Dan Wootton - Will Harry and Meghan Destroy the Royal Family？
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Summary
In this week's episode of Gb News, we're joined by journalist and royal superfan Meghan Markle's good friend, journalist and all-round good bloke Harry Potter, to talk all things Meghan, Harry and Meghan. We discuss Meghan's relationship with Prince Harry, the royal family, Meghan and Harry's wedding and much, much more.
Transcript
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I don't believe any of the coverage of Meghan has anything to do with her race.
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And it's a narrative that a lot of people sadly create now
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in order to try and make them immune from criticism.
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look we've we've done the lockdown covid doom and gloom let's talk about something more
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light-hearted because you're a big fan of the celeb goss you love a bit of the royals as well
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megan and harry and this please forgive me for what will sound quite rightly as a slightly
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snobby question really yeah from me it's very unusual but why why do people care about that
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sort of stuff because you you love it and you're very good at covering it and when i'm on your show
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with we talk about it and there's always a you know with with harry and megan there's there's a
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bit of a political angle which we can talk about in a sec well why do people care about this sort
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of stuff more generally well it's interesting because you say i care and i obviously do care
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to a degree i i would say that the last couple of years has changed where i'm at though because
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obviously i was very in a celebrity focused world and i think a lot of people probably over the
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course the pandemic have reconsidered what's important and what we care about but obviously
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as a culture we care significantly about celebrities and about the royal family and
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i don't think there's anything wrong or shameful about that and actually you know one thing that i
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want to do with my show on gb news and it's something that i always would do at the sun
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as well as acknowledge that we can cover lots of different news and you don't demean something
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by also covering something that actually people are talking about. Because what is news? What is
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news? News is what people are talking about. So, you know, the Kardashians ending their
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e-reality show is news. You know, that is big news. They have changed pop culture. They have
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changed the way that we consume social media. They've genuinely changed the way a generation
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behaves so them ending that show to me is really significant news the royal family obviously you're
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completely right they take on a different dimension because everything they do is history
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it's history you know and it will be written about for decades and centuries to come because of the
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cultural structure we have in this country. And obviously, it's been an absolutely torrid and
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unprecedented time, the most unprecedented time for the royal family since the death of Princess
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Diana in 1997. And certainly for me as a teenager, when Princess Diana died, I was 14. I mean,
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you know, there are two news stories that I feel like define my teenage years. And obviously,
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one is 9-11 and the other is the death of princess diana you know it was such a moment for this
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country and such a moment in culture as well and it absolutely changed culture it changed
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uh our relationship with celebrities and and the royals but also changed how we are as brits because
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her death brought out a whole other sort of idea of expressing public emotion and feelings. And I
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think, if anything, it was sort of the end of the British stiff upper lip. And then, of course,
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you have Harry and Meghan. And what they represent, I think, is the woke culture coming
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to the royal family and my god it has been a culture clash like like none other it's interesting
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that you say that for me I think the reason that people latched on to it so much is because it
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represented the generational divide you have the divide of you know the queen philip duty country
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etc etc you put your role before yourself and then you have the woke which is you know it's about my
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feelings it's about how I see the world it's about protecting myself keeping myself safe
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and the two just they just don't fit do they no of course not of course not and Megan was a
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celebrity I mean not a huge celebrity but she was a c-list actress but the point is she understood
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the power of the media she understood the power of social media she absolutely understood the power
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of celebrity and she came in and blew it up she she she blew it up she didn't care about royal
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tradition I she said all of the right things at the start but her behavior behind the scenes and
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of course I was covering it very very closely and it was a fascinating period for me because
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obviously I'd been when Megan entered the royal family I'd just been editing the bizarre column
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which is the big celebrity showbiz column at The Sun and I'd left that and Megan entered and it was
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this fusion between royalty and celebrity so it was I was sort of perfectly placed really because I
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knew Megan's story and I knew people who knew Megan and I knew what sort of person she was and
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I knew how fame hungry she was and I knew all about her and to see her enter the royal family
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the royal family just literally unable to cope was just fascinating it was fascinating and you
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know I broke story after story about it and people cared you know people cared and obviously it
