American life has turned into a dream sequence from a bad horror movie, that scene where the haunted hero suddenly sits bolt upright in bed, after a torrent of fearful images invades his or her sleep, accompanied by a sinister laugh track.
Tina, I sometimes think you’re on the Sussex payroll. Harry is far too old, and far too much has happened between him and the RF, for him to be waltzing back into the UK trying to revive his 2011 “cheeky Harry” persona. His schtick came off as silly and performative. Men with real gravitas don’t behave that way. And yesterday in Nottingham the streets were empty—no one showed up to greet him. And as for the 1M donation? There’s a world of difference between “pledged” and “donated”; as with everything where the Meghan & Harry are concerned, a turn of a word makes a world of difference.
Indeed, there is a difference between a pledge and a donation. And a man in his 40s doing the cheeky chappy routine, was cringe. At least for once he seemed to take the advice of his expensive PR people (be 2012 Harry!) & smiled.
Besides Earthshot, which you belittle. William is actually building housing, including in London. As of mid-2025, a pipeline of around 300 homes is being delivered through a mixture of new construction, empty property conversions, and private rental schemes
Also, Charles, William and other members of the Royal family make private donations all the time, but they don’t announce the amount because that would be crass. Harry gave the amount because he wanted to be recognized & lauded. This is one of the worst character traits of Harry and “I should be getting paid for this” Meghan. No wonder he pays for so many awards. Legend of Aviation anyone?
For all your complaints about boring William & Catherine, they are very popular. Also, princess Anne is not exactly a barrel of monkeys, but she is also widely respected and admired.
Finally, I remember a man who let us know every time he returned to England he would feel a little queasy… and also has repeatedly told the British people their country is more dangerous than living in California. He believes his wife and children are safer in California than the UK. People don’t take kindly to his views of them.
I hear you, s they say - I know the Brits still very much disapprove but Harry is a good performer I do think they need in the royal repertoire four or five times a year. Thats the best he should aim for. T
I think Tina and other who report on the BRF like Harry because he - especially now - is good copy. Just doing your job is “boring.” I doubt Tina would actually enjoy working with Harry the cheeky chappy in his 40s slapping bums. 🙄
Yep. happened three hours after I posted and Its a good thing, simply on the personal level. Horrible for Charles to never see the son he still adores.T.
I find it interesting how people can take dislike of someone due to their own words and behavior & call it hate. Both Harry & Meghan regularly assert my dislike is due to lies and mischaracterizations in the press. No, my dislike of them are their own words and behavior.
And yes I listened to Spare (freebie from audible!) which is filled with in accuracies (such as the reason for the dog bowl fight. Wiliiam wasn’t brainwashed by tabloids over Meghan’s treatment of staff that day; the bullying hadn’t been made public yet; William witnessed the treatment) and pettiness. An older sibling doesn’t want you tagging along at school? Shocking! He never takes responsibility for his actions. Even the Nazi uniform because no one stopped him.
I also read court transcripts where he made accusations of hacking from stories from his mouth or press releases and a lot of “I don’t know.” No preparation or responsibility there either.
I don’t hate him. That’s silly. But I think he’s an immature, irresponsible boob.
Are you serious? Did you not know these are Harry’s words in Spare and Harry’s testimony on the stand in his lawsuit against the owners of The Daily Mail? Harry’s WORDS! HARRY’s TESTIMONY.
Are you saying you don’t believe Harry’s own words? What exactly are you going on about then?
You’re blindly defending someone and you don’t know what they have said in print in their own book or on the stand in court? Astonishing.
Or do you just cut and paste the same accusations and responses to people who don’t like your favorites without reading or thinking?
I read it, and it only makes me wonder more why he’d want to come back. The family dynamics that caused him so much emotional pain haven’t changed; in fact, they’ve gotten worse. Camilla is now Queen Consort, William is Prince of Wales and edging closer to the throne, and the Wales children are front and center. If Archie and Lili returned, they’d become tabloid fodder and that cycle would begin all over again, only this time with his kids. These petty grievances already gnaw at Harry—so why does he want to put himself, and his children, back in that headspace?
Harry’s new UK press rep, Meredith Maines, has been feeding stories to The Times and The Guardian suggesting that he wants to return to the UK four or five times a year and believes he could be a valuable support to Prince William. Even respected journalists like Tina and Camilla Tominey are now repeating these talking points.
Wouldn’t call myself a hater, but I listened to the audio book- all 15 1/2 hours of fingernails screeching down a chalkboard as I folded laundry and did other chores over a period of a week or so.
