Parent's Network Changes Hands

0:01Harry and Meghan hand over their biggest project to another charity. Prince William, hires a crisis manager and removal vans arrive at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's house. I'm Jack Royston, Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent, and this is Newsweek's Royal Report. Hello listeners and welcome to the show. Now, Prince Harry and Meghan launched the Archwell Foundation Parents Network in 2024, in the summer. It had actually started a couple of years earlier in 2022, but they gave it its kind of official hard launch a couple of years later. It was a big sit-down interview, Harry talked about just how damaging social media and the digital world can be to children, going as far as saying that actually all parents nowadays must be first responders because they must be ready to spot the signs that their child could be at risk of self-harm or even suicide.

0:53So it was a really big and important project for them, and they have now basically given the keys to another organisation, which is called Parents together so this is obviously a big moment for them um they actually uh are of the view that they basically announced this already in october but the actual fundamental underlying details about it were so subtle um in the press release that they put out that nobody picked up on it people magazine actually did an exclusive story talking about how parents together had been brought in to be a partner for the parents network um and that you know they were going to be working jointly, but without ever clocking, like nobody clocked, that what it actually meant was Harry and Meghan giving up the entire kind of core structure of the charity, of the project rather.

1:40So they still, just to be clear, Archwell is still theirs. It rebranded very recently from the Archwell Foundation to Archwell Philanthropies. It's now a fiscal sponsor. It's not running its own programs. And that is substantially a big part of the reason why I think Harry and Meghan have done this but let me take you through the kind of all the details and you know decide for yourselves what you think it means i think it's quite significant personally so yeah just first of all a little quote from harry from that cbs interview he said at this point we've got to the stage where almost every parent needs to be a first responder even the best first responders would not be able to tell the signs of possible suicide now that is obviously a big thing for harry to say because megan had suicidal thoughts while she was pregnant with archie and in fact his mother, Princess Diana, had suicidal thoughts when she was pregnant with William.

2:29So it's a subject that he kind of does know about from personal experience. So Archwell has given this organization, Parents Together, the network's full operational capacity and structure, including systems and processes, as well as brand and creative assets. And Archwell has also given a cash grant to cover the network's first year of core operations. And so it sounds like some money has been donated to Archwell from supporters and so for spending on the parents network so that money has been given to parents together but it's been ring-fenced for spending on the network so what the network actually was is it was a bunch of parents who had been through tragedies you know they'd lost children and where in context where you know the digital world was part of that story whether it was you know bullying on social media or you know some other aspects of the digital world and so those parents are still part of this network they're still talking to each other they're still leaning on each other for support but they are now doing it under the auspices of this other organization and one thing that's really striking is that parent you you know if i was parents together i would create when creating a landing page for the network which they have the landing page is now not on archwell anymore it's on parents together i would have put you know this fantastic network created by harry and megan launched in 2024 it's helped loads of people it's brilliant come and join you know we'll all um help you and uh we'll give you loads of support and it'll be brilliant but actually all they really have is an online form um there's no mention of harry or megan anywhere there's no mention of archwell there's no mention of duke and dutchson of sussex it's just like this fairly plain online form saying the parents network on an organization that is substantially doing other things you know it's not like promoted really loudly on their homepage.

4:14It's like squirreled away on a particular page of their website. You kind of have to know that you're looking for it in order to get there. That doesn't totally sound like a strategic partnership to me. It sounds more like stepping back. Now, I'm not accusing, making any allegation of kind of subterfuge or trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes, but I definitely do understand why journalists didn't pick up the significance of this when it was first trailed back in October. And, you know, I've been, I've read through that press release like multiple times trying to see whether there is something that was missed that could have given the media a clue as to what was happening.

4:54And I cannot honestly spot a single line in the press release that was put out in October that would actually properly convey that, you know, the keys were handed over and the, well, yeah, the registration documents, so to speak, of the car were handed over and given to somebody else. So they've not totally abandoned the cause of trying to highlight the harm that social media does. And in fact, part of what set me off, because this was a Newsweek story for what it's worth, but part of what set me off on asking questions about this and trying to find out what was going on was seeing Harry and Meghan do this appearance with Gayle King for Oprah Daily, where it was promoting this book by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price.

5:36And they wrote the book, The Amazing Generation, about like, get your kids off social media, get them outside, get them running around and doing things that kids should be doing. And so they seem to kind of, it almost felt like they were giving them, the authors, credit for the Parents Network. And I just couldn't get my head around what Harry meant. So this is what they knew them, you know, they were clearly friends with them. They knew them from working together. And this is what Harry said. He said, over the years, we've worked with you on how the digital space is deeply affecting our collective and mental, emotional and physical health.

