{"id":827162,"date":"2026-11-07T14:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T14:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/827162\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T14:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T14:36:15","slug":"king-charles-and-prince-williams-quiet-act-of-revenge-against-harry-and-meghan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/827162\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles and Prince William’s ‘quiet act of revenge’ against Harry and Meghan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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But after the Sussex strategy to defy the Sandringham Summit and essentially stick two fingers up at the institution, what choice do Charles and William have?<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m told Harry and Meghan were angered by the September directive from the King that reminded everyone they are \u2018private citizens\u2019 and thus not working members of the family after their move back to the UK.<\/p>\n

Their response? Seemingly to create as much noise, as much conflict and as much confusion as possible over their public events, to make them appear just as royal as the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales.<\/p>\n

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They think there\u2019s nothing Buckingham Palace can do to stop them<\/p>\n

The Sussexes don\u2019t want to be seen as \u2018non-working royals\u2019 (a term they reportedly hate).<\/p>\n

They consider themselves to be royal on their own terms and so have behaved as if the past six years of Megxit never happened.<\/p>\n

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And they appear to think that there\u2019s nothing Buckingham Palace can do to stop them.<\/p>\n

So inviting them to take part in the famous walk to church on Christmas Day would have sent entirely the wrong message after the Sussexes have repeatedly appeared to show, in my opinion, that they don\u2019t give a damn about the Crown.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine the furore if they were pictured with the Prince and Princess of Wales, plus their children, dutifully accepting flowers and presents from well-wishers?<\/p>\n

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There is no trust there<\/p>\n

Plus William has his own young family to prioritise. A friend says, \u2018There is no trust there with his brother and sister-in-law. The prince is concerned for his own family – he has to protect them and their privacy. Any conversation, any Christmas presents, any moment could be regurgitated for the Sussexes\u2019 commercial profit.<\/p>\n

‘If Harry and Meghan were to be invited to family events, I think you\u2019d find that he and Catherine would have other plans.\u2019<\/p>\n

Harry keeps wittering on about wanting reconciliation with his family – but what he says is so very different to what he does.<\/p>\n

Plus, if he really does want to make up with his brother, he needs to put a sock in it and stop taking public side swipes at him, as he did last month, saying, \u2018Some people don\u2019t want [reconciliation] to work out.\u2019 (Harry\u2019s spokesperson denied that this was a swipe at William or anyone else in the family.)<\/p>\n

There are royals (Zara and Mike Tindall spring to mind) who have navigated the tricky balancing act of being private individuals (and thus earning their own money) and Royal Family members.<\/p>\n

But, crucially, the Tindalls, Peter Phillips and even Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have never criticised the Firm or individuals within it. Harry and Meghan, by contrast, have made millions whinging to Oprah, on Netflix and, most cuttingly, in Harry\u2019s autobiography, Spare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harry and Meghan are establishing a rival court<\/p>\n

One could argue (and Team Sussex do!) that the likes of Zara, Mike and Peter Phillips make money from their royal association (although, to be fair to the Tindalls, their huge sporting success has brought them fame and fortune).<\/p>\n

But they don\u2019t stage massive pseudo-royal public engagements, do walkabouts and generally act as if they\u2019re working royals. They stay in their lane. They do not muddy the waters.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the Sussexes are determined to be perceived as current members of the Royal Family. This is precisely what the Palace doesn\u2019t want, as Harry and Meghan are, in effect, establishing a rival court.<\/p>\n

It was just about tolerable when they were on the other side of the Atlantic. But not when they\u2019re parking their tanks on Buckingham Palace\u2019s lawn.<\/p>\n

The guest list at Sandringham is always a barometer of who\u2019s in and who\u2019s out<\/p>\n

So no wonder they\u2019ve been essentially banned from family Christmas celebrations. The guest list at Sandringham is always a barometer of who\u2019s in and who\u2019s out (I doubt we\u2019ll ever see Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor there again).<\/p>\n

The King and Prince William have to draw a hard line between those who are fully committed to the duty and service of the Firm and those who aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake – Harry and Meghan may say they want family reconciliation, but they have a funny way of showing it. And now, they don\u2019t seem to care.<\/p>\n

A friend of the Sussexes told me, \u2018They won\u2019t be invited to Sandringham – can you even imagine? They know it would be too awkward and difficult. They will spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with Doria, either in the UK or in the USA.\u2019<\/p>\n

There is also the traditional Christmas lunch for the wider family, before the King and Queen depart for Norfolk.<\/p>\n

At this rate, I doubt that the Sussexes will be invited to that, either.<\/p>\n

This feature first appeared in Woman<\/a> magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for \u00a31<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter It\u2019s official. Harry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-827162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}