PR Breakdown: Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor and the Epstein Files

Foreign. Hello, everybody. Here we are. Friday, February 20th. In a world where team. Team USA women's hockey are gold medalists, why doesn't everyone jump on the chat? Would love to hear from everyone. Hey there. So as. As people come on. I have to. I have to share something. Hello. I have to share something that I. That I just experienced. Today is. Today's a heck of a day for me live. Let me go right here. Happy Friday indeed. Where's my live? Let's get the tech out of the way first. I can't. I gotta find my substack. They just made. They just made updates to substack doesn't see. Hey, everyone. Okay. Am I live on substack? I'm sorry. No one hates a non techie person right now, but damn, let me just do it on my phone. So annoying. So you guys, let's. We were going to talk about Join live. Here we are. Okay. I'm sorry. That. Okay, I do not see my substack live at all. Deanne, I don't know if you're on. If you can tell me. Oh, it looks like it. It went. Oh, there we go. Schedule live. Oh, it's not coming on. I don't think I'm on. I don't think I'm on substack. Anyway, Let me. Let me just go live real quick there. I'll just go live organically. Sorry you guys, but I do have everybody else in the chat. Good to see you. Let. I'm gonna ask you this in the chat, so I have a couple topics. One is incredibly, like, light, one somewhat dark, definitely. What is on your mind right now? Like, what are you watching? What are you following? Okay, my substack people are gonna have to let me know if I'm going on twice or if it's complicated on there. Dan. I'm not sure. Oh, you. See you on substack. Oh, Herb, be my guy right now. Do you see me, like, right now on substack? Am I on there twice? Okay, I can't see my subsec chat, but anyway. Oh, I don't have my. Okay, so what are. What's on your mind right now? I want to tell you about something that happened to me just a couple minutes ago right before I hopped on. But what is on your mind right now? Like, what are you following? What are you watching? When you see this? News alert? Tell me what's on your mind. Oh, there we go. I'm on a new. Okay, so sub stack. I just. Okay. It's only three people. I think I must have two sub stacks going at once. And again, Deanne, if you happen to be on this, if you could just tell me what's going on and then I'll, I'll hop. Okay, you're live on Subset. Okay, great. So tell me what, you Tell me what you're watching. Tell me what I, I, before I jump into all my stuff, what we're going to talk about today, because I know what our title is. Oh, yeah, just, just Jimmy, I want to try and listen to some Epstein stuff, but the baby stuff just makes me too sick. Hello from London. It's wild over here. So we have to, so we have to talk about London. I mean, we have to. But let me tell you real quick what happened to me. I, I, Today is insane. Today is an insane day. I had work all morning, had calls all morning, but I, I had, I just did a TV hit for a show. It's called the Jason. The Jason Show. It's out of, it's out of the Twin Cities media market, but it's syndicated in, I can't remember, between 10 and 20 media markets. So it's, it's growing. And I love Jason and I love this show. It's a very kind of, of culture show. Light, fun, you know, Jason, it's like talking to your best friend. I love it. And I've been on the show. I have two writing right now. Okay, Deanne, can you close. Oh, shoot. Dang it. Okay, I'm going to close this one if I have two running. So I'm not going to be able to see that. I don't see the substack chat, unfortunately. Dang it. But yeah, you guys, I can only see the other chat. I'm so sorry, because I. Substack isn't coming up for me. But anyway, so I, I do this hit and what they wanted to talk about was they wanted to talk about Nancy Guthrie. And, and I know that I've done a lot of content about Nancy Guthrie. Is anybody watching Nancy Guthrie at all anymore? Like, is anyone seeing it or like following it anymore? So I almost feel as if Nancy Guthrie. I almost feel as if Nancy Guthrie's story has run out of steam from the, you know, just from the news point of view, because it was a huge, obviously, story because Savannah Guthrie's in it. She's off to Today show and they have, you know, fill ins. They keep Craig Melvin, you know, know, back on the desk. A lot of people are back on the desk, but now they have the Olympics going on. And the Olympics is is it's going on and we're getting close to gold medals, like gold medal rounds, like USA Hockey, men's and women's, and all these things that are happening. You know, NBC needs to, like, be all in on it and. And maybe it's just me, but the. The sheriff in. In Pima county, they're botching it left and right, like, left and right. The fact that they opened up, the fact that her house was open to all these people, the pool guy and bloggers, youtubers, anybody's coming there, and then they come out and say that they collected DNA, but damn, like, DNA that could be from anybody from the pool guy to. To. To the kidnapper and potentially the murderer. So it's. It's just being bumbled. And. And then there were reports and leaks. And you guys saw this from the Live last week that the FBI and Pima county aren't playing nice. And then Dana. Oh, welcome, Jackie. And then. Oh, God, I'm forgetting Dana's last name. She's. She's over on social media. Oh, my God. I can't think of Dana. Anyway, Donna. Donna, I saw one of her posts saying that Pima county is actually filming a law enforcement show. You