The only “truly authentic” thing Meghan Markle, who is the Duchess of Sussex, has done since leaving the royal family is return to acting, according to a source
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are pictured at the Invictus Games in Vancouver, Canada(Image: Aaron Chown/PA Wire)
Prince Harry is said to want Meghan Markle “to do whatever brings her joy” — following her return to acting.
The Duchess of Sussex is set to play herself in film Close Personal Friends, being recorded for Amazon MGM Studios in Pasadena, Los Angeles, at the moment. The role is her first step back into the industry after an eight-year absence, since which time she married Prince Harry — and left the royal fold.
But that was Harry’s real profession — other than military roles — and Meghan’s return to acting had raised questions about where it left her husband. A friend, though, has said: “Prince Harry is, of course, really supportive and quite simply wants Meghan to do whatever brings her joy.”
Yet, with Harry so far unable to return to his royal duties, Meghan’s new venture has been criticised by some. Sarah Vine, a newspaper columnist, has questioned whether Meghan’s return to fame will irk 41-year-old Harry. She wrote: “Will it rankle to see his wife soaring to new heights of fame (and no doubt fortune) while he remains rather constrained in his options? Shooting schedules can be demanding, requiring long periods away from home, plus there’s all the inevitable publicity.”
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But Ms Vine, a journalist with vast experience, noted the decision is “a good one” for Meghan herself. She called it “a power move” in her lively opinion column for the Daily Mail.
“It’s a power move by the duchess, and a good one. The power of a great movie is not to be underestimated… It’s also the first thing she’s done since leaving royal life that feels truly authentic. Let’s face it, no one really believes that she makes her own jam, dries her own rose petals, or actually eats any of the sickly-sweet calorie-laden treats she shoves down viewers’ throats,” Ms Vine added.
Yet, the columnist suggested Harry is still “searching for his purpose” in America. That is despite his Netflix programme Polo, which was broadcast last year and into 2025. The documentary saw the prince offer “an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look into the passion and determination driving some of the world’s elite polo players” — but the reviews were largely negative.
United States lawmakers have written to Andrew, Britain’s disgraced former prince, requesting that he sit for a formal interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a day after King Charles III formally stripped his younger brother of his royal titles.
Separately, a secluded desert ranch where Epstein once entertained guests is coming under renewed scrutiny in the US state of New Mexico, with two state legislators proposing a “truth commission” to uncover the full extent of the financier’s crimes there.
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On Thursday, 16 Democratic Party members of Congress signed a letter addressed to “Mr Mountbatten Windsor”, as Andrew is now publicly known, to participate in a “transcribed interview” with the US House of Representatives oversight committee’s investigation into Epstein.
“The committee is seeking to uncover the identities of Mr Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers and to understand the full extent of his criminal operations,” the letter read.
“Well-documented allegations against you, along with your longstanding friendship with Mr Epstein, indicate that you may possess knowledge of his activities relevant to our investigation,” it added.
The letter asked Andrew to respond by November 20.
The US Congress has no power to compel testimony from foreigners, making it unlikely Andrew will give evidence.
The letter will be another unwelcome development for the disgraced former prince after a turbulent few weeks.
On October 30, Buckingham Palace said King Charles had “initiated a formal process” to revoke Andrew’s royal status after weeks of pressure to act over his relationship with Epstein – who took his own life in prison in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
The rare move to strip a British prince or princess of their title – last taken in 1919 after Prince Ernest Augustus sided with Germany during World War I – also meant that Andrew was evicted from his lavish Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor and moved into “private accommodation”.
King Charles formally made the changes with an announcement published on Wednesday in The Gazette – the United Kingdom’s official public record – saying Andrew “shall no longer be entitled to hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of ‘Royal Highness’ and the titular dignity of ‘Prince’”.
Andrew surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier in October following new abuse allegations from his accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, in her posthumous memoir, which hit shelves last month.
The Democrat lawmakers referenced Giuffre’s memoir in their letter, specifically claims that she feared “retaliation if she made allegations against” Andrew, and that he had asked his personal protection officer to “dig up dirt” on his accuser for a smear campaign in 2011.
“This fear of retaliation has been a persistent obstacle to many of those who were victimised in their fight for justice,” the letter said. “In addition to Mr. Epstein’s crimes, we are investigating any such efforts to silence, intimidate, or threaten victims.”
Giuffre, who alleges that Epstein trafficked her to have sex with Andrew on three occasions, twice when she was just 17, took her own life in Australia in April.
In 2022, Andrew paid Giuffre a multimillion-pound settlement to resolve a civil lawsuit she had levelled against him. Andrew denied the allegations, and he has not been charged with any crime.
Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch as seen on July 8, 2019 [KRQE via AP Photo]
On Thursday, Democratic lawmakers also turned the spotlight on Zorro Ranch, proposing to the House of Representatives’ Courts, Corrections and Justice Interim Committee that a commission be created to investigate alleged crimes against young girls at the New Mexico property, which Epstein purchased in 1993.
State Representative Andrea Romero said several survivors of Epstein’s abuse have signalled that sex trafficking activity extended to the secluded desert ranch with a hilltop mansion and private runway in Stanley, about 56 kilometres (35 miles) south of the state capital, Santa Fe.
“This commission will specifically seek the truth about what officials knew, how crimes were unreported or reported, and how the state can ensure that this essentially never happens again,” Romero told a panel of legislators.
“There’s no complete record of what occurred,” she said.
Representative Marianna Anaya, presenting to the committee alongside Romero, said state authorities missed several opportunities over decades to stop Epstein.
“Even after all these years, you know, there are still questions of New Mexico’s role as a state, our roles in terms of oversight and accountability for the survivors who are harmed,” she said.
New Mexico laws allowed Epstein to avoid registering locally as a sex offender long after he was required to register in Florida, where he was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.
Republican Representative Andrea Reeb said she believed New Mexicans “have a right to know what happened at this ranch” and she didn’t feel the commission was going to be a “big political thing”.
Republicans in the United States Senate have voted down legislation that would have required US President Donald Trump to obtain congressional approval for any military attacks on Venezuela.
Two Republicans had crossed the political aisle and joined Democrats to vote in favour of the legislation on Thursday, but their support was not enough to secure passage, and the bill failed to pass by 51 to 49 votes.
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“We should not be going to war without a vote of Congress,” Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said during a speech.
The vote comes amid a US military build-up off South America and a series of military strikes targeting vessels in international waters off Venezuela and Colombia that have killed at least 65 people.
The US has alleged, without presenting evidence, that the boats it bombed were transporting drugs, but Latin American leaders, some members of Congress, international law experts and family members of the deceased have described the US attacks as extrajudicial killings, claiming most of those killed were fishermen.
Fears are now growing that Trump will use the military deployment in the region – which includes thousands of US troops, a nuclear submarine and a group of warships accompanying the USS Gerald R Ford, the US Navy’s most sophisticated aircraft carrier – to launch an attack on Venezuela in a bid to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
Washington has accused Maduro of drug trafficking, and Trump has hinted at carrying out attacks on Venezuelan soil.
Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, referencing Trump’s military posturing towards Venezuela, said on Thursday: “It’s really an open secret that this is much more about potential regime change.”
“If that’s where the administration is headed, if that’s what we’re risking – involvement in a war – then Congress needs to be heard on this,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, a pair of US B-52 bombers flew over the Caribbean Sea along the coast of Venezuela, flight tracking data showed.
Data from tracking website Flightradar24 showed the two bombers flying parallel to the Venezuelan coast, then circling northeast of Caracas before heading back along the coast and turning north and flying further out to sea.
The presence of the US bombers off Venezuela was at least the fourth time that US military aircraft have flown near the country’s borders since mid-October, with B-52s having done so on one previous occasion, and B-1B bombers on two other occasions.
Little public support in US for attack on Venezuela
A recent poll found that only 18 percent of people in the US support even limited use of military force to overthrow Maduro’s government.
Research by YouGov also found that 74 percent of people in the US believe that the president should not be able to carry out military strikes abroad without congressional approval, in line with the requirements of the US Constitution.
Republican lawmakers, however, have embraced the recent strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, adopting the Trump administration’s framing of its efforts to cut off the flow of narcotics to the US.
Questions of the legality of such attacks, either under US or international law, do not appear to be of great concern to many Republicans.
“President Trump has taken decisive action to protect thousands of Americans from lethal narcotics,” Senator Jim Risch, the Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in remarks declaring his support for the strikes.
While only two Republicans – Senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski – defected to join Democrats in supporting the legislation to limit Trump’s ability to wage war unilaterally on Thursday, some conservatives have expressed frustration with a possible war on Venezuela.
Trump had campaigned for president on the promise of withdrawing the US from foreign military entanglements.
Alan Carr won The Celebrity Traitors in a tense series finale on Thursday and, overcome with emotion, the comedian told viewers: “I am and have always been a traitor”
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Alan Carr won The Celebrity Traitors(Image: BBC)
Alan Carr is tipped to become one of the new presenters of Strictly Come Dancing after his The Celebrity Traitors triumph.
The comedian, 49, burst into tears when he was crowned the winner of the reality TV programme last night. Alan declared the prize money, which amounted to £87,500, will go to the children’s charity Neuroblastoma UK, a sum he said would “change lives”.
But his own career is now set to change, with The Celebrity Traitors thought to act as a springboard for more success. An insider has even said Alan is being considered for Strictly, as Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are set to leave. They added: “He has got to be up there with the BBC to get a huge new role… Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, Strictly.”
