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Forget politics, a week is a long time in the royal goldfish bowl. It began on Wednesday when Harry proved he was still able to stop the press when he let the world know that reconciliation with his family is ‘the most important thing’ to him. Confronted by the British weather (mixed) and a royal welcome (frosty), Harry’s return to England appears to have alerted him to what he no longer has – a seat at Britain’s top table.
Pictures of the Duke, casual in suede boots and jeans for a puff piece in GQ magazine contrasted starkly with William and Kate’s set piece at a state visit for the King of Oman in Windsor Castle on the same day. Prince Harry the celebrity wannabe, versus King William-in-waiting.
Britain’s Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales ahead of the state banquet for Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oma at Windsor Castle, on Tuesday (AP)
Those optics have changed slightly since. Firstly William has proven he doesn’t just have the top table at his fingertips but the most accommodating sofa too – Graham Norton’s, where he joined a line-up of carefully curated guests last night to promote his latest Earthshot awards.
As power plays go, the Prince of Wales’s sanitised appearance on high profile BBC1 platform will underscore Harry’s impotence – his GQ interview being a masterclass in what not to do. (Please note the masterclass that Harry was meant to be promoting was on grief – predictably it wasn’t the one the press picked up on).
Instead the Duke’s latest overshare served to remind us of his new found homelessness. A dislocation compounded by the other big royal story of the week – Meghan Markle’s statement about being deeply distressed following the reports of child sex images allegations being made against her father Thomas Markle. While he denies them as ‘sick lies’, it is all a salient reminder that all is not rosy in the Sussex camp.
Prince William’s power base
For a few Sussex fans, the prince’s therapised candour about there being enough drama in the world to justify the end of family feuding will be welcome. To give him his due, over the last 18 months the Duke has stopped throwing truth bombs at royal kith and kin. Harry admits he wants to ‘take control’ of his own story. But wishful thinking in an American magazine will not rebuild detonated relationships. He can’t undo what’s done. Put another way, with one too many public utterances and Harry has gifted all the agency to future-king William who is not up for talking, unless it’s on Graham Norton’s sofa. And the more Harry craves attention the more his elder brother will recoil.
Prince Harry telling the GQ interviewer there was enough drama in the world without his family feud adding to it (GQ)
There is an irony to this impasse. Six years ago Harry left Britain in a strop, flaunting and monetising his inferior ‘SPARE’ status, only to compound his brother’s power base. These days the Prince of Wales, invested with the hereditary trump card from the get-go, finds himself in an unassailable position. Catherine and William are now all the King has got when it comes to star power within the royal ranks. (Decent and ‘hard working’ they may be, but no, Sophie and Edward are not A-listers.)
Cue a grumpy, stretched Prince of Wales (his erstwhile moniker ‘workshy Wills’ a reminder that the future king doesn’t like a full in-tray). Work, including non-challenging TV appearances, only happen when they suit him, William is in no mood for compromise. Or forgiveness. Harry knows this, which is why he caveated his stated desire for reconciliation with the disclaimer that some ‘scars stick around forever.’ Well quite. As do some documentaries and some interviews. Perhaps he could start with a public book-burning.
The Prince of Wales, Cate Blanchett, Hannah Waddingham and Robert Irwin during filming for The Graham Norton Show (Matt Crossick/PA) (PA)
Lest you need reminding, prior to his quest for redemption, first mooted by the Duke of Sussex in an interview with the BBC in February 2024, Harry threw all his proverbial toys out of the pram. The collateral was global, and for many all consuming. The late Queen’s subsequent and uncharacteristic public statement, ‘recollections may vary’ statement’ a reminder that Haz (and Megs) rattled the institution. Despite his lifetime’s training, William went further, furious, from behind a Covid-19 facemask he insisted the royal family was ‘very much not a racist family.’