6:06and obviously a huge congratulations to you and the outcome of your research, which has created a parent-led movement, which is astonishing and much needed. I couldn't really get my head around what he meant by created a parent-led movement. Maybe he knows and maybe he wasn't referring to the Parents Network, but then I started thinking about it. I started thinking, well, what does happen to the Parents Network under this new Archwell system where they're not running their own programs anymore? They're just, as a fiscal sponsor, their foundation is now just giving money and support to other organizations to run programs.

6:41So that's what got me asking questions. A source I spoke to said the transition follows our established model where we incubate initiatives before transitioning them to independent, sustainable organizations, much like Invictus, Travelist, and others. And I couldn't quite get my head around that because Harry did kind of seem like he stepped back a little bit from Travelist in the sense that there was a period of time when any press release Travelist put out, Harry was the top line. They were using Harry to sell the concept. Travelist is like an eco-tourism company. And Harry was the big selling point.

7:17And there came a period of time as Harry and Meghan were starting to kind of disintegrate a little bit in terms of their popularity and reputations. When Travelist started pushing Harry down to the bottom of the press release, they'd still be mentioned there, but he would be in the about Travelist section at the very bottom. and they would be selling their organization on other things. The Invictus Games is so Harry branded, it's crazy. But even Travelist, and now is back to, on their website, Harry is front and center again. It's all very much this. Harry is the founder and patron, sorry, in both cases.

7:54Both Invictus and Travelist sell themselves as organizations where Harry is the founder and patron. and the parents network doesn't mention them at all. So this does feel different to me. And we will probably never know exactly what has gone on, but obviously there are a couple of ways that you can kind of analyse this. Now, I just want to read a little bit more from what my source told me, which is Parents Together has built trusted relationships with many of these families in the parents network, that is, over years and their expertise makes them the ideal permanent home for the parents network.

8:36We couldn't be more excited to see these families supported and amplified in such capable hands. So very much, you know, selling the positives of this. And it might well be positive for these families. It might well be positive for the network itself. But it doesn't change the fact that it's a big step backwards from Harry and Meghan. And it does feel like it chimes with this transition in their charity. so what does it mean well obviously the harry and megan's detractors um want to say that this means harry and megan failures that their charity was a failure that they tried and they just couldn't make it work and that everything they touch us turns to mud and that um they're just predestined to fail at everything and actually i think there's a more interesting take on this and you know i don't want to close off any doors or any ideas at all i want to keep everything on the table because really I think we don't know what's happening but there are some really interesting unusual and strange things and changes going on in particularly Harry's life and engagement with the world over the past year and you know I've talked on this podcast before for example about the fact that he's had a big love in with the UK in the in the second half of last year not only did he visit and it was a roaring success but he then wrote this love letter to Britain to mark remembrance in November.

9:57And then we found out in December that there's a new threat assessment being carried out in relation to his police protection, which was really confusing because the Home Office won Harry's lawsuit that he filed against them. So all of a sudden, having beaten him in court, they seem to be giving him the exact thing that he'd been asking for. And so I said at the time when I was talking about all that, I went through the court filings And I said that one thing that would give rise to a new threat assessment would be if Harry was planning to spend at the very least more time in Britain. And I said, it's a wild crackpot theory.

10:33I don't know whether it's true, but this winding up of the charity, not complete winding up, but transition to a fiscal sponsor, the passing over of this major project to another organization that can run it is also still consistent with a man who might be planning to move to Britain. And I feel like I can't help but laugh even as I say it, because if you asked me a year ago, I would have said that that idea was deranged, like completely bonkers and wild. But, you know, I think there is something to be said for just mapping what the evidence says and what direction it points in. And that doesn't mean that, you know, what slightly wild theory has to be true.

11:16it might well not be but you do have to kind of look at the evidence dispassionately with your biases cast to one side and you know all all my kind of personal perspective as a royal correspondent tells me that harry has a great life in america it's sunny whereas you know britain i think it is in fact literally it is raining as i say this it is gray and cold and rainy and dreary outside my window. So, you know, why would Harry ever want to move back? Except that he has a lot here. And so, you know, it's this thing that when you have a bunch of stuff happening that is all a bit strange and slightly unexplained, it's just worth considering whether there might be something that explains it all.

