Read to find out which Royal family member stopped talking to the journalist.
Tom Bradby has established himself as a household name over the course of three decades as a journalist, TV presenter, and novelist. Last month, he joined Julie Etchingham in helming the coverage for Queen Elizabeth's Procession to Lying-in-State.
Bradby has notably maintained a friendship with certain Royal family members, but relationships may have soured due to escalating internal conflicts.
Who is Tom Bradby?
Born in Malta on 13 January 1967, Bradby entered the news industry in 1990 as an editorial trainee for ITN, which is the producer of ITV News. Subsequently, he made the achievement of becoming the youngest correspondent for Ireland through ITN, reports The Sun.
Throughout his career, Bradby has covered key moments in British political and Royal history, as well as coverage of international situations. From 1999 to 2001, Bradby was the Asia correspondent for ITV, and he notably got injured as he was covering the Jakarta riots against the elected president, Abdurrahman Wahid.
Friendship with a Royal
In 2010, he officially became a Royal correspondent and he was the first journalist to interview Prince William and kate Middleton following the announcement of the Royal couple's engagement. Reportedly, Bradby was specifically chosen because of his established friendship with Prince William, and he attended the couple's wedding as well.
Tatler reports that Bradby had direct phone access to Prince William, and the voicemail sent by Bradby on lending editing equipment to Prince William initiated the News of the World phone hacking scandal, an incident that essentially brought down Rupert Murdoch's newspaper.
Bradby is said to be close to Prince Harry as well. He traveled to South Africa in 2004 alongside the Duke of Sussex in order to make a documentary, and he attended the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as well. Additionally, he conducted the 2019 interview of the Sussexes on their South African tour.
During the interview, he notably made a connection to Meghan Markle on the mental health struggles she had been facing, particularly due to his own struggles as he took a four-month break from News at Ten due to complications arising from insomnia, and what he described as a 'mental health equivalent of a heart attack.'
During the interview, Bradby asked if Meghan was okay, to which she responded saying 'Thank you for asking – not many people have asked if I am okay.' In the same interview, Prince Harry stated that he and his brother were 'on different paths at the moment.'
Souring relations
It turns out that Bradby's friendship with Prince Harry may have earned him the ire of Prince William, as the Prince of Wales reportedly cut ties with Bradby for 'siding with Harry' following the couple's exit from the Royal family in 2020, reports The Mirror.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, a Royal insider said:
The friendship between William and Tom is very much over. The Duke feels let down by Bradby and the way he’s acted over the past few months. William is a sensitive soul and believes it’s in times of crisis when you find out who your true friends are. It would be fair to say Bradby hasn’t been one of them.
The insider added:
Some staff at the palaces are even angrier about Bradby and the tone of his reporting, which they consider to be pro-Harry and Meghan.
That being said, considering Bradby's journalistic achievements as well as the strong links he has to the Royal family, he was entrusted with authoring a documentary on King Charles III, titled Charles: Our New King which aired on 2 November.
Brady's journalistic career continues as maintains his strong presence within the news industry, but along the way, unspoken words or indications of indirect support may have cost him his friendship with the Prince and Princess of Wales.
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