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Glaring signs Harry is the 'Spare' in his marriage revealed by expert: How the words he whispered in Meghan's ear during public event let slip his real role

By MARTI STELLING

Published: 15:33, 19 July 2025 | Updated: 15:33, 19 July 2025

Of all the things Prince Harry enjoyed during his trip to Colombia the food, festivals and beautiful beaches his drumming lesson likely wasn't one of them.  On the third day of the Sussexes' quasi-royal tour of the country in August 2024, they visited a lively African drumming school in a suburb of the port city of Cartagena.  They learned the importance of preserving the culture of Cartagena, specifically its Afro-Colombian roots, and had their rhythm put to the test.  Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, were seen on camera getting stuck in with the event, under strict security, playing the drums with the students and swaying along with the music.  And while all seemed well on the surface, Harry's flushed face and body language showed he was struggling with the heat as well as keeping up with the lesson.  At the time, expert lip reader Nicola Hickling told the Mirror that Harry said to Meghan: 'Ooh, this is difficult, Meg.'

In the meantime, Meghan seemed in her element, smiling and keeping up with the pace.  This is not the only time Harry has allowed his wife to take the starring role.  Speaking to MailOnline, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said that since moving to America five years ago, Harry hasn't yet found his own way.  He said that Harry's comfort zone is his charity work, and this is the direction in which he naturally finds himself leaning.  Meanwhile, Meghan is most at ease in the spotlight and performing on stage.  Harry grew up in the prim and proper Royal Family and crash-landed in Montecito with his Cali-cool wife.  The culture shock between the Royal Family and Meghan's American influence could not be more apparent than when Bishop Michael Curry gave a passionate sermon at the Sussexes' wedding.  At the time MailOnline reported that Meghan had launched her own 'mini-revolution' as she married Harry in a multi-cultural and US-influenced wedding the likes of which Britain's royals and the millions watching had never seen before.   Guests even suggested it was the most diverse major event in the Queen's then 66-year reign.  However, more than a few eyebrows were raised when he went over his allotted six-minute time slot and preached for fourteen and strayed from his prepared script.  His preaching was passionate and full of energy which is not the kind of sermon the British Royal Family are used to hearing.  Lacey wrote: 'Bewilderment, giggling, mouths agape, stifled laughter the full range of upper-class British embarrassment was laid bare.'

Speaking of Harry's 'awkward' body language during his drumming lesson, expert Judi James exclusively told MailOnline: 'Harry is already looking a little like the Spare here, despite the way that this looks like a very traditional style of royal visit.  It's Meghan appearing to take the lead and happily, confidently and excitedly immersing herself in the visit while Harry looks overcome by the heat or by his lack of talent on the drums.  He enters with a display of initial enthusiasm, holding Meghan's hand and bouncing his body to signal appreciation and approval for the music the students are playing.  He even seems to bite his lower lip to suggest he is thinking of getting into the music groove.  Meghan's body language is far more regal, with a very poised sense of elegance and a classic Duchess smile that she seems to retain throughout this visit.  She sits equally poised on the dais as formal introductions are made but it's here Harry begins to appear distracted, fidgeting rather than just sitting listening and reacting.  Meghan's clapping signals enthusiasm and encouragement, with her elbows lifted and her hands held high to perform a seal-clap.  Harry claps while resting on one elbow though, suggesting a lower energy.  His smiles are closed-lip, tempered smiles and he wipes the side of his nose with his thumb, suggesting the heat is getting to him.  Meghan even retains her poise and her apparent ability to stay cool as she sits at the drum.  Her back is straight and her focused smile signals enthusiasm and a positive desire to do this right.  She drums with her fingertips with her fixed eye focus while a more glum-looking Harry appears to be struggling, looking across with his hands resting on the drum edge.  When the drumming is over, he leans back with his mouth open and rounded in an expression of relief and possible exhaustion.  He looks across at Meghan as though looking to take his lead from her and she replies with a pit-bare gesture of confidence and power.  Harry's face is red and shiny and he uses auto-contact gestures, touching his eye and wiping the sides of his nose and his mouth with his hand and sucking his lips in to suggests he's either struggling with the heat and/or feeling a little out of his depth thanks to the drumming.'

Meghan has experience drumming with an old CV from her acting days suggesting that she has a range of musical talents, including playing the guitar, drums and 'finger cymbals'.  Meghan is ambidextrous, meaning that she can use both her left and right hands comfortably. Only one per cent of people in the world are able to do this.  This, perhaps, lead Harry to fall behind.  Meghan also took the lead in conversation with her ability to speak Spanish while Harry relied on an earpiece, causing him to look lost.  The drumming school director Rafael Ramos was ecstatic to see the Duchess was moved to her feet when watching a performance and said: 'I love seeing Meghan's big, big smile I can tell she's excited!'

