GO ON OPRAH? IT’S MADNESS
What Philip really thought about Megxit, by leading biographer
PRINCE Philip thought Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was ‘madness’ and ‘no good would come of it’, it has emerged.
He also regretted his grandson’s decision to quit royal duties and move to the US and said it was ‘not the right thing, either for the country or for themselves’.
Ultimately, however, he accepted it and said: ‘It’s his life.’
Insights into Philip’s thoughts on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision and the deeply acrimonious fall-out as a result of it have been aired by his impeccably connected biographer, Gyles Brandreth, in today’s Daily Mail.
His account comes as royal sources reacted angrily to the suggestion the Duke of Edinburgh would have been ‘unbothered’ by recent events. And one insider told the Mail they believed the schism created by the couple would take a ‘lifetime’ to heal.
In his account, Mr Brandreth described Harry and Meghan’s plan to divide their time between the UK and North America in search of financial independence, while hoping to continue serving the Queen and the Commonwealth on their own terms, as ‘naive’.
In the end the Queen, backed by Prince Charles and Prince William, made clear that this was impossible. Harry and Meghan would have to give up their official roles and would not be able to use their HRH titles for work purposes. Both the Queen and Harry were distressed at the outcome.
Mr Brandreth added: ‘The Duke of Edinburgh was equally sorry “that it should come to this”. Harry had only succeeded his grandfather as Captain General of the Royal Marines in 2017.
‘Philip had done the job for 64 years. Harry had barely managed 30 months. The Duke of Edinburgh was not pleased, nor did he believe that Harry and Meghan were doing the right thing either for the country or for themselves.’
But Philip was sympathetic to Harry’s distrust of the media and supportive of his desire to ‘do his own thing in his own way’.
‘He said to me, “People have got to lead their lives as they think best”,’ Mr Brandreth said.
He added: ‘I know from someone close to him that he thought Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was “madness” and “no good would come of it”. I was not surprised because that is exactly how he described to me the personal TV interviews given by Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, back in the 1990s.’
There has been much criticism that the Sussexes insisted on their explosive interview going ahead last month despite Philip lying seriously ill in hospital.
But Mr Brandreth said of this: ‘The fact that the Meghan and Harry interview was aired while Philip was in hospital did not
trouble him. What did worry him was the couple’s preoccupation with their own problems and their willingness to talk about them in public. “Give TV interviews by all means,” he said, “but don’t talk about yourself ”.
‘That was one of his rules. I know he shared it with his children. I imagine he shared it with his grandchildren, too.’
Ultimately, Philip loved Harry, admired him for his service career and thought him ‘a good man’.
He chose not to get involved with the Sandringham Summit, when details of the Sussexes’ departure were thrashed out last year. Mr Brandreth said Philip responded to the rift by saying: ‘I’ll soon be out of it and not before time.’ Buckingham Palace has confirmed that Harry will attend Saturday’s funeral – the first time he has seen any of his family for more than a year.
The last occasion was when he and Meghan attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March last year.
Meghan will not be attending because she is pregnant, said a spokesman for the couple.
All eyes will be on the body language between Harry and his family during the funeral.
While many hope that the death of Philip may serve to build bridges between Harry and his family, others are more pessimistic. One senior royal source said the situation might take ‘decades’ to resolve.
However, former prime minister Sir John Major told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme that he hoped the funeral would prove an ‘ideal opportunity’ to heal the rift.