Like Father, Like Son
Two years ago King Charles and Prince Harry were briefing the press, squabbling over accommodation, while Prince William minded his business. Very little has changed as a row erupts today.
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Hello Dear Readers,
We first put this linked newsletter out on 22 May 2024, just after Prince Harry popped over to the UK solo for a Thanksgiving Service and to mark the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games and all hell broke loose. And honestly, the past two weeks have felt like déjà vu all over again. As ever, when it comes to King Charles and Prince Harry, context is absolutely key, especially when Harry starts pointing fingers and assigning blame.
The older newsletter is vital to understanding the Royal Family’s long-standing dance with the press, but, in our opinion, it’d would be a huge mistake to pretend Harry’s been entirely outside that waltz. Far from it. He’s had his own rather cosy relationship with the media. The run-up to the May 2024 visit, and everything that followed, made that, in our opinion, crystal clear.
The past few weeks have seen he and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex doing the same. Our friend Tom Sykes over at The Royalist has been doing smashing work cataloguing how Harry and Meghan’s press operation contradicted and disrespected the journalists they tasked with helping make their trip a success.
And now it’s all gone tits up.
As recently as last week, Buckingham Palace was briefing that, contrary to briefings from the Sussexes, Harry hadn’t accepted their invitation to stay for his UK visit. Harry’s team this morning then released a rather pompous statement to the BBC stating they he had accepted the invitation, which prompted the Palace to step in say that the offer was no longer in play. Unbeknownst to us, on Saturday, Harry formally turned down the offer in writing, no less. But then, apparently, he changed his mind?
So if you’re keeping track: Harry's team knew full well the deadline had come and gone, and yet they went ahead and put out an announcement declaring his stay at Buckingham Palace all confirmed and sorted, presumably banking on the Palace just quietly going along with it rather than risk a bit of press bother. When that didn't quite pan out, Harry’s people had a strop and released a rather sniffy statement calling the Palace's decision to actually stick to its own rules “disappointing.”
For what it’s worth, Buckingham Palace isn’t budging. The line from the them is simple: Notice periods exist for a reason, staff need time to prepare and turning up late to say “Actually, yes” doesn’t undo that. So Harry’s having to stay elsewhere, his team are cross about it and the Palace, refreshingly, isn’t playing along with the last-minute changing of the story. And we haven’t even gotten to the best bit: The ruling in Harry's case against The Daily Mail is due out tomorrow. It’s understood that if he wins any part of his 14 claims, he plans to deliver a victory speech in public. So perhaps having him swanning in and out of the Monarch’s official residence right in the middle of that is hardly the best look, is it?
The Palace’s most recent view on all of this can be summed up in Hannah Furness’s article published today in The Daily Telegraph:
“It has taken quite some time for the King to lose patience with his younger son.
But after weeks of dithering, days of back-and-forth briefing, and the rejection of a long-standing invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace, he has finally had enough.
The King, whose parenting has hitherto been criticised for being too indulgent, has drawn a boundary for his 41-year-old son in a sharp lesson to be learnt publicly.
Buckingham Palace is not available on lastminute.com.”
Well said. And it’s about time.
To Harry, all of this chaos comes down to