12:00And what's crazy is that Harry moving back to Britain would explain all of these things. The R &B, you know, the Home Office, the government, the British government and the police would need to do a new threat assessment again in relation to him if he was moving back to Britain. You would expect him to come to Britain and do lots of charity work to test the waters and to see how people would react to him. And if it went well, which it did in September, you would expect that to encourage him to go further. You would expect some signs that he wanted to show Britain that he still loved the country and cared and still considered it his home, which he did with his essay, his love letter to Britain in November.

12:42Meghan, in fact, just this week, launched a new product on her As Ever online shop, which is a bookmark made in Britain by a small British company. And she has said in the past how much attention and care she takes over her fashion because she knows the benefit that she can be to other organizations. In fact, I'm going to read you that quote. I've got it knocking about around here. So, yeah, she had these, the bookmarks say, fell asleep here in her calligraphy. And it's like this leather, this is quite classy, this nice other bookmark. And it doesn't just keep your page, it keeps your line, your exact place within the page.

13:17Quite expensive though,$18. So there we go. And it is, they're made by this UK company that's on the South Coast. And, you know, it's a really small, they're not even on company's house. That's how small the business is. And she has obviously decided to give them some attention. So here's what Megan told the New York Times back in 2024. Times where I know, obviously this is about her fashion choices, but I am inferring that she will take the same attitude to the businesses she has an opportunity to shine a spotlight on via her lifestyle business. So she told the New York Times, times where I know there is a global spotlight and attention will be given to each detail of what I may or may not be wearing, then I support designers that I have really great friendships with and smaller up and coming brands that haven't gotten the attention that they should be getting.

14:06That's one of the most powerful things that I'm able to do. And that's simply wearing like an earring. So then, you know, I don't just always assume with this stuff. I try to actually look at the evidence and ask myself, are there signs that this is Megan's attitude to this like bookmark company? So this is what her newsletter, her As Ever brand has this newsletter that they send around to promote her stock. And so this is what it said about the bookmark. our fell asleep here leather bookmark was made in collaboration with spree a small uk-based female-owned workshop specializing in handcrafted made-to-order keepsakes so the fact she's bothered to call it not only uk-based but also female-owned like megan always loves to tell us when a business she's working with is owned by a woman because obviously you know for her that speaks to her kind of feminist principles and um you know she also is like has this whole thing about being herself a female founder um so this does feel like this is plugging the kind of social justice aspect of this product but in the same breath she's also pointing out that it's uk based which indicates to me that she did intend that message to be seen and received that you know she's showing some love to britain so like it might be nothing maybe it's just literally you know harry's hosting the Invictus Games in Birmingham, which is a city in the Midlands in England in 2027.

15:33So maybe he's just trying to pave the way for what might be a slightly daunting prospect. He's going to hold a whole two-week tournament or whatever tournament for wounded veterans in Britain, a country where a lot of people really don't like him and like Megan even less. That might legitimately be a daunting process and he might be trying to patch things up with Britain in order to ensure that that will be a success. Other possible explanations, he's still chasing down, trying to repair his friendship with his father, with King Charles, and maybe he thinks that a general love bombing of Britain will help repair his reputation here.

16:14Or maybe it's literally just as simple as, if he does get a commitment from the Home Office that he will have Metropolitan Police protection in Britain when he visits, then maybe he just literally plans to spend more time here on holiday. Maybe he thinks perhaps this is a year when he could spend the summer at Balmoral with the royal family. I don't know. We don't know. But I think it's important to keep all options on the table and to remember that crazy stuff happens in the royal family. It just does. And we're going through a really quiet period at the moment And it would like weirdly be fitting for Harry to just like blow everything up and do something very Harry, because that's kind of is he's a bit of a force of nature.

17:01And that is the kind of thing he does. But let me just talk a little bit more about the actual announcement that was made back in October. And you can decide for yourselves whether you think that these quotes contain the core information that the kind of structure and organizational fabric of the Parents Network has been handed over to Parents Together. This is what was said. So Harry and Meghan, they announced this partnership with Parents Together at Project Healthy Minds, which had a gala in New York in October. And Harry said, expanding the parents movement and supporting them throughout is how real change happens.

