ROYAL NO MORE
Harry’s bittersweet farewell
THE STRAIN SHOWS ON THE SUSSEXES’ EMOTIONAL LAST DAY
It was the end of an era. Prince Harry, accompanied by wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, carried out his final engagement as a senior member of the royal family last week.
But what was undoubtedly a poignant occasion for the prince unfortunately also appeared to be an extremely awkward and uncomfortable one.
As he attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey with his family for the last time, Harry
(35) looked pensive and ill at ease. His interactions with brother Prince William and sister-in-law Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, were described as frosty and strained too.
But royal insiders are divided over whether Harry’s demeanour was due to the fact that he was desperate to get the event out of the way so he can get on with his new life in Canada with Meghan (38) and their son Archie (10 months), or whether he was actually extremely emotional about leaving the role he was born into.
“Harry looked like he really didn’t want to be there,” says one observer. “It could have been this was a tricky time for him, and perhaps it was sinking in that this really was the end of his royal life, at least as he has always known it. He could have been overwhelmed by it all.
“But it looked more like he couldn’t wait to get it over and done with.”
Royal biographer Robert Hardman described Harry as distracted and subdued. “It was a case of grin and bear it.”
In a striking green Emilia Wickstead dress, Meghan, by contrast, was poised and sported a megawatt smile.
“The duchess beamed away all afternoon, to the point of facial exhaustion,” says Robert.
Another commentator believes Meghan looked as though she was drawing on all her acting skills to give the impression that the occasion wasn’t the trial it surely must have been.
“This was her last appearance as a senior royal – she was obviously giving it her all and possibly trying to buoy up
Harry, who looked very down.”
Her husband’s behaviour – and Meghan’s apparent determination to go out on a high note – may have, in part, been a response to a change in arrangements that left them a little out in the cold.
According to some sources, they were told shortly before the service that they would not be entering the abbey as part of the formal procession with the Queen (93), as they did last year. Instead, they were instructed to take their seats before the arrival of Harry’s grandmother, his father Prince Charles and stepmother Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
William (37) and Kate (38) had been due to walk in with the Queen. But a palace insider says the Cambridges said no to doing that in an attempt to diffuse the tense situation, offering instead to join Meghan and Harry in the abbey before the VIP party made their entrance. Unfortunately, 2000 orders of service had already been printed listing them as arriving with the Queen and couldn’t be changed.
“The fact that William and Kate offered to arrive earlier was a thoughtful gesture,” says the insider.
“Apparently Harry and
Meghan were upset to learn they had been dropped from the VIP party for what was their final appearance as senior royals.”
However, there was no sign of goodwill between the two couples when they met up at the abbey. Harry and Meghan took their seats next to his uncle and aunt, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and when William and Kate arrived shortly afterwards there was an obvious lack of warmth.
Harry appeared to say hello while Meghan smiled and waved, but there was hardly any reaction from Kate and William, who quickly took their
seats. They turned to talk to Edward (56) and Sophie (55) who were sitting behind them; and Edward and Sophie also spoke to Meghan and Harry, but there was no chit-chat between the brothers and their wives.
“This could so easily – with the merest of smiles and waves, or even the barest of conversations – have been an occasion of reconciliation in front of the cameras,” points out royal commentator Tom Sykes.
“Instead it was an excruciating ignore-athon – a masterclass of social distancing.
“If this is what things are like when this lot is on their best behaviour, imagine being a fly on the wall when all hell broke loose between them at Kensington Palace.”
The Cambridges appeared to later make another conciliatory gesture when they published a series of photos from the event on their @KensingtonRoyal instagram account that included flattering individual shots of Harry and Meghan. The Sussexes also posted pictures from the Commonwealth Day service, but only of themselves.
Body language expert Judi James says Harry’s tension was palpable just before the service when William appeared not to greet him, and the siblings seemed awkward when they first saw each other.
“It wasn’t the warm reunion we were all hoping for.”
Harry continued to look uneasy when his father and grandmother arrived.
“While Meghan curtsied and flashed a warm smile at the
Queen and Prince Charles,
Harry appeared to be fiddling with his programme and later seemed to be tapping it on his knee during the actual service.
“His facial expression looked distant and his accelerated blinking even suggested he might have been fighting back tears sitting behind all the family members he would be saying goodbye to.”
However, once the other royals left after the service, Harry changed completely, says Judi. There are shots of him looking animated as he chatted with boxer Anthony Joshua after.
“Harry suddenly looked like a man reluctant to leave a party, throwing a ‘thumbs up’ gesture to Anthony over his shoulder.
“Laughing and joking with the people outside, Harry’s relief was so tangible. Holding Meghan’s hand again, he looked like a man who felt he’d got the most difficult moments over and who could now return to being ‘just Harry’ again with his wife and son.”
Meanwhile, another body language expert says Harry looked worn out. “It looks like he hasn’t slept,” says Patti Wood. “That’s what it looks like when a man has come back to the barracks or back from the line of battle and they’re sort of in that dizzy place.”
William, however, appeared to be angry, judging by the way he clenched his fist and lips.
“The fist is an indication he is suppressing a slight amount of anger and if you go all the way up to the mouth, he’s doing a lip compression, which also says,
‘I’m suppressing my true emotional state.’ The furrowed brow says it’s anger as well.”
Patti believes William has “conflicted feelings” and was doing his best to hide his emotions, but footage of him after the ceremony shows “an angry glare”.
That concealed anger could be a sign that the rift between the brothers is still not healed.
But a palace insider suggests it could also mean that William is angry that the situation with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has come to this.
“William clearly doesn’t approve of the way his brother and sister-in-law have gone about doing things and there is no hiding the tension.
“But perhaps on this occasion William’s emotion was related to the fact that after so many years as a team this is the last time his brother will be at an occasion like this with him, and he wishes things could have been different.
“This whole episode must be very hard for him too. Harry has been his royal wingman for a long time; now that relationship is no more.”