What a pleasure to read your lively story while drinking coffee this morning. You seemed to cover everything newsworthy from the past couple of days, and your writing sparkles. Thanks.
Thanks the news cycle is so insane there were ten more horrors by the time I posted. And of course Charlie Kirk supercedes all right now. Glad it went well with your coffee T
Tina, I can't believe the discerning British citizen is ready to accept Harry as a working member of the RF. I think he was engaging in some cosplay as the beloved "cheeky chap" he once was. His unfortunate marriage to Meghan Markle and the relentless slagging of the RF in the last few years, particularly since "Megxit," have effectively obliterated any chance of redemption. He cannot be trusted even if he divorces the virago.
Spot on, every word. He’s making China Great Again. It’s incredibly generous of President Trump to want to make China great first and America can wait…such generosity to foreigners is a surprise.
Does anyone really pay much attention any more to the dire forecasts and fulminations of the NYTimes op-ed scribblers and the other earnest panjandrums of the punditry? Tina's trenchant commentary on Trumpworld, dripping with witty disgust, puts them all in the shade..
You are so spot on, as you are about almost everything. I wake up everyday and cannot believe the obscene s--t show we have in the White House and it gets consistently worse every day with more incompetence and stupidity. Meanwhile China produces engineers who build and make things while we produce lawyers who litigate and tear things down. AI is our new integrity. Scams of one sort or another are everywhere. It is a total unrelenting suffocating nightmare.
It is completely frightening and only the beginning. God Help Us!
Suffocating is a great world. I just came back from Europe and it was like suddenly having a mask removed from my face- so serene by comparison to all our craziness T
I feel as though I’m living in a black and white newsreel of Germany in the 1930s — only with the historical certainty of the outcome.
If Trump could sic the Proud Boys on the Capitol, he most certainly could and would invoke marshal law to overturn the results of a self-proclaimed “rigged” election.
I don’t know why most Americans aren’t as alarmed as we are. Are we like the proverbial frogs destined to a boil — so gradual is the heat that it rises unnoticed?
I so agree. Maybe the US is just too big to protest. If we were France , crowds would be in the streets when each one of our norms and protections gets stripped away. But the Charlie Kirk shows that new violence is awakening which is just what we should fear most T
Once again, I marvel at your ability to characterize people and organizations in a few pithy words.
PS In defense of the Women’s Institute, they are working hard to shed their square image. One of the chapters offered pole dancing lessons awhile back.
Heh heh. Yes I know,. the WI is truly a great institution and there's nothing wrong with its squareness either but i couldnt help being snotty about it! T
Tina, your diary is spot on and as always so amusing because of your writing style! Dark humor is my favorite kind. This country is becoming unrecognizable to me and as I sit in my TV chair in Amagansett I often wonder if it’s time to get out before we get rounded up and thrown into the ovens. I fantasize about living in London because I’ve been there once and it looks very charming and it’s an English speaking country which would make things easy. Do you ever think you’d return to the UK? Would things be better there or are we so global with the internet that the same problems exist there? Are you sick of the U.S. yet or have you become an American at this point. A point of no return. That “ring kissing ceremony” with Zuckerberg and the rest was bone chilling.
Super! “ Meta’s slippery salamander”…Hegseth with “his legs so far apart, he’s almost doing the splits”…Harry as “Tigger” and “the ginger whinger”…”the tartan tradition was entirely made up to let King James I wear a skirt”…I laughed out loud in the best way. Yet another read out loud piece!🤗
Apropos to Tina's column of today comes this story about Venezuela's Hugo Chavex from today's Atlantic that begins thusly:
"The disintegration of a democracy is a deceptively quiet affair. For a while, everything looks the same. Each authoritarian milestone—the first political prisoner, the first closure of an opposition media outlet—is anticipated with fear. Then the milestone goes by, and after a brief period of outrage, life continues as before. You begin to wonder if things will be so bad after all."
Practically the only thing Princess Anne said in honor of her 75th birthday was reportedly to authorize sources to say she wished William would perform more investitures, as she's doing most of them, with Charles keeping his hand in while under treatment.
Can't even do investitures. They're right there at Windsor.
William isn’t a weasel—he has a different vision: less pomp, fewer rigid traditions, and more leadership with real impact on issues like homelessness, the environment, and mental health. He also wants to be present for his children before they head to boarding school—something the royal family has often failed at. He’s balancing duty with fatherhood, all while supporting a wife who battled cancer last year. Give him a break.