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culminated in me uh breaking the story of Megsit and you know she they released their statement
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announcing they were leaving the royal family about you know eight hours after I'd broken
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the story so it was it was a crazy barrier and dan so we're talking about the royal family we're
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talking about megxit we're also talking about the escapades of prince andrew are we seeing the slow
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death of the royal family because i think for myself once the queen dies that's a major question
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we're going to ask ourselves as a nation what is what is the purpose of this family yeah guys we're
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going to cheer up this episode after 40 minutes of lockdown by talking about the sovereign dying
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No, I really don't think we're witnessing the death of the royal family, but I do think the
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royal family is in crisis. I don't think it's an existential crisis, but I think it's a crisis
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and it's a big crisis. And the publication of Prince Harry's book next year is a bomb that is
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about to go off and everyone knows it. Prince Charles knows it. Prince William knows it. Camilla
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knows it. And it's going to be very significant. It's going to be very, very significant. And I
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don't think he could bring the royal family down but he could do more damage to the royal family
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is he going to name the royal racist what's he going to say about his relationship with camilla
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what's he going to say about his dad and it's obviously very different to the situation with
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princess diana because princess diana wanted to bring her husband down and she wanted to bring
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camilla down but she didn't want to bring the royal family down and the institution down
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and i sent something quite different with harry and megan there's something quite republican
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about their actions and that's really quite disturbing because what the royal family is
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they have no idea what's coming they have no way to control this couple and prince harry knows
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everything and i don't get the sense that he wants to hold back in this book i i mean i know
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i've obviously reported on them very closely over the past couple of years my expectation is that
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um they'll be very careful not to say anything that could look offensive to the queen or prince
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philip but outside of that i think um it's game on gloves are off gloves so so you you talk about
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knowing meg people who know megan and being familiar with so what's the dynamics there like
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because people talk about she's come in and she's kind of taken him to a different place mentally
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or sort of almost taken advantage like what's the dynamics there in your opinion well look i've
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always said i don't believe you can blame megan you know harry's the prince isn't he harry's the
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prince he's the one that had all of the power i don't think you can blame megan she's had a huge
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influence on him she's clearly a very manipulative human being and uh she's got him and I think look
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I I judge people a bit I know everyone's situation is different but I do judge people a bit based on
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who's in their life from their childhood both in terms of family and and friends and school
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friends and I know in my life so I just think about me you know my family and my friends from
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school are everything to me because they know me better than anyone else and my goodness they would
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be the first people I would have at my wedding at any cost you know and Megan had her mum she had
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her mum and every other person who was with her at that wedding were friends that she had made
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post becoming famous in suits you know so the PR for Burberry and the membership manager at Soho
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house you know that's that's a very particular type of human being isn't it and you know I've
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got to know Megan's sister Samantha and she's had a lot of flack but I got to know her very early on
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and what I would say is that everything that Samantha was saying and at the time remember
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she was just accused of being a troll you know but everything that Samantha warned has turned
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out to be true you know don't let her in harry she's going to tear you away from your own family
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and that's what's happened that's what's happened you know harry doesn't have a connection with his
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own family now apart from his grandmother really and megan doesn't have a connection with her own
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family apart from her mother so i mean it's a fascinating dynamic it's a fascinating story
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at the end of the day they can do what they want now but why do they still have HRH titles I don't
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get that I just that's what I don't get why does Meghan release a book and say Meghan the Duchess
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of Sussex you know if she meant what she says about not caring about the royal family wanting
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to be her own person wanting to be a modern feminist then surely it should be Meghan Markle
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That's what I don't get, that everything they do
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Do you think that the criticism of Meghan was based in racism?
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Because there's a lot of people who go, look, right,
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And then you look at Prince, you know, allegedly,
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with his best mate Epstein flying around the world.
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So I'll tackle Andrew and then the racism, if that's okay.
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So Prince Andrew, the media, and I get it all the time.
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People say to me, why are you not covering Andrew as much as Meghan?
