Here are some photos from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first public event during their three-day trip to Canada, all part of the “One Year To Go” Invictus Games publicity. They arrived in Vancouver late Tuesday, and they stepped out on the slopes on Wednesday. They did a photo op to show off the adaptive ski trail, one which will be used during next year’s Invictus Games. There’s much more on the Sussexes’ itinerary and it’s my hope that we’ll get to see them at a lot of public events. Meghan looks absolutely gorgeous in these photos – something about the snow, the light and the way her winter beanie frames her face… it’s giving PRINCESS. Anyway, we’ll have more, I’m sure. For now, I wanted to highlight this hilariously seething story in the Telegraph, which was published to coincide with the Sussexes’ first events in Canada. The headline? “Prince Harry and Meghan have three days to prove they can behave.” You guys!!!
The Sussexes have landed. Fresh from launching their newly rebranded website, complete with coat of arms, Prince Harry and Meghan are in Canada for three days in the spotlight. They will spend Valentine’s Day hobnobbing with athletes and families at an event to countdown to next year’s Invictus Games with a speech from Harry later this week and hugs a plenty. The question back in Britain is: will that be it?
With the world’s television cameras on site in Vancouver and Whistler, will there be interviews, “secret” charity visits and a quasi-royal tour complete with wall-to-wall social media commentary to promote the Games and the Sussexes? Their fragile peace with the Royal family, tested to its limit over the last few years, hangs in the balance once again. It would be fair to say there is some trepidation. Gone are the days when the palace waited anxiously to discover which truly image-shattering bombshells would rain on them in Netflix documentaries, books and Oprah interviews.
“What is left to say?” one source said. But the timing, while the King is behind closed doors recuperating from his second round of cancer treatment and the Princess of Wales bounces back from abdominal surgery, still leaves something to be desired.
Not only is there a marked absence of real working royals from the public eye – the Queen and Princess Anne soldiering on, notwithstanding – but Harry is fresh from a 30-minute face-to-face meeting with his father for the first time since the Coronation. His team appear to have reached a truce with the Buckingham Palace aides the Duke distrusts: neither side has leaked a squeak of information about the meeting so far.
Sources close to the Sussexes confirm that the Canada trip is intended to be strictly on-message at Invictus, with no extra visits around Vancouver on the schedule. With three days out and about stretching ahead, the chances of Harry being asked about his father are high. He usually takes part in multiple television interviews as well as being surrounded by endless mobile phone cameras with the capability to video and upload his conversations to social media. Palace insiders will be watching from afar with morbid curiosity to see what their cross-Atlantic outpost will say and do.
This year, the Duke is expected to use his Vancouver speech to detail “how special Canada has become” to him and his wife. It is just the sort of thing the King would hope to say in person, had his health allowed him to travel to the Realm since his accession. In another world, Harry could deliver that message on behalf of King and country. Instead, he is working freelance but still wields the power to boost or damage all-important international relationships.
The next three days will be make or break. More than ever before, the Sussexes must make a decision. If they want to salvage a relationship with the remaining Royal family, they must prove their discretion. In palace terms, that means keeping schtum. But in a world where they need to build their brand to pay the Californian mortgage and ever-present security bills, they also need to generate publicity.
Everything I have to say, I’ve said a million times before. This was always about control. How to control Harry and Meghan, how to bring them in line, how to cage them, how to bring them to heel, how to force a divorce, how to leave them in mortal danger without security, how to impose the royal soap opera on their independent lives. The Windsors ran out of bargaining chips, threats and punishments long ago. All the Windsors have are these pathetic attempts at guilt trips, crying into their gin-and-tonics about how this trip could be make or break, this one needs palace approval, this one has every palace aide on edge. The Sussexes do not give a f–k about the clownshow over there. The Windsors are once again clout-chasing the popular royals they exiled.
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