Prince Harry failed, just as his father did

National Post, 08 March 2021

Meghan had no idea what she was getting into and Harry was too clueless or too careless to do anything about it.

“I am so proud of us,” Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, told Oprah Winfrey. Indeed he is.

He and the Duchess gave themselves top marks on decamping from royal life to their new mansion in Montecito, Calif., just down the street from Oprah herself. “We did everything right,” they generously allowed. Everyone else — the Queen diplomatically excluded — did everything wrong.

If Harry whinges as much in private as he did to Oprah — even her credulity with his woe-is-me routine began to wane — it is no mystery why the Queen was quick to let him go, Prince Charles stopped taking his calls and Prince William prefers minimal contact.

Harry has plenty of “compassion” for the royals though, given that they are “trapped” and “only know what they know,” or, as Meghan added, “what they are told.” Should Prince Philip, 99 and in hospital, get a chance to watch, he might pick up some insights that eluded him over 73 years of royal life.

The brave path of an estranged royal is getting rather well-trod. After his abdication as Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor sought to cash in with some light celebrity editorial work, just as Harry and Meghan have signed on to Netflix and Spotify. To Oprah, the Sussexes professed themselves utterly flabbergasted that, after moving to Hollywood, some of their friends suggested they might get into show business.

The big interview trashing “the firm,” as royals often refer to the family, is also getting a bit long in the tooth. It has been 25 years since Oprah lent her platform to Sarah Ferguson, and since Princess Diana did the same on the BBC. Buckingham Palace came in then, as now, for a thoroughgoing thrashing, starting this time with Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, who apparently made the Duchess of Sussex cry. Meghan wants everyone to know that, but not to “disparage” her. After all, Meghan has “forgiven” her. Imagine what she would have said if she hadn’t.

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