3-68（在线收听）

68.

It felt glorious to watch an entire country fall in love with my wife.

South Africa, that is.

September 2019.

Another foreign tour, representing the Queen, and another triumph. From Cape Town to

Johannesburg, people couldn’t get enough of Meg.

We both felt a bit more confident, therefore, a bit more courageous, just days before our return

home, when we strapped on the battle armor and announced that we were suing three of the four

British tabloids (including the one that printed Meg’s letter to her father) over their disgraceful

conduct, and over their longstanding practice of hacking into people’s phones.

It was partially down to Elton and David. At the end of our recent visit they’d introduced us to

a barrister, an acquaintance of theirs, a lovely fellow who knew more about the phone-hacking

scandal than anyone I’d ever met. He’d shared with me his expertise, plus loads of open-court

evidence, and when I told him I wished there was something I could do with it, when I complained

that we’d been blocked at every turn by the Palace, he offered a breathtakingly elegant work-

around.

Why not hire your own lawyer?

I stammered: You mean…are you telling me we could just…?

What a thought. It had never occurred to me.

I’d been so conditioned to do as I was told.