost exactly a year ago, Spare is undoubtedly the most candid and caustic royal memoir ever written.

Throughout the book, however, Prince Harry was keen to stress his devotion to the Queen and Prince Philip.

Later, reflecting on his grandmother after her death, he wrote: ‘We had secrets. Special relationship, that’s what they said about us, and now I couldn’t stop thinking about the specialness that would no longer be.’

He did not, however, hold back in Spare when attacking some of her staff. They did not respond, though they were interested by what had been omitted from his book.

One privately recalled that Elizabeth II had been ‘as angry as I’d ever seen her’ in 2021 after the Sussexes announced that she had given them her blessing to call their baby daughter ‘Lilibet’, the Queen’s childhood nickname. 

The couple had subsequently fired off warnings of legal action against anyone who dared to suggest otherwise, as the BBC had done. However, when the Sussexes tried to co-opt the Palace into propping up their version of events, they were rebuffed. Once again, it was a case of ‘recollections may vary’ — the late Queen’s reaction to the Oprah Winfrey interview — as far as Her Majesty was concerned.

Those noisy threats of legal action duly evaporated and the libel action against the BBC never materialised.

On October 27, 2022, Prince Harry’s publishers had announced that his long-awaited memoir was finally close to completion. Promising ‘raw, unflinching honesty’, it would be variously titled Spare, The Minor (Italy), Reserve (Germany), The Other One (Poland), and so on. It was not hard to detect an overarching underdog theme.

The announcement all but eclipsed the news, on the same day, that the Royal Mint had struck the first coins featuring the face of the King.

Asked about the King’s feelings on all this imminent incoming fire from the Sussexes and their associates, one Palace staffer referred to them as ‘headwinds that we face from across the Atlantic’.

That was one way of describing an extraordinary 12-week run of non-stop disobliging headlines and combative allegations, all of them entirely beyond the control of the King and his staff. Storm-force gales might have been a better metaphor.

That this should all be unfolding in the first phase of a new reign might once have been considered disastrous. However, there were two unexpected aspects to these ‘headwinds’ which would work in Charles III’s favour.

First, the constant diet of extraneous negativity, though awkward and at times embarrassing, made very little impact, according to polls, on public attitudes towards the monarchy. Second, it appeared to have no discernible impact on the King himself.

Just over a month later, on December 1, the inaugural trailer appeared for the Sussexes’ forthcoming six-part Netflix documentary about their new life in California. The Royal Family and their staff steeled themselves for a reprise of the Sussexes’ March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which Meghan had made allegations of royal ‘conversations’ about the possible skin colour of the couple’s first child.

Pressing on with his engagements, the King went to Central Hall, Westminster, on December 7 to mark the 40th anniversary of Business In The Community, a favourite charity.

He had been its founder patron since a meeting in 1982 with black community leaders. And over the years, he had helped cajole the leaders of some of Britain’s best-known companies into adopting more socially responsible and inclusive recruitment policies.

However, the event at Central Hall barely made the news, let alone the headlines, because the media was focused entirely on a celebration of another royal patronage elsewhere.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in New York on the same day to receive a Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation ‘in recognition of their work on racial justice, mental health, and other social impact initiatives’.

The foundation’s president, Kerry Kennedy, saluted them for being ‘incredibly brave’ in speaking out on such issues. After receiving the award, which also praised their ‘lifelong commitment to building strong and equitable communities’ through their Archewell Foundation, the Sussexes issued a joint statement: ‘Together we know that a ripple of hope can turn into a wave of change.’

Back in Britain, staff who had watched the King bring about his own ‘wave of change’ over many decades, through his Prince’s Trust, Business In The Community and multiple other organisations, could only roll their eyes.

Even the Sussexes’ most fervent admirers had to acknowledge that, in its two-year infancy, Archewell had yet to demonstrate a ‘lifelong commitment’. More damaging for the monarchy was a perception that Meghan and Harry had felt compelled to abandon their royal duties, in part, because of latent racism within the Royal Family and the Royal Household.

‘Much of the Caribbean gets its news through U.S. outlets, and the U.S. media was generally more sympathetic to Harry and Meghan,’ says a former Palace aide. ‘So Megxit plays directly into this debate.’

Never mind the King’s lifetime’s support for Britain’s evolution as a multicultural society. Never mind that he sees the growing strength of historic racial justice campaigns as an inevitability to be addressed with compassion.