At the time plenty of photos were released showing the Sussexes holding hands on the trip.  However despite their obvious joy, the body language expert said Harry appeared 'wary' and 'in protective mode' at times.   During one particularly tender moment between the pair, Meghan pulled Harry’s hand close to her body while placing her free hand over his wrist.  Judi said the act was a 'tie-sign of bonding, ownership and affection' from Meghan towards Harry.  Throughout the trip, Harry fell into his role as Spare, allowing Meghan to take the lead in an environment where she was more naturally at ease.  Perhaps Harry's discomfort was also due to the fact that Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal previously branded the quasi-royal tour as 'showmanship' and 'wasteful spending'.  The Sussexes' tour to Colombia was on the invitation of the country's vice-president, Francia Márquez and they received a heavy government-backed security operation throughout their trip.  The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's visit cost Colombia a total of £44,725.14, which included expenditure on security and internal transport throughout the trip.  More recently Harry and Meghan's pivot back towards the royals became clear when the Duke and Duchess dramatically revamped the structure of their staff to make it more like the hierarchical system more closely associated with Buckingham Palace and one which Harry is more accustomed to.  Last week, Mail on Sunday exclusively reported that King Charles and Prince Harry's senior aides held a secret peace summit, marking the first significant move to resolving their rancorous family feud.  Sources said last week's meeting was the initial step in a 'rapprochement process' to restore the broken relationship between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the rest of the Royal Family.   Attempts to heal rifts with both the Royal Family and the British public could not come at a better time for Harry with the 2027 Invictus Games set to take place in Birmingham.  he Daily Telegraph reported last week that the Royal Family would be 'very much welcome' at the event and that Harry is expected to invite Charles and other family members to the games.  With this in mind, the meeting could be the start of a period of reconciliation between both camps after five years of bitterness between the Palace and the Sussexes.  Perhaps it is time for Harry to leave his Spare title behind, both in his relationship and with his family.  Then again, this title gave him a sense of identity and money-making and may not be so simple to shake off.

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tv/article-14896461/Fiona-Phillips-heartbroken-husband-kidnapping-Alzheimers-battle-recognise.html

Fiona Phillips' heartbroken husband reveals she accused him of kidnapping her after Alzheimer's battle left her unable to recognise him

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By SOPHIE CARLIN

Published: 12:18, 11 July 2025 | Updated: 13:02, 11 July 2025

Fiona Phillips' heartbroken husband has revealed she accused him of kidnapping her after her Alzheimer's battle left her unable to recognise him.  The former GMTV host, 64, was diagnosed with the progressive brain disorder in 2022 at the age of just 61.  It came after she left the former ITV breakfast show in 2008 to care for her father, who suffered from it too, dying in 2012, after her mother lost her life to it as well, in 2006.  Her husband and former This Morning editor Martin Frizell, 66, appeared on the ITV chat show today to discuss her diagnosis, as she was not well enough.   He told This Morning hosts Alison Hammond, 50, and Dermot O'Leary, 52, about her memoir Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer's, set for release on July 17.  And Martin also shared some deeply sad details about how challenging family life has been since Fiona's diagnosis three years ago.  He said: 'In the book, there's a picture of her at the end of our road, the most recent picture I took, only a few weeks ago.  And she's looking great and she's smiling and she's got her coat on. And what you don't know is she thought I'd kidnapped her. This was us going out.   Because you get delusions because you get so worked up. She keeps saying, "I want to go home".'

Asked by Alison if she still recognises him, he said: 'She does recognise me most of the times. Doesn't quite know that I'm her husband but she knows who I am.'

Martin shared another heartbreaking detail too: 'Every now and then, she'll want to go home to her parents and I haven't got the heart to say they aren't here.'

He explained how he copes with this instead: 'You say, "Let's get our coats on, let's get our shoes on", we go out, go round the block a couple of times and come back in. And she says, "Oh, I'm home now".'

The former journalist told of what he has learnt in these past three years since her diagnosis: 'Don't argue with them.  But I'm only human. I keep saying, "I'm not the Mother Teresa of Wandsworth", I do get frustrated, I do end up arguing sometimes.  You get so worked up after the fifth or sixth or tenth time of saying something.'

His perspective and the experiences of the couple's two sons Nathaniel, 26, and Mackenzie, 23, are also reflected in the memoir.  Though Fiona primarily wrote it with her friend, journalist Alison Phillips, Martin contributed more than 20,000 words as well. He revealed what the diagnosis process was like, saying symptoms she had thought were due to the menopause including mood swings and brain fog were actually early onset Alzheimer's.  They took her for testing and she was put on HRT but it still did not help.  It was then, he said: 'I think we need to go to get tested for what her family had been riddled with,  You just get on with life but she knew this disease was going to come knocking at some point.'   

Caveating with praise for the NHS doctors doing their best, he said he did feel angry about the diagnosis experience.  In 'the starkest room', he explained: 'The doctor says, "I'm terribly sorry but I believe it's Alzheimer's. And here's a leaflet, I'll go to get you a cup of tea".  She was wearing this fabulous powder blue River Island suit. I think she thought she was going to get away with it. She thought, "Surely it's not". She's looking a million dollars.'

