Ephraim Hardcastle
MEGXIT negotiations on whether Harry and Meghan will be obliged to pay rent on Frogmore Cottage are being monitored avidly by Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Currently paying an estimated £120,000 a year for their Kensington Palace apartment, they enjoyed 30 years of peppercorn rates before the Queen implemented commercial tariffs in 2010. Should the Sussexes secure a bargainbasement rent for their Windsor bolthole, will there be weeping and gnashing of teeth from the Kents?
WHAT became of Meghan’s British citizenship? Following her pre- marriage embrace of the Church of England, Kensington Palace confirmed her British passport application with no special treatment. However, the residency requirement demanding that no one be out of the country for more than 90 days in a year suggests this ship has sailed.
FERGIE, pictured, mused on Canadian TV in 2009 about her marriage, claiming there was official talk of Andrew being made the Queen’s representative in Canada, explaining: ‘We could have been Governor of Canada living in Ottawa. It would have kept us together and we would probably be together now.’ A grim harbinger for the Sussexes?
ALREADY revealed as Edward III’s descendent, oafish EastEnder Danny Dyer appears on the BBC next week claiming he is the 26-times great-grandson of French king Louis IX. ‘We should be kind to Harry and Meghan,’ he pontificates. ‘They don’t wanna know, but I am a royalist. I suppose I have to be, they are part of my blood.’ To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: You’d have to possess a heart of stone not to laugh.
FINGERS crossed that Tom Watson’s forthcoming political thriller The House does better than fellow Westminster scribe Iain Duncan Smith’s The Devil’s Tune. It sold 18 copies in its first week.
HARRY and Meghan have been invited to Rathfinny vineyard in East Sussex to toast the success of new local wine Sussex Sparkling. Says Rathfinny’s Millie Driver: ‘We trademarked it before Sussex Royal and thanks to Harry and Meghan it’s now known worldwide and we’ll be launching the brand in the US.’
WHEN BBC Radio 4 Today anchor Nick Robinson accepted England Rugby League tickets on air, colleague Sarah Smith interjected mischievously, ‘That was just a naked plea for free tickets – absolutely transparent!’, prompting Nick to cringe: ‘Let me make it clear, if there’s money to be paid, it will be paid... or suitable funds will be given to charity.’
HAS Evan Davis outed himself as anti Archers? Reacting to a Radio 4 PM listener who’s home-alone dog howled ‘like a banshee’ when The Archers began, he quipped: ‘Ah, lots of people are like that as well.’