HARRY and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey will turn out to be a whinge too far.
If the royal runaways believe this will be the last word on their short stint as working royals, they are out of their palm tree.
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It is far more likely that this two-hour self-pity fest will open a royal can of worms that will be beyond their control.
These royal confessionals rarely turn out great for the subject.
Did Prince Andrew regret his chat with Emily Maitlis?
Did Princess Diana rue sitting down with Martin Bashir?
The problem with bombshell revelations is that they can explode in your face.
The timing alone of this Oprah interview beggars belief.
ROYAL WOE
Prince Philip, 99, is still in hospital, recovering from heart surgery. The world is fighting the worst health pandemic for over 100 years. Meghan is pregnant.
And Harry and Meghan decide this is the perfect moment to tell all to Oprah!
But it’s never really a “tell-all” interview when you only tell your side of the story. With the teasing clips released by the salivating CBS network, we already know Meghan has effectively accused her royal in-laws of being liars.
And that’s just for starters.
But there is another side to this tale of royal woe. There is the alternative narrative of a country that welcomed Harry’s glamorous royal bride with open arms, and were delighted to see Diana’s youngest son marry the love of his life.
And there is the story of what happened behind closed palace doors.
The Queen has launched an unprecedented inquiry into allegations that, during their brief tenure as married working royals, Meghan and Harry bullied members of staff. The claims, if found true, are devastating and the Duke and Duchess strenuously deny them.
But Meghan and Harry are accused of being “outrageous bullies” by a former aide, and of “emotional cruelty” against female staff members.
“Young women were broken by their behaviour,” a Buckingham Palace source told The Times.
An official complaint was made in October 2018, we learn now, by Jason Knauf, then H&M’s communications secretary.
“I am very concerned that the Duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year,” Knauf wrote to Simon Case, then Prince William’s private secretary. “The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights. I remain concerned that nothing will be done . . . ”
To be clear, this is not tittle-tattle from anonymous “sources”.
This is two senior members of the royal household sharing genuine concern about allegations of bullying of young female staff.
The young women who were allegedly “broken” by bullying stayed in the shadows.
Until now. Former staff members are coming forward because they believe that Harry and Meghan’s confessional to Oprah will only tell one side of the story. And they want their side to be heard too.
A spokesman for the Sussexes called the accusations of bullying “a calculated smear campaign”.
Buckingham Palace hit back: “The Royal Household has had a Dignity at Work policy in place for a number of years and does not and will not tolerate bullying or harassment in the workplace.”
Omid Scobie, Harry and Meghan’s cheerleader, reported on Bazaar.com an unnamed source claiming the accusations were driven by — you’ll never guess — racism, that uniquely British disease.
TOO TEMPTING
The source said: “I hate to say it, but find me a woman of colour in a senior position who has not been accused of being too angry, too scary, too whatever.”
Oh please. The British are heartily sick of being called racists who never warmed to Meghan. It is the great lie.
Whatever Harry and Meghan tell Oprah, and whatever their flunkies may report, the British never wanted anything for Harry and Meghan but happiness.
It didn’t have to be this way!
There was so much good will towards Harry and Meghan that even if they decided to withdraw from royal duties, it could have been done without all this poison.
Harry and Meghan could have bowed out gracefully. The British, more in sorrow than in anger, would have wished them well.
But the former actress and her Old Etonian thicko found an audience with Oprah too tempting to resist. And it will backfire.
This is not a crisis for the monarchy. It is a crisis — of their own making — for Harry and Meghan.
Princess Diana could have been interviewed by Oprah in the mid-Nineties.
They had a pleasant lunch at Kensington Palace where Diana’s chef Darren McGrady prepared tomato mousse for two.
But in the end, Diana decided to give Oprah a wide berth. For their own peace, Harry and Meghan should have done the same.
I suspect Oprah will get far more out of these royal has-beens than a tomato mousse.
Match made in hell
“Britain has a moral and legal obligation to Shamima Begum,” The Guardian says of the IS bride who has been deprived of British citizenship and denied permission to enter the UK.
And just because she ran away to join a murderous death cult that would have danced on our graves!
We are such a soft touch that Begum will probably be back one day.
Perhaps she could move in with Roy Greenslade, The Guardian journalist who this week confessed to being a secret supporter of the IRA during his long years working as a mediocre hack in Fleet Street.
Greenslade, the IRA’s craven lickspittle, a useful idiot for butchers, spent a lifetime as a terror-supporting hypocrite.
While Begum claimed the slaughter of children at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester was justified. They deserve each other.
Jab is Dolly good
Dolly Parton singing, “Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine” to the tune of Jolene made me feel like running out to get my second shot.
“I’m begging of you, please don’t hesitate,” she sang. “Because once you’re dead – that’s a bit too late.”
Dolly’s robust southern charm was inspirational.
Anyone still wary of the vaccination needs a shot of Dolly.
“I just want to say to all of you cowards – don’t be such a chicken squat,” she chuckled. “Get out there and get your shot.”
Dolly should be doing the daily briefings from Downing Street.
Custer’s Last Stand
This year’s Dancing On Ice semi-final will have just 12 minutes of actual skating in a two-hour prime-time slot.
But after multiple drop-outs because of everything from broken bones to Covid, it is a wonder they are finishing the series at all.
This year’s DOI is not really like a game show. It’s more like Custer’s Last Stand.
Stone Roses jab
IAN BROWN fronted the last truly great British rock band. The Stone Roses were right up there with the greatest of them all.
So my heart sinks when Ian, right, insists: “I will NEVER sing to a crowd who must be vaccinated as a condition of attendance. NEVER EVER.”
Nobody is going to be forced to have the vaccine. That’s not the way this country works.
But if crowds are not safe, then when will we ever see stadia packed for live events again?
Mac's a silly willy
AS yet more data emerges about the brilliance of the British Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, EU leaders who denigrated our jab for their own political reasons are being forced to make humiliating U-turns.
Only a month ago, President Emmanuel Macron of France – nursing his badly bruised national pride – claimed the Oxford-AstraZeneca was “almost ineffective” in the over-65s.
Now Macron says he would happily have the jab.
I must warn you, Monsieur Macron – you may feel a little prick.
Sturgeon’s memory is crap
THE next time tight-lipped SNP supremo Nicola Sturgeon demands a referendum on Scottish independence, gently tell her they had one in 2014.
Because as we learned in her testimony about Alex Salmond, Sturgeon’s memory is crap.
Generational shift for talented icon Tess
Tess Daly should be a feminist icon.
Tess, 51, and currently rocking the cover of Women’s Health magazine, began Strictly life in the traditional light entertainment role for beautiful young women – the glamorous hostess smiling by presenter Bruce Forsyth’s side.
Now cover-girl Tess is the presenter of the biggest show on terrestrial TV.
It is a truly historic transition.
Back in the day, Anthea Redfern, could never have become the presenter of The Generation Game.
Insult to heroes
WE clapped the NHS frontline workers every Thursday night.
They risked their lives for us every shift. And now they are in line for a pay rise of . . . one per cent.
The entire country will be sickened by this insult to heroes.
I struggle to believe it will stand.
It looks like another Government U-turn waiting to happen.
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