The extreme lengths Prince Harry and William go to for publicity revealed – including competing with their father Prince Charles
IT’S not often a humble commoner like me feels any sympathy for PRINCE CHARLES, our over-indulged and self-important heir to the throne.
But a bombshell new book timed to coincide with the future king’s 70th birthday later this month paints a picture of a man struggling to deal with his “publicity-hungry” sons William and Harry's constant bid for their own spotlight.
I appreciate this is a narrative that’s hard to swallow, given the PR machine constantly operating around the young princes.
Selfless Wills and big-hearted Harry, after all, are the shy and retiring young men who hate more than anything appearing in ghastly newspapers like this one.
Not quite, according to veteran reporter ROBERT JOBSON, one of the most respected and long-serving members of the royal press pack, who has been particularly close to Prince Charles for many years, even breaking news of his engagement to Camilla in 2005.
With the help of Charles himself and many of his nearest and dearest, for the first time the complicated and confusing family dynamics are laid bare, including their battle for headlines.
Jobson writes in Charles at 70 that William is “extremely competitive with members of his family when it comes to media coverage – although he gives the impression it doesn’t concern him.”
What’s more, there are striking recent examples of just how Wills has shown this edge.
In January, when Meghan Markle and Harry were dominating press coverage on a visit to Cardiff, William decided to go public with his new buzz cut hairstyle at another engagement, the book discloses.
Now I know about that situation a little bit – I’d had the story about William planning to shave off all his hair the day before and we’d alerted his aides at Kensington Palace to the story.
So when he stepped out to show off the new bald look, it did immediately knock Harry and Meg’s trip off the front page with the headline: One’s No1 cost £180.
Harry can play that game too – only agreeing to become guest editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme after learning his dad was up for the job too.
Jobson writes: “When his publicity-hungry younger son heard about it, he suddenly revived an earlier interest in doing the gig.”
Wow. Those stories alone make it clear William and Harry inherited their incredible mum’s ability to know how to play the media for maximum sympathetic coverage when she needed it – and to blame them for her woes when it suited her.
Neither William nor Harry has “shown proper respect to the Prince of Wales and his office”, the book also discloses.
It was only when the Queen made it clear to William and Harry that their Heads Together mental health campaign had appeared “too separate from the rest of the Royal Family” that the princes took note.
Comparing William and Harry’s mood swings to Princess Diana’s, Jobson paints a picture of a father constantly walking on eggshells around his two sons, weary of further rejection.
That rejection came when neither son praised Prince Charles’ role as a father during a highly emotional documentary made to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death.
That entire period was hugely bruising for Charles, with the public being reminded of the anger they felt towards him and Camilla in the days, weeks and months following the Paris car crash that changed everything.
Charles is certainly far from faultless in this picture of inter-family rivalry.
He was left sulking back in England in June, having to present a knighthood to Barry Gibb, while William made a historic first visit to the Middle East, including Israel and the Palestinian territories.
But Charles’ hyper-political stance on the region – including a staunch and emotional opposition to the Iraq War – likely made it impossible for him to make the first visit.
While this book has certainly balanced up the overall picture a little bit, I still have a feeling the intense PR campaign on behalf of Charles right now could backfire.
On a yet another primetime BBC1 documentary next week, we’re presented a story of Charles as a political visionary.
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Not only did he predict today’s over the top obsession with single use plastic, he’s seen moaning about how London mayor Sadiq Khan ignored his suggestion that London’s crime troubles can be solved by reintroducing town squares back to neighbourhoods.
Charles tells the documentary: “If that’s meddling I’m very proud of it.”
And Camilla later chimes in: “He really wants to save the world.”
The entire prospect – including the unseemly PR battle with his two sons - fills me with dread about what’s to come.
Wootton's Week
