ON July 1, Princes William and Harry are due to unveil a statue at Kensington Palace dedicated to their late mother, Diana.
The ceremony, to mark what would have been the Princess of Wales’s 60th birthday, will “recognise her positive impact”.
It is such an uplifting and hopeful thing for the two brothers, especially because they lost her at such a young age and formed a strong bond as they grieved together.
In most families a coming together like this would be a time of quiet respect and a chance for reconciliation between any members who have fence-mending to do.
But given that, so far, every event in Harry and Meghan’s lives which should have been positive — their wedding, the birth of Archie, their home at Frogmore — has somehow turned into a major row, I wouldn’t bet on it. And that’s such a shame.
Their latest example of turning something positive into a negative comes in the naming of their baby daughter, Lilibet. Hot on the heels of that Oprah interview, and the Royal Family’s response to Harry’s desire to “speak his truth” at every opportunity, you would think the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would try to avoid yet another family row, rather than actively provoke one.
But given that Buckingham Palace has not backed the couple in the debate over whether they sought the Queen’s permission to name their daughter Lilibet — Her Majesty’s highly personal childhood pet name (have you known any other Lilibets?) — it’s very hard to see their decision as anything but inflammatory.
If they had wanted to pay homage to the Queen, they could have called their baby Elizabeth, Lili or Lilibeth.
Instead, they decided to hijack a very intimate name for the most important woman in the country.
And if the Palace briefing is true, the couple did not first ask her permission.
So why on earth did they do it? The simplest explanation is that it is a peace offering, albeit misguided, and an attempt to keep them close to the Royal Family when they are very far away, physically and emotionally.
But it does look a bit as if they are appropriating the name, which is so at odds with their decision to reject so much of what the Royal Family stands for.
Once again, it seems like Harry and Meghan cannot decide whether they want to be part of the family or not.
And that really is the root of all of the issues from the past year: They can’t make up their minds.
It makes me wonder whether they will find a way to turn the statue unveiling into a new drama, to make it into a day that is somehow about them.
I really hope not. That said, we, the public, might need to stop blaming Meghan for all of this.
It’s easy to see her as the problem rather than Prince Harry.
Just like the many criticisms that are levelled at the Prime Minister’s wife Carrie Johnson, chief among them that she is “meddling”, there is a sexist element to blaming the wife.
Breakdown of the family
It can’t be just Meghan engineering all this drama. Harry was clearly a damaged soul when they met and she has helped him in many ways, including helping to create a new family of his own.
But over the past year they have taken things too far and someone in the Royal Family needs to put a stop to this nonsense before July 1.
Everyone, Harry included, has to accept the part they have played in the breakdown of the family . . . so that next month’s statue unveiling is about paying tribute to their mother and not just another episode in the Harry and Meghan show.
Her Maj’s sword was the icing on the cake
IT has been the saddest of years for our 95-year-old Queen.
But she showed this week she hasn’t lost the sense of humour that clearly mirrors that of her late husband the Duke of Edinburgh.
On Friday at the G7 she joked: “Are you supposed to be looking as if you’re enjoying yourself?” To which Boris Johnson replied: “Yes, we have been enjoying ourselves.”
She then attended the Eden Project’s Big Lunch event where, surrounded by bunting which made it look like a scene from The Great British Bake Off, Her Majesty was asked to cut into a gigantic cake.
Our petite Queen started to use a long ceremonial sword to cut into it when an aide said there was a smaller, conventional knife to use. She quipped: “I know there is, this is more unusual.”
When she handed it back to the soldier she managed to make it look like she was stabbing him, amusing onlookers including Kate and Camilla, who couldn’t stop giggling.
