Over the weekend, the Daily Mail began excerpting passages from Hugo Vickers’ latest royal book. Vickers is a long-time royal commentator and biographer, and he comes across as a really bitter old fart, even in the most generous reading of these excerpts. I don’t think royal commentators understand that when they clutch their pearls over every single thing about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, it comes across like those royalists were always going to have their panties in a bunch regardless of whatever Harry and Meghan did, said or wore. Vickers book is supposedly about Queen Elizabeth II’s final years, but he puts such an outsized focus on her apparently bigoted hatred of the Sussexes, to the point where even regular royalists are like “so, did she have a problem with her nonce son as well or what??” Some more highlights:

Archie’s godparents: For the christening on July 6, the new parents refused to announce who the godparents were. At that point, if not before, it was obvious that things were going to be tricky. I, for one, did not care who the godparents were, but I resented not being told.

Meghan vetted Harry’s speeches: Observers noted that Prince Harry’s speeches already had a Californian ring to them. In October 2018, they had visited Australia on a tour that was deemed successful, but every speech that Harry made had been vetted by Meghan.

Commonwealth Day 2018 vs 2019: At the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in 2018, before their wedding, the couple had been totally in tune. At the same occasion the following year, Harry appeared to be uncomfortable and the rapport between the two of them looked nil. He also seemed unhappy on Easter Day, and – as I observed in my diary – in a general sense looked like a man who had ‘bitten off more than he could chew’.

Miserable Meghan: That autumn, the Duchess of Sussex used an overseas visit to Africa to tell Tom Bradby of ITN that she was miserable. The Royal Family became concerned about what was going on in the Sussex Household – more so than about Prince Andrew, whose own troubles were mounting.

The Sussexit terms: In the end, the Sussexes left for Canada, but Prince Harry returned, keen to discuss a way forward with the Queen. He wanted a half-in, half-out arrangement, whereby he would be self-financing but could still work for the Royal Family. In the new year of 2020, the Private Secretaries to the Queen, Charles and William – Sir Edward Young, Sir Clive Alderton and Simon Case – went into summit mode on the Sandringham estate and drafted a proposal. Prince Harry flew to Sandringham and was told it was either all in or all out. He returned to Canada – reluctantly out.

The move to California: In Canada, the Sussexes were criticised for moving to California – flying there just before the borders closed. While in England everyone was working together, they were looking after themselves.

QEII’s view of fatherhood: The Queen took a dim view of her grandson, saying to a confidante: ‘And now Harry has opted out, and for what? To be a carer for Archie.’

The timing of Prince Philip’s hospitalization: The following year, the Duke of Edinburgh, then aged 99, was admitted to the Edward VII Hospital in London for tests. On March 1, he was moved to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he had an operation on his heart. His medical team nearly lost him twice. On Sunday, March 7, just six days later, with no consideration for the stress the Queen was under, or for the precarious health of the Duke of Edinburgh, a much-heralded interview between the Duchess of Sussex and Oprah Winfrey was screened. It wasn’t available in the UK until the following day, but kind friends in America made it possible for me to watch it that Sunday by pointing a camera at their television. My immediate reaction? ‘Sickening.’

The Queen’s Jubbly: Sadly, at a time when she should have been celebrating the twilight days of the greatest reign in British history, she had much on her mind – family problems with Prince Harry and the then Prince Andrew, and an increasingly maverick Prime Minister in Boris Johnson. Andrew had stepped down from royal duties in November 2019 ‘for the foreseeable future’. By January 2022, he’d dropped all his public appointments and ceased to use his HRH in public. On top of that, with no admission of liability, a considerable sum of money was donated to Virginia Giuffre – with whom Andrew had allegedly had sex when she was 17 – and her charities. This was done so as not to overshadow the Jubilee. Prince Harry, meanwhile, was now settled in California, where he was working with a ghost-writer on his memoir, Spare. Cynically, publication was delayed lest it coincide with the Queen’s death.

Harry’s relationship with his grandmother: Whenever Prince Harry called his grandmother, she asked her lady-in-waiting to stay with her. The distress the Sussexes caused the Queen in the last years of her life cannot be overestimated.

Naming their daughter Lilibet: Four years later, Prince Harry arrived in the UK for a stay at Frogmore Cottage with his wife and two children – the second of whom they’d named Lilibet. To use the intimate family nickname for the Queen, used only by close members of the family, was insensitive to say the least. They brought their children along to visit the Queen, who again considered it prudent to have a lady in waiting present.

[From The Daily Mail]

Some fact-checking, in no particular order. Meghan didn’t say she was “miserable,” her eyes filled with tears when Tom Bradby asked how she was doing!! The Sussexes didn’t announce Archie’s godparents because everyone they knew was being targeted for harassment by the palace and media. Meghan didn’t go to church for Easter 2019 because she was heavily pregnant and resting, and I would imagine Harry was absorbed with getting back to her after he attended church. In 2020, both Harry AND MEGHAN returned to the UK, but the Sandringham Summit was only organized after Meghan left the country. Oh, and Harry only delayed the publication of Spare after his grandmother died. It was originally supposed to come out in late 2022. It was pushed back to January 2023.

And again with the story of QEII’s fury about Lilibet’s name. We’ve gone through this multiple times now and I am shocked that they’re still trying to figure out a way to make Harry and Meghan sound bad for naming their daughter after QEII. Not only that, they’re trying to make Harry sound bad for… being a hands-on father to his children. “A carer to Archie?” WTF??

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.