The Duchess of Cambridge was pictured leaving Kensington Palace this morning amid the ongoing fallout in the wake of Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview.
The 39-year-old drove through London early today, after it emerged Prince William was said to be ‘concerned’ that private conversations with his brother will be ‘plastered over American TV’.
Earlier this week broadcaster Gayle King revealed William had taken part in an ‘unproductive phone call with Prince Harry’.
But the revelation – which the CBS presenter delivered live on air – has made William wary of engaging further with the couple, fearing that any future talks with his brother will be leaked to American television networks.
Sources told Vanity Fair there was concern within the family that the Sussexes ‘want to keep fuelling the soap opera’.
Yesterday Kate had joined her husband to wish Ireland a happy St Patrick’s Day, taking part in a cheery video message alongside world leaders including US President Joe Biden.
The Duchess of Cambridge was seen driving through central London this morning
Kate donned a floral face mask as she left Kensington Palace amid escalating tensions within the royal family
Gayle King revealed Harry, 36, had spoken to William, 38, and their father Prince Charles for the first time following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Despite the Sussexes insisting their explosive tell-all would be their ‘final word’ on royal affairs, Ms King, 66, said the couple had told her about Harry’s phone calls with his family over the weekend.
Yesterday she spoke out again, claiming the pair had a deal with CBS and ITV to postpone their bombshell interview if Prince Philip, 99, had died during his month-long stay in hospital.
One source close to Prince William claimed: ‘There’s a lack of trust on both sides which makes moving forward very hard. William is now worried that anything he says to his brother will be plastered over American TV.’
And sources told Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl: ‘It seems the Sussexes seem to want to keep fuelling this story at a time when the royals are trying to protect Prince Philip from the headlines.’
The source added that Meghan and Harry’s approach seemed to be a ‘very strange way’ to heal the rift within the family.
On Tuesday, Ms King told her viewers that she spoke to the Sussexes who told her that Harry had talked to the Duke of Cambridge and Prince of Wales over the weekend.
But she said the conversations were ‘not productive’ and Harry and Meghan were keen for the ‘royals to intervene and tell the Press to stop with the unfair, inaccurate, false stories that definitely have a racial slant’.
Ms King, 66, who is also close friends with Oprah, failed to give any examples of the stories she was referring to, but added that Meghan has ‘documents to back up everything that she said on Oprah’s interview’.
The broadcaster’s comments came on the same day that Harry’s grandfather Prince Philip, 99, was reunited with the Queen at Windsor Castle after leaving King Edward VII’s Hospital in London following a 28 day-stay for treatment.
Ms King revealed on her radio show on US network SiriusXM: ‘Well, just so you know, they had done that interview before Prince Phillip went into the hospital.
‘If something, God forbid, had happened to him, the interview would not have run at this particular time. But the interview was done and was scheduled before he went into the hospital. But a lot of people have raised that point.
‘I think that Harry and Meghan both have been through so much for the past three years and they really have tried to work it out privately. They really have tried to get help, and nothing was working.’
The 39-year-old drove through London early today, after it emerged Prince William was said to be ‘concerned’ that private conversations with his brother will be ‘plastered over American TV’
The Duchess of Cambridge, 39, showcased her love for literal dressing yesterday as she donned a £260 shamrock charm necklace to wish the people of Ireland a happy St Patrick’s Day
The fact the Sussexes chose to reveal sensitive discussions between senior members of the Royal Family met with an icy response from Buckingham Palace.
‘None of the households [the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge] will be giving a running commentary on private conversations,’ said a senior royal source.
Prince William, when he was questioned by a TV reporter on a public engagement last Thursday, said he had not yet spoken to his younger brother, but vowed he would.
He also insisted the Royal Family were not racists after Meghan suggested there was an attempt to deprive Archie of a title and security because he was of mixed race.
The Queen responded to the Oprah interview with a deeply personal message and emphasised that from now on the difficulties would be addressed by the family privately.
Piers Morgan says Gayle King should stop ‘acting as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s PR mouthpiece’ and ask them about their ‘lies’ on Oprah
Piers Morgan has slammed American broadcaster Gayle King for acting as a ‘PR mouthpiece’ for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to ‘facilitate their ongoing public trashing of our Royal Family’.
The former Good Morning Britain host told the CBS This Morning presenter last night to do her ‘job as a journalist and ask them about all the lies they told’ in their interview with Oprah Winfrey after it aired on March 7.
Morgan, 55, who quit GMB last Tuesday after claiming he didn’t ‘believe a word’ Meghan Markle said during the conversation with the US chat show queen, added in a tweet last night: ‘America should hear THE truth.’
It comes after Miss King, 66, backed ITV’s stance over Morgan’s departure from GMB after he refused to apologise for his comments about Meghan, which led to the highest number of complaints in TV regulator Ofcom’s history.
She told her SiriusXM radio programme last Thursday: ‘Piers Morgan is no longer with a job. He stormed off the air after saying that I don’t believe that she had mental illness, I don’t believe she was suicidal.
‘They got over 41,000 calls of people weighing in to say that is not OK, that is not cool. And by the next day, he was out of a job. He said he resigned. I find that a little hard to believe when you had 41,000 calls.’
Former GMB host Piers Morgan (left, in West London last week) has slammed CBS This Morning broadcaster Gayle King (right)
Morgan criticised Miss King in a tweet last night, in which he accused her of ‘acting as your Sussex friends’ PR mouthpiece’
Miss King also referred to GMB weather presenter Alex Beresford, who was involved in the moment that saw Morgan walk out last week. She said: ‘And kudos to his co-anchor, they said it was the weather guy.
‘I wonder if he was the weather guy, but they described him as a weather guy, who spoke out and really let Piers have it on the air, and then Piers stormed off, and now Piers is no longer on the air there.’
More than 250,000 people have now signed three separate Change.org petitions demanding that Morgan – who also presented a show on CNN in the US from 2011 to 2014 – should be brought back to GMB.
During the same SiriusXM show last Thursday, Miss King, who is friends with both Meghan and Oprah, claimed the Sussexes had a deal with CBS and ITV to postpone their ‘bombshell’ interview if Prince Philip had died.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex in conversation with Oprah Winfrey in an interview first aired on CBS on March 7
ITV’s Good Morning Britain has lost nearly a third of its viewers since Piers Morgan left on Tuesday last week