Before Prince Philip passed away, the British media was in full-blown hype mode for Prince William and Prince Harry’s possible reunion on July 1st in London, for this fakakta “statue unveiling” at Kensington Palace. Their mother’s birthday was July 1st, so that’s when they scheduled the statue-unveiling, for what would be Diana’s 60th birthday. Hugely symbolic, but also massively inconvenient because of Meghan’s “early summer” due date and because of, you know, the global pandemic. Why not reschedule it? Is it because the British media just wants something to obsess over and this is apparently it? I guess.
Prince Harry’s return to the UK for Princess Diana’s statue unveiling is in “serious doubt” after the royal rift, experts claim. It was previously thought that William and Harry would unite at the exhibition of their mum’s statue in July – after months of tension between the pair. But experts are now doubtful that the Duke will return this summer – with Meghan unlikely to make the trip to the UK too.
Phil Dampier, author of Royally Suited: Harry and Meghan In Their Own Words, told the Sun Online: “I personally don’t think Meghan will return to the UK. And there must now be a serious doubt as to whether Harry will come over for the unveiling of a statue for Princess Diana on what would have been her 60th birthday in July.”
Phil Dampier out here with the breaking news that a newly postpartum woman will be unlikely to travel internationally in a pandemic just to stand there and be dissected by the media. Of course Meghan will stay home. As for Harry, I’ll say it again – I wish he wouldn’t go to this thing. It’s clear that his brother, his father and his sister-in-law are going to try to use him as a pawn in whatever psychodrama they’ve sold to the media. These British commentators are going to keep pressing on this too, and they’ll keep insisting that Harry *must* come and that it will be some massive deal if he stays in California with his new baby and postpartum wife.
Meanwhile, there was this bizarreness from Entertainment Tonight:
Despite Prince Harry’s strained family relationships, he was happy to be back in his home country for the funeral of his grandfather, Prince Philip, earlier this month, a source tells ET. Harry arrived in the U.K. on April 11 for the funeral on April 17, and was back in Montecito, California, with his pregnant wife, Meghan Markle, and their 1-year-old son, Archie, by April 21. A source close to Harry says he was grateful he was able to spend some time in London and “wished he’d been able to stay a bit longer.”
The source also says that despite reports that some interactions with his family were “frosty,” he welcomed the opportunity to reconnect particularly since the coronavirus pandemic has prevented him and Meghan from returning over the last year. According to the source, Harry has been working with his brother, Prince William, on the upcoming commemoration to their mother, the late Princess Diana, which is scheduled for later this summer on what would have been her 60th birthday in July.
While relationships were “raw” in the aftermath of Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, both brothers “remain fully committed to carrying on Diana’s legacy jointly,” the source adds.
Yeah, probably not. The stories I believe from William and Harry’s brief funeral reunion is that William was terse and frosty and that Harry didn’t spend much time with his brother or his father. I also believe the stories about how Harry and William are mostly communicating via staffers. So whatever. I hope Harry waits until the very last minute and then cancels his appearance at the statue unveiling.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
This feels like he already told them no – 1) because he’s having another baby with his wife and 2) their complete awfulness at a funeral. This is like the will they or won’t they around the patronages or the uniforms. The discussion’s been had already but the papers need to drum up sales and the Palaces know people only care about things, sometimes even Diana related things, when there’s a chance to have Willnot and Harry together.
Yes, I really don’t understand why people would think or hope he would pick a statue over his wife and newborn. It makes zero sense to me. It’s just a STATUE. It will always be there later for you to visit. There are better ways to honor your mother than this.
You stay home Harry and enjoy your family!
Second that!
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
And by “home” we mean California. Enjoy your wife and kids and celebrate your independence with the rest of us on July 4th.
If meghan is due around that time he most likely won’t go. I actually hope he won’t go period. Its become glaringly obvious that the rest of his relatives don’t know how to behave.
And for the last time… relationships between harry and the RF are raw because they failed him when he needed them the most. Not because of the oprah interview
It is almost unreal to me about how the “journalists” in bed with the royals gloss over the racism, jealousy, abuse of Harry and Meghan, and jump straight to H&M’s “attack” on the royals through the dreaded Oprah interview.
