If I was the producer of Good Morning America, I would feel disappointed by today’s appearance of Prince Harry on my show. The Duke of Sussex came on television for his first major broadcast interview of the year, and it was inevitable that the major topic of interest was not going to be his time in Canada to mark the Invictus Games competitors’ training, or his family life in Montecito, or indeed the forthcoming paperback publication of Spare. Instead, it is his father’s health, which saw Harry drop everything and return to Britain last week for a private meeting with the king estimated to have lasted between thirty and forty-five minutes.
Somehow, it is hard to see Harry abandoning his titles and accompanying privileges altogether
Naturally, Harry was asked about this by Will Reeve, the Good Morning America presenter. Harry refused to go into details of “his outlook” on the king’s prognosis, politely but firmly saying “That stays between me and him.” He also divulged that “I love my family [and] the fact that I was able to get on a plane and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that.” But apart from that it was clear that there was not going to be any further revelation. Nevertheless, Harry did express his intention of returning to the UK, although whether to visit his family or to see the outcome of the various court cases that he is participating in he didn’t say.
Reeve, spotting an opportunity, asked whether Charles’s illness was likely to have a “reunifying effect” on the family, to which Harry replied “Absolutely, yeah, I’m sure.” He gave no further details as to whether there was likely to be a reconciliation with his brother, or indeed any other members of the British royal family.
Just like that the topic was then left in favor of soft-serve questions, in which the Duke was asked what it was like to be “Harry the Dad.” To this he replied that that information was “classified,” although he did allow that “the kids are growing up like all kids do — incredibly fast” and that “I’m just very grateful to be a dad.” This was hardly Frost/Nixon in its perspicacity.
Reeve broached a more interesting and revelatory area when he asked him whether he was thinking about becoming an American citizen. Harry admitted that “I have considered it, yeah,” although he stopped short of saying that he was all but a naturalized American anyway these days, only remarking “I don’t know how I feel.” Still, life in California seems to be suiting him, as his healthy complexion shows: he said that he was “loving every single day.”
He went on to stress that his interest in Invictus came about through his “always [having] had a life of service” and that being with the sportsmen was his “annual fix to have fun.” He stated “There’s no version of me coming here, watching them and not getting involved myself.”
All very noble and commendable. But there was a sense once the interview finished that Reeve had missed an opportunity to elicit anything other than the obvious — bar the detail that Harry has considered becoming fully American. It was swiftly noted that United States immigration policy states that “any applicant who has any titles of heredity or positions of nobility in any foreign state must renounce the title or the position,” meaning that he would assume his new life as plain old Harry Windsor.
Is this likely to happen? Somehow, it is hard to see him abandoning his titles and accompanying privileges altogether. Combined with his (admittedly understandable) recalcitrance on the topic of his father’s health, and the general lack of rigour in the rest of the questions — it made the Tom Bradby and Anderson Cooper interviews from last year look hard-hitting — this has to be put down as a missed opportunity to elicit any interesting opinions or answers from Harry. Which may, of course, have suited him just fine.
This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.
