Prince Harry’s stunning move leaves Kate and William in the dust
As Kate Middleton and Prince William set about paying their respects to the Queen, Prince Harry did something unexpected.
COMMENT
The Thomas Wolfe line goes, “You can never go home again” but clearly Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex has not been keeping up with his reading.
Here we are, you and I, another day and another bit of tit-for-tattery that has seen the duke upstage the best laid plans of his older brother and his sister-in-law, William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales.
2018, is that you?
As King Charles marked his first Accession Day emotionally wearing his kilt about the place 800 kilometres north of London in Balmoral (one imagines his sporran was full of slightly soggy, teary tissues) his sons were back down south causing a spot of polite havoc.
It was a day that would have been carefully planned, calibrated and measured out in teaspoons for months beforehand, how the royal family would mark the first anniversary of Her late Majesty’s death on September 8 last year. Charles and lifelong plus-one crown-wearer Queen Camilla would attend a memorial service at Crathie Kirk in Scotland while the Waleses would turn up in, where else, but in Wales for a private service at St Davids cathedral.
Enter, the wildcard, Californian ratepayer, future romance novel adaptation producer and proud feeler of so many feelings, Harry. On Saturday, crucially at nearly exactly the same time that William and Kate were arriving at St Davids, up the duke popped up to blow Buckingham Palace’s carefully laid plans out the window.
On Friday, UK time, Harry was photographed leaving St George’s Chapel, Windsor, the final resting place of the world’s most famous corgi lover and legendary statesperson, his Granny, only minutes before the prince and princess were slated to attend their service.
BLAMO! BOOM! KAPOW!
With one visit to pay his respects, the duke managed to torpedo all those best laid plans.
While initial reports had suggested that Harry had walked into the chapel, the Sun has subsequently claimed that the 38-year-old was actually given a private vigil and the chapel unlocked specifically for him.
The key thing to realise is that it has been Harry’s visit to the Chapel that has either led or gotten co-top billing with the Charles, William and Kate’s various goings on in the British media.
Or to put it another way, the King and the prince and princess have been forced to watch as what should have been a day that went off without a hitch insteading being hijacked by the duke’s Windsor visit.
Going into Accession Day, there had been much talk about the Waleses leading the UK in tribute to the UK, but thanks to Harry’s surprise outing, the couple has been pipped at the post and have been denied getting to bask, just the two of them, in the spotlight.
Even though the Duke of Sussex’s trip to the chapel was a private one, there is a certain sense of tit for tat here after William managed to eclipse his young brother’s return only 24-hours beforehand.
On Thursday, UK time, William popped up to visit Bournemouth in support of his fight against homelessness, where he was greeted by massive, clamouring crowds all keen to touch the hem 21st century-style, AKA get a selfie. The accidental appearance of legendary England footballer Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne, who gave the prince an affectionate peck on the cheek, must have been manna from heaven for Kensington Palace, the whole peppy, frenetic away day overshadowing Harry’s awards night speech.
Interesting that here we are a day later, and the exact reverse is playing out, with Aitch upstaging the Waleses in one fell swoop.
Point, Sussex.
Oh so briefly, it had appeared that Harry would play nicely and not be upsetting any regal apple carts during his brief foray in the UK, only briefly mentioning his grandmother in his awards speech saying, “I know, exactly one year on, that she is looking down on all of us tonight, happy we’re together.”
Clearly that was some sort of aberration in the seemingly never-ending Hundred Years War that is the Montecito-Kensington Palace Row.
While the photo of Harry leaving the chapel was snapped by a member of the public, the very well-connected Tom Sykes, writing in the Daily Beast has argued that Harry’s chapel visit was an “extraordinary decision” and which “seemed designed to undermine his brother’s carefully scheduled appearance in Wales.”
Harry, the piece claimed, had ‘[blown] up” the “royal choreography” of the day, with the “fragile truce between Harry and his family” now “[laying] in ruins.”
Earlier this week the Telegraph’s royal editor Victoria Ward reported that Harry and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex were set to “move away from the royal bashing” to debut shiny new, as yet to be unveiled careers.
However, the duke’s Windsor outing might suggest that he is not entirely done with getting one up on his brother every now and then, even inadvertently.
Let’s pause here though and consider the bigger picture.
The very fact that Charles, William and Kate have been left with having to share the headlines and front page stories about the first Accession Day with Harry says a hell of a lot.
Here we have proof positive of the incredible, continuing gravitational pull of the duke despite him having long gone AWOL to realign his chakras and sit through blue-sky, ideation sessions, all bean bags and cold brew, with Netflix execs.
We might fast be approaching the four-year anniversary of Megxit – the resignation heard around the world; the history-making, Palace-shaking rupture for the ages – but Harry and Meghan remain intrinsically emotionally and psychologically interwoven with the royal family as far as the public and press are concerned. (And, possibly, personally too.)
Between Harry & Meghan and Spare, they have unloaded more than 20 hours of them talking at baleful, doe-eyed length about the many failings of The Firm in the last year. (Their Netflix series comes in at nearly six hours viewing and the audio version of Harry’s tell-all is 15 hours plus.)
That the couple remains enmeshed and embedded in the royal narrative should not come as a surprise and the attention that Harry’s Windsor Chapel visit has received demonstrates the stranglehold that the Sussexes have retained over the public imagination.
Don’t confuse that though with support or a favourable view of the Sussexes, podcasters in search of a platform. In the UK, 63 per cent of people have a negative view of Harry and 68 per cent have an unfavourable view of Meghan.
In the US, they fare better but they are hardly getting the sort of numbers that anyone might crow about – less than half the Americans surveyed by YouGov (48 per cent) liked Harry as of polling done in July.
The problem that Team Sussex faces is that while the duke and duchess are the objects of enduring global fascination, if not downright obsession, the masses have complicated, hurly-burly and topsy-turvy feelings about the couple and their willingness to cast stone after stone at The Firm.
And the masses’ preoccupation with Harry and Meghan is something that is much harder to monetise than the plain old adoration they used to enjoy when they were still inside the royal tent.
This is all just the start, mind you, with the duke, and later his wife, pitching up in Dusseldörf for the Invictus Games this weekend while William and Kate will be travelling to France for the Rugby World Cup. All four of ‘em, out and about and at nearly the same time and all at sporting events?
The bases are loaded and all the players are taking to the field. Someone blow a whistle because things look set to get even more interesting if not complicated if not just downright messy. Play on!
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.
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