Whenever a certain word or phrase appears in different royal articles written by different royal reporters, my antenna goes up. I feel like I’ve gotten better at spotting the talking points, although to be fair, the talking points have gotten very obvious in recent years. Whether it’s Prince William shrieking down the phone at reporters that Prince Harry is “like a Kardashian,” or all of the rota using the exact same language to describe King Charles’s disinterest in all things Sussex, the royal courts are definitely leaving their fingerprints all over these talking points. So, weirdly, there must have been a new Buckingham Palace briefing over the weekend, all about Harry and the “peace summit,” not to mention Harry’s trip to Angola.
Apparently, everyone now believes that Harry is attempting a “reset” on his image. From Rhiannon Mills at Sky News: “…But with other headlines this week, I couldn’t help but feel like we could be looking at the beginning of a reset for Harry. Harry has worked with the Halo Trust for some time, and it’s clearly still a priority for them to highlight the dangers faced by those living with the potential dangers of landmines in Angola. But it also feels like part of a push to get Harry out on more public engagements.” Guess who else is talking about “Harry’s reset”? Celia Walden, aka Mrs. Piers Morgan.
The images were striking. The Duke of Sussex in a “HALO Trust” flak jacket just like the one his mother wore 28 years ago, walking down a path in an active landmine field in Angola. Harry made the unannounced trip last week because: “Children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school,” he said. Because he clearly feels a responsibility to continue Diana’s legacy and clear those last thousand minefields. But also, I suspect, as part of the general “reset” he seems to have embarked on – kicked off by that “peace summit” in London a fortnight ago.
I’m not accusing Harry of cynicism. Far from it. Nobody could dispute the personal passion he has brought to the HALO project, and watching footage of Harry setting off a controlled explosion with charity workers and talking to local schoolchildren reminded me how effortlessly he can interact with people in even the most stilted situations.
In recent years we’ve got used to him looking either tortured in public or like some AI-generated do-gooder – when in fact, like his mother, Harry was always a natural “people person”, his empathy never coming across as manufactured (unlike his wife’s). Then the blame game began, the bitterness set in, and the rest is history.
Reading a piece on Sunday about Harry’s repeated claims “that his mental health struggles were passed on through ‘bad parenting’”, I was struck by how hard it is to reconcile the determined victim, blaming every ill on his upbringing, with the brave, purposeful figure in those Angola pictures.
A lot of that bravery and conviction will have been passed down to him not just by Diana, but his father. Because taking your royal duties seriously and never once shirking responsibility is nothing if not brave. And yes, being a single prince will have been a little different to being a single dad, but Charles had the added challenge of raising an heir, and according to royal writer, Ingrid Seward – author of the biography, My Mother and I – the late Queen, for one, “felt her son had pulled himself together and done well with both William and Harry since the separation and divorce from their mother.”
…But if this really is a “reset”, he will now need to call time on pointing out his family’s failings, take responsibility for his own actions and do whatever it takes to heal that rift before it’s too late. He’s just walked down a path in an active landmine field. I’m confident he can find the mental strength.
I’m always sort of aghast when I read British royalists’ ham-fisted attempts to faux-psychoanalyze Harry within their narrow little worldview. They’re furious about so much involving the Sussexes, but one of their most bizarre furies is that Harry started going to therapy and it changed his life and he wanted to become a better man. The system in which they want to force Harry to come back to is a system predicated on Harry’s neglect, pain, punishment and suffering. They need him to stay screwed up so that he’ll stay stuck in there forever, without any kind of exit ramp, like Princess Margaret.
As for Harry’s “reset”… Buckingham Palace should tread carefully. And even more than that, BP should stop briefing about Harry. Whenever Harry and Meghan do anything at all, these people twist themselves in knots to convince themselves that the Sussexes are being conniving, that there’s some hidden Sussex agenda at play. Harry went to Angola because the timing was right for him, and I would imagine the trip was months in the making (The Halo Trust’s CEO was even on the ground for Harry’s visit).
Prince Harry has followed in his mother's footsteps in Angola by raising awareness of The Halo Trust's work to clear landmines.
Princess Diana visited the country in January 1997 seven months before she was killed in a car crash in Paris.
Read more ➡️ https://t.co/hxZaW6VYOj pic.twitter.com/LKHJwh7gpt
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 16, 2025
Photos courtesy of The Halo Trust’s social media.
He is the only member of the BRF that has a good reputation / image globally.. he will always draw attention and be in demand.. now that they have their businesses up and running I imagine we will see Prince Harry and his charity visits regularly
HARRY IS THE ONLY WORKING ROYAL 🤩🤩
“ Because taking your royal duties seriously and never once shirking responsibility is nothing if not brave.”
Oh Celia, if you only had as much energy to write on Willy’s Greek holiday getaway as you do on Harry’s trip to Angola over landmines.
I can definitely see which brother is shirking his responsibility.
Mrs Morgan has it wrong. Brave is Harry walking away from all he has known to make better life for himself and his family.
Harry doesn’t have to “reset his image”!! He is a good person who deals with his charities in the best possible way. He is a good human! It’s the lazies who try to reset their images by throwing shit at Harry and they think this is good for their images but THEY ARE SO VERY WRONG!!! The lazies are on Greek holiday with all the perks and bells and whistles (which they don’t deserve) so let’s shit on Harry.