I appreciate your defense. Reforming the monarchy is a noble cause we can all support.
First you need to show up for work. You can reform the monarchy best by not performing it, and watchjng wither and blow away. Or by leaving it. Both of which Diana's sons are doing.
The Queen told WIlliam years ago thar Kate should get a job before he asked her to marry him.
She did not.
The two were plausibly accused of being workshy long before cancer and three kids. It's 15 years now and it keeps coming up.
Corroborating royal biographer Tina Brown's scoop Charles himself thinks William is workshy, a long and authoritative NYT profile this year brings up the charges again.
If you have another source of information on which to base conclusions other than facts reported by journalists who work under libel laws, please do enlighten us as to what reliable source you're counting on.
Here's a chart of the 2025 investitures. At last count, there were 19, of which Anne had perfomed 9, and William and Charles 5 each.
Stop the world I want to get off albeit I’d very much like to take Harry with me. We’d have a jolly fine time of it . The rest as they say is terribly British.
Wonderful piece as usual. And you are spot on - Harry is a natural at these Royal engagements. Warm and fun and the Royal Family is dour without him. And the Tigger moniker is perfect. Having trouble unseeing that !
Tina, I sometimes think you’re on the Sussex payroll. Harry is far too old, and far too much has happened between him and the RF, for him to be waltzing back into the UK trying to revive his 2011 “cheeky Harry” persona. His schtick came off as silly and performative. Men with real gravitas don’t behave that way. And yesterday in Nottingham the streets were empty—no one showed up to greet him. And as for the 1M donation? There’s a world of difference between “pledged” and “donated”; as with everything where the Meghan & Harry are concerned, a turn of a word makes a world of difference.
Indeed, there is a difference between a pledge and a donation. And a man in his 40s doing the cheeky chappy routine, was cringe. At least for once he seemed to take the advice of his expensive PR people (be 2012 Harry!) & smiled.
Besides Earthshot, which you belittle. William is actually building housing, including in London. As of mid-2025, a pipeline of around 300 homes is being delivered through a mixture of new construction, empty property conversions, and private rental schemes
Also, Charles, William and other members of the Royal family make private donations all the time, but they don’t announce the amount because that would be crass. Harry gave the amount because he wanted to be recognized & lauded. This is one of the worst character traits of Harry and “I should be getting paid for this” Meghan. No wonder he pays for so many awards. Legend of Aviation anyone?
For all your complaints about boring William & Catherine, they are very popular. Also, princess Anne is not exactly a barrel of monkeys, but she is also widely respected and admired.
Finally, I remember a man who let us know every time he returned to England he would feel a little queasy… and also has repeatedly told the British people their country is more dangerous than living in California. He believes his wife and children are safer in California than the UK. People don’t take kindly to his views of them.
I hear you, s they say - I know the Brits still very much disapprove but Harry is a good performer I do think they need in the royal repertoire four or five times a year. Thats the best he should aim for. T
Respectfully, Tina, the hurt he has caused goes beyond being a good performer.
I think Tina and other who report on the BRF like Harry because he - especially now - is good copy. Just doing your job is “boring.” I doubt Tina would actually enjoy working with Harry the cheeky chappy in his 40s slapping bums. 🙄
I think is Harry is bored and starting to realize what a phoney Meghan is
Dull and whiney as Harry is
No one knew who Meghan was before she married him and she saw fame and fortune from that union
But its not working out so well and hes restless
There’s this very recent news:
“Prince Harry, King Charles meet for first time in nearly 2 years — and they have tea”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/prince-harry-charles-meet-1.7630332
Yep. happened three hours after I posted and Its a good thing, simply on the personal level. Horrible for Charles to never see the son he still adores.T.
But, one has to assume, no marmalade sandwiches…
I wonder if all the Harry haters out there ever bothered to read his book? Truly, I am interested.
I find it interesting how people can take dislike of someone due to their own words and behavior & call it hate. Both Harry & Meghan regularly assert my dislike is due to lies and mischaracterizations in the press. No, my dislike of them are their own words and behavior.
And yes I listened to Spare (freebie from audible!) which is filled with in accuracies (such as the reason for the dog bowl fight. Wiliiam wasn’t brainwashed by tabloids over Meghan’s treatment of staff that day; the bullying hadn’t been made public yet; William witnessed the treatment) and pettiness. An older sibling doesn’t want you tagging along at school? Shocking! He never takes responsibility for his actions. Even the Nazi uniform because no one stopped him.
