Queen’s death could be be an opportunity for Harry to make amends with family
What Harry – and Meghan – do next is crucial. The heartbreaking loss of his grandmother, the Queen, could be just the opportunity he needs to change the course of his life.
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With his head in hands, a heartbroken Prince Harry sped towards Balmoral in the back of a car, the pain in his face suggesting regret at missing the opportunity to say goodbye to his beloved gran before she died.
Despite the now US-based Prince being in the UK with wife Meghan at the time of her passing, they had not planned to visit the Queen during their four day trip.
To many it seemed a strange choice given that the Queen was 96, had pulled out of multiple engagements this year due to poor health and was holed up in her Scottish castle with mobility issues.
It will be a decision he will have to live with. He has since left Balmoral.
Because despite the barbs the Sussexes have thrown at the Royal family over the past two years – and by extension, the Queen – Harry once enjoyed a special and close relationship with his grandmother.
The cheeky, fun prince, as he was once known before he met Meghan, and the Queen had something in common – a great sense of humour.
He was even once able to persuade his granny to take part in a royal video spoof.
In retaliation to a boast by the then US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, suggesting US athletes would outperform the Brits at the Invictus Games in 2016, Harry recorded the Queen’s response, ‘Oh really? Please”, she said with a grin.
At the end of the 40-second clip, Harry, 37, then dropped the ‘mic’ – a gesture of intentionally dropping a microphone at the end of a speech to signal triumph.
Of course, the video went viral.
At that point in time, Harry’s popularity with the British public and fans around the world was high, higher than that of his brother Prince William and far higher than his father Charles.
And, when a few months later he met Meghan, the glamorous American actor who had starred in Suits, there was hope that the sad, little boy who had walked behind his mother, Princess Diana’s coffin in 1997, might have found love at last.
The country pulled out all the stops – and the Union Jack bunting and flags – to celebrate the couple’s wedding in May 2018.
The ‘people’ were genuinely excited to have a beautiful new princess, and one of ‘colour’ as she liked to refer to herself, join the Windsors.
But it wasn’t long before the fairytale began to fall apart.
Soon it became clear there were serious problems.
Meghan’s confession at the end of her 2019 South African royal tour TV documentary that no-one had asked whether she was OK since joining the royals, was just the start.
Harry also revealed he and his brother were on different paths.
Here were the new, touchy feely royals.
They were certainly not following the Queen’s rule book: “Never complain, never explain”.
Then the couple surprised everyone – including the Queen – by announcing on Instagram in 2020 they were to “step back as ‘senior’ members” of the British royal family, would split their time between the United Kingdom and North America, and become financially independent.
The UK public were outraged that the couple had jumped the gun and taken the Queen by surprise by announcing the news without conferring with her beforehand.
A year later, following a 12-month review, the Queen confirmed the move was permanent, saying in a statement it was not possible for the couple “to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service”.
In a lightning quick response, the Sussexes shot back their own statement, saying, “We can all live a life of service. Service is universal”.
Many saw that as an act of disrespect to the Queen.
It was unforgivable.
Ever since the couple decided to move to the US for their supposedly quiet life, it has been anything but.
The pair have continuously slung mud at the ‘Firm’ – of which the Queen was head – and then there were the allegations of racism.
The public could have been forgiven for thinking that Harry only cared about himself, Meghan and their next paycheck, until that photo in the back of the car. On his own, without Meghan, who stayed behind in England. Looking pained, distressed.
It is a reminder that he is also a grandson, that he truly loved his granny, that he has a family gathered at Balmoral and who will comfort him in his grief.
This moment could be a turning point for the Sussexes whose popularity in the UK is at an all time low and who have begun to lose support in the US, following their continual griping about how tough their lives were in the Royal Family.
How the Sussexes now behave following the monarch’s death is crucial.
If they could just take a leaf out of the Queen’s book and make this moment about her – and not themselves – they could maybe win back support from the public.
It could even be an opportunity for Harry to repair the broken relationships with his father, now King, and his brother, now heir to the throne.
But looming on the horizon is Harry’s tell-all book, which he has said will be “a first-hand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful”.
Recently, Meghan also revealed in an interview that she had recently found her journal at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, when she was there in June for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, sparking fears that there will be more bombshell revelations.
The Queen, who always hated confrontation, would have liked nothing more than for the Sussexes to be back in the fold, not just for the sake of the family – but also the monarchy.
UK royal commentator Camilla Tominey wrote before the Queen’s death, “nothing would have made her happier than for her warring grandsons to have finally put their differences aside in her hour of need”.
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