They both vile and racists and each and every day they prove Harry told the truth our their symbiotic relationship.
He should not go alone and leave Meghan and the children. It would bring up the unpleasant comments that he needs to be with his brother and sister in law like the “good old days” (LOL) and all get along better without Meghan, etc etc etc.
I feel like he has already told them that he won’t go. Then again. This is for his mother and i think that if he could go he would. I always thought that meg is due early june but this does make me wonder if it might be closer around the 1st of july and that thats why he informed them that he won’t be there. I would LOVE it if meg gave birth on the first LOL. It would make certain heads in the royal households explode.
Somehow, I doubt Diana would want him to leave his new baby and toddler to fly internationally to be around his awful family to commemorate her being separated permanently from her children. How does the RF come from a tradition so steeped in literary irony and have no sense of it themselves?
Remember, the media that killed his mother are the ones who most want him to go.
Right, they keep acting like he hadn’t left the year before because he was upset with them, lol. And like the other royals had been bitching about Harry and Meghan for the past nearly three years. But oh no, its all the fault of the Oprah interview! Everything was fine until that happened! *eye roll*
I am surprised ET is going along the same lines than the British tabloid…like everybody with common sense knows that their beef was before Oprah so why are they implying Oprah was the cause? Like Wapo with their expert who said they wanted to be celebrities like British media was saying…some American media are adopting those British distorted views…
US coverage of MH is def better than British tabloids but it’s still been largely disappointing. I’m not sure but I think it’s bc they’re considered celebrities and it’s gossip so the WP or CNN says we get a lot of traffic for anything MH so let’s talk about them without doing any analytical due diligence. It’s viewed as gossipy and superficial so they don’t put much effort into it, which is just wrong and offensive on so many levels. I’m waiting for an editorial or news comment or who really gets it and knows all the ins and outs to really cover them. Otherwise it’s just hits and misses and misogyny but still better than anything going on with the Brit press.
Doesn’t ET get their royal correspondence from Lyin’ Katie Nicholl??
@MsIam exactly.
I actually had an idiot on twitter try to sell this: In your media maybe. In the UK media it is critical of all of them. The press changed the day after Oprah. That was when the UK decided to focus on the positive. Bigging up Kate etc. We went into a national state of shock. I’ve never watched anything like it in the UK media
One would have to be a masochist to want to go back to that cesspool of racists. I would not be surprised if Harry skips the ceremony and their stupid attempts to tie him to the stinking wreck the monarchy has become.
The Royals are making Papa Markle look tame.
Every time the RF gets called “frosty,” I’m picturing a tall softserve drizzled with sauces and candies, and I get all giddy. That word just evokes memories of childhood summer roadtrips and stopping at Frosty Freeze for a decadent treat I’d never otherwise be allowed.
I love how they always say “While relationships were “raw” in the aftermath of Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March”….like, no, they were raw after Harry’s family threw him and his wife under the bus repeatedly. Things are only “raw” for the racist a$$holes who were called out for their treatment of Meghan.
I think Harry has already told the Palace that he won’t be there but KP is keeping quiet so that the media can get some mileage from the speculation over whether Harry will come or not.
I hope he won’t go. He’ll have a new baby and there’s still a pandemic. He shouldn’t be taking unnecessary flights!
He is damned if he goes and damned if he stays home, to the vile British tabloids. They will rip him to pieces whatever he does, guaranteed. Meghan will have just had the baby so he has a better reason to stay home. I kind of hope he just turns his back for good on those horrible people. The media and his own family have treated him and Meghan so outrageously, he owes them absolutely nothing.
“But experts are now doubtful that the Duke will return this summer – with Meghan unlikely to make the trip to the UK too.”
Experts on what? Making up bullshit articles like this? Phil Dimbulb doesn’t seem to know much about women who have just given birth – it’s not possible to take a 10 hour flight with a weeks old baby during a pandemic Phil.
