US-based royal commentator Victoria Arbiter chats to Max Towle about the repercussions of Prince Harry's sad yet incendiary memoir Spare.
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Related: Spare review: The weirdest book ever written by a royal
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"Are we meeting for a walk…or a duel?" writes Prince Harry of the extremely chilly reception he received from his father and brother at Prince Philip's funeral in 2021.
What the Duke of Sussex fails to mention, says Victoria Arbiter, is just over a month earlier, he and his wife Meghan had released "a stream of allegations against the royal family" in an Oprah Winfrey interview.
She asks if it's any wonder that King Charles and Prince William appeared, as Harry writes, "grim, almost menacing"?
"They would have been hurt, angry, frustrated, baffled, confused, you name it … I can't see how it was ever going to be all warm and fuzzy."
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2019 Photo: AFP
When Harry married American actress Meghan Markle in 2018, the British public was excited about a woman of colour joining the monarchy and happy that Harry had seemingly found his happy ending, Victoria says.
In the years that followed, though, the couple hinted at racism within the Royal Family and, by extension, the British population at large.
"To be tarnished with that brush by a proverbial son that everyone loved really made a lot of people in the UK stand up and bristle."
On the subject of grief, Harry's great-grandmother the Queen Mother once said that 'you never get over it, you just get better at it'.
To Victoria, Spare indicates that the Duke of Sussex is yet to achieve this.
"There's an angry man there who's got a lot of resentment, a lot of jealousy. But for me, the overriding theme [of the book] is one of just raw unadulterated grief and unresolved trauma and so much sadness."
Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, on the long Walk at Windsor Castle on September 10, 2022, before meeting well-wishers after the death of the Queen. Photo: Kirsty O'Connor / POOL / AFP
While Victoria admires Prince Harry for "putting the work in" to write a candid memoir, there is also an element of revenge to Spare, she says.
"While I think he's incredibly happy with his wife and children, I don't see a man who's found any sense of peace, just yet."
Deep loss is a recurring theme for Harry, we learn in Spare - triggered by his brother's rejection of him at school, his father's marriage to now Queen Camilla and his brother's marriage to Catherine Middleton.
It would be tragic if, having already lost their mother, he and William now lose each other as brothers, Victoria says, but Harry still seems to be "poking the bear".
In an extraordinary Telegraph interview, he spoke about saving his family members from themselves and his concern for how William's three children are being raised.
This when Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis seem like the most well-adjusted children the monarchy has ever known, Victoria says.
"[Voicing concerns about the raising of] William's children... I think William is not going to respond well to that, understandably so."
King Charles III delivers his first Christmas Day message in 2022 Photo: VICTORIA JONES / AFP
King Charles will definitely invite Harry and Meghan to his coronation ceremony in May, Victoria says, but his aides will be hopeful that the couple will decline and not distract from the occasion with their presence.
"If Harry and Meghan come into town, the circus comes with them. And by the 'circus'. I just mean all the press… the body language experts … it would just get ridiculous and I do think the focus does need to remain on the king."
It's a reasonable assumption is that Charles is "devastated" by his embattled son's public campaign, Victoria says, but 6 May 2023 is also the most important day of his life.
"The royals will do what they always do, which is get on with the job. They're going to focus on the coronation, which is just under 4 months away. That promises to be an opportunity for national unity, national celebration, national pride, not just for the UK but for the Commonwealth realms and the Commonwealth of Nations."
Prince Harry in a January 2023 interview with ITV Photo: YouTube screenshot
