What a shameless hypocrite Prince Harry is. Having just arrived in the UK for his ‘pseudo royal’ tour, his first stop after being whisked through customs was to pay private homage to his beloved ‘Granny’ at her grave.
Harry was snapped heading for Windsor Castle where, we were told, he laid a wreath and flowers on the late Queen’s grave – in the King George VI Memorial Chapel – and spent 20 minutes there in solitude.
How could he have done so, after all the damage and pain he caused her and the Monarchy in her final years?
Let’s hope he was on his knees begging for forgiveness after the cruel and calculating way he and Meghan traduced the Royal Family for the Sussex’s ill–gotten millions. He and Meghan turned what should have been the happy twilight of the Queen’s reign into one marked by false slurs – including that appalling suggestion of racism – controversy and occasionally unmitigated misery for the monarch.
Not least with their claim that the late Queen had approved them naming their daughter Lilibet – behaviour which, as my colleague, royal biographer Robert Hardman, says in his book on King Charles, infuriated the late Queen.
‘One [member of palace staff] privately recalled that Elizabeth II had been “as angry as I’d ever seen her” in 2021 after the Sussexes announced that she had given them her blessing to call their baby daughter Lilibet, the queen’s childhood nickname,’ he wrote.
The Queen is reported to have said sadly that her nickname Lilibet was the only thing she truly owned for herself and she had been denied even that.
Prince Harry and William standing apart at the unveiling of a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, at The Sunken Garden in Kensington Palace in 2021
Charles and Harry at St George’s Chapel in 2022. Amanda Platell writes: ‘Harry can play the victim again as it remains uncertain if even his own father King Charles will meet him’
Princes William and Harry with the then–Prince of Wales at the Invictus Games in 2014
Ahead of Harry’s four-day trip it had been briefed, who knows by who, that it was pure coincidence that his arrival aligned with the third anniversary of the Queen’s death.
Forgive the cynicism but, given his form, I’d say that’s utter tosh.
Harry and his scheming wife Meghan always have an eye for a headline and must have known of the anniversary as well as the potential publicity garnered by the solitary Prince being in the Chapel. A timely reminder to everyone perhaps that he is fifth in line to the throne, given that his royal status is the Sussexes’ only currency for making money.
They probably also had a good inkling that his brother William would also be honouring their grandmother’s death on that day, so there was an opportunity to upstage him.
Which Harry did by visiting poorly children, reinforcing the impression that he is the real heir to Diana, the Prince of People’s Hearts. Pass the sickbag.
Meanwhile, William and Katherine joined the ladies of the Women’s Institute, an organisation of which the late Queen was proudly not just as patron but also a member for 80 years.
At least we should be grateful he didn’t have his Netflix crew in tow. Or were they hiding in the bushes? Maybe he took a few photos himself inside the chapel mourning for his next hateful series on the Royals.
Added to which he can play the victim again as it remains uncertain if even his own father King Charles will meet him – more poor Harry.
Prince Harry visited the late Queen’s grave moments after touching down as he returned to Britain for the first time in five months. He is pictured arriving at Windsor Castle
‘Harry is reinforcing the impression that he is the real heir to Diana, the Prince of People’s Hearts,’ says Amanda Platell. Harry and William are pictured with Charles and Princess Diana in 1988
In May 2018, the Royal Family paid for their £32million wedding and the nation celebrated
It’s a wonder he doesn’t suffocate in his own self–pity, even though he was the prodigal son who sold out his own family.
The reasons Harry should be begging for forgiveness date back to November 2017 when he and Meghan got engaged. Despite Her Majesty welcoming her warmly, even enlisting Samantha Cohen as a trusted personal advisor, but Meghan threw the offer back in her face, saying: ‘I don’t need that, I’ve got Harry.’
The timeline thereafter is pretty devastating. In May 2018, the Royal Family paid for their £32million wedding and the nation celebrated, although Meghan later recalled that the horrid uncaring royals drove her to thoughts of suicide.
The ink on their wedding certificate had hardly dried before January 2020 when the Sussexes announced they were stepping back as senior working members of the Royal Family to pursue their own money–making careers.
In June of that year they decamped to California.
Barely a year later, in March 2021 they gave the excoriating Oprah Winfrey interview. Such was the standing of the Royal Family after Harry and Meghan had put them through the mincer, some even feared for its very survival.
And that was before the March 2022 $100million (£75million) deal struck with Netflix for the Harry & Meghan documentary which was so calculatingly cruel about the royals it became the streaming giant’s second most–viewed documentary.
At least her late Majesty, who died in September 2022, never had to witness the show and its fall-out.
Nor was she around in January the following year for Harry’s unforgiving memoir Spare, for which he was given a $20million (£17million) advance.
But she was around for far too much of Harry’s and Meghan’s egregious behaviour.
After the death of her beloved Prince Phillip, the late Queen should have been allowed to live out her selfless reign for 70 years and 96 days in peace and dignity.
But those squalid money-grubbers Harry and Meghan put an end to all that. I hope Prince Harry was hanging his head in shame over her final resting place.
