Prince Harry may not return to UK for Diana memorial as he was ‘shocked’ by frosty royal reception
He was ‘shocked’ by the reception he received at Prince Philip’s funeral. Now Prince Harry is considering backing out of a trip that was to honour his late mother.
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He was ‘shocked’ by the reception he received at Prince Philip’s funeral. Now Prince Harry may back out of a trip that was to honour his late mother, Princess Diana.
The Sunreports that the Duke of Sussex, 36, may make an “excuse” not to return for the unveiling of a statue dedicated to his late mother, royal expert Russell Myers claimed.
Harry is due to stand alongside brother William for a ceremony in Kensington Palace’s Sunken Garden on July 1 – the date of what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday.
But Mr Myers said Harry was stunned by the “very, very cold reception” he received from the Royal Family when he flew back from LA for his grandfather’s funeral earlier this month.
Speaking to UK’s talkRADIO, the expert said: “Some quarters of the family did give him a frosty reception and perhaps that did shock him somewhat”.
And he claimed the Duke of Sussex may use the birth of his second child, a daughter due within weeks, as a “convenient excuse” not to “face the family”.
Radio host Kevin O’Sullivan said he believed Prince Harry looked “very out of sorts” during his stay for the funeral.
“I’m wondering whether he received a very, very cold reception?” he asked.
“I read that some quarters of the Royal Family literally just blocked him and didn’t even talk to him.
“I think he may have been a bit shocked by the cool reception he got from his family, which begs the question, will he come back for the unveiling of the Diana memorial with his brother in July?
“Or will he pull out of that?”
TENSION BETWEEN CHARLES, HARRY
Prince Charles may “cut” Prince Harry and Meghan from the royal family during a streamlining of the monarchy, a royal expert has claimed.
Renowned royal biographer Angela Levin claims the Prince of Wales is poised to “cut the monarchy down” in the future to save cash.
A slimmed-down version could see just Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince William, Kate, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte as senior royals, according to reports.
Ms Levin told talkRADIO: “Prince Charles has wanted for a very long time to cut the monarchy down to save costs and to make people be worth the money that they got from the taxpayer.
“I imagine that might be when Harry and Meghan are ditched from being members of the royal family.”
Meanwhile, Prince William and Prince Harry have given permission for their mother’s wedding dress to go on display at Kensington Palace in the coming months, for the first time in more than 25 years.
Princess Diana’s showstopping bridal gown will be accessible to the public in honour of what would have been her 60th birthday this year, according to a report in The Sun.
Royal fans will be able to see the stunning silk taffeta wedding dress up close in a temporary exhibition called Royal Style In The Making.
The dress will be on display in Princess Diana’s former home from June 3 until January 2022.
The spectacular dress was valued at $A195,000 last year and was created by David and Elizabeth Emanuel for Diana and Prince Charles’ wedding in 1981.
Its sequin-encrusted train stretched a whopping 7.6 metres, making it the longest in royal history.
Speaking to Hello! magazine last year, David Emanuel said of Princess Diana: “You’ve got the most beautiful woman, inside and out. It’s not just the look and the frocks and the fashion. She genuinely was just sweet. She was very young.”
Mr Emmanuel revealed he had asked a jeweller to sew a tiny gold horseshoe into the dress for good luck.
He added: “We only told her on the wedding day. She didn’t know about the horseshoe for good luck, she was very touched. She was traditional.”
David and Elizabeth Emanuel were chosen when their business was booming and clients included Bianca Jagger and the Duchess of Kent.
Surprisingly, they had no guidance from Buckingham Palace or Princess Diana, other than discretion was paramount.
The exhibition will coincide with what would have been Princess Diana’s 60th birthday on July 1.
Earlier in April, it was reported that Prince William and Prince Harry had reunited to approve a statue of Princess Diana to be unveiled at Kensington Palace in the northern hemisphere summer.
