Recent royal dramas relating to Prince Charles' charity funding and Meghan Markle's bulling review have dulled the sparkle from the Platinum Jubilee, according to one prominent royal commentator.
Royal biographer Omid Scobie is asking, who do the royals "think they are fooling?" with a leaked story of Charles' first meeting with granddaughter, Lilibet.
The -author of the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle biography Finding Freedom, said in a column for Yahoo! News that the royals "should still be riding high" from the "incredible" Platinum Jubilee celebrations last moth.
However, Scobie said the "sparkle has quickly started to dull" with controversies over Charles' charity funding, publication of the monarchy's annual financial reports, and news the review of the handling of bullying allegations against Meghan will not be made public.
Charles has faced criticism after it was revealed by The Sunday Times that the royal had accepted €3 million in cash as a donation to his charity, The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund, from Qatari billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.
Cash donations to charities are not illegal in the U.K and there is no insinuation that the prince acted against the law.
But Scobie and other critics have questioned the royal's better judgment over accepting the donation, one reported to have been made with cash stuffed into a suitcase.
"Though legal," he wrote in an earlier column, "the incidents demonstrate a total lack of awareness of the way in which such deals were done. How can a senior royal believe accepting a suitcase of cash is a sensible way to fund a charity?"
Another major royal drama which has dominated headlines since it was leaked in 2021 in the days before Prince Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah Winfrey, are the allegations of bullying made against Meghan by former palace staff.
In 2018 it was announced that Buckingham Palace would "look into the circumstances," of the allegations which were leaked in emails to The Times.
In June 2022 however, it was revealed that the palace would would not make publicly available the findings of their review of the handling of the allegations, during a press conference relating to the release of the annual Sovereign Grant review.
Keeper of the Privy Purse Sir Michael Stevens told a press conference that because the review had not been paid for using sovereign grant money, it would not be included in the Sovereign grant report.
But he added: "I can confirm though that it was a review of the handling of the allegations aimed at enabling the royal households to consider potential improvements to HR policies and procedures,"
"The review has been completed and recommendations on our policies and procedures have been taken forward but we will not be commenting further."
The response has raised concerns among royal watchers of a lack of transparency.
For Scobie the review was unfairly one sided.
"You would think that if the establishment was so keen to strengthen its Human Resources office, they might have also launched an investigation into Meghan's claims that the same HR department turned her away when she approached them with fears for her mental health and suicidal ideations as a working member of The Firm," he wrote.
The commentator then went on to state his belief that the royals have started to phase out the traditional "never complain, never explain" motto for a "deflect and distract" strategy.
An example he gives of this are reports citing "royal sources" which revealed that Charles had an "emotional" meeting with his granddaughter Lilibet during the jubilee which, when released at the same time as the publication of his annual finances, overshadowed reports of the charity scandal.
"The strategy worked," Scobie wrote. "Later that day a quick news search for Prince Charles brought up a long list of headlines about his "very emotional" time with Harry and Meghan's two children. You would have had to search further down the results to see his £3 million mea culpa."
These headline dominating dramas all feature one key similarity according to Scobie.
"In an era where transparency is vital for any public officials to survive, the days of the royal family being able to hide transgressions or mistakes are long gone," he wrote for Yahoo! News.
"A free and fearless press makes sure of that. Which is why the institution has instead resorted to activating distractions in times of crisis."
He then went on to close his remarks by stating: "I'm just not sure who it is they think they are fooling? The public aren't stupid."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
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