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India McTaggart Entertainment & Royal Correspondent |
The Duchess of Sussex was told about “troubling and disturbing” child sexual abuse allegations against her estranged father eight years ago.
In a statement on Friday, Meghan said she received a letter about Thomas Markle Sr in 2018, just months after her wedding to Prince Harry in May.
The Duchess insisted she was assured at the time that UK authorities were investigating the claims after the letter came to her through the police.
Sources close to the Sussexes told The Telegraph that the Royalty and Specialist Protection Unit, part of the Metropolitan Police, had shared the letter with the Duchess, and said it would investigate the claims.
However, it is understood that the Met never investigated Mr Markle Sr, who is now being investigated by police in the Philippines for allegedly possessing “hundreds, if not thousands” of child sexual abuse images found in recent months.
A statement issued by the Met on Friday said it was aware of reports that its officers passed the letter to the Duchess, but were trying to confirm this. Police sources said they would have no jurisdiction over claims made about a foreign national in another country.
The breakdown of Meghan’s relationship with her father marred her 2018 wedding, at which he was supposed to walk her down the aisle, and overshadowed the start of her new life with the Duke of Sussex as a working royal.
This report is available only to subscribers.
Continue reading ➤ |
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Melissa Twigg |
Britain’s biggest charities are facing an extraordinary reckoning. After decades of expansion, organisations that once seemed too big to fail are shedding staff, selling glossy central London headquarters and scaling back their ambitions.
Some of this crisis is beyond their control: donations are down, costs and taxes are up and demand for services continues to rise. However, the problems raise a more uncomfortable question about how charities became so large and expensive that constant growth was essential to their survival.
Many of the more famous names are now sophisticated corporations with large HR, communications and marketing teams, ambitious political agendas and sky-high salaries for senior staff. At a time when they are more dependent than ever on public goodwill, this transformation has made them harder to love.
The challenge is whether charities can rediscover what made them so integral to British society, before the crisis threatening to overwhelm the sector does lasting damage.
For subscribers only ➤ |
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Camilla Tominey An exposé forced Farage’s party to clean up its act, but why are we not looking more closely at the behaviour of Restore and the Greens? Continue reading ➤
Suzanne Moore Stop lecturing me about my health – I just want to enjoy life Continue reading ➤
Sophia Money-Coutts If Andy Burnham can sort out entitled public transport users, he’s got my vote Continue reading ➤ |
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• Public swimming pools face closure because of severe droughts, despite warnings of a winter of flooding. South West Water and South East Water have submitted applications for a “non-essential use ban”.
• Smart TVs will be forced to power up more slowly under plans to align Britain with the EU’s net zero rules. New restrictions could also be applied to robot vacuum cleaners and voice-activated light bulbs.
• Police have detained a suspect following a fire at the Eagle’s Nest, Adolf Hitler’s mountain retreat in Germany, that firefighters said has left the site “completely ablaze”.
• Heineken has said that weight-loss jabs could reduce demand for beer and cider by making drinkers feel fuller. The brewing giant has urged pubs to prioritise half-pints and low-alcohol beers.
• Part of Brighton’s historic West Pier has collapsed in Storm Austen. Weather conditions have left thousands of homes without power as 80mph winds hit parts of Britain.
