Allison Pearson
Cambridge: “Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery.” The words of the future King Charles III as he pleaded with his two sons to patch things up at their grandfather’s funeral in April 2021 have just acquired a whole new resonance.
The “boys”, better known as Prince William and Prince Harry, never did make up. Indeed, their feud only darkened and deepened as the elder brother fumed at the younger’s treachery towards the royal family in general, and his wife, in particular. (Outrageously, in her interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan accused unnamed members of the family of racism in relation to her unborn baby’s skin colour.)
The last time Harry and William stood together, just the two of them, was in July 2021 at the unveiling of a bronze statue of their late mother on what would have been her 60th birthday. The pair could barely look at each other. For William, Harry’s deeply personal and spiteful revelations two years later in his biography, Spare, were an unimaginable betrayal by the human being he once trusted best.
A lid could be kept on that seething Shakespearean sibling rivalry, as long as Diana’s beloved boys, now men in their 40s, were separated by an ocean. Harry and Meghan found freedom in California from the stultifying Windsor ways they so publicly scorned. The Waleses were left to steady the ship after the turbulence of “Megxit”. They did so admirably and to universal acclaim despite Princess Catherine’s shocking brush with cancer.
The sudden announcement on Wednesday night that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are returning to the UK later this month – a typical piece of Sussex melodrama, both blithely selfish and utterly ruthless – threatens the uneasy truce between the brothers. It also heralds a moment of intense danger for the monarchy because almost anything could happen – and very little of it good.
The King has shown immense fortitude during his cancer treatment, and continues to carry out his duties with charm and aplomb, but the 77-year-old Charles is ailing. Understandably, there is speculation that Harry has seized this moment to shore up his family’s position while a fond Papa is still on the throne and able to bail him out.
With a commitment to a slimmed-down monarchy – probably comprised of his own three children, George, Charlotte and Louis, and their immediate heirs – things would look very different under a future King William V. The duke and duchess, and Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet (the children’s faces unknown to the British public even though they are sixth and seventh in line to our throne), might well lose their titles and their access to the only thing that they have left to sell, apart from tens of thousands of jars of Meghan’s jam. A sticky position, you have to agree.
Cynics point out that Harry’s newfound enthusiasm for Britain follows a humiliating failure in the United States. After the duchess’s teeth-rottingly glutinous lifestyle show, With Love, Meghan, was panned, Netflix drastically watered down the couple’s lavish deal. When they were dropped by Spotify, allegedly for not creating enough content to earn out their $US20 million ($28 million) payment, a furious senior executive called the royal couple “f—ing grifters”.
Americans love success and stampede like startled bison from its opposite. People began to mock Harry and Meghan’s claim to want a low-profile, secluded private life dedicated to “service”. South Park’s “Worldwide Privacy Tour” episode, a hilarious satire on the shy, retiring Sussexes, burst the dam of deference. They became social poison and couldn’t blag an invitation to the Oscars. Even Oprah Winfrey appeared to distance herself from the pair on whom she lavished such sympathy when they were revealing how ghastly those heartless royals were while poor Prince Philip was on his deathbed.
The truth is, however cynical you are about Meghan and Harry, it’s not cynical enough. Their jaw-dropping hypocrisy is only exceeded by their lack of self-awareness and contrition. A champion reciter of his own grievances, Harry can be astonishingly obtuse when it comes to appreciating the pain and embarrassment he has caused his own relatives. For Team Sussex, it’s “my truth” that counts.
Only last year, a tearful Harry was telling the BBC: “It’s impossible for me to take my family back to the UK safely. I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point.”
So what changed? Is the UK no longer so racist that Meghan couldn’t bear to live here? Is she no longer worried about being “silenced” by her terrible in-laws? Has Queen Camilla ceased to be “dangerous”, as Harry claimed in his book? Is their personal safety no longer a priority? Did they get the apology from the royals they loftily demanded as a condition of returning?
Well, they’re coming back anyway. And we don’t want them – we really don’t want them. Thousands of caustic jibes and angry outbursts mushroomed overnight on social media.
“What have we done to deserve this?” wondered one man.
“Maybe they got an offer to appear on Celebrity Traitors,” quipped another.
