‘It’s the Queen who needs protecting from YOU, Harry!’: Ex-Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown suggests the Duke of Sussex could be brought back into the fold… if he stops lobbing ‘hand grenades’ at his family
- Harry claimed that when he visited Queen at Windsor Castle that he was ‘making sure that she’s protected’
- But author says ‘a lot of people’ in the Royal Family thought: ‘Actually she needs protecting from you, Harry’
- She also believes there will be ‘an effort to somehow reel them back in at a certain point’ but not ‘right now’
- Says this is ‘largely because Harry keeps lobbing these fresh hand grenades at the family’ in US interviews
Members of the Royal Family think it is the Queen who needs to be protected from Prince Harry after his comments about ensuring his grandmother was ‘protected’, a royal commentator claimed today.
The Duke of Sussex claimed during an interview with NBC’s Today show two weeks ago that when he visited her at Windsor Castle last month with wife Meghan Markle – while they were on their way to the Invictus Games in the Netherlands – he was ‘making sure that she’s, you know, protected, and got the right people around her’.
But former Vanity Fair editor and royal author Tina Brown said that ‘a lot of people’ in the Royal Family – without specifying who this might have been – then thought: ‘Well, actually she needs protecting from you, Harry’.
Referring to how Harry and his wife Meghan Markle could return to being senior working royals in the future, Ms Brown also said that she believed there will be ‘an effort to somehow reel them back in at a certain point’.
But she said it would not happen ‘right now’ – ‘largely because Harry keeps lobbing these fresh hand grenades at the family, just when they’re beginning to think ‘well, can we re-establish some trust with the House of Sussex’.’
Ms Brown, who recently published her new book ‘The Palace Papers: Inside The House of Windsor – the Truth and the Turmoil’, also told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Harry could return to service when the Queen dies.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London on June 26, 2018
Prince Harry and Meghan visit the sitting volleyball section of the fifth edition of the Invictus Games in The Hague on April 17
The author – who spoke to 120 sources for the book which came out last week – described the current state of the Royal Family, based on what people had told her, as ‘rather perilous at the moment, very perilous’.
Ms Brown said: ‘Largely because in times past, the various ructions that sort of shook the House of Windsor always could rely on Her Majesty The Queen to keep calm and carry on.
The Queen’s death will be a ‘seismic event’ bringing an ‘instability of mood’
The death of The Queen will be a ‘seismic event’ and create an ‘enormous instability of mood’ when it happens, according to royal author Tina Brown.
The former Vanity Fair editor said ‘people won’t know how to be British anymore when the Queen goes’, and the mourning period will be a ‘traumatic time’ for the UK.
The author of The Palace Papers added that it would be a ‘big challenge’ for Prince Charles when he becomes king to be a ‘transitional bridge to the future’.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Brown said: ‘I actually think it’s going to be a seismic event. I think there’s going to be enormous instability of mood.
‘Because 70 years, it’s three generations, it’s almost like people won’t know how to be British anymore when the Queen goes. And a kind of mourning… it’s really a valedictory for the kind of English woman she was. You know, the stoic, the love of duty, the insistence on behaving in a certain way – there will be a kind of mourning for something that is now no more.
‘And I think it’s going to be a very sort of traumatic time actually in this country, and it’s going to be for Charles to be the kind of transitional bridge to the future, and that’s going to be a big challenge for him.’
‘And of course this time with the latest IED explosions that have been happening, it’s happening at a time of the Queen’s much more perilous health and a time which is really the twilight of her reign. So that adds much more of a sort of high-stakes edge to the situation at the moment.’
Speaking about the relationship between the monarchy and Harry and Meghan, Ms Brown continued: ‘Well Harry and Meghan leaving was definitely a blow for the monarchy because they did represent a more modern – dare I use the word ‘relatable’ – modern, royal couple who could be deployed to connect more, essentially, with the younger generation.
‘So losing them was actually quite a blow. And I think that there will be an effort to somehow reel them back in at a certain point – not for a bit, but I think my guess is that they will want to come back actually.’
However, she confirmed that insiders she had spoken to do not seem to think there is much of an effort to get Harry and Meghan involved, adding: ‘Right now it’s not going to happen.
‘And it’s not going to happen largely because Harry keeps lobbing these fresh hand grenades at the family, just when they’re beginning to think ‘well, can we re-establish some trust with the House of Sussex’.
‘There’s yet another fusillade from an American talk show and everybody in the family thinks ‘well, what was that about’? The most recent comments by Harry about, you know, he came to make sure the Queen was protected – a lot of people I think in the family thought ‘well actually she needs protecting from you, Harry’. So that isn’t helpful.
‘But I think when the Queen does die, I do believe there’ll be a kind of desire for Harry to serve his country. I think he’s going to want to rethink it, probably. And frankly I don’t think the entertainment efforts are going that brilliantly, you know, sitting in Montecito.’
She was possibly referring to how Meghan’s animated TV series has been cancelled by Netflix as part of its cutbacks after a drop in subscribers.
The Duchess of Sussex had teamed up with Sir Elton John’s husband David Furnish to create the show, titled Pearl, about a ’12-year-old heroine who finds inspiration in influential women from history’.
The Duke of Sussex claimed during an interview with Hoda Kotb on NBC’s Today show two weeks ago that when he visited the Queen at Windsor Castle last month he was ‘making sure that she’s, you know, protected, and got the right people around her’
Former Vanity Fair editor and royal author Tina Brown (pictured in New York in 2019) spoke about Harry and Meghan today
It was due to be released as part of the Sussexes’ lucrative deal with the US streaming giant, said to be worth up to £75million. But Netflix confirmed on Sunday that the feminist cartoon is no longer in production.
Tina Brown recently published her book ‘The Palace Papers: Inside The House of Windsor – the Truth and the Turmoil’
Last year, Meghan, 40, and Harry, 37, released their first podcast under their Archewell Audio production strand, following a deal with Spotify which was said to be worth £18million.
And Ms Brown said it was now fair to say the energy of the Royal Family is now focused on William and Kate, adding: ‘It’s amazing really how important, frankly, to the future of the monarchy the Duchess of Cambridge has become. When she first married William, it was thought how can a girl from middle-class origins really become a future queen?
‘Is she going to be able to handle everything that will be thrown at her in this very difficult and very constrained situation. But it’s incredible, now people have to ask ‘well, what on earth would happen without the Duchess of Cambridge?”
She added that Kate had become ‘such an important sort of a stalwart figure, as indeed has Camilla. And it was very significant that the Queen a few weeks back said that it was her desire to have Camilla known as ‘Queen’ because in a sense she was validating and rewarding Camilla for her last 20 years of being such a supportive royal wife and being dutiful and doing her duties without any kind of complaint, being discreet, being gracious.’
Harry recently attended the Invictus Games at The Hague in the Netherlands with Meghan.
During their trip they also made a secret visit to the UK, where they visited the Queen at Windsor Castle. It is not yet known whether Harry and Meghan will return to the UK for the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations next month.
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