know, like one of those cable shows that they're. That they're filming it like they're doing. And so he's coming out saying, well, I've never handled a case like this before, and. But meanwhile, they're filming, like, a show for. For cable about their, you know, about their investigation. So I think it's a mess. I. I think it's an absolute mess. And even if they. That person is going to hire a lawyer and they are going to refute everything, like, from the DNA and everything else, it's just. It's turned into a huge mess. And if I were Savannah Guthrie, I would be out of my mind. So Jared's saying, hey, sadly, the Guthrie story has been overshadowed by the rest of the world's news. So, Jared, I agree with you, because, Jared, you're a PR guy. It's starting to get overshadowed, right? It definitely is. So, anyway, so I'm doing this Jason show, and they told me they wanted to do it about, you know, Nancy Guthrie. And I thought that's still, like, even a story, but whatever. But five minutes before we go on, I. They can't hear me, but then they can hear me, and I'm hearing three echoes. So I have the. So they're live in studio, and it's two people talking, you know, at the desk and on the Couch. They're talking and I can barely hear them. I can barely hear, but I'm hearing them three times. And. And so, so then I put a. I put a earpiece in to hear it. I'm like, oh, this is going to be a shy show. This is going to be like Pima county, frankly. So I had to watch the host, Fallon, like ask a question and then let silence go a little and then answer it. So we talk about Nancy Guthrie for about. It felt like 30 seconds and then she immediately switches. I think Manny's here. Manny, were you the one who brought this up? Maybe not Tyra Banks. Is anyone following Tyra Banks? Is anyone following Tyra Banks that Tyra Banks? Because this is now. Because when I did even the last. I did a. In my membership, I did a training and we were talking about, you know, all the crap that was going on and. And people were asking about the Tyra Banks. I thought, well, I guess I have to jump into this story. So I want to talk about Tyra Banks and I also want to talk about. And then let's just do some updates on Epstein. I don't want it to be the creepy updates on Epstein. I don't want to get into the frustration of Epstein. Dana, thank you. Donna Boling. Thank you. I can't. I just. My mind and she and I cross post stuff all the time, but she is all over it. So what's up with Tyra? I'm glad that you asked that. It's not just me. Jared, you watch the doc. So if anybody watched the documentary, you tell me what you thought of the documentary. Because honestly, Tyra Banks is falling. Is fall follow falling into our world. She is dealing with while this documentary is coming out about America's Next Top Model. And I have to be honest, I. I'm not. I never really watched it. I full familiarity with it, but I didn't watch it when it came out. It must have been because it was right, like two tens. Right like the 2010s. I think it ended in 2018. So I wasn't deep into it but. But very familiar with it. And then I remembered within the last five years or so she would start to get some pushback about, you know, problems, you know, kind of problematic issues, you know, from back in the day when they were filming it, you know. Now think back to it. It started it. It went on the air in 2003. Where can you watch it? I think it's Netflix. It's on Netflix. I have not watched it. Will I watch it Yes, I will watch it. So it's Reality Check inside America's Next Top Model. But if you remember, you had Tyra Banks and back then, if you remember some of the clips that she would talk to people about their weight and how they looked and. And it was a bit much. Right? And it. Who said it was contrived and performative? Yeah, because think about it, this is when reality television was becoming. So you had to be kind of like big and bold. And back then, this is four years after 9 11. We didn't have a cancel culture back then. We didn't have that. We didn't have that. So then her responses felt scripted and she made many non apologies and apologies. Exactly. So I have not seen it yet. So, Jared, thank you for telling me that. But we go on to Nancy Guthrie and then live that I can barely hear. All I hear is Tyra Banks. And I went, oh, God, this is killing me. Like, I like they. So I'm getting, I'm getting feedback now. I'm getting feedback now from three echoes. And the three echoes are about a topic that I know nothing about. So I have to wait till they're finished and then hear what the question is. And then I'm thinking, did Tyra Banks say anything? Is she on here? So I only know because I saw a Tyra Banks post or something and somebody said that her comments were off and she wasn't saying anything. I hope that's the case because that's what I said. But Jared, are you saying that Tyra said it within the program, that the responses felt scripted and she made non apology apologies? And I'm hoping that's the case because that's what I was going with on this television program because I think they had to, they, I really think they had to rein in Tyra because one, you also don't want, you don't want legal issues either. You don't want someone coming out and, you know, suing the show for something. But it truly was problematic. But it would be so easy for her to come out and take ownership of it and start it with the fact that this started in 2003. So Tyra would have come out looking better had she just owned that show was horrible and caused a lot of hurt. There's one particular story