Three people close to Harry tried to warn him - but he didn't listen. Photo / Getty Images
Three people close to Harry tried to warn him - but he didn't listen. Photo / Getty Images
Three. That's the number of people very close to Prince Harry who warned him against marrying Meghan Markle.
This week, Tatler published a corker of a story about the Duchess of Sussex's first year as a fully-fledged Windsor. In among the salacious, but credibly sourced, details (such as the factKensington Palace staff call her 'Me-Gain' when she leaves the room to make a green juice) was the revelation that Hazza had banished his best mate Tom (Skippy) Inskip for telling the royal ranga he shouldn't settle down with the Suits star.
According to the society magazine, Skippy was an "ultra loyal" and "tight-lipped" mate — in fact, the boys friendship dates back to nearly two decades. He was there doing Jagerbombs with Harry during his infamous 2012 Las Vegas jaunt (which gave a whole new meaning to "seeing the Crown Jewels") and it was at his 2017 wedding in Jamaica that Harry first introduced Meghan to his closest mates.
When Skippy voiced his apprehension about Meghan as a potential royal bride, Harry is said to have cruelly cut him from his inner circle.
Not only that, but the poor old Etonian faced the extraordinary humiliation during last year's royal wedding of being left off the guest list for the glamorous night-time reception, in favour of such old friends (COUGH) as Oprah and Amal Clooney.
The Tatler story also revealed that while Prince Charles was initially impressed by Meghan, he said: "I just hope he doesn't marry her."
And then, let's not forget that it was Prince William's qualms about Harry tying the knot with the actress that was the initial cause of the brothers' estrangement.
So, three people warned Harry that marrying Meghan was a Big, Fat, Bad Idea.
Meghan has driven a wedge between Harry and his closest friend. Photo / AP
And now, three important relationships in his life have been badly damaged by his decision to wed Meghan anyway.
(Which is not to say she is solely responsible here — we've all had friends who become idiots when they fall nauseatingly in love.)
And that has got to be a big, flashing, red warning sign in regards to the future of his marriage.
Harry clearly had no interest in listening to the three or watching season one of The Crown — if he had he would have seen that this particular romantic predicament, when a royal is gagging to say "I do" with a less-than-perfect match and the family intervenes to say "no" has played out before.
If he had settled in for a Netflix binge he would have known that when Princess Margaret was deciding whether she should marry Group Captain Peter Townsend, her mother and sister both wisely counselled her against it.
And if he had ever read much (beyond back copies of FHM) he would know that years later, she grudgingly admitted that, while it was deeply painful at the time, listening to her family was the best course of action.
When we are swept off our feet, when we are doe-eyed and drunk on love, it is our oldest friends who drag us, kicking and screaming, back to reality.
When Skippy voiced his apprehension about Meghan as a potential royal bride, Harry is said to have cruelly cut him from his inner circle. Photo / AP
True mates will, kindly, read you the Riot Act and collectively try and beat some sense into your infatuated brain.
Because they are the ones who know you best and have some semblance of impartiality and distance. They can see potential issues and speed bumps ahead in a relationship while you are mooning over the 878 photos you took of your New Love in the last 24-hours. ("Look at this one of him trimming his nose hair. Isn't he DIVINE?")
Impetuous, crazy love is finite — and it is when that flush of infatuation passes that your New Love's foibles and issues finally become apparent.
Such as, say, when you are living in the garden of your Gran's house and your best friend thinks you're a tool and your brother has cut you loose and your Dad seems to be making the best of a bad situation.
Such as, when your wife insists on Insta-perfect stunts during official events and building a yoga studio and making you give up the booze and incorporating a $46,000 multimedia screen in your baby's nursery. (All true FYI.)
That is when harsh reality situation really and truly sets in.
Lucky Harry has his new-found love of yoga to help him think straight.