In 2022, before the death of the late Queen, a small research project, which was granted access to the Royal Archives, set about exploring the monarchy’s historic links to specific parts of the slave trade. Prince Charles, however, was already developing more ambitious plans in this area.

He wanted a much broader investigation into the monarchy’s role in the slave trade, in slavery and in the abolition of both.

‘The King understands that this has to be done properly and objectively,’ says one official. ‘He is absolutely not going to hide anything about the past.’ And a member of the King’s staff reflects: ‘It’s a journey that starts with the acknowledgement of pain, and you can get a lot done once you have acknowledged someone’s pain.’

Just two days after the Ripple of Hope award, the world was able to watch the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan, the six-part documentary which the couple had been busy making when not ‘building equitable communities’. The first salvo opened with many withering remarks about the Royal Family and the monarchy. Among other things, Prince Harry claimed that, for male members of the family, ‘there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mould — as opposed to somebody who you perhaps are destined to be with’.

The clear inference that he was talking about his elder brother astonished friends of the family.

‘On top of all the other breaches of trust, here was Harry making a blatant attack on Catherine. For William, this was the lowest of the low,’ says one.

Opinions were divided as to whether this really was a calculated slight against the new Princess of Wales or whether it was a case of ‘Harry shooting his mouth off’ with yet another round of scattergun assertions and thoughtless allegations.

Elsewhere in the show, he accused his family of ‘a huge level of unconscious bias’, while Meghan dismissed the couple’s original engagement interview with Mishal Husain of the BBC as ‘rehearsed’ and ‘an orchestrated reality show’.

This came as something of a surprise to Husain herself. As one of the BBC’s most highly regarded journalists, she felt she had conducted a thoroughly professional interview. She coolly restricted her response to the words of the late Queen: ‘Recollections may vary.’

What would have dismayed Elizabeth II the most, perhaps, was the historically befuddled section in which a commentator sympathetic to the couple described the Commonwealth — of which the Sussexes had so recently been such passionate advocates — as ‘a privileged club’ and ‘Empire 2.0’ which had been ‘created’ by Britain in a way that ‘protected its commercial and capitalist interest’.

If so, it was odd that its membership had reached a record high six months earlier with the addition of two new member nations previously colonised by France. Nor was the Commonwealth ‘created’ by Britain. It was built by the eight ‘free and equal’ nations which signed the London Declaration of 1949.

Stylishly filmed, Harry & Meghan was highly watchable and clearly a success from Netflix’s point of view. But for the couple?

It merely seemed to go over the same old ground and the same old resentments.

One of the most contentious moments, for British viewers at least, was when a smirking Meghan performed a comic repeat of her first curtsy to the Queen. The queasy look of discomfort on Harry’s face was that of a man all too aware of the consequences yet unable to do anything about it.

The King and the family said nothing, and the Palace strategy was one of ‘show not tell’. So, on the same day that Netflix first aired Harry & Meghan, the King was with religious charities in North London.

‘I know this looks like a carefully scripted response to the Sussexes but he really has had all this in the diary for a long time,’ chuckled one Palace staffer as the King visited a cafe for refugees and asylum seekers before joining the Archbishop of Canterbury to celebrate Advent at the Ethiopian Christian Fellowship Church.

Many more viewers would watch Prince Harry in the Californian sunshine airing his grievances with his family — ‘I’m probably never going to get a genuine apology’ — than would view news clips of the King going about his worthy, unexciting rounds in wintry London.

What was abundantly clear, however, was which of them looked more contented with life.

There was little respite from those trans-Atlantic headwinds, however. Not only was publication of Spare fast approaching but Prince Harry had agreed to do two television interviews, in which he would lob similar accusations. Goaded time and again, the Royal Family still said nothing.

Among the most sensational claims in Spare was that Prince William had physically attacked his brother during an argument about Meghan’s behaviour towards staff.

Given Prince William’s pathological determination to protect his family’s privacy, he was, say friends, mortified by the casual betrayal of so many fraternal secrets.

No one could have been dreading the book more than Queen Camilla, whom he repeatedly accused of conducting her own public relations campaign at the expense of the young princes.

‘Stories began to appear everywhere, in all the papers, about her private conversation with Willy,’ Prince Harry wrote. ‘They could only have been leaked by the one other person present.’

But the book omitted to explain what had actually happened 25 years earlier. Prince William was, indeed, introduced to his future stepmother in July 1998. News of the encounter did, indeed, surface in the Sun soon afterwards.

The then Camilla Parker Bowles was mortified and an internal investigation was launched. The one person whom she had told was her own personal assistant, Amanda MacManus, keeper of her diary.

