Secrets don\u2019t remain secrets long for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex<\/a>, it seems.<\/p>\n Just three days after a friend had \u2018secretly\u2019 placed a personal letter from Prince Harry<\/a> paying special tribute to his late grandfather, Prince Philip, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, a story about the letter was broadcast on a television news channel.<\/p>\n Harry had asked the pal to discreetly place the letter and a wreath at the Burma Star Memorial, part of the arboretum, following last Friday\u2019s national service of remembrance<\/a>, which marked 80 years since Japan<\/a>\u2019s surrender at the end of the Second World War<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the letter, delivered after King Charles<\/a> and Queen Camilla<\/a> had departed, the prince wrote: \u2018For me, this anniversary carries an added layer of meaning. My late grandfather, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh<\/a>, served in the Pacific campaign.<\/p>\n \u2018He spoke with quiet humility about those years, but I know how deeply he respected all who stood beside him in that theatre of war.<\/p>\n \u2018Today, as I think of him, I think also of each of you, of the shared hardships, the bonds forged and the legacy you leave.\u2019<\/p>\n Prince Philip was mentioned in dispatches for his bravery during the Battle of Cape Matapan, Greece, before serving in the Far East.<\/a> He was present in Tokyo Bay for the formal Japanese surrender in September 1945.<\/p>\n Harry\u2019s public tribute to his grandfather has, I can reveal, provoked a sceptical reaction from those who knew the late duke<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Prince Harry and Prince Philip open the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in 2013<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Harry\u2019s public tribute to his grandfather has, I can reveal, provoked a sceptical reaction from those who knew the late duke.<\/p>\n \u2018What hypocrisy,\u2019 one friend of the Royal Family told me. \u2018Harry hurt his grandfather deeply during the final year of his life.\u2019<\/p>\n Harry\u2019s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, for example – in which he and his wife, Meghan, attacked the royals in the most personal way, even accusing an unnamed senior member of his family of racism<\/a> – was broadcast when Philip was in hospital with what turned out to be his final illness.<\/p>\n The duke\u2019s hospital stay had been no surprise as he was then aged 99 and had been in increasingly poor health. Prince Philip died four weeks after the Oprah interview was broadcast.<\/p>\n Harry\u2019s decision to have a wreath and long letter placed at the Burma Star Memorial is striking. Working members of the Royal Family, such as Harry\u2019s brother and sister-in-law, the Prince and Princess of Wales, did not leave wreaths.<\/p>\n Not because they don\u2019t care but because they purposely allowed the commemorations to be led by the King and Queen.<\/p>\n The fact that Harry was able to \u2018hijack\u2019 the national service of remembrance, as a royal source put it to me, has caused unease at the palace.<\/p>\n When he tried to do something similar in 2021, Queen Elizabeth personally intervened to stop him.<\/p>\n Harry, who stepped down as a front-line royal the previous year, had wanted to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in London on Remembrance Sunday alongside those of other members of his family<\/a>.<\/p>\n But, as my colleague Rebecca English revealed at the time, the Queen took \u2018all of two seconds\u2019 to make up her mind and refuse permission.<\/p>\n \u2018Remembrance Sunday is sacrosanct when it comes to Her Majesty\u2019s diary,\u2019 a source explained at the time. \u2018It\u2019s one of the most important dates in her calendar and nothing is done without her knowledge.<\/p>\n A personal letter secretly left at the National Memorial Arboretum on the 80th anniversary of VJ Day last Friday by a friend of Prince Harry, who paid tribute to his grandfather Prince Philip<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The personal letter and a wreath of red poppies left at the Burma Star Memorial last Friday<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018People were suggesting the Palace\u2019s reaction to what Harry asked was petty. But it was the Queen\u2019s decision. And what\u2019s more, she actually had very strong views on the subject.\u2019<\/p>\n Another source said: \u2018While she has enormous admiration for Harry\u2019s achievements both in and out of the military, this was seen as an example of his lack of understanding at what it means for him to be a non-working royal.<\/p>\n \u2018The Queen is very firmly of the opinion that you can\u2019t pick and choose what you do when it comes to the institution. Either you are in \u2013 or you are out.\u2019<\/p>\n In what was seen as a flagrant publicity stunt, Harry and Meghan released photographs of themselves holding hands as they walked through Los Angeles National Cemetery on Remembrance Sunday to lay a floral tribute to the fallen<\/a>.<\/p>\n What\u2019s clear to me is that the King needs to take a leaf out of his mother\u2019s book and take a firmer line with his younger son.<\/p>\n Harry, by apparently trying to upstage his older brother, the heir to the throne, is undermining him.<\/p>\n Just as the late Queen stopped Harry having a wreath laid for him at the Cenotaph<\/a>, the King should have prevented this latest attempt by the Duke of Sussex to take advantage of his military connections.<\/p>\n When it comes to publicity-seeking Harry and Meghan, the King, as Head of the Armed Forces, should remain on guard.<\/p>\n![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2025\/08\/21\/11\/101318139-15020785-Prince_Harry_and_Prince_Philip_open_the_Field_of_Remembrance_at_-a-15_1755770552531.jpg\")
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