‘Derailed’: Awkward coronation moment reveals major problem facing Prince Harry

The royal family had a very surprising reaction to the Duke of Sussex’s return to the UK – and it reveals a deeper problem for Harry.

If right now King Charles was to corral his wife, his sons and his Jack Russels for a spot of family therapy – representing more sharing in one hour-long session than the entire House of Plantagenet managed in over 330 years – what would a professional recommend?

How exactly would they suggest that His Majesty goes about dealing with his ever-vexing, ever-squawking son Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex?

Over the last few years, the royal family has tried a number of approaches when it comes to the duke – the stern, the finger-wagging and the “much loved members of the family” cuddly approach – but all to no avail.

If there has been one lesson of the 2020s it is – have Sussex title, will kvetch.

If Harry’s various outbursts have perhaps triggered some royal family teeth gnashing or even provoked some dark night of the soul introspection (a nightshirt-clad Charles, 3am, staring up at a portrait of George I, whispering to himself, ‘But are we biased…?’) it would all be understandable.

However, it has now emerged that one very particular detail about Harry’s appearance at last month’s coronation reportedly caused “much hilarity” inside The Firm.

This year, US stand-up comedians including Chris Rock have nearly been lining up at the microphone to make Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex the butt of their jokes, not to mention that South Park devoted an entire episode to them.

South Park spent an entire episode mocking Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Picture: Comedy Central

And now we get this delicious morsel in the Times suggesting that the royal family, at least in this instance, is following a similar tack.

Let me set the scene.

It is five weeks ago and the world has tuned in to watch a 74-year-old spend two hours taking robes on and off and being presented with golden things (A stirrup! A couple of bracelets! An old glove!) while Queen Camilla looked about as unrelaxed as Prince Andrew when he is in the vicinity of the US embassy.

Of course the entire royal family was there to watch this august moment, a sort of Frankenstein’s monster of Hanoverian dress ups intercut with old ceremonial bits left over from the Stuarts.

And of course, even Harry had made an effort to put in what could best be considered a perfunctory appearance, flying back to the UK barely long enough to watch his Pa be crowned and stock up on Cadbury Flakes before hightailing it back to California. (It was his son Archie’s fourth birthday after all).

Unfortunately for Harry, his attempt at putting on a good show of it back amid his thunderous family, with him laughing and joking with his York cousins, now the royal family’s Official Sussex Buffers, was derailed, accidentally, by whoever had cooked up the seating plan.

Not only was the King’s son tidied away in the third row, but he had been positioned behind Princess Anne wearing an absolutely smashing military get-up.

Done up in her full bib and brace as the Colonel of the Blues and Royals in the Household Cavalry, her uniform also included quite the remarkable hat.

Here is where we get to le problem: Not only was the Duke of Sussex stuck behind his aunt’s iconic backcombed pompadour, but her uniform included a ripper of a hat with a huge red plume. Thus he was left to spend the two hours of the coronation obscured by Anne’s striking headgear.

Harry was blocked by Anne’s striking hat.

Social media had a cheeky field day and so too did his relations, with a royal insider telling the Times’ Roya Nikkhah there was “much hilarity among the family about where the plume ended up and what it ended up obscuring”.

Titter, titter, indeed.

Unfortunately, Harry versus The Plume echoed the scene at the late Queen’s funeral last September when Harry and Meghan were positioned in the second row of Westminster Abbey such that whenever the cameras cut to the royal family, the Sussexes were obscured by a large white candle.

(If anyone is counting, and I’m paid to, the coronation was the third time in a year that Aitch has been lumped in the second or third row for a grand royal or state event. That would have to be enough to put even the most robust of egos horizontal on their therapist’s sofa).

Perhaps after the last few drama-filled years it was inevitable that the HRHs left manning the Buckingham Palace tiller would end up somewhere on the other side of grief, sadness and the urge to throw some Dresden china at the wall: Laughing.

Arise, the punchline prince!

Maybe, just maybe, the royal family is starting to regain their rarely-seen, who-knew-they-even-had-one sense of humour. (I had always figured that the Queen Mother was the fun one. How many other crowned Queens in history could play the Marseillaise on the mouth organ? Truly).

The royals can reportedly see the funny side in the Harry fiasco. Picture: Hannah McKay/Pool/AFP

In May came the Sussexes’ “near catastrophic” paparazzi chase through New York. After that story started to come apart at the seams, the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes reported that “friends of the British royal family have mocked” the Sussexes’ version of events.

One friend of Prince William’s joked to the Beast: “Recollections may vary”.

The same friend also said: “I thought they were leaving the royal family for a quieter life. If flashbulbs give Harry flashbacks, I don’t understand why he is going to award ceremonies”.

The same month, the Daily Mail’s diarist Richard Eden reported that the Sussexes had earned the nickname the “the Kardashians” in royal circles, “in tribute, it’s explained, to their appetite for ‘accepting awards for themselves, talking about themselves, doing programs about themselves’.”

If Harry and Meghan, via their Netflix series and his memoir Spare, had hoped that their efforts would see the King & co. abashed and regretful, making the metaphoric pilgrimage to the Montecito mount to beg forgiveness, then disappointment must reign.

A royal source has told the Spectator’s Kara Kennedy that “post-coronation they are merely ignoring him and Meghan. It’s pretty clear that they are banished after all that has happened now”.

Maybe the most logical way to understand the royal family reportedly finding the funny side to Harry’s coronation turn, to the Sussexes’ “Kardashian” moniker and to the couple being “mocked”, is what other choice do those left in London have?

To quote Abraham Lincoln, who in turn had nicked the line from Lord Byron, “I laugh because I must not weep”.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.