High on a ‘holier than thou’ image
Page after page of the explosive biography reveals a sense of injustice and grievance is never far from the surface
IN THE unclouded months following their fairytale wedding, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex enjoyed blanket adulation. Everywhere they travelled – from the four corners of the British Isles to Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji – a joyous welcome awaited. But what emerges from the biography Finding Freedom is basking in such goodwill wasn’t sufficient for the Sussexes.
And to many people, what they did want seemed unclear and their goals rather ill-formed.
Back in mid-2018, though, when the Queen showed Meghan the Royal ropes on a visit to Cheshire, the mood was still upbeat. Asked by a well-wisher that day how she had found her first month as a married Royal, the Duchess simply declared: ‘Wonderful.’
The biography suggests this halcyon phase did not last long.
‘Increasingly Harry had grown frustrated that he and Meghan often took a back seat to other family members,’ it claims, adding they were aggrieved that they had to wait in line behind Prince William or Prince Charles when they planned a tour or new initiative.
What does this tell us about how they viewed their position within the Firm? Despite their superstar status, Harry was, as Charles’s second-born son, some way down the Royal pecking order.
Yet the couple’s apparent frustration suggests they believed popularity trumped tradition, that they were the embodiment of a new Royal class, a golden couple who deserved a freewheeling role.
Refusing to accept that playing second fiddle to Charles and William was a matter of protocol, they began to believe that there was a darker agenda at work. Convinced they were being brought to heel, their wings clipped, they suspected jealousy.
Knowing now how the couple are apt to behave, it is easy to imagine them stewing in their cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
As the biography suggests, they had taken the Royal Family ‘to new heights around the world’ and – in their eyes – made it ‘more relatable’ to those who had never previously been interested. They were a ‘major draw’. So where was their reward?
Some commentators have argued that no one asked Harry and Meghan to modernise the Monarchy, that tradition, stability and longevity have served the Crown well.
These were the days before stories of discontent among their staff were made public.
As their popularity grew, so it is easy to imagine did their sense of entitlement. Never mind Kingin-waiting Charles or William and Kate, the Sussexes were the biggest stars now, so why weren’t they getting top billing?
This goes to the heart of their sense of grievance, and grievance is never far from the story woven by authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
Critics will argue that, however much they railed against the perceived injustices, Harry and Meghan weren’t starring in a Hollywood movie or TV drama but a much longer running show called the Monarchy, with its own time-honoured traditions: duty and tradition chief among them.
They would add that soon after marrying, rather than being observant of the Monarchy’s strictures – knowing their place as some bluntly put it – the couple got above themselves, that they took a ‘holier than thou’ attitude.
Certainly, according to the book, this was the belief of some senior Palace courtiers, the ‘men in grey suits’ as Princess Diana had called them. Harry and Meghan are said to have given this old guard a new name: the vipers.
The couple could not, say Mr Scobie and Ms Durand, understand why so few inside the Palace were protecting their interests.
Soon, the authors claim, the Duke of Sussex formed the view that officials ‘simply didn’t like Meghan and would stop at nothing to make her life difficult’.
The idea of ripping up the rule book, if not cutting loose for good, began to seem appealing.
Change doesn’t happen overnight in the Royal Family. It prefers gentle tinkering to radical modernisation. But Harry and Meghan wanted to move fast.
One way of bypassing protocols and striking back was through their website, sussexroyal.com, which they harnessed as a PR weapon, using it to issue stinging pronouncements both before and after ‘Megxit’. In time they shared their demands for ‘a new way of working’ within the Royal Family. To keep their titles, their privilege and roles, but crucially, to be able to earn their own money with no oversight from the Royal machine.
Unknown to the Queen, Charles or William, the Sussexes had prepared the statement outlining their demands of a ‘half-in, half-out model as if it were a done deal’.
‘The private offices don’t like that type of behaviour,’ a source familiar with the negotiations told the book’s authors. ‘It is deeply unhealthy and unwelcome.’
But it was the Queen and Prince Philip’s ‘devastated’ reaction that surprised Harry and Meghan most. An aide quoted in the book said: ‘The Sussexes were very happy when they sent out the statement. They felt they had got back some sort of control.
‘Was this what she [Meghan] wanted right from the start? But at what price? They deeply wounded the family.’
