Welcome to this week’s edition of to get all the latest royal news and gossip with Tom Sykes and Tim Teeman.

Secret plan to protect queen from Boris

When ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson was mulling calling a snap general election to maintain his grip on power as scandal mounted upon scandal, “a magic triangle” of Establishment figures reportedly got together to make sure he would never be able to ask the late, then very frail Queen Elizabeth, for permission to do so.

Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 group of Tory MPs, Cabinet Secretary Sir Simon Case, and Her Majesty’s Private Secretary Sir Edward Young formed a plan to prevent Johnson from being able to contact the queen, according to the Sun’s reading of a new book, The Fall of Boris Johnson by Sebastian Payne.

The Sun says Sir Graham would tip off the Palace “that Mr. Johnson would be triggering a Tory confidence vote and advise the Queen should make herself ‘unavailable for the day.’ And if the PM then rang the Palace, he would be advised the monarch ‘couldn’t come to the phone.’” Truly, the perfect blend of camp and political intrigue.

Charles aide got pay-off

A big payday has been revealed for King Charles’ former aide, Michael Fawcett, who, the Mail on Sunday reports, got a £60,000 ($71,000) pay-off when he was forced to step down from The Prince’s Foundation over a “cash for honors” scandal. The charity’s accounts reveal that in his last five months in office, Fawcett received £190,000 ($226,000) from the charity, including his six-figure salary, the paper says.

Fawcett resigned as chief executive in September last year after the Mail on Sunday revealed he offered to help a wealthy Saudi donor obtain a knighthood and British citizenship. An email showed Fawcett saying he would obtain an honor for Saudi businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz and help his application for British citizenship in return for donations of more than £1.5 million ($2.1 million) to Charles’ Scottish charities.

In a letter, reportedly sent in 2017 when Fawcett was chief executive of Charles’ Scottish charity, Dumfries House Trust, which manages the Dumfries House estate, Fawcett wrote to an aide of bin Mahfouz, “In light of the ongoing and most recent generosity of His Excellency… I am happy to confirm to you, in confidence, that we are willing and happy to support and contribute to the application for Citizenship. I can further confirm that we are willing to make [an] application to increase His Excellency’s honor from Honorary CBE to that of KBE in accordance with Her Majesty’s Honours Committee.”

This week in royal history

November 20 is a big royal date. On this day in 1992, a fire caused major damage at Windsor Castle, capping a year the queen called her “annus horribilis.” In 1995, it was the day Princess Diana gave her infamous interview to the BBC’s Panorama program.

Unanswered questions

Will Harry and Meghan make a speech at the RFK Foundation gala finally identifying or elaborating on the incident where the so-called “royal racist” queried their then unborn-child’s skin color? Can Will and Kate enchant America?

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