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I last interviewed Richard Hammond two years ago, writes Guy Kelly. In the time since, he’s endured divorce, grief and the handbrake being applied to his two-decade TV career with Jeremy Clarkson and James May. As I discovered recently, the man who’s forever been obsessed with his own midlife crisis is happier than ever. Meet Hammond 2.0. Crisis? What crisis? Continue reading ➤ |
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Tom was a grief-stricken 17-year-old schoolboy when he fell for his 23-year-old teacher, Miss Walker. What began over cups of tea quickly spiralled into illicit classroom rendezvous and sharing boxed Australian wine. A pregnancy prompted a marriage that estranged him from his parents, but decades on he steadfastly refuses to see himself as a victim of abuse. Continue reading ➤ |
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Muddy boots may do at your village local, but upscale gastropubs are far less forgiving. Clementina Jackson explores how modern pub-goers, from Meghan Markle in Oxfordshire to Alexa Chung, have traded Bet Lynch leopard print for effortless chic. Navigating this new dress code requires a deft balance of high-low tailoring. Continue reading ➤ |
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When Debbie Cooper turned 40, she was finally ready to put years of wanderlust behind her, writes Cara McGoogan. The man she fell in love with, however, was cruel, manipulative and planning the most horrific crime. Debbie’s family thought she’d got married and set off on her honeymoon – but she’d never left the country. In the latest series of the award-winning Bed of Lies, The Telegraph can tell the full story of Debbie’s murder for the first time. With Debbie’s sisters, friends and the police, Cara untangles a shocking story of coercion, murder and an elaborate deception that spans the globe. Continue reading ➤ |
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The fifth murder was the most heartbreaking so far. When Miranda Hart found a kill order waiting for her, she exclaimed: “No! Absolutely not! Oh, bottoms.” For the Traitors, amateur sleuth “Miranda Marple” posed a threat. She was a methodical thinker and mother figure, but her downfall was that squabble with Joanne McNally over the “bouncing floorboard theory”. Continue reading ➤ |
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Don’t know what you’re going to eat this weekend? We’ve got you covered. Every Saturday, Diana Henry, The Telegraph’s award-winning cookery writer, brings you three recipes for a perfect weekend meal. Meanwhile, William Sitwell shares his view from the culinary world – and a recommendation or two.
Cauliflower cheese baked potatoes |
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Diana Henry |
One of my regular Telegraph correspondents – a real food lover – sent me a happy but weary sounding email recently, extolling the deliciousness of a baked potato with butter and baked beans. When you’re tired, baked potatoes are the answer. They’re often regarded as student food; I certainly ate a lot of them at university, but I didn’t give them up. When I’m on my own, I weigh up the idea of what I see as the classics: grated cheddar, spring onions and sour cream (so good – but so bad if you’re thinking about fat), cheese and coleslaw, or beef chilli with cheese (yes, cheese abounds).
I saw a friend make baked potatoes for a crowd using the microwave. I know that sounds lazy, but starting them off in the microwave and then finishing in the oven works if you need to get a meal on the table quickly, though it goes against my baking potato rules: ideally, the potato should be pricked with a fork and cooked on the bars of the oven. Who am I kidding? Sometimes you don’t care how it’s cooked, you just want to eat.
I do go beyond those student-day fillings, though. I had a baked potato in France years ago that I have cooked ever since. For pommes de terre braytoises, the flesh is mashed, then mixed with camembert, lardons, crème fraîche and a bit of Dijon mustard. Pile this back into the potato skins, grill and eat. Cider is good on the side.
This recipe is even easier – baked potato cauliflower cheese, for which you don’t need to make the cauliflower cheese.
Baked potatoes with smoked trout, dilled beetroot and keta |
Baked potatoes don’t always have to be homely. You can make deluxe potatoes with deluxe ingredients. Keta (salmon roe) is expensive but worth buying for a treat such as this combination of baked potato with smoked trout, dilled beetroot and keta. The cold, salty pops it provides are great against warm, soft potato flesh.
The potato doesn’t have to be a regular potato, either; try sweet potatoes. A salty filling works so well with them. This, with goat’s cheese and black olives, is an old favourite. Consider also a baked sweet potato with chorizo and a fried egg, chickpeas and red pepper – you can use a jar – drizzled with tahini and Greek yogurt, or this twice-baked one with thyme, feta and tomatoes. Keep these recipes, and the ideas, to hand. You will always need them.
Find me here every Saturday and in my Recipes newsletter, which you can sign up to here.
Meanwhile, William Sitwell laments the low expectations set for British small businesses...
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William Sitwell |
Hunker down y’all. Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary, has spoken and, as he puts it, “it is right we ask the country to be ready” for natural disasters, cyber-attacks and state-sponsored terrorism. First and foremost, that means stockpiling. Don’t panic, Armageddon doesn’t have to be all bad. Despite Andy Burnham pouring cold water on Angela Rayner’s plan to stash sauvignon blanc, plenty of chardonnay should be the order of the day, as well as some foie gras and a proper backgammon set.
