The Mail’s serialisation of Robert Hardman’s fantastic new biography of the King — Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story, has been fascinating. It will be published on Thursday, and I’ve already pre-ordered my copy.
The book has shone an extraordinary light on the inner workings of the contemporary monarchy: from the death of the Queen at Balmoral in 2022 to the secret plans for a regency in the event she became incapacitated during the final years of her life.
But nothing prepared me for yesterday’s front-page revelation that our late Queen was, according to a courtier, “as angry as I’ve ever seen her” when Harry and Meghan furiously insisted, through their lawyers, that she had given her permission for them to call their daughter Lilibet — the late monarch’s private family nickname.
The Sussexes fired off aggressive legal threats to anyone who dared to suggest the Queen was anything less than delighted. ET now, thanks to Robert’s impeccably sourced book, it appears the final years of her reign were overshadowed not only by this extraordinary decision but by Harry and Meghan’s hunger for publicity and tendency to air their grievances on TV and in writing.
The Queen embodied every virtue this pair lack. She was loyal, dedicated, hard-working and driven by duty every day of her life — at times, if we are honest, to the detriment of her own family and happiness. She always put the nation first. The nickname “Lilibet” arose when the future Queen was a small child and charmingly struggled to pronounce “Elizabeth”.
In its cosy informality, it speaks of a happy, now-vanished era spent with her parents, George Vi and the Queen Mother, as well as her sister, Princess Margaret. She must have always associated it with those quiet, private family times.
When I read the revelations in Robert’s book, my heart almost broke for the King. What a burden he has had to bear over the past few years as his younger son and his wife have shared countless private details about the family and started fights with the media.
How painful it must have been for Charles to see his ailing mother so upset at his own son and daughter-in-law’s behaviour — and then to lose her, knowing how she had felt in her final years, and having to console the nation.
Thank God he has Camilla to keep him grounded. Why do the Sussexes, and Harry in particular, keep acting like this? I’ve often said that the death of Diana might be behind it; we all remember that little boy walking behind his mother’s coffin, and we can only imagine how awful it must have been for him to have had the eyes of the world watching.
But William walked on that day, too. William also lost his mother and suffered the same pain and grief as his brother, and yet his behaviour has been exemplary — poles apart from Harry’s.
The Duke of Sussex is about to turn 40: he’s an adult and he needs to start acting like one. all his endless therapy sessions don’t seem to have given him the tools to put his experiences into perspective. He does not seem to realise that, while he has undoubtedly suffered personal loss, he is one of the most privileged men on the planet — not one of the most put upon.
The death of a parent in a young life is no excuse to behave badly towards your surviving relatives as you grow up — in fact, the opposite is true. In his memoir, Spare, among other revelations, Harry chose to tell the world that he lost his virginity in a field.
But how strange that, in the same book, Harry failed to recount the details of the phone conversation in which the Queen supposedly gave her blessing for him and Meghan to name their daughter Lilibet. That, I think, tells us everything.