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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Was this the moment Harry and Meghan realised they were no longer part of the Royal Family A-list?
It was dubbed a 'royal reunion' at the time, as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle united with the rest of the Royal Family for their first joint engagement in two years. But the Sussexes were kept apart from Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Charles and Camilla - and left separately. The Service of Thanksgiving for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee at St Paul's Cathedral, which took place on this day three years ago, came at a frosty time for Harry and his family. He had reportedly hardly seen his father and brother since emigrating to California with Meghan. The Duke of Sussex had accused Charles of cutting him off financially and Meghan claimed an unnamed royal made a comment about Archie's skin tone before he was born during their bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview the year prior. It was the first time Harry and Meghan had been on full public view alongside the Royal Family since they stepped down from official royal duties. Crowds cheered the pair as they arrived, with the couple smiling and waving, but both boos and cheers could be heard as they departed. And, although they would have known it had they seen their plummeting approval ratings in opinion polls, it was the first time they had to face up to the new reality that the public was turning against them. Harry was seated at the opposite side to his brother Prince William and the two did not speak at the St Paul's Cathedral service They arrived ten minutes before William and Kate and were seated to the right. When William and Kate arrived to loud cheers, they were whisked off to the left. The late Queen missed the historic event following a last-minute decision announced by Buckingham Palace after she experienced 'discomfort' during the Trooping the Colour parade the day before. The Duke of York was also absent after testing positive for Covid. Indicative of their new more minor position within the Royal Family, the Sussexes were seated in the second row, behind the Wessex family and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, with Harry next to Princess Eugenie 's husband Jack Brooksbank and Meghan next to Princess Margaret 's daughter Lady Sarah Chatto. Across the aisle, Charles and Camilla had seats beside them for William and Kate and the Princess Royal and her husband, Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence. Harry was seen appearing to enjoy a joke with someone seated across the aisle. Beatrice, sitting a few seats down from him, was also grinning in the same direction. But William was not pictured smiling throughout the ceremony and did not exchange words with his brother. Harry and Meghan previously told the Queen they would keep a low profile during the Jubilee celebrations and would only take part in official engagements. She reportedly 'ordered the family to come together' with 'no dramas' to overshadow the events. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (left) and the now Prince and Princess of Wales (right) outside St Paul's Cathedral on June 3, 2022 A source said at the time: 'It's a typically elegant solution as you would expect. The Queen wants her family there and they are still part of it. But in a carefully controlled fashion.' It was Harry and Meghan's first joint engagement with senior royals since the icy Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 - shortly before they officially stepped down as senior royals. The Daily Mail reported that the couple were upset to learn that they would not be permitted to join the Queen and other family members in the main VIP party. Instead, they were told they would have to make their own way to their seats at the front of the abbey, alongside the Earl and the Countess of Wessex, before the arrival of other senior royals. William and Kate stepped in to defuse the situation and offered to join 'emotional' Harry and Meghan as they waited in their seats for the Queen, Charles and Camilla to arrive. But not before 2,000 orders of service had been signed off and printed, which very clearly - and rather embarrassingly - placed William and Kate firmly as entering with the main royal party. And it seems that their 11th-hour olive branch did not ease the ill-feeling within the feuding family. As Kate and William arrived to take their seats, Kate appeared to blank Harry and Meghan, while the two brothers exchanged only the most awkward of hellos. Although Harry greeted his brother William with a smile, there was little interaction between them. The decision not to include the Sussexes was made by the Queen's office directly, led by her private secretary Edward Young, MailOnline reported. Prior to the Service of Thanksgiving for the Platinum Jubilee, the Queen had lunch with the Sussexes and other senior royals behind closed doors - and also met her great-granddaughter Lilibet for the first time. Harry and Meghan, who were staying at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor while visiting from California, were not allowed on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the Trooping