Allison Pearson's View. Hmm. Wasn't My First Thought.

Harry wants to be the People’s Prince, 

but deep down he’s just a snob

The monarchy is the source of his power and fame – clearly he doesn’t hate it quite enough to lose those by renouncing his title

ALLISON PEARSON10 January 2023 • 

Harry has gone from the cheeky chappie people loved because he was a bit of a laugh, to scowling, self-righteous butt of the joke CREDIT: MEGA

And the air was thick with smoke from bridges being burned. And the man who had set fire to the bridges said that the bridges could be repaired if only there was “accountability” from his family, the family who were scorched by the flames of his wrath and choked on the vengeful fumes.    

Either Prince Harry is dim or deranged; quite possibly a bit of both, I think. In a series of TV interviews to promote his memoir, Spare, which came out today (January 10), the Duke of Sussex sprayed accusations and grievances around like an Apache helicopter gunner mowing down the enemy with a chain-gun. Which Harry did actually do, during his highly creditable stint in the British Army (killing 25 Taliban; a reckless boast), but at least he wasn’t firing at people he claimed to love, people who couldn’t fire back. Like his father, brother and stepmother.

“Nothing in this book has been written with any intention to harm them or hurt them,” he told Tom Bradby on ITV1. A sympathetic yet steely interviewer, Bradby looked politely perplexed. “Some people will say you have railed against the invasion of your privacy, yet here you are invading the privacy of your nearest and dearest,” he prompted. Harry stiffened, flinty eyes cooling from Mediterranean blue to Scottish rock pool.

While the People’s Prince makes much of being his mother’s more relatable, rebellious son, Harry can actually be quite a snob. (Unconscious arrogance, you might call it.) Asked by Anderson Cooper on America’s 60 Minutes why he and Meghan didn’t just “renounce your titles as Duke and Duchess” Harry replied curtly: “And what difference would that make?”

Well, it would sever Harry’s connection with the institution whose dark, defensive, deviously hierarchical manipulations he despises and whose failure to offer protection against a loathed media forced “my wife, my son and me to flee for our lives”. On the other hand, the monarchy is the source of his power and fame. Clearly, Harry doesn’t hate it quite enough to lose those.