Sympathy towards Prince Harry and Meghan is 'thinning out', claims Prince Philip's close friend Gyles Brandreth
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: Gyles Brandreth, a longtime friend of Prince Philip, issued a warning recently that support for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is "thinning out a little bit". According to the author, the late husband of the Queen reportedly advised against royal family members "making themselves the story." Brandreth also served as the Duke of Edinburgh's biographer. His statement comes on September 6 as Harry and Meghan travel from Frogmore Cottage in Windsor to Manchester for the One Young World meeting, the Daily Mail reported.
The statement comes as the Sussexes continue to criticize royal life, most recently on Meghan's podcast on Spotify and her recent interview with US magazine The Cut. "The number of people being as sympathetic to them [the Sussexes] as they were initially does seem to be sort of thinning out a little bit," Brandreth stated to ITV.
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are on a trip to the UK and visited Manchester recently. The couple is scheduled to appear at the German Invictus Games 2023 and the Wellchild Awards in London soon. Referring to their travels, Brandreth said that they were doing "good works"."It's good stuff. And what they're doing is they're saying compassion in action, we're trying to highlight these things. And that's what royals do, they turn up. Now the problem here is that instead of focusing on their good works - this what the Duke of Edinburgh warned about years ago - once you make yourself the story, then you become the story," Brandreth said, continuing, "What should be the story is the good works you are doing. And so these two youth projects they're involved in... that's what we should be talking about. In fact, we're talking about the family rift."
In her appearance on the show, Camilla Tominey, an associate editor at the Telegram, discussed The Cut interview and the Sussexes' assaults on the royal family. "There's no dignity in that, though, is there? I mean, also, the Queen, 96 years old, dignified her entire life, having to cope with this," presenter Philip Schofield said. "There have been rumors that both she and the Prince of Wales are 'bewildered' by what they're saying. You look at it and - we've been very sympathetic and then sometimes we've been critical - but you look at it and you think 'oh why don't you both just shut up?" he added.
Omid Scobie, a close friend of Meghan and Harry and a trusted media source, stated independently on Tuesday morning that the most recent trip for the pair was "very much about the work". "After Meghan's recent revelations, the family and the institution itself will have no doubt been bracing themselves for this visit. But for the Sussexes, this is very much about the work, these are the kind of trips they wanted to do ever since they stepped back, but the pandemic prevented them from doing so until now," Scobie expressed in the interview.
Meghan and Prince Harry will not be subjected to as much spotlight and media attention as they usually do, according to royal expert Daisy McAndrew as Liz Truss will be announced as the next prime minister. Prior to the announcement, McAndrew stated, "All the tension will be on them [the next prime minister], one of those two shortlisted will be going up to Balmoral to visit the Queen tomorrow to do the kissing of hands and be appointed the next prime minister. Harry and Meghan will get some coverage but not as much as they're used to. They will be sharing the spotlight somewhat," pointing out the gradually dwindling limelight from media they have been experiencing lately.
In what has been seen as a subliminal threat to the royal family, Meghan told the American magazine The Cut that it takes "a lot of effort" to forgive and intimated that she can "say anything."
Meghan's Archetypes podcast, which features interviews with legendary tennis player Serena Williams and singer Mariah Carey, has so far had two episodes on Spotify. In the podcast with Williams, the Duchess made subtle digs at royal life while describing her distress when a fire started in her son Archie's room when they were on a tour of South Africa. She complained that those in charge of the trip focused more on "how it appears, than of how it feels."
She also told Carey that she was treated for the first time "like a black lady" when she first started dating Prince Harry. She claimed that before she met Harry, she was regarded "as a mixed lady," but that after that point, "everything really transformed."