LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II turns 96 on Thursday, a milestone she will mark out of sight at her Sandringham estate. But the birthday hasn’t come without a dollop of drama from her self-banned grandson, Prince Harry, who this week said he wanted to make sure the aging queen was “protected.”
Harry, who paid his grandmother a rare and unexpected visit last Thursday for tea at Windsor Castle with his wife Meghan, said in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show: “I just make sure she’s protected and the right people around. has gone. hair.”
His cryptic remark, addressed to an American TV network, stirred the necks of royal commentators and the London tabloids. Elizabeth, they said, was well protected by her son and heir and Harry’s father, Prince Charles, and by his eldest son, Prince William. The obvious implication was that her lost grandson, who now lives in Southern California, doesn’t have to apply for the job.
The queen, who was struck by the coronavirus in February, has been particularly weak since the death of her husband Prince Philip a year ago. She’s canceled multiple public appointments and won’t even attend events close by, such as the Easter services held at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, where she now lives full-time.
Now mostly housebound, she performs most of her duties via video calls. She recently greeted visitors at Windsor Castle and told them she was having trouble walking. Her reduced fitness has raised questions about how much she will participate in four days of ceremonies during the platinum anniversary, marking 70 years on the throne.
Although Buckingham Palace is reluctant to acknowledge it, the British monarchy has adopted the features of a regency, with Charles fulfilling many of his mother’s public duties as her trustee. That made Harry’s comment particularly spicy, as it suggested she was vulnerable to manipulation.
Relations between Harry and his father and brother have been tense since last year when he and Meghan accused the royal family of being insensitive to treatment in a sensational television interview with Oprah Winfrey. The couple claimed that a relative had expressed concerns about the skin color of their unborn child.
Harry brushed off a question from “Today” co-host, Hoda Kotb, about whether he’s missed his father and brother since he retired from royal duties and moved to Southern California in 2020. He said he was focused on the athletes competing in the Invictus Games, an international competition for wounded servicemen founded by Harry in 2014 and being held this week in The Hague.
“Right now I’m here focused on these guys and these families and I’m giving everything I can — 120 percent to them — to make sure they have the experience of a lifetime,” Harry said in the interview, which was released on Wednesday. broadcast. “And when I leave here, I go back, and my focus is my family, which I miss so much.”
None of that suggested Harry’s rift with the royal family will heal any time soon. The United States felt like home these days, he told NBC. He said he wasn’t even sure he’d return to attend the jubilee in June, despite media reports that Buckingham Palace had offered him and Meghan a coveted spot on the palace’s balcony, where the royal family attended the ceremony. crowd waves.
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Harry has a long-running dispute with the UK Home Office, which he says has refused to provide him with adequate police protection when he visits the country. He said on NBC that he still hoped to take his children home with their great-grandmother. The Queen has yet to meet Harry and Meghan’s second child, Lilibet, whose name was also Elizabeth’s childhood nickname.
While Harry spoke warmly about the Queen – and said they still had an easy, humor-filled rapport – his reference to her protection raised a red flag with royal guards. Many have soured him and Meghan since the break with the royal family; they took Harry’s last comment as just another potshot.
“I think you’ll find that the children of Prince Charles and Her Majesty and William DO just that and support the Queen with deeds – and not just with words,” Robert Jobson, the royal editor of the London Evening Standard, said on Twitter. .
