Harry and Meghan face a new problem, says British journalist Camilla Tominey. Photo / Netflix
Opinion:
The mantra originated with 19th-century prime minister Benjamin Disraeli - but it was Queen Elizabeth II who deployed it to the greatest effect.
“Never complain, never explain,” may seem a rather Victorian approach to reacting to royal criticism, yet the fallout from the Duke of Sussex’s latest attack on his nearest and dearest proves why it has long served the monarchy so well.
Despite Prince Harry’s insistence, during yet another televisual airing of his dirty laundry, that the Windsor motto rings hollow, in fact the Royal family’s stoic silence in the face of his interminable oversharing speaks volumes to a public that has seemingly had it up to here with the King of Whinge.
Having already been subjected to no less than six hours of multi-million-dollar moaning on Netflix during a cost-of-living Christmas, nearly half of all Brits have decided that - rather than sympathising with the father-of-two - they would prefer to see him removed of his royal titles.
According to a YouGov poll, published on New Year’s Eve, 44 per cent of the British public would like Harry and Meghan to be stripped of their “Sussex” tag - sensing, perhaps, the shamelessness of a couple still intent on trashing the very institution they are happily cashing in on.
The survey also found that 44 per cent have more sympathy with Prince William and his wife Kate following the six-part series compared to just 17 per cent for Harry and Meghan, despite the litany of accusations that have rained down on the royals since the couple first started airing their many grievances.
Yet contrary to Harry’s unsubstantiated claims that his father and brother are constantly authorising the “leaking and briefing” of stories about him and his wife to the press - the reality is that the palace has said very little in rebuttal beyond the original “recollections may vary” statement and William’s to-the-point “we are not a racist family” response to the blabbermouths’ bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview.
And it is precisely because they have stayed so schtum that the Prince and Princess of Wales have proved more popular than their primetime detractors.
Of course there is nothing new in this. Royals who largely keep their mouths shut generally fare better than those who speak out, as the Duke (and Duchess) of York can well testify.
Prince Charles would arguably have stood a better chance of winning the “War of the Waleses” had he not decided to wage battle via Jonathan Dimbleby and a TV audience of 13 million in 1994. The heir to the throne’s decision to reveal to the documentary maker that he had been faithful to Diana, Princess of Wales, “until it became clear that the marriage had irretrievably broken”, backfired for a generation.
It also led to Diana’s equally misjudged decision to spill the beans to the BBC’s nefarious former Panorama presenter Martin Bashir a year later - a move that not only resulted in the finalising of her divorce from the future king but also cost the princess her HRH status and Metropolitan Police bodyguards. As Patrick Jephson, who resigned as Diana’s private secretary following the furore, later confirmed, “In the years since, nothing persuaded me that the Panorama interview was anything but a disaster for her.
“For those who had engineered the interview, it was win-win. But not for the Princess … she knew that Panorama was the death knell for her royal career.”
There is an even bigger irony here than Harry’s foolhardy repetition of his parents’ biggest mistakes, however, and it’s not even the fact that the prince once spoke of the importance of not “diluting the magic” of the monarchy with over-familiarity.
The self-styled Montecito Moraliser, the so-called Do Gooding Duke who once described himself as a champion “for personal development, increased awareness, and an all-round better life,” is now doing exactly what he and Meghan “ghosted” Thomas Markle for.
Interviews giving his side of a story he felt had been unfairly told; talking about how he only wants to reconcile - Harry, like his estranged father-in-law, has now resorted to communicating with his own family via 60 Minutes.
And to make matters even worse for the periphrastic prince - the only winners here are the mainstream media feasting on the corpse of brotherly royal relations - and an institution whose declination to comment has never made it seem more dignified.