“Never-ending attention seekers, they just want to cause more aggravation for William and Kate.”
“On the lookout for more material for their Diana documentary and next books no doubt.”
“With luck it will speed up the divorce.”
The outpouring of hostility and bitterness is overwhelming, with the odd enthusiastic comment heavily outnumbered. (Judging by the remarks, Meghan will be lucky not to be booed should she ever venture into Waitrose.) Has any couple ever burnt through so much goodwill so quickly?
How different it was back in May 2018 when I wrote for London’s Telegraph about Harry and Meghan’s fairytale wedding in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. It was a glorious day, the Union flag waved, and the people cheered for their favourite young royal. Everyone was so happy that Diana’s lost boy – that shell-shocked 12-year-old we had watched as he walked, ghost-pale, beside his mother’s coffin – had finally found a bright and beautiful woman to love him.
Admittedly, alarm bells rang when Meghan commandeered the engagement interview, promising to “hit the ground running”, more like a pushy contestant on The Apprentice than a doting fiancee, but doubts were vanquished by a beautiful ceremony that combined the best of British and American. In his Blues & Royals uniform, Harry looked like the foxiest Salvation Army sergeant ever, but was pensive and nervous.
Seated beside him, William did his best to reassure his brother. We know now that William had grave doubts about the choice of bride and the speed of the courtship, but a besotted Harry wasn’t in the mood for listening or caution. As the bride stared up at her husband with a look of glistening adoration (that look seemed sweet and genuine back then, but fake and irritating now), the late Queen shot Meghan an owlish glare (she disapproved of the American divorcee wearing virginal white). In retrospect, she seems to have been the only one with a clear-eyed view of what was coming.
Pretty much the entire country fell for the Sussexes that day. It took some serious effort on their part to make us fall out of love with them – they found fault with their handsome historic cottage, renovated to US standards at absurd expense, complained constantly about the (overwhelmingly positive) media coverage and “racism”, and then there were allegations that a high-maintenance Meghan had bullied Palace staff.
An absurdly swollen sense of entitlement led to demands that the couple be allowed to set up as Sussex royals in America, enjoying the perks of proximity to the throne without the dreary responsibilities. The late Queen wisely refused – she didn’t want them destroying trust in the royal family by combining duty and money-making – and so “Megxit” became permanent in 2021.
Harry was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages – things that had given his life ballast and meaning. Widely adored because he was always good for a laugh, Harry became a scowling social justice warrior, parroting modish phrases about “unconscious bias” you knew Meghan had taught him.
And then, the coup de grace. The Sussexes both slagged off the royal family on American television in front of hundreds of millions – all that after they had caused the late Queen so much worry and distress in her final years. To the British people, who had forked out £32 million ($60 million) for their wedding, it felt like the vilest ingratitude.
So, it is to that sulphurous national mood that the Sussexes now return. Meghan narrowly avoids being the least popular royal because the former prince Andrew is even more detested than the duchess. Some 65 per cent of Britons hold an unfavourable opinion of Meghan (22 per cent favourable), while 58 per cent dislike Harry (33 per cent positive).
The duke and duchess’s status as “not working royals” will be unchanged, we are told, but who seriously believes that Meghan, the self-styled global humanitarian, will be content hanging out with some chickens in the Cotswolds where the family are likely to settle? She may be able to score the odd chai latte with her near-neighbour, Victoria Beckham, although Jeremy Clarkson definitely won’t be inviting the Sussexes over to Diddly Squat Farm for a hog roast. Meghan would have Clarkson cancelled like a shot.
I think it’s likely that, apart from the Spencer side of the family, as well as Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Meghan will find herself ostracised, lonely and increasingly frustrated. She never liked Britain, and is clearly jealous of the huge affection here for Catherine. Frequent trips back to the US, with or without the children, could put physical distance between her and Harry, and kickstart the process of separation that many have foretold.
On Friday, we learnt that Meghan may have an acting job lined up in the UK. I wasn’t aware the Royal Shakespeare Company was looking for a Lady Macbeth.
