Prince Harry ‘threw the Queen’s warm words back in her face’, Royal expert says

Prince Harry ‘threw the Queen’s warm words back in her face’ during a charity dinner speech last night, a Royal expert has claimed.

Author Phil Dampier said the Duke of Sussex’s words at The Ivy Chelsea Garden were loaded with hints about his future with Meghan Markle.

Harry said he and his wife were standing down from the Royal Family with ‘great sadness’, but there was ‘no other option’.

He added they had hoped to continue serving the Queen, the Commonwealth and his military associations, without any public funding, but this was not possible.

Mr Dampier told Fabulous: ‘Harry’s speech to the Sentebale dinner reminded me greatly of King Edward VIII’s abdication address. He even sounded like him at times.

‘It was all about him, justifying his actions and admitting he had to give it all up for the woman he loved.

‘The Queen had sent out warm words as a loving grandmother in her statement. But Harry threw this all back in her face by opening up on Sunday night.’

Mr Dampier, who has been writing about the Royals for 33 years, said Harry’s use of his Christian name – rather than Prince or Duke – was to try to get people to like him. 

He claimed it was a move to try to distance himself from the Family as he looks to create a separate identity.

In one part of his speech, Harry says of him and Meghan: ‘What I want to make clear is we’re not walking away, and we certainly aren’t walking away from you.’

But expert Mr Dampier said this was ‘absurd’ and his decisions over the past few weeks show that.

It comes after another Royal expert, Arthur Edwards, said the Duchess of Sussex is ‘the only person that doesn’t seem to be sad’ following the dramatic split.

The photographer, who has captured more than 200 royal tours across 120 countries, told ITV’s This Morning Meghan ‘seems to be having a good time’.

He said Harry’s sadness at the situation came across yesterday in his first public speech since the couple’s decision to quit, at the Ivy Chelsea Garden in London.

Fellow royal expert Duncan Larcombe also spoke today, telling ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the Queen has effectively told Harry: ‘You can’t have your cake and eat it.’

Mr Edwards said: ‘From that speech last night, Harry’s sadness came over. Harry’s sad, the Queen’s sad, Prince of Wales is sad, I’m sad, but they’re still going ahead with it. 

‘The only person that doesn’t seem to be sad and seems to be having a good time is Meghan, and I think she has driven this.

‘When Diana, his mother, lost her HRH title, she didn’t go to America or Canada, she got on and worked here. She carried on with her charities and they were huge.

‘The last year of her life we went to Bosnia, we went to Angola on the landmine crusade. That woman just faced up to it, and no one got more hounded by the media than Diana, and yet to the very end she was working for other people.

‘And I think Harry, I think he is sad, I don’t think he really wants to go. I mean, what’s he going to do there? He’s not a showbiz person, he’s not a media star like that.’

Meghan and Harry have already begun a transition phase of living in Canada and the UK.

The duchess is in the Commonwealth country with son Archie, where the Sussexes spent six weeks over the festive period.

The move was agreed by the Queen, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge following the Sussexes’ unprecedented statement released earlier this month.

It is understood the couple will now spend the majority of their time in Canada, with Harry expected to join his wife sometime this week.

But Mr Edwards continued: ‘Harry’s a member of the Royal Family, and I’ve watched that boy since he was born, and he’s been an absolutely terrific asset to this family and I think probably the most popular member of the royals.

‘When you’re HRH, when you’re a senior member of the Royal Family, that does count. HRH is only three letters, it means an awful lot here but probably America it doesn’t mean a thing, or Canada.

‘Being the Duke of Sussex is probably a terrific thing for them, but all this argument who’s going to guard them – of course they’ve got to be guarded.

‘He’s a Prince of the Realm, he’s a Prince of Canada, and Archie – if anyone harmed that child because there was no protection, there’d be uproar against Canada.

‘So, all these arguments, who’s paying this, who’s paying that – he’s a Prince of the Realm, a Prince of Canada, and they should be guarding him.

‘If he’s going to go, look after him, because we want him back, I want him back, certainly, because I think he’s ace.’ 

The Sussexes keep the style of HRH – His or Her Royal Highness – but the recent statement issued on their behalf said it will no longer be used from the spring ‘as they are no longer working members of the royal family’.

Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was stripped of her HRH in 1996 following her divorce from Charles. 

Mr Larcombe, author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain of his speech last night: ‘Obviously this was an attempt by him to reassure all those charities that he has supported over the years – Sentebale, he helped set that up in 2006 – so few charities mean more to him than that.

‘I think as people wake up and see this this morning, there’ll probably be a lot of people asking why has he done this within 24 hours of the queen releasing the details of – as it’s been dubbed ‘Megxit’.

‘It’s quite an insight perhaps into those discussion at Sandringham this time last week, on Monday last week, when we didn’t know what it was that Harry and Meghan were really pushing for.

‘But Harry has alluded there that what they would have liked is for them to be able to be – dare I say– the ‘hokey cokey’ royals, who put their left leg in when it suits and take their left leg out.’

The duke will continue to work with his charities and organisations like the Rugby Football League and Sentebale – his Africa-based charity supporting youngsters with HIV – and the duchess will remain with her good causes.

Harry will give up a Commonwealth role and his three military appointments, the most prominent being Captain General Royal Marines.

All the new arrangements are due to come into effect in the spring and will be reviewed by Buckingham Palace in 12 months.

