King Charles’s ‘Harry and Meghan problem’ grows as coronation nears

Kingdoms, heirs, and “spares” seldom amalgamate well. Neither do recalcitrant English dukes who have lost their way. In an echo of history, but with a Meghan Markle twist 87 years later, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is setting up a parallel court to Buckingham Palace in Montecito, Calif., just as his great uncle Edward, Duke of Windsor, once did in Paris after abdicating the English throne in 1936. Yet, whereas Edward’s post-abdication court was only problematic due to the appearance of proximity to Nazi Germany in the lead-up to World War II, Harry’s Hollywood version is global in intent — and the damage being caused to the United Kingdom’s national security and that of its allies, including the United States, is very real.

Whereas Edward and his wife Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, sought to establish an inward-looking court to live out their lives as “outcasts” as best they could, exiled in the shadows, the deeply troublesome Harry and Meghan, are not willing to go quietly into the Pacific night. Arguably, their version of a Netflix-funded parallel court is also intended as a rival court to King Charles III now, and subsequently to William, Prince of Wales, as heir apparent, in the future. 

Harry and Meghan’s self-serving machinations might be laughable if King Charles were not the head of state and the world were not gripped by an increasingly existential battle between the Western-style democracies on one side and China, Russia, North Korea and Iran on the other. But he is just that — and we very much are “sliding” into a new and dangerous cold war. Consequently, the Duke and Duchess would do well to remember that reading the room in Southern California is not the same as reading the room on a global stage.

Last December, it seemed as if Harry and Meghan were merely trying to crassly profit off their Netflix series that unleashed one salacious detail after another about “The Firm.” By the time Harry’s autobiography, “Spare,” was released in January, it was clear something far deeper and more ominous was in play, in terms of national security. As Harry bandied about his “truths,” only for the wayward prince and Meghan to become a caricature of themselves in a “South Park” episode, the two would-be Hollywood monarchs continued to remain oblivious to the damage they were doing to the West as a whole and the United Kingdom in particular.

Now, amidst the bloody war in Ukraine, the fast-approaching coronation of King Charles at Westminster Abbey is exactly 30 days from today in May, and the king’s sons are embroiled in a brotherly fight that Beijing and Moscow will win if Harry’s war against King Charles and Prince William remains unchecked. Harry and Meghan — instead of being respectful of the solemn and symbolic coronation ceremony that is one-part realm and one-part religious, dating back to Edgar, first King of all England, in 973 — are using the national event to continue to advance their click-bait media agenda against the Royal Family by playing a “will they or won’t they” attend the coronation game. Once again, they are attempting to make the story about them.

Meanwhile, in the real world outside of Montecito, wittingly or not, Harry and Meghan continue to play into the hands of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Initially, they did so by associating themselves with Afua Hirsch’s wholly dubious characterization of the United Kingdom’s leadership of the 56-member Commonwealth of Nations as “Empire 2.0” in their Netflix series. This, despite the reality that it is China and Russia that are economically exploiting Sub-Saharan Africa, pummeling the African continent with disinformation on a massive scale, while organizations such as Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group are brutally massacring its civilians. 

Now, Harry has done it again — this time foolishly, if not recklessly, indirectly benefiting Putin. During Prince William’s two-day surprise trip to Poland two weeks ago, at the request of the British government to visit Ukrainian refugees and U.K. front line troops stationed in Rzeszow near Ukraine’s border, Harry upstaged his brother’s efforts in Poland to rally Ukraine’s cause by needlessly flying in from Los Angeles and appearing alongside singer-songwriter Elton John and other celebrities in a procedural hearing in a London High Court. The lawsuit relates to a privacy claim against the owners of The Daily Mail that is already collapsing because of the recantation of Gavin Burrows, a key Harry witness, to the extent the creators of “South Park” are soon likely to lampoon in a World Wide Privacy Tour 2.0 sequel.

During the multi-day hearing, in a written statement, Harry once again blamed the “Institution,” meaning the Royal Family, and “The Firm,” for being at the heart of all of his privacy troubles by “preventing him from learning sooner about the activity of The Daily Mail and related publications by withholding information about phone hacking by other tabloids.” This, on top of previous broadsides against Queen Camilla, calling King Charles’ wife a “wicked stepmother” and harshly speculating to Anderson Cooper during a CNN interview that perhaps “she’d be less dangerous if she was happy.”

As British royal historian Hugo Vickers told us in a comment for this piece, when we asked how the one-time “spare” to the English throne has jeopardized British national security, Harry “has surely put himself and his family at risk.” First, as Vickers noted, by being “unwise to discuss military matters,” and now, in our own opinion, by unleashing a series of assaults against the constitutional duties and responsibilities his family is tasked to carry out on behalf of the U.K. and its national security.

If he truly cares about his reputation in posterity, Harry needs a reset — and British national security needs it even more. Vickers emphasized to us that he believes the “Duke of Windsor has been severely maligned by recent biographers and documentary makers,” especially as it relates to unproven allegations of traitorous Nazi collaboration. In that vein, Harry would do well to remember that future historians might make similar allegations about him and Meghan, vis-à-vis Xi and Putin, and consequently reconsider his duties and responsibilities as the son of a reigning monarch and head-of-state. 

Children, in their magnificent innocence, often can lead adults back to “truths.” In that spirit, Harry should take the real-life “freedom flight” into consideration that 10-year-old Ivan, his 4-year-old sister Daryna, and their mother Kateryna took back to Kyiv after initially fleeing Ukraine as war refugees. Chiefly because of Ivan’s resolve as a son to be with his father again, the family returned to Kyiv from the safety of Latvia to face the risks of war together as a family. 

King Charles needs both his sons and only Harry can decide if he is up to fulfilling his responsibility to his father and his country, either in dutiful silence in Montecito or by taking his own Ivan-style “freedom flight” back to Windsor Castle to stand by his father and brother in a time of global conflict.

Mark Toth is a retired economist and entrepreneur who has worked in banking, insurance, publishing, and global commerce. He is a former board member of the World Trade Center, St. Louis, and has lived in U.S. diplomatic and military communities around the world, including London, Tel Aviv, Augsburg, and Nagoya. Follow him on Twitter @MCTothSTL. 

Jonathan Sweet, a retired Army colonel, served 30 years as a military intelligence officer. His background includes tours of duty with the 101st Airborne Division and the Intelligence and Security Command. He led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012-14, working with NATO partners in the Black Sea and Baltics. Follow him on Twitter @JESweet2022.