Is there any way back for Harry?
As the royals pay tribute to the wartime generation, Emily considers how a reconciliation might happen, plus Prince George's unexpected outing
Hi everyone, it’s Emily here – back after a brief hiatus.
What. A. Week.
It’s been an absolute privilege to be out covering royals and veterans attending at the magnificent VE day commemorations over the past few days, along with the first Garden Party of the season at Buckingham Palace.
I’ve watched the royal family cheer on a military procession and appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch a flypast, joined the Queen for the opening of The Tower Remembers poppy display at the Tower of London and attended a national service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey and the poignant VE Day concert on Horse Guards Parade.
But on the eve of one of the busiest and most significant periods of royal engagements since the Coronation, and just when the stage looked set for four days fully focused on the bravery and sacrifice of the wartime generation, another huge royal story entered the frame.
Sussex broadside
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you will be aware that last Friday, Prince Harry gave an extraordinary interview to the BBC following his Appeal Court defeat over the downgrading of his police protection.
Looking angry and exhausted, he branded the outcome an “establishment stitch up”, said some people wanted “history to repeat itself” – presumably a nod to the tragic death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales – and suggested that his father King Charles could have done more to give him the legal outcome he had hoped for.
He also laid bare the dire state of his relationship with his father and the rest of the Firm, saying the King won’t speak to him and adding, “I don’t know how much longer my father has.”
It was the very last thing the royal family needed to contend with as they prepared to put duty first and shine a spotlight on those who, to paraphrase the World War One poem, for our tomorrows, gave their todays.
But it seems it has also put the brakes on any suggestion that the King might offer his youngest son an olive branch once the court case was resolved.
As Harry himself made clear, the monarch would not speak to him “because of the security stuff.”
I’ve been told several times over the past year that the King has felt unable to discuss the matter with his son while the case was ongoing, because it put him in a very delicate position as Head of State at a time when Harry was taking legal action against His Majesty’s Government.
But some insiders had hoped that once the ruling landed, father and son might have been able to move beyond it, reconnect and work towards the reconciliation that Harry says he really wants with his family.
The problem is, however, that by going public with his grievances once more, he has hammered home the perception of other family members that anything they do discuss with him in private might not stay private for long.
‘Zero trust’
As has proven to be the case several times since the Duke’s departure from royal life in 2020, personal conversations, arguments and even physical altercations with other members of his family (lest we forget the dog bowl incident immortalised in Spare) could all become material for consumption by the wider world, either via a TV interview or documentary or in the pages of another book.
“There is zero trust,” one concerned former friend of the Duke told me this week.
Harry himself acknowledges that “Of course, some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book, of course they will never forgive me for lots of things.”
So can there be any way back for him after this latest salvo?