filmed of a film, sexual assault. Tyra jumped the shark. Tyra jumped the shark. Love that. And they've taken her to the middle of the ocean because this past summer when she released her hot ice cream line. Okay, I'm showing, I'm showing My pop culture. I don't know what that is. There are more faces of confusion than anything else. Yeah. Okay. So at least the through line that I know this, she is not taking accountability. And I guess the takeaway from this is, so people are going to the documentary. She's gonna be in the documentary. It brings her back in the fold, which I think is important to her, because she's been out of the fold for a really long time. So this is her way. Maybe. Of course, coming back. I think it would be, you know, and if you're going to come back and you're going to come back about an America's Top Model, America's Next Top Model, then you got to come back and you got to take ownership of it. Right. Do you guys feel the same way? Like, you have to take ownership of it? And she's. And. And she's not. She's dodging it, but I don't think it's just on her. She's hired people. She's hiring people. So tyranny, in my opinion, is following the advice of. It's just my personal opinion. Publicists who call themselves crisis managers. Oh, Manny, you said it. Thank you. She announced season 25 at the end of the documentary. So are you telling me the program's coming back? You're getting Molly dealing with this reality check in real time. So is. So is this what it is? Is this whole thing a launch for the rebrand of America's Top Next Model? Someone needs to verify that for me. Oh, Tyra, Tyra, Tyra. But here's the thing. So whatever campaign, whoever she's listening to there, she's following the same playbook that we see in the US Regarding the Epstein files. Now, the Epstein files are challenging, problematic, trigger, warning. That's what she thinks. Interesting. Interesting. So this is like the launch for something else, but she doesn't want to take accountability. But everything that I'm reading now that I've jumped in on it, the people are like. Are not having it. The public's like, saying, no, you cannot. You cannot pass go. And this is what Molly always says. You. The public will not let you pass go if you do not take accountability for whatever the problem is. But everybody wants to blame the public for having zero patience for anyone. And for any celebrity or anyone in the public eye, and they want to cancel people. I say give. Give the public more grace and give the public the benefit of the fricking doubt. Because, you know, people are. We're the connoisseurs. Right? Not me. On America's top not model. But I will be. I absolutely will be. But the public kind of lets you know how you're, how you're doing. And the public of everything that I've seen. And then the press picks up what the public says. And so here I have. This is Refinery 29 tar and Finley wrote a story. So the headline Tara Banks needs to be held accountable. She's also the perfect scapegoat. That's a great headline and that's exactly what I think it is. She does need to be accountable because she was the host, she was the executive producer right behind it and she worked with all the producers and there's a lot of problems there. There are a lot of problems there. And all she needs to do so they. Okay, here we go. Viewers get a firsthand look at the. At what the conditions contestants were subjected to each cycle. They included extreme makeovers using plastic surgery and dental work, blackface and racist stereotypes as photoshoot themes and sexual assault that was intentionally caught on film. Banks and former ANT TM executive producer Ken Mock, who both served as the executive producers for Reality Check. So for this show were interviewed. Banks was able. For 24 cycles, Banks was able to bully woman into becoming the American ideal standard for that ideal woman. And also in fairness, Tyra Banks, she came up at a time where she. That's how she was treated, likely that's how she was treated in the industry. So she's just passing it on, passing it forward. Right. So. Oh, I like this line. A N T A M A N T M was one of the first times millennials witnessed hyper femininity politics on display in the media through a reality show competition. As a little black girl from the Midwest watching the women who looked like, oh, so this is the author who look like me on the show further ingrained a conditioning that was already at play that to the world I could only be beautiful with conditions. Yow, yowza, yowza, yowza. So Tyra Banks, this is going to be bumpy. If she's launching another show. This will follow her until she along with the other producer can Mock take accountability for it. So I'm definitely going to watch it, but let's just quickly move on because I'm not going to be on for the entire hour because I have to go to my office and film. I'm, I'm being interviewed for Chronicle. It's the local. WCB is the local ABC affiliate in Boston and Chronicle is one of the. It's just a long, long standing local show and they're speaking to me. They're doing like a little profile on, on me and all the things that we talk about. Substack is funky. I know, I know. I think we had, we had an issue with it. So I can't see Substack. I'm so sorry, everybody. I'm so sorry. But we're, we're on everyone. We're, we're on everywhere else. So I'm so. I'm glad that you hopped on over to YouTube. YouTube is a stream that I'm reading right now. So I'm gonna hop off a little bit early because I got to run over there and meet the, Meet the crew. They're