One minor thing I like to keep my eye on is which British outlets are breaking which stories. This week, the Telegraph had the exclusive story about Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’s birth certificate mix-up, and how Meghan’s American staffers are likely to blame for either Meghan’s BC name change or the statement about the Palace “dictating” the name change to Meghan. Now the Telegraph has another (paywalled) exclusive about Prince Harry being desperate to keep his military titles/honors. My point? Buckingham Palace is leaking to the Telegraph, and this story is what those fussy, nasty old BP courtiers want to believe:

Despite stepping away from royal duties and relinquishing some of his honourary titles, there are a few that Prince Harry is eager to hang onto. The Telegraph is reporting that the Duke of Sussex is hoping to have three military titles reinstated that he was forced to relinquish, pending a one-year review.

Those three honourary titles — Captain General of the Royal Marines, Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington and Commodore-in-Chief, Small Ships and Diving, Royal Naval Command — are one of the few issues yet to be resolved following he and wife Meghan Markle stepping down from their royal duties.

“His military work is one of the most important things to him,” a friend told The Telegraph of why these particular titles are of such high importance to him. “Of course he wants to keep them.”

When the duke and duchess made their bombshell announcement last year, Harry reportedly expected to spend more time travelling back and forth between Britain and his new home in America; the pandemic, however, slammed the brakes on those plans. A palace source confirmed he’ll likely be forced to give up the titles, as the Queen made it crystal clear at last year’s Sandringham summit that a “one foot in, one foot out” approach to the couple’s royal duties was unacceptable. Despite all that, Harry reportedly believes that his 10 years of military service and his continuing affiliation with the Invictus Games Foundation aid his efforts to keep the titles.

[From The Telegraph via ET Canada]

Again, just punishment after punishment. The Windsors have narrowed in on what will hurt Harry the most, and the Queen has been holding this over his head for a year now. “Come back and I’ll let you keep your military titles” versus “stay with Meghan and we’ll continue to punish you.” Anyway, I tend to believe that Harry was prepared to leave all of this behind. Sure, he’s sad. Sure, he would love to continue to represent the British military, especially given that he’s a veteran who served overseas in war. But Harry also knows how petty and small his family can be, and he was prepared to make this bargain for freedom.

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