Suddenly, the timing of Prince Harry‘s secret ‘peace summit’ last week seems more strategic than first billed.
Only a few days after that remarkable meeting between the King’s communications secretary and two representatives from the ‘Sussex Household’, Harry has now landed in Africa for a solo charity trip, surely designed to improve his public image.
Today, the prince walked along a cleared path on a landmine site for the Halo Trust – the same route his late mother, Princess Diana, took 28 years ago in Angola for the same British NGO.
The pictures that emerged today of Harry were clearly part of a carefully planned campaign by Team Sussex to emphasise to the world that he is Diana’s son, and shares her bravery and compassion as well as her eye for a good photo opportunity.
Friends say Harry is desperate to distance himself from the image of the ‘bitter prince’ that has defined him since Megxit – and is willing to do whatever it takes to move on, even if it means briefly leaving Meghan behind for important publicity tours.
Indeed, he travelled to Africa, which he has previously described as his ‘home away from home’, without Meghan – whom it has been said, hoped that she might be thought of as a new Diana when she married Harry in 2018.
This event has been months in the planning, and it was Harry himself who ruled out Meghan’s attendance on the landmine walk from the start.
In a flak jacket and face shield, Princess Diana walks along a cleared path on a landmine site in Angola for the Halo Trust in 1997, raising global awareness about the dangers of landmines and contributing to the signing of the Ottawa Treaty banning their use
The prince walking in his mother’s footsteps through a minefield in Angola
‘Harry didn’t want Meghan there,’ according to sources in Angola. This decision was motivated partly by concerns over her safety, but also by a belief that the Halo Charity is his ‘thing’ and, the source adds, ‘he wants to keep it that way’.
After all, Meghan could hardly resist the opportunity to be snapped by photographs walking literally in Diana’s footsteps in a flak jacket and face shield – her prince by her side.
Apart from anything else, the images would no doubt have been a welcome publicity boost for her new business venture, As Ever.
Until now, Harry has remained doggedly loyal to his wife, but his old friends tell me they believe he has finally realised what the world has known for years: that if he wants to reconcile with the Royal Family, he must be willing to stand alone.
After all, several events Meghan has been involved in ended up being PR disasters – including in Africa.
An awkward moment at a polo match last year, which saw Meghan seemingly direct Dr Chandauka (right), the chairwoman of Harry’s charity Sentebale, to move away from the prince
There was Meghan’s awkward exchange at a polo match last year with the chairwoman of Sentebale, the charity Harry founded in 2006 in honour of his mother to help young people in southern Africa living with HIV. Within months, Harry had announced his shock resignation due to ‘unthinkable infighting’, amid widespread damaging media coverage.
The Invictus Games, his treasured sporting event for disabled veterans, was also mired in controversy when Meghan got involved in February this year.
Not only were there multiple costume changes involving expensive designer outfits, but unedifying pictures worthy of Marie Antoinette of Meghan waving to disabled veterans while being driven in a golf cart.
Such publicity only served to distract attention from the very people Harry’s charities aimed to serve.
Harry may, of course, blame the Press for the so-called ‘media circus’ that surrounds Meghan, which is why he banned the British media from attending his Halo walk.
But some might reasonably suggest that her absence is a tacit admission that she might be the problem.
I am told the prince now wants to ‘own’ his projects – or at least the ones he has left.
Insiders say that, after the torrid Sentebale saga, he is determined to ensure that such a situation never arises again.
Not with Invictus, not with his other UK charity Well Child – and certainly not with Halo, which will forever be associated with his beloved late mother.