I had to give up reading the article when I saw the aside bitch at Meghan.
The sideswipe was so unnecessary and yet so inevitable.
The entire royal apparatus is spiraling into oblivion because both the King and heir have poor mental health.
Using phrases like “single prince” and “Single dad” in reference to Charles in an article about Harry is a cheap way to acclimate the public (her readers) that Single Dad Prince Harry is a good thing! Just get rid of manufactured empathy Princess of Color Meghan
This is not Harry’s first visit to this country nor will it probably be his last based on the 3 year commitment the President of the country announced. Senator Chris Coons spoke highly of Harry at his last visit a couple of years ago. since those gutter rats cannot speak on anything of value the Wales contribute, they come out in mass to denigrate the Sussexes. Oh well, we have seen this playbook time and time again. Harry’s goal was accomplished, the global press followed his every move and reported on it. Thus keeping awareness of this country’s plight in the public conscious
Didn’t the press tell us that Harry was resetting his image when he went to NY last September and to Ukraine earlier this year? It’s also interesting that the press didn’t call this visit to Angola as a faux royal tour either. The British press is so deluded that they think that this trip is an indication that Harry wants to return to royal duty when in reality this is Harry doing charity work and speaking engagements on his own terms without interference from the Palace or the press.
Wasn’t IG this year also? Was that also him resetting his image then? Harry has stayed committed and consistent to his charities and causes. There is really nothing new here. He’s given interviews about his life, which made royalists mad, continued a life of service, and supported Meghan in her “commercial” ventures. We also keep hearing that Harry may even go into some sort of commercial venture. The idea of a reset is very much like okaaaay? What’s actually different here? Nothing. Except for the fact that his people spoke with his dad’s people. That part is new, sure. But Harry said in an interview that he wanted to be on speaking terms with his dad so it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. Is BP or KP briefing this reset narrative? I guess but it comes across as super silly for the reporters to even be amplifying it.
I love how at the end she’s basically saying “But if the story I made up in my head is really true…”
Everytime Harry and Meghan do something it’s called a reset or rebranding. They’ve been doing what they’ve always been doing. It’s really annoying.
Harry has consistently done “under the radar” charity/cause visits since leaving the Salty Isle and he’ll continue to do so as long as the need is there. There is no need for a “reset” because there’s nothing wrong or needing to be fixed, Harry simply doesn’t care about the opinions of the British press and their minions and I don’t really think he cares about the opinions of the average British royalist, he knows how that all works and how fake it really all is.
Recently, with atrocities so widespread and so visible with our phones, I feel like I’m gaining so much more insight into the colonial mindset, as it exists today. This, for me, takes the RR reporting from merely bizarre and smug to more horrifying and emblematic of how this mindset and the violence that accompanies it continues. It’s just so blatant. Somehow, I continue to be shocked by it.
Thanks to global interconnection the colonial playbook is more visible and widely discussed.
People are able to witness the Sussexes succeed and have conversations about their success causing the propaganda media talking points to fizzle off quickly when they push them. It’s one of the reasons for the frequent discombobulated reactions when their deranged newspaper columns, talk show commentaries, social media posts or YouTube rants fail against the Sussexes continued success. Meghan was successful before she married Harry and the tabloids have tried and failed to eliminate the history of her success.
The British wiped out the history of the nations they colonized and rewrote the stories in their favor, forcing us to accept their written history as fact. They are trying to do the same with the Sussexes but continue to face roadblocks mainly due to a dedicated group of Sussex supporters who push back on a daily basis against the lies. To some I think it’s a labor of love, to others I think it is an ancestral cause for those who suffered and continue to suffer the scars of colonialism. 😢
Same talking points as last fall when Harry was traveling solo to support his charities. The tabloids go in circles like the earth around the sun. Rehashing stories/storylines and/or rewriting history is part of the ethos of ‘royal reporting’.
The ‘royal reporters’ exist to push royal propaganda. They have to maintain a good relationship with the royal household’s communications team at BP (Charles) and KP (William) to get information for their propaganda columns otherwise they’ll eventually be unemployed if they are considered a nuisance to the royal household. The propaganda from ‘royal reporters’ is usually obfuscated by convoluted timelines and quotes from anonymous sources represented as insiders or friends. Whenever there is an investigative story on the royals it is usually from the Whitehall/political reporters’ desk of the publishers to remind the royals of the invisible contract between them and the media and those are generally sourced with ‘on the record’ quotes and supporting documentation like the slumlord story.
The invisible contract is very much intact. 🤷🏽♀️
They’re still blaming the assault victim for reporting the assault, instead of the criminal who deserved to be called out. These tabloids can f– off.
No, this was always Harry, no re-set. Anyway, the Brits will always be his enemies and bad-mouth him even if he saves a thousand people from a burning building. (Example: “Harry set the fire in the first place! He’s trying to re-set his image!”)
Sky News is hedging its bets they’ll get clicks on a Harry story by advertising it with Diana car crash lure? 🤮
No Ingrid Charles did not do well as a single parent.