Kay: Prince Harry’s ‘deafening silence’ on Queen Camilla ‘could be seen as a snub’

Richard Kay at the Daily Mail has a new, unhinged piece about Prince Harry and his “deafening silence” about his stepmother’s eventual elevation to Queen Consort. Again, keep in mind – none of Prince Charles’s siblings have said anything publicly, nor has Prince William said anything directly (although Kensington Palace let it be known that William was vaguely approving). Kay’s gaudy headline is this: “What’s made Harry appear to change his tune about ‘wonderful woman’ Camilla? Deafening silence from Montecito after the Queen gave her ultimate approval to Charles’ wife in her historic Platinum Jubilee message.” Meaning, when Harry was younger, was supportive towards Camilla. It’s worth noting that Kay is in deep with both Prince Charles AND Prince William. I can feel both William and Charles’s hands in this, but it’s mostly Charles, because this is his very particular worrystone. You can read the whole melodrama here, and here are the most notable sections:

On Harry’s appearance on a video chat about HIV testing last week: “From Harry, there was, initially, not a public word. Then, when he did break his silence four days later from California, there was no mention of his stepmother, or the proposed change to her status. Instead, he paid a lavish tribute to Diana, praising her work on Aids and HIV and explaining that he felt an ‘obligation’ to continue his late mother’s efforts to remove the stigma surrounding the virus. Pointedly, he said: ‘I could never fill her shoes.’ He might just as well have added: ‘And nor could anyone else.’

Is Harry snubbing Camilla? “The danger for Harry is that this absence of any warmth towards the woman whom he once averred was not a ‘wicked stepmother’ could be seen as a snub. So was it calculated? And if so, why, when it was Camilla who was among the very first members of the Royal Family to offer the hand of friendship to Meghan?

After lavishing praise on Camilla in 2005, now Harry says nothing: “More than 16 years later, it is hard to relate those kind and fulsome words to the peevish absence of any acknowledgement of the proposed change to Camilla’s royal rank, which will mean so much to his father’s future happiness. It is entirely possible that Harry was taken aback by his grandmother’s announcement. Sources close to William indicated that he was not part of the decision-making process, so it is, therefore, extremely unlikely Harry was.

LOL, Harry was poisoned by The Crown: “Harry, meanwhile, was admitting that he had bottled up years of grief over his mother’s death. He absorbed everything he could read and watch about Diana and her life — even the wildly inaccurate TV series The Crown. And what he found, he didn’t much like. In 2017, to mark the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death, the brothers collaborated on TV documentaries. As part of their research, they invited some of their late mother’s friends to Kensington Palace. For some, it was the first time they had talked to Diana’s boys about her. One of Diana’s circle, who met the boys as part of their ‘fact-finding’ about their mother in 2017, recalled: ‘They were cool about Camilla — they didn’t seem to be close, especially Harry, who made his feelings pretty clear.’

As adults, William & Harry regarded Camilla with icy indifference: ‘It didn’t help that Camilla couldn’t bear it when the subject of the Diana statue was raised,’ recalls one figure close to the Prince of Wales.

Harry’s memoir: Since those gushing comments on his 21st birthday, Harry has rarely spoken about Camilla. The fear now is that his soon-to-be published memoir, which is bound to be protective of his mother, could be highly critical of the duchess. There are concerns about Harry’s recollections of Camilla’s arrival into royal life and whether he will claim her affair with Charles had damaged him from a young age. In a podcast last year, Harry made another passive-aggressive dig at his father, saying: ‘He treated me the way he was treated.’

A little dig about William: As for William, Kate has been the conciliatory factor. For years, the relationship with his father was not good and Camilla was appalled by his tantrums. ‘The boy’s got a temper,’ she told one friend. But the rift with Harry has brought Charles and William closer and reshaped William’s thinking about Camilla. However, whether he will publicly support her should hurtful claims be made against her by Harry is uncertain.

[From The Daily Mail]

I’ve actually been thinking this whole time that one of the few things Harry and William are on the same page about is Camilla. I don’t think either brother “hates” Camilla per se, but I would think that the brothers’ feelings towards Camilla remain quite icy and for good reason. After all of this, wouldn’t it be interesting if William and Harry actually started talking again because of their shared disgust with Camilla and their father’s obsession with her? But clearly, Charles (through Richard Kay) is trying to keep the wedge between the brothers firmly in place lest they back each other’s plays to bring down his beloved winebag.

As for the main thesis of Kay’s piece… like, ultimately, who cares? Why does Harry need to say anything? Why does Camilla need the approval of a prince in Montecito? If Harry is actually trying to snub Camilla, he’s doing a damn good job and he’s barely lifted a finger.

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