Prince Harry 'may have threatened Oprah interview,' says royal expert
Did Harry go ‘nuclear’ for ‘revenge’? Royal expert suggests Prince ‘threatened’ he would do Oprah ‘truth bomb’ interview if Queen stripped him of military titles
- Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said Prince Harry would have been ‘extremely angry’ at losing titles
- The Duke of Sussex was stripped of military titles in February after stepping back from frontline royal duties
- 36-year-old Harry is said to have agreed to do his tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey less than 24 hours later
- Harry, who twice toured Afghanistan with Army, had hoped to keep titles before ‘Megxit’ deal was finalised
- It follows reports that Prince Charles is to ensure his two-year-old grandson Archie will never be a Prince
Prince Harry may have ‘threatened’ to drop his Oprah ‘truth bombs’ before the Queen stripped him of his military titles, a royal expert has today suggested.
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said the Duke of Sussex, 36, may have hinted to courtiers about doing a bombshell interview with the US chat show host before the announcement of the final ‘Megxit’ deal in February.
The announcement saw Prince Harry stripped of his military titles, including Captain General of the Royal Marines, as part of his decision to step back as a front line royal.
Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle signed off on a tell-all interview with Oprah within 24 hours, according to new reports today.
Mr Fitzwilliams said the Palace’s decision to take back the titles would have likely left Prince Harry, who served in the Army for ten years, feeling ‘extremely angry’ and may have left him seeking ‘revenge’.
And he suggests that the Duke may have warned courtiers about the possibility of a TV interview prior to the ‘Megxit’ announcement being made.
Mr Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: ‘There is no doubt that harry valued his patronages terribly and there’s absolutely no doubt that if you look at this as a probable revenge.
‘They were told it was made pretty clear to them a year before them at the Sandringham Summit, they more or less knew they were going to lose their patronages.
Prince Harry may have ‘threatened’ to drop his Oprah ‘truth bombs’ (pictured: Harry and Meghan on their televised interview with Oprah Winfrey) before the Queen stripped him of his military titles, a royal expert has today suggested
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams (pictured right) said the Duke of Sussex (pictured left with wife Meghan Markle), 36, may have hinted to courtiers about doing a bombshell interview with the US chat show host before the announcement of the final ‘Megxit’ deal in February
Harry’s titles were taken back by the Queen (pictured at Royal Ascot on Saturday) as part of the final deal for him to step back
‘There were endless rumours in the years that followed that they were going to keep them – and they were left open.
What patronages did Harry lose and what does he now have left?
Former soldier Harry, who served on the frontline in Afghanistan, is no longer the Captain General of the Royal Marines, Honorary Air Force Commandant of the Royal Air Force Base Honington, or Honorary Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Naval Commands’ Small Ships and Diving following the announcement by Buckingham Palace in February.
He also had to relinquish his role as president of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. The duke is also no longer be patron of the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League – roles which he took over from the Queen.
Harry is also no longer patron of the London Marathon Charitable Trust. The role was on a three-year term, which was renewed twice, covering nine years. It came to an end in January, and it was decided it would not be renewed.
However, he retained the following private patronages or presidencies: African Parks, Dolen Cymru, the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund, Invictus Games, MapAction, Rhino Conservation Botswana charity, Sentebale, and WellChild.
‘It’s also very possible that they threatened they might do this (interview), and perhaps the palace courtiers negotiating didn’t believe them.’
Mr Fitzwilliams, a PR expert, also suggested that the Sussexes’ interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby during the couple’s royal tour of Africa in 2019 may have acted as a ‘warning shot’ to the Palace about the possibility that they could one day ‘go public’.
During the interview, which came at the end of their 10-day royal tour, Meghan described her life as a royal as a a ‘struggle’ and said ‘not many people’ had asked her if she ‘was okay’.
‘Tom Bradby, at the time of the Sandringham Summit, he was threatening that they might go public with something the royals didn’t like,’ Mr Fitzwilliams added.
