Prince Harry’s visit to the United Kingdom descended into a fresh layer of farce on Monday after the errant prince’s team announced he had accepted an offer to stay at Buckingham Palace, only for the palace to intervene minutes later and say the offer had been withdrawn.
Events unfolded rapidly. At 9 a.m. on Monday, Harry’s team told the media, including the BBC, that he had accepted an offer of accommodation at Buckingham Palace. But minutes after the story appeared, the palace said Harry had accepted the invitation too late, and that it had been rescinded. The entire trip is now in a state of chaos.
The palace briefed that Harry had formally declined the offer to stay at Buckingham Palace on Saturday, but subsequently changed his mind and sought to accept it. By then, palace sources said, it was no longer logistically possible for the household to make the necessary arrangements. There was not enough notice, sources said, adding that Harry’s team had “messed them around.”
Adding to the palace’s case is the fact that
The palace is understood to be concerned about a High Court ruling on Harry’s controversial privacy claim against Associated Newspapers, which is due to be handed down on Tuesday. It is feared that Harry would embark on a victory lap using the palace as a backdrop if he wins.
The king studiously tries to avoid any perception of intervening in legal cases. As head of state, he sits at the apex of the justice system, making any involvement constitutionally awkward.
The debacle follows days of confusion. A week ago, Harry’s team said that Harry, Meghan, and the children were definitively coming to the U.K.
The following day, they said Meghan and the children would not be coming, at least for the first part of the trip, but might join for later portions.
On Monday, Harry’s spokesperson said that the latest developments did not preclude Meghan and the children from joining Harry later in his trip, which was originally expected to last as long as two weeks.
Buckingham Palace is understood to be incredibly annoyed by the briefing and counter-briefing, the transformation of the visit into a rolling drama, and what some in the palace perceived as the use of the children (and the prospect of the king seeing his grandchildren) as emotional leverage.
At the heart of Monday’s chaos appears to be a basic bureaucratic failure: Harry’s team told newspapers and media outlets that he intended to stay at a royal residence, but never formally accepted the invitation, an astonishing oversight that speaks to how threadbare his operation has become.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry said: “We are aware of multiple briefings from the palace last week suggesting that the Duke could not accept the offer of accommodation at a royal residence. Following RAVEC’s decision not to provide security for his family, the Duke spent last week making alternative security arrangements. Once those arrangements were in place, he was able to formally accept the offer of accommodation for himself over the weekend. It is therefore disappointing that the offer has now been withdrawn, with Tuesday’s judgment in the Associated Newspapers Limited case cited as the reason. Buckingham Palace has been aware of that judgment since last Thursday. It is therefore unclear why, having accepted the accommodation offer, it has now been withdrawn at the last moment.”
Buckingham Palace maintains that the offer was, in fact, declined by Harry on Saturday morning and only belatedly accepted afterward, by which point it was logistically too late to accommodate him. Remarkably, when the Daily Beast asked if this was the case, sources in Harry’s camp suggested the arrangements were being made directly by Harry himself, another sign of how chaotic the relationship between the two offices has become, and how damaged Harry has been by the debacle.
The mess is doing enormous damage to the reputation of the Invictus Games, Harry’s flagship charity, which he is traveling to the U.K. to promote at a one-year-to-go event on Friday. What was intended as a positive occasion has been overshadowed entirely.
Harry is due to arrive within hours. His team have said that he is still coming.
One thing worth noting, however, is that palace sources are still briefing that accommodation at a royal residence would be offered to Harry and his family for any future visits to the U.K. The palace is keeping the door open.
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