Cruel hoax and Sussex Squad ruined my life, says royal expert
Pranksters cost me a new contract and thousands in income, says daughter of Queen’s former media boss
THE daughter of the Queen’s former press secretary is threatening to sue two pranksters who tricked her into commenting on Oprah Winfrey’s interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex before it aired.
Victoria Arbiter was dropped by CNN, the US television news channel that kept her on retainer as a royal commentator in the wake of the hoax.
She says she has lost virtually all her income, as well as suffering horrific online abuse from the “Sussex Squad”, the internet group that supports the Duke and his wife.
Ms Arbiter was branded a “Nazi Barbie”, a “toxic racist liar” and “Apartheid Vicky” by the supporters, who also urged CNN to sack her.
Ms Arbiter had not seen the interview, but told the hoaxers in a YouTube video: “She [Oprah] did ask the tough questions. But at the same time I think she did ask those questions in a sympathetic light.”
Asked if Ms Winfrey infrey had given the Duke and Duchess chess an “easy ride” because they y are friends, Ms Arbiter said: “Certainly.”
She says the YouTube video the hoaxers rs posted was heavily edited, ted, omitting parts where e she had been uncomfortable table and declined to comment. ment.
Ms Arbiter, 48, who lives in New York, is now w considering legal action against inst the London-based pranksters. ksters. She said: “They set out ut to have a laugh and make money and destroyed my life.”
Archie Manners, 29, a Radley College-educated descendant of the Duke of Rutland, and South African-born Josh Pieters, 28, conned Ms Arbiter and three other royal commentators into giving their thoughts on the interview two days before it was broadcast. Among other victims was Ms Arbiter’s father Dickie, a former press secretary to the Queen. Ms Arbiter was told she was taking part in a programme to be aired on ITV after the interview but the makers needed a pre-record. She says such interviews are industry practice. In sections edited out of the hoax interview, Ms Arbiter says, she declined to comment at times, pointing out she did not know what was in the broadcast. Other comments, she said, were based on clips of the Sussex interview already trailed by the broadcasters. When the hoax was broadcast on YouTube, she added, she realised she had been tricked. A few days later, CNN, which paid her an annual retainer for eight years, cancelled an offer of a new contract.
“Archie and Josh sowed the seed and then wilfully allowed the Sussex Squad to do its worst,” said Ms Arbiter. “The onslaught was relentless. I’ve lost 15 months’ worth of income not to mention future opportunities and I’m on the cusp of losing my home.”
Ms Arbiter has now been removed from the video after her lawyers complained. But she says say the damage has already been done. do
Mr Pieters, Mr Manners and their agent did d not responded to a request for comment last week.
But, they previously told The Guardian Guar they had “wondered whether people would say th things that weren’t necessarily necessari true to purely jump on the buzz of this Harry and Meghan interview, intervi and it turned out that they would”. They insisted they th weren’t leading in the commentators to but simply asking “broad stroke questions y you simply cannot an answer if you have no not seen the intervie view”.