But on the leaflet, he said: 'It's an old lady with a Zimmer frame and her partner or husband with a shock of white hair just about struggling down the road.  And it's like, "Living with Alzheimer's". And you think, "God, is that it?"'

Martin said it has lit even more of a fire in his belly about Alzheimer's awareness and research a cause Fiona has long been vocal about.  'I just get so angry', he said: 'When you look into it, society has decided we're not going to take it as seriously as we should.  The money that's there for Alzheimer's research, it's like buying a Starbuck's coffee trying to fight a disease. It's impossible.'

He is furious about 'the injustice of it all', pointing to the amount of money going to a project like HS2 instead of fighting diseases like Alzheimer's.  Martin explained: 'It's a billion pounds a mile. Imagine if we put a billion pounds into Alzheimer's research we'd sort it, we'd absolutely sort it.  [Dementia] costs £42billion a year to the NHS and the health service.  I say in the book, and deliberately quite provocatively, I wish she got cancer and I mean that in the sense that at least there would be some hope, some treatment.'

He said he feels he is the only one speaking out about the disease and that it gets no real public attention.  The former This Morning editor said: 'Once I stop speaking and I'm not going to be the poster boy for it I reckon it'll just quietly go away into the shadows again.  But it's Britain's biggest killer. And they say that one in three babies born today, this Friday, one in three of them, is going to develop dementia, unless we do something about it.' 

Martin said they tried bringing in a carer at one point, masquerading her to Fiona as a housekeeper but Fiona, 'still whip smart and intelligent', did not buy it so they gave up.  She's still very mobile, totally mobile, so we're not at a stage where we need someone to come in', he explained.

Fiona's personality, as 'the most fiercely stubborn and independent woman ever', remains: 'The old Fiona is still very much there.'

Martin also said it has been 'fantastic' he now has lasting power of attorney to help her make financial and health decisions.   But this has not been completely smooth sailing either: 'There's one or two who actually are accusing me, "Maybe you're trying to win one over, we need a bit more evidence".  And I'm thinking, "What more evidence do you need?"'

Fiona also has problems with general pain, anxiety, depression and sleeping, with the latter seeing her until recently get up very early every morning which left the family shattered.  'We just live for each day', Martin explained, with the help of his 'sensational' sons.

It comes after he emotionally admitted, in the Mail's exclusive extract from Fiona's upcoming memoir, the family are 'slowly saying goodbye to the woman they love', who soon will be 'wiped away' by the disease.  Martin explained how he and their two sons are 'enduring a living grief' as they watch the 'glittering star' deteriorate over time.  'Bit by bit, [Alzheimer's] takes everything. Through time, even the most glamorous, glittering star such as Fiona was will be wiped away', he wrote.

He added: 'Sorting the bank accounts, utility direct debits, hospital appointments, clothes, washing, parking permits, shopping, cooking, tidying the house – in fact, all the stuff I took for granted because Fiona dealt with it (as well as her own career) became my responsibilities, along with a seven-day-a-week job.  It was knackering. There were times I felt drained, physically and emotionally.  On top of the stress, the boys and I are enduring a kind of living grief a slow goodbye to the woman we love.'

Over the weekend, the Mail published exclusive extracts from Fiona's upcoming memoir, Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer's.  In the memoir, the pair who wed in 1997 revealed their marriage was 'falling apart' as a result of Fiona's then undiagnosed battle with the disease.  Fiona explained: 'My marriage was coming under increasing strain.  I'm sure the disease was at least partly responsible, but at the time neither of us could see it. I just became more and more disconnected from Martin and the boys.  "You've totally zoned out of our family and our marriage", he would say to me. "Don't be so bloody ridiculous!" I'd yell back.  But, if I'm honest, I think he was right. I just didn't seem to have the energy for any of it any more.  I didn't realise quite how seriously Martin felt about it all until one evening he announced he was moving out.  "Stop being so ridiculous!'" I yelled. "I'm just worn out. I'm tired of everything."  "That's what you've been saying for years,'" he replied. "Maybe this our marriage is what's making you so tired."'

The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England have been contacted for comment. 

This Morning is available to watch and to stream on ITV1 and ITVX on weekdays at 10am. 

What is Alzheimer's?

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die.

This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages, and causes the brain to shrink.

More than 5 million people suffer from the disease in the US, where it is the 6th leading cause of death, and more than 1 million Britons have it.

WHAT HAPPENS?

As brain cells die, the functions they provide are lost.

That includes memory, orientation and the ability to think and reason.

The progress of the disease is slow and gradual.

On average, patients live five to seven years after diagnosis, but some may live for ten to 15 years.

EARLY SYMPTOMS:

    Loss of short-term memory
    Disorientation
    Behavioral changes
    Mood swings
    Difficulties dealing with money or making a phone call

LATER SYMPTOMS:

    Severe memory loss, forgetting close family members, familiar objects or places
    Becoming anxious and frustrated over inability to make sense of the world, leading to aggressive behavior
    Eventually lose ability to walk
    May have problems eating
    The majority will eventually need 24-hour care   

 Source: Alzheimer's Association

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