Prince Harry lost his appeal in the British High Court on Friday. The appeal was for last year’s decision that Harry’s “bespoke” security situation for his British visits was fine as-is, and that Ravec and the government would not do any kind of real risk assessment or change the situation whatsoever. The appeals court judge said: “Even if there had been a risk analysis from the Risk Management Board, it would very likely have only confirmed the threat, vulnerability and impact levels which the Duke of Sussex had faced when earlier risk analyses were undertaken. But it would have had nothing to say on the critical features of the changed situation, namely the need for protective security on future uncertain visits and the government’s appetite for risk.” Basically, an admission that Harry probably was still under very high levels of risk, but the police don’t want to protect him whenever he visits, especially not when King Charles’s representatives are using Ravec to punish their redheaded scapegoat.
Well, Harry has made it repeatedly clear that he’s learned the extent of his father’s machinations to put Harry and his family in danger. Last night, a palace spokesperson released a statement: “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.” I agree that the courts have repeatedly and meticulously backed up Buckingham Palace’s refusal to ensure the Sussexes’ security past September 2022. But of course that wasn’t the only statement Charles’s courtiers organized. Becky English at the Daily Mail got a full briefing about how this time (not all of those other times) HARRY WENT TOO FAR!
The palace thinks Harry is gaslighting them: Last night the uneasy public truce between Prince Harry and the Royal Family was spectacularly shattered. And it is hard to see, whatever words the Duke of Sussex might half-heartedly offer about ‘truth and reconciliation’, how they can ever go back. As Buckingham Palace digested his frankly extraordinary – and at times, some might think, increasingly disturbed – series of broadsides, one disgusted former royal aide remarked simply: ‘Gaslighting’.
The Sussex issue could have been handled better: Interestingly some former members of the institution have, with admirable openness, admitted to me of late that with the quiet benefit of hindsight the whole Harry and Meghan ‘issue’ could probably have been handled better. ‘They were clearly a tricky couple who wanted out and maybe the institution could have found a better way to facilitate it before things went nuclear,’ said one.
Insiders also defend Harry’s right to write Spare: Indeed another says that while they completely disagreed with much of what he wrote in his memoir, Spare, they also, interestingly, defend his right to say it. ‘At the end of the day it’s his ‘truth’. And when it comes to recalling his childhood, as he sees it, he has every right to say what he experienced,’ they say. ‘I still maintain for the sake of the family – his family – he should never have written that bloody book, but I also can’t entirely disagree with his decision to do so either.’ But even those more sympathetic to his cause believe his latest legal battle and, in particular, last night’s extraordinary BBC meltdown have crossed a line.
Harry spent a lot of money just to lose a case: Harry’s decision to fight his father’s government in the very courts that dispense justice in the monarch’s name has been more than a financial and PR disaster for the prince. It has proved to be a personal catastrophe that has driven more of a wedge between himself and Charles than any back-stabbing memoir or tell-all television series. The monarch, I am told, has, effectively, been ‘too fearful’ of speaking to his son for the past three years in case anything he said was used as part of Harry’s case, thereby sparking a constitutional crisis.
Charles wants to see his grandchildren, he swears: Charles has also found it particularly hurtful that sources close to the prince have gone so far as to suggest he could get to see his grandchildren again if only he were to step in and reinstate the family’s full-time security detail in the UK. If that were to happen it would be ‘swords down’ was, in fact, the rather repugnant phrase used. While the King would never accuse a family member of ’emotional blackmail’, many might think it certainly sounds like it. Now Harry has doubled down in person, making clear he believes it is ‘impossible’ for him to bring his family back to the UK ‘safely’ unless his security is comprehensively reviewed – and effectively accusing those involved in the decision-making process, which includes the royal household, of wanting ‘history to repeat itself’. The latter a clear and troubling reference to the death of his late mother.
Harry will never bring his kids back to the UK: If he sticks to this line – and clearly he will given his latest comments and his three-and-half-year legal fight – it means that Harry will indeed never be able to bring his children back to Britain let alone start to repair the family relationships that his and Meghan’s acrimonious departure shattered. And he is certainly not going to get the apology from his family that he has always said he believes he deserves. ‘What on earth do they have to apologise for?’ one angry insider splutters. Short of Charles making a private trip to the US – which is unlikely to ever happen given his health and punishing workload – the stark truth is that the King may never see his two youngest grandchildren again.
Again, the Windsors don’t want to see the Sussexes: Harry’s only option would be to offer an awkward olive branch and return for a major family event (just as he did for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the only time Lilibet, who was born in California, has met her grandfather). They would almost certainly be entitled to round-the-clock police protection and given an official royal residence to stay in on an occasion such as this. But from what I hear – informally – the family are past even that. Too much has been said and done now for them to ever forgive and forget.
Instead of the boy who cried wolf, we have the king who cried “final straw.” So, it turns out that the Oprah interview wasn’t the line in the sand, and neither was Spare. There was a truce built on lack of communication, and that’s been shattered because Harry spoke to the BBC! The final straw, at long last, except all of the other stuff was supposed to be the final straw as well. “The King may never see his two youngest grandchildren again” and then one beat later, “They would almost certainly be entitled to round-the-clock police protection and given an official royal residence to stay in on an occasion such as this. But from what I hear – informally – the family are past even that. Too much has been said and done now for them to ever forgive and forget.” Sure, Harry is gaslighting when he says that he would never bring his children to the UK because of the lack of security AND the Windsors would eagerly yank security from the kids if they ever visited because Harry spoke to the BBC and they can never forgive that! Obviously, Charles is deeply upset that Harry has once again exposed him as a dogsh-t father and a uniquely evil man.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