Which of your favourites will you be stockpiling? Let us know here ➤
In the meantime, I’m concerned that my bank has me down as a crook. Each week, one of us trots down to deposit cash raised at my hotel, bar and restaurant, The White Hart, my mid-life loon fest in West Somerset. So far so normal – but not this time. Having filled in the forms and flashed my ID, all hell let loose, the metaphorical gates shut, and I was hauled off to the slammer. So to speak. Apparently we’d bust our annual deposit amount. There I was thinking banks wanted money, as opposed to being robbed. Such is the low expectation of hospitality, it seems earnings are viewed as distinctly odd. Failure is expected, the modern British duty of small business…
Read William’s full column ➤ |
Cash or card?Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
Is cash still king? That was the question in yesterday’s newsletter, and the answer has been pretty resounding. Thanks to everyone who replied.
“I always pay my window cleaner in cash,” wrote Deborah Field, “and anyone coming to the house to carry out smaller jobs, such as servicing the boiler or gardening work. Many Chinese takeaways only take cash, and when a thunderstorm knocked out the power to our local nursery, we paid for our plants with cash. Always have a plan B, chaps.”
Another reader added: “Cash is indeed king. I always have some handy. Now I am trying to collect £10 notes to include with cards for the great grandkids for Christmas. It also helps young people learn how money works.”
It fell to Kathryn Novis to make the sceptics’ case: “I must be an anomaly among my peers as I am 58 and never carry cash. I do not keep any in my house either. I carry my phone and always pay with that. I think bank apps are the best way to control your money.
“I sometimes carry a credit or debit card for back-up in case my phone is lost/broken/out of battery, but wouldn’t dream of stuffing a note in my handbag, and a handful of coins even less so. I will never use cash again.”
From wallets to dinner plates: earlier this week we were discussing the British palate, which, according to a recent study, has become embarrassingly picky.
Patrick Hodgson felt moved to defend some once-popular foods that have fallen decisively out of fashion: “Your article makes me yearn for pig and ox cheek, which you can’t seem to get anywhere today, and a lot of the formerly common fish, which are now priced as a luxury.
“Given the explosion of octopus in British waters, I am surprised that we are selling it all to France and Spain, but I guess that is down to unadventurous British tastes. For me, I just love liver and onion.” That’s all from me for this week, folks. I’ll be back on Monday to bring you the best Telegraph talking points. In the meantime, you can contact me here.
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Welcome to Andrew Baker’s Saturday quiz. Test your knowledge below to see if you have been paying attention to our newsletters this week...
1. This week in 1973, Queen Elizabeth II opened Sydney Opera House. How many years had it taken to build?
2. What is the name of the 49-year-old bio-hacker spending $1.5m a year to stop himself getting older?
3. Which local tradesman lived next door when Christopher Howse was growing up in Leatherhead?
4. Lucy Powell, the Education Secretary, wants to improve “oracy”. What’s that?
5. Which former cabinet minister was monitored by MI5 for more than two decades, according to recently released files?
Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
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Yesterday’s Panagram was TACTFULLY. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle.
Plus, can you tackle The 1% Club? Scroll down to see if you got the questions right – and play for free on our website and app.
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1926 | Harry Houdini’s last performance at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit
1929 | Black Thursday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 12.8 per cent, starting the stock market crash of 1929
2004 | Man Utd beat Arsenal 2-0 at Old Trafford, ending Arsenal’s record 49-game unbeaten streak (see our sport front page from the following day below)
2022 | The Conservatives appoint Rishi Sunak as their next leader and prime minister, replacing Liz Truss, who had lasted 49 days
Birthdays: Wayne Rooney (41), Malcolm Turner (72), Bill Wyman (90)
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Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow. Chris Evans, Editor
I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback at fromtheeditor@telegraph.co.uk. |
Quiz answers:
- 14
- Bryan Johnson
- Blacksmith
- Speaking and listening
- Nye Bevan
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