This week, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made some announcements which were simply confirmations of plans which had long been rumored. The only real “news” was that Prince Harry would stop by London to attend the WellChild Awards on September 7th and then he would be on to Dusseldorf to attend the Invictus Games, where he will be joined by Meghan a few days into the games. Harry has made it clear that his brief stop in England is purely about his patronage and not any family reunion or commemoration of his late grandmother. In turn, the Windsors have made it abundantly clear for months that they are not hosting any kind of memorial event on QEII’s death-anniversary, and even if they were, Harry and Meghan would not be invited. Instead of acknowledging those facts – that Harry doesn’t want to see the Windsors, and the Windsors don’t want to see him – the usual British media suspects are screaming, crying and throwing up over the fact that Meghan refuses to join her husband on that leg of his trip. From Jan Moir’s column in the Daily Mail:

Royal-watchers spotted a cloud of black smoke rising over assorted palaces and castles this week, part of a sad new ritual called the Bonfire of the Olive Branches. For when it comes to relations between the Royal Family and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, we’re looking at a burnt-out bombsite where a family used to be.

Relations are at rock bottom, clemency is in the deep freeze. The outstretched hand has been withdrawn and the peace pipe has been doused with a thousand duchessy tears. It is over.

In September, Prince Harry will visit the UK to attend an awards ceremony for the WellChild charity on the day before the anniversary of the Queen’s death. But there are no plans to meet his father or his brother. Apparently, he is not even going to the private family dinner at Windsor to remember Elizabeth II. He then goes on to Germany for the Invictus Games, where his wife will fly out to join him.

The message from Meghan couldn’t be clearer. She is never going to set foot in the grey, cake-filled, miserable UK again if she can possibly help it.

Perhaps being forbidden to attend the Queen’s deathbed at Balmoral — to shed light, to empower, to recommend a turmeric cleanse and some yoga stretches to the woman she never knew as Gan-Gan — was the last straw. And if there is a role for her as wifely appeaser to help heal the rift between her husband and his family, she has chosen to avoid that, too. As is her right.

But there is a puzzling disconnect about all this bitter friction. The Duke and Duchess keep embracing big themes such as reconciliation and family. They talk earnestly of healing, humanity and hope but, somehow, never apply these messages to themselves and their relationships with their families, which are as toxic as a giant hogweed swamp.

[From The Daily Mail]

Again, Harry set his boundary: the Windsors need to apologize to Meghan before anything can be reconciled. That’s it. And they can’t do that. They can’t admit that they were wrong, that they miscalculated, that they were abominable to Meghan, that their goal was to drive her to divorce or suicide. Meanwhile, King Charles’s first act as king was to ban Meghan from Balmoral, telling Harry that the king’s daughter-in-law and mother of his grandchildren is not “family.” Then Charles briefed the Mail so that everyone would know that he was punishing his Black daughter-in-law for the crime of wanting to hold her husband’s hand as he mourned his beloved grandmother.

Moir is arguing that Harry and Meghan need to make the first steps for some reason. What’s especially bonkers is that… Harry actually did make the first step. He attended his father’s coronation (which Charles scheduled for Archie’s birthday), even though his father is an abusive ass. Instead of building on that, Charles proceeded to flee the city whenever Harry was in town and Charles still refuses to speak to his younger son. Anyway, I hope Meghan stays away forever! If she ever does visit that salty island, they’ll do whatever they can to hold her hostage again.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.