Roll Up Roll Up, The Sussex Circus Is Coming Back To Town

Has there ever been a more frustrating person in the public eye than Prince Harry? A person so paranoid, so self absorbed, so petty, and so emotionally manipulative that he manages to self sabotage at every single turn? We all have that one person in our family - the one who creates drama out of thin air, who makes every situation far more difficult and complicated than it needs to be, and who is, quite frankly, exhausting. The royal family seems to have more than their share of such family members. But this week, it’s Harry creating the drama. Except Harry’s melodrama doesn’t just make for an awkward family Christmas, it gets played out publicly on an epic scale.

The “will-they, won’t-they” Sussex saga that has plagued the British press for months reached fever pitch over the weekend. It has been rumoured for months, and then more solidly confirmed recently that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be visiting the UK with their children in July. This will/would be the first time that Meghan and the children have been in the UK since 2022. For reasons only known to them, the Sussexes officially confirmed the news to friendly media a few days ago and sent out operational notes (seriously, who do these two actually think they are?) detailing the trip. There was a deluge of stories, rumours and theories about the trip circulating. Then the drama hit a whole new level of surreal when it was revealed that Meghan and the children may not be coming after all because of security concerns. Seriously?!! What the actual hell is wrong with these two?

They are literally incapable of being straightforward and simple in anything that they do. We have heard endless stories about how badly Harry wants his children to meet their grandfather (only the one that’s King, not their inconveniently messy Markle grandfather of course). If this was truly the case, this whole saga would have played out much differently. But, of course, this isn’t just a simple homecoming or a family visit. No, that would be too easy for the Duke and Duchess of Melodrama. Instead, the trip has become a full blown soap opera involving security drama, emotional manipulation using their children as pawns and what I can only describe as a total hijacking and overshadowing of the very charities that they claim to support. The sheer audacity of the Sussexes and their increasingly bizarre attempts to control the narrative is beyond belief.

At the heart of all of this drama is, as ever, Harry’s desperation to retain his old security arrangements whenever he deigns to visit the United Kingdom. Harry has been engaged in a relentless legal war with the Home Office over his security arrangements in the UK since the family left full time royal duties. Harry wants full and automatic police protection for him and his family whenever they visit his home country. Harry wants the type of 24 hour protection that is currently only afforded to The King and Queen and Prince and Princess of Wales.

Harry has always been emotionally manipulative when it comes to trying to get what he wants re security. From using his children as pawns - “oh they will never meet their grandfather, I don’t know how long he has left” to flat out accusing people of wanting his family dead and allowing a situation to occur where that could happen.

This time he’s trying another old tactic (and by the way, I’m saying he because I doubt that Meghan ever actually wants to step foot in the UK again) - leak a story to the Telegraph or the Daily Mirror to make it a public reality before it has even been discussed with the Palace or relevant authorities. It is a way of forcing someone’s hand. “If I (Harry) say it’s happening, and the public expects it, then The King/RAVEC have to agree to it, or look mean/evil/negligent. This time Camp Sussex announced a visit, seemingly to force RAVEC and the Home Office into giving him what he wants. He appears to have genuinely believed that by announcing the visit and releasing their utterly ludicrous “operational notes” that the UK government would be forced to give in or that his father would be emotionally manipulated into lobbying for him. Because literally nothing has changed security wise since the announcement of the visit (why are private citizens even announcing such a thing anyway) to this new temper tantrum where they suddenly cannot come. Which clearly means that Harry’s ridiculous strategy has backfired on him spectacularly and he hasn’t been pandered to like he thought.