Facebook
X
LinkdIn
Copy Link
Over the weekend, Prince Harry attracted the best headlines and coverage in this country that he has received for months – possibly since he and Meghan staged their abdication of all responsibilities and fled to Montecito in 2021. This was all because of his carefully choreographed charitable and public endeavors. The praise included “how easy he made it look” and how Harry had “stopped sulking and played a blinder.” Even the Daily Telegraph wrote that “it was genuinely gratifying to see Harry back in Blighty, doing what he does best this week” and urged Prince William to reconcile with him.
This was exactly what Harry had wished for with his quasi-royal visit to his former home country. In order to celebrate, naturally, he gave an exclusive interview to the Guardian, that well-known bastion of royalist sentiment, to mark his trip to Ukraine after his British visit. Those expecting revelations about his father after their brief meeting earlier in the week would be disappointed. Harry stuck to the party line, speaking highly of his work with the Invictus Foundation and his military service.
This made Harry sound like a respected statesman. It also certainly makes a change from petulant serial litigant, although I suspect that I am in the category of the media that he detests. He said to the Guardian that:
It is only in certain elements of the press where you see this talk about me being down or saying I am not smiling. This comes from people who think they know what I am thinking and how I am feeling. They are wrong.
Some of us have had to sit through Harry & Meghan, where he’s definitely not smiling, but clearly that wretched show was not a fair insight into his psyche. He sniffed instead that “I think parts of the British press want to believe that I am miserable, but I’m not. I am very happy with who I am and I like the life that I live.”
The interview was positive – almost sycophantic in places – and included the attention-grabbing hint that Harry probably had a private audience with Zelensky during his visit. If that had been made public, it would have gone down poorly with the British government, who tend to frown on freelance diplomacy of that sort. Harry was asked whether he had regrets over any of his actions, and he responded with typical bullishness:
I don’t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public. It was a difficult message, but I did it in the best way possible. My conscience is clear.
He refused to acknowledge that he may have been recalcitrant (“it’s not stubbornness, it is having principles”) and described Spare as “a series of corrections to stories already out there. One point of view had been put out and it needed to be corrected.” Well, up to a point, Lord Copper.
The Prince Harry charm offensive stands at an interesting crossroads. Many people would prefer that he were in closer touch with the royal family, less out of filial obligation and more because he might be easier to influence or control. He himself appears to wish for more regular family visits to Britain, saying, “I feel a lot of support from the British public. Even now, when I feel like I have been destroyed by certain members of the British press.” Even those who are now praising him are not spared. Instead, Harry remarked that:
For as long as I have known, certain elements of the British press have tried to speak on behalf of the nation. I think they are out of touch with the nation on lots of things. They hope to bring the public with them, but … I think the British public can speak and think for themselves.
Although Harry tried to conjure up his mother’s spirit in the interview, remarking, when it was said that he followed his own path, “You know who else did that? My mum,” I was also reminded of another America-based royal, the Duke of Windsor. Like Harry, he left the country because of his love for a divorced American; like Harry, he became bored in exile and started pining for England. While the former Edward VIII initially believed his people’s great love for him would see him returned to popularity, he soon discovered that their affection for him only went so far, and he ended up spending his days miserable and alone in Paris, with only Wallis for company.
It remains to be seen which path his great-great-nephew will take, but Harry might be well advised to bank the goodwill that he’s received from this visit, concentrate on mending relations with his father and wider family behind closed doors and then – and only then – give any more interviews. Otherwise, the whole process of blame, anger and media outrage is likely to repeat itself all over again.
