‘So striking’: 49-second clip destroys major Prince Harry claim
The future King of England has casually shot down his estranged brother in one innocent-looking video of him enjoying a bevo at the pub.
Royals
Don't miss out on the headlines from Royals. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Time was, if you wanted to have a right old natter with a member of the British royal family beyond a perfunctory “and did you come far?” (the late Queen’s go-to line) you had to a) have a ducal title or above, b) own race horses, or c) be a duke who owns racehorses.
(Or maybe d) be a racehorse?)
Now, those Windsors are positively everywhere. Travelling via dignity-defying minibus to see a play on a Tuesday. (Queen Camilla).
At the gym. (Kate, The Princess of Wales).
Behind the tills at a garden centre. (King Charles’ niece Lady Louise Windsor).
In the stands with the lads. (Prince William).
At a school sports game. (Kate).
At a Home Base outlet, the Kensington branch of Smiggle or the self-service aisle of Waitrose. (Kate, Kate and Kate).
Now let us add to that list, down the pub, getting a round in.
In news that would have the perpetually boot-faced Queen Mary positively spinning in her Windsor grave, this week William popped into a Birmingham boozer while he waited for a train and where he bought beers for a group of fellow Aston Villa fans. (He had, it is important for you to know, a cider).
Whatever will that top bloke do next?
What makes the 49-second clip of William happily hanging in a pub so striking is not that the prince really is going all in on his everyman, regular bloke routine, but that it has shown up the latest bit of news about Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex and now-green juice convert.
(The Prince of Kales?)
Harry has reportedly declined an offer to stay at Buckingham Palace when he returns to London later this month, with him having previously cited security concerns for why he would not bunk down at what would have to be one of the world’s most heavily guarded properties.
Later this month, the duke’s lawsuit against News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, over alleged hacking and unlawful information gathering will finally hit the Old Bailey, with him set to spend up to four days on the stand giving evidence. (NGN is owned by the same parent company as News Corp Australia, publisher of this masthead).
And so not only is the British Airways first class cabin about to fill up with rented bodyguards and a man who always brings his own lavender eye mask, but some five star London hotel is about to have to keep restocking one particular minibar with coconut water.
Harry, according to the Mirror, has “turned down” an offer to stay at the Palace.
Come again? I hear you say.
We’ve been here before.
Last May, when the duke returned to the UK for an Invictus Games event, he similarly declined King Charles’ invitation to put him up. How about some nice apartments inside the Palace, son? You know, the place 12 US presidents have seen fit to stay in?
Back then, the duke’s refusal was reportedly due to security concerns. Having been stripped of his official bodyguards post-Megxit, bunking down at the Palace would have, per the Telegraph, meant “staying in a visible location with public entrance and exit points and no police protection”.
However, what makes this year’s Palace rejection even more baffling is that for this trip, the ineffectual Netflix producer will be being looked after (to some degree) by specialist armed police officers, the Mirror reports.
So, let us review. We have a future King who can happily spend half an hour having a jar in a pub that is in a train station that is used by more than 140,000 people a day. The same one-day monarch who, video from the same Birmingham outing shows, could shake hands and meet people with members of the blasé public only metres away.
Prince William says he is "so proud" to become a patron of the College of Paramedics, as he attended its inaugral conference in Birmingham.
— The Royal Family Channel (@RoyalFamilyITNP) January 15, 2025
The Prince of Wales met senior leaders of the College and paramedics from a range of fields, before watching sessions focused on trauma… pic.twitter.com/LYnYwJvENd
And yet, the duke won’t stay at what would have to be one of the most heavily protected addresses in the world? And even when he is being given “limited” official security?
It’s not only William, but Charles too. On Thursday during an engagement in a bit of Scotland I have never heard of before, he ably demonstrated his willingness to hug random strangers willy-nilly.
Just to run the risk of sounding like a bit of a broken record, the King can work a rope line, but his son won’t park his toothbrush in the same place where the Emperor and Empress of Japan stayed last year?
Who knows, maybe the Duke of Sussex said no this time around for some entirely different reason to security. (The substandard thread count of the Palace’s sheets? The lack of a fully kitted-out aromatherapy steam room? Not wanting to run into Prince Andrew when he pops in to leech stationery cupboard pens and to wait for someone to recognise him?)
Still, that issue, of the protection he and wife Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex are afforded in the UK, remains the subject of an ongoing courtroom battle.
In 2021, the father-of-two launched so far unsuccessful legal action over the Home Office’s decision to no longer provide taxpayer funded security for the Sussexes after they quit official royal life, arguing that he felt “unable to return to his home” because it was too dangerous.
“With the lack of police protection comes too great a personal risk,” a legal representative for the Sussexes said in 2022, and that the family had “been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats”.
That same year, Neil Basu, the former head of the UK’s counter terrorism policing, confirmed that “disgusting” and “very real” threats had been made to Meghan’s life on multiple occasions between 2018 and 2021. He also said that he would absolutely understand if the duchess “[felt] under threat all of the time”.
“We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted,” he said.
Given the world’s tilt, if not drunken, delirious lurch to the right, it’s hard to see this situation having improved.
Sigh.
There is one thing I think we can all agree on here though – no matter where Harry stays in London, William will not be standing him a drink.
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
Originally published as ‘So striking’: 49-second clip destroys major Prince Harry claim
‘Sincere apologies’: William forced to cancel engagement
Prince William was forced cancelled a royal outing at short notice, just two days after Princess Catherine announced she was in remission from cancer.
Prince William has ‘big plans’ for two royals
The future King has been looking to the future of his reign – and he’s reportedly got an idea involving two unexpected royals.