Spilling the Royal Tea with Emily Maitlis, Tom Parker Bowles, and Kathy Lette

In this holiday mini, spill the royal tea with journalist Emily Maitlis, son of the Queen Tom Parker-Bowles, and friend of the King, Kathy Lette. 

If you liked this, you can search for the full episodes on their publish dates below;  

Emily Maitlis, published Feb 26th 2026

Tom Parker Bowles, published June 10 2025

Kathy Lette, published March 10 2026

To find out more about the project and Savva - head to threefoodmemories.com
Insta - @savvasavas @threefoodmemories

Email us at threefoodmemories@plated.com.au, we'd love to hear from you! 

TFM is produced and edited by Lauren McWhirter with original music by Russell Torrance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Can you give us a condensed milk version of that interview in question?

SPEAKER_04 0:12

Hmm. Look, Savapini and me, I'm still waiting for the version on ice. Nobody's done it on ice. Nobody's taken me into space. I mean, there's just not quite enough creativity going around. Um look, the interview that you're talking about with a man I still call Prince Andrew, is now formerly Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, was six years ago, and yet, I mean, slightly incredibly, I open the papers, or I'm I'm looking up at the TV headlines, and there he still is, and there I am next to him. And the interview has sort of just become folded into a much, much bigger picture now of this question of corruption right at the heart of Jeffrey Epstein's empire. And I don't know about you, but I've been up I was up until 2 a.m. this morning just going through all those files now because we've got three million pages at our disposal. And every time I think, I think I've got a handle on this, I'm like, shit, no, I haven't. It just gets worse, it gets bigger, it gets wider, it gets less easy to believe. And so I mean, what what can I say about the interview except I feel really privileged that I was given the chance to do kind of the one accountability interview, actually, that has that has taken us to the heart of of that dreadful, dreadful man.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

Epstein. Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, the Princess Royal said on about Erin Doherty playing her in the crown, it's quite dangerous to play a living person because they can always tell when you've got it wrong. So in a very royal scandal, the closing moments allude to you facing increased difficulty booking high-profile guests after the Prince's interview. How close to reality was that for you?

SPEAKER_04 2:21

I I sort of go back to that time and I think it it did get slightly harder, actually. And then we smacked straight into the UK election, which was about three weeks later. I mean, it was a crazy time. It was the general election of 2019, and then we had COVID. And one of the weirdest things was when I was in the pre interview meeting with Prince Andrew, he said, Why don't we do it next year? You know, why don't we do it in 2020? And I remember saying to him, I don't know w how I had the guts to kind of say this. I was like, Well, it's a US presidential election year, so I just think, you know, nobody will actually be interested in this next year because we'll all be running around and we'll all be doing the presidential election. And I mean, that was a crazy thing to say to a royal prince, because obviously we would have dropped everything to do it. But I sort of made him feel that it was of the utmost urgency to do it then and there in November. And frankly, if we had waited even two months, we would have been in COVID. And so it would never have happened, you know. And I keep thinking back to that, I think that would never, that interview would never have happened.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

So you were given the keys, as it were, to the Royal Archives. What was it like to get into that all that record and stuff?

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Well, it was fascinating. First of all, I you know I I I applied like everyone else. I think if you're an academic or you're writing a book, anyone can apply. So I was very keen not to be obviously, you know, there's a couple of recipes that I got from my mother that you know perhaps it would have been more difficult to get. But I was very keen, this was you know, approached as a sort of an amateur historian. So you're basically sat in a room in Windsor Castle in the round tower. You're not allowed to take in your phone, you're allowed your computer, no pens, and you sort of speak to these brilliant archivists and say, the first thing I said, you know, can I have anything you have on food from Victoria onwards? Well, that turned out to be hundreds of thousands of documents, you had to be a little bit more specific. But there was something rather lovely about seeing these primary sources, they'd come out on you know trolleys, like in you know, libraries all over the world, and they'd be brought up, and you'd, you know, you you know, you'd look at them, and there would be sort of uh recipe books by second-undercooks, you know, and you'll really fill as you do with these documents, you're going straight back and linked straight back into history. So it was fascinating, and then you'd go into royal biographies. You know, I knew nothing about you know Victoria and Edward. I'm not really very up on my royal history, um, but I had to learn it pretty quickly, and you're just whipping through the books and food. Ah, food, brilliant. So, yeah, it was it was real fun doing it and and really interesting.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

