Isn’t it time Prince Harry grew up? On the cusp of middle age, the 41-year-old is as irritating and slappable as Kevin the Teenager – still stropping about in a baseball cap, refusing to join his family at an agreed time, then going mental when they lose patience, call his bluff and drive off without him.
A self-styled “global humanitarian” (aka spoilt layabout), Harry’s catchphrase is the perennial complaint of bored kids on the backseat of the car. “S’not fair.”
The second son of the then-heir to the throne, Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor, he was born into unimaginable good fortune – the kind of privilege you keep your trap shut about if you’ve got any sense – but has spent years moaning about his cushy boyhood role as royal “spare” as if that ordeal was equivalent to being a child in care recruited by a rape gang.
So much therapy, Harry! Yet so little self-awareness! As for his wife, the (mis)calculating Duchess pulled off a reverse fairytale – she kissed a charming, popular prince and turned him into a frog the British people couldn’t care less about.
The latest episode in the long-running Sussex drama (should have been cancelled after the first season, if you ask me) has just seen Harry lose his long-running, pig-headed privacy case against the Daily Mail, while arrangements for the Prince’s visit to the UK this week have caused yet more grief for his father, the King, who is receiving treatment for cancer.
The original plan was for the Duke to travel from his home in California to the UK to carry out five days of engagements, including an appearance at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre this Friday to promote the one-year countdown to the admirable Invictus Games. There was also due to be an appearance, possibly with the Duchess, at a children’s hospital – a safe choice as it’s one of the few places where the couple was unlikely to be booed.
Tantalisingly, there was mention of a longed-for “reunion” between Prince Archie, seven, Princess Lilibet, five, and their grandfather, the King. Raised in Montecito, Harry’s children haven’t been here for four years. The British people haven’t been allowed to glimpse their faces since they were babies, which is pretty rum when you consider they are sixth and seventh in line to our throne.
So, it was all agreed. The Sussexes were definitely visiting the UK, the King would give them a palace to stay, and all was set fair for a pleasant family visit – if you discount Harry’s estranged brother and sister-in-law refusing to clap eyes on them or let Archie and Lili anywhere near their cousins. But Kevin (sorry, Harry) appears to have thrown a tantrum once it became clear that his brood would not be offered police security.
It can hardly have come as a surprise. Since Meghan and Harry stepped down as working royals in 2021, they have not qualified for the taxpayer to pick up the bill for their protection. When Harry challenged this, the courts dismissed his claim (although his security provision is now under review). Still, Harry now claims to be freshly shocked and appalled. S’not fair!
The visit was off – deemed too dangerous. Even though it was perfectly possible for the Duchess and kids to fly in to a private airfield from the European location (Portugal, perhaps) where they are currently on holiday, jump in a helicopter and be whisked to any number of safe royal residences. They could have met the King without any fanfare or intrusion by the hated media. That would guarantee the “privacy” the Duke and Duchess claim to be obsessed with, and would have given a fond and ailing monarch a chance to spend some time with the grandchildren he has barely met.
But it would have lacked the glamorous, high-profile, motorcade-escorted impact which the Snarkles could brag about and monetise in the States, where their royal allure is fast losing its lustre.
So the absurd hokey-cokey continued, with Team Sussex suddenly suggesting that Harry was “exploring every available option to enable the visit to proceed safely and to give his children the opportunity to enjoy the UK”. The King, who must by now have been gnawing his orb in frustration, had kindly offered Buckingham Palace as a suitable London base. Who knows, perhaps Milady of Montecito was holding out for Windsor Castle?
Whatever the truth of the matter, the family was suddenly very much not coming again following the release of a report of terrorist plots against the Sussexes. You’ll have to forgive my cynicism, ladies and gentlemen, but it would be a brave group indeed that would abduct the Duchess. She’d try to give the poor sods lessons in how to “elevate” the kidnapping experience with flower sprinkles. Maybe the real fear is that no one would be prepared to pay the ransom? People of Britain, altogether now: “You can keep her, and good luck to you!”
