Harry and Meghan's action-packed autumn diary... and why the King was right to fire a shot across the bows: REBECCA ENGLISH
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By REBECCA ENGLISH, ROYAL EDITOR
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The theme of the event is 'How Do We Get It Right?' It's surprising no wag has yet added the subtitle: 'Where DO we start, H?'
And yet the irony seemed to be completely lost on Prince Harry and his team as they grandly announced his 'September engagements' programme to a select group of media on Thursday night.
The highlight is an appearance in New York the week after next as a 'headliner' at the above-titled Clinton Global Initiative event. It is not clear whether the prince is being paid or having his costs covered to attend.
Much of his programme is UK-based, however... and therein lies the rub. For while they wouldn't dream of being so rude as to say it in public, privately officials at Buckingham Palace are likely to be congratulating themselves for already attempting to draw a very firm line in the sand.
The King's decision to have his most senior official, Lord Benyon, the Lord Chamberlain, send out a letter marking the limitations of Harry and Meghan's roles as 'private citizens' now they are back in Britain has sparked a furious backlash from the Sussexes.
But this latest development shows exactly why it was right to do so. So far, Harry's upcoming pseudo-royal appearances include the inaugural 'Invictus Spirit' Awards on Thursday, September 17. There is even chatter that the duchess could join him at this glitzy event.
That already presents a massive scheduling clash for the Royal Household. The Prince and Princess of Wales announced on Friday they are undertaking a 'royal away-day' the same day to the Isle of Bute.
The visit also marks the first official trip by the couple to Rothesay, the town that inspired the name of the titles they hold in Scotland – that of Duke and Duchess of Rothesay – where they will spend time with locals at the Anchor Tavern.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attended the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in 2023
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle posed in the Sunken Garden in Kensington Palace in November 2017
The King also has a major public engagement that day, details of which cannot be revealed in advance, but one that is likely to be of significant global interest.
It's exactly the kind of optics the Royal Household was so keen to avoid, although they are surely increasingly inevitable because, contrary to belief in some quarters, there is no diary co-ordination with Team Sussex.
Clearly Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace are hopeful the public will focus on the duties of the official working royals. But it's hard to deny that, to start with at least, any appearance by the Sussexes back in the UK will create a buzz.
Other engagements for Harry this month include the launch of the Invictus education programme INSPIRE. Then there's the WellChild Awards in London on September 21, a charity for ill children and their families which, to be fair, the prince has been involved with since his earliest days as a working royal.
Each event will be covered, it is understood, by a number of specially selected journalists. It all seems to suggest Harry is determined, whatever his father thinks, to come out all guns blazing.
That has been his methodology, too, this week when it comes to the King's punchy attempt to distance his family, publicly at least, from that of his troublesome second son and his wife.
After initially expressing 'surprise' at his letter – a reaction Team Sussex would have done well to leave the matter at – his spokesmen embarked on an almost daily flurry of briefings, variously attacking the Palace for 'rushing out' the letter, refusing to let them 'clarify' it in advance and even causing the Ugandan team to pull out of Harry's beloved Invictus Games.
The line that needled the Sussexes most was the hint by the King that they should be treated as 'private citizens' whose charitable and commercial efforts should be seen as devolved from the work of the Royal Family. An incandescent 'source' close to the couple said this was simply unrealistic given their level of fame.
King Charles, then Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry attended the Invictus Games Opening Ceremony in September 2014
An insider told friendly People magazine: 'Members of the public know who they are. The idea that they can live a normal, 'private' life is sadly not realistic.'
About as unrealistic as Harry's over-sold dream of royal reconciliation, some might also say.
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