It’s fascinating to watch Buckingham Palace selectively lash out at Prince Harry. Currently, the palace is on a rather unhinged campaign against Harry because Harry spoke to ITV’s Tabloids on Trial documentary. Harry spoke about his lawsuits against the British tabloids, his unique position to seek justice on the British media’s decades of criminality, and he also spoke about the very real danger he and his family face in the UK, given RAVEC’s refusal to give them security when they’re in the UK. Harry said, in the documentary, that he “won’t bring my wife back to the UK because of the danger.” THAT is the part the palace has latched onto for several days, as they try to position King Charles as a sad grandfather who is being denied a relationship with Archie and Lili. As I said yesterday, this campaign from Charles is falling flat, but of course “sources” are telling the Daily Beast that what Harry is doing is “beyond contempt.” Some highlights:
Charles thinks Harry is trying to blackmail him: One friend of the king told The Daily Beast: “Harry has lost his security case in court, and is now trying the emotional blackmail route to get what he wants instead, cynically using the threat of Archie and Lilibet never meeting their grandfather again as a tactic to coerce the king into overruling RAVEC. The idea that the security forces are going to allow the Sussexes to be attacked by an acid-throwing or knife-wielding maniac on British soil is absurd, and Harry knows it. Using it as leverage, as a reason to withhold his kids from their grandfather, is beyond contempt. Charles is being treated for very serious cancer, so even if he could find the time, he cannot just fly to Los Angeles at the drop of a hat, like Harry can—and actually did earlier this year—in the other direction.”
The Sussex kids are being denied a relationship with Charles! The source, an old family friend of several generations of royals, added: “I wonder, when they are older, how those kids will feel about being denied a meaningful relationship with the King of England. To deprive them of that experience, with all its importance and heritage, seems very misguided. Of course he wants to see them, but if you force Charles to choose between his duty to the Crown and his personal feelings, he will choose the Crown every time—just as his mother did.”
Harry is threatening Charles! Another friend, a contemporary of the William and Harry generation of royals who used to be friendly with both brothers but is now loyal to William said: “When Harry was being kicked out of Frogmore Cottage, one of his lines was that Charles would never see the kids again. This is him going public with that threat.” When it was pointed out to the source that Harry didn’t mention his children in the TV interview, they replied, “It was clearly implied. This really isn’t about Meghan, who has no intention of ever coming back to England again.”
Sources close to Prince Harry: However, the source close to Harry told The Daily Beast: “Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life. He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats. While his role within the institution has changed, his profile as a member of the royal family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex personally fund a private security team for their family, yet that security cannot replicate the necessary police protection whilst in the U.K. The Duke remains willing to cover the cost of security, as not to impose on the British taxpayer. As is widely known, others who have left public office and have inherent threat risk receive police protection at no cost to them. The goal for Prince Harry has been simple—to ensure the safety of himself and his family while in the UK so his children can know his home country.”
This is accurate: Another source, a Palace insider, told The Daily Beast: “The whole affair is totally fascinating. I think Harry needs to ask himself why Charles hasn’t overruled RAVEC, which, for all the insistence that he couldn’t, he could, being the king and all. It’s because the last thing the Palace want is Harry and Meghan turning up unannounced on a regular basis or setting up a rival royal court in the U.K. As things stand now, they have to give 28 days notice when they are coming and essentially need to pre-agree with the cops where they are going to be, or might be, at all times. That suits the Palace down to the ground.”
“I think Harry needs to ask himself why Charles hasn’t overruled RAVEC, which, for all the insistence that he couldn’t, he could, being the king and all.” Harry has already asked himself that question and he’s formulated his statements accordingly. Harry knows his dogsh-t father doesn’t give a f–k about him, his wife or his kids. Harry knows that the palace’s current hissy fit is about Harry constantly exposing his father as a cruel, petty and vindictive man. Harry also knows that the dumbass argument of “Harry is keeping his kids away from Charles” is a convenient feint for the larger issues discussed in Tabloids on Trial, which is the complicity of the Windsors in the larger story of press misconduct and criminality.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, ITV.