Can anyone explain why so many of these “Prince Harry’s 40th birthday” stories are about how much his brother hates him? It’s so weird, right? Almost as if Harry’s birthday is being used by a certain someone to scream, cry and rage about how much he hates Harry. The latest delulu “birthday article” comes from Rebecca English at the Daily Mail. They’re not even trying to maintain an illusion of “we don’t care about Harry, he left us and we’re over it!” They’ve actually creating an increasingly tangled web of projections, lies and fantasies to justify their continued obsession with all things Sussex. Currently, they still feel ownership of Harry because he spent his 30th birthday in England, and because he still wants to do charity work in the UK, and because everyone in Windsorville is still incandescent with rage. Some highlights from Becky’s piece:

The toxic fallout! Harry not only turned his back on everything he once knew, but pressed the nuclear button. He blew his home, his friends and his duties as a royal – but, above all, his family. And the toxic fall-out simply won’t go away. In the weeks running up to his milestone birthday, I have been speaking to those with inside knowledge of this intractable breakdown. One of the major problems, they tell me, is that Harry has never been one for saying sorry, or even admitting he was wrong. ‘Maybe he’ll feel some sorrow at the way things have turned out, but he’ll never admit that any of it was his fault,’ says one insider who has known him since childhood.

Harry is the hurt & angry one, they swear! Turning 40 may prompt him to reflect on his life but, astonishingly, they believe Harry remains hurt and angry that no one is begging him to come back into the royal fold – and this is yet another impasse to any rapprochement in the near future. For their part, some in Royal circles admit that the Palace machinery didn’t handle the whole ‘Sussex situation’ terribly well – at the same time, strongly emphasising that it’s actually rather hard to help a couple who make everything so ‘exhaustingly difficult’, seeing conspiracy at every turn. Indeed, the situation got so bad that many believe leaving Britain was the right thing for the prince to do. ‘He wasn’t happy, he couldn’t hide that and he needed to make a break. It was a horrible, toxic atmosphere,’ says one insider who lived through the crisis.

William is still incandescent: So is there any chance of Harry ever being welcomed back? Can shattered relations be restored? Where William is concerned, one well-placed source told me that even after the infamous Oprah interview in March 2021, they could envisage a time when the brothers would find a way to make up eventually. They don’t think that now, following the continued barrage of attacks in the Sussex’s Netflix documentary, the interviews and podcasts and his vitriolic 2023 memoir Spare, which they say was the final nail in the coffin. ‘The relationship [between the brothers] is non-existent,’ another admits. ‘William feels betrayed and has other priorities.’

Charles & Harry’s relationship: Royal officials are notably shying away from even discussing the Sussexes in the hope it will give father and son space to see if they can save anything from their relationship. The Royal household and the family remain nervous, of course, and wary, it’s fair to say. Trust is so low that Harry was the last family member to be given the news of his father’s cancer diagnosis in February, and then only just as it was about to break globally. (He was not even informed in advance of his sister-in-law’s health crisis weeks later). The King was also left disappointed last November after his son called to wish him happy 75th birthday. Just hours later, details of their conversation, including the fact that his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet, had sent a video message to him singing happy birthday, was leaked by Team Sussex to journalists. ‘A deeply private call between the King and his grandchildren and it ends up in a newspaper the next day. Really?’ another source said, emphasising just how much this was considered to have crossed a line.

The king and RAVEC: The idea the king can resolve the protection issue is plain wrong, according to those who know. He has no sway over what the committee decides. To seemingly suggest the monarch could only get to see his grandchildren again if he intervened in the matter comes across as particularly silly and naive. It’s genuinely feared that Harry is so blinkered over the issue that he could even try to lobby his father if they were ever to speak privately. For the King, who is already facing considerable embarrassment at his own son suing his government, in his courts, that could be constitutionally damaging. ‘It’s really tricky to have any conversation [with Harry] in which the subject of security could be raised. It would put the King on the spot and if anything he said were to be leaked – not that he would say anything, mind you – it could heavily impact a live court case. There are serious constitutional issues here at stake outside of any family dramas,’ a source explains.

Does Harry really want to come back to the UK? Not permanently, I am told. His life now is in Montecito with his wife and children. ‘He’s always full of the joys of the life he has in California and, yes, I do think he’s happy,’ says one who speaks to him fairly regularly. But they also reveal he is looking at ways to facilitate coming back more regularly and easily. ‘He has various touch points in the UK, a handful of charities such as WellChild, and the Invictus Games which will come to Birmingham in a few years time. There will be more reasons and requirements [for him] to visit and the easier that can be done, the better. It’s not a satisfactory situation at the moment, for all sorts of reasons.’ Will that include visits to see family? ‘That’s more tricky, but potentially,’ another insider says. ‘The UK is his home, it’s where he grew up, it’s where his family and friends and a lot of his interests are. The sense I get is that there is a desire for some kind rapprochement. Clearly that will take time and patience. Let’s just say there’s a hope there will be more positive conversations in the future.’

[From The Daily Mail]

The thing about Charles’s birthday last year and the briefings… the briefings didn’t come from the Sussexes. They came from Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. William was making mischief because he was mad that Charles and Harry spoke. Charles’s people were making mischief because they were mad that Charles and Harry spoke. They all wanted to ensure that there continued to be a wedge between Charles and Harry. That’s also why Harry has taken to briefing certain outlets about the security situation too – he genuinely would prefer to speak to his father in person so that there’s no interference from Camilla, William or the courtiers.

“One of the major problems, they tell me, is that Harry has never been one for saying sorry, or even admitting he was wrong.” There’s this whole plotline created by the British media and the Windsors, a plotline in which “everyone knows that Harry just up and decided to leave and destroy the Windsors on his way out the door, he needs to apologize!” That has no relation to what has actually happened and it’s an exercise in royal gaslighting.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.