Prince Harry’s ‘woefully embarrassing’ Kate move exposed

Just over an hour and a half after the Princess of Wales announced major news, the Sussex camp was trying to whip up attention.

Let the lingo learning commence. Who knows what a Pelham versus a Hackamore versus a snaffle is?

Few people, I’d wager, outside the polo community. (They are all sorts of bridles, by the way). But it’s time to hit the books (or at least book, singular, in the form of Jilly Cooper’s jodhpur-ripper Polo) to brush up, because Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex is bringing the horsey sport to the small screen.

We could do a nice, fun story about Tuesday’s Netflix announcement of the project, asking the question, will anyone tune in to watch wealthy, mostly men, in overly tight, muddy trousers, canter up and down manicured bits of Floridian field? But, oh no.

Because the exact moment that Netflix decided to give the world its first look at the duke’s new series, Polo, just happened to be only a bit over an hour and a half after Kate, the Princess of Wales delivered the most powerful bit of propaganda since Mussolini got it in his head to call himself Il Duce.

Really? REALLY?

Let’s be fair here. Harry himself, a man who I’m guessing finds soul-deep joy doing canteen duty, was hardly the one pulling the lever on his Polo announcement. It’s not like he sat there with his finger poised and started furiously banging the Post button seconds after Kensington Palace’s humdinger of a soft-focused video started playing.

Prince Harry's Polo promo dropped just 90 minutes after the Princess of Wales announced she was cancer-free. Picture: X

In fact, the duke’s series was just one of a suite of new sporty shows announced on Tuesday, including a doco about the Boston Red Sox and about footballer Aaron Rodgers.

Except that these extenuating circumstances don’t change the fact that we have the Palace providing a breaking news alert-worthy update on Kate’s health after a nine-month cancer fight – and Harry’s latest attempt to keep Netflix’s lovely cheques rolling in both hitting social media within the space of 100 minutes of each other.

The timing is not exactly a great look for the House of Montecito, which has been plugging away at something of a brand reset this year with quasi, homemade “royal”-lite tours to Nigeria and Colombia. (With rumours that Lesotho or Botswana might be next). However, I’d argue the look of the thing is worse in the uncomfortable, inevitable comparison it automatically provokes.

Exhibit A) is Kate, a princess who is unstintingly adored by the British people (and Americans too, polling tells us) and who gets to, once she’s back at full power and steam, spend her working days toiling away on significant legacy initiatives that will have generational impact.

Exhibit B) is Harry, duke for hire. (Dosh-for-duke?) The Sussex story, since 2020, has not just been one of a couple busy working through the traumas under the ministering gaze of Oprah Winfrey and the Californian sun, but one that co-stars that most American of obsessions, money.

What Kate and Harry bumping up against one another on social media does is provide an uncomfortable comparison between the direction their two lives have taken. One of duty and service and a lot of boring nodding at garden parties and the other requiring a certain fealty to market forces and having to sing for their security bills.

The Princess of Wales’ news made global headlines. Picture: Will Warr/Prince and Princess of Wales/Instagram

After 35 years of having a roof obligingly provided for him and having only ever worked for his Granny (technically anyway, as a soldier and then absolutely when he became a professional HRH), when the gates of Buckingham Palace unceremoniously clanged shut in 2020, he and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex suddenly needed to find fistfuls of the stuff.

It’s hard not to think that novelist Katherine Mansfield’s line sums it up perfectly: “I must say, I hate money. But it’s the lack of it I hate most.”

Harry might have told a conference last year “my life is charity”, but that can only, realistically, hold true to a certain point when there are Netflix execs to keep on side and deliverables that have to be ponied up. (I know. I know. But I have no regrets …)

Is there a soul on Earth who thinks for a second this is how Harry and Meghan saw their future playing out on January 8, 2020, a day that will long live in royal writer infamy?

Oh sure, the Sussexes declared they wanted to “work to become financially independent”, but that notion did not feature a scenario where they had to find an estimated $4 million a year to cover their own security costs.

The duke and duchess, back then, said they wanted “to carve out a progressive new role”, but it’s hard to be “progressive” when you have to find millions, year after year, to pay the salaries of large men the size of commercial fridges who know how to do a ferocious arm bar. (And it was never quite made clear if their goal of “financial independence” would have included them weaning themselves off the millions they got every year from King Charles’ then Duchy of Cornwall income, either).

The announcement of Harry’s latest project couldn’t have come at a worse time. Picture: CBS Sunday Morning

If Harry and Meghan’s initial half-in, half-out model of royaling had gotten over the line with the late Queen, they would be in a position where, as legit royalty, they would surely have had much greater bargaining power with companies like Netflix. You would have to imagine that would have put them in a position where they had all the latitude they wanted to make diligent, well-meaning docos about rivers and pandas and why it’s reprehensible that 119 million girls miss out on school.

Instead, I’m guessing it’s all line items and KPIs and sweating over viewer counts.

Really what the Kate and Harry situation today exposes is the gulf between them in terms of power and agency over their lives. The princess has control over her own message and timetable and staff. The duke does not appear to have the same, to the same degree. When Netflix decides it is going to announce something, it will go ahead with it, even if it’s woefully embarrassing timing that will only give ducal critics a fresh quiver of barbs and snark to send his way. Soz old chap.

The only good news: There are no end of equine idioms I’m going to get to wheel out in the coming months. Anyone for some horsing around?

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