How the Royal family gets away with it
The News Agents

How the Royal family gets away with it

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 25, 202636 min
  • Interview

What if King Charles did tell Earl Spencer that "we’ll forget [Diana] soon enough" in the days after her death? It's one word against another but the public discourse seems pretty settled - that Diana's brother is at best misremembering, at worst lying. How much has the Palace spin team forged that narrative? If you read the Palace statement closely, you'll notice that it never outright denies the claim, even if it does point out that "the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason". "Never complain, never explain" is the motto associated with the Bu...

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The House of Windsor has taken yet another battering this week. All over the world, allegations

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

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This is a global production. The House of Windsor has taken yet another battering this week. All over the world, allegations from Princess Diana's own brother that the King himself was giddy at her death. That he told Earl Spencer in the hours after her tragic car crash in Paris in 1997 that her

0:23

sons would forget her soon enough. On paper, pulped or otherwise, you might think that could be enough at least to wound a monarch whose own ascension was almost halted by the toxin which flowed from the Diana marriage and her demise. And yet, it hasn't really. The battering is felt, alight toasting at best. Why? The passage of time? The peers

0:45

that I mention, isn't there always one? Or is it something else? The power of the media to still relentlessly mediate royal stories. An alliance between palace and press which affects royal coverage in ways most of us don't ever even see. Andrew Lowney has seen that process at the sharp end. He's one of the few writers and

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