Royal Family Announces Surprising Move With New Hire "Switching Sides" From Royal Reporter to Palace Employee

It’s not often that a journalist goes from covering the Royal Family to becoming part of the palace machine. But with a decade of experience reporting on the monarchy, Sky News’s longtime royal correspondent, Rhiannon Mills, has been hired to be King Charles and Queen Camilla’s new media secretary.

The news was reported by the Times on Friday, March 20, with a palace source telling the outlet that Mills was “a great fit” for the Buckingham Palace role. The insider praised the news personality’s “intelligence, quick thinking, good humor and resilience”—all qualities that are necessary for working in the palace press office.

Mills already has a strong connection to the Royal Family outside of her work, as her partner, Andrew Parsons, works as a photographer for Prince William and Princess Kate.

As Kate Mansey, royal editor for the Times, pointed out on Instagram, Mills might be “switching sides,” but her background makes her the “ideal candidate” for the demanding job.

With Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s repeated scandals hanging over the family and tensions between Prince Harry and his father, hiring someone deeply engrained in the royal world can only benefit The King. Mills has interviewed everyone from King Charles to Prince Harry and Prince William, although her off-the-cuff question to the Duke of Sussex once made headlines when he admonished her in Africa.

“That short conversation, what do you hope to achieve through it?” she asked Harry as he left a hospital, with the duke replying, “What? Ask them,” referring to those inside. When she continued, “Is that why it’s important for you to come and talk to them?” he scolded her, stating, “Rhiannon. Don’t behave like this.”

A palace source noted that Mills's precise start date is “yet to be confirmed,” but she'll be joining the royal household “sometime before summer.”