17:37That's why we are so proud to announce tonight that the Parents Network is joining forces with parents together. Archwell's October press release, which came, I think, just after that speech, said the Archwell Foundation today announced that its Parents Network initiative is joining forces with parents together, a leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to family advocacy and online safety. and then there was a quote also in the press release from james holt and shauna nepp who were at the time co-executive directors of the archwell foundation now it's archwell philanthropies but also crucially and interestingly james has gone is moving back to britain and is leaving archwell no doubt these two events may be connected um the passing over of the parents network combined with james leaving um it's possible i don't know um so they said in their statement when we launched the parents network we were among the few voices calling attention to the devastating impact of social media and emerging technologies on young people today the landscape has transformed dramatically legislation is emerging across the country more families are coming forward with their stories and the urgency of this moment is undeniable this connection with parents together ensures our community has the infrastructure advocacy power and resources needed to meet this critical moment in protecting our children.

18:58And then I actually pulled, there was a quote in the press release from a parent, but I actually pulled a different quote from a parent that was in Archwell's 2023 to 2024 annual impact report. And this was somebody called Tony. And I used this instead because I think it's just quite interesting how much emphasis that was placed on Harry and Meghan in this impact report, which is like an annual kind of big PDF document they release in which they say how fantastic the charity has been over the past year. So this is what Tony said. What gives us hope is that we can connect with families that don't judge us.

19:33I can call any one of these dads anytime during the day and they'll stop what they're doing and they'll listen. For all practical purpose, we should not have ever met, but we all came together because of the Archwell Foundation, because of Harry and Meghan. They have given us a support group, a team, people that you can cry with, laugh with, have a drink with, cook with, and all of it is meaningful. And it just seemed to me a little sad in a way that you've got a guy who's willing to say that to attribute this really important support network he's got to Harry and Meghan and their charity in this impact report, but then parents together just aren't at the moment, unless they're about to redesign the website or something.

20:13Right now, they're not giving any credit at all to Harry and Meghan and Archwell online. It just seems really bizarre to me. Like you would think that that would be a selling point. But I will be watching very closely. You know, Harry, we're expecting him in Britain next week. He's got his big lawsuit, his final lawsuit. And then we think he's done with suing people against the Daily Mail's publisher, Associated Newspapers. It's at the High Court next week. Harry's not going to give evidence in the first week. It's going to be a nine-week trial, we think. So it's going to be mammoth. We don't know exactly when he's going to give evidence, but he will attend, we think, some elements.

20:52We're expecting him there on the first day. I don't think that they even, you know, the court has even necessarily decided, and I don't even necessarily know whether that day one will have the trial, because often they're getting to court day one and they just have to argue about a load of stuff for a while. so I certainly am not expecting them to hit the ground running at 10 a.m. I think there'll be a lot of kind of trading and we'll just have to see what happens but I will keep a close eye out it will be fascinating to see whether there are any hints or signs that he's trying to continue this operation to kind of win back Britain.

21:28Right, on that note I'm going to take a quick break but before I do just a reminder to rate The Royal Report on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your favourite podcasts and we are of course now also on YouTube So if you're watching there, then don't forget to like and subscribe. And when I'm back, Prince William's latest staff recruitment has caused a lot of debate.

21:52Hello and welcome back to the show and a very interesting new hire for Prince William and, of course, Kate's too. and that's Liza Ravenscroft who is a senior director or she's coming from a PR company called Edelman and she has a specialism in crisis management so this is just absolutely set tongues wagging people are saying you know what crisis is William anticipating obviously particularly supporters of Harry and Meghan are jumping on this and saying that that means you know something's not right at Kensington Palace and some big things going to come out now I think that might be slightly over the top and it's worth I think one fact that is really important to be really clear on up front is that Julian Payne who used to be King Charles's commsman, his spokesman back when Charles was Prince of Wales a man who I worked with when I first started as royal correspondent in fact Julian Payne is the CEO of the UK division of Edelman so this is probably partly a case of julian payne kind of saying maybe having even been asked like do you have anybody and saying well actually liza's brilliant um so that you know that probably is substantially what's going on but it is also possible that prince william approached julian with a specific brief saying like actually i could really do with somebody with a particular skill set or specialism so it might not be completely bonkers even from the perspective of this having clearly been you know an introduction made from a very trusted contact um but yeah i mean it's fascinating and there are a bunch of hypothetical scenarios that within which this particular skill set might be useful but before we get on to that so obviously the uk press has been all over this the evening standards um pulled up uh liza ravencroft's personal biography as in not a book but on her on the website which said she works arm and arm with big names facing their toughest times and helping them get past an issue as quickly as possible with minimal dents this is the the weirdest bit is this the quote that kind of started it all off because it was the mail on sunday story originally and they said that she was described by a previous boss as bulletproof sunshine which i don't quite understand what the sunshine bit means they're saying she's bulletproof totally get that but i I guess maybe they mean she's got a sunshine, cheery, happy personality, but is bulletproof with it.

