You know what’s not a great look for the heir to the British throne? When the heir is obsessed with monitoring and commenting on every single storyline involving his younger brother. The same younger brother who fled the country, the same younger brother who was assaulted by the heir. It would be ridiculously easy for Prince William to stick with “no comment” publicly and privately. Failing that, it would be very easy for William to offer public or private support to Prince Harry, especially given that Harry just fell victim to the kind of chaotic pap chase which ended their mother’s life. Instead, William has chosen to allow his “friends” (meaning, Kensington Palace staffers) to brief the Daily Beast about how Harry is wrong to “complain” about the same kind of dangerous intrusions which had a hand in Diana’s death.

Friends of the British royal family have mocked Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s account of a “near catastrophic” car chase in New York, after photographs, videos and other participants’ accounts gave a very different—and much less perilous—impression of the evening’s events, with one friend of Prince William quipping, “Recollections may vary.”

The friend added: “I thought they were leaving the royal family for a quieter life. If flashbulbs give Harry flashbacks, I don’t understand why he is going to award ceremonies.”

Asked if William, whose spokesperson has declined to comment on the incident, would at least take Harry’s side on the issue of invasive paparazzi, the friend said: “William and Catherine have put up with sh-t like this in the past. Everyone understands his anger at the photographers, but making hysterical statements doesn’t help matters, especially when, as the queen might have said, recollections may vary.”

A friend of King Charles, whose office has also said he won’t be making a formal comment, told The Daily Beast: “Charles will completely understand Harry being upset at being pursued by the paparazzi. He knows how scary it can be. But he has always tried to get Harry to understand that complaining about photographers or the media is pointless. It just makes it all worse.”

Many questions remain about the incident, but the most pertinent of all may be why Harry and Meghan decided to go public with their alleged ordeal. A London-based PR executive who has worked for the royals told The Daily Beast: “If I had to guess, I would say this is Harry going, ‘This is unacceptable, I’m going to say something,’ and no one having the balls to say, ‘Well, maybe not, sir, that would be really f–king stupid and it is going to totally overshadow everything your wife has been doing tonight, her big comeback.’ This is what happens when people do their own PR.”

[From The Daily Beast]

“This is what happens when people do their own PR” – Meghan literally signed with WME several weeks ago, but from my understanding, the Sussexes’ statement did come from their in-house Archewell team, and they’ve also authorized several people within their comms team and security team to speak to the media. Do I wish this was playing out differently in the media? For sure. But I’m not sure what a separate PR team would do differently, especially given the security situation.

As for the “friend of Prince William” – I guess we know that William is really mad that Meghan receives awards and that Harry supports and loves his beautiful wife. That’s so foreign to William, who often looks like he openly despises his wife. As for the rest of it… if William is so blasé about these kinds of intrusions, he should probably return the secret settlement he received from the Sun? He probably shouldn’t have freaked out so hard about Kate’s topless paparazzi photos too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.