Harry, freed from the institution’s manacles, has clearly forgotten just how big a deal this was. The royal family has a history of refusing to let ‘the daylight in’. Amidst yesterday’s breaking news, it is noteworthy how Meghan quickly put distance between her family and her father after being made aware of allegations that she claims had been passed to the Metropolitan Police in 2018. In contrast, for years after rumours first surfaced about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s friendship with Epstein in 2009, the then Prince Andrew, was sheltered as a working royal.
Meghan Markle released a statement following allegations about her father (Instagram)
Discretion has always been the name of the royal game and in that context Harry’s exposes were unprecedented. He is apparently unaware of just how badly he bruised his big brother. As is often the case, those lower down the pecking order underestimate their capacity to inflict pain further up the food chain. But William the invincible, always a brooder, has not forgotten. And from a family point of view, he doesn’t have to.
A nose pressed against a royal window
The old King is doing his best, but due to His Majesty’s massive workload late in life, and poor physical health his dependence on his eldest son has never been greater, both personally and professionally. The two have improved their relationship, but it is not straight forward. As most elderly parents will tell you, depending on a busy adult child is an emasculating experience. Thrown injudiciously into the mix, Harry’s lonely word burps are the last thing His Majesty needs.
By all accounts Charles talks to his young son more regularly these days, relations are warmer, but like all parents he cannot control the fallout between his boys. The Duke, invested with too much free time, (always dangerous) can stamp his foot and cry all he likes but with every public utterance he gifts one more ace to brother William, a man who already holds all the dynastic cards.
For Harry fans, among whom I count myself a part-time player, his capacity to emote is a touching reminder of the many similarities he shares with his late mother. Sadly she did not live to warn Harry of the downsides of letting rip.
In his interview the Duke pushed back against the idea he had any reason to feel sorry for himself. ‘I am a prince’ he reminded GQ. Well quite. And one who has done shed-loads of therapy. But no amount of psychobabble can flip the narrative: these days Harry is a prince saddled with a scandal-hit father-in-law, and stuck on the wrong side of palace walls. Small wonder he craves re-entry to the royal firm.
Pitifully he conceded that now he was back in Britain it was nice to be ‘closer to my family’. Close but no cigar. No Christmas invite, no seasons greeting. The safe money has the Sussexes back in America, roasting chestnuts in California with Doria. It looks like Grinch William will get his own way this yuletide. As Harry baldly observes: ‘some people don’t want to work it out’.
Harry had an epiphany in America: he discovered the work he had been doing all his life – charity – is ‘downstream’ whereas monetising his new found psycho-analysed self is ‘upstream’. Apparently his family fallout has made him more ‘relatable.’ People keep coming up to him and sharing their own family debacles. They ask how ‘‘how are you going to work it out?’’ Harry doesn’t appear to have the answer, but who knows, there might be a second book in it for the Duke – perhaps a self help manual on how to negotiate family nightmares? (He’d have plenty of material to plunder).
Publication and remuneration are tempting salves, but the playing field is far from level. William is richer, William doesn’t have to delve into personal matters to make money (Earthshot and only Earthshot), and William can afford to hold a grudge.
Britain’s Prince William meets with the public on a street during a royal visit to the Aberfan Disaster Memorial Garden to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1966 disaster (Reuters)
Olive branch or not, the Prince of Wales will still become King. And Harry will drift back downstream, praying for family charity and popping up in compromising celebrity iterations, his nose pressed against the proverbial royal window.
The naysayers will guffaw and say ‘silly fool.’ William will warn Charlotte and Louis against repeating past mistakes and somewhere deep down we will all feel a tiny bit sad that two boys with all the riches and good will in the world couldn’t make it work – a timely family metaphor for a broader geopolitical mess. In the ‘low dishonest decade’ that was the 1930s, Virgina Wolf concluded our ‘insatiable need to see’ the royal family was explained by our desire to find ourselves in them. Now, as then, it is a pity they don’t cut a more optimistic version of our shared humanity. It is all a bit too ‘relatable’.
Tessa Dunlop is the author of Elizabeth and Philip, young love, marriage and monarchy.