24:19But yeah, bulletproof sunshine. That's the phrase that's been doing the rounds. So before Edelman, she worked at a company called Ravenscroft, and was senior director of communications for Marriott, the hotel chain, and British Airways before that. So like I said, the mail broke this. And a source told the mail on Sunday, Julian Payne has stayed close to the king, so it is unlikely to be a coincidence that one of his most senior and respected members of staff has taken a key role in William's office after a period of turmoil. So they're saying after a period of turmoil. So that's probably a reference realistically to Andrew and that whole scandal and the kind of massive cloud that it brought over the monarchy and its reputation for a long period of time.

25:07so after a period of turmoil and when they are looking for closer alignment between Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace as mines turn to William's eventual succession so that's quite an interesting line as well so they're talking about it in terms of bringing KP and BP together so in other words somebody who has been provided by the King's ex-PR spokesperson and I tend to think sometimes with the Royals it was something said by Russia actually that there's no such thing as a former MI6 agent in relation to Christopher Steele for those who followed that story. And I kind of think there's almost no such thing as a former palace spokesperson either, that they all do keep that loyalty to the royal family member they worked for.

25:48Because otherwise, you know, these people don't tend to take these jobs because they're not very well paid. They take them because they really believe in the monarchy and want to work for the monarchy. They don't do it for the money because the money isn't there. So you got somebody who's been recommended by the king's ex-spokesperson, it could be about just making sure that the two sides don't tread on each other's toes. I was talking, I think it was last week, about the fact that actually sometimes, you know, William can just talk a little bit too much about how much he's going to change the monarchy when actually, you know, he is following in his father's footsteps.

26:25But with that in mind, you know, there's a lot that he could, that she, that Liza Ravenscroft, sorry, could actually put a mind to. So one question is, thinking about scandals that might come up in the future, what if Harry and Meghan do come back to Britain? I mean, that would be a crisis for William and Kate. That would be something that Liza would have to get her head around. How would they respond to it? Even if Harry and Meghan didn't come back as working royals, if they were in Britain doing charity work on a regular basis, there would be natural rivalry. Media organisations would compare Harry and Meghan's royal jobs to William and Kate's.

26:59it would be particularly difficult because I think William and Kate have been trying to do fewer engagements but make them have more impact. And so if Harry just came, hit the ground running, just blitzed it and was everywhere all the time, then he would very easily actually be able to drown out particularly Kate but William too. So that's something that she might have to wrap her head around. Also, actually, you know, I wrote a piece this week having a look at Kate's birthday video she did. So for her birthday, she did one of these nature videos. She's been doing these on a regular basis. And they're these big kind of glossy packaged videos.

27:34It's her walking through nature. Lots of drone camera footage of the beautiful English countryside. Does it or Scottish actually probably potentially for some of them, but English too. And it does look breathtaking. And, you know, it's they're very well put together and very cleanly finished. but I was also wondering this week, like, is that actually what Kensington Palace should be doing strategically? Because they, like, Kate's weirdly has started getting flack for these and from, actually, for quite a while now, particularly from the Daily Mail, which is a really, obviously, royalist newspaper that loves Kate and loves William.

28:13And some of the columnists have been saying that these just don't quite strike the right note. I think the most striking example of this was actually back in 2024. It wasn't one of these nature videos. It was when Kate was announcing the end of her chemotherapy treatment so she started in february she wrapped up at some point over the summer in september um she of 2024 she announced that her chemotherapy treatment had come to an end and she did it through this voiceover that had clearly been written um that was you know she her narration was played over this footage of her and her family and the kids playing in nature and being out in the woods and being out in nature um and it was you know like it really heartwarming some of it there were some really candid family moments with the kids in particular and some people loved it but then some people hated it and said that it was like a center parks advert and it it read to people as brand marketing and they found that really jarring i think probably particularly because kate was talking about something so personal as her cancer treatment and so um one thing that got me thinking this week is that a lot of the talk within the marketing industry where obviously you know they have to protect their the profits of the companies they work for and the businesses they work for and so on so it's really like cut and dry it works or it doesn't and they've really got their eyes laser focused on what's working at the moment and what they're all talking about is like low production values beating high production values because what people want is authenticity.

29:44They have had so much AI slop. But also I think, you know, grifting influencers, that they're done with it. Like audiences are just fed up with people where everything's just a bit too polished and it's just a bit too polished because it's fake, either because it's AI or because some influencer is pretending. You know, we're sobbing their eyes out in front of their carefully set up ring light and camera. And so because people are fed up with these things, what they're now appreciating is stuff that content that has that like rough around the edges air of authenticity that in the early days of AI has been harder to artificially create.

