To feel sad for Prince Harry

[OldManRivers]

Have been looking at the photos today of Harry in the car being driven from the airport in America back to his home. He looks so sad. It must be very difficult for him to attend a huge family occasion like that with his role drastically changed, and to see all of his family but now he's on the sidelines popping in so very sporadically.

Also I can't help but think he must feel sad to think his children won't grow up around their cousins, and extended family. Meghan doesn't have any family except her mother so they don't have any in America either.

Originally he and Meghan wanted to carry on being part of the royal machine and do appearances etc but also have some independence so it's not as though this life was their original plan, where it seems like they're sidelined and alienated. AIBU to think regardless of what's gone on it must be very hard for him to be in another country, away from his ailing grandmother who he is very close to, and feel like a bit of an outcast?

I suspect that it is financially and reputationally v important for the RF to present the beginning of a thaw as well.

It doesn’t help their “brand” to be tarnished further - they have enough to shoulder with Prince Andrew.

I don't believe the thaw extends to William and Catherine, and to a lesser extent Charles and Camilla.

My best guess: Once the Queen sadly passes away the RF will close ranks and we won't see them together for any family occasions apart from the odd funeral. Harry has always disliked Camilla intensely, Charles was attacked many times by Harry for his parenting, and we can be pretty sure William's position will not change any time soon if this weekend was anything to go by. By all accounts the children didn't even meet each other. And then there is the book...

Yes it seems that there is no thaw there for W and H. That’s a shame for all of their young children not to have enriching cousin relationships and also aunt / uncles.

Sibling estrangements are often more difficult to reconcile than parent / child.

Harry seems to be more vocal about rebuilding with HMQ in his previous interviews than with PC although they at least have met face to face.

These things take time. I hope they all find their peace and path.

I am not buying the lonely prince living in another country full of regrets - many people emigrate for various reasons and it all works out. His emotional loneliness (if that’s what’s going on) would be just a palpable and traumatic (maybe even more so) if he was still living in Frogmore.

I see a two boys deeply wounded in childhood by having to live a royal life, an acrimonious and very public family breakdown, the sudden death of their young mother, press intrusion and likely very little emotional healing professionally if they then went off to boarding school and their Dad was not capable of giving enough support.

I think William may have had a better outcome by being immersed in the seemingly solid and low key Middleton family from his teenage years - an opportunity of normality, healing and emotional stability that Harry didn’t have.

I assumed that any meeting would have taken place in Windsor castle in private, not that HM would have turned up at a “backyard picnic” with a photographer friend from some PR outfit or other unknown guests present. I don’t know that for sure obviously but it sounds vanishingly unlikely.

Yes I think that’s most likely - also if she was unwell not to travel back to London to attend St Paul’s, Epsom and The Concert she was probably resting up in Windsor Castle on Saturday rather than attending the actual birthday party. Think I read somewhere (?) that Harry said he was staying in Windsor to watch the The Concert with HMQ on Saturday night which is sweet.

Of course it is true, and is in many other papers this morning as well.

So you admit that either the Royal Family are actively authorising leaks and arranging for the Queen's great-grandchild to have his privacy violated in order smear him, or that someone high-up in the Royal Family is calling up the tabloid press to leak nasty stories and betray details about private conversations that took place at Royal children's birthday parties?

One makes them look backstabbing and dishonest, the other utterly incompetent. Which is it?

FYI the story has already been denied in the press.

any reconciliation that is happening at the moment is for ulterior motives

Exactly. It's pretty obvious the RF's desperation to get Harry and Meghan back over (otherwise why would they have been invited) has ulterior motives. it's shameful how the RF have used and exploited poor Harry all his life, and are now trying to use and exploit his babies.

The Sussexes have behaved in such an underhand and dishonest way using family misery and difficulties as currency to flog their nasty interviews and slurs, everyone is right to be very cautious around such people.

No it's the Royal Family who have done that, via constantly leaking and conducting smear campaigns against family members for decades, and constantly spying on and leaking private conversations. Vile, untrustworthy family.

The fact that Harry and Meghan have maintained a dignified and discreet silence during the whole Jubilee, have not released a single photo of any other royal, while the RF have been leaking like a sieve and exploited the Queen's Jubilee as a chance to smear Harry (how awful and disrespectful!) proves it's not Harry and Meghan who are the bad guys here.

Spot on.

The kind of emotional loneliness Harry describes will be present wherever he lives. I never thought the harsh glare of the Hollywood lights would be the best place for him to heal and recover from his childhood trauma though, where you have to stay 'on' all of the time and privacy becomes another issue. The wilds of Africa would have suited him better, a life of actually serving people considerably worse off than he is, using his wonderful connection to others and riding horses and feeling free. I can see that would have been truly liberating for someone like Harry. Instead it seems he has traded one PR stunt and set up for another. Feeling rootless may compound the loneliness and the sinking feeling of having lost everything, all of his UK anchors were gone overn night. It is always a risk with a whole sale move like that.

Despite not having the Middleton stability he did have a great many trusted old friends and had a great relationship with Prince Phillip. He had a much stronger network here than in the US where no doubt he is surrounded by paid support but not the kind that can help you with your actual feelings.

The RF were not perfect, no family is, but Harry was deeply loved and accepted within the family fold. On some level he must miss that feeling of belonging. I have lived overseas for many years, and it never really feels like 'home' no matter how much you pretend it does, no matter how lovely it is. It is possible to enjoy a life elsewhere, and perhaps he will now. I haven't seen much evidence of happiness in his face, but maybe the future will get better for them. I suspect a hard slog is ahead to try and keep afloat financially and resentment is going to be a factor too. At some point. The balance of power is out of kilter, and remains so.

Do you think HMQ is authorising the 24/7 smear campaign against her own grandson?

How are the RF exploiting Harry’s babies - if they were not included in any of the celebrations and they supposedly refused photos?

How are the RF exploiting Harry’s babies - if they were not included in any of the celebrations and they supposedly refused photos?

Leaking stories about events that allegedly happened at a one year old baby's birthday party in order to smear her parents, and trying to turn a beautiful sweet nice normal thing (an extremely elderly woman meeting her great-great-grandchild) into a scandal is pretty exploitative.

That poor, poor baby. Her birthday party is being exploited and turned into a scandal.

The RF / courtiers should follow Harry and Meghan's example and keep a discreet and dignified silence, rather than running to the media every two seconds to leak things.

HMQ and the rest of the senior Royals had an extremely busy weekend. Why didn't Harry stay a bit longer to see Williams kids when the weekend was over?

I never thought the harsh glare of the Hollywood lights would be the best place for him to heal

You do realise the part of California where Harry and Meghan live is a good 90 miles away from Hollywood, right?

They live nowhere near Los Angles.

Do British people really not realise that California is a big state?

Surely HMQ has the final say - and can investigate and sack any leaks?

I am not buying that these constant “leaks” are from random courtiers off their own bat.

Are you saying that HMQ has zero control around who is present in her own home and can’t find out the source of these “leaks”?

What benefit to the RF is it to smear their elderly Queen meeting her DGGD?

You may not realise that 'Hollywood lights' is often used as a description of people chasing fame and fortune in the states, not an actual central place! jemima They are clearly, very clearly not living a life in splendid isolation are they! They very clearly do not care for privacy and are now available to the highest bidder - very different from what they said...

Then why did you refer to Hollywood as "a place" that you believe Harry is now living? Posters make reference to Harry and Meghan "living in Hollywood" or "living in LA" all the time, when they factually do not.

They very clearly do not care for privacy and are now available to the highest bidder - very different from what they said...

Yet factually they are the ones who have maintained an almost complete dignified silence over the entire Jubilee while the royals leak, leak, leak.

Odd. I assumed the refusal to allow a photographer was information that had been sadly and reluctantly released into the ether by someone trying to make the Royal Family look like a big bunch of meanies. Easy to read in either direction, I suppose.

Mike Tindall said in a podcast that they had a meet up last Thursday for lunch with the cousins , but H and M were not invited.

Mike Tindall said in a podcast that they had a meet up last Thursday for lunch with the cousins , but H and M were not invited.

Goodness me, why can't any of these people stop blabbing to the press all the time!

Of course there won't be any outrage of pearl-clutching tabloid headlines over Mike Tindall yet again exploiting his royal connections and spreading gossip to get attention.

I've re read it ( daily Mail online) and it says ' they didn't attend' which reads to me as ' not invited'. They might have been and declined , but who knows! It must be hard being snubbed though or thinking your not wanted there really : we've all had this done to us at some stage I suppose , that's life, but still difficult

Exactly. It's pretty obvious the RF's desperation to get Harry and Meghan back over (otherwise why would they have been invited) has ulterior motives. it's shameful how the RF have used and exploited poor Harry all his life, and are now trying to use and exploit his babies.

Really? I assumed that H and M were invited probably by the Queen personally and that other members of the family either couldn't give a toss whether or not he was there or saw it as an opportunity for a bit of a catch up (like me and my cousins - we don't see a lot of each other and always say at funerals that we should see each other more and then don't get round to it) or they're in touch anyway so this was no big deal. I would imagine that BP were more worried about M and H being a distraction from the Queen's Jubilee so there's probably relief all round that they weren't.

Stories about the photographer seem a bit pathetic to me. Surely both the Queen and M and H would want that occasion to stay private. The pic of Lilibet was sweet, pics of her with the Queen are unnecessary (IMO) unless they're official like that one of the Queen with her grandchildren from a couple of years ago.

Anyway, I think maybe PH would feel a bit sad if he saw all the kids interacting knowing that Archie and Lilibet won't have that but it is his decision to bring them up in another country so he has to accept the consequences of that.

Jemima We can expect another interview I imagine - it won't come with leaks, they will save up the dirt and dish it to Oprah of course, or as part of the planned PR stunt to launch the book. Why leak when you can make money in due course.

Ah yes, that old chestnut: let's attack them for things they haven't actually done yet, but might do in the future.

Meghan's done one single interview. The RF leak non-stop for decades. Weird how she's held to such different standards to them.

People have spent two full years banging on endlessly about how they're definitely definitely going to do a reality show and everything they do is definitely being secretly filmed for said reality show.

Well it's two years later, where's this reality show then? How many more years do we have to wait, hmm?

jemima They have very publicly announced a bare all explosive book! It comes out this autumn, or did you miss the memo?

The reality show is being filmed right now! It was inside their house 10 days ago. You don't seem to know very much about them! 😂

No, I don't obsessively follow their every movement like the people who are fixated on hating them do. I personally find it extremely weird to obsessively monitor someone you hate, especially when you've never even met them.

Please provide a reliable source quoting Harry personally (or Harry's own official spokesperson) that his memoir will be "an explosive tell-all"?

And please provide a reliable source quoting Harry or Meghan directly (or an official spokesperson for either them or Netflix) that they are filming a reality show?

I googled just now and got nothing but a lot of tabloid rumours, as well as statements that both Netflix and Harry and Meghan have not confirmed anything.

Or can you not tell the difference between an official first hand statement, and gossip in a tabloid?