In the past three years, Prince Harry has lost and buried (entombed) two beloved grandparents and watched his father’s hat ceremony. He celebrated his grandmother’s historic reign and he showed up for the unveiling of a statue of his mother. His family has tried everything, every trick, every guilt trip, every manipulation to get Harry to come back and they’re all out of “reasons.” The Windsors and the British media are now stuck in the toxic reality they alone created, with the charismatic Sussexes pushed out, exiled and smeared, and only the charisma vacuum white royals remaining. Which goes a long way towards explaining why Camilla Tominey would piss out this column: “If William wants to be the King’s liege man, he must forgive Harry.” Ah, yes, that’s the only thing keeping Harry away! William won’t forgive him! Some highlights from Tominey’s latest overwrought piece:
Liege man: When the Prince of Wales pledged to be the King’s “liege man of life and limb” at the Coronation on Saturday, the 74-year-old monarch could not hide his emotion as he was kissed on the cheek by his eldest son. “Thank you, William,” he replied, conscious, perhaps, of the huge gulf that now exists between his two “darling boys”.
William’s coronation concert speech: It was also helpful for Prince William to describe his father as someone who “always understood that people of all faiths, all backgrounds, and all communities, deserve to be celebrated and supported”, not just in light of growing calls for the royals to make slavery reparations but also in response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s racism claims.
On the Windsors’ racism: It is no secret that both the King and the Prince of Wales are disappointed that the Duke and Duchess felt the need to make such high-profile and damaging allegations. Yet still, the King found it in his heart to raise a toast to the fourth birthday of Harry and Meghan’s son Archie on Saturday – just hours after his youngest son had hot-footed it to Heathrow Airport straight after the two-hour service at Westminster Abbey to be reunited with his family in Montecito, California.
Charles has been in communication with the Sussexes: While the King may be willing to forgive, with palace insiders confirming there had been “genuine cooperation” with the Sussexes in the lead-up to the Coronation, there remains little hope of reconciliation with Prince William who was “absolutely horrified” by what Prince Harry wrote about him and his wife Kate in his bombshell autobiography, Spare. The Duke is expecting an apology – but the Prince wants one first. But if Prince William is to fulfil his role as his father’s liege man of life and limb, he may be required to rise above for the sake of the Crown.
William needs to be less wrathful: For what we learned from Sunday night’s speech was how pivotal the Prince and Princess of Wales are going to be to the success of the reign of Charles III. Regardless of his own hurt feelings, Prince William, who has a reputation for being rather stubborn at times, cannot stand in the way of a royal rapprochement if it’s in the best long-term interests of the monarchy. That is the sort of personal sacrifice required of someone whose coat of arms carries the motto “Ich dien” (I serve).
The bigger man: He certainly couldn’t be in a better place both personally and professionally to be the bigger man. Supported by the calming influence of his level-headed wife and mellowed by his three children, William has grown in stature precisely because he has proved himself to be such a safe pair of hands when dealing with the various crises that have faced the House of Windsor in recent years….If Prince William wants to be seen as the son the King can rely on then that must start – however hard – with repairing his broken bonds with his brother. Just as the King has his eldest son’s support, the Prince of Wales has the support of the King.
William must forgive: Prince William knows better than anyone the pain the King is going through over what Prince Harry has done. But if he really wants to prove that he has as much of his late grandmother in him as his father, then he is going to have to summon QEII levels of magnanimity to ensure the Carolean era characterises the Royals as a nuclear family, rather than a thermonuclear one.
As always, the royal rota treats the Windsors like they’re in control of every situation, especially the Sussexes. Like the Sussexes’ exile is entirely the Windsors’ call, and if the Windsors wanted the Sussexes back, then the Sussexes would jump to it. Even in Tominey’s fantasist scenario where William extends a meaningful olive branch to his brother, nothing would change. Let’s also be real: that would never even happen. William is too stupid, too short-sighted, too incandescent with rage to actually be the bigger man. Oh well!
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.