It is hoped the tribute statue can help repair the brothers, in the aftermath of Prince Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey last month.
MEGHAN’S NEW LEGAL CHALLENGE
Meghan could face a fresh British High Court privacy battle over her letter to her father, Thomas Markle.
The Duchess of Sussex, 39, was set to receive an apology after the judge ruled a national paper breached her privacy when it printed extracts of a five-page letter she’d written to Thomas Markle.
Mail Online and The Mail on Sunday in the UK had been ordered to print a front-page statement about Meghan’s victory earlier this month.
However now the British Court of Appeal has confirmed that it is “in receipt of an application for permission to appeal”, according to Newsweek.
ANL were initially refused permission to appeal against that decision, but applied directly to the Court of Appeal against the order requiring both The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline to publish the statements.
Last month the paper also won the right to use a smaller typeface than originally demanded when they print the statement.
Meghan sued the company over a series of articles which reproduced parts of a “heartfelt” letter sent to her estranged father in August 2018.
She claimed the five articles published in February 2019 involved a misuse of her private information, breached her copyright and breached the Data Protection Act.
Meghan was granted summary judgment in relation to her privacy claim, meaning she won that part of the case without having to go to trial, as well as most of her copyright claim.
Last month, the judge made the order that The Mail On Sunday must publish a front-page apology to Meghan.
The statement must also run on MailOnline for a week with a link to the court’s full ruling on Meghan’s win, he ruled.
The same edition of the newspaper will have to state on page three that the High Court gave judgment for the Duchess on her claim for copyright infringement.
It will also have to include the following statement: “The court found that Associated Newspapers infringed her copyright by publishing extracts of her handwritten letter to her father in The Mail On Sunday and in MailOnline.”
It comes after the judge said publication of Meghan’s letter to her father was “manifestly excessive and hence unlawful”.
He said: “It was, in short, a personal and private letter.
“The majority of what was published was about the claimant’s own behaviour, her feelings of anguish about her father’s behaviour, as she saw it, and the resulting rift between them.
NEW MEGHAN, HARRY BOOK
Finding Freedom, the supportive biography of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which gives their account of “Megxit”, as told by royal sources and friends of the Sussexes, is being updated with new chapters dealing with the latest developments in the lives of the former royals.
According to The Australian, the new material will deal with the couple’s new life in America and their lucrative business deals with Netflix and Spotify. It will also address the explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, and its fallout which has contributed to the rift between the Sussexes and the Cambridges, plus the shocking allegations that Meghan bullied her royal staff during her brief time at the palace, allegations which she denies.
The impact of longest-serving consort Prince Philip’s recent death will also be addressed as will the Queen’s decision to divest Harry and Meghan of all royal patronages, with Harry reported to be devastated by the loss of his military roles.
The prince returned to his California estate last Tuesday, before the Queen’s birthday on Wednesday.
The book is expected to reignite tensions between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family, after what has been an already turbulent year.
It is unlikely to do anything to heal the rift between Prince Harry and Prince William, according to royal insiders.
“The Oprah interview detonated a bomb under the royal family and most of them are still reeling in shock. The book will not help,” a senior courtier said.
Despite Harry’s brief reunion with the royal family for Prince Philip’s funeral, William and Harry did not walk together in the procession, although they were seen talking on their way back to Windsor Castle after the service.
But senior royal sources have denied Harry, William and Charles met to discuss the situation, as the Prince of Wales left after the funeral without seeing his son again.
The first edition of Finding Freedom covered events from 2016 and Harry and Meghan’s whirlwind courtship, to their departure from royal life.
Critics say the book is a flattering portrait of the Sussexes, who have denied collaborating with authors Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie.
The book is slated to hit shelves on August 5, a time in the northern summer when the Queen will be at Balmoral, her Scottish estate, where she can perhaps avoid any further media fallout.
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Originally published as Prince Harry may not return to UK for Diana memorial as he was ‘shocked’ by frosty royal reception
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