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specifically my old newspaper, The News of the World,
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which spent weeks and weeks exposing Prince Andrew's relationship
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with Jeffrey Epstein. Without the media, there would be absolutely no knowledge of what Prince
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Andrew did with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. Every single revelation about Prince Andrew has been
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entirely driven by British newspapers. So the News of the World, the Mail on Sunday, the Sun
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primarily. And for a long time, the establishment and the royal family just wanted to ignore that
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story. They just wanted it to go away. There was no desire to bring down Prince Andrew. It was only
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reporting from British newspapers that exposed the story in the first place. And then, of course,
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it was the catastrophic car crash interview by the BBC with Prince Andrew that actually forced
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the Queen's hand and finally got him sacked from the royal family. So this idea that the British
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media has somehow tried to protect Prince Andrew, it's just laughably untrue. And you can probably
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talent makes me really angry because it's a narrative that's used by Megan supporters and
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it's just so wrong uh the second point on the racism I'm also really passionate about because
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I covered that wedding and you know I was there at at Windsor and I've never seen other than the
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2012 Olympics. I've genuinely never seen the country more united or happy or more celebratory.
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Oh my God, we got behind Meghan. The British public loved this woman. We totally embraced
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the idea of a multicultural royal family. The whole country stopped that day for their wedding.
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There were street parties. You know, I remember going to one after the wedding. Everyone was on
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cloud nine. The newspapers ran page after page after page about how incredible Meghan was,
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about the potential impact that she would have on the royal family. You know, Meghan never wanted
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it to work. She never wanted it to work. And she always was trying to construct a narrative
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of racist coverage of her. And I find it craven and weird and sad because it doesn't exist.
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you know literally people point to one headline about avocados and one headline that referenced
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that movie what is it you know um compton you know um straight out of compton referring to the
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fact that she was from a particular area and actually if you go and read that article i think
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it was by rachel johnson you know boris johnson's sister it was actually a broadly positive article
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but huge amount of negative press about Kate Middleton.
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And also I can't remember, and I don't want to get it wrong
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because of the libel laws that you talked about,
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but some tabloid journalist on Question Time talking about coverage of her
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But he said literally, and I remember this because even I was slightly
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He went, look, all she needs to do, right, is go out there,
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And I was like, she was getting slammed pretty hard
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just for like trying to have some semblance of a private life.
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Yeah, and there's a history of this in terms of female,
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outsider females entering the royal family princess diana i mean hardly an outsider but
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but you know what i'm saying she wasn't a member of the royal family uh sarah ferguson fergie
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coverage of her absolutely brutal duchess of pork you know negative headline after negative headline
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sophie wessex you know exposed by the news of the world and a sting by the fake shake
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all of these princesses that enter the royal family got bad coverage so look i'm not defending
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that maybe we need to have a broader look about how we treat females entering the royal family
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as a society but to claim that it's racism because the same thing happened to megan is just wrong
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and actually you know being there reporting it for the whole time it took a long time before any
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negative reporting happened about megan i probably was one of the journalists that started it but it
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was based on her behaviour. So I broke, and it was very difficult to do at the time,
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because all of the coverage of Meghan had been positive, this is a thing, but I broke
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a story, and it became known as Tiara Gate, and it might look small in the scheme of things now,
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but at the time it was very significant, because I was the first person to break that basically
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the Queen had warned Harry about Meghan's behaviour and it had all come from this bust
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up before the wedding about Meghan wanting to wear a particular tiara which the Queen
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didn't want to lend her, which feels very royal and ridiculous, doesn't it? But within
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that story, I also revealed that Kate and Meghan had fallen out over the way that Meghan
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was speaking to staff at Kensington Palace. And we now know there were bullying claims against her
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on the record to the HR team at the Royal Family. I mean, the point that I'm making is
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these are not stories constructed by the media. You know, the media was reporting what was going
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on behind the scenes. And it actually took many, many months for us to uncover what was going on.
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And I think there's a lot that was going on that still hasn't been reported on because
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the bar that you have to reach to report on the goings-on behind the scenes of the royal family
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is very high, you know, it's very high because you're under a lot of pressure as a journalist
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if you get anything wrong connected to the royal family. So yeah, so that's a very long-winded way
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of saying I don't believe any of the coverage of Meghan has anything to do with her race.
