Another day, another word salad from Prince Harry... It’s almost as if he’s desperate to reassure us and remind us that he’s still relevant...
This time was an interview with ITV News on a whistle-stop tour to Ukraine. He said, 'I will always be part of the Royal Family and I’m here working, doing the very thing I was born to do and I enjoy doing it. I enjoy being able to do these trips and support the people that I’ve met before and the friends that I’ve made.'
My good chum, ITV’s royal editor Chris Ship, asked him if he recognised the phrase ‘not a working royal’, to which he responded, 'No.'
Harry went on to speak of the ongoing humanitarian challenges in Ukraine and express his hope that world leaders would show ‘proper leadership’ to find peace there and in the Middle East.
Which loosely translates as ‘I matter! I’m still royal, royal blood still runs through my veins and therefore what I say is important, people!’
Oh, Harry...
To be fair, he was also there to highlight the excellent work of the HALO Trust, the landmine-clearing organisation whose profile Princess Diana transformed in her 1997 trip to Angola.
But also, striding in a blue vest, reminiscent of those famous images, is it horribly cynical to think that is as much reminding us of his connection to her as it is the cause itself.
Harry, 41, often wants to remind us so desperately of his mum, and his family.
Only a few days prior to his trip, we found out he’d sent a tribute to his late grandmother (a floral wreath sent to her grave in St George’s Chapel inside Windsor castle on what would have been her 100th birthday).
A gesture made ‘privately’ and ‘quietly’ except we knew about it practically the moment it happened through an exclusive with the US magazine People.
'Everyone got a bit bored of the victimhood and repetitive self-pity'
He talked about Princess Diana in Australia - saying the royal role 'killed my mum' and so he didn’t want it.
He also talked about her in his autobiography Spare - that a visit to a psychic convinced him he was living the life she had wanted for him.
I feel sorry for him. He’s tried so hard to matter in his own right. He left the Royal Family, said it was awful, tried to find paying gigs, boldly shared HIS TRUTH.
But Hollywood and everyone else got a bit bored of the victimhood and repetitive self-pity. And now? Missing the UK, estranged from his family, he still thinks of himself as a working royal.
Except he’s very far from that.
This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.
