Show Notes
The law firm at the heart of Prince Harry’s war on the British tabloids has gone bust. Thomson Heath Jenkins & Associates (the boutique London practice that acted for Harry, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes in their failed privacy claim against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail) has reportedly shut its doors and called in insolvency practitioners. According to the Telegraph, the collapse came as a shock to staff. Just a week ago, the firm was still boasting on its website about its rankings in the Chambers & Partners 2027 guide. This was no bit-part player. Founded in 2009 by Cambridge graduate Mark Thomson, the firm built its reputation on phone hacking litigation and helped prove the generic case against Mirror Group Newspapers. Seven of its solicitors worked on the case against the Mail. But in July, after an eleven-week trial, Mr Justice Nicklin threw out every single one of the claimants’ allegations, ruling that suspicion is not proof. Harry and his co-claimants were then ordered to pay £9.5 million as a first instalment towards Associated’s legal costs, with the total bill for both sides estimated at £40 to £50 million. So where does this leave Harry? The claimants are pursuing an appeal, and they must now do so without the firm that ran their case, while staring down a potential multimillion-pound costs liability should they lose again. It is hard to imagine a more humiliating coda to what Harry called his “mission” to reform the British press. In this video, I explain what we know about the firm’s collapse, what it means for Harry’s appeal and his finances, and why the Duke’s long crusade against the tabloids is proving so ruinously expensive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from The Royalist
I have just spent the entire day in Aberfan. I stood in the crowd, as a member of the public, in the freezing cold, for hours. I shook hands with the King, the Queen and Prince William, one after the other. And I talked to the people who were there, listened to them and watched them. This video is what I saw. Sixty years ago today a colliery spoil tip slid down the mountain and buried Pantglas Junior School. 144 people died, 116 of them children, killed at their desks in the first minutes of the school day. Today the King, the Queen and the Prince of Wales laid their tributes in the memorial garden on the site of the school, stood in silence beside Mair Morgan, the last surviving teacher, met the survivors and the bereaved families, and then walked a line of easily a thousand people and shook hands with every single one of them. Bottom line: they absolutely aced it. A textbook royal performance. I’ll introduce you to Bonita Smith, whose father Robert was one of the first firemen digging in the slurry that morning, and who stopped the King and told him her dad’s story. That is what the monarchy is, at its best. I’ll explain why being in the cheap seats with the public beats the royal rota every time. And I’ll tell you honestly how the King looks in person, because you’d want me to. Then the bigger picture. Minutes after the Sultan of Oman’s state visit got underway on Tuesday, Harry’s GQ interview dropped, with the Duke complaining that “some people don’t want it to work out.” Everybody heard “some people” and thought William. That same evening, at the Windsor banquet, Charles stood up in front of 160 guests and talked about his son and “our successors.” Today, father and son stood at the memorial together. The line runs from Charles to William, full stop. It was deliberate, and we need to see a lot more of it (and some much tougher language about Harry). Finally, the anger. Not at the royals, but at the institutions: the Coal Board that was warned and did nothing, nobody sacked or prosecuted, the money taken from the disaster fund, and 2,589 disused coal tips still sitting above Welsh villages sixty years on. The royal family is the last institution these people still have faith in. That is exactly why what Harry is doing is so dangerous. Full write-up, with all my pictures and video, in tomorrow morning’s free Substack newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Tom was joined by writer and podcaster Molly Mulshine to discuss Harry's astonishing interview with GQ. Prince Harry has said he wants to reconcile with his brother, but suggested WILLIAM is to blame for their ongoing estrangement! That's the big line from a new interview with GQ, published today as part of the magazine's One More Question series. It dropped just as King Charles was hosting a state visit for the Sultan of Oman. Asked whether he grieves his "complicated relationship" with Prince William and his father, Harry says: "Yes, of course." He calls family estrangement "another massively relatable issue for so many people," and then says: "Some people don't want it to work out. I want it to work out." Asked whether he really does, he insists: "Of course I do. Again, with everything else that's going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile. That's the key point." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The cheering crowds in Nottingham were not what they seemed. I was on the ground for Harry and Meghan's charity visit on Thursday, and I can tell you the crowds were coached to cheer for Meghan. The walkabout at the first engagement, at the Community Recording Studio, was more or less fake. Everyone taking part had been invited. Children were brought in from the neighboring school, young adults were brought in from the local Mencap, and the cameras were positioned to make the scene look busy. My own footage shows the rest of the street was entirely empty. I counted perhaps half a dozen genuine passers-by. At the Himmah Hub, people stopped because they saw cameras, not because they had come for the couple. By Epic Partners it was complete chaos, ending with a teacher from the school next door begging the crowd to part so the children could get out of the building. And the day ended, as I exclusively revealed, with the couple leaving their final event 15 minutes early to collect their own children from school. Why stage-manage a crowd? Because the Sussexes are desperate to be seen as royals. Days later, a conveniently placed "friend" (whom anyone on this beat will recognize as their press office) told the Sunday Times that Harry and Meghan hate being called anything other than members of the royal family. That is a direct rejection of the King's ruling, sent by the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Benyon, that their position is "akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests." In this video I explain why a manufactured royal welcome is so dangerous for the monarchy, why the Palace is in a state of dismay and has no idea what to do, and why the couple's camp says they might do "one or two more things together" before the end of the year. My bet is Remembrance. I also explain why Nottingham proves they can never be given police security: outriders at events like these would make them look exactly like members of the royal family again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Duncan joins me to discuss Meghan's latest headache, which has her fans and her critics reading the same story two very different ways. Supporters see a working mom juggling job and family. Critics see fresh proof that the half-in, half-out model the Sussexes are trying to make work simply doesn't. So which is it? Tom Sykes breaks down what really happened, what it tells us about how the Sussex operation is run, and why this one will be hard to shrug off. Subscribe to The Royalist for daily analysis of the British royal family, from the only royal journalist who has been on the beat since Diana's funeral. Read more and join the conversation at The Royalist on Substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices