Charles was officially proclaimed king on Saturday, but the picture of the day was different for the British media: the quarreling brothers William and Harry and their wives Kate and Meghan stroll down the driveway to Windsor Castle and shake hands extensively. William and Kate take one side, Harry and Meghan the other. Royal division of tasks like in the days when everything was still in the best order. Kate told a family behind the cordon: “In times like these, you have to stand together.”
The Queen would have been happy!
“The Fab Four reunited” was a headline. The general tenor in the media: The Queen would have been happy! However, this was often accompanied by a warning that the gesture should not be overestimated. “This is not reconciliation,” commented ITV royalty expert Chris Ship. The joint appearance was a spontaneous idea by William: “He did it for his grandmother and father.”
There is no question that Elizabeth would have been very happy about this scene. That should also have been the decisive impulse for Harry, because there was no last hug on the deathbed on Thursday: When the grandson arrived at Balmoral Castle, Elizabeth was already dead.
If Harry came, Elizabeth was beautiful to
Harry was the last to arrive at Balmoral, the first to leave the morning after. Meghan stayed away from the Scottish country estate. The couple decided this because Duchess Kate also stayed at home because of the children, according to insider circles of the couple. Others rumor that Meghan was explicitly not wanted, such as the “Daily Mail” widely reported.
After all: Charles used his first speech to the nation as king explicitly to express his “love for Harry and Meghan, who continue to build a life overseas”. At the same time, however, he also made Kate the “Princess of Wales” – a clear commitment to the family of heir apparent William, with whom Harry and Meghan, who live in California, have a particularly complicated relationship. Diana, the mother of Harry and William, was last known under the title “Princess of Wales”.
The interview with Oprah Winfrey
“Granny” Elizabeth held a special place in Harry’s heart. While the Royal lovingly shared anecdotes about the Queen and Prince Philip, Harry accused his father Charles in a television interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey last year, which received worldwide attention, of having cut him off financially and not answering his calls.
In the legendary conversation with Winfrey, Meghan and Harry also accused the royal family of racism and a lack of support – and afterwards took the Queen out of the line of fire. She was by no means the “Racist Royal”, which she did not want to name specifically. Father Charles did not get such a free pass from his son.
Queen was Harry’s beloved grandmother
That the Queen was Harry’s beloved grandmother is generally accepted, a royal insider told the Telegraph. “But she was also the head of the institution he was scolding.” Other sources told The Times shortly before her death that the queen was tired of “sitting on hot coals waiting for the next bomb to go off”.
In recent months, Meghan and Harry have only pointed their tips against the royal family in a well-pointed and economical manner – enough to maintain interest, which is good for business, as the “Times” recently speculated. Excitement alternated with glamorous performances such as the Queen’s jubilee, which looked more like a cautious approach.
Harry’s Memoirs later this year
When it comes to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as Harry and Meghan are still officially called, the British tabloids don’t need much to bring out the sharp artillery. A home story with Meghan in her Californian villa in a US lifestyle magazine becomes the “Bombshell Interview”, although the most headline-grabbing statement in it is that Meghan can no longer shut up outside of the royal family and she wants to become active again on Instagram .
Like a dark cloud on the horizon, the prospect of Harry’s memoirs, which he wanted to publish later this year, has been hovering over London’s Buckingham Palace for months. Whether this plan will change after the monarch’s death out of consideration for the grieving kingdom remains to be seen. The prospect that the couple will shoot even sharper without the beloved “Granny” at the helm is also considered possible. Should this scenario be confirmed, one might later say in retrospect that Harry’s final break with the family only became possible with the death of the Queen.