It’s been less than 24 hours and I’m already exhausted by the British media’s insistence on turning King Charles’s cancer into a story about Prince William and Prince Harry. I have no idea what’s coming from Kensington Palace or what’s coming from royalists merely spinning their wheels and creating these bizarre narratives about who needs to forgive whom. As I’ve said a few times now, I absolutely get the sense that some of these royalist newspapers are basically giving a pep talk to William, they’re telling him what they need him to do now, which is show up for his father and reconcile with his brother. William hates being told what to do though. Whenever anyone tries to give him orders, it makes him dig in his heels and refuse to do anything. Well, Richard Kay at the Mail wrote an overwrought piece about William’s emotions right now, as William deals with an ill wife, a father with cancer and a brother who escaped the Windsors’ toxic prison. Some highlights:

William’s sacrifices: It is not hard to imagine the confusion of emotions that will be flooding through Prince William’s mind today: sadness and anxiety at his father’s illness but also bewilderment at the enormity of the challenge now facing him and the inevitable sacrifices he will be forced to make. The parallels with those that confronted his beloved grandmother more than 70 years ago are striking. The then Princess Elizabeth was 25 and a young mother when she so unexpectedly succeeded her father as monarch. She and Prince Philip had every reason to hope that they had a good ten years of family life ahead of them before the responsibility of the throne would intervene. William is 16 years older than his grandmother was at that pivotal moment and his children are older, but his sense of expectation for the future would have been no less. And while he is not about to be king, his life in every other way is going to change.

Harry is a distraction?? Quite how much of his father’s schedule will now pass to the Prince is not clear. But the news that he will step up comes with an added distraction — Prince Harry’s decision to hasten to his father’s side. While it was inconceivable that Harry would not want to fly to Britain once bulletins about Charles were issued, his presence will serve as a reminder of just how fractured the Royal Family has become since the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022. It will be the first time he has seen his father since the Coronation in May last year. To the relief of courtiers, the Duke of Sussex will apparently be making the journey without his wife Meghan.

William must emulate QEII: The brothers are not thought to have exchanged a word for many months, their relationship apparently shattered by Harry’s memoir, Spare. In the book, published a year ago, Harry accused William of physically attacking him, and Kate of being cold towards Meghan. As he grapples with his new responsibilities, William’s thoughts will almost certainly turn to how his grandmother would have dealt with such a princely incursion. He may also draw some strength from the dignity with which the late Queen confronted her destiny all those decades ago. She did so, of course, from a position of strength. Public affection for her father King George VI for the way he steered the nation through the Abdication upheaval and the dark days of World War II ran deep when she came to the throne in 1952. William comes to the fore with the monarchy in crisis.

William is not a lobbyist: ‘[William and Kate] have a very cosy life down there at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Great Park, but it does require a lot of moving parts to work well,’ says a friend. Their staff are still based in London and meetings often have to take place at Windsor Castle. The contrast between father and son as Princes of Wales could not be greater. While Charles — like William — is passionate about what he believes in, he was also by nature a lobbyist. William is not. He has his core interests — homelessness, mental health and conservation — but does not spread himself thinly as his father once did. William has no interests in the arts, for example. But, for now at least, William is going to have to cover a lot more ground than he usually prefers. He is almost certain to take on his father’s role in receiving arriving and departing foreign diplomats.

How will William cope?? So how will he cope? And, more importantly, what does this change to his status mean for his relationship with Harry? Certainly, say friends, William has the stuff to be dynamic, and some believe having to take up these additional responsibilities may be the making of him, raising both his profile and his visibility.

William doesn’t trust Harry: Where Harry is concerned, his view has diverged from the King’s. While Charles has been torn by the conflict between his sons and has longed for a rapprochement, William is convinced that trust, the basis of any relationship, has been utterly destroyed. Harry’s arrival will test William’s resolve. Will he agree to see him, and in time agree to a rapprochement as his father surely wishes? Or will the status quo remain? Charles’s illness and his recovery may determine that outcome.

[From The Daily Mail]

“To the relief of courtiers, the Duke of Sussex will apparently be making the journey without his wife Meghan.” We get it, even in a crisis, the Windsors cling to their racism like a security blanket and they want it known far and wide that they despise a Black woman who outshone all of them. As for the rest of it… even Kay couldn’t stick to the William/QEII comparison – QEII became the monarch when she was 25. William will turn 42 years old this year. It’s not the same thing at all and the comparison actually offends me. Anyway, all of this focus on will-he-or-won’t-he reconcile with Harry might end up blowing up in all of their faces if Harry only breezes in for a few days and only sees Charles.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.