Robert Lacey: Prince Harry received the intended message of the Heir Photoshoot
More excerpts have come out from Robert Lacey’s Battle of Brothers: William and Harry – The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult. The excerpts were published in the Mail, the same newspaper which is currently being sued by the Duchess of Sussex. We’ve heard that the Queen purposefully left Harry and Meghan out of her Christmas speech in 2019 – she merely referenced a new grandchild, and she didn’t even say Archie’s name. That, Lacey claims, was done purposefully, to send a message to the Sussexes that she was mad at them for all of their real or perceived shenanigans throughout the year. Shenanigans like… suing the Mail, and trademarking their titles. But that’s not all! The Queen, it seemed, was pissed off about tons more. They don’t call her Petty Betty for nothing.
The Queen’s new photos: The new royal picture that the Queen did release on January 3 to mark the new decade showed Queen Elizabeth II herself, the future King Charles III, the future King William V — and, going even further, King George VII in the shape of little Prince George, just coming up to seven years old. What a fascinating and historic image to remind us of the essence of the royal system! The current monarch with three future monarchs. All the living heirs — and not a suggestion of a ‘spare’.
Who came up with the idea of the Heir Photoshoot: According to insiders, this formal photograph, taken in the Buckingham Palace Throne Room a week before Christmas 2019, was the idea of Prince Charles, anxious to promote his cause of the ‘slimmed-down monarchy’. Palace sources have also let it be known that the plan of depicting the direct line of royal succession was enthusiastically supported by Prince William, which might be seen as sending his younger brother a message. The message was received and it was taken to heart.
The Sussexes in Canada, at that time: It was a sort of sabbatical. Before leaving London Harry had spoken to his father and grandmother with a few of his ideas about how things might change for himself and his wife within the royal structure. It was a pity that William was now so angry that he was not speaking to him any more. It was as if Harry had become un-brothered.
All the royals wanted Meghan to go: The harsh reality was that the gospel according to Meghan — as evidenced in the special issue of Vogue she had edited — was simply not royal, nor was it in harmony with mainstream, ‘un-woke’ British opinion. William and all the senior members of the royal family — not least Prince Charles and the Queen — had come to feel the same. This growing disapproval at the top had started seeping downwards. The honeymoon was over. On the talk shows, Meghan and Harry had become topics of national controversy instead of celebration.
Meghan kept her team: She still had her agent, attorney and accountant — to field calls relating to the professional side of her life. And she remained particularly close to Keleigh Thomas Morgan, a representative of the crisis management and PR firm Sunshine Sachs, with whom she had worked while she was acting in the legal drama Suits…as Meghan’s relationship with Buckingham Palace went awry, Keleigh moved into the vacuum to give Meghan the benefit of her professional advice. It was decided that for the South Africa trip, there were to be a minimum of smart clothes or fashionable costumes and poses that suggested Vogue. There must be no private jets — commercial flights only. And above all, let us see as much as possible of Archie. There was to be no more of this ‘secret baby’ nonsense.
But then the ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey happened. “But Meghan had gone into negative ‘victim’ mode… Her words tailed away as she tried to hold back the tears. It ended the Sussexes’ oh-so-promising tour of Southern Africa on a sad note. Self-pity and tears — which Sunshine Sachs playbook had they come from?
I actually didn’t know that Meghan was consulting with her old Hollywood representatives ahead of the African tour. Oh, and I guess I left out some stuff about how the Queen was super-mad that Meghan featured so many left-leaning women in her Vogue “Forces for Change” issue, because the Queen saw it as a campaign of “social upheaval.” The Queen was also super-salty about the “headline-grabbing lawsuits in pursuit of personal crusades” because “To be royal, sometimes, is to ride the punches, to take it on the chin — and to just shut up.” Yes, just like the Top CEO Duchess of Cambridge did when Tatler brought up William’s desire for rose bushes. She took it on the chin and rode the punches. *puts finger to ear* Yes, I’m being told that Kate did not take it on the chin, that she in fact threw a hissy fit and spent months threatening Tatler with a lawsuit to get them to remove huge swathes of their story.
As for the stuff about Heir Photoshoot… yeah. It was a message. As was the Christmas speech and the photos on the Queen’s desk. The Windsors were telling Harry and Meghan to GTFO. And then when Harry and Meghan did just that, the Windsors had another f–king meltdown. My God.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red and Backgrid.
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