Um you write um that your mum was very hands-on growing up, and then whenever you would get into trouble, she would say things, oh don't worry, Tom, and she'd move you on and things like that like that, and she was very supportive of wherever you and your sister were at. Did you ever help mum in the kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

No, we we generally argue in the kitchen. I'm I said there's not enough light or her knives aren't sharp enough, uh, and I we might lay the table or take away the plates, but no, when it came to that, she it was very much her domains, still is, although she cooks less now, obviously. Um it's her domain. When in in uh yeah, during lockdown, when we were I with the children was was we was I was about to say stuck at her house in the country. We were very lucky to be there. She was in Scotland, and no one could move, obviously, because that's where we were. And when lockdown came, that's where we were, and that's where we stayed. Um so every day we'd be having a I think there used to be something called house party. It went bust, I think. It was like Ah yes, yes, yes, yes. Everyone was like, you'd sit and have a glass of wine. It just seems like a different age lockdown, but you know, every day it was just you know, coming into April, so her garden, she's got a wonderful vegetable garden, and it would start with the asparagus and and and the uh sea kale, and then it would come through to the you know, the broad beans and the peas, strawberries, and every day and chard and spinach and blah blah blah. Every day I'd be you know coming back and showing her a basket of all her food, she was curious. It was just it was heaven, but but yes, it was um we we don't cook together, no, and also I love cheese and spice, and she doesn't like spice so much. So, you know, everything I've usually got tons of garlic and chili in it. So so no, but yeah, I would cook. If if I was gonna cook for yeah, I could something very simple.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Another person that uh um that you unnerve or make giggle out of control and knows to step away from you in a public space is His Majesty the King. Now I've seen him several times when he sees you in a crowd, especially in an audience, he looks at you and just grabs and giggles. He wants to come close. He does. But he's too scared of what he's gonna come up against.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Well, look, I've always uh I'm a Republican, I think Australia should stand on her own two thongs. But I have always liked Prince Charles ever since he wanted to be a tampon. Do you remember Tampon Gate? I love Tampon Gate. And I thought at ac at the time I thought this sums up his entire life, always in the right place at the wrong time.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

But is it I but the person who'd who'd who who uh uh uh replayed that story so well was Dominic West in The Crown when he did it with such elegance and grace.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

I know. And also how great to have a king who's not gynephobic with so much misogyny in the world. What did you say to joy?

SPEAKER_03 7:51

What do you say to the king? I really like you, even though I don't believe in you.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Yeah, that's right. How does he take that? Well, I think can you imagine they're surrounded by sycophants the whole time? Oleaginous sycophants, you know, cowtowing and all of that. And I I think that's why he likes Aussies, because we're mischievous, we're funny, and we and we're playful. Because he went to school, don't forget, down at Timbertops, um, down somewhere in Victoria when he was a young a young a young guy, I guess he was in his mid-teens or whatever. So he likes he really likes that playful side of us and and well it comes naturally to me. So I just the first time I met him, we were at Australia House. This is a long time ago. He was there with his mum, and when he came when he came, you know, they they it's like a bat it's like a it's choreographed. You stand there and they they move from group to group. When he got to me, I said, Well, you know, in Australia we have inverted snobbery. If you can trace yourself back to the first or second fleet, you are, you know, we are arist aristocrats. And I said, My ancestor was on the first fleet, married someone on the second fleet. So I am the creme de la creme. Uh so from one one aristocrat to another, get A. You know? And he's the his sort of flared nostril flunkies around him. There was his asthmatic gasp, how dare you speak to the the future king like that? And he just laughed his head off and he said, What was your your convict ancestor guilty of? And I said, Not running fast enough. And then he said, Oh, wait a minute. Then he patted his pockets to see if I'd stolen his wallet. So he's look, he's got a good sense of humour. His favourite person in the world was Spike Milligan. He's very good friends with Stephen Fry, Miriam Margalies. He likes funny, witty people. Well, he's the king, they like their court jesters around them. So we did become quite close during COVID. We corresponded all the time. But now it now he's more grown up, you know. I think that the the for the force field is is strengthened around him. I still I still see my swearing a straight in the house not long ago.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

That was when I saw him giggling. He was giggling. He wanted to come close, but he just knew he was. He did come over, he did come over.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

He said, I can't believe they've allowed let you in or something. And I said, Get a possum. And no, no, he he likes it, he's playful.