Endgame, p.22
Endgame, page 22
As it turns out, he never got to read that speech. The night before the WellChild event, doctors for Queen Elizabeth II advised the monarch to clear her calendar and rest. Though it did not involve a hospital stay, the fact that Buckingham Palace had made an official announcement about it confirmed growing fears that her decline in health was getting worse. The news rattled the Sussexes. Just four days prior, Harry had spoken with his grandmother on the phone. She had mentioned not being well enough to attend the Highland Games, but her working schedule was still full of appointments. The monarch was, as sources said at the time, positive and upbeat.
By the next morning, the Sussexes had no idea that Buckingham Palace was already planning for the Queen’s final hours and the first days of the monarchy’s new era—until the duke’s phone started ringing. An unknown number. He usually ignored those. “You should answer it,” Meghan told him. He tapped accept just before it stopped. Harry hadn’t spoken to his father much that year, but this was not the time for any father-and-son tension. Charles told him he and Camilla were about to leave Dumfries House for Balmoral, where Princess Anne was already by the Queen’s side. He told Harry to make his way to Scotland immediately. William, whom Charles had just spoken to, was supposedly working on arranging travel. Harry sent a text message to his brother asking how he and Kate planned to get to Scotland and whether they could travel together. No response.
With no further information from other family members or Palace aides, the Sussexes and their team had to operate in the dark. Harry was informed that William had already secured a flight with his uncles Andrew and Edward (and Edward’s wife, Sophie), but he couldn’t get in touch with anyone about joining that flight. “It was upsetting to witness,” said a source close to the Sussexes. “[Harry] was completely by himself on this.” Buckingham Palace released a further update: “Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision. The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral.” Harry knew it was happening, and happening fast.
With the world’s media now rushing to Aberdeenshire (and most flights and train tickets selling out within minutes), travel options dwindled. Another call came through from Charles, who instructed his younger son to come alone. Despite already publicly confirming that Meghan would come with him (always the plan if they were traveling from California for this very situation), he reluctantly agreed, after Charles assured him that Kate would not be there, either. Charles had cited “protocol,” but the reality was that Kate chose to stay back to pick up the children from their first day at a new school. “They just didn’t want Meghan there,” said a former Palace aide. Meghan, a friend added, “could sense she wasn’t wanted.”
Harry sent another text to his brother. Nothing. Though there were available seats on William’s chartered Dassault Falcon private jet, which was leaving in less than an hour, Harry was left to fend for himself. “William ignored him,” said a family source. “He clearly didn’t want to see his brother.” Princess Eugenie reached out to Harry to see if he had any more information about their grandmother. She had heard from another family member that it was “time” but knew little more.
The Sussex team clamored to find a flight for Harry, ratcheting up the pressure on what was an already stressful situation. Meanwhile, an hour later than originally scheduled, William, Edward, Sophie, and Andrew’s flight took off from an airfield just nineteen miles away from Frogmore Cottage. With no invite forthcoming from any of the family members, Harry eventually located an available option—a private charter costing £30,000 from Luton Airport, a forty-minute drive from Frogmore without traffic.
And with that, Harry started his own race to Scotland. Though rumors of the Queen’s passing were rife at this point, Harry had no way of knowing whether it was true. His father doesn’t carry a cell phone and his brother wasn’t acknowledging his existence. When William and the others landed at 3:50 p.m. to discover the news that the Queen had passed away at 3:10 p.m., Harry still had no idea what was going on when his own plane finally took off at 5:35 p.m. And, as his phone service cut out after takeoff, he remained in the dark for the duration of his seventy-minute flight.
Back on the ground, there was a tug-of-war between the Sussexes’ team and Buckingham Palace over whether to announce the news without Harry being informed. With Her Majesty’s death already confirmed to the prime minister an hour before Harry left, and all other senior family members now gathered in Scotland processing the news, royal press secretaries were ready to share the news with the world. The Palace claimed Charles tried to call Harry (sources later told me there was never any proof of this), and that there was no more time left to delay. “His team literally had to beg for them to wait for his plane to land and they reluctantly agreed to hold the statement back for a little bit,” confirmed a close family source. But as stormy weather over Aberdeen International forced Harry’s plane to circle the airport numerous times before landing, patience at the Buckingham Palace press office wore thin—they could wait no longer and the announcement went live at 6:30 p.m. When Harry’s plane finally touched tarmac twenty minutes later, he received a text from Meghan urging him to call ASAP followed by a breaking news alert via the BBC News app with the announcement of the Queen’s death. Palace “sources” later briefed certain papers that Charles had personally shared the news with his younger son, but this was just a move to save face. “Harry was crushed,” said a friend of the duke. “His relationship with the Queen was everything to him. She would have wanted him to know before it went out to the world. They could have waited just a little longer, it would have been nothing in the grand scheme of things, but no one respected that at all.”
