STRESSFUL.. BUT NO SIGN OF BULLYING Queen’s duty for big day
Sir Alex also worried about his memory after brain op
MEGHAN Markle’s pal Omid Scobie says he knew her staff felt “frazzled, stressed and on-edge” working for her and Prince Harry but says he never saw or heard anything that suggested the Duchess was bullying.
Scobie, who wrote the couple’s controversial biography Finding Freedom, also added that working for the royal household could be unpleasant and this is not the first
time staff have felt battered and bruised working for a family member.
Leaping to Meghan’s defence, Scobie said: “I have my own personal experience of working alongside and getting to know many of the people that the couple worked with.
“I heard stories about people being stressed and on edge and completely frazzled by the work environment, because this was a time when staff
CHAT QUEEN: Winfrey
THE Queen will call for unity across the Commonwealth shortly before Harry and Meghan’s TV appearance.
The monarch is joined by other senior royals, including Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to emphasise putting duty first.
They all take part in A Celebration for Commonwealth Day – a special programme on BBC One at 5pm today.
Eight hours later US chat queen Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Harry and Meghan will be screened at
1am UK time.
The Queen will receive a breakfast briefing on the main points after her most trusted aides watch the two-hour show.
A source said: “Palace staffers will be going through every phrase forensically.
Sadness
“The Queen will be delivered a detailed report of the interview in the morning before holding meetings with her most senior and closest advisers.”
British diplomats in Washington are also expected to watch the programme live and to report on the reaction among Americans.
Commonwealth Day falls tomorrow this year and, in her annual message, the Queen will pay tribute to the way in which communities across the 54 nations have come together in response to the pandemic.
A palace source said: “It was a great sadness that the usual celebration at Westminster Abbey could not go ahead this year due to the pandemic but the Queen was determined to make the best of it.”
Earlier she was pictured walking past Commonwealth flags in St George’s Chapel at Windsor – wearing a brooch as a reminder of Prince Philip.
The chrysanthemum brooch, made from sapphires and diamonds set in platinum, was seen on their honeymoon in 1947 and has been worn on wedding anniversaries since.
SIR Alex Ferguson yesterday revealed that he feared he would never be able to speak again after a brain haemorrhage in 2018.
The ex-manchester United boss, 79, also admitted worrying that he could lose his memory following emergency surgery.
The record-breaking football manager, recalling his post-op recovery, said: “I lost my voice, just could not get a word out, and that was terrifying – absolutely terrifying. Everything was going through my mind. Is my memory going to come back? Am I ever going to speak again?” A speech therapist helped him to work through exercises – which included making him recall every member of his teams – and his voice came back after 10 days. His confession came after the premiere of documentary Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, directed by his son Jason.
In the film, shot as he recovered from his op, he recounts his life’s most important stories – both in and out of football.
Sir Alex, who retired in 2013, opened up about his feelings during a virtual Q&A alongside Jason after the Glasgow Film
Festival screening. The Glasgow-born football legend also spoke of the hard-line determination that drove him to succeed.
Sir Alex was notorious for his raging blasts – know as the “hairdryer treatment” – at under-performing players.
He said: “My mindset in every game of football was to win. That was the only thing that mattered.”
ANT Middleton is planning to “do a Jeremy Clarkson” after his exit from TV hit SAS: Who Dares Wins.
The special forces veteran, 40, was rocked when Channel 4 said it would not work with him again over his “personal conduct”.
He says he was quitting anyway – and now hopes to return to TV on a streaming service.
Clarkson was sacked from the BBC’S Top Gear but landed a lucrative deal on Amazon
Prime’s show The Grand Tour. Now Ant is set to approach production companies with a web TV format. An insider said: “Ant feels there is the possibility to emulate what Clarkson did.
“He thinks there’s an audience for another military action hero-style show where he can be his authentic self. Ant has ideas he has been mooting to production companies.”
Ant says SAS: Who Dares
Wins had become a
“managed and inauthentic reality show”. Last year, he apologised after a tweet about Black Lives Matter which he says was misconstrued. C4 has said it will not work with him again as their “views and values are not aligned”.
Meanwhile, it was yesterday reported four women who worked with Ant claimed he made “lewd and suggestive comments” on the show’s set. His spokesman said he “wholeheartedly and emphatically
rejects” the allegations.