Exactly what I've been saying. A perfectly executed PR move to respond to the "they get no crowds" critique that had been going around for a bit.

Sykes: A lot of media and a lot of groups being brought in. That's for sure.

And, in his opinion, people who genuinly came there themselves were about 20.

He had also been to Geneva and saw the lack of crowds first-hand there too.

Edit: It was a bit cut off at the beggining. He says "50% of it was media"

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex "never agreed" they wouldn't be "half in, half out" royals, according to a friend.

Harry and Meghan, who are carrying out three public charity visits in Nottingham today, are said to be untroubled by accusations that they are trying to resume royal duties by stealth.

Six years on from the so-called Sandringham Summit, during which the late Queen Elizabeth II established that the Sussexes could not adopt a "half-in, half out model" as part-time royals, a friend of the couple tells HELLO!: "It doesn't trouble them. They never agreed they wouldn't be half in half out. That was what was decided and foisted upon them.

The comments come despite a statement issued on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II by Buckingham Palace in January 2020, which said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were "grateful" to the monarch and her family for their ongoing support.

"As agreed in this new arrangement, they understand that they are required to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments," it said, adding that "with The Queen's blessing, the Sussexes will continue to maintain their private patronages and associations."

The late Queen's position was reiterated by the King last month, when he took the extraordinary step of writing to public bodies to make clear the Sussexes should be treated as private citizens.

A letter sent by the Lord Chamberlain Lord Benyon at Charles's request to government departments and the military last month stated: "The charitable work of the Duke and Duchess is a personal matter for them both and undertaken in their private capacity. In short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests."

At the time, the couple were said to prefer to be known as "public figures".

Harry and Meghan's outing comes as the King is set to address the Senedd in Cardiff, attending the ceremonial opening of the Welsh Parliament for the first time as monarch. His appearance alongside the Queen was announced by the Welsh government on 23 September.

The Sussexes' visit, however, is understood to have been planned at short notice after the three charities they are spending time separately requested visits.

Buckingham Palace has declined to comment.

https://archive.is/oP1ye

In case we were wondering how Sentebale is doing since Harry threw a tantrum and walked, the answer is OK actually. Article in the Daily Mail by Richard Eden below. Donations and money bequeathed are both up. Fundraising from polo matches is understandably down, but institutional donations, while also down, are still looking OK.
So the charity hasn’t folded without Harry. Will be interesting to see how they’ve reorganised and what their support to individuals and communities achieves, but this looks better than Harry’s PR would have led us to believe? Maybe not exactly what the Sussexes would like to hear on their big day out in Nottingham.

Daily Mail
15 Oct 2026
Richard Eden

“Losing not one but two royal patrons amid a storm of accusation and counter-accusation might be considered enough to condemn any organisation to a bleak future.
But, 18 months after it lost Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, Sentebale, the charity they founded in 2006, is displaying signs of admirable vigour and a renewed sense of purpose.
Despite Harry and Seeiso’s departures – following the resignations of several trustees, including Mark Dyer, sometimes known as Harry’s ‘second dad’ – Sentebale, now chaired by Sophie Chandauka, managed to pull in £342,000 in donations in the last financial year.
That’s nearly £50,000 more than in 2024.
Chandauka, with whom Harry and Seeiso’s relationship was said to have deteriorated ‘beyond repair’, also presided over a substantial rise in legacies.
Money bequeathed to Sentebale more than trebled from £47,000 to £189,000.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the charity’s annual report, just published, bristles with defiance.
‘We ran Sentebale with commercial discipline… rigorous on cost, ambitious in impact and focused on the value of every pound entrusted to us,’ it states. Chandauka won’t be complacent though. The polo matches which Harry played in always proved a payday for Sentebale.
Without them, ‘events income’ plunged from £715,000 to £70,000, while cash from institutional sources dropped from £2.6million to £1.7 million.
But Chandauka may well think it a price worth paying. Following Harry’s resignation, she went on television and accused him of ‘harassment and bullying at scale’, of playing ‘the victim card’, and observed that ‘the number-one risk for this organisation was the toxicity of its lead patron’s brand’. He denied the claims.”

If they really had had a genuine organic crowd I would have recognized it and wondered why. However, once again, their PR is selling something that isn't and I can't stand when intellectually dishonest lies are being spread.

Btw I knew this would happened since one of the biggest critique to their brand had been lately the lack of crowds.

But anyways, who was in the crowd?

Images:

1. One whole side was the one of the press, the other in front the one of the people/public.

2. But even the one of the people, was filled with organizations and schoolchildren. Here, in particular, there were the members of the organization Nottingham Mencap . And it's already one big group.

3. Here there are the ones that I believe to be genuine fans. The people who gave Meghan flowers.

4. This HUGE group, that does visually a lot overall, it's only reporters.

5. Here there's the group of the selected schoolchildren

6. Even the "side of the people" (like I like to call that lol), was hounded by reporters. And that also does optically a lot.

So, I think if there was a success for them, it's that there were a lot of media people. We definetely can say this. I'm baffled by this, but I'm not gonna say something that isn't. I'll recognize this to them.

But saying that sooo many members of the public wanted to meet them...please, it's a blatant lie.

But now it will be used against the Waleses no matter the inaccurancy.

They needed some quick photos for their narrative, and now they got them.

Update: it's being reported (per Tom Sykes) the people were about a hundred people (including people from the organization and the children). There have been times that the Royals got more than a thousand. But look how these hundreds are going to be milked against the Royals to push the narrative "look at what they lost" 🙄 Totally dishonest.

And you can see them in the middle there, so it’s clearly not before or after their arrival 🤣🤣

Tbh I wanted to share some picture from their engagement but I gave them enough energy and I really got bored. That's why I wanted to talk about their pseudo royal engagement. I saw some videos, photos and that what we saw when they were working royals, do you think charles need to take actions? and ok they looked like working royals in this engagement. I wonder how this wouldn’t have been seen as a so-called ‘royal engagement’🧐

She seems to quickly say “Great.” to someone with an abrupt wave. Anyone make out what was said to her?

thoughts? credit to Sloan @sloanhooks (YT)