CHARLIE CHAPLIN once said: “Judge a man not by how he treats his equals, but by how he treats his inferiors.”
In which case, if claims by his former maids are anything to go by, Prince Andrew can arguably be judged as an entitled plonker.
Following on from former Palace worker Charlotte Briggs’ tales of his foul-mouthed tantrums if his teddies weren’t arranged to his liking, ex-maid Janette McGowan says the Queen had to intervene when her second son nabbed the Sandringham bathroom intended for Charles during a holiday stay.
Describing Andrew as “spoilt”, she said there was nothing special about the bathroom — it was simply because he resented the fact his older brother was regarded as “superior” to him.
Commonly known as spare-not-heiritis.
Prince Harry appears to suffer from it too.
It was reported this week that he’s intent on pressing ahead with his legal action against the Government — however embarrassing it may be for his grandmother — because the Home Office is holding fast on its decision to not let him pay for police guards and all the guns, whistles and motorcades that come with them.
A Government source says: “Other minor royals manage to function in normal life without armed guards. The Home Office is refusing to blink.”
Minor royals. Ouch.
That quietly damning throwaway line removes Harry from the inner sanctum of the monarchy and plonks him among the outer echelons who largely fend for themselves. And it must bite.
But he chose to make his bed in Los Angeles and now he must lie in it.
Speaking of which, when Harry and Meghan started selling their “brand” (nope, me neither) to high bidders such as Netflix and Spotify, I wrote in June last year that it would be the law of diminishing returns because there is little substance beyond the royal titles they are so keen to hang on to.
All gong and no dinner
But even I couldn’t have predicted quite how quickly they would appear to run out of steam.
In December 2020, Spotify announced a reported £18million podcast deal with the Sussexes, who it described as “citizens of the world (spew) who wanted to “elevate under-represented voices”.
However, it appears it is their voices that are under-represented, because so far they’ve failed to broadcast anything beyond a 33-minute “holiday special” with their celebrity mates.
Yesterday, it was reported that Spotify is now looking for in-house staff to oversee any production and cover “every step” of the process. In other words, do the lion’s share of the work.
Harry and Meghan have so far set up 11 companies to channel their various activities through.
But so far, as my old grandma used to say, it’s all gong and no dinner.
So, just like his entitled “spare not heir” uncle Andrew, is Harry going to continue riding the coat-tails of the monarchy while making lots of “look at me” noise and throwing his toys out of the pram?
Or is he going to come good and become a self-made millionaire through his own hard work and creativity?
Right now, it’s not looking very promising.