Mr Larcombe continued: ‘I saw Saturday’s statement from the Queen as ‘look Harry, you can’t have your cake and eat it’. Clearly, that was the message that Harry received, so he then says – quite strangely, really – ‘we had no other option’.

‘Maybe they didn’t, but they did have another option – they didn’t have to step back from their royal duties. They didn’t want to take it.

‘Clearly there was and there is extreme concern behind the scenes that Harry and Meghan will just go off, be seen as cashing in on that association with the royals without actually having to be part of The Firm, towing the line, making sure their diaries co-ordinate with other royals etc.

‘That’s a really very frightening prospect for the Royal Family, so the fact that they aren’t going to be able to use their HRH title I guess frees them up to do what they want. But Harry, unfortunately mate, you’re always going to be a royal – and therefore they’re always going to be subjected to scrutiny.

‘If they do sign big deals with companies like Netflix and the cheque comes out, people are going to ask ‘well, are they just cashing in on that, and what does it mean, why are they doing this?’ Good luck Harry, I hope it works out for them both.’

Ingrid Seward, the editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, looked at the section of Saturday’s Buckingham Palace statement saying Harry and Meghan ‘have made clear everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty’.

Writing in the Sun, she said: ‘What an alarmingly vague and woolly line. We can take a stab at what these values are — ask any good Christian.

‘But how do they relate to commercial deals with huge American corporations? For example, Harry has been touting Meghan for voiceover work with Disney. But which characters are brand-safe? Presumably Cruella de Vil is off limits?’

Speaking about a sit-down interview, she added: ‘The world is interested in Meghan and Harry’s touchy-feely philanthropic endeavours, but what they really want is the juice. What’s it really like in the Royal Family? How they approach this is crucial.’

She insisted that Harry and Meghan must ensure any books they write should not be about their personal experiences within the Royal Family.

Dean Stott, who has been friends with Harry for 12 years, told Sky News that when they first met on a military training course, ‘you could see that he was a confident young man, very level-headed and astute’.

He added: ‘He felt most comfortable, I think, in the military environment. He saw himself on a level playing field as his counterparts and that’s probably the closest he’s going to get to normality, being someone in his position.

‘Since he’s left the military he’s done so much for the military family and the veterans. He introduced the Invictus Games, the Endeavour Fund within the Royal Foundation and numerous charities.

‘He will still carry on doing that and he’s made that clear on the Sussex Foundation website, that the areas he’s going to focus in environmental and societal well-being, part of that is also the Armed Forces community.

‘He made his statement on what he wanted to do and he’s made it clear that his hope was to continue serving the Queen, the Commonwealth and military associations but without public funding, and obviously that wasn’t an option.

‘So that was obviously part of his thought process, and he would have been aware of that in making this brave and difficult decision.’

Speaking about Harry’s future, Mr Stott added: ‘What was key, his priorities have changed – his priority now is Archie and Meghan, and what I took from last night’s statement – he mentioned that he’d found love and happiness which he’d hoped for all his life.

‘So I think that’s what is important to him and we need to focus on that. They want to step forward and hope for some peace and I think we should just respect that. We’ll see what happens.

‘It’s trying to find that balance, and he’s stepping back from all he’s ever known. So he’s not used to this commercial sector. We have this transition period and they’ll find an area where they’re comfortable.’

Mr Stott also praised Meghan for the effect she has had on him, adding: ‘I think she (Meghan) is great for him. He’s been clear from the off that he wanted a family and he wanted to find love. He’s now found love, and that is with Meghan. They share their passion for charity and philanthropy.

‘Being a husband and father myself I know what it’s like when you find someone who shares that common ground with you.

And speaking about the family’s future, he said: ‘Everyone is sad to see them go, but they’re not going a million miles away, it’s only across the pond and they’ve made it clear they’re also going to be spending time back here.

‘Without a doubt it will be with a heavy heart, but he’s a great ambassador for the military and going across the water he’s going to continue those military charities – he’s not going to disappear.’

In his first public speech since the couple’s decision to step down as senior royals, Harry said yesterday that he wanted his family to have a ‘more peaceful’ life.

He added: ‘Once Meghan and I were married, we were excited, we were hopeful, and we were here to serve. For those reasons, it brings me great sadness that it has come to this.

‘The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back, is not one I made lightly. It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges.

‘And I know I haven’t always gotten it right, but as far as this goes, there really was no other option.

‘What I want to make clear is we’re not walking away, and we certainly aren’t walking away from you.

‘Our hope was to continue serving the Queen, the commonwealth, and my military associations, but without public funding. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.’

The duke was speaking at a dinner for supporters of Sentebale – his Africa-based charity supporting youngsters with HIV – at the Ivy Chelsea Garden in London.

It comes a day after royal family talks concluded and the Sussexes announced they will stop carrying out royal duties from the spring, no longer use the title HRH and will repay the taxpayers’ millions spent on their Berkshire home.

But Harry said the couple will continue to lead a life of service, and were taking a leap of faith.

He added: ‘It has been our privilege to serve you, and we will continue to lead a life of service.

‘I will always have the utmost respect for my grandmother, my commander in chief, and I am incredibly grateful to her and the rest of my family, for the support they have shown Meghan and I over the last few months.

‘I will continue to be the same man who holds his country dear and dedicates his life to supporting the causes, charities and military communities that are so important to me.

‘We are taking a leap of faith – thank you for giving me the courage to take this next step.’