During the one-hour car ride to Balmoral, the silence in the security-driven BMW gave the now fifth in line to the throne time for the news to sink in. Despite the ups and downs of his royal life, Harry and the Queen were consistently close. “Granny, while this final parting brings us great sadness, I am forever grateful for all of our first meetings—from my earliest childhood memories with you, to meeting you for the first time as my commander-in-chief, to the first moment you met my darling wife and hugged your beloved great-grandchildren,” he wrote in a statement. “I cherish these times shared with you, and the many other special moments in between. You are already sorely missed, not just by us, but by the world over.”
When he arrived at Balmoral, Princess Anne warmly greeted him and led him to the Queen’s room, where he spent a quiet moment privately paying his respects. He had hoped to see his father—who had made it to Balmoral Castle in time to see his mother alive—to express his sympathies, but he was informed that Charles, William, and Camilla had already left for Birkhall together. Again, no invite was extended to Harry. That night after eating he retired to his room, exhausted by the day’s emotional roller coaster. He was glad to have had a private moment to say goodbye to his grandmother, but there was no point in sticking around. With no offer to return with William and the others in the morning (all of his texts, including a thoughtful message about the loss of their grandmother, continued to be ignored), Harry booked his own British Airways ticket on the first available departing flight.
During the days ahead, Harry and Meghan kept a low profile, praying the press wouldn’t turn their attentions to them but remain rightfully focused on the loss of a beloved monarch. “There was an incredible sense of sadness,” said a family source. “For them, the Queen was one of their last strong links to the family. She always made them feel welcome. Without her . . . it will never be the same.”
Other senior members of the family were already meeting members of the public, and questions surfaced about whether the nation would see the Sussexes doing the same. Charles spoke to Prince William on September 10 to discuss his plans. The public, said the new King, needed to see the entire family putting differences to one side. “Essentially, he told William to swallow his pride and invite his brother and sister-in-law to join them when they greeted mourners and well-wishers in Windsor that day,” said a Palace source. “William wasn’t keen. This was his moment with the public, but the King put pressure on [him].”
With around forty minutes left before he planned to step out on Windsor Castle’s Long Walk with Kate, William sent his first text message in months to Harry, suggesting it would be “good” if they came along, too. The couple wanted to do what was right, but time was short. Meghan, in sneakers with her hair pulled up, had only just come back from a walk. The couple’s head of communications, Ashley Hansen, gave the couple a pep talk. “It doesn’t matter how little time you have, just get out there and do it,” she told the couple. And, with that, the Sussexes quickly got ready and made their way to the courtyard of Windsor Castle. Though they had seen William and Kate since their big exit, including at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, this was the first time the couples had to actually talk as a foursome. The silence as they climbed into the same car (a decision made by Lee Thompson, William and Kate’s press secretary) was very noticeable. Given the tension between the brothers and zero communication between Meghan and Kate, the 150-second car ride to the Long Walk felt like two hours as they muddled through light small talk. And then a feeling of discomfort and reluctancy set in as Harry and Meghan caught a glimpse of the photographers and video cameras ready to capture their arrival as a group of four. They knew there would be members of the public gathered, but this was the first time they knew of an official media presence. Kensington Palace, they later found out, had tipped off a select group of people.
Of course, once out of the car, all four were consummate professionals. Walkabouts are a staple of working royal life, and all of them have discovered their own ways to shine in this type of setting. Just like the old days of the “Fab Four,” they agreed to split up and each take a different side of the Long Walk. Though appearing composed, sources said Meghan was “extremely nervous” about being in front of the crowds. By this point, the couple’s rapidly declining popularity in the United Kingdom was an inarguable fact. The level of vitriol aimed at Meghan in particular, whether online or in the newspapers, was worse than ever. Armed royal protection officers were on high alert, and so was she. Some supporters gathered in the crowd didn’t hide their animus toward the duchess. “Of course we would get stuck with her,” moaned one woman within earshot of Meghan. Another was seen on camera grimacing after shaking the duchess’s hand, while others refused to put their hand out. “When I saw the videos of Meg, I could see she was doing her best to hold it together; she looked terrified,” said one of her close friends. When a fourteen-year-old fan stopped to chat with Meghan, their hug choked the duchess up. “I just wanted to show her that she’s welcome here and wanted to hug her after everything that’s happened,” said the teen.
Kate reportedly found the outing just as difficult. Close sources told King Charles’s biographer Robert Jobson that she admitted to a family member that “it was one of the hardest things she ever had to do” because of the acrimony between the two couples. Harry spent much of the walkabout speaking with well-wishers about his grandmother, recounting memories of her life. “I still think of her being in [Windsor] Castle when I look over at it,” he said to one family, who had told him they were thrilled to see him back in Britain. The moments outside were a reminder that, despite the slanted media coverage, Harry still had some steady support in his home country. After wrapping up their forty-two-minute walkabout, William orchestrated a somewhat forced photo of the four together. Newspapers later cited Kensington Palace sources who revealed the decision to put on a show of unity in Windsor was William’s idea, but sources in both Buckingham Palace and the Sussex camp deny this version of the tale. “Sounds like a grab for positive press,” snarked a Charles aide.