Don’t rule out a certain amount of emotional blackmail. If the King really wanted to see his grandchildren, surely he would fix it for Harry and Meghan to be granted the IPP (Internationally Protected Person) status they clearly crave and think they deserve, but which is only bestowed on working royals. No protection, no grandchildren. Capiche?
Meghan has never let her own devoted daddy, Thomas Markle (also ailing like King Charles), see Archie and Lilibet because of some early, fairly minor lapse in confidentiality – more likely because the poor man wouldn’t add value to “the Brand”. Such a heartless narcissist is more than capable of weaponising her little kids to get what she wants from Harry’s father.
Of course, the plot could change at any time, but the latest update is that a spokesman for the King has said Buckingham Palace is no longer available because Harry, who finally travelled to Britain alone, failed to respond in time to the invitation, and it was too late to organise the staff. All credit to courtiers for not saying: “We understand there’s a perfectly good Premier Inn in Windsor where the Duchess can flog her jam in the car park.”
Understandably, the King’s patience is said to have “snapped”. I imagine Queen Camilla – who is canny enough to see through Meghan’s manoeuvring (and was called “dangerous” by Harry in his memoir) – will have quietly suggested her husband pull the plug for his own peace of mind. Harry, for his part, announced as he arrived in the UK on Monday that he did, after all, want to stay at Buckingham Palace. A drip of self-pitying, poor-me poison that was designed to plant the idea that Charles was not showing the flexibility and love that could normally be expected from one’s dad.
Well, there is nothing normal about a father having to seek assurances from his son that any family meetings will remain private – no Instagram, no cameras, no briefings. That is the sour, mistrustful state of the relationship, and the King is not the guilty party.
At every turn, Harry has shown terrible judgment, whether it’s bringing the case against the Daily Mail (deeply embarrassing to the Crown with their unimprovable “never complain never explain” motto) or attending a premiere on Monday night with Misan Harriman, the chairman of the Southbank Centre, who is embroiled in an ugly anti-Semitism row. But, hey, at least he looks like a cool dude for the Prince to know.
After Netflix failed to renew their contract – not to mention their quasi-royal “tours” exuding an air of quiet desperation – I suspect the Sussexes may increasingly be ruing the day they cut loose from the source of their power and influence. Harry has already said, rather crassly, that he doesn’t know how long his father has left. Somewhere in that numb skull of his, he must be fretting that once his elder brother ascends the throne, the Windsors may start playing hardball against the defector.
William’s fury at the younger brother he trusted implicitly, with whom he shared the anguish of their mother’s early death, is understandable. Remember that Harry caused huge stress to their grandparents when Prince Philip was terminally ill. Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah was aired on March 7 2021, when the late Duke of Edinburgh was in hospital following a heart procedure. He died the following month. The newly widowed Queen Elizabeth was left to deal not just with the death of her darling Philip (“my strength and stay all these years”), but the worldwide furore surrounding scandalous allegations about her family.
You can bet the Sussexes will not be getting an invitation to the coronation of King William V. My guess is the new monarch will act swiftly to create a smaller Royal family, cutting Harry and his two children out of the line of succession altogether. And so say all of us. Archie and Lilibet are essentially Americans with no knowledge of this nation. Frankly, it is insulting that they carry British titles which are all about cachet untethered to duty. No wonder Harry is now making a last-ditch attempt to re-ingratiate himself with Papa – tempting him with access to his own grandchildren to protect his inheritance.
There’s only one person to blame for this bitter state of affairs. An angry boy who choked on his silver spoon, deserted his responsibilities, trashed the monarchy, and railed against the invasion of his privacy, yet was perfectly happy to invade the privacy of his nearest and dearest for money. “S’not fair!”
Oh, I think you’ll find people think it’s perfectly fair. The British are no longer wild about Harry.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.telegraph.co.uk ’
