Prince Harry and his wife have apparently been stripped of their HRH titles by Buckingham Palace. However, Prince Harry had a fresh spring in his step as he embarked on his quasi-official tour of Japan and Singapore.
Of course, it might have been something to do with the thrill of the gushing and attentive welcome he received from the moment he arrived in Tokyo, where his status as Princess Diana’s son secured him the kind of reception he once welcomed wherever he went in the world.
Those days, however, are long gone, except in the land of the rising sun. But somehow there was something about Harry’s enthusiasm towards his hosts, which even included a little light-hearted rift with the dreaded media.
We even seem to have a new-look Royal Family which seems to have overlapped with the arrival of Harry in the Far East. However, three years after stepping down as a functioning royal, Harry and Meghan have seen their HRH titles quietly obliterated from the British monarchy’s website.
They were even demoted on the official pecking order so that their online bios appear below those of Princess Alexandra and the Duke of Kent, even though Harry is fifth in line of succession and is significantly closer to the throne than his elder second cousins.
Obviously, courtiers soft-pedalled the gravity of the move, and they insisted it was just a tidy-up of a problem that existed since the couple headed into Californian exile in 2020. Although exile might seem like a harsh word. They wanted to relocate, and seemingly get as far away from the Royal Family as possible. Harry obviously doesn’t trust them and who could really blame him after what happened to his mother? He was just protecting his family.
And now there appears to be a visceral bitterness, with sustained attacks between Harry and Meghan and the Royal Family, like a game of tennis – will there ever be a game, set and match?
Before the Queen passed away there always appeared to be a door slightly ajar just in case her grandson interpreted a snub or the slamming of royal doors and the Queen wanted to avoid that, but now that she’s no longer with us, the King appears to have different ideas.
The Queen never stopped hoping there would be some sort of reconciliation and that the couple would return to the fold one day, and rightly so, he was her grandson.
There are a ton of people that would want Harry and his children pulled from the line of succession, but I suspect that will never happen, and I suspect that Charles would ever initiate an act of parliament being enforced. Charles is far too unassuming and gentle for that and has a tremendous soft spot for his favourite son.
And does all of this really matter? Because Harry is too far down the list to become king – like he said, he’s just the spare, and with William and his children ahead of him, Harry will never sit on the throne, and I don’t believe he will ever come back to live in the United Kingdom.
They did however walk away from their royal responsibilities, but what does it matter? Harry will never be king, ever.
Perhaps it is time for Harry and Meghan to stand on their own two feet, but what people seem to forget is that Harry has always been a prince, and whether he’s stripped of his title or not, people will still continue to call him a prince.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 