What Harry's Interview Told Us
Prince Harry's disastrous interview with the BBC: After five years, he's still at war with his original mistake.
Hello Dear Readers,
What a mad week for royal news, innit!? We’ve received a number of inquiries over the past month questioning why we’ve not addressed matters such as Prince Harry’s security case or Meghan Markle flouting the gentleman’s terms of the Sandringham agreement by continuing to use her HRH title. The simple truth is that we’ve been thoroughly exasperated. There inevitably comes a point where one must accept that what’ll be will be. And Friday was by no means the first occasion in which Harry has sat before a journalist, murmuring about the supposed vast conspiracy against him. Nor was it the first time he’s vocalized his desire for familial reconciliation with one hand whilst lobbing one accusatory grenade after another with the other.
In our newsletter nearly a year ago, we discussed Harry using the very press he purports to hate to wage a not-so-stealth public pressure campaign against his family to get 24/7 taxpayer-funded security. The exclusive ended with a not-so-veiled threat:
“People close to Harry counter that if he had proper security, he wouldn’t need to speak publicly in order to help pay for it. If the matter of security is resolved, says the friend, “it’s ‘swords down.”
The long and short of it, unless Harry gets what he wants, he could be counted on to continue speaking about his family and tossing accusations their way with the help of the press. You can read more about that discussion in the newsletter below.
Following his trip to London a month ago for his court case, an identical strategy was employed. This time, Harry gave an exclusive interview to British paper The Telegraph and American celebrity news publication People Magazine.
The tale was trotted out once again: His family refuses to speak to him, he’s fearful for his life, and he’s demanding security. But this time, Harry went on the record detailing the strife. And, of course, it concluded with a rather thinly veiled threat.
“There would be nothing stopping him talking publicly about the experience and what he has learnt, putting together the pieces of the puzzle, writing a second book or making a podcast.
He will be acutely aware that to do so would cause further upset.
But the Duke believes that if he has uncovered an injustice, he should try and fix it.
He is unlikely to rest until he feels vindicated.”
The only new tidbit was that he now believed “his family” withdrew police protection to “trap him”.
So, when he reiterated the same details in his latest BBC interview, there was nothing particularly startling or revelatory. He and his camp have been telling anyone willing to listen that his family has been ignoring his calls and keeping him out of the loop regarding his father’s health. But Harry, more than most, understands the impact of a well-placed interview. A conversation with a journalist in the press is one thing—but a prince, in full high-definition, glowering across from a reporter in prime time, ominously suggesting that should anything happen to him, his family would bear the blame? That’s a different matter entirely.
Before starting this newsletter, we took stock of our archives to see how many times we’ve discussed Harry’s security saga. The total number? Seven times. We’ve covered the ins and outs of his security case over half a dozen times. And frankly Dear Readers, we felt like there wasn’t much more we could say. We could dissect and highlight every inconsistency in Harry’s interview, but that’d render this newsletter an exhaustive 100 pages long—and frankly, as we’ve already observed, we’ve done precisely that seven times over. We’ve linked articles as a refresher and if you’re curious, please give these a read. Rather than going over the same arguments once more, highlighting how Harry is merely recycling disproven claims rather than presenting the full picture, it seems far more worthwhile to scrutinise exactly what it is that he hopes to achieve. We shall focus on the facts that have remained unaltered over the past five years and examine the carefully crafted—yet ultimately ineffective—strategy Harry deploys in dealing with the very press he professes to loathe.
We hope you’ll enjoy this newsletter as much as we enjoyed writing it.
What Harry Wants
Prince Andrew, a second-born son himself had an inability to hear the word “No” and believed that if he just explained himself and his side one last time, people would be convinced of his inflated views. This lack of discernment culminated in an ill-fated, disastrous interview with Emily Maitlis at the BBC that forever shredded his credibility. Prince Harry, unfortunately, has also inherited this personality trait.
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