the Colour parade, and instead watched proceedings from the Horse Guards Parade. Meanwhile, key workers, charity volunteers and members of the armed forces were invited to the Queen's Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's in recognition of their contribution to public life. Perhaps after these two tense events it was no surprise that Meghan would stop returning to the UK. Her relations with the Firm had been strained since she started dating Harry in the summer of 2016 before they creaked further after her wedding in 2018, and then finally reached a breaking point after the so-called Megxit of 2020. The Queen's funeral in September 2022 was the last time Meghan touched UK soil with the notoriously awkward walkabout further fracturing the wounded relationship between the families. The Queen's funeral was the last time Meghan touched UK soil, with the notoriously awkward walkabout further fracturing the wounded relationship between the families Since the seating incident in June 2022, Meghan and Harry have launched the Netflix series Harry & Meghan and With Love, Meghan. Meghan's lifestyle and cooking brand, As Ever, was officially launched in April 2025. Most recently the Duke of Sussex lost a legal challenge over the levels of security he and the family are entitled to while in the UK. Harry had been seeking to overturn a decision that had downgraded his security after he stopped being a working royal and moved to the US with Meghan and their two children - Archie, six, and Lilibet, three. In his sit down interview with the BBC shortly after losing his appeal, the Duke said he wanted to reconcile with his family, while alleging his father, King Charles, was not speaking with him. He said there had been 'so many disagreements' in the family, but the 'only thing that's left' is the row over his security - which he said had 'always been the sticking point'. Hopes of a reconciliation are unlikely as Harry continues to make public jabs at the Firm, which his grandmother, the late Queen, devoted her entire life to.
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘I retired from my six-figure banking job to be a tour guide'
This is the first in a series about early retirement: how our readers did it, and what they are doing now. Would you like to take part? Get in touch at money@ The only word on the exterior of St Paul's Cathedral is 'resurgam', meaning 'I shall rise again' in Latin. The discreet reference to the second coming of Christ is one David Harry is keen to point out to guests on his walking history tours of London. But Harry feels the motto also reflects a second coming of his own. 'It's a symbol for my ongoing change in career; my own rebirth, as it were.' For the past five years, the 61-year-old has been one of the capital's most prominent tour guides. Donning a stripey blazer, Hawaiian shirt and a Panama hat, Harry leads guests through London's forgotten back alleys and ancient landmarks to reveal a history 'you can't Google,' he says. His evenings are spent combing through his own extensive archive of old magazines, books and sundries to unearth forgotten chapters in London's storied past that can be related to his guests. This second career came after an early retirement from a stressful job in a bank. 'I can't believe how happy it makes me,' says Harry of his new role. 'I just love every minute of it. I am glad I made the decision to retire when I did and I can't believe how lucky I am.' 'I gave up a six-figure salary willingly' Harry's life is unrecognisable from what it was before the pandemic. After almost 25 years in a corporate job, he retired in 2020 aged 55 and gave up his comfortable six-figure salary. Most people can only dream of doing this. Just 5pc of workers retired when they turned 55 last year, normally the earliest someone can access their pension pot, according to analysis by cash deposit firm Flagstone. The majority of workers retire at state pension age, which is 66 for both men and women and expected to rise to 68 by the middle of the 2040s. About one million people have continued to work full-time after hitting the current pension age, according to official figures last year. Fortunately for Harry, when he began his career in 1996 he signed on with one of the last remaining gold-plated private sector pension schemes. It meant the former Deutsche Bank vice president – who joined the German financial giant as a photocopy operator and worked his way up – retired with about £40,000 a year. 'I knew you could retire at 55 and I was in the final salary pension scheme, so I was very lucky indeed,' Harry says. 'My friend left [his job] and told me how much better life was outside the bank too. I realised I could afford to do it and if I did well as a tour guide I could live comfortably.' It was then that he decided to take the leap and hand in his notice. The money would serve as a safety net, Harry planned, allowing him to turn a hobby into a second career. Shortly after retiring, Harry's mother died, leaving him with a modest inheritance that allowed him to further cushion himself during the transition. He says she would have backed his decision to quit, having given him plenty of encouragement when he trained to become a magician. 