Prince William’s guerrilla war against Harry blocks UK comeback
The Prince of Wales’ moves behind-the-scenes are blocking the Duke of Sussex from making any sort of UK comeback.
COMMENT
In the early 2000s, Us Weekly debuted a section called “Stars — They’re Just Like Us!” (Thus forever giving us artforms known as pap shots of celebs toting over-sized lattes as they walk in and out of LA doors. Genius.)
I often think exactly that about the royal family — they’re just like us. Egotistical, sleepy and impatient, they yell at pens, argue amongst themselves, occasionally have an urge to throttle their nearest and generally dearest and bicker over who gets the last slice of sponge cake.
I think we can add, in the case of Prince William, kinda petty.
He might be the bigger man than Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex in every tangible, definable sense - taller, much, much wealthier and he owns 134,992 acres more land than his brother - but that largeness does extend to his handling of his vexatious sibling.
This week we learnt that in the tortuous Greek tragedy of the royal family, the Prince of Wales, it sounds like according to two new reports, has been doing some stewing.
It is reportedly William who is “preventing” Harry from truly making up with King Charles, a scene which I’m imagining would involve the two men having their first adult hug. (This, of course, would be conducted under the watchful eyes of a wary Queen Camilla and a trained mediator and reiki master the duke had flown in especially.)
And it is reportedly William, or at least his presence, that will mean that Harry will miss out on one of his oldest friend’s weddings next month.
Let’s start our tale of woe with Petronella Wyatt, who might sound like a Jilly Cooper character but is in fact a well-known UK columnist. (Wyatt infamously had a four-year affair with contrived Womble Boris Johnson when he was married to his second wife. He’s now onto his third.)
Wyatt wrote in her Telegraph column this week that she had spoken “to a former palace official who used to work for both princes” whose assessment of the current state of play is hardly flattering for prince numero uno.
“There is a public misconception about William and Harry,” the official told Wyatt. “It is William who was often the difficult one, and it is William who is preventing his father from having a proper reconciliation with Harry.”
Recent events back this up. The King at least has been making vague gestures towards Harry. This year, Charles and Harry actually met, albeit for 30 minutes, after the duke made a dash from LA to London when it was revealed that His Majesty has cancer. Then on
Wednesday the Telegraph confirmed that the King had offered his younger son a place to stay when he was in London earlier this month. (The duke turned it down out of security concerns.)
The Prince of Wales, by all accounts, is about as keen on renewing contact with his brother as Camilla would be on going on a booze-free gong retreat in the Malibu hinterland.
Or as one of the prince’s friends told The Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes late last year, “He absolutely f**king hates him”.
Succinctly put indeed.
The Prince of Wales, as far as is known, has not privately seen his brother in any real way since Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021 when the brothers, along with Charles, had a confab which ultimately wound up all over the pages in Harry’s roman-a-tone-deaf Spare.
But, the William interventions don’t stop there.
Next month, the Tatler-reading 20-something female population of Chelsea will sob into their pashminas when the UK’s most eligible bachelor, Hugh Grosvenor, the 33-year-old billionaire Duke of Westminster, will marry Olivia Henson. (Kudos to Henson for choosing the sort of flowy drawstring lounging pants you and I would wear to slump on the sofa to watch Bridgerton for her engagement photo.)
Gird your loins for the phrase ‘wedding of the year’ to be chucked around non-bloody-stop, out of equal parts glee abandon and lazy journalism. Still, this will be a big deal, with thousands of people expected to line the streets around Chester Cathedral to catch a glimpse of the happy couple and nearby shops, cafés and restaurants to be closed on the day for security. (Never fear, the duke will be compensating these businesses.)
The duke, or Hughie to his chums, has grown up with both William and Harry and is reportedly one of the “closest friends” of the royal family. King Charles is his godfather and he had an official role in the coronation. Moreover, he is reportedly on such bosomy terms with both William and Harry that he is godfather to Prince George and Prince Archie.
Despite all of this male pattern bonding though, when His Grace stands at the front of the Cathedral and nervously awaits his Philipa Lepeley-clapd bride, I’m guessing, only one prince will be by his side in full morning suit.
This week the Times’ confirmed that William will serve as an usher at the wedding while Harry and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex will be several time zones away in California.
According to the Times, the Sussexes received a save-the-date for the wedding however ultimately decided they would not come as it would be “too awkward”. (Though a heartfelt hand calligraphed poem written by Meghan rhyming “heart” and “ dart” is no doubt winging its own way to the Westminsters’ ancestral Eaton Hall. The happy couple, you see, are not doing presents.)
Previously, the Times has reported that while Hughie “had wanted the Sussexes to attend his wedding” he had “later decided against it, conscious that the ongoing rift between
William and Harry risked overshadowing the day” while Page Six has said that the decision for the Sussexes to skip the event was Harry’s.
Whether the Duke of Sussex voluntarily skipped the wedding or the Duke of Westminster made the choice for him out of deference to the Prince of Wales’ feelings, either way, William could have stepped in, put on his adult britches, and done the mature thing and the right thing by his friend.
Close your eyes and imagine this. The Prince of Wales gets on the phone to the duke. There is some talk about horse flesh and the weather. The Prince clears his throat and gets to the point, saying something like, ‘It’s your wedding, you should have whoever you want and there. Just make sure you seat him behind a large flower arrangement where I don’t have to see him’.
There is a vast difference between forgiving or living or even talking to Harry and this scenario.
Of Wyatt’s “preventing” revelation and this wedding stuff, none of this reflects particularly well on William. He is meant to be the big brother and as the next King and therefore symbolically a bigger man who stands for something noble and benevolent. Instead it sounds like he has been going through family photo albums with a black texta drawing moustaches and horns on all the shots featuring a japing younger Harry.
Or to put it another way, grow up Your Highness.
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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