Wherever they settle, Harry and Meghan will be a constant distraction from the activities of the working royals – see how their breaking news displaced the lovely story of Camilla talking about her husband’s cancer. There will effectively be two rival courts led by the warring brothers. What happens when Prince George starts at Eton in a few weeks, and photographers are summoned to take the traditional picture? Will the Sussexes drop Archie and Lilibet off quietly at their new school with no snapper present, or will this be an opportunity to get one over on their rivals, the Waleses? The first picture of the faces of the Sussex children would beat George to every front page. Imagine how that would make William and Catherine feel. Now imagine what whoop of satisfaction that would give Meghan.
How long do you think it will be before the Sussexes make it known that they think it’s terribly sad that Archie and Lilibet are prevented from seeing their cousins by the cruel, stand-offish William and Catherine? Using their children as pawns may not be beyond them.
“It’s horrible,” says Harry’s biographer, Angela Levin. “Kate is gentle, she’s not like Meghan, and Meghan is not going to change one iota. She thinks she knows everything – she always has to win.” Levin worries about the effect the stress could have on Catherine’s health.
Senior members of the royal family are currently enjoying their traditional summer break at Balmoral. I am told the news that Harry and Meghan returning to the UK went down like a sporran full of cold haggis. One senior royal insider goes so far as to call it “an act of violent aggression. I feel desperately sorry for William and Kate. It’s awful for them”.
The King is a very kind man, and it’s understandable that he wishes to spend more time with Harry and his children, but I’m not sure Charles has thought through what this means for his heir and his family. Are William and Catherine to be pressured into forgiving a pair who caused them so much pain and turmoil? Remember how William angrily snapped at a reporter after that infamous Oprah Winfrey interview: “We are very much NOT a racist family.”
The Waleses are said by a source to “have no interest in engaging with anything Harry and Meghan do or say”. Easier said than done when “Me Again Meghan” has a track record of trying to upstage the couple’s scheduled events with her own appearances.
William and Catherine, who have done so much to uphold the family’s reputation during “Megxit” and the disgrace of Andrew, could find themselves undermined by the Sussexes at every turn. William will be furious, and rightly so, if the prodigal son is so easily taken back into the fold by their good-natured father.
What about Christmas? Must the royal family gather at Sandringham, fake smiles plastered on their faces, with the ever-present fear that Harry and Meghan are taking notes for their next book or documentary on the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death next year? Heaven forbid, Harry, Meghan and the kids are allowed to join the walk from church on Christmas Day – if they do, the frost won’t just be on the ground. It’s a toxic situation because all trust is gone.
What are Harry and Meghan playing at? There was apparently no mention of them moving back to the UK at the tea they had at Highgrove with the King in July. He was blindsided and only told of the plan on Sunday, which, if true, is an extraordinarily rude way to treat the monarch. They must have been plotting this for months by finding a place to live and enrolling the children in a school. The Sussexes are dangerous. “Manipulative to the highest degree,” warns Tom Bower, who has written books on the royal family. If they do lots of charity appearances and fun events over the next year, they may gradually hope to win back the public and wangle the half-in, half-out model of monarchy that was specifically ruled out by the late Queen.
Levin points out that, as non-working royals, “they are free to do and say what they want. They can read what the other family members are up to and get there first. They can muscle in on the limelight and champion political causes that embarrass the King. I’m really worried.”
We should all be worried, at least those of us who care about the survival of the monarchy. “Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery,” the King pleaded five years ago. His sons are still estranged, and heaven knows it must be terribly painful. But while Charles may privately long for reconciliation, he has to take the hardest of hard lines with the Sussexes (his wife shares William’s views on that pair). It would be unforgivable, I think, to expect his eldest son to forgive so many unforgivable things – his family’s reputation trashed, his wife attacked when she had cancer, his beloved grandparents having to firefight Harry’s treachery while they were dying.
You can forget building bridges. Eminent Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself couldn’t build a bridge that would repair what Harry and Meghan have done to the Windsors. There must be no quasi-royal roles for them, and no undermining of the heir to the throne and his wonderful wife on whom the future of the institution rests. The King should welcome the family home from California as a father and grandfather. Then, as the monarch, he should remove their titles to limit the mischief they can cause.
Just because the American dream went sour for Harry and Meghan, they have no right to come here and cause a nightmare. If there is to be a war of the rival courts, I am Team William and Catherine all the way.
The Telegraph, London
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