'My mother had always been very supportive of me and she passed away between when I made my decision to leave the bank and hand in my notice.' He had qualified with the City of London as an official tour guide while working at Deutsche Bank and steadily built up his confidence in the role. 'I was moonlighting in the last few years before I made the jump,' Harry says. Years performing as a Magic Circle magician under the pseudonym 'the Delusionist' at corporate events in his spare time had also convinced Harry of his ability to hold an audience. 'I was already a performing magician so I had those presentation skills,' he says. 'I used to wake up in terror every morning' Looking back on his time in the corporate world, Harry says he was 'institutionalised'. He adds: 'I had been there for 25 years, I didn't understand how much freedom could come from being self employed.' He says that overall he enjoyed his time with Deutsche Bank. 'They trained me up and paid me reasonably well.' Yet he recalls how the 'pressure from deadlines and enormous decisions' that came with his senior position 'wears you down' over time. 'Every morning I would wake up in terror before having to look at my inbox thinking what's the next thing I am going to be asked to do or look at.' The father-of-two soon saw a steady trickle of interest in his tours of London, building out a small following from his existing work tour guiding in the Square Mile. Despite losing 'about 60pc' of his salary, he soon qualified as a tour guide with the City of Westminster, receiving hundreds of positive reviews on travel website TripAdvisor. His first tours took guests to filming locations from the Harry Potter franchise, following the young wizard's journey through London from being dropped off by the purple Knight Bus in Borough Market to the Ministry of Magic entrance in Westminster. 'I started doing Harry Potter tours straight away,' says Harry. Other tours led by Harry focus on London's espionage history, following the footsteps figures like Ian Fleming and notorious Cambridge Five member Kim Philby. He says his success as a guide has matched the income from his pension, while he also sees healthy demand from corporate clients, for whom he creates bespoke tours, as well as occasional viral hits on TikTok. 'Two and a half years ago I posted a random video on TikTok and it went viral. Now I post every day about London stories, so TikTok pays me and I sometimes get recognised in the streets.' His best ever month on the video sharing platform earned him £1,000, after signing a monetisation agreement which pays content creators a small fee per 10,000 views they receive. A recent video of Harry's on the site attracted almost 200,000 views and delves into how an IRA bomb explosion in 1992 at the foot of the City's Gherkin had the effect of revealing the remains of a teenage Roman girl. A Latin inscription now marks her final resting place. 'Now I have got more work than I need and I have to turn it down,' says Harry. He is kept busiest in the summer months, when tourists flock to London. 'It's seasonal,' he adds. 'In the winter I can do two or three tours a week, and in the summer I have done up to three tours a day. But that's quite tiring.' Some of his favourite guests are Londoners. 'I love guiding Londoners because they've already got quite a lot of knowledge.' He adds he only wishes his mother could have seen how he has spent his retirement because he knows it would have won her approval. 'It's the one regret I have that she wasn't around to see what I have done with my career.'
Daily Mail
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Mel B reveals plans to marry at Princess Diana's wedding cathedral... but there is a 'strict rule'
Mel B wouldn't say much about a newly-rumored Spice Girls reunion tour on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, but she did drop some interesting details about her upcoming wedding. The 49-year-old singer (born Melanie Janine Brown) started dating her fiance Rory McPhee, a 36-year-old hair stylist and salon owner, in 2018. He popped the question back in October 2022, though now the wedding seems imminent, with the singer discussing the nuptials on the late night talk show, where she was promoting her return to America's Got Talent after a seven-year hiatus. She revealed that she'll be tying the knot in the famous St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which is one of the perks of becoming a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), which she attained in 2022. That same legendary church is where Princess Diana and Prince Charles tied the knot in 1981. Mel said she would be 'humbled and honored' to have her wedding there. While having the wedding there is certainly an honor, she did open up about some very strict rules that must be abided by. She even got in a little practice walking down the aisle, saying 'I do' and throwing a bouquet thanks to some lucky audience members. That same legendary church is where Princess Diana and Prince Charles tied the knot in 1981, with Mel adding she was, 'humbled and honored' to have her wedding there. Seen in 1996 in NYC Mel was granted an MBE honor for her tireless work advocating for domestic violence survivors, which she had endured in a previous relationship. 