They are not known as “the Firm” for nothing. The royal family sticks together, especially when it comes to the press.
But The Daily Beast understands that some members of the family—including the Queen, Prince William, and Prince Charles—are uneasy about Prince Harry’s “unilateral” actions, including his and wife Meghan Markle's recent two-pronged attack on the press.
Publicly there has been no expression of support for Harry or Meghan from his family over their recent challenges to the press.
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Behind palace walls it is believed that senior royals, including Harry’s grandmother, father, and brother—with whom he has had a difficult relationship since marrying Meghan—are dismayed not just by his actions but also by the fact he did not seek their advice or act in accordance with general royal precedents of discretion.
“It’s a unilateral action by him, but it is so reputationally damaging for all of them,” said one source. “Can you really imagine the Queen allowing Prince Harry to go into court and say this piece? What if he then loses? I just can’t see her allowing it.”
The writer Penny Junor, who has written multiple biographies of the royals including a biography of Harry, said Harry’s public statements were unlikely to find favor with his father.
“I can’t think that the family would ever cut him off,” she said, “But I also don’t think they will be pleased about this, mainly because they will be worried it won’t be doing Harry any good.
“Prince Charles once told me he had stopped reading the papers because reading the lies that were printed about him made him want to fire off a letter correcting them. But, he said, if you do that about one lie, you have to do it about every single one from then on, because otherwise, if you don’t react, it might be deemed true.
“You have to let everything go. That was his policy.”
Asked if there was a risk of Harry becoming separated from his family, Junor said, “I think it has already happened. This all smacks to me of Harry acting on his own. This is not the sort of statement that any member of the royal family has ever uttered before.”
The attacks on what Harry called the “lies” of the British tabloid media have also left his press team, who were not consulted or given input into the statements, embarrassed and “feeling useless,” a source says.
Some journalists have even been breaking the code of omertà that usually attends on relations between the press office and the royals, writing, for example, about the evident embarrassment of the Sussex press team in recent days.
Valentine Low of The Times reported, for example, that aides were “visibly embarrassed” by the outburst and added the pointed note that, “Neither Sara Latham, the couple’s communications secretary, nor Samantha Cohen, their private secretary, is believed to have had any input into the statement.”
Cohen is due to depart Team Sussex in the next few days and there is widespread speculation that there may be a new spate of resignations at Harry and Meghan’s office, with many staff increasingly feeling that as well as finding Meghan and Harry difficult to work for, they also have no real responsibility, are not asked for input, and are not valued when it comes to big decisions.
Advisers who got wind of the impending announcement are said to have urged Harry to desist from overshadowing his own tour of Southern Africa by announcing legal action against the Mail on Sunday over its publication of part of a letter sent by Meghan to her estranged father, Thomas Markle. He declined to take their advice.
It emerged this week that the curious timing of Harry’s statement was prompted by a technical change in court rules. The FT reported that by filing the claim when they did, the Sussexes were able to beat a rule change and ensure the case would be heard in the Chancery Division of the High Court, which is noted for regularly finding against newspapers.
Harry is said to be unrepentant, insisting that he doesn’t need to pander to the press, and refusing to acknowledge that a solitary Instagram account might not be enough to counter alienating the entire U.K. media.
That Instagram account was back in the news on Thursday after Harry published a short film, to promote World Mental Health Day, which showed him and Ed Sheeran spoofing on the concept of a support group for ginger-haired people.
The clip seems likely to be the first big piece of content masterminded by newly hired social media manager David Watkins, 26, who joined Team Sussex earlier this year from fashion house Burberry, on a salary of just $36,000 per annum.
It was a slightly odd piece of film, tonally speaking—stilted, with a central gag that was not particularly funny. It doesn’t help that some experts genuinely do believe that redheads are discriminated against quite widely, and while Prince Harry and Ed Sheeran may be able to laugh off such teasing, you might not find the gag quite so funny if you’re a kid currently being picked on on account of your hair color—which might, erm, negatively impact your mental health.
One can’t help wondering what the Queen, who got roped into an earlier Harry video promoting the Invictus Games, must have made of it.
It’s hard to imagine that Harry’s social team wouldn’t have sought the approval of Buckingham Palace before posting, but it’s equally hard to imagine HM being OK with a doorbell ringing out the national anthem for comedic kitschy effect. Harry’s team and the palace declined to comment on whether the Queen’s approval had been sought.
That post, therefore, approved or not, is in a small way emblematic of the risks of the new strategy that Harry appears to be wedded to.
There is a way back for Harry and Meghan. There will always be, given the enormous reservoir of public affection for Diana’s son.
The problem is, it involves a retreat and “playing the game,” trading access for positive coverage, being nice to and flattering the members of the press corps a little.
If they choose to continue instead the strategy of confrontation, Harry and Meghan should beware. They will annoy and distance themselves from their own family, who fear above all public contempt.
And the British newspapers may be weak, weaker than they have ever been, but they can still inflict a nasty bite.