MacManus had confided in her husband, James, a newspaper executive, who, over a game of tennis, confided in a former colleague who told a friend on the Sun. The full facts emerged when Amanda MacManus issued a public apology and immediately resigned.

Camilla Parker Bowles felt desperately sorry for her assistant, never held her personally responsible and soon reappointed her. MacManus then remained at her side for another 23 years, becoming her private secretary. She retired in 2021 but is still involved with some of Queen Camilla’s charities.

Though presented as a conspiracy in Spare, the true sequence of events was, rather, pure cock-up. A quarter of a century later, the new Queen and her staff made no comment. Naturally, the world wanted to hear Prince William’s thoughts on Spare. His staff remain adamant that he and the Princess refused to open a book which has caused so much pain.

‘Neither of them read it,’ says one of their senior advisers. ‘He is a grown-up 40-year-old with the BBC app on his phone so he knows what it says. But he has people like me to tell him what else he needs to know. We gave him the key points.’

It had been the same with the Netflix series. Looking back, one of Prince William’s team reflects: ‘My boss would say, ‘Whatever the rights and wrongs, I hope that people feel I behaved properly in keeping my counsel.’ You can imagine what he feels about this, especially regarding what has been said about his wife. But he is being admirably grown-up.’

For days after Spare was unleashed on the world, further revelations were unpicked, along with various errors.

Writing in tandem with his ghostwriter, Prince Harry had painted a forlorn picture at Eton of a lonely schoolboy being told, by a lackey, of the death of his adored great-grandmother. ‘I took the call. I wish I could remember whose voice was at the other end: a courtier’s, I believe. I recall that it was just before Easter, the weather bright and warm, light slanting through my window, filled with vivid colours. ‘Your Royal Highness, the Queen Mother has died.’ ‘

Harry had actually been in Switzerland, skiing with his father and brother, when all three received the news.

For the Palace, the most worrying aspect of the book was the omission of large chunks of more recent events. It did not go unnoticed that Harry and Meghan’s wedding, their married life and their eventual departure from the royal world amounted to a small part — less than a fifth — of Harry’s memoir. This suggested either a sequel or, perhaps, a memoir by Meghan in due course.

A common perception is that the King and his staff spend much of their time worrying about what to do with the two difficult Dukes, Harry and Andrew. In reality, however, the King has learned over long years of royal domestic trauma how to compartmentalise issues over which he has little control.

Yes, the departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from royal life in 2020 and their subsequent sensational attacks on the institution, on camera and in print, have hurt.

‘Of course the King is extremely sad about Harry and Meghan but there is a sense of exasperation, that he has done what he can and now he is King, there are many more things to think about,’ says one friend. He has tried listening. Now he just says, ‘I don’t want to know what the problem is. I’m just getting on with my life.’ ‘

Nothing is final, however. ‘You’d always like your child back,’ says a senior official. ‘But when your child has decided that, at the moment, they want to do things differently, you have to give them the space to do that. The door is always open, though.’

At least Prince Harry came back for his father’s Coronation. Meghan, of course, did not: the Sussexes’ favoured media outlets were informed that this was because the date clashed with their son Archie’s fourth birthday.

Cynics have suggested that she might also have been fearful of a negative reaction from the public as she emerged from her car. But police restrictions on public access to the area around the Abbey entrance were such that no one would have been within booing range anyway.

At the Coronation itself, Prince Harry was seated in the third row of the royal section, immediately behind Princess Anne, who was wearing a striking red-plumed bicorn hat that remained on her head throughout. Social media snipers instantly concluded that Harry had been deliberately placed behind his aunt’s tall hat to obscure his view.

This is nonsense. Not only do the Lord Chamberlain’s Office not think like that, but the Princess Royal had only switched to that seat after her request for a speedy exit. ‘The hat was an interesting question,’ the Princess recalled later. ‘I said: ‘Are you sure you want me to keep the hat on? Because it’s quite a decent-sized hat.’ And the answer was yes. There you go. Not my choice.’

At the end of the service, the congregation bowed and curtsied as the King and Queen processed past them. Tellingly, the Duke of Sussex dropped his head for longer than most.

• Adapted from Charles III New King. New Court. The Inside Story by Robert Hardman, to be published by Macmillan on January 18 at £22. © Robert Hardman 2024. To order a copy for £17.60 (offer valid until February 29, 2024; UK P&P free on orders over £25) go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.