30:24So does this suggest that actually maybe William and Kate are going down the wrong path by putting so much resource into these really polished video montages of the work that they do? could it backfire on them well in order to kind of consider that i went back to the um the incredible extraordinary period in 2024 when kate had obviously in the january she had um abdominal surgery understandably she wanted to take some time off to recover kensington palace told everybody not to expect to see her for a while but people kind of expected that they would get some kind of a photograph post-surgery because this is the digital age you know it's the it's the age of oversharing you know when celebrities are posting pictures from their hospital bed so when no pictures or imagery of any kind turned up for months months and people start to ask questions on social media and particularly you know harry and megan supporters again probably no surprise they were giving kate a slightly harder time than most and they were making this hashtag trend like where is kate middleton and it snowballed and snowballed and snowballed and snowballed to the point where like kim kardashian was jumping on this trend and then in the for mother's day that year which in britain is march kate released this photograph but bear in mind the the conspiracy theories at the time had gone really dark people were speculating that kate was secretly dead and they were demanding explicitly demanding a photo as proof of life and so mother's day came around kate wanted to release a photo with her children and they released this picture said to have been taken by prince william of Kate with the three kids, George, Charlotte, and Louis.

32:02But then there were loads of really weird details, like the kids all seemed to have their fingers crossed, and so did Kate. But then also people looked really closely at the image and could see all of these signs of editing, we presume, using AI editing tools. And it turned out that, yes, in fact, Kate had edited it. And so she was actually forced to apologize after a load of picture agencies issued kill notices to say that the picture wasn't trustworthy because it had been edited and Kensington Palace was not able to provide them with information about what the edits were or why they were made.

32:37And so the whole thing turned into a massive PR crisis. There was already a big social media storm and social media trend around Kate speculating with conspiracy theories, but this obviously poured fuel on that fire and made it go absolutely crazy. And a couple of weeks later, Kate was bounced into revealing the information that the palace had not been sharing because they were holding something back and what they were holding back was that she had secretly been undergoing treatment for cancer so obviously at that point a huge amount of sympathy for kate but she made that announcement through a video message video broadcast and again some people still chose not to believe what they were seeing with their eyes and decided that it was ai generated and it was only actually when kate appeared in public hold on to that thought because it's important um at trooping the color that um actually people realized that yes there's no disputing now this is kate she is here she is there for real you know thousands of people you know hundreds of thousands of people can see her um that you know she's not secretly dead or being hidden away or whatever people thought so that's really interesting to me that particular juxtaposition of like a video being read as fake versus a public appearance in person finally putting everything to rest and it just kind of makes me think that um William and Kate when they first started this thing of creating their own package social media videos it seemed really forward thinking seemed ahead of the curve seemed like they were kind of leaving Charles and Camilla in the dust because they were so far ahead of their time and they would you know they were like at the cutting edge in the digital age and then now it's just kind of moved on and it's not what people want anymore and the monarchy changes really really slowly whereas cultures on online change really really fast and this is one where actually what started off as being William and Kate being forward thinking could become their downfall because these heavily packaged heavily processed videos used to be proof that you had access to people with skills people with professionalism it was all kind of wrapped up in you know like the production values indicated that you were a professional that you were working with professionals that you had resources and so they kind of packaged you as being a somebody but now that look and that effect can be created in minutes using ai by anybody you don't even have to take get out your pajamas you can stay in bed in the morning and create a perfect replica of one of these videos kate's made using mid-journey or some other ai software so it no longer and this is the heartbreaking thing about artificial intelligence that it destroys the capacity of professionals to earn money because it can replicate the work that they do and so weirdly like the whole trends for what people want in content has boomeranged back around to what the monarchy are doing i'm going to read you a little bit so i will in researching this story that i did um i looked at some of the content in you know coming out of the world of marketing and there was one particular website that put it really neatly what for a agency called brand nation so I want to read you that so Brand Nation did an article about this and a lot of actual agencies and so on and marketing publications have done their predictions for 2026 talking about this exact distinction so Brand Nation talk about an authenticity revolution they say the industry is reacting against fakeness and AI automation I should stress that they're not talking about Kate there's none of these articles that I was reading mention Kate specifically or the Kate's videos But they say, a return to simplicity, humanity and meaningful connection as AI tools become more prevalent in content creation is what's needed, basically.