I also read court transcripts where he made accusations of hacking from stories from his mouth or press releases and a lot of “I don’t know.” No preparation or responsibility there either.
I don’t hate him. That’s silly. But I think he’s an immature, irresponsible boob.
So you were in the room when things happened? You witnessed it all? Or did you hear it from Piers Morgan or one of the Royal propagandists?
Are you serious? Did you not know these are Harry’s words in Spare and Harry’s testimony on the stand in his lawsuit against the owners of The Daily Mail? Harry’s WORDS! HARRY’s TESTIMONY.
Are you saying you don’t believe Harry’s own words? What exactly are you going on about then?
You’re blindly defending someone and you don’t know what they have said in print in their own book or on the stand in court? Astonishing.
Or do you just cut and paste the same accusations and responses to people who don’t like your favorites without reading or thinking?
I read it, and it only makes me wonder more why he’d want to come back. The family dynamics that caused him so much emotional pain haven’t changed; in fact, they’ve gotten worse. Camilla is now Queen Consort, William is Prince of Wales and edging closer to the throne, and the Wales children are front and center. If Archie and Lili returned, they’d become tabloid fodder and that cycle would begin all over again, only this time with his kids. These petty grievances already gnaw at Harry—so why does he want to put himself, and his children, back in that headspace?
Perhaps I missed something. Did he say he wants to return to England?
Harry’s new UK press rep, Meredith Maines, has been feeding stories to The Times and The Guardian suggesting that he wants to return to the UK four or five times a year and believes he could be a valuable support to Prince William. Even respected journalists like Tina and Camilla Tominey are now repeating these talking points.
Absolutely horrid to throw his family under the bus like that hes just an entitled whiney brat
Wouldn’t call myself a hater, but I listened to the audio book- all 15 1/2 hours of fingernails screeching down a chalkboard as I folded laundry and did other chores over a period of a week or so.
What a pleasure to read your lively story while drinking coffee this morning. You seemed to cover everything newsworthy from the past couple of days, and your writing sparkles. Thanks.
Thanks the news cycle is so insane there were ten more horrors by the time I posted. And of course Charlie Kirk supercedes all right now. Glad it went well with your coffee T
Tina, I can't believe the discerning British citizen is ready to accept Harry as a working member of the RF. I think he was engaging in some cosplay as the beloved "cheeky chap" he once was. His unfortunate marriage to Meghan Markle and the relentless slagging of the RF in the last few years, particularly since "Megxit," have effectively obliterated any chance of redemption. He cannot be trusted even if he divorces the virago.
He would have to work very hard for a good few years before anyone trusts him again but perhaps he will, as nothing else is working out! T
So true anything divulged to the Sussexes will be in the next book they just care about $$
Spot on, every word. He’s making China Great Again. It’s incredibly generous of President Trump to want to make China great first and America can wait…such generosity to foreigners is a surprise.
Yep. Who knew he would show such largesse to the country that wants to wipe the US off the face of the map! T
Does anyone really pay much attention any more to the dire forecasts and fulminations of the NYTimes op-ed scribblers and the other earnest panjandrums of the punditry? Tina's trenchant commentary on Trumpworld, dripping with witty disgust, puts them all in the shade..
Charles, how lovely to hear this from you who writes like an angel himself. Much appreciate, old chum T
Tina,
You are so spot on, as you are about almost everything. I wake up everyday and cannot believe the obscene s--t show we have in the White House and it gets consistently worse every day with more incompetence and stupidity. Meanwhile China produces engineers who build and make things while we produce lawyers who litigate and tear things down. AI is our new integrity. Scams of one sort or another are everywhere. It is a total unrelenting suffocating nightmare.
It is completely frightening and only the beginning. God Help Us!
Suffocating is a great world. I just came back from Europe and it was like suddenly having a mask removed from my face- so serene by comparison to all our craziness T
I feel as though I’m living in a black and white newsreel of Germany in the 1930s — only with the historical certainty of the outcome.
If Trump could sic the Proud Boys on the Capitol, he most certainly could and would invoke marshal law to overturn the results of a self-proclaimed “rigged” election.
I don’t know why most Americans aren’t as alarmed as we are. Are we like the proverbial frogs destined to a boil — so gradual is the heat that it rises unnoticed?
I so agree. Maybe the US is just too big to protest. If we were France , crowds would be in the streets when each one of our norms and protections gets stripped away. But the Charlie Kirk shows that new violence is awakening which is just what we should fear most T
Tina, by the way, “beta-testing” is right.
