Kate Middleton stands by Prince William as royal doors close on Prince Harry after years of tension: Report
Kate Middleton is standing firmly by Prince William's side as tensions with Prince Harry continue to grow, royal experts say.
Despite their once-close bond, the Princess of Wales reportedly has no intention of reaching out to her brother-in-law, choosing instead to support her husband through what insiders describe as a painful family rift.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, royal commentator Kinsey Schofield said Catherine has remained loyal to William and feels deeply hurt by Harry's behaviour since stepping back from royal duties.
Schofield said, 'Catherine has been nothing but supportive of her husband – and that's exactly why Prince William is so deeply hurt. But what cuts the deepest is Harry's treatment of Catherine. She's always loved him, always treated him like a little brother. That's the betrayal William won't forget.'
The once-warm relationship between Kate and Harry is said to have soured following his public criticism of the royal family. 'Catherine and Harry shared a fun humour and were often seen giggling together at events,' said British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard.
'But she was dragged into the negative narrative, which was a real smack round the face for a kind sister-in-law who tried to be the peacemaker,' Helena added.
Chard added that Kate was genuinely pleased when Harry found love with Meghan Markle, and embraced the new dynamic. 'She was thrilled that Prince Harry seemed genuinely happy,' Chard noted. 'But now, she [silently] cannot understand why he still won't bite his tongue.'
Royal experts also claim that Prince William and Prince Harry are not currently in contact. King Charles III, their father, reportedly isn't responding to Harry's calls or letters either, as the royal divide appears more settled than ever.
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The Hindu
14 minutes ago
- The Hindu
'Day of the Jackal' author Frederick Forsyth dies at 86
Frederick Forsyth, the British author of 'The Day of the Jackal" and other bestselling thrillers, has died after a brief illness, his literary agent said Monday (June 9, 2025). He was 86. Jonathan Lloyd, his agent, said Forsyth died at home early Monday surrounded by his family. 'We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers," Mr. Lloyd said. Born in Kent, in southern England, in 1938, Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent. He covered the attempted assassination of French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962, which provided inspiration for 'The Day of the Jackal,' his bestselling political thriller about a professional assassin. Published in 1971, the book propelled him into global fame. It was made into a film in 1973 starring Edward Fox as the Jackal and more recently a television series starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch. In 2015, Forsyth told the BBC that he had also worked for the British intelligence agency MI6 for many years, starting from when he covered a civil war in Nigeria in the 1960s. Although Forsyth said he did other jobs for the agency, he said he was not paid for his services and 'it was hard to say no' to officials seeking information. 'The zeitgeist was different,' he told the BBC. 'The Cold War was very much on.' He wrote more than 25 books including 'The Afghan,' 'The Kill List,' 'The Dogs of War" and 'The Fist of God" that have sold over 75 million copies, Mr. Lloyd said. His publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr, said that 'Revenge of Odessa,' a sequel to the 1974 book 'The Odessa File" that Forsyth worked on with fellow thriller author Tony Kent, will be published in August. 'Still read by millions across the world, Freddie's thrillers define the genre and are still the benchmark to which contemporary writers aspire,' Scott-Kerr said.
Time of India
19 minutes ago
- Time of India
Frederick Forsyth Death: 10 remarkable facts about the master storyteller—that seem fake
When Frederick Forsyth passed on to Elysium on June 9, 2025, at the age of 86, it marked the end of a literary era that fused storytelling with surveillance, narrative with national security. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now His novels didn't just entertain—they instructed. They didn't merely imagine what could go wrong in the corridors of power—they reverse-engineered how it might happen, step by meticulous step. Forsyth's life was as compelling as his fiction: a Royal Air Force pilot, a war reporter censored by the BBC, an MI6 asset, and a bestselling novelist whose understanding of realpolitik was sharp enough to worry governments. He wrote thrillers, yes—but thrillers with classified undertones. Here are ten remarkable facts about the man who turned geopolitics into gripping fiction and fiction into geopolitical insight. 1. He Rewired the Modern Thriller into a Machine Before Forsyth, spy thrillers were either romanticised (James Bond) or psychological (George Smiley). He introduced a third way: technical, procedural, and deeply embedded in the machinery of statecraft. His prose was efficient, his plots logical to the point of inevitability, and his characters often secondary to the operation itself. In his novels, tension came from the detail: the timing of a train, the forging of a passport, the exact dimensions of a rifle part hidden in a suitcase. Plot was king. Emotion, a luxury. 2. He Was a Fighter Pilot Before He Was a Reporter Forsyth joined the Royal Air Force at 19 and flew de Havilland Vampire jets during his national service in the 1950s. At one point, he was the youngest pilot in the RAF. This early training in discipline, focus, and logistics would later become the framework for his fiction. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now His novels are structured like flight plans: precise, pre-checked, and unflinching in their execution. 3. He Quit the BBC When It Tried to Suppress His Reports on Genocide As the BBC's Africa correspondent during the Nigerian Civil War, Forsyth was horrified by what he saw in Biafra: starvation, massacres, and a humanitarian crisis unfolding in slow motion. But the BBC, under government pressure, censored his dispatches. Disgusted, he resigned. He later published The Biafra Story in 1969—a brutally honest account that accused the British state of complicity in war crimes. That break with institutional media shaped his career. Fiction, he realised, could sometimes speak where journalism was gagged. 