Sussexes wait on deal as aides hit a snag
Private visits to two charities in Vancouver were made public only after the event
A DEAL on the future of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex failed to materialise last night as senior aides were said to have hit a stumbling block.
Royal sources had suggested an announcement was imminent after the Queen demanded a swift return to “business as usual”.
However, hopes of a deal were dashed when a Buckingham Palace spokesman said the details had not yet been signed off. Private secretaries for the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex have been working to secure a historic agreement.
Talks are understood to be focused on key issues such as the Sussexes’ security, their use of Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate, and their titles, as well as the potential commercial work they might undertake.
Meanwhile, Palace sources confirmed that staff based at Frogmore
Cottage had been “redeployed” to other parts of the royal estate, suggesting the couple were not expected to return to the UK to live in a “meaningful” way.
The Duke of Sussex has a series of private meetings scheduled over the coming days but is expected to join his young family on Vancouver Island later next week. Aides are thought to be keen to finalise a deal before he leaves.
‘We wanted to make sure that we could properly capture our meaning and that we were ready to handle the inevitable calls that we would be receiving’
If the case goes to trial, it is likely that Thomas Markle will testify against his daughter and the Duchess will give evidence
THE Duchess of Sussex could not have been clearer this week in expressing her intentions.
The message was loud and clear – she is going to do things her own way, with her own “team”, who will carefully control her image and determine what is presented (and how) to the world.
Having left her husband, the Duke of Sussex, 35, in the UK to begin the complex negotiations over their breakaway from the Royal family, the Duchess wasted no time in getting down to business, visiting two charities in Vancouver – Justice For Girls and the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre.
These were “private” visits and as such, did not appear on the Court Circular. They did however, by no accident, appear in the public domain.
Zoe Craig-sparrow, a co-director of Justice For Girls, which “promotes health, well-being, equal rights and freedom from violence for teenage girls who live in poverty”, has revealed that photographs taken of the Duchess with members of her staff were taken by one of her “team”.
The visit was made public only when the charity published those pictures on Twitter and only when the Duchess had apparently approved the text and given them the green light.
Asked whether they had run the tweets past their royal visitor, Ms Craig-sparrow told The Daily Telegraph: “Yeah, and we wanted to ensure that what we were putting forward was an accurate representation of the meeting – we thought it went really well, but obviously we want to make sure that was reciprocated.”
On why the tweet was delayed for almost a day, she added: “It was really important to us that it’s a positive working relationship, and really addressing the issues was important. Not getting it out as soon as possible. We wanted to make sure that we could properly capture our meaning and that we were ready to handle the inevitable calls that we would be receiving.”
During the visit, the Duchess was presented with an 18ct gold whale tail necklace worth around £1,300 designed by Hollie Bartlett, a First Nations artist, and immediately donned it for a photograph.
Miss Bartlett, who is a member of the Haisla Nation, hand-picked the piece from her collection at
Vancouver’s Douglas Reynolds Gallery. Justice for Girls revealed details of the visit the day after another charity, the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, revealed that it too had enjoyed an unannounced visit from the Duchess on Tuesday, the day after the Sandringham summit convened by the Queen to discuss the Sussexes’ future.
Kate Gibson, director of the refuge, revealed she had received a “mysterious” email from a Hotmail account from an “assistant” to the Duchess, asking if a VIP could drop in the following day. The visit was apparently designed to “offer support” and to “boost the staff ’s spirits”.
It emerged yesterday that the Duchess, 38, did not visit the refuge itself or meet with any of the hundreds of vulnerable women who use the facility but, rather, met staff at one of its administrative offices.
It is perhaps a coincidence that the refuge is linked to a charity initiative called the Shoebox Project, co-founded by Jessica Mulroney, one of her close friends.
Unusually, neither visit has been announced on the Sussex Royal Instagram account. But the manner in which they were orchestrated is indicative of how the Sussexes are likely to conduct themselves in the future. Their new rules of engagement, as outlined on their new
Sussex Royal website, will see traditional royal reporters cast aside in favour of “specialist media”, “young up-and-coming” reporters and outlets they consider “credible”.
The website was launched 10 days ago, just as the Sussexes announced that they planned to step back from their lives as senior royals and become financially independent.
But barely a week later, defence papers in the Duchess’s legal action against The Mail on Sunday for breach of privacy, copyright and data protection, were lodged at the High Court, laying bare her deteriorating relationship with her father.
If the case goes to trial, it is likely that Thomas Markle will testify against his daughter and the Duchess will be forced to give evidence in support of her claim. The action was ostensibly designed to protect the Duchess’s privacy after the newspaper published extracts of a letter she had sent to her father. But it looks likely to have the adverse effect, spilling intimate family secrets in court. It will also raise questions about the level of privacy that should be afforded to a couple who trade on their public image and use the media when it suits them.
The judge will be asked to examine whether the Duchess was an architect of her own breach of privacy with the defence alleging she allowed a coterie of close friends to speak to a US magazine on her behalf, revealing as they did so the existence of the letter.
The Mail on Sunday argues that the Duchess sent the handwritten missive “with a view to it being read by third parties and/or disclosed to the public,” describing it as “an admonishment” of her father.
Its defence documents allege that the letter was written to paint her and her previous conduct “in the best possible light”. The issues likely to be raised in the looming case will prompt questions about the timing of the Sussexes’ announcement that they no longer wish to receive public funding or remain senior members of the Royal family.
Meanwhile, as senior royals thrash out a blueprint for the Sussexes’ future, the Duchess was joined at her Canadian hideaway on Vancouver Island by Heather Dorak, a Pilates instructor and entrepreneur who she once described as a “little blonde guru”. The Duchess beamed as she drove herself to the airport to pick up her friend on Thursday, accompanied by a member of her security staff.
Many noted that she appeared delighted to be free of the royal confines that a friend has claimed she found “soul crushing”. It remains to be seen whether she ever will make a return to the UK and the “toxic environment” she so desperately wanted to escape.