going to be there before me and I will be interviewed for that. So we'll see how that goes and have I prep for it. No, but I do not want to leave. I don't want to leave before mentioning this. So Prince Andrew, as you saw. So yesterday I got up and I had my whole day planned because I had to be in Boston in the afternoon and my whole day planned. And then I get the notification about Prince Andrew. And my first reaction, I'll, I'll admit self involvement here. Thinking about myself was my day, My day. Damn. Because I have to jump in on this because we have been tracking Prince Andrew for so long. The former Prince Andrew. And then immediately after that, I thought, look at, look at the uk look at London go. They are going after people. They are charging people. They're doing what the U.S. wants. Yes. That photo Andrew looked like he was visited by his mother's ghost. The photo of Andrew in the. Yes, ex Prince Andrew. The former Prince Andrew, I should say. Andrew Mountbatten Hyphen Windsor. That photo of him in the back of the car is awful, awful, awful. So tragic. The photo they got of him leaving the police. Oh, my gosh, it is awful. But you know what? This is an example. So that's. So that's what I did. So I got up, I did not work out, and I started writing and I posted something to Substack. So I haven't. I have an article there and I just posted it real quick. And the reason why I had to write about it because we've been following it is. And also Andrew has been deflecting and denying for so long. And this veers into another show on Netflix that I absolutely love, that we've talked about, which is Scoop. That show is so good because it is the behind the scenes based on real events from the 2019 News Night interview, where Prince Andrew. Then the. Then Prince Andrew sat down thinking that he could control an interview with Emily Malice. Who is the. She's not really the Barbara Walters, a little, you know, who would she be now? Because now we don't really even do news right now. I don't even know. Well, she's the Emily Mat. Matlas of Emily Matlas. She interviewed him. And in Scoop, whether you watch. So I watched Scoop, and then I watched that interview again, the dodging, the deflecting. And if you remember, he said that photo of him with Virginia Giuffre. And it is. What a shame that she's not alive to see all this. What a shame that he was all sweaty. And he said, well, as it. As it so happens, I can't sweat. And then he got into. And then he made. Then he chose to do what people do when they're caught and when they're cornered. They get into the details. Has that, has that ever happened to you before where someone, you know, they're wrong? And instead of admitting they're wrong or taking accountability, like, where were you? Or anything like that, they will get into the details of something else. Something else, something else, something else. And that's what he did on camera. And he did what I watch many other people do and what. I have clients who want to do this, and then I. And then I have to listen to them and say, okay, I understand, but you can outsmart a journalist. You can't, because a journalist has a job to do. But people sitting in the seat, and I know Andrew thought the same thing. They think the journalist's job is to tell their story and to tell it from their point of view, to buy into it. That's what people sitting in those interviews think. And that's what Andrew thought. And it, and it backfired on him wildly. Diane Sawyer. She could be the Diane Sawyer. Yes, Diane is so. God, she's so smooth still to this day. Yes, Louise. And he can't deflect anymore because royal family distancing might still be considered too little, too late. So also. So he gets arrested. Apparently the palace. Nobody knew. Nobody knew the king was on his way to, like, a fashion event or something. Am I right? So the king gets blindsided by it, and then the King Charles has to come out with a statement. Now, we've all talked about the statements in the past. When Andrew's statement first came out in May, I believe, again, little sprinkles of denials in there. But I'm, I'm, you know, I, you know, I Know what's happening. I didn't do anything wrong. It's. It's that denial. Then the next set, he loses his title and then the Royal family has to come out. So King Charles has to. Now it's like Andrew versus King Charles because that's what happens in the legal system in the uk. And Charles came out with the statement or his people, you know, essentially shutting the door on him. You know, the law. The law is what's most important here. So Andrew was released, but the investigation is absolutely continuing and King Charles is supporting a full, fair and proper process of Andrew. Some say the King did know. I don't know. The only way. Yeah, he went to London Fashion Week, I would say, because I think the BBC was reporting, at least when I was watching that he didn't know. But if you think about it, if you're the police. So what I heard and what I read, and this was from the BBC, is the police. Yesterday, like during the day, they were still kind of more in the intermediate stages. Like they weren't close to picking up Andrew, but then they found something and then they went to get Andrew. So it could be. I don't know. I'm just taking that. Based on what. On what I heard. But so now what I want you. So what we need to fall now, what we need to follow is what does he do? Because Andrew's on his own. He is on his own. He's on his own financially. He has to get a lawyer. He has to do all this on his own. So it's interesting to see