'Can I just say, three women a week get killed by their former partner or present partner in this day and age, right now. So the statistics are not going any better. So I've got to keep on talking about it,' she said. She added that her husband-to-be is, 'a wonderful soul,' adding, 'Anyway, so, I'm getting married at St. Paul's Cathedral.' 'And it's a big deal because, you know, when you get married there - not many people are allowed to get married there. You have to be kind of special,' she said. She also talked about the process of securing the church, which is quite extensive as the singer explained. 'Yeah, and then you get to be interviewed by the Dean, and then it has to go through all this approval with the archbishop,' she said. 'I mean, they literally sit you down and say, "Why do you want to get married?" 'And you go, "Well, why do I? No, I do remember why. I love this man,"' she said. She revealed that she'll be tying the knot in the famous St. Paul's Cathedral in London , which is one of the perks of becoming a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), which she attained in 2022 'Can I just say, three women a week get killed by their former partner or present partner in this day and age, right now. So the statistics are not going any better. So I've got to keep on talking about it,' she said Mel added they had to, 'go through the whole ceremony,' adding she was 'practicing my walk' down the aisle. Fallon also asked if she would walk out to her Spice Girls song Spice Up Your Life, but she said, 'No, that's what I wanted.' 'But no, because it's very respectful and traditional, you have to choose certain songs,' she said. 'And let me tell you, they are -- I mean, it's not really my kind of music that I listen to, but it's very respectful. It's very grand,' Mel continued.
Telegraph
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The Pope was chosen in two weeks. Why is the C of E taking a year to replace Welby?
The verdict, decided in secret by an all-powerful, all-male clique, is announced to the Church's 1.4 billion followers quickly and decisively. Compare this to the Church of England – with some one million regular worshippers and an average of 700,000 who attend weekly Sunday services – whose process for choosing a successor would, if it was dramatised, be more like a 16-part re-run of Crossroads, buried deep in the early afternoon schedules. In fact, it's worse than that. The route towards the final Confirmation of Election ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral is a dirge of a process that would bore even a professional observer of the drying of paint. And it exemplifies so much that is wrong with how our nation is administered, in all its plodding mediocrity. It is the telephone queue to speak to a GP on a Monday morning, the long, painful wait for planning consent – but adorned with vestments and incense. Now, please steel yourself, because this isn't easy. You might need a drink before I take you through the procedure and you'll definitely be needing one by the end of it. Indeed, by the end of the actual process this nation, those of us still alive, will definitely have earned a stiff one. As with any tweak to a public body in this country, it starts with a consultation. Thus 11,000 people, between February and March, were consulted. There were emails and letters, online forms completed, children and young people called in and then the Archbishops' and Prime Minister's appointment secretaries met over 350 individuals. They spoke with parliamentarians, leaders in public life, representatives from other Christian traditions and those of non-Christian traditions. That's right, people of no faith and 12-year-olds had their views canvassed. As for all the other people with enough time on their hands to fill in Church of England consultation forms… well, that's a great deal of coffee and biscuits. I dread to think of the drag and cost to the National Grid that was involved merely to boil the kettle so that all and sundry could weigh in on the subject. Once these hundreds of thousands of transcribed conversations were garnered to, in the words of The Church of England, help 'discern the gifts, skills and qualities required in the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury to meet the needs of the Church today and in the years to come', various emerging themes were collated. This document – let us pray that there is an executive summary – will sit alongside a 'Statement of Needs' produced by the Diocese of Canterbury, as well as other information provided by the National Church and Anglican Communion, info that is then submitted to the Canterbury Crown Nominations Commission. This body, explains the C of E, 'works prayerfully and collaboratively to discern and nominate the next spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion'. From them a name emerges and the PM submits that name to the King, who assents to that election (sometime later this year). So that's over a year of faff, months of directionless drift, as congregations dwindle. To deliver us from a morass of sluggish embarrassment, the C of E needs to go full conclave, with electors locked in Lambeth Palace as soon as the archbishopric falls vacant, and an agreement to send up white smoke within 48 hours: ' Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum; habemus Archbishop!'
