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But it was the duke’s remarks that started a chain reaction of royal family drama played out in tit-for-tat briefings from royal insiders and unseen in British newspapers since the Diana years.
“I thought it was a little surprising that the clips were broadcast while Harry’s older brother, the Duke of Cambridge, and his wife were doing an official visit very successfully to Pakistan,” Westmacott said before adding that the program itself as “very touching.”
“I thought it was very human. It was very touching to see just how they are affected by the strains and stresses of the royal role. As you know I experienced a bit of that during my own time when I had a supporting role with the royal family 20-odd years ago. It is very painful,” he continued.
“I thought what came through was a very genuine, very loving young couple, working hard to make the best of a pretty difficult road.”
Royal biographer Penny Junor said the duke needed to focus on his work.
“He’s got to stop feeling sorry for himself and look at the positives — shut out the criticism, just ignore it as his father has done, and get on with the work, get on with the job,” Junor told PA news agency.
“The royal family has always in the past very successfully pursued this policy of keeping their head down and saying nothing,” she added.
And that is usually where the coverage would have started to wind down. Traditionally the royal family prefer actions to speak louder than words — a move favored by the Queen — and so it was assumed that without a rebuttal from Prince William speculation would fizzle out and the news cycle would move on.
Except that wasn’t what happened.
Cue an explosion of coverage in the British media on Tuesday. “Palace fears for Harry and Meghan” read a headline in one newspaper while “William fears for ‘fragile’ Harry” was printed at the top of another.
The source added that the institution around the British royal family was full of people afraid of and inexperienced at how to best help harness and deploy the value of the royal couple whom, they said, have single-handedly modernized the monarchy.
These claims that Harry and Meghan — rather than the Queen — have modernized the monarchy were not received well. The royal row had moved from Harry versus William to Harry versus the rest of the institution.
For now, the leaks from palace insiders appear to have abated — perhaps an indication that discussions are taking place internally, rather than being played out in the public sphere.
While Harry did make a surprise appearance at the second event, all eyes will undoubtedly be on the lookout for when the two couples next make an appearance together. Until then, speculation will continue to grow.
CNN’s Max Foster contributed to this report.
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