And a BBC source said: “Alan has always been a star – but it’s amazing what a month in a Scottish castle can do to elevate your career. He’s ours now.”
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The Mirror had reported how chatter linked Alan to one of the Strictly vacancies, but now his triumph in the Scottish castle is said to have firmed his bid to take the Saturday night gig. The presenter had been praised for “super competitive streak” and charisma during his time on The Celebrity Traitors, which began at the start of October.
A source on The Celebrity Traitors said “people just love Alan”. The BBC believes viewers “loved him and [think] he has been the star of the Traitors,” one insider told the Daily Mail.
Alan, snubbed for a potential role as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent in 2023, was hoping for nothing more than a bit of a giggle when he signed up for the BBC show. He got off to a difficult start as fellow traitor Jonathan Ross worried Alan, born in Weymouth, Dorset, might give himself away.
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But Alan showed the resilience and courage to thrive and eventually beat former England rugby star Joe Marler and his fellow Traitor Cat Burns. Bursting into tears when he was declared the winner, the comedian said: “I am and have always been a traitor… I’m so sorry, it’s been tearing me apart.” He told host Claudia Winkleman: “All that lying, all that treachery was worth it, wasn’t it?”
The Duke of Sussex has apologised to Canada for wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers hat while attending a World Series game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Prince Harry joked that he was “under duress” when he wore the bright blue cap during the epic Game 4 of the World Series in Los Angeles. He thought it was “the polite thing to do” after being invited to the game by the Dodgers’ owner.
His headgear choice upset many in Canada – a Commonwealth nation- who criticised him for not showing his allegiance to the realm, or to the only Canadian team in Major League Baseball.
“Firstly, I would like to apologise to Canada for wearing it,” he said in a CTV interview. “Secondly, I was under duress. There wasn’t much choice.”
The prince – wearing a Blue Jays hat during the interview – quipped that “when you’re missing a lot of hair on top, and you’re sitting under flood lights, you’ll take any hat that’s available”.
He plans to wear a Blue Jays hat from now on and rooted for the Toronto team in subsequent games, appearing to do so in a clip posted on social media by the Duchess of Sussex – a Los Angeles native – when the Dodgers won the series in Game 7 a few days later.
Nathan Denette /The Canadian Press via AP
The prince and his wife, a former actress who lived in Canada while filming her TV drama Suits, moved to California after stepping back as full-time royals in 2020.
The couple’s presence in the Chavez Ravine-set stadium in Los Angeles also disgruntled many Dodgers fans in the US. They took to social media to voice their upset over the couple’s plum front-row seats during the 18-inning game, while local legends such as Magic Johnson and former pitcher Dodgers Sandy Koufax were seated behind them.
Incidentally, Prince Harry published an essay this week about “What it means to be British” ahead of his visits with military veterans in Canada this week.
A jury in the state of Virginia in the United States has awarded $10m to a former teacher who was shot by a six-year-old student.
The jury on Thursday sided with former teacher Abby Zwerner’s claim, made in a civil lawsuit, that an ex-administrator at the school had ignored repeated warnings that the six-year-old child had a gun in class.
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Zwerner, 28, was shot in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her first-grade classroom and spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and still does not have the full use of her left hand.
The bullet fired by the six-year-old narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.
Zwerner, who did not address reporters outside the court after the decision was announced, had sought $40m in damages against Ebony Parker, a former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News, Virginia.
One of her lawyers, Diane Toscano, said the verdict sent a message that what happened at the school “was wrong and is not going to be tolerated, that safety has to be the first concern at school”.
Zwerner’s lawyers had claimed that Parker, the assistant principal at the time, had failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her that the student had a gun in his backpack.
“Who would think a six-year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher?” Toscano had asked the jury earlier.
“It’s Dr Parker’s job to believe that is possible. It’s her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it.”
Parker did not testify in the lawsuit.
The mother of the student who shot Zwerner was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of child neglect and firearms charges.
No charges were brought against the child, who told authorities he got his mother’s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mother’s purse.
Newtown Action Alliance, an advocacy organisation that supports reforms aimed at addressing gun violence, said that the case points to the need for greater regulations over the storage of firearms in homes with children.
“Abby Zwerner was shot by her 6-year-old student using a gun from home,” the group said in a social media post, adding that “76 percent of school shooters get their guns from their homes or relatives”.
Abby Zwerner was shot by her 6-year-old student using a gun from home.
76% of school shooters get their guns from their homes or relatives.
Urge your Members of Congress to cosponsor Ethan’s Law.
Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has said she has no plans to teach again. She has since become a licensed cosmetologist.
While accidents involving young children accessing unsecured firearms in their homes are common in the US, school shootings perpetrated by those under 10 years old are rare.
