Prince Harry has dominated the news this week, with fractious claims and counter claims in his court case against the publisher of the Daily Mail.
He’s expected to take the stand today, and I’m sure what he has to say, alongside Sir Elton John, Liz Hurley and Stephen Lawrence’s mum Baroness Doreen will be blockbuster.
Harry had said numerous times publicly that he wanted to make up with his family. But the King essentially said he couldn’t see his younger son while he was suing his government, in his courts over which he has ultimate jurisdiction.
The subtext being that a) he couldn’t risk showing any prejudice and b) it was a bad look. This month was the same.
Harry getting his taxpayer-funded security back was apparently ‘nailed on’, enabling the potential for Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, to come to the UK in the summer for a reunion with the King. (The small matter of the Home Office saying Harry’s risk assessment hadn’t yet been completed was presumably overlooked…).
Then it was briefed Harry would ‘love’ his father to open the Invictus Games, for injured and veteran armed forces personnel, in Birmingham next year. And that the Duchess of Sussex was hoping to come to the UK for the first time in three years this summer for the Invictus ‘one year to go’ engagement.
This puts a lot of pressure on Buckingham Palace (and indeed an invidious position for the King). If, as Head of the Armed Forces, he turns down Harry’s public invitation it’s not a great look.
Yet if he goes – and let’s remember the Queen didn’t go to the inaugural Invictus Games in 2014 – he’s caving in to Harry’s emotion-laden request. Not to mention the last six years of Sussex drama.
Let’s hope it remains Invictus not Invidious. We shall see…