4. He Wrote The Day of the Jackal in 35 Days on a £500 Gamble In 1970, unemployed and living in a modest flat, Forsyth decided to fictionalise a failed real-life plot to kill French President Charles de Gaulle. He wrote The Day of the Jackal in just over a month, relying on research, precision, and instinct. The book had no named protagonist, no dramatic arc, and a known outcome. Still, it became a bestseller, selling over 10 million copies, winning awards, and becoming a film. It also became required reading for intelligence trainees, thanks to its detailed depiction of clandestine operations. 5. He Fooled Real Mercenaries to Research The Dogs of War To write The Dogs of War, Forsyth orchestrated a fictional coup in a fictional African country. He recruited real mercenaries, mapped out logistics, arranged weapons shipments, and led them to believe they were about to topple a real regime. Only at the last moment did he reveal the operation was fake—a research exercise for a novel. The mercenaries were furious. The book, meanwhile, became a classic. It exposed how corporations could exploit post-colonial instability to stage regime change. 6. He Was an MI6 Asset for Over Two Decades Forsyth confirmed in 2015 what had long been rumoured: that he had worked as an informal asset for MI6 for more than twenty years. His global travel, his journalist's cover, and his instinct for detail made him a valuable cut-out. He wasn't a spy in the cinematic sense. He didn't kill, carry arms, or steal secrets. He observed. He reported. He blended in. And, occasionally, he wrote fiction that came uncomfortably close to fact. 7. He Was Reportedly Involved in South Africa's Nuclear Disarmament Talks During the late 1980s, Forsyth travelled frequently to Southern Africa, particularly Rhodesia and apartheid-era South Africa. It has been reported—though never officially confirmed—that he acted as an intermediary in backchannel discussions about nuclear disarmament. According to sources close to British intelligence, Forsyth offered informal counsel to South African officials on the logistics and diplomatic value of dismantling their nuclear arsenal. In 1989, South Africa began the process, becoming the first nation in history to voluntarily give up nuclear weapons. 8. He Sold Over 75 Million Books, All Written by Hand Forsyth never used ghostwriters or research assistants. He wrote every sentence himself—often in longhand. His bibliography spans more than 20 books, translated into 30 languages and read by presidents, spymasters, and soldiers. From The Odessa File to The Fist of God, his novels exposed war crimes, arms trafficking, the drug trade, and terrorist financing. Several prompted concern from Western governments due to their alarming accuracy. 9. He Predicted Putin's Rise in Icon In 1996, Forsyth published Icon, a novel set in a post-Soviet Russia teetering on collapse. The villain is Igor Komarov, a former KGB officer turned populist nationalist who conceals a secret manifesto outlining his plan to restore authoritarian rule. Three years later, Vladimir Putin took power. The novel, once considered far-fetched, now reads like prophecy. Forsyth didn't just write thrillers—he extrapolated trends. He saw Russia's future before most analysts did. 10. He Had a Dalliance With an Eastern Bloc Spy In his 2015 memoir The Outsider, Forsyth admitted to a brief romance in his youth with a woman later revealed to be an agent for the Czech secret police. He described it as a lapse in judgement, though he learned quickly how intelligence agencies use relationships to extract information. Like many of his protagonists, Forsyth learned his lessons the hard way—and wrote them down for others to read. The Final Dispatch Frederick Forsyth didn't just redefine the thriller. He redefined the relationship between writer and truth. His stories were thrilling because they were possible. His villains were terrifying because they were plausible. His style was cool, exact, unsentimental—yet layered with meaning for those willing to pay attention. He believed that good fiction could explain bad politics. That well-constructed lies could reveal hidden truths. And that sometimes, a novelist was more useful to a nation than a dozen diplomats. He is gone now. But his books remain—quiet, exact, and dangerous in the best possible way.
India Today
4 hours ago
- India Today
Frederick Forsyth, author of ‘The Day of the Jackal, dies at 86
Frederick Forsyth, the renowned British novelist best known for his international bestseller The Day of the Jackal, died on Monday at the age of 86. His agent, Jonathan Lloyd, confirmed that Forsyth passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by family, following a brief illness.'We are sad to have lost one of the world's finest thriller writers,' Lloyd said in a in Kent, England, in 1938, Forsyth began his career as a pilot for the Royal Air Force before transitioning to journalism. As a foreign correspondent, he covered major global events, including the 1962 attempt on the life of French President Charles de Gaulle — an incident that would later inspire his breakout novel. Forsyth achieved instant fame with the release of The Day of the Jackal in 1971, a gripping political thriller about a professional assassin hired to kill de Gaulle. The novel became a global phenomenon and was adapted into a 1973 film starring Edward Fox. A recent television adaptation features Eddie Redmayne and Lashana his prolific career, Forsyth authored more than 25 novels, including The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Fist of God, The Kill List, and The Afghan. His books have sold over 75 million copies Role in British IntelligenceIn a 2015 BBC interview, Forsyth indicated he had been cooperating with British intelligence service MI6 during his years as a journalist. He stated that he was never remunerated for his assistance but was frequently asked to deliver information, especially during the Cold Bill Scott-Kerr said Forsyth's last book, Revenge of Odessa, a sequel to The Odessa File written with author Tony Kent will be published in August.'Freddie's thrillers are iconic,' Scott-Kerr said. 'They set the genre and inspire new generations of writers.'(With inputs from Associated Press)
