Exc: Harry’s jaw-droppingly honest aide
And the film legend who called me the C-word... by Alison Boshoff
Hi, I’m Alison, the chief showbiz writer at the Daily Mail. And I’m delighted to bring you my weekly Big Story, exclusively for the Spotlight VIP Club.
I’ll also answer your questions. So scroll to the end to find out which massive A-lister, with a reputation for beautiful manners, called me the C-word — and how I responded as a green young reporter.
‘Eating crap with a smile’: Harry’s aide doesn’t hold back…
When Prince Harry and King Charles arranged a secret ‘Sussex summit’ last week, they sent their most trusted insiders to try to end the poisonous feud between the two halves of the Royal Family.
Naturally King Charles’s aide, Tobyn Andreae, met Harry’s PR boss Meredith Maines at a London members’ club. But the final seat at this highly exclusive table went to an unknown face: Harry’s close associate Liam Maguire.
So who is Liam, the man trying to heal the damage done by Harry’s TV interviews and memoir, Spare? I can reveal he has a long history with Harry – and the two have rather a lot in common.
Like the Duke of Sussex, Maguire is a former student at the Sandhurst military academy – although he quit the army after sustaining a serious back injury while still at Sandhurst, while Harry served for ten years.
And like Harry, he dramatically changed the course of his life by rebelling angrily against the role mapped out for him. In Liam’s case, this rebellion came in the form of a hard-hitting missive, delivered as he quit his job at a respected PR firm.
In his own muscular words, he said he got tired of being asked to ‘eat the client’s crap with a smile’… and much more.