Eden: Its unfair to put pressure on Prince William to make peace with Harry
One of the royal side-stories which didn’t get much attention this week is the gossip that Princess Beatrice possibly visited King Charles once or twice at Clarence House following his cancer diagnosis. Royal reporters insisted that Beatrice simply lives close-by, at an apartment in St. James’s Palace and that sightings in the area don’t necessarily mean that she visited Charles. Except that Richard Eden slipped that into his latest Daily Mail column, that Charles spent less time with Prince Harry than he did with Beatrice. Fascinating. I have no idea what that means, only that two redheads made a point of seeing Charles in person, all while Charles’s bald heir hasn’t bothered. Here’s more from Eden’s column:
The mounting pressure on Prince William to hold out an olive branch to Harry is ‘grossly unfair’, according to The Daily Mail’s Diary Editor, Richard Eden. The news of the King’s recent diagnosis with an unspecified form of cancer has led to calls from some commentators for William to make the first move towards a reconciliation – despite the criticisms of the Royal Family made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Writing in the latest edition of his Palace Confidential newsletter, Eden says such expectations are both unrealistic and wrong-headed.
‘Harry and Meghan’s behaviour over recent years has been appalling and will have scarcely helped the mental health of the Royal Family members they have betrayed and traduced,’ he says. ‘From what friends of William and Catherine tell me, Harry would need to make a heartfelt apology to them before they could even start the process of rebuilding relations.’
On hearing the news that his father was unwell, Prince Harry issued a statement on Monday that he would be flying to see him. This, says Eden, was done ‘with almost indecent haste.’
He continues: ‘the bulletin came scarcely half an hour after Buckingham Palace had announced that King Charles was suffering from cancer and had begun treatment. Prince Harry’s statement provoked countless articles this week urging the Prince of Wales to use the opportunity of his brother’s visit to mend fences, for the sake of their father…It soon became clear, however, that Prince William had “no plans” to see Harry, who left Britain after just 24 hours, having paid to stay in a hotel rather than sleep in one of the many royal residences in London.’
‘The King met Harry at Clarence House for little more than half an hour. This was, I can reveal, less time than His Majesty spent with Princess Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, the previous day. To me, the pressure on William to welcome his brother back into the fold seems grossly unfair.’
In case you haven’t picked up on it, everyone in the royal media apparatus understands how bad the events of this past week look to outsiders. The dutiful spare, flying fourteen hours to spend a moment with his beloved father, a father who then refused to give his loving son a spare room in the palace for a night. Side-by-side with an heir who is lazy, wrathful, childish, violent and petty, an heir who refuses to see his father face-to-face following the cancer diagnosis, an heir who was only convinced to leave his undisclosed location out of jealousy and hatred for his brother. The fact that Eden confirms the Beatrice gossip is fascinating to me as well. Watch this space, I guess.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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