In late June, the Telegraph dropped a huge exclusive on a Friday. The exclusive was: King Charles has updated his funeral plans, code named Operation London Bridge, to include the Sussex family prominently. According to well-placed sources, Charles is “adamant that his youngest son take his rightful place at the centre of his family” during the funeral and Harry will be expected to “walk side by side with his brother, by then the King, at the forefront of the sombre processions through the streets of central London.” Not only that, but Charles wants Archie and Lilibet “to attend the funeral service at Westminster Abbey, as well as the committal at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.”
The Telegraph’s story got a lot of attention internationally, but there wasn’t a lot of secondary coverage of the exclusive within the British media or the tabloids. That’s because King Charles’s communications director Tobyn Andreae issued a strongly-worded plea/threat to the rota which convinced them not to cover it. The threat? You’ll lose access if you dare repeat what the Telegraph reported. Also, the leak about Operation London Bridge came from inside Buckingham Palace in the first place. All of this “how the communications sausage is made” drama is because the Daily Beast published copies of Andreae’s messages to the rota!! OMG.
Buckingham Palace’s top aides are in a tailspin after leaked plans for the death of King Charles made it into the media—sparking a huge censorship operation to “contain the spill.” The leak to The Daily Telegraph revealed details including how Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, would be central to the current British monarch’s funeral—something officials are actively planning as he battles cancer.
When the Telegraph published the revelations on its front page with the headline “Prince Harry and Meghan at heart of King’s funeral plans,” it was the first substantive insight British papers had given their readers into an event of world significance. But as soon as it was published, courtiers began an extraordinary operation to stop word of any future reconciliation spreading, even though the Daily Beast can disclose that the leak originated from within Buckingham Palace’s planning operation.
Insiders say the remarkable episode offers an insight into the kind of “iron fist in a velvet glove” activities that take place behind the curtain of the British royal family as it seeks to control the narrative around the institution.
Multiple sources have told the Daily Beast that the king’s most senior spin doctor, Tobyn Andreae, “had a meltdown on the phone” to editors at The Telegraph, a reliably pro-monarchy publication, about its London Bridge story.
“These new details about London Bridge, including that Harry and Meghan will be invited for central roles and that the mourning period will be shortened, had found their way to the Telegraph exclusively,” said a well-placed Fleet Street source. “There was a conversation with the palace’s communications team ahead of publication. Tobyn [Andreae] was very, very, unhappy. He was involved directly and lobbied the Telegraph for more than 24 hours to try and influence the timing and terms of publication.” But, explained a second source, a senior journalist with knowledge of the situation, its editors did not “wish to be controlled.” That “went down badly” with Andreae, who was “very resistant to the publication.”
The source said, “There was a heated phone call. In the end, the view was taken that the paper needed to protect its editorial independence, and it decided to publish its scoop when it wanted to, which from Tobyn’s [Andreae’s] point of view was premature.”
It was then, however, that a censorship operation swung into action, according to a source who said Andraea tried to “contain the spill.” Andreae used a WhatsApp text message group with other journalists who cover the royal family for British newspapers and television networks—a group known as the “royal rota”—to trash the Telegraph story and say there would be consequences for any outlet that used the information.
In one message seen by the Daily Beast, marked “not for reporting in any form,” Andreae, a former senior editor at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, criticized the article as “unconscionable” and “downright offensive,” given King Charles is currently battling cancer, and warned that outlets which repeated its detail were “unlikely to receive assistance” in future.
In what Andreae described as a “gentle advisory” message to the group, which has around 15 members, and the “international rota” group, which has around 30, he wrote: “While we won’t be drawn on the details or accuracy of the claims, the bridges plans are not yet finalised and there is no active planning underway outside of the entirely routine business you will all be familiar takes place for all family members.“Speculation about demise planning is deeply distasteful in normal circumstances—but downright offensive given that HMK [His Majesty the King] is living with cancer, continuing with treatment… and doing extremely well on it, as you will all have seen from past weeks and months. This sort of article is therefore unconscionable, no matter how ‘sensitively framed’. It is also a breach of the clear understanding that in order to for us to be able to assist media with operational planning, royal reporters do not write speculative pieces about Bridges planning, whatever the source.”
Andreae’s threat of removed “assistance”, sent to the influential group of royal rota correspondents, had the intended effect. No other British outlet repeated the details printed in the Telegraph, despite its reputation as an establishment newspaper with reliable royal sources. Some of the details were repeated in the U.S. media.
You can go to the Daily Beast to see their publication of Andreae’s message, which I’m sure will cause even more problems within the rota system. My guess is that the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes received Andreae’s message and Sykes passed it off to another reporter (Tom Latchem) at the DB to “keep his hands clean” and stay in Andreae’s good graces. Honestly, when I read the Telegraph’s story last month, it felt like it was an official move from Buckingham Palace, like they actually wanted the story out there. I’m surprised to learn that Andreae was spitting mad about it and threatening to remove rota access if they covered the Telegraph’s exclusive. Anyway, just another reminder that the royal comms offices could do a lot more to shut down the most egregious, racist, sexist and insulting stories about the Sussexes but the offices choose not to.
“Andrea used a WhatsApp text message group with other journalists who cover the royal family for British newspapers and television networks—a group known as the “royal rota” — to trash the Telegraph story and say there would be consequences for any outlet that used the… pic.twitter.com/cU63IHO3Rf
— SK
(@Rimmesfk) July 16, 2025
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
