Charlotte Griffiths has claimed Prince Harry’s own communications team secretly tipped off the press about a meeting between representatives of the Duke and King Charles III, before Buckingham Palace was publicly blamed for the leak.
The Mail on Sunday Editor-at-Large, who was among those cleared this week after Prince Harry and several other high-profile claimants lost their High Court case against Associated Newspapers Limited, has published a scathing 5,000-word account reflecting on her past friendship with the Duke.
Among the most explosive claims in the article is Griffiths’ allegation that senior members of Harry and Meghan Markle’s communications team provided her with advance notice of a private meeting between Sussex representatives and a senior Palace aide in 2025.
“I can now reveal that, during the summer of 2025, a close adviser to Harry and Meghan had contacted me out of the blue and invited me to lunch at the Ivy restaurant in London,” Griffiths wrote.
She said the information shared during that meeting resulted in several Mail on Sunday stories that presented the Sussexes “in a positive light”.
Indeed, one of those reports appeared on the Mail’s front page on July 17 and claimed Harry and Meghan were attempting to repair relations with the 77-year-old monarch.
The exclusive was published under the headline: ‘The secret Harry peace summit: King Charles and Duke of Sussex’s senior aides meet for talks near royal palace in first step towards reconciliation and strongest sign yet both sides want to resolve bitter family feud’.
Griffiths reported that the briefing focused on discussions in London between Liam Maguire and Meredith Maines, Harry and Meghan’s British communications chief and former US communications chief, respectively, and the King’s communications secretary, Tobyn Andreae.
“I was duly tipped off about the meeting, which was held at the Royal Over-Seas League near Clarence House,” she said.
Griffiths claimed those attending the meeting deliberately positioned themselves on a balcony overlooking a public park, where they were in full view, before The Mail on Sunday arranged for a photographer to capture the moment.
She then alleged that, after the photographs were published, sources close to the Sussexes pointed the finger at Buckingham Palace, claiming it had been responsible for leaking details of the meeting.
“In a development which speaks volumes for their integrity, ‘sources close to the Sussexes’ then briefed the Daily Telegraph that they were ‘very frustrated’ that the pictures of the Royal Over-Seas League gathering had ended up in The Mail on Sunday- suggesting, quite falsely, that the Palace was responsible for a grotesque betrayal of trust,” she wrote.
Reflecting on Harry’s evidence during the court proceedings, Griffiths added: “Now, just six months later, the prince was impugning my integrity, while swearing that his people never leaked and that stories that ended up in my newspaper must have been obtained illegally.”
On Tuesday, Prince Harry’s legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited ended in defeat after a High Court judge dismissed the claim that the publisher had unlawfully obtained his private information.
The decision marks the end of the Duke of Sussex’s final major privacy lawsuit against a UK newspaper publisher and represents a significant setback in his long-running campaign against sections of the British press.
Griffiths said she would never have publicly discussed her friendship with Harry had she not been called to give evidence in the case.
She wrote that she would have taken those details “to my grave” had she not been “dragged to court to be casually smeared by a royal whose arrogance and sense of entitlement has now rotted whatever moral compass he once possessed”.
“This is the same Harry who stands on stages pontificating about the evils of social media while fronting gooey campaigns about online bullying. The hypocrisy is breathtaking,” Griffiths said.
“Before he dragged me into court, I’d almost forgotten about our brief friendship. Now I rather wish I could erase it altogether.”
Meanwhile, despite everything Harry has allegedly put his father through, reports continue to suggest King Charles is expected to meet privately with his estranged son and his family during their UK visit.
It is understood Meghan and the children are expected to join Harry in Britain and stay at Althorp House, the Spencer family estate that was once the childhood home of Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana.
Meghan had initially been expected to attend Harry’s public engagements surrounding the Invictus Games, but is now understood to have withdrawn from those public-facing appearances.
Skynews.com.au has contacted Sussex representatives for comment.