‘dictatorial’ harry, his ‘opinionated’ wife and why they don’t want their child growing up in a palace
THE proposition is deliciously intriguing. Two brothers torn apart by a divorced American interloper… two sisters-in-law – one dutiful, one showy – whose ill-concealed hostility helps to prise apart the siblings once thought tied together for life by their accident of birth.
It’s as if the painful history of George VI and his brother, Edward VIII, who abdicated for the love of his brash US bride, Wallis Simpson, to the disgust of his sister-in-law, later Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, is being played out all over again.
Now, piling irony on top of irony, Prince Harry is leaving Kensington Palace, home of his brother, Prince William, to start his married life at Frogmore, where his black sheep great-great uncle Edward is buried with his bride.
There is no doubt, according to multiple sources I have spoken to, that Harry’s marriage to Meghan has hastened the brothers’ decision to go their separate ways in terms of living arrangements.
The former actress’s arrival has indeed rather shaken things up a little, both in terms of what one source described to me as her opinionated personality and Harry’s determination that his new bride should get her own way (“what Meghan wants, Meghan gets”, Harry has said).
And there is no doubt that the new Duchess of Sussex hasn’t forged a particularly close relationship with her brother-in-law’s wife.
She and Kate are simply very different people, although sources insist there has been no dramatic falling out.
But it would be simply wrong to lay this parting of the ways at Meghan’s feet.
As many people with long years of royal service behind them have been at pains to point out to me in recent weeks, Harry, 34, is a grown man now and as strong-willed as his new wife.
“Rather dictatorial”, is how one source, who actually very much likes him, describes the prince. And while he loves his brother and his little niece and nephews, Harry is equally keen to move out.
Not to appease his wife, but because he wants to escape the goldfish bowl of royal life for the sake of his marriage and his unborn child.
It is a move that the sixth in line to the throne believes is for the best of reasons.
Contrary to speculation, the Queen’s cousin, Richard, and his wife, Birgitte, were happy to move out for Harry and his new bride. Indeed, I can reveal that the Gloucesters, whose children have long left home, are moving out in the new year to live in the vastly smaller Stables Cottage in the palace grounds.
Harry simply doesn’t want to bring his family up in such a visible manner as his brother.
Frogmore, which is inside the Windsor security zone (where the main house is open to the public for a couple of days a year only) is secluded, peaceful, tranquil and, most importantly, private.
Work has already started on the cottage, turning it from five staff flats into a five-bedroom home for Harry, Meghan, their two dogs and, eventually, their new baby.
The cost of transforming it will be met by taxpayers.
Any fixtures and fittings and decorating over and above essential work, will be met by the couple, although there is sure to be debate as to why Harry and Meghan don’t fund the entire project themselves.
Frogmore is lovely and will be a beautiful place for the Sussexes to bring up their child. It’s not that far from London and the child will still see plenty of his or her cousins. Harry and Meghan are happy – and deservedly so. |