Sorry Harry, I’m the real media intrusion victim

What an emotional wringer the royal family has put us through in the past two years, from the sadness of Prince Philip’s death to the joyful Platinum Jubilee, then Queen Elizabeth II’s own extraordinarily moving funeral, and now the coronation of her son. I’ve felt so privileged to have been at Buckingham Palace for the last three events, anchoring Fox News coverage in America. After we came off air on Saturday, I mused with my two US co-presenters about what may be the next major royal occasion: a wedding, a funeral, a silver jubilee (Charles would have to live as long as his grandmother for that to happen)? Or God forbid, will the British monarchy itself be terminally contaminated by the increasingly pungent whiff of republicanism sweeping the Commonwealth? We could be in for an even more turbulent ride than the one we’ve just been on.

On coronation eve, I was lunching in a private room at the River Café with Rupert Murdoch and some of his top executives when my phone buzzed with a message: ‘Keep the noise down, we’re upstairs.’ It was Emily Maitlis, who is the person you least want eavesdropping when you’re proffering scandalous royal gossip to your boss. She later explained she was taping a podcast with Ruthie Rogers (the restaurant’s legendary owner) when a loud voice kept booming out from below: ‘We suddenly went, “That’s Piers! Unmistakable. Coarse and loud.”’ Fortunately, they couldn’t pick up what I was actually bellowing – or their podcast would break the internet.

I was interested to see Prince Harry skulk into Westminster Abbey flanked by Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, virtually the only royals still talking to the treacherous toad. A fortnight ago, I had a pub meal in Notting Hill with a group including the singer James Blunt and both princesses, whom I’ve known for donkey’s years.