Prince Harry Come Home Calls Raise Eyebrows

Prince William and King Charles III should “bring Prince Harry home,” according to a call by Queen Camilla’s friend that has raised eyebrows on social media.

Petronella Wyatt, who first met Camilla in the late 1980s, wrote a column in The Daily Telegraph arguing: “The Windsors are in grave need of some pizazz.”

Her appeal for peace follows a successful tour of Nigeria by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and comes as Princess Kate is off work undergoing treatment for cancer.

Wyatt wrote: “Readers may succumb to the screaming abdabs, but the royal left standing who has most star power is Harry.

“It is easy to blame him and his puerile book for the continuing rift with his father and brother, but some courtiers of my acquaintance hold William equally liable.

“Whether we like it or not, the Sussexes’ Nigerian tour has been a triumph and I cannot help but feel that a visible reconciliation between William and Harry would strengthen the unity of the House of Windsor and reassure the public of its commitment.”

Wyatt said a former courtier had told her it was William who was preventing King Charles from reconciling with Harry, but that the Prince of Wales was exhibiting “mildly pathological” disgruntlement.

The call raised eyebrows on social media among supporters of Harry and Meghan, who generally subscribe to the view that the couple are living their best lives in California and were lucky to get out when they did.

One response read: “1. lol. They did too well in Nigeria. 2. It’s interesting that all these articles are written with William, not Charles, as the subject.”

Another read: “‘Time to bring Harry home.’ They still talk about Harry like he’s a child. Adults get to decide where they live. You don’t get to “bring” them anywhere.”

Wyatt’s column, which was picked up by a number of U.K. news outlets, included criticism of both sides and compared William’s inability to move on to the renowned melancholy of British poet Lord Byron.

“When it comes to his brother,” she wrote, “William’s disgruntlement can at times seem mildly pathological.

“I do not think there is any superior rationality in being discontented with one’s relatives. Take myself. My mother once sold disobliging stories about me to the tabloids, but after an impulse to do her bodily harm, I forgave her.

“Yet where William is concerned, Byronic unhappiness has taken hold. I realise Harry has at times taken joy out of William’s life, and that he and Meghan can be a cause of irritation.

“It remains tempting to call the pair one-trick phoneys. But isn’t that what most royalling is all about? Phoney good will and faked enjoyment?

“Moreover, the Sussexes have youth and glamour, and the young regard them as a religion with no dilution of agnosticism.”

“I thought I’d never say this,” she concluded, “but it may be time to bring Harry home on probation, and for William to clasp his prodigal brother to his bosom, even if he has been a bit of an asp.”

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.

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