Splitting heirs: what's behind Harry and William's
separating households?
It’s been portrayed as a rift between the princes – or a
catfight between their wives. But the couples are preparing for very different
lives
Caroline Davies
Wed 10 Apr 2019 17.06 BST Last modified on Thu 11 Apr 2019
09.36 BST
William, Harry, Meghan and Kate
Fab four … William,
Harry, Meghan and Kate at a service to mark the centenary of the Armistice.
Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
Shielded by trees inside the Queen’s historic Windsor
estate, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are settling into their new home, Frogmore
Cottage, ahead of the birth of their first child. “Cottage” may be too humble a
name for a Grade II-listed house with a reported 10 bedrooms, gifted to them by
the Queen and refurbished for around £3m. And, according to reports this week,
now complete with a vegetable patch and “floating” yoga studio. The “Frogmore”
is at least appropriate, given the preponderance of frogs at its nearby lake (a
disgusted Queen Victoria once noted they “made the grass look as if it were
alive”).
This is Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s new
base, 20-odd miles from their former Kensington Palace home and former
neighbours, the Cambridges, as well as other assorted royals also billeted in
the west London royal residence Edward VIII called the “Aunt Heap”.
Their wish to start family life away from the Kensington
Palace goldfish bowl is understandable, even if the price is living under the
Heathrow flightpath. The recent announcements that Harry and Meghan are to set
up a separate official household with offices at Buckingham Palace, and that
they have launched their own Instagram account – @sussexroyal – has oxygenated
speculation over the split of the “Fab Four”. For split read “rift”, or “spat”,
according to reports, unable to resist perpetuating rumours of rows between the
brothers, or – even better – between their wives.
Photographs of Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, Meghan and their
husbands laughing together, have done little to dampen tittle-tattle, while
columnists are quick to pit the two women in particular against each other.
Even the Chelsea Flower Show is not immune, with some gardening media pitching
a “classic English” garden by Kate’s charity against an African climate-change
garden by Meghan’s charity.
“I was told the
tensions were between the two brothers and that they had really gone through
quite a difficult patch shortly after the engagement announcement. But two
duchesses having a cat fight – that’s a sexier story,” says Vanity Fair royal
correspondent, Katie Nicholl, author of Harry: Life, Loss, and Love.
In the public’s eye it had always been just the two of them;
princeling brothers inextricably bound by tragedy; the memory of them trailing
their mother’s coffin in bewildered grief still so vivid. Then two became a
trio on Prince William’s marriage. But with Harry still solo, he looked every
inch “the spare”. Now married, and having finished serving in the army, Harry
is seeking a meaningful role. Already we are seeing the first indications of
how he and Meghan intend to operate. Constant reinvention is the way the
monarchy strives to survive. And with his marriage to the American former actor
– seemingly a politically and emotionally literate, independent, liberal,
ripper-up of rulebooks, champion of period poverty and writer of supportive
messages on bananas to sex workers – it is fair to say Harry’s reinvention is
without precedent.
“Brand Sussex” will have an international stage from which
to promote their messages on humanitarianism, environmental awareness and
mental wellbeing. But the fact that their offices will be under the canopy of
the Queen’s most senior advisers will not be without challenge, predict
royal-watchers.
They need back-up
teams because their roles are so different. But that’s not what the tabloids
want to hear.
Joe Little
The Sussexes certainly have an audience for their vision;
their Instagram account broke the world record for attracting 1 million
followers in less than six hours. It now sits above 4 million and counting.
Photographs posted so far appear to accentuate the personal, like the sharing
of hitherto private moments tending elephants in the African bush, rather than
the official engagement shots we see of William and Kate. They have the support
of celebrity friends, too; among them the Clooneys, Serena Williams, Oprah,
Jessica Mulroney.
They also have, in their freshly hired communications
secretary, Sara Latham, a professional with pedigree in the political and the
corporate worlds on both sides of the pond. Her former clients include both
Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Tony Blair. The Sussex household
will be financed by Prince Charles through his Duchy of Cornwall income, the
Queen through her Duchy of Lancaster funds, and the taxpayer through the
government’s annual sovereign grant.
A parting of logistical ways for the brothers was always
inevitable, aides say. Senior royals historically set up their own households
on marriage, the Yorks and Wessexes being recent examples. It was “wilful
misunderstanding” to characterise it “as some kind of fallout”, says Andrew
Morton, Meghan biographer and author of the global bestseller Diana: Her True
Story. Palace sources stress that having two households is about preparing both
couples for their futures. The long-term plan had always been for Harry to have
his own household once married. Now he and Meghan are about to have their own
family, and have a new official residence, it made sense to start moving to
this permanent structure.
Frogmore Cottage,
Windsor. . Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
But the timing is unfortunate, according to Joe Little,
managing editor of Majesty magazine, who believes it should have happened
immediately after the Sussexes’ marriage, “so there could be no rumours about
rifts between brothers or sisters-in-law”.
