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A harsh light was shone on the bitter tensions that still exist between Prince Harry and the royal institution Tuesday morning after Harry’s office told reporters that the couple had been “surprised” by an announcement from the King a day prior restating that they are not working royals.
The decision by the Sussexes to go public will be seen as an aggressive piece of cage-rattling, and one that appears calculated to cast doubt on the Palace’s claim that the couple had been fully apprised that the letter was going out.
A source close to Harry told The Royalist that the “surprise” related only to the decision to send the letter and its timing—not to its contents. The source pointed out that it has been clear for many years that Harry is not a working royal, and that he has consistently said he doesn’t want to be one.
Furthermore, the offending statement from the King was actually incredibly vanilla. It didn’t say anything we didn’t already know; there has been absolutely no change to the situation. It has nonetheless gone down brilliantly in the loyal British press, where the front pages are all about the “King of Steel.”
Still, to say the King should not have said anything seems ridiculous, and to say he should only have spoken after consulting Harry seems jolly presumptuous, given all the negative things the Sussexes have said about the royal family over the years without consulting them.
What is extraordinary about this is that Harry and Meghan felt it necessary, after weeks of official silence since they returned home, to make, as their first on-the-record statement, remarks making clear they were not happy with what the King said. Criticizing the King’s communications with the government, with heads of state, with his counties, is a punchy move. If part of the goal of coming back is to soothe relations with Pa, this seems an odd way of going about it.
That Harry could be so easily shaken by a toothless letter will suggest to many that his resentment towards the royal establishment lingers not far from the surface, despite attempts to say he has moved on and is in a different place.
The affair also shows the complete lack of trust between the two sides. This is still a fractured and tense relationship. What you are seeing from Harry is him leaping on an example of the Palace treating him and Meghan unjustly and disrespectfully, and highlighting it. He has reacted to a tiny provocation with a familiar emotional outburst.
The King really did have to say something, though his letter was more notable for what it did not say: that Harry and Meghan are never going to be given back official roles. That is the question, isn’t it? We all know they are not currently working royals. The fear people have is that they will be snuck back in by the back door.
The letter left the door open to that future because it did not remove the HRHs by fiat. They remain in abeyance, which means they must not be used. But we know Meghan has been using hers, because we saw the message to Jamie Kern Lima. It is all very well for Harry’s side to say, as they did at the time, that the Sandringham arrangement was only that the titles couldn’t be used publicly or in a commercial context, but that was not the arrangement. The text of the Sandringham statement said they would not be used. Meghan, by using them, is flouting that.
It is also a fascinating flash-forward to just how difficult the next few months are going to be. If a simple nothing-burger letter, the content of which everybody agrees says nothing has changed, can turn into this level of drama, this re-entry process is going to be extremely fractious.
Charles has made a rod for his back by welcoming the Sussexes home, while disregarding everything they have said over the past six years: personal insults directed at him, personal insults directed at Camilla, insults directed at the crown, allegations of racism, bigotry and cruelty. It is astonishing when you look at it all, and at the enormous amount of money they made from it, thought by many to be well over the $60 or $70 million mark between the film and the books. They have gotten away with it.
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