[Image: NARA & DVIDS Public Domain Archive – GetArchive]
By any measure, Prince Harry has behaved badly. In fact, he’s gone full rogue, cast himself out of the royal orbit without anyone needing to push.
If he’s looking for someone to blame, he’ll find no smoking gun but the one in his own hand. His father – ever the open-hearted monarch – would still take him back with a hug and a handshake. Although, when it comes to his brother? Well, good luck with that.
Still, as the rift between Harry and the House of Windsor stretches into something Grand Canyon-esque, could we – dare we – cut the man some slack? Perhaps, just perhaps, the end of Harry’s War is in sight, postulates The Telegraph‘s Alan Cochrane.
Nobody is suggesting a group hug at Balmoral next week. These sorts of family feuds, especially the royal variety, are rarely settled over a cup of tea. But surely the time has come for the volley of passive-aggression and bruised egos to start fading out. Can we get a white flag or two?
Currently, Harry is back in London while King Charles is off in Italy doing, well, king stuff. Even when his loved ones have been begging him to slow down amidst his fight against cancer.
And even though the stars aligned briefly with both of them in the same city, there was no reunion. Not even a brisk wave across a palace courtyard. A sad state of affairs if ever there was one.
But Harry’s calendar seems to be booked solid. His priority seems to not be tea with dad or even a stroll down memory lane, but his ongoing quest for Royal-grade security. The legal fight of the century (well, his century) continues.
And here’s where The Telegraph must pause. Because, for all the PR noise, some of what he said during this week’s Appeal Court hearing felt less like legalese and more like a cry from the heart. He’s suing the Home Secretary over the Ravec committee’s decision to yank his police protection.
But look again at his words:
“The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the US. That cannot happen if it’s not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil.”
Cue the cynics. They’ll say this is all performative, a legal chess move with no real emotion behind it. Another jab at the Windsors and a ploy to maintain some Royal sheen while living the LA dream.
Plenty are still queuing up to pin the blame on Meghan, as though she single-handedly orchestrated this royal melodrama. But Harry’s words to the court left no doubt about where his loyalty lay:
“I cannot put my wife in danger … and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too.”
Should he lose the case – and that verdict won’t be landing any time soon – he’ll be staring down a hefty legal bill. Not exactly a fun invoice to receive in Montecito. One wonders if this legal gambit is less about winning and more about a man who might, just maybe, be tiring of the performative exile he’s chosen.
Let’s not forget, in the court of public opinion, Harry was once untouchable. The charming scamp. The rogue prince everyone adored. Now? Not so much. He still has a loyal fanbase, mostly among the younger crowd, but there’s no denying the shift. The “King’s party”, if we dare call it that, is winning hearts while Harry’s popularity graph seems stuck in freefall.
Regardless of the court’s ruling, the bitterness and public fallout won’t be forgotten overnight. But, as Churchill once said, let the victors be magnanimous.
It’s time for a royal détente. The Windsor saga doesn’t need another chapter of estrangement. But for peace to have a shot, Harry needs to stop lobbing legal grenades and start showing that he still wants in, most sincerely.
[Source: The Telegraph]