Does seem like that to me. And it s getting traction too T
Once again, I marvel at your ability to characterize people and organizations in a few pithy words.
PS In defense of the Women’s Institute, they are working hard to shed their square image. One of the chapters offered pole dancing lessons awhile back.
Heh heh. Yes I know,. the WI is truly a great institution and there's nothing wrong with its squareness either but i couldnt help being snotty about it! T
Perfectly said, Tina. Thank you.
Gracias and grateful for your reading me.
Tina, your diary is spot on and as always so amusing because of your writing style! Dark humor is my favorite kind. This country is becoming unrecognizable to me and as I sit in my TV chair in Amagansett I often wonder if it’s time to get out before we get rounded up and thrown into the ovens. I fantasize about living in London because I’ve been there once and it looks very charming and it’s an English speaking country which would make things easy. Do you ever think you’d return to the UK? Would things be better there or are we so global with the internet that the same problems exist there? Are you sick of the U.S. yet or have you become an American at this point. A point of no return. That “ring kissing ceremony” with Zuckerberg and the rest was bone chilling.
Super! “ Meta’s slippery salamander”…Hegseth with “his legs so far apart, he’s almost doing the splits”…Harry as “Tigger” and “the ginger whinger”…”the tartan tradition was entirely made up to let King James I wear a skirt”…I laughed out loud in the best way. Yet another read out loud piece!🤗
This makes me very happy, Melissa. Thanks so much T
I am starting Kingmaker. Always a little behind. Audiobook. Love it so far. Thanks again for the suggestion.🤗
Apropos to Tina's column of today comes this story about Venezuela's Hugo Chavex from today's Atlantic that begins thusly:
"The disintegration of a democracy is a deceptively quiet affair. For a while, everything looks the same. Each authoritarian milestone—the first political prisoner, the first closure of an opposition media outlet—is anticipated with fear. Then the milestone goes by, and after a brief period of outrage, life continues as before. You begin to wonder if things will be so bad after all."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/venezuela-autocratic-rise/684135/
Work-shy Wills. He's baaaaaaaack.
Practically the only thing Princess Anne said in honor of her 75th birthday was reportedly to authorize sources to say she wished William would perform more investitures, as she's doing most of them, with Charles keeping his hand in while under treatment.
Can't even do investitures. They're right there at Windsor.
William is a weasel.
William isn’t a weasel—he has a different vision: less pomp, fewer rigid traditions, and more leadership with real impact on issues like homelessness, the environment, and mental health. He also wants to be present for his children before they head to boarding school—something the royal family has often failed at. He’s balancing duty with fatherhood, all while supporting a wife who battled cancer last year. Give him a break.
I appreciate your defense. Reforming the monarchy is a noble cause we can all support.
First you need to show up for work. You can reform the monarchy best by not performing it, and watchjng wither and blow away. Or by leaving it. Both of which Diana's sons are doing.
The Queen told WIlliam years ago thar Kate should get a job before he asked her to marry him.
She did not.
The two were plausibly accused of being workshy long before cancer and three kids. It's 15 years now and it keeps coming up.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1048599/And-DO-Queen-wants-Kate-Middleton-charity-job-counter-claims-workshy.html
Corroborating royal biographer Tina Brown's scoop Charles himself thinks William is workshy, a long and authoritative NYT profile this year brings up the charges again.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/world/europe/charles-harry-royal-family-crisis.html
Reportedly is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Doubtful Anne said anything.
And William does lots of investigators too. Sorry you’ve missed them!
If you have another source of information on which to base conclusions other than facts reported by journalists who work under libel laws, please do enlighten us as to what reliable source you're counting on.
Here's a chart of the 2025 investitures. At last count, there were 19, of which Anne had perfomed 9, and William and Charles 5 each.
https://gertsroyals.blogspot.com/2024/12/uk-group-investitures-2025.html
If you don't believe this, you can confirm by going through the Court Circular like a real reporter. Have at it.
https://www.royal.uk/media-centre/court-circulars
Stop the world I want to get off albeit I’d very much like to take Harry with me. We’d have a jolly fine time of it . The rest as they say is terribly British.
Wonderful piece as usual. And you are spot on - Harry is a natural at these Royal engagements. Warm and fun and the Royal Family is dour without him. And the Tigger moniker is perfect. Having trouble unseeing that !
What a great column, Tina. Happy to subscribe.