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nothing absolutely nothing it's a narrative that she has created and it's a narrative that a lot
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of people sadly create now in order to try and make them um immune from criticism which i think
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is quite dangerous is it not it is it is very very very dangerous because it'd be like me saying
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you can't criticize me because i'm gay because if you criticize me it must be homophobic
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that's literally where megan is at but it's a tool of choice as we now know for quite a lot
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of people and what's interesting to me uh i am not someone who's paid almost any attention to
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to this stuff but i mean let's start with the fact i am darker than megan markle right so the
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idea that people are you know i remember that wedding and i actually remember thinking this
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is a bit over the top here to be honest how we were just like obsessing about this wedding and
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blah, blah, blah. It looked to me like she got pretty good coverage, but quite a few people
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actually, you know, lost jobs or, or got into trouble by making the comments that you've just
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made. And I don't think you will now, but there was a moment in time where I think Piers Morgan
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got in and God knows I disagree with Piers Morgan and a lot of stuff, but he got into a lot of
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trouble in my view, unfairly. Lawrence Fox got into a lot of trouble for again, making the same
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point like why why was there this just desire to tear down anyone who made the point that you just
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made well yeah I think because the narrative became that if you were criticizing Meghan
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Markle you were racist and Piers accused her of lying in the Oprah interview and it was particularly
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hot and heightened because ITV had become a big proponent of mental health which is very ironic
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But that'd become a big public proponent of mental health.
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A lawyer just breathed out a sigh of relief, mate.
00:21:04.100
But, you know, it's provable that Meghan told a number of lies
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And Pears lost his job or he left because he refused to apologise.
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after Meghan directly complained, we believe, to the chief executive of ITV.
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Do we live in a world where, because you're a princess
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and because you claim you've suffered from mental health issues,
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I mean, isn't the job of journalists to expose public figures
00:21:50.540
Not anymore, Dan. And on that wonderfully upbeat note, thank you so much for coming on the show.
00:21:55.740
We're going to be asking some locals questions. But our last question is always, what's the one
00:22:01.000
thing we're not talking about, but we really should be? Well, I think this is probably quite
00:22:05.940
a curveball based on everything we've been talking about during the show, because it's
00:22:09.360
not related to any of it. But I think it is about tech addiction. I'm absolutely convinced it's going
00:22:17.000
to become one of the most important stories over the next 20 years I think I'm addicted to my phone
00:22:25.500
right in a way that is genuinely quite scary and I think for young people that have grown up
00:22:33.420
literally from two years old not doing anything other than touching technology from the moment
00:22:42.720
they wake up to the moment they go to bed, there's going to be a whole load of mental health and
00:22:49.080
societal challenges around that. And we just don't talk about it, do we? But everything now that we
00:22:54.440
need in our life is contained very often in a phone. And it's breaking down lots of social
00:23:01.820
interaction in society. It's causing lots of relationship difficulties. And yeah, I think
00:23:08.080
tech addiction is something that I mean you you see companies like Apple sort of are aware that
00:23:14.240
this is going to become a big issue which is why they've introduced things like screen time where
00:23:19.080
they tell you how much time you've spent on your phone but I see it doesn't stop me doing it you
00:23:24.380
know just because I know I'm addicted it doesn't mean I'm not addicted do you see what I mean and
00:23:28.760
and I think it's going to become a huge issue for the big tech companies and also social media as
00:23:36.780
well because all of them play in play into each other so how do we still use technology and harness
00:23:43.960
the brilliance of technology without losing the importance of human interaction and and what that
00:23:50.680
brings us all and I think especially with the pandemic and having people especially young
00:23:57.400
people locked up at home for the past two years I think uh the ramifications from it are huge and
00:24:04.720
But at the moment, it's just not being covered.
00:24:15.340
So I'm at Dan Wooten on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram.
00:24:19.700
And of course, your GB News show reminds people where...
00:24:22.000
Yeah, and GB News Tonight Live is on 9pm till midnight,
00:24:27.540
And of course, Constantine, you're with me every Thursday night.
00:24:29.660
so if you're a fan of trigonometry and you want a bit extra dose of constant tea you've got to
00:24:34.600
join us on thursday and gb news you can download the app wherever you are in the world as well so
00:24:38.280
you don't even have to be in the uk and it's free fantastic dan thanks so much for coming on thank
00:24:43.060
you and thank you for watching at home and listening at home we will see you very soon
00:24:47.100
with another brilliant episode like this one or a raw show all of them go out 7 p.m uk time which
00:24:52.860
is 2 p.m eastern take care and see you soon see you soon guys we hope you've enjoyed this
00:24:59.080
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