‘The exact timeline with this (Oprah interview) is very difficult to know who to believe and what to believe.
‘All I can say is there is a perverse logic to this, because if you’re going to lose something that you value and you want to make it clear that you’re not walking away, then you can use the nuclear option. This was a nuclear option.’
It comes as it was claimed that Prince Harry agreed to do his bombshell Oprah interview with Meghan Markle less than 24 hours after being told he would be stripped of his military titles.
Prince Harry is said to have become ‘angry’ at losing military appointments in the wake of ‘Megxit’ – a decision revealed on February 19 that was part of the final deal for him to step back from frontline royal duties.
A ‘very cross’ Harry, 36, agreed to an interview with Oprah Winfrey that weekend, it was claimed, before the bombshell programme with the US chat show host and his wife Meghan was broadcast on March 7, reports the Sun.
A source told the Sun: ‘Harry and Meghan were very cross before Oprah because the final Megxit separation had just been signed off which included Harry not keeping military roles. That was what made him so angry. He’s very emotional and his military roles were very important to him given that he served.’
It has previously been suggested that the decision to do the interview came after the Duke and Duchess were reportedly told that their son Archie would not be made a prince when Prince Charles becomes king.
Prince Harry inspects a parade as he, on behalf of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, presents the RAF Regiment with a new Colour in their 75th Anniversary year at RAF Honington in July 2017
Mr Fitzwilliams, a PR expert, also suggested that the Sussexes’ interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby (pictured) during the couple’s royal tour of Africa in 2019 may have acted as a ‘warning shot’ to the Palace about the possibility that they could one day ‘go public’
The topic was brought up in the couple’s jaw-dropping 90-minute talk with Oprah which aired in Britain on ITV on March 8, one day after it was first shown on CBS.
Harry was stripped of his role as Captain-General of the Royal Marines – handed down to him by his grandfather Prince Philip, as part of the final deal for him to step back as a front line royal.
It was reported prior to the announcement of the final ‘Megxit’ deal in February that Prince Harry, who twice toured Afghanistan with the Army, had hoped to keep the titles.
And he is said to have asked the Queen about the possibility, in what was described as a half-in-half-out role.
But such a plan was vetoed and the title was taken back, along with his role as Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington in Suffolk and Commodore-in-Chief Small Ships and Diving, Royal Naval Command.
The titles were initially returned to the Queen. The move to strip him of the titles ‘devastated’ Prince Harry, according to reports at the time.
Prince Harry later took part in his interview with Oprah, in which he and Meghan Markle made accusations of racism within the Royal Family.
MailOnline has contacted representatives for the Sussexes and Buckingham Palace for comment.
The fresh reports come as The Mail on Sunday yesterday revealed how Prince Charles is to ensure that his two-year-old grandson Archie will never be a Prince.
The heir to the throne has made it clear that Harry and Meghan’s son will have no place among frontline Royals as he plans a slimmed-down Monarchy after he becomes King.
The move has incensed the Sussexes and is thought to have prompted the series of bitter accusations the couple have levelled at Charles and the Royal Family from across the Atlantic.
A grandchild of the sovereign has long had the right to be a Prince, but Charles is determined to limit the number of key Royals, believing the public does not wish to pay for an ever-expanding Monarchy.
Charles has told the Sussexes that he will change key legal documents to ensure that Archie cannot get the title he would once have inherited by right, according to a source close to the couple.
The decision, which follows months of fraught discussion behind the scenes, has plunged relations between Harry and his relatives to a dangerous new low.
‘Harry and Meghan were told Archie would never be a Prince, even when Charles became King,’ confirmed the source.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex pose with their son Archie in a photograph taken while Meghan was pregnant with Lilibet
Prince Charles meets NHS staff during a visit to Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London last week on June 17
Prince Harry dressed in full dress mess uniform with lapels on pins during the event at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2020
The revelation comes amid a series of explosive claims by respected Royal biographer Robert Lacey.