Over the days that followed, communication from the Palace to the Sussexes remained minimal—mostly text messages from press aides keeping the couple’s team abreast of basic information. On September 17, the Palace arranged a fifteen-minute vigil for all the Queen’s grandchildren at Westminster Hall, where the Queen was lying in state. Harry was initially told he was not permitted to wear his military uniform, despite his status as a decorated war veteran. He knew his grandmother would have wanted him to, but it took a number of emails and conversations before King Charles relented and gave special dispensation for Harry to wear his Blues and Royals, Number 1 dress attire. But when the uniform arrived at Frogmore Cottage, it was incomplete. The shoulder epaulettes were missing the Queen’s “ER” initials (only official aides-de-camp are allowed to wear them, and this was a title he had confiscated) and the ornamental braided cord, known as an aiguillette, had been removed by someone at Buckingham Palace. To rub salt in the wound, Prince Andrew had also been given permission to wear his military uniform for a vigil by his mother’s coffin two days earlier, complete with the Queen’s cipher and aiguillettes. Heated phone calls were made, but Palace officials refused to make any changes. “Some of these people are determined to make him feel like shit, determined to continue punishing him for leaving, it’s bullying,” a family source later told me. So incensed by the way aides and Palace officials were treating him, Harry considered wearing a regular suit to the vigil that evening, but after word had come from another aide that William would remove his aiguillette to make things a little more equal, he changed his mind. It was a rare show of support from his brother and one a source said he appreciated.
But the support ended there. For the duration of their time in Britain, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were on the receiving end of snubs and brush-offs. At the state funeral Camilla, Kate, and Sophie noticeably went out of their way to ignore Meghan outside Westminster Abbey. “They did their best to remain focused on the importance of the trip and honoring Her Majesty, but being dragged into the royal fold again was an unpleasant experience. So little has changed, the same old power trips and dancing around various protocols. Having to deal with the insanity of the media coverage, which on many days revolved around them, made it even worse,” said a source close to the couple. Indeed, newspaper articles and royal commentary ranged from cruel to completely made up. One commentator, well known for her fictitious ramblings and out-of-pocket conspiracy theories, used a Sky News broadcast about the Queen’s life to falsely claim the couple would be wearing microphones and secret cameras to record their encounters with members of the royal family for future Netflix projects.
The ongoing fictionalization of the Sussexes’ lives continues to be a national sport for large sections of the mainstream media. Despite him opening up his life to the public in interviews, television specials, and even a 125,000-word memoir, the caricature most of the papers draw of Prince Harry is barely recognizable to anyone who actually knows him. It’s one of the many reasons why the Duke of Sussex is on a mission to reclaim his story, his life, and his image from the media and the public’s fantastical accounts. And, through a series of high-profile court cases, he has slowly been able to claw some of it back.
From the libel case against the Mail on Sunday—which incorrectly cited “informed sources” in 2020, claiming the prince had turned his back on the Royal Marines and British Armed Forces (a legal fight for which he received substantial damages and a printed apology)—to the ongoing action against the same outlet for defamatory coverage about his security battle with the Home Office (over its refusal to allow him to personally pay for official police protection while in the United Kingdom), the duke has made it clear he’s not afraid to dispute and correct the disinformation out there about his wife and him.
And it extends beyond his personal issues with the press. Emboldened by his distance from the royal institution and its fiercely protected relationships with Britain’s top media barons, Harry is now free to fight a much larger issue that has quietly plagued the media landscape for decades—illegal news-gathering practices. In 2023, three legal actions for phone hacking and other unlawful intrusions directed at Harry and his inner circle continued to gather momentum in London’s High Court: one directed at the Mirror’s publisher (MGN) for phone hacking between 1996 and 2011; another for the same allegations at the Mail group (Associated Newspapers) for a slightly longer time period; and a third aimed at Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN), which is the parent company of The Sun and the now-shuttered News of the World. All three had preliminary hearings in spring of the same year. The MGN case was a full trial of liability for a sample of thirty-seven articles (out of a list of over one hundred) believed to have come as a result of phone hacking and other illegal methods. News Group’s hearings mostly revolved around arguments over whether Harry should be allowed to get around the statute of limitations, as he didn’t find out about the publisher’s alleged unlawful activities until years after they had taken place (because, his lawyer argued, the newspaper hid them so well). In the end, though, the judge determined that only Harry’s claims of illegal information gathering can proceed to trial, not the the phone-hacking claims.
His battles haven’t gone down well with members of the royal family and their aides, who seemingly did all they could to tamp down Harry’s pursuit of justice during his years as a working royal. In their view, fighting the media puts the monarchy at risk. “In short, him wanting to take on these papers posed a threat to all of them,” said a former Palace aide. “No one in the family, particularly [Charles, Camilla, and William], wanted the solid media relationships they had formed to be rattled by a family member gone rogue.” One of those beneficial relationships was exposed in his case against The Sun’s publisher, after Prince Harry’s April 2023 witness statement alleged that in 2020 Prince William privately agreed to a “very large” settlement (which sources claimed was over one million pounds) with Murdoch’s publisher for not formally suing them for hacking into his private voicemails hundreds of times (later described by Harry as a “favourable deal in return for him going ‘quietly’”).
