Tensions are running high at Buckingham Palace as the top aides of the monarch were grasping at straws to stop a major leak from happening.
Three weeks ago, The Telegraph published a report in which Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were “at the heart of the King’s funeral plans”. The funeral plans of the monarch are code named as ‘London Bridge’.
The story about the ‘bridge plans’ was leaked by someone insider the Palace and it led to the a “huge censorship operation” to “contain the spill”, according to The Daily Beast.
New details reveal that the king’s most senior aide, Tobyn Andreae, “had a meltdown on the phone” to editors at the Telegraph, a reliably pro-monarchy publication, about its London Bridge story.
“These new details about London Bridge, including that Harry and Meghan will be invited for central roles and that the mourning period will be shortened, had found their way to the Telegraph exclusively,” said a well-placed Fleet Street source.
“There was a conversation with the palace’s communications team ahead of publication.”
Tobyn “was very, very, unhappy” as tried to convince the outlet to change the timing of the article with the outlet but the editors were determined to stick to their editorial independence. The top aide believed that the story was “premature”.
As the publication proceeded to publish the exclusive story, Tobyn, who met with the Sussexes top aides in an informal meeting in London last week, issued a warning to other newspapers about even quoting the Telegraph report.
The King’s aide did not confirm the accuracy of the claims but vehemently denied that there was any active funeral planning underway for the monarch getting weekly cancer treatments.
He noted in a series of WhatsApp messages, via The Daily Beast, that the report is “deeply distasteful in normal circumstances” but “downright offensive” given the King is doing well.
Tobyn warned the outlets that “no matter how ‘sensitively framed’” the article is, the Palace will “not assist media with operational planning” if newspapers published “speculative pieces about Bridges planning, whatever the source”.
The update comes after Tobyn was seen meeting the Duke of Sussex’s chief of staff and communications director, Meredith Maines, and the Sussexes’s U.K. spokesperson, Liam Maguire, at a London’s private club near Clarence House.
It is possible that the summit had been to discuss the security breach and how to deal with the new piece of information. Although, speculations of a reunion began after the meeting given that the monarch and his younger son have not been speaking since more than a year.
It remains to be seen how the events will unfold over the next few weeks until Harry touches down in London in September.