Prince Harry and those friends who fall by the wayside
The friends who fall by the wayside – whether you’re Harry and Meghan or not
The chum who instigated naked billiards with showgirls was never going to survive the nuptials
You may have been keeping up with the regular titbits from the book about Meghan and Harry breaking free from the terrible life they had and starting over. If you haven’t, the most surprising thing about the revelations is how relatable they are. Seriously, sometimes it feels like everything that’s happened to Harry and Meghan has happened to us, too.
For example: Meghan thought her sister-in-law would become her closest ally and then it turned out she was more like a regular sister-inlaw – and they never even went shopping together.
Or how about this: Meghan loved to wear relaxed California casuals but found that there were situations when she was required to put away the yoga pants and pull on a nice modest frock. Same!
And then this week we learnt that Harry’s oldest friend, Tom Inskip – his inseparable pal through thick and thin and all those Hangover 2 japes – did not make the post-marriage cut. How familiar does that sound?
The suggestion is that “Skippy” put his foot in it and recommended that Harry move in with Meghan before “doing anything more serious”. But whether that’s true or not, the writing was on the wall for the Skipster the minute Meghan came on the scene, and it would have been whomever Harry married.
There are friends who survive the settling down phase and there are friends who fall by the wayside, and the chum who instigated the naked billiards with showgirls in LA weekend – whose main job was as booze and chicks provider, and embarrassing pranks wingman – was never going to survive the nuptials.
Back in civilian life, he’s the friend of the groom who crashes on the newlyweds’ sofa while he’s between flats (for six months) and wakes up the neighbours trying to get in over the back fence. Or she’s the messy female friend who always has one spare ticket to a steamy gig and really wants “someone” to give her a baby.
Lovely, lovely people, just not friends for taking with you forever. We all know this. Friends get to forks in the road, want different things and go their separate ways. Who knows, Skippy’s wife would probably have banned Harry from the Inskip home if Meghan hadn’t come along to re-educate him.
It’s not just marriage that precipitates a friend cull. Divorce will do it. Money will do it – people who get rich need to hang out with people who are similarly rich or everyone starts to feel uncomfortable.
A dramatic change in status will tilt the scales in favour of the influential, or the not easily overawed, and those friends who accept that they now need to fit around the big hitter and make their life easy.
A new job will do it: you may work and socialise with people you’ve loved for years, but once you’ve moved on, the chances of keeping more than one going, long term, is zero.
Other reasons why friends might fall by the wayside include: them moving away (but only if you were sort of on a break anyway). Them having children you cannot be around (but that can work out, 20 years on). Them getting very clean living when you’re still incapable of having fun without a few glasses of rosé.
Them getting seduced by a fancy new set and ignoring you for years on end, after which you feel they should be punished (you may relent, depending on how far back you go). Them gazumping you on a house (could happen) or stealing your partner (seen that happen and actually, oddly, give it 15 years and you’re all over that, too.)
So the demise of the Harryskippy bromance is just life. Very relatable, I’m sure you’ll agree.