Royal author Clive Irving launched an attack on the Prince of Wales claiming it was “an atrocious act of hypocrisy” for him to condemn Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s attempt to continue using the Sussex Royal brand. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s were stripped of the right to use royal branding by the Queen and her heir Prince Charles after their departure from the Firm last year.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Clive Irving lashed out at Charles over Duchy Organics, a grocery brand he founded in 1990.
Mr Irving told the magazine: “If you take the case of Meghan and Harry, it’s been an atrocious act of hypocrisy on Charles’s part to [take the view] that it wasn’t right for them to use a brand, Sussex Royal, to monetise the royal name, because Charles was the first person ever to do that in a serious way, with the Duchy brand of grocery items.”
The author of a new biography called “The Last Queen”, also pointed out that Harry and Meghan planned to use their brand for charitable work rather than for monetary profit.
According to the Prince’s website all profits from Duchy Organics – which has now partnered with Waitrose – also go to charitable causes and the company is “entirely separate from the Duchy of Cornwall”, Charles’ private funds.
Mr Irving continued: “It never seemed to strike him or anybody else in the Royal Family that it was hypocritical to attack Meghan and Harry for wanting to do their own brand, and in their case not to sell groceries but to do good work.”
The royal author also highlighted how Prince Charles has never been scolded in public for using his own private jet while claiming to be an advocate for climate change action.
Mr Irving said: “He’s shown himself to be a hypocrite.
“He was an early campaigner for recognising the importance of climate change and that’s very good… but at the same time, he flies around on executive jets, uncaring about the enormous carbon footprint of that.”
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“She’s very much timeless, whereas Charles is an 18th-century figure.”
The criticism comes after it emerged Meghan Markle’s sister Samantha, is preparing to release a book about her life with her sister.
The 56-year-old actress has been a vocal critic of her younger sister, whom she has once called “a shallow social climber” in 2016.
However, the Duchess of Sussex has said Samantha, who is her half-sister, barely knew her.
