‘Extremely influential’: Royal family outcasts’ funeral roles revealed
Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have been given carefully-crafted roles in a bid to control news headlines.
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The royal family has kept their enemies close to control the headlines surrounding their outcast members during preparations for the Queen’s funeral.
Prince Harry, his wife Meghan Markle and Prince Andrew have been given carefully-crafted roles to make sure they have been in the news but not become the news.
King Charles and Prince William are running the show, making sure they control the coverage, by offering perfect picture opportunities to project an image of respect and reverence for the Queen.
An army of spin doctors have been helping in the background, but the father-and-son are at the forefront of keeping the focus on the funeral, not family fireworks.
There was a fear that Prince Harry and Markle would overshadow the Queen’s passing, given their penchant for tell-all interviews.
But Prince William, 40, offered an olive branch and gave the world the first picture of the Fab Four together in more than two years.
And the image of the estranged brothers, and their wives, inspecting flowers and meeting grieving royal fans at Windsor Castle, went global.
“They are extremely influential,” royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said.
“And the royals also have to deal with social media – the Queen was very good at it.”
Most of the Royal Family’s staff are not household names.
But some do make the papers, with the Queen’s former private secretary Samantha Cohen, among the most effective and well respected.
The Brisbane-raised Cohen was fearsome, known as “Samantha the panther” among the British press.
But she was also forward thinking.
Ms Cohen was the brains behind the Royal Family’s YouTube account, which was set up in 2007, just two years after the platform was created.
The Royal Family Twitter account has 5.5 million followers and the Facebook page has more than 6.4 million followers.
There’s a sophisticated formula in the way messages are sent out.
Birthday wishes usually come out in order, with the late Queen’s account often making the first post, followed by the new King Charles and then Prince William.
It’s that attention to detail that has made this week so seamless as King Charles, 73, moves from event to event, with the actual news of the day dominating the television broadcasts and newspaper front pages and websites.
Mr Fitzwilliams said the Royal Family’s public relations machine was second to none, evidenced by the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee where a teddy bear stole the show.
“The Paddington bear skit – that was genius, it just showed the Queen’s sense of fun and sense of humour,” he said.
“It’s an impossible act to follow, he (King Charles) shouldn’t even attempt to do it. He needs to find a personality that is sufficiently malleable to the job.”
And while the spin doctors are important, the royals themselves know how to manage the media.
There have been clearly some words said behind closed doors to both Prince Harry, Markle and Prince Andrew.
Either that or they are all showing a restraint and decorum that has been absent in recent years.
Sixty-two year old Prince Andrew, who at previous times has broken protocol, has been welcomed to publicly grieve for his mother.
Prince William drove him to see the Queen at Balmoral on the day she died, with the photograph a clear sign that he was part of the family.
He was also allowed to be photographed inspecting floral tributes with his brother Prince Edward, and his sister Princess Anne at Balmoral, in Scotland.
But there were non-negotiables.
Prince Andrew, who was a proud navy helicopter pilot, was forced to attend official functions in civilian clothes while his family were dressed in military uniforms.
He lost all his royal and military titles following a disastrous interview with the BBC where he tried, and failed, to explain his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein — and deny any wrongdoing.
However, he did not seem to learn his lesson earlier this year when he posted on his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson’s Instagram account tales of his exploits during the Falklands War in 1982.
He signed off the posts as His Royal Highness, the Duke of York.
It’s not hard to imagine the phone call he received when Buckingham Palace staffers saw the posts.
They were mysteriously and quickly taken down.
King Charles and Prince Harry both played masterstrokes in their public statements about the passing of the Queen.
The new monarch made sure he “expressed his love he had for Prince Harry and Markle as they continue to build their new lives overseas.”
Prince Harry, 37, returned the favour in his statement about his grandmother, adding: “We now honour my father in his new role as King Charles III.”
The royals know that all of their words, and all of their images, will be scrutinised.
And often, it’s what they don’t say that becomes a headline.
Prince William has been the glue that’s held the family together this week as his father crisscrossed the United Kingdom.
He texted Prince Harry to ask if he and Markle would join in on a “walkabout”.
The photo opportunity at 5.15pm local time on Saturday was strategic. It gave the evening news bulletins fresh footage, and the photographs were splashed on the front of all the British papers on the most read Sunday editions.
For Prince Harry, Markle and Prince Andrew, the question remains can this love-in continue in the future?
It’s unlikely.
Prince Harry has a warts and all book coming out ahead of Christmas and he has refused to let the Royal Family see it before it’s published.
The Californian prince has vowed to give any profits from the book away – so it can only be interpreted as another slap to his family, in his ongoing angry war.
Prince Andrew now has to find a way to carve out a new life.
The Queen’s “favourite” son has lost his greatest protector – King Charles and Prince William wanted him out long before the Queen made the final move.
Camilla, once dubbed the most hated woman in Britain because she was seen as the person who broke up King Charles’ marriage to Princess Diana, managed to turn her image around.
She did it by hard graft, and remembering the names of journalists in the royal press pack, and has now been given the title Queen Consort.
The Royal Family’s outcast trifecta need to look to her for a way to rebuild their reputations, but perhaps they’ve already gone too far.
stephen.drill@news.com.au
Originally published as ‘Extremely influential’: Royal family outcasts’ funeral roles revealed
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