when someone has bottomed out, what they do. I think he's going to bring Fergie with him. I think he's gonna bring Fergie with him. And. And it shows. It also shows. And this ties back to the US what drives so many people, especially a lot of these people with Epstein. And it's, you know, it's that power and that proximity and money. But before. But before we move on to the other people, I want to talk about Harry, Megan, for a moment, I want you. What do you guys think? Angie says he reached the pensionable age on the day of the arrest. Oh, meaning. And it was on his birthday. Angie, are you telling me that Andrew has a pension or he doesn't have a pension? Herbert, am I the only one who looked at the photo and immediately thought of Pantones 2026? You're the clown dancer. Well, but you know what? The Pantone color of the year was very pale. So, yeah, you're right there. But yeah, Kind of airy, pale. Yeah, you're right. I think, oh, my God. Do you think his daughters are involved? I, I, oh, from the Navy, his military pension. Yeah. But also he was not in the Navy that long to get a long pension, to get that much of a pension. He wasn't in the Navy that long. I think he retired, I think, I don't know. I think he was like a commander, you know, I don't, I don't think he was very high up there. Not that commanders aren't high up, but he definitely wasn't a captain. I don't think he was a captain or an admiral. Do I think the daughters are involved? I mean, the daughters are, you know, the daughters are living their life. Eugenie, Beatrice. They're both married, they both have kids, they're both royal. But this puts them in a bind, too. And they're under, they're going to be under the thumb of the Royal family. There's no way the Royal family didn't know about Andrew with UK Intelligence service. Yeah, I mean, absolutely, because, I mean, think about the Royal family and what they've been protecting. But also think about Harry and Megan for a moment. Now, I posted Yesterday just on TikTok, only because someone commented, like, will Harry and Megan enter the era, the kind of, the redemption era of everything they've been saying. And so I think my take on this, you know, at least what it means for them, because it doesn't just change Andrew's story, it also changes this Harry and Meghan story as well, because the Royal family, I mean, alleged. But we've been watching this. There's so many PR machinations coming out of the Royal family and not just Harry and Megan, if you remember Catherine's cancer diagnosis as well, when she left and hid, and we never, no one ever heard from her. And then it came out that she had cancer, but she was gone. And this was right after there were whispers about William with Rose, Rose of Highberry. And it was so messy and, and I remember jumping in on all that content there because the Royal family really flubbed the Kensington palace, really flubbed the media coming out of that. Now, does Reddit send me royal family stuff? And I see what everybody says, like the real deep people who talk about it. There's a lot of concern about case health, Kate's mental health too, for how thin she is and how, and how tough it might be, and are there problems with their marriage and everything, but also with Harry and Megan, you know, I, and this is what I said. Here's my disclaimer. Harry and Megan have made choices and they've made a lot of dumb choices, I think. I don't think a lot of heinous choices. I think dumb choices like their timing and just, you know, the, the money and the books and the this and the that. But I think they're settling. But, you know, but they're, but they're painted as these villains and they've tried to destroy the royal family. I'm never, ever going to go there. And you can't look at Harry and Megan with. Else with also without mentioning the racism piece. So Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has definitely dealt with that. She's definitely dealt with so much negative, negative press. And I, I did a post about this. I always get calls from the press about, you know, talking about Megan and I stopped and I forget who it was. It was People magazine or Us magazine or someone. I think it was People magazine. They wanted me to comment on article and I, I said no because everything about Megan is negative. So this changes it and I think it changes it for the press too. They have to think twice now. Every news editor, every really digital news, people who want clicks, they have to stop. Oh, and also, like I was doing, I would do media interviews like in Australia and doing stuff in the UK and they talked me about Megan. And then all of a sudden I'd get into this royal press realm where they would take one thing that I said and it would say, PR expert says that Megan's, you know, like what? I didn't say that. But anyway. But I think this is going to help Megan and Harry, especially now that she has followed Molly McPherson's advice, but which I've always said from her is just go back to your take days, just be an influencer. She has style, she's beautiful, she has taste. And she seems like a very kind, decent individual. Just go all in. And that's what she's doing. So maybe the press will. Will kind of hop off of her. Working worlds are too many people to control in today's world. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm absolutely sure that the royals stoked rage against Harry and Megan to deflect from Andrew. Absolutely. So are we all in agreement here that, you know, it's not that Andrew did all of this in a cave, in silence. He was an envoy. He had.