Another thing about that quote is that Harry gets to be “the Duke” but Meghan only gets to be “Meghan.” If they set the sentence up by referring to Harry as the Duke, it would make sense to refer to Meghan as the Duchess, as the titles go together and show their relationship to each other as a married couple. But nope, can’t have that. We get a lot of “Prince Harry” and “Duke of Sussex” in these type of articles, and the other royals get referred to as “Prince William,” “Prince Charles,” and “the Duchess of Cambridge,” but Meghan is always just “Meghan” sometimes “Markle.” It drives me crazy, it’s just so disrespectful and another way to make her less than. And these sorts of consistent, but almost unnoticeable, disrespectful digs at her n articles like this do make a difference in the way people think about her, even if they only subconsciously register the difference in language.
I so agree with you, thank goodness Megs knows her own self worth and no one can take that away from her
I follow the relationship and Am I the Asshole subreddit a and it never ceases to astound me how the family member who has been constantly dragged through the mud and abused, is expected to be the one to do all the work to fix the relationship they didnt break.
The Windsors are mentally abusive and more people should use that word when referring to them and their collaboration with tabloid scum
Yes please! Thank you for calling a spade a spade. This family is abusive. The abusive family is in an abusive relationship with the abusive Royal Rota. Harry has every right to let these two abusive entities feed on their own churn and ignore them while he welcomes his new daughter.
I think he has already told them Nope on the statue unveiling, or he has told the staffers to forget his phone number.
Yes!! I have spent most of my life being mentally and emotionally abused and dealing with overcoming it. I was gaslight long before the term was used. The Windsors absolutely are abusive. the ignoring of and denying. We don’t remember it that way BS. The family especially Willnot, are abusive jerks!!!!!l. So thankful our little Montecito family is safe
Interesting how Harry is only allowed to officially commemorate certain things – Diana, but not fallen soldiers. I’m not a Royal Expert, but imagine Harry has been “commemorating” his mother’s death every day for the past 24 years.
Is this more Katie Nichols fanfic?
Meghan looks further along in her pregnancy than this, but it would be so funny if the baby was born that same day.
That was what I was thinking.
I don’t believe the ET source, who is it? Megan and Harry are not leaking, they run a tight ship. Did he offhand tell a flight attendant or other person “oh geez, would be great to be here more!” like you do when conversing with someone you don’t know well? I just don’t buy that he would be leaking this and that is true deep in his heart. Perhaps he said it to palace staffers in a diffusing, polite conversation way, but I am not buying what ET is selling. It isn’t H&M’s way.
They actively tried to kill his wife and son. Full stop. Why in the world would he want to go back?
It’s a good question Hazza would have to answer. He doesn’t seem as done with that place as he ought to be, but time will tell
Him being a class act and not behaving like the royals doesn’t mean he is not done.
What gets me is that the “experts” call the pregnancy an excuse. It’s as if they believe Harry should leave his family if Meghan is in labor on June 30. I think they truly believe they think the statue is more important than Harry’s family. If Meghan gives birth in early June or isn’t due until late July I think Harry would go. I do think it’s important to him and the RF are insignificant to his plans.
Louise177, But is it important enough to him to leave his wife and new born daughter? What do you think Diana would want for him? IMO she would want him to stay with his wife and children. She NEVER had that love or support from her husband, and would be thrilled that Harry and Meghan have that.
I feel so terribly bad for Harry on this occasion. They wouldn’t even put a wreath on Diana’s grave at Harry’s request. Now RF wants to be the sole “owners” of Diana’s image and name, after they excoriated, hounded and belittled her, ultimately leading to her death. The petty and major cruelties, Charles alleging that Diana called off her royal security, when it’s very probable Charles cut her off, just like he did with Harry, and lied about it too. The RF is trying to cut off Harry’s legacy as Diana’s son to punish him and co-opt Diana’s life for their own selfish motives. Bloodless and bloodthirsty.
Personally, he should not go. His place is with his newborn and his wife. No one knows what kind of state she’ll be in after birth. What if she has to have a c-section? What if she has baby blues or lost-part in depression? And regardless if she has none of those there is a toddle who has just entered his terrible twos and a new born baby. I would be FURIOUS if my husband was taking off for a fucking stair and leaving me home with the very young kids. That statue is a non emergency.
But it’s Meghan’s husband so if she feels like it’s not a problem, then more power to her, but it couldn’t be me.