King Charles mustn't play Harry's game

Once upon a time when Prince Harry was young, he was the most popular member of the British royal family.

But even then, underneath his humour, charisma and keenness on flying (he was an Army helicopter pilot), he felt resentful and demanding. Now, despite being 41, he still believes most things have still been unfair for him and he wants to get his own back.

So he changed his life. In 2020 he and his wife Meghan Markle, whom he had married two years earlier, chose to leave the royal family for what they wanted: a free life. But Harry still expects to be treated as a royal, and sometimes like a spoilt child.

He claims to long to be with his father, King Charles, who has cancer, but expects him to drop everything when he chooses times that suit him to meet. He is known to shout at his father and keeps trying to persuade him to apologise to Meghan when, if anything, it should be the other way round.

Part of Harry getting his own back was to wipe out Associated Newspapers, who publish the Mail and Mail on Sunday, largely because the publisher, according to Harry, made Megan’s life “a misery.”

Harry gathered seven claimants to join him in a legal action against Associated, including Sir Elton John and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen was tragically murdered in a racist attack when he was 18. She backed Harry despite the dedication of the Mail’s editor Paul Dacre to everything he could to find Stephen’s killers, successfully in the end after a lengthy campaign.

High Court judge Mr Justice Nicklin presided over Prince Harry’s high-profile privacy lawsuit against Associated which stretched for more than four years. Harry insisted the Mail’s journalists had invaded his privacy. Due to Harry’s doggedness, 75 of the papers’ journalists went through a gruelling experience in court, being questioned over stories dating back decades in many cases.

But in his judgment Mr Justice Nicklin stated that it was facts and not personal feelings that mattered and there was no evidence in any of the 97 allegations made by Harry and his co-claimants.

Harry’s response to this shattering defeat was to state publicly that the judge’s decision was a “complete and obvious whitewash”, a very rude and possibly counterproductive comment given that Mr Justice Nicklin now has to decide who will pay the legal bill for the case, estimated at around £34.5 million. After a further two-day hearing on costs, the judge will announce his decision later this month.

Harry and Co have agreed to pay £8 million as an initial payment while Associated is seeking £10 million but wants a further £8 million to pay its full costs. (The rest is thought to be covered by insurance.)

Is it Harry’s problem to help the people who foolishly believed him when he persuaded them to join his action?

Harry’s entitled behaviour has made him much less popular. He is persistent in trying to get what he wants, so much so that Queen Camilla stayed with her husband all the time when Harry recently visited, to keep her eye on everything.

Although Harry had a privileged childhood, he is still complaining years later. He wrote in his memoir “Spare” that when he was a child he had a smaller room than his older brother Prince William and one less sausage for supper.

When I interviewed him for his biography a few years ago he said King Charles was “not a hands-on father,” which was tactless.

Far worse, he wrote in “Spare” that he wet himself just before he first saw Meghan. More recently in July he took part in a podcast conversation with rugby player Joe Marler and talked about soiling himself: “Normally once you’re 40 or older, never trust a fart.”

Despite this it seems quite clear that Harry believes he would be a better heir to the throne than Prince William and several times has questioned whether his older brother has the qualities needed to be king.

Many people feel that King Charles is too soft with him. Nonetheless, Harry will continue to say whatever he wants. He also keeps changing his mind about when and where he will stay when he comes to Britain, which makes difficult for the staff, upsets the king and takes him away from his work.

During their most recent visit Harry took Meghan and their two children, Archie and Lillibet, to Althorp, where his mother Princess Diana grew up, and where she is buried. Photographs were taken which will no doubt help Meghan and Harry’s documentary: Harry is expected to be producer, and it is planned to coincide with the 30th anniversary of her death in 2027. It will be cringingly painful for Prince William and King Charles.

Even worse Harry thinks Meghan could run the country because she is “wonderfully bright.”

When she originally arrived she assumed she would spend some time with the Queen and give her some modern ideas rather than follow the royal rules. Because they both think they know better than the King, William and Princess Catherine, they have every chance of breaking the promise to Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth, who died in September 2022, that they would not be “half in and half” as royals. Equally if they just stay in the royal residences and do not join the family it would be very hard to stop them doing what they want to do and going on endless pseudo-royal trips, especially trying to steal Charles, William and Catherine’s thunder when they go on major official visits and tours. They’ve done it many times already.

I respect and think greatly of our King but I plead with him not to let his son take advantage of him. Harry will just demand more at every level. Meghan will complain. Even though the King, like any father, loves his son, Harry and Meghan cannot be trusted. They could easily use access to their children for blackmail. If the King allows them back into the royal fold, the damage they can do is incalculable.