The Duke of Sussex’s military decorations
- Army Air Corps Wings
- Knight Commander, Royal Victorian Order
- Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
- Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
- Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan
- Star of the Grand Cross Knight Commander, RVO
Meanwhile, The Mail on Sunday learned that Harry demanded the right to approve at least one writer or journalist to work alongside the usual ‘press pack’ of Royal reporters at the unveiling of the statue to Princess Diana next month, so deep is his distrust of the British media.
The full details of Charles’s plan for a slimmed-down Monarchy have never been revealed, but it has been speculated that only heirs to the throne and their immediate families will receive full titles, financial support from the public purse through the Sovereign Grant and police protection funded by the taxpayer.
Charles and his younger brother, the Duke of York, have already been at loggerheads about what security Andrew’s daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie should receive in future. Now Harry and Meghan have found themselves caught up, too.
Insiders suggest they hadn’t seen the move coming, and were shocked to find that Charles will take the active step of changing legal instruments known as the Letters Patent in order to exclude Archie and others.
The loss will be all the more galling as the Sussexes havemade a point of refusing to use another, lesser title for their son, who is technically the Earl of Dumbarton. They took that decision safe in the knowledge that Archie would become a Prince in due course. Or so they thought.
Earlier this year, a source close to the Sussexes confirmed they did indeed expect Archie to be named a Prince when Charles, Archie’s grandfather, acceded to the throne. Their spokesman at the time was even instructed to remind journalists of that ‘fact’.
The move has incensed the Sussexes and is thought to have prompted the series of bitter accusations the couple have levelled at Charles and the Royal Family
Charles is determined to limit the number of key Royals, believing the public does not wish to pay for an ever-expanding Monarchy
The Sussexes finally learned that would not be the case just before sitting down with Oprah for their first bombshell interview in March.
Charles and his younger brother, the Duke of York, have already been at loggerheads about what security Andrew’s daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie should receive in future
Insiders suggest the issue was still raw at the time of the recording – which might help account for the devastating criticisms they unleashed on the show, including the damaging implication that an unnamed senior member of the Royal Family had referred to Archie in a racist way.
It also throws a spotlight on one section of the interview which had raised eyebrows at the time. Speaking to Oprah, Meghan recalled how, when she had been pregnant, ‘They [the Royal Family] were saying they didn’t want him to be a Prince or a Princess’.
She continued: ‘You know, the other piece of that convention is, there’s a convention – I forget if it was George V or George VI convention – that when you’re the grandchild of the monarch, so when Harry’s dad becomes King, automatically Archie and our next baby would become Prince or Princess, or whatever they were going to be… But also it’s not their right to take it away.’
This puzzled Royal watchers, who reminded the Sussexes they had very publicly declared that they didn’t want a title for their son, who would be known as Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
Some pointed out that a son of Prince Harry’s – a great-grandchild of the Queen – had no automatic right to be titled a Prince, or receive a security allowance. But that was to ignore the real drama taking place behind the scenes. Because Meghan was actually referring to the secret news that Archie would never become a Prince, not even when Charles was King.
Meghan Markle at the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 1, 2019
A source said: ‘This is what nobody realised from the interview. The real thing was that Charles was going to take active steps to strip Archie of his ultimate birthright.’
Prince of Wales’s plan not to include grandson among slimmed-down, lower cost frontline royals is revealed
By Kate Mansey for the Mail on Sunday
Prince Charles is to ensure that his two-year-old grandson Archie will never be a Prince, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The heir to the throne has made it clear that Harry and Meghan’s son will have no place among frontline Royals as he plans a slimmed-down Monarchy after he becomes King.
The move has incensed the Sussexes and is thought to have prompted the series of bitter accusations the couple have levelled at Charles and the Royal Family from across the Atlantic.
A grandchild of the sovereign has long had the right to be a Prince, but Charles is determined to limit the number of key Royals, believing the public does not wish to pay for an ever-expanding Monarchy.
Charles has told the Sussexes that he will change key legal documents to ensure that Archie cannot get the title he would once have inherited by right, according to a source close to the couple.