William is in the ascendancy. He will become Prince of
Wales, then king. His household is headed by private secretary Simon Case, 40,
a former principal private secretary to both prime minister Theresa May and her
predecessor David Cameron. William’s recent three-week attachment with the
security and intelligence services, MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, illustrates well how
divergent the brothers’ roles will be. “William has a lot to learn, about the
Duchy of Cornwall, about government, and about many other things that Harry
need never concern himself with,” says Little, pointing out that Harry’s
position can only diminish as he slides down the line of succession. “They need
back-up teams to be independent because their roles are so different. But
that’s a boring story. That’s not what the tabloids want to hear.”
William, Kate and their three children are now the core
royal family, and will be constrained far more by convention. Kensington Palace
will feel “more traditional and domestic-based” compared to the Sussexes,
Nicholl says. William and Kate, as future king and queen, will obviously
perform big overseas tours. “But, particularly when it comes to the
Commonwealth, that overseas representation is very much going to fall on Harry
and Meghan,” Nicholl adds.
Harry was a boy who
hung out at the pub and went shooting with friends. Now he’s drinking green
juices and meditating
Katie Nicholl
Many believe that by being American, divorced, mixed race
and self-made, Meghan marrying into “the firm” has, of itself, modernised the
monarchy. Hundreds of millions across the world watched the ceremony on TV. She
is seen as so different from Kate, who has quietly adopted the Windsor ways.
Harry, in talking very explicitly about his own mental health in such a personal
manner, and Meghan, in proclaiming her feminism, appear to be promoting a new
“touchy-feely” kind of progressive royalty. And what of baby Sussex, soon to be
seventh-in-line to the throne? There is unlikely, watchers say, to be a
“national moment” of presenting their newborn on the hospital steps. In fact,
the first the nation might see of the Sussexes’ child is on their Instagram
account.
There are unconfirmed reports that Meghan will eschew Kate’s
choice of the £7,500-a-night private suite at the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s
Hospital, Paddington, opting for the local NHS Frimley Park Hospital, or even a
home birth. A photograph of the couple emerging from Notting Hill wellness shop
Ilapothecary, which offers energy healing and meditation, is seen as evidence
of a different approach to this royal birth. That approach, according to the
Mail on Sunday, includes dispensing with the services of the royal household
gynaecologists used by Kate and other female royals, in favour of an unnamed
female doctor.
The Sussexes are yet to appoint a private secretary to
replace Samantha Cohen, a former senior aide to the Queen, who has held the
post on an interim basis but is due to leave. As the couple attempt to navigate
a path balancing Harry’s birthright of wealth and privilege with adhering to
the causes they publicly promote, Latham, whose expertise is in “executive
thought leadership and purpose-led campaigns”, will seek to minimise missteps.
The eagle-eyed media have already swooped on the financial
and environmental impact of Harry helicoptering to engagements in Birmingham,
at a reported £6,000 cost, two days before telling thousands of young people at
Wembley Arena on WE Day, “every blade of grass, every ray of sun and every rain
drop is crucial to our survival”. Likewise, Meghan’s private jet – reportedly
lent by the Clooneys – to her extravagant baby shower in an ultra-luxe New York
hotel penthouse suite, was also criticised. Lest they forget, the image of
frugality the royals like to project is one where Princess Anne can still wear
30-year-old coats, and Charles chooses to have his suits patched, albeit by
Savile Row tailors.
The WE Day speech, at the event encouraging youth activism,
perhaps yielded a glimpse of what now to expect from the Sussexes. Here was
Harry, pacing the stage, microphone casually slung in hand, praising his
student audience as “the most engaged generation in history”, urging them to
find their “true north” and having a little pop at mainstream media to boot. It
was received with rapturous applause, especially as Meghan joined him onstage.
Traditionalist curmudgeons shuddered. “Cringe-worthy”, bellowed the Sun; “part
New Age gibberish” harrumphed one Daily Mail columnist.
“It was very ‘woke’. It was very Meghan. It was just not
what we have heard from Harry before and that’s what has taken everyone by
surprise, his friends included,” says Nicholl. “This is a boy they hung out at
the pub and went shooting with. Now he’s drinking green juices and meditating.”
The couple’s staff will be based at Buckingham Palace and so
under the supervision of the Queen’s senior officials. Latham will report to
Donal McCabe, the Queen’s new communications secretary, who previously held
senior posts at bookmakers Ladbrokes, Landsec, Boots and Railtrack. Harry may
find this quite an adjustment; to give up the freedom he has enjoyed at
Kensington Palace, “which is incredibly autonomous”, Nicholl believes. “There’s
is a sense there is the potential for them to be more reined in at Buckingham
Palace. It is very telling that their head of communications will have to
answer to Donal. That says a lot. And I think that is very much the subtext of
the story.”
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