Inevitably, some suspect that this indeed is what Meghan wanted – that it was all part of a wider, pre-planned scheme. Whether there is any truth in this will likely never be known.
Still, the tactics they deployed were causing concern.
The book notes: ‘Even sources close to Harry and Meghan had to admit that the way the couple were forced to approach the situation (mainly in the act of keeping the family and their team in the dark about their website) “created a lot of ill-will in the household and especially in the family.”’
A growing sense of what resembled paranoia enhanced the
‘They felt they deserved better, that darker forces were at work’
couple’s sense of isolation. And to the dismay of the Palace, they chose to consult less widely.
Not that they were in any way receptive to advice. A Palace insider told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The idea that anyone could tell the Duke and Duchess of Sussex what to do is just laughable.
‘They wanted to have all the Royal perks and privileges, yet be able to use that to earn millions of dollars with no oversight. That was never going to be possible.
‘Now they blame the institution and cry, “We were left with no choice, poor us.” It’s risible.’ Before their move abroad, initially to Canada, the couple were ‘emotionally exhausted’, according to the book. Such was his sensitivity to criticism, Harry even complained about comments made beneath articles about the couple.
He regretted opening the link to one which said: ‘The world would be a better place without Harry and Meghan in it.’
‘His stomach tied into the same knot every time he saw these sorts of comment,’ says the book, which adds Harry openly despaired of such negativity.
More than anything this was a stark example of his paperthin sensitivity. It demonstrates, too, a rather worrying insecurity. Why on earth would a senior Royal be troubled by online trolls?
It also amplified the general atmosphere of distrust.
‘Barely a week went by without an aspect of their internal affairs or matters of private discussions being twisted and leaked to the press,’ the authors claim.
‘They [the Sussexes] felt as though there were very few members of the Palace staff they could trust.’
Before leaving the UK, Harry pressed his case for change to the Queen, his father and a number of key aides.
‘He felt at once used for their [Harry and Meghan’s] popularity, hounded by the press because of the public’s fascination with this new breed of Royal couple, and disparaged back within the institution’s walls for being too sensitive and outspoken,’ claims the book.
It also reveals that Harry and Meghan had initially wanted to create their own individual household in Windsor, where they lived in Frogmore Cottage, after they separated from Kensington Palace.
But senior officials quickly ruled out that option, saying they had to operate under the Buckingham Palace umbrella.
For months the couple tried to air these frustrations but, they claim, ‘the conversations didn’t lead anywhere’. To the couple, persecution manifested itself in all sorts of ways. They were offended when they and baby Archie were left out of the family photos displayed during the Queen’s Speech on Christmas Day.
Palace sources explained that the photos were chosen to represent the line of succession, but this didn’t wash with the Sussexes.
The book claims it was ‘another sign that they needed to consider their own path’.
Elsewhere the book suggests that Harry and Meghan felt sidelined and were not a fundamental part of the Monarchy’s future.
It quotes a source as saying: ‘He feels that there were so many occasions when the institution and his family could have helped them, stood up for them, backed them up, and never did.’
The book, as reported in The Times, addresses reports that Harry was also angered by the suggestion that Meghan was solely responsible for their decision to quit Royal life.
It said it was something he had always hankered after, but that
‘They wanted all the perks and privileges’
Meghan simply ‘opened the door for him’. As for his wife, she tearfully told a friend in March: ‘I gave up my entire life for this family. I was willing to do whatever it takes. But here we are. It’s very sad.’
While she suffered, so too did Harry. For him the most demoralising aspect of the Megxit deal was being stripped of his honorary military appointments.
Once again it was, believe the couple, all so terribly unfair, and they reportedly regarded it as a tough pill to swallow and one that has been most painful for Meghan to witness Harry go through.
‘It’s the one that made Harry emotional,’ said a source.
Speaking about the military appointments, Meghan later told a friend: ‘It was so unnecessary.
‘And it’s not just taking something away from him; it’s also that entire military veteran community.
Royalty as an institution has survived by being more than the sum of its parts, by letting actions do the talking.
This week a new ITV television documentary celebrates the 70th birthday of that most unstuffy of royals, Princess Anne.
She says: ‘People talk about being trained to become a member of the Royal Family. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but there is no such thing, it’s just learning by experience.
‘But hardly ever does anything go quite according to plan. You have to learn that.’
Harry and Meghan would do well to tune in.