Prince William Thought Harry Had ‘Totally Lost the Plot’ After Oprah Interview, Friends Say

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Prince Harry Is ‘Making Sure’ Queen Elizabeth ‘Is Protected’‘SHE’S ON GREAT FORM’

Tim Teeman, Martha Mercer

William thought Harry ‘totally lost the plot’ after Oprah interview

When Prince Harry first spoke about his tense relationship with brother Prince William in 2019 while touring southern Africa to ITV journalist Tom Bradby, it reportedly devastated Prince William. “To say William felt deeply let down would be an understatement. He wasn’t sure if he could ever fully trust his brother again,” a source tells the Mail’s Robert Jobson.

Harry had told Bradby: “Part of this role, part of this job, this family, being under the pressure which it’s under, inevitably stuff happens. But we are brothers. We will always be brothers.

“We are certainly on different paths at the moment, but I will always be there for him, and as I know he will always be there for me. We don’t see each other as much as we used to as we are so busy. But I love him dearly and you know the majority of the stuff is probably—well, the majority of the stuff is created out of nothing. But as brothers, you have good days and you have bad days.”

In a major profile of William in advance of his 40^th birthday in June, Jobson, author of the forthcoming William at 40: The Making of a Modern Monarch, writes in detail about his public and private life, talking to many inside the palace and his sphere of influence.

After the so-called Sandringham Summit, where the royals met to discuss Harry and Meghan’s exit from the royal family, a “seething” William “went for a long walk with his brother to try to clear the air—but they did not part friends,” Jobson writes.

William felt Harry and Meghan had “blindsided the Queen in such an insulting and disrespectful way,” after they were forbidden from using the word “royal” on their website, and then wrote: “While there is not any jurisdiction by the Monarchy … over the use of the word ‘Royal’ overseas, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use ‘Sussex Royal’ … or … Royal.’”

William also claims not to feel trapped in his royal role as Harry claimed to Oprah Winfrey, and instead was angry his brother said what he said. “He was furious. He thought it was not only bad manners, but frankly bloody rude to make those claims on his behalf, with no authority, and made worse because it was total nonsense.”

Friends of William said he thought Harry had “totally lost the plot” after the Oprah interview.

Jobson also claims the “royal racist” who questioned the color of the then-unborn Archie’s skin was not Prince Charles, as claimed by fellow royal author Christopher Andersen. “It was not meant to be taken seriously, and the entire situation has been taken out of context. What followed is frankly unfair and appalling,” a source told Jobson, who claims to know the identity of the family member.

Both he and Harry “have quite extreme mood swings, just as Diana did,” a former courtier told Jobson. ‘She could be your best friend one minute and the next your worst enemy.”

Charles is nervous of William’s belligerence, and has learned to tread carefully around him, Jobson said. “When it comes to his father, it is as if William thinks they are, as direct heirs to the throne, on a level,” a senior former member of the royal household says.

“Deference doesn’t appear to be in his vocabulary when it comes to his father,” another source says of William’s attitude to Charles.

If Charles is nervous around his son, Camilla is not, and puts William “in his place,” Jobson says. ‘The truth is the Duchess feels it is her duty to protect the Prince of Wales from himself sometimes. He is going to be King, and she doesn’t mind reminding others in the family of that now and again—and that includes his son and heir.”

“He (William) can be a bit of a shouter when he loses it,’ one close aide tells Jobson. “It’s fair to say the Duke and the Duchess (Kate) give as good as they get if their disagreement results in raised voices. But they know each other so well, it usually blows over quickly—and she is, on the whole, a major calming influence on him.”

Kate has reportedly eased William’s attitude to the media, supplying her self-taken images of family life at significant moments. The relationship is one of equality, a source told Jobson. “They’ve got a solid relationship and she gives him confidence,’ one says. ‘There is no jealousy, no friction – they are happy for each other’s successes.”

When it came to discussions about Prince Andrew’s future in the royal family, “In many ways William was able to take the emotion out of the situation,’ a royal aide told Jobson. “The decision over the Duke of York was very difficult for the Queen and the Prince of Wales. They were obviously closer to Andrew than his nephew was. He could evaluate just how damaging his uncle was to the long-term future of the monarchy.”

It was William who “went straight to the Queen, telling her calmly and clearly that Andrew’s role in the Royal Family had become untenable. She would have to strip him, he said, of his military titles, patronages and use of ‘His Royal Highness,’” Jobson writes.

A senior source told Jobson: “There will be no public role or comeback for York, if the Duke of Cambridge has any input on the matter—and let me assure you, he does. He should be banished, as far as Prince William is concerned.”

Is Harry worried about Andrew’s closeness to queen?

Prince Harry’s controversial remark last week that part of his purpose in visiting the queen was to make sure “she’s protected and [has] got the right people around her” might have resulted from his displeasure at seeing Prince Andrew escort her into Prince Philip’s memorial service.

The Mirror says that some Buckingham Palace aides think this may be the case, with one saying: “Those images of Prince Andrew escorting the queen to Westminster Abbey may have upset Harry, which is now believed to be one of the reasons he made such an astonishing remark.

“Harry is familiar with the queen’s aides and there is no animosity at all. The Palace were aware he might do an interview, but no one was expecting those sorts of comments. He seemed to be implying he had concerns over the queen’s safety. There is a feeling this may be linked to Andrew who has grown quite close to his mother in recent months.”

