bitchy | The courtiers are worried about Prince Harry’s ‘veiled threats’ to write another book

Last Friday, Prince Harry gave exclusive comments (the same comments) to the Telegraph and People Magazine. The comments were about his long-running royal-protection case in the UK – last week, there was a two-day hearing/appeal on the matter. It strikes me that Harry will likely lose this appeal and he knows it, but he’s been willing to drag this out because he’s on a fact-finding mission. He wants to see how badly his father and brother screwed him over, he wants to see how thoroughly they put his wife and children in mortal danger. The comments he gave last Friday indicated just how much he’s learned from this years-long process. He told People and the Telegraph that his “worst fears have been confirmed by the whole legal disclosure in this case — and that’s really sad.”

I wondered if we would be in for a huge briefing spree this weekend in response to Harry’s rare on-the-record comments about his security. Buckingham Palace stayed relatively quiet about Harry though – no major exclusives in the Mail, Telegraph or Times. But some people did run to the Sun to complain about Harry and how he might write another book after his security ordeal:

Buckingham Palace aides are increasingly concerned Prince Harry is considering blasting the royals again in a new bombshell book. Courtiers fear the Duke of Sussex will hit out in the wake of his bitter High Court battle to win back taxpayer-funded UK security. Harry spent two days in London last week — and sensationally claimed his police protection had been downgraded to “trap” him inside the Royal Family.

Last night a source said: “This is clearly intensely personal. There are fears about what he might do if the decision goes against him. This could not come at a worse time.”

Royal aides have observed strict protocols over the case as it effectively pits Harry, 40, and his legal team against the King. So senior royal circles were left astonished when Harry gave an interview to a newspaper following the latest two-day hearing. Speaking to a UK publication for the first time since 2023, he said: “People would be shocked by what’s being held back.”

A source added: “There’s a lot of worry that Harry could tell all in a book deal or even follow Meghan’s lead and make a podcast. He’s hinted he has discovered secrets during the hearings — particularly regarding the treatment of him and Meghan — that would shock us all. It is a veiled threat essentially that he will tell all if it doesn’t go the way he wants it to.”

The claims appeared to confirm a deepening rift between Harry and his father Charles. Reports have suggested he believes the King could intervene as his private secretary is on the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures.

Royal author Robert Jobson told The Sun on Sunday: “The only thing Harry seems to like more than moaning is starring in his courtroom drama. Now he claims that the security decision was all a set-up — that it was designed to stop him quitting Britain to avoid all the fall-out that followed. With the logic of a schoolboy sleuth, he has dreamed up this daft conspiracy. None of this should have come as a surprise to him. King Charles warned him to think long and hard before boarding his ‘freedom flight’ to Canada and then on to Montecito. He warned Harry to consider all the security implications. Charles wasn’t using it as a threat — after all it would not have been his call who gets royal security. Yet again, instead of owning his choice, Harry chose to wage a costly battle against a sensible system. His logic is thin, and his excuses thinner. It smacks of double standards too. A multi-millionaire royal duke who lives in the lap of luxury abroad, wants freedom, privacy, but wants the British taxpayer to foot the bill when he comes back to a country he seems to despise.”

“It is a veiled threat essentially that he will tell all if it doesn’t go the way he wants it to.” I mean… it’s been a not-so-veiled threat for years, that Harry withheld certain information from Spare because he didn’t want to completely cut ties with the Windsors. The fact that Charles still insisted on Harry’s presence at the coronation shows that Charles knew that too, knew that Harry didn’t go scorched-earth on the Windsors. The coronation invitation also showed that it was always about control as well – Charles doesn’t want the Sussexes around, stealing his thunder, but he also wants to control where they go and what they do.

“King Charles warned him to think long and hard before boarding his ‘freedom flight’ to Canada and then on to Montecito. He warned Harry to consider all the security implications.” The entire reason the Sussexes went from Canada to California (which was the actual freedom flight) was because they knew their security had been yanked and they were going to Tyler Perry’s LA home, with Tyler paying for their protection. Jobson also talks around – all of the royalists are talking around this – the fact that the original plan was changed by Charles and the courtiers in late February/early March 2020.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.