Last night the uneasy public truce between Prince Harry and the Royal Family was spectacularly shattered.
And it is hard to see, whatever words the Duke of Sussex might half-heartedly offer about ‘truth and reconciliation’, how they can ever go back.
As Buckingham Palace digested his frankly extraordinary – and at times, some might think, increasingly disturbed – series of broadsides, one disgusted former royal aide remarked simply: ‘Gaslighting’.
Harry, of course, has spent the past five years convincing an at times highly sympathetic public that he and his wife, Meghan, were the victims of a catalogue of emotional abuse at the hands of his nearest, and not so dearest.
Now half a decade, several hundred thousand pounds of taxpayers money and countless interviews later, an increasingly weary public is clearly starting to feel that, perhaps, the boot may be on the other foot.
Interestingly some former members of the institution have, with admirable openness, admitted to me of late that with the quiet benefit of hindsight the whole Harry and Meghan ‘issue’ could probably have been handled better.
‘They were clearly a tricky couple who wanted out and maybe the institution could have found a better way to facilitate it before things went nuclear,’ said one.
Indeed another says that while they completely disagreed with much of what he wrote in his memoir, Spare, they also, interestingly, defend his right to say it.
‘Harry’s decision to fight his father’s government in the very courts that dispense justice in the monarch’s name has been more than a financial and PR disaster for the prince,’ writes Rebecca English
‘At the end of the day it’s his ‘truth’. And when it comes to recalling his childhood, as he sees it, he has every right to say what he experienced,’ they say.
‘I still maintain for the sake of the family – his family – he should never have written that bloody book, but I also can’t entirely disagree with his decision to do so either.’ But even those more sympathetic to his cause believe his latest legal battle and, in particular, last night’s extraordinary BBC meltdown have crossed a line.
Harry’s decision to fight his father’s government in the very courts that dispense justice in the monarch’s name has been more than a financial and PR disaster for the prince.
It has proved to be a personal catastrophe that has driven more of a wedge between himself and Charles than any back-stabbing memoir or tell-all television series.
The monarch, I am told, has, effectively, been ‘too fearful’ of speaking to his son for the past three years in case anything he said was used as part of Harry’s case, thereby sparking a constitutional crisis.
Charles has also found it particularly hurtful that sources close to the prince have gone so far as to suggest he could get to see his grandchildren again if only he were to step in and reinstate the family’s full-time security detail in the UK.
If that were to happen it would be ‘swords down’ was, in fact, the rather repugnant phrase used.
While the King would never accuse a family member of ’emotional blackmail’, many might think it certainly sounds like it.
Charles with Harry at St George’s Chapel in 2022. Short of Charles making a private trip to the US, the King may never see his two youngest grandchildren Archie and Lilibet again
Now Harry has doubled down in person, making clear he believes it is ‘impossible’ for him to bring his family back to the UK ‘safely’ unless his security is comprehensively reviewed – and effectively accusing those involved in the decision-making process, which includes the royal household, of wanting ‘history to repeat itself’.
The latter a clear and troubling reference to the death of his late mother.
King Charles may not have been a perfect parent. But he will always love his son and I understand it’s a matter of personal sadness that he
has seen his grandchildren, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, barely twice since they were born.
‘As this case has dragged on it has become increasingly tricky for the King to have any kind of relationship with his son, particularly given how often information seems to trickle out [from the Sussex side],’ a source tells me.
The question, of course, now is where do father and son go from here?
Harry has quite clearly boxed himself into a corner by dramatically arguing that his life is ‘at stake’ and he does not feel it is safe to bring his wife and family to the UK under the current ‘bespoke’ policing arrangements he is entitled to here.
If he sticks to this line – and clearly he will given his latest comments and his three-and-half-year legal fight – it means that Harry will indeed never be able to bring his children back to Britain let alone start to repair the family relationships that his and Meghan’s acrimonious departure shattered.
And he is certainly not going to get the apology from his family that he has always said he believes he deserves.
‘What on earth do they have to apologise for?’ one angry insider splutters.
Short of Charles making a private trip to the US – which is unlikely to ever happen given his health and punishing workload – the stark truth is that the King may never see his two youngest grandchildren again.
Harry’s only option would be to offer an awkward olive branch and return for a major family event (just as he did for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the only time Lilibet, who was born in California, has met her grandfather).
They would almost certainly be entitled to round-the-clock police protection and given an official royal residence to stay in on an occasion such as this.
But from what I hear – informally – the family are past even that.
Too much has been said and done now for them to ever forgive and forget.
