A leading Royal Family expert has given her verdict on Prince Harry’s latest stunning televised interview, saying he’s “bristling with anger and resentment and mistrust” of the royal household.
The Duke of Sussex made a string of admissions when speaking to BBC News in California after losing an appeal over the levels of security he and his family are entitled to if and when they visit the UK. Former BBC royal correspondent gave her reaction to the interview from the prince. Jennie Bond told Sky News: “He’s bristling with anger and resentment and mistrust of the royal household, and despair over his father’s attitude, I suppose. It’s just such a sad and sorry saga. I would hope there might be some kind of reconciliation but although Harry says he wants reconciliation, he doesn’t think he can do that now.”
Ms Bond, who was the BBC‘s Royal Correspondent for 14 years, continued: “I thought, you know, where he said the other side have won in keeping me unsafe, that’s one heck of a statement, is it?
“He’s deeply, deeply angered, as he says. And I don’t know where he goes from here.
“He says he wants a reconciliation. Some will wonder why he didn’t say that sooner than now.
“Well, he seems to think the truth has to be established first.
She continued: “Obviously he feels, at the moment, there is some untruth going on still. He seems to be so full of mistrust of the royal household and anything to do with the palace.
“He feels that there is some kind of conspiracy, it would seem, that imprisoned him and imprisons others within that the palace walls really.
“And that, because he has been so brazen as to escape, he’s now being punished, that clearly, is how he feels.
“And he does not believe that he can bring his children back to meet their grandfather, even though, in his own words, he doesn’t know how long his his father has got to live.”
Questioned about that specific remark, she added: “I presume that Harry knows a little bit more than the rest of us about what’s going on with the king’s health.
“Having said that the palace are still very upbeat about the king and the direction he’s going in with his treatment, and we have just learned today that he and the Queen are going to Canada later this month, and he’s going to open the Canadian Parliament.
“So who knows exactly what’s going on with his health there, but Harry clearly would like to come back and see his dad, but they’re not even talking to each other.”
Ms Bond said she had suspected that behind scenes conversations had been going on, adding: “I just really feel for Harry, but I feel for the king as well.
“To be so estranged from your son you can’t even talk to him because of his case against his own government, the King’s own government. Once again, with this royal beat you couldn’t really make it up.”
In an extraordinay interview with the BBC after his High Court setback, the Duke of Sussex said that the King “won’t speak to me because of this security stuff”.
When asked if the last step to repairing relations with his family was the security issue, he said “100%”, adding: “Whatever noise is being created, whatever stories have been written, this has always been the sticking point.
“Put yourself in my shoes, if you step back to try to create a different role, the same official role, but a different working relationship with the institution that you were born into, for the sake of your wife and your own mental health and your child, which now a lot more has come out, because I felt as though it needed to come out – the other side of the story needed to be told, God forbid anything should happen. And I don’t regret that at all.
“But 2020, when that decision happened, I couldn’t believe it. I actually couldn’t believe it.
“I thought, with all the disagreements and all of the chaos that’s happening, the one thing that I could rely on is my family keeping me safe.”
