bitchy | Prince William & Kate are ‘nervous’ about Prince Harry’s UK visit & interviews

The Daily Beast’s Royalist column has a new exclusive all about Prince Harry, Heart of Invictus, the upcoming Dusseldorf Invictus Games, and Prince William and Kate’s obsessive neurosis with all things Sussex. Again, the timeline: on Thursday, September 7, Harry will be in the UK, attending the WellChild Awards, making a speech and meeting with families. We don’t know exactly when Harry will fly to Germany, but my guess is that he will be in the air on the 8th, the death-anniversary of QEII. Also on the 8th, William and Kate are heading to Wales to do some death-anniversary events, and they’ll be the only “working royals” seen on the day. The 8th will also be William and Kate’s first day of work since mid-July and since William was too contemptibly lazy to attend the Women’s World Cup. Basically, the gist of this piece is that Will and Kate are terribly worried that Harry will overshadow them by existing, all while King Charles is making a point of downplaying the negativity. It’s very interesting.

Nervous Peg & Buttons: A friend of William and Kate’s told The Daily Beast: “Harry is going to want people to watch the show. Of course that makes them nervous because William has seen how ruthless Harry has been about betraying his family to promote his projects so far. They just won’t want the dignity of the day to be overshadowed by another outburst.”

Harry will do interviews to promote Invictus: The Prince and Princess of Wales are likely to be the focal point of attention on Friday, as the only senior royals with a scheduled engagement, although details of exactly what they will be doing have still not been released. However it now seems likely that Harry will have media interviews running that day or the next to promote the Invictus Games, which start on Saturday 9 September in Dusseldorf, and run for a week, with Harry expected to be there for all of it and Meghan expected for the closing ceremony.

Charles is proud of Harry: A friend of the king and queen told The Daily Beast: “Charles was always incredibly proud of Harry for setting up Invictus, and remains so. I actually think he will love the new show if he gets a chance to watch any of it. The idea that Harry has used the series to attack Charles is a total exaggeration; he hasn’t.” Asked how they understood a passage of the film where Harry says he wasn’t given support as a child after his mother died, the friend said, “It’s a fleeting remark in five hours of TV which has been blown out of all proportion by the media. I think after what Charles has been through in the last fifty years, he’ll be able to handle it.”

The WellChild timing: A former staffer, who worked for both Charles and Camilla and William and Kate and knew Harry during their working career at the palace, told The Daily Beast that Harry could hardly be blamed for the fact that he is due to speak at the WellChild Awards on Thursday evening, the eve of the anniversary of the queen’s death. The former staffer said: “Harry has always done WellChild and he only missed it last year because the queen died on that day, so it would be a bit odd if he didn’t pay tribute to her or mention what happened last year. It’s an accident of timing, admittedly one which has worked out very nicely for Harry given he has a new show to promote. The issue really is what he says. I’m sure he will just say a few nice words about her, and it will be fine. But if he makes even the slightest veiled criticism of his father or brother or the institution, it will really annoy Charles and William. Charles is pushing for unity, unity, unity—so the last thing he needs is Harry being divisive.”

[From The Daily Beast]

“It’s a fleeting remark in five hours of TV which has been blown out of all proportion by the media.” At least someone in the royal camp said that. What’s weird is that the Heart of Invictus pseudo-controversy has once again shown that there are divisions between William and Charles with how they deal with Harry speaking about his life and experiences. It’s been clear that William went on a briefing spree – notably to Rebecca English at the Mail – about HoI and William wanting credit for suggesting that Harry get therapy. William is desperately trying to ride Harry’s Invictus coattails and it’s left the impression that William and the Windsors are too self-absorbed to watch the entire series and see what it’s really about in context.

As for William and Kate being “nervous” – Harry and Meghan live rent-free in their heads and it’s hilarious to watch. You know W&K are going to pull some big stunts during Invictus too, and they’ll go on another briefing spree, especially when Meghan pulls up to Dusseldorf looking happy and healthy.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.