The decision, which follows months of fraught discussion behind the scenes, has plunged relations between Harry and his relatives to a dangerous new low. ‘Harry and Meghan were told Archie would never be a Prince, even when Charles became King,’ confirmed the source.
The existing rules for Royal titles were established in Letters Patent dated November 20, 1917.
In these, King George V, the Queen’s grandfather, allowed the title of Prince and Princess to be given to the children of the sovereign, the children of the sovereign’s sons and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales – in this case, Prince George.
Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, William’s daughter and younger son, received their titles not by right but as gifts of the Queen, who issued new Letters Patent to that effect in 2013.
Similarly, when King, Charles will have the power to change George V’s Letters Patent how he sees fit – and so streamline The Firm.
An insider said: ‘Charles has never made any secret of the fact that he wants a slimmed-down Monarchy when he becomes King.
‘He realises that the public don’t want to pay for a huge Monarchy and, as he said, the balcony at Buckingham Palace would probably collapse.’
Even now, not all grandchildren of the Queen are titled Prince or Princess. As she is a daughter, not a son, of the sovereign, Princess Anne’s children had no automatic right to the title but out of choice she also declined lesser titles for her children Peter and Zara.
The Queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, thought it prudent not to name his daughter and son as Princess and Prince. Instead, they are titled Lady and Viscount respectively.
A Royal source said last night: ‘We are not going to speculate about the succession or comment on rumours coming out of America.’
It comes as Meghan today claimed that her two-year-old son Archie is a ‘voracious’ reader who ‘loves’ her new children’s book, which she also said features a depiction of Princess Diana’s favourite flower and is a ‘love story’ about life with Prince Harry ‘in good times or bad’.
In an interview with NPR Weekend recorded before the birth of her daughter Lilibet, the Duchess of Sussex also revealed that she bought her husband a bench with an inscribed plaque for his first Father’s Day and said she was ‘inspired’ to write the poem after watching him with Archie.
Her new £12.99 book The Bench has topped the New York Times Bestsellers List for children’s picture books but sold just 3,212 copies in the UK its first week since publication on June 8.
Meghan Markle has written a children’s book, The Bench, about the relationship between fathers and sons
The NPR interview is her first since she and Prince Harry accused the Royal Family of racism during their explosive sit-down chat with Oprah Winfrey in March – the first of a series of bombshell allegations made by the royal couple this year which have shaken the House of Windsor.
Speaking to NPR producer Samantha Balaban at 2.50pm (9.50am EST), the duchess said: ‘I knew our son would notice all of those elements, and he loves the book, which is great because he has a voracious appetite for books and constantly when we read him a book he goes ‘again, again, again’. But now the fact he loves The Bench and we can say ‘Mommy wrote this for you’ feels amazing.’
The duchess added: ‘I think you can find sweet little moments that we hid in there – of my favourite flower, even my husband’s mom’s favorite flower, forget-me-nots. We wanted to make sure those were included in there. There are many, many special details and love that went into this book.’
She went on: ‘As most of us do, you go, what am I going to get them as a gift? And I thought I just wanted something sentimental and a place for him to have as a bit of a home base with our son.
‘I often find, and especially in this past year, I think so many of us realized how much happens in the quiet. It was definitely moments like that, watching them from out of the window and watching [Harry] just, you know, rock him [Archie] to sleep or carry him or, you know… those lived experiences, from my observation, are the things that I infused in this poem.’
Meghan added: ‘It’s a love story. It’s really just about growing with someone and having this deep connection and this trust so that, be at good times or bad, you know that you had this person. I really hope that people can see this as a love story that transcends the story of my family.’
Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor – Harry and Meghan’s second child, who was born on June 4 in Santa Barbara – also features in the book, which was illustrated before her birth.
Early reviews for the book were not universally positive, although one cooed that ‘the book’s storytelling and illustration give us snapshots of shared moments that evoke a deep sense of warmth’.
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