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Queen Elizabeth was rarely criticised during her record-breaking, 70-year reign. But she has been subject to some damning judgments since her death over her failure to rein in her scandal-prone son, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known.
In my opinion, this criticism is misguided and unfair. The Queen’s habitual wisdom is illustrated by the way in which she dealt with another member of her family who brought challenges to the monarchy: her grandson, the Duke of Sussex.
At a time when his grandmother’s health was already failing, Prince Harry desperately tried to persuade her that she should agree to his – and particularly his wife Meghan’s – desire to be allowed to make money at the same time as carrying out royal duties.
However, in one of the last significant decisions of her reign, the Queen made clear to Harry at the ‘Sandringham summit’ of 2020 that he and his American wife would not be allowed ‘half-in, half-out’ roles in ‘the Firm’.
She realised that this could have brought the Royal Family into serious disrepute. Members of the public who support the royals with their taxes would not know if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were undertaking an engagement out of duty or because it furthered their business interests.
The wisdom of the Queen’s decision will be seen in Australia next month when Harry and Meghan visit. They are to undertake a mixture of charitable and money-making engagements that seem tacky even by the couple’s standards.
With promotional material emphasising her royal title, the Duchess of Sussex is due to appear at a ‘Meet Meghan’ photo opportunity event in Sydney where the former actress will be the central attraction at a ‘VIP experience’ for which tickets cost £1,705. It will be part of a weekend of activities which features a ‘group table photo with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’. The ‘VIP’ treatment includes twin-bed hotel accommodation for two nights.
The announcement of the event led one well-placed royal insider to liken Meghan to the former Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, who was once described by Queen Elizabeth’s private secretary Lord Charteris as ‘vulgar, vulgar, vulgar’. The source told my colleague Rebecca English: ‘She’s basically Fergie.’
The Queen made clear to Harry at the ‘Sandringham summit’ of 2020 that he and his American wife would not be allowed ‘half-in, half-out’ roles in ‘the Firm’.
Meghan and Harry are, it seems, having to undertake such cringe-inducing engagements because their lucrative contracts with US media giants Netflix and Spotify have dried up. This week, the California-based couple felt the need to issue public statements condemning both an article by Variety magazine on their business challenges and a deeply unflattering new book about them by British author Tom Bower.
The article in Variety is particularly noteworthy as the ‘Hollywood bible’ does not usually dare to antagonise people it might want to feature in the future. The magazine ran a flattering interview with the duchess back in 2022 which was promoted on its cover under the headline: ‘The Meghan moment’. Clearly, it has decided that her moment has passed – and won’t be returning in a hurry.
Among the claims in Bower’s book – Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family – is that Meghan asked the new creative director of Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli, if she could attend his catwalk show at Paris fashion week in return for the label paying her $250,000 (£188,000) expenses.
It’s not long since ‘sources close to’ the Sussexes were alleging that fashion houses such as Gucci and Dior were queuing up to pay her millions to be their ‘ambassador’. Needless to say, that never happened.
Palace officials might be expected to observe the Sussexes’ apparent reversal of fortunes with a sense of schadenfreude given Queen Elizabeth’s concerns, the couple’s later insults aimed at the Royal Family plus indiscretions both in their interviews and Harry’s memoir, Spare.
In fact, the opposite is the case, I’m told. Courtiers were hoping that Meghan would make a fortune from her lifestyle company, As Ever, so that she wouldn’t need to trade on her royal connections. Netflix’s confirmation that it has pulled out of its involvement with the brand suggests that it did not believe the project would be a success.
The Sussexes’ business struggles mean they will be more determined than ever to emphasise their royal connections. That is why ‘Project Thaw’ – described as a plot to return them to the Royal Family – is thickening. Harry is said to be confident that automatic, taxpayer-funded security will be restored by the time he comes to Britain this summer, accompanied by Meghan and their two children, to promote the Invictus Games, which are due to take place in Birmingham next year.
Royal officials are terrified of discussing the Sussexes, but a source tells me: ‘A lot is going on behind the scenes that people don’t know about.’
For all of us who believe that Harry and Meghan have brought nothing but trouble to the Royal Family, these are worrying words.
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