Handsy Andy

A former employee of Prince Andrew has come forward to say that the prince “lunged” at her and made suggestive comments when she worked as a live-in PA for him, for three months, 20 years ago. Nicola Palmer, who was just 21 at the time, was wearing a French connection T-shirt which sported the slogan, “Think my pants off.” Palmer said she put the T-shirt on without looking at it after a face pack she had been helping Princess Beatrice with had got on the shirt she had been wearing previously.

She told the Sun: “He looked at my chest. I remember him staring at me, grinning, looking me in the eye and asking me to explain what [the slogan] meant. I froze. I looked at him and said nothing. But then he said, ‘Well, go on.’ It was very strange. I was considerably younger than him, why was he asking me to explain this?

“The next thing, I was fumbling my words and I said, ‘You have to think of me with my pants off.’ I couldn’t think to explain it any other way. And with that he seemed to lunge towards me. I turned to my left and ran upstairs to the attic. I screamed for a split second. I was alarmed. But when I reached the top I turned around, and he was gone.”

Nicola told another member of staff but did not make a formal complaint, the Sun says, believing then that she may have “provoked” Andrew by wearing the top. She added: “If someone did that to me now, I would stand up for myself, but I was in my twenties, I felt privileged to be working there.”

Pippa’s father interviewed over rape allegations

The father of Pippa Middleton’s husband has been questioned twice by a French judge over allegations that he raped a 16-year-old girl in 1998 and 1999, once in Paris and once in the Caribbean, where the family own the luxury Eden Rock Hotel on the island of Saint Barts.

David Matthews, a former racing driver, was arrested in 2018 in Paris over the charges, which he categorically denies, but the investigation has been delayed due to Covid. The accuser’s father told the Mail on Sunday, “The idea that she is doing this for compensation of any reason other than a desire for justice is completely wrong.”

Matthews “was interviewed by Judge Jean Rea in Paris on June 16 and December 7 last year,” the Mail on Sunday says.

Mixed messages

Talk about conflicting signals. After Harry in his interview with Hoda Kotb said that he wasn’t sure if he would be able to come back for the platinum jubilee in June, alluding to security concerns that he claims make the U.K. unsafe for him and his family, the Mail now reports that sources have told them he, “appeared mollified at the plans put in place when he and Meghan visited the queen at Windsor last week.”

The Mail says that while the couple were accompanied by their own security team, they also received official U.K. protection as part of a “hybrid” model. A source told the Mail, “Harry was fairly pleased with the way the operation worked…He believes it means a workable solution can be found, allowing him to come over with his children as early as the platinum jubilee.”

The key straw in the wind to look for will be Harry unwinding his legal action against the British government demanding state protection when visiting the U.K.

Cambridge kids step up

William and Kate’s children are being lined up to play a significant part in the jubilee iconography. The Telegraph reports that George, Charlotte and Louis, (8, 7 and 4) “will take part in events, although their parents are likely to follow the pattern they set for the Duke of Edinburgh’s service of thanksgiving in confirming their attendance only at the last minute.”

A sign of a higher profile to come can perhaps be found in Kate posting a picture of her son Louis to Twitter to mark his fourth birthday.

In other kid Cambridge news, it has been reported that Prince George attended a private school in the Windsor area (believed to be Lambrook prep school) for a trial day fueling rumors that William and Kate are planning a big move to Windsor. The Mail says: “Teachers are understood to have been amused and relieved that the other children in the class did not recognize George or understand his status.”

Making nice

William and Kate’s tour of the Caribbean was widely regarded as sub-optimal after a series of culturally insensitive photo-opportunities allowed the trip to be portrayed as a neo-colonial jolly. Prince Edward and wife Sophie, who touched down in St Vincent and the Grenadines Saturday, after a brief sojourn in St Lucia, are doing better, mainly by avoiding white military uniforms and open top Land Rovers and not greeting locals behind chain link fences.

Still, it’s not all plain sailing. The Mail reports that Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission wrote a letter to the pair stating: “We hear the phony sanctimony of those who came before you that these crimes are a stain on your history. For us, they are the source of genocide and of continuing deep international injury, injustice and racism. We hope you will respect us by not repeating the mantra. We are not simpletons.”

The queen’s love of horses began with ‘warm velvet’

A new book published to coincide with the queen’s Platinum Jubilee reveals where her love of horses come from, the Sunday Times reports. There Once is a Queen, by former children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo, reveals that at a lunch he shared with her in 2016, “She mentioned that she’d been riding ponies for some time and then her daddy had given her for a birthday . . . a horse. She told me how it was to walk down to the yard and there was this horse and she would reach up and touch the neck.”

In his book, Morpurgo writes: “Whenever she went to saddle her horse to go for a ride, she would reach up and lay her hand on his neck, which felt to her like warm velvet.” The Times says the queen “may have been referring to her first Shetland pony, Peggy, a fourth birthday gift from her grandfather, George V.”

This week in royal history

Happy 11^th wedding anniversary later this week to William and Kate, who married on April 29^th, 2011, at Westminster Abbey.

Unanswered questions

Will Harry and Meghan actually show up for the platinum jubilee? Is the balcony invite still extended after he told Hoda Kotb he was protecting the queen, and declined to say if he missed his dad and brother?