Royal commentator Robert Jobson, his face still smeared with As Ever jam, has decided to chime in on the royal story of the week: Prince Harry’s GQ interview. Jobson spends a good chunk of this Mail piece bitching about the timing, like Harry personally decided when GQ would publish a video filmed a month ago? There are other complaints and some clear indications of Windsor-led talking points about how no one cares about the Sussexes anymore, and that’s why they’re mad that Harry completely derailed the Oman state visit! Some lowlights:

The timing of Harry’s GQ interview: When public figures give an interview, they ask one thing first. When does it run? Timing can matter more than anything said. Last month the Lord Chamberlain wrote that the Sussexes were ‘akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.’ It appeared to put Harry and Meghan’s noses out of joint. They quickly made it clear they reckoned they were ‘public figures.’ Very well. But the label comes with obligations. Noblesse oblige, as the French say. A private citizen can talk to any magazine on any day. A public figure is expected to know who else is on stage that week. If Harry did have a say in the timing of the interview’s release, either he did not ask, or he did not care.

The GQ interview: The same day [as the state visit], GQ ran its interview with him. In it he said his father is ‘getting better.’ He hopes to reconcile with his brother, and some people, he said, ‘don’t want it to work out.’ He talked about letting go of the past, then said scars ‘stick around forever.’ He urges everyone else to move on while he himself remains stuck. He may not have chosen the date on purpose, or at all. But it beggars belief that nobody checked. The visit was announced on September 3. One call asking GQ to hold it a week and there is no story. Instead, the Palace WhatsApp group for royal correspondents filled with questions not about the King and the state visit, but about Harry, who had upset the apple cart again. This is an escalation. His timing has crossed the King before. Now it crosses William and Catherine as well, both of whom are at the heart of the visit.

Why doesn’t Harry stop answering questions about the royals? Why discuss his father’s health at all? Say the King is working hard, wish him well and leave it there. The King is private about his illness and his son knows it. Nothing has changed since Harry told the BBC last year that he did not know how much longer his father had. The brothers have had no contact. Still Harry tells interviewers he wants William back and William is dragged in. What is William to do with that? Call Condé Nast? Brothers make peace at a kitchen table with the door shut and nobody taking notes. Every public plea tells William that anything said in private may end up in print. Nobody trusts a man who holds press conferences about the negotiations.

They’re mad because Harry dominates the newscycle so easily: Is it foolish or performative? Probably both. These petulant little interviews, given as if the world revolves around him, cast Harry as the wronged brother with open arms and William as the man who will not come to the door. That is unfair and it works. Is he a disruptor, or a younger son crying out to be noticed? Either way, the King’s week becomes Harry’s.

LMAO: William will not take the bait. At the coronation in 2023, he knelt before his father and swore to be his ‘liege man of life and limb.’ This week he kept that oath while his brother worked the press. Harry had not bargained for the contrast. While he talked about himself, William and Catherine dazzled. At the banquet for 160 guests in St George’s Hall, the Princess of Wales shone in a floor-length yellow gown, and the 47-meter table was banked with dahlias and red Guernsey lilies. They knocked the ball straight back into Harry’s court. They were doing the real job. Eight working royals sat down to dinner with the Sultan. Harry and Meghan were not among them. That must be tough for an actress like Meghan to take.

Why won’t Harry subjugate himself to the Windsor cause?? The monarchy is an office, the pinnacle of the state. It demands something close to the subjugation of the self and the late Queen gave that for 70 years. Harry expects the family without the duty and an apology he has never offered. That is having your cake and eating it. His grandmother told him no in 2020. If he thinks the answer has changed, he is deluded.

It was better for the royals when the Sussexes were California-based: California kept the noise down. In Montecito his grievances landed while Brits slept. Now he lives in the UK and his words land on London time, on the day his father greets a Sultan. That was always the fear. Why GQ? There is no royal reason, only self-aggrandizement and brand-building. You cannot sell your family’s story and then ask them for their secrets.

[From The Daily Mail]

My biggest chuckle was “California kept the noise down. In Montecito his grievances landed while Brits slept. Now he lives in the UK and his words land on London time…” Who has the short memory now? These are the same people who wrote similar screeds and threw similarly unhinged tantrums every time Harry spoke when he lived in California. What a rewrite on the California years. And again, if the Sultan of Oman’s state visit was such a dazzling, headline-grabbing affair which completely overshadowed Harry, then why did the palace send out these weepy talking points about how Harry stole their thunder and he needs to shut his mouth?

The larger problems are the same as they’ve ever been, with all parties needing a rethink – the palace cannot continue to keep the Sussexes at arm’s length, outside the tent, pissing in. This six-year stalemate is boneheaded across the board, and the Windsors should probably take ownership for their own poor management of the situation.

Photos and screencaps courtesy of GQ’s video and Cover Images.