Secrets don’t remain secrets long for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, it seems.
Just three days after a friend had ‘secretly’ placed a personal letter from Prince Harry paying special tribute to his late grandfather, Prince Philip, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, a story about the letter was broadcast on a television news channel.
Harry had asked the pal to discreetly place the letter and a wreath at the Burma Star Memorial, part of the arboretum, following last Friday’s national service of remembrance, which marked 80 years since Japan’s surrender at the end of the Second World War.
In the letter, delivered after King Charles and Queen Camilla had departed, the prince wrote: ‘For me, this anniversary carries an added layer of meaning. My late grandfather, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, served in the Pacific campaign.
‘He spoke with quiet humility about those years, but I know how deeply he respected all who stood beside him in that theatre of war.
‘Today, as I think of him, I think also of each of you, of the shared hardships, the bonds forged and the legacy you leave.’
Prince Philip was mentioned in dispatches for his bravery during the Battle of Cape Matapan, Greece, before serving in the Far East. He was present in Tokyo Bay for the formal Japanese surrender in September 1945.
Harry’s public tribute to his grandfather has, I can reveal, provoked a sceptical reaction from those who knew the late duke
Prince Harry and Prince Philip open the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in 2013
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex during a private visit to the Los Angeles National Cemetery on Remembrance Sunday
Harry’s public tribute to his grandfather has, I can reveal, provoked a sceptical reaction from those who knew the late duke.
‘What hypocrisy,’ one friend of the Royal Family told me. ‘Harry hurt his grandfather deeply during the final year of his life.’
Harry’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, for example – in which he and his wife, Meghan, attacked the royals in the most personal way, even accusing an unnamed senior member of his family of racism – was broadcast when Philip was in hospital with what turned out to be his final illness.
The duke’s hospital stay had been no surprise as he was then aged 99 and had been in increasingly poor health. Prince Philip died four weeks after the Oprah interview was broadcast.
Harry’s decision to have a wreath and long letter placed at the Burma Star Memorial is striking. Working members of the Royal Family, such as Harry’s brother and sister-in-law, the Prince and Princess of Wales, did not leave wreaths.
Not because they don’t care but because they purposely allowed the commemorations to be led by the King and Queen.
The fact that Harry was able to ‘hijack’ the national service of remembrance, as a royal source put it to me, has caused unease at the palace.
When he tried to do something similar in 2021, Queen Elizabeth personally intervened to stop him.
Harry, who stepped down as a front-line royal the previous year, had wanted to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in London on Remembrance Sunday alongside those of other members of his family.
But, as my colleague Rebecca English revealed at the time, the Queen took ‘all of two seconds’ to make up her mind and refuse permission.
‘Remembrance Sunday is sacrosanct when it comes to Her Majesty’s diary,’ a source explained at the time. ‘It’s one of the most important dates in her calendar and nothing is done without her knowledge.
A personal letter secretly left at the National Memorial Arboretum on the 80th anniversary of VJ Day last Friday by a friend of Prince Harry, who paid tribute to his grandfather Prince Philip
The personal letter and a wreath of red poppies left at the Burma Star Memorial last Friday
‘People were suggesting the Palace’s reaction to what Harry asked was petty. But it was the Queen’s decision. And what’s more, she actually had very strong views on the subject.’
Another source said: ‘While she has enormous admiration for Harry’s achievements both in and out of the military, this was seen as an example of his lack of understanding at what it means for him to be a non-working royal.
‘The Queen is very firmly of the opinion that you can’t pick and choose what you do when it comes to the institution. Either you are in – or you are out.’
In what was seen as a flagrant publicity stunt, Harry and Meghan released photographs of themselves holding hands as they walked through Los Angeles National Cemetery on Remembrance Sunday to lay a floral tribute to the fallen.
What’s clear to me is that the King needs to take a leaf out of his mother’s book and take a firmer line with his younger son.
Harry, by apparently trying to upstage his older brother, the heir to the throne, is undermining him.
Just as the late Queen stopped Harry having a wreath laid for him at the Cenotaph, the King should have prevented this latest attempt by the Duke of Sussex to take advantage of his military connections.
When it comes to publicity-seeking Harry and Meghan, the King, as Head of the Armed Forces, should remain on guard.
Sign up for the weekly Palace Confidential newsletter.
