While I covered Prince Philip’s memorial service yesterday, I did have a moment of “wow, I see why they wanted Prince Harry to come.” All of his cousins were there, all of the Queen’s children were there, and there was a show of force from the European royal houses. That being said, it would have been such a sh-tshow for Harry if he had come to the UK. House Cambridge would have thrown a fit, we would be getting wall-to-wall “Kate, the Keen Peacemaker” stories, and people would have accused Harry of making his grandfather’s service all about him. That’s how toxic everything is in the UK for the Sussexes right now, and that’s on purpose. The royal commentators and royals have purposefully and willfully made everything toxic. All in all, I’m glad he just avoided it. Turns out, Harry was being “mentioned” by service-goers in the Abbey:
Prince Harry has been criticisied for missing his grandfather’s memorial service today, amid a row over security and strained relations with his relatives. But despite the family tensions, the Duke of Sussex was included in today’s commemorations, after archive footage of Harry speaking about his late grandather was used as part of the BBC’s coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh’s memorial. The broadcaster re-used sentimental tributes from the Royal Family to celebrate the life of Prince Philip, before streaming his Service of Thanksgiving live from Westminster Abbey.
The Duke of Sussex, 37, who was the only senior member of the royal family not to attend today, made a surprise appearance during the coverage in a resurfaced clip from the documentary ‘A ‘Unique Portrait’ of Prince Philip and his life’.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have faced backlash for not attending the memorial in person. The couple remained at their $14million mansion in Montecito while the rest of the Royal Family, including the Queen despite recent health issues, gathered in London for the monumental event. Harry is currently in pursuit of legal challenge against the Home Office after being told he would no longer be given the ‘same degree’ of personal protective security when visiting from the US, despite offering to pay for it himself.
Royal watchers and social media users have criticized the Duke, who is due to travel to the Netherlands in two weeks’ time, for not attending his grandfather’s Service of Thanksgiving.
Richard Griffin, who spent 14 years as a royal protection officer for Prince Philip, slammed Harry for ‘not bothering’ to attend, describing his absence as ‘pathetic’.
‘Prince Philip was their grandfather so William has obviously had a great training from him and is going to learn examples from him,’ he said.’I just hope Harry gets some of these things in his mind. It [Harry not being here] was a big disappointment for everybody. People were talking about it. Certainly around where I was, people were saying he should have been here. All this nonsense about how he couldn’t get protection, as far as I’m concerned that was a pathetic excuse. He should’ve been here to honour his grandfather.
‘At the end of the day, if he was that worried about security, he could’ve stuck with his brother and father who have got wonderful security and he would have been more than safe.’
“…He could’ve stuck with his brother and father who have got wonderful security…” Pretty sure Charles and William are the reason why Harry isn’t allowed royal protection in the UK in the first place. And it’s sad that Harry was being spoken about within the Abbey. Literally all of his Windsor cousins were there, talk about them. All of the senior royals, plus some of his second cousins and his niece and nephew were there too. I guess all of those royals weren’t enough though! Weird how important Harry was to his family. Weird that they treated him like absolute sh-t when he was there. Anyway, let’s see if these dumbasses keep this same “where is Harry, it’s so painful that Harry has not visited his ill granny” energy when he stops by Windsor on his way to or from The Netherlands.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- (L_R) Prince George, HRH Prince William – The Duke Of Cambridge, HRH Katherine, The Duchess of Cambridge and daughter Princess Charlotte attends a Service of Thanksgiving for HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, London, England, UK on Tuesday 29 March, 2022.,Image: 673787487, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- (L_R) Prince George, HRH Prince William – The Duke Of Cambridge, HRH Katherine, The Duchess of Cambridge and daughter Princess Charlotte attends a Service of Thanksgiving for HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, London, England, UK on Tuesday 29 March, 2022.,Image: 673787498, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- (Front row left to right) Queen Elizabeth II, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Princess Royal, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. (second row left to right) The Duke of Cambridge, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, the Duchess of Cambridge during a Service of Thanksgiving for the life of the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London. Picture date: Tuesday March 29, 2022.,Image: 673795682, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- The Duke of Sussex attends the Anzac Day Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey, London. Picture date: Thursday April 25, 2019.
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- The Duke of Sussex leaving the Anzac Day Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey, London. Picture date: Thursday April 25, 2019.
H said he wasn’t coming. Andrew is the problem the tour was the problem, HM ain’t and he didn’t distract or steal anyone thunder.
Nice try rota
I think Andrew ruined the entire plan. The goal from the Briths Press was to shame Harry for months for not attending. But The Queen had another plan, her pervert son would not be ignored.
Idk why but “her pervert son would not be ignored” sent me
They all knew H wasnt gonna be there and nobody questionned why he wasnt. “People were talking about how Harry wasnt there”??? They meant everybody was talking about why they came out for this. Short memorials where the press coverage is about how the coconut tour was crazy and how pedo Andrew was the one to escort Betty.
I’m sure Harry would have liked to have come and would have if not for the fact, his family and their minions have conspired to make him and his family enemies of the UK. So kudos to Harry for choosing his family’s well-being over a public display of affection for a man who’s been dead for several months. Phillip would understand. Besides, this is what everyone wanted, right? When they were making life miserable for Harry & Meghan, didn’t they want them out of the way and forgotten as second class royals? Keep that same energy. Leave H&M alone and concentrate on the family that remains.
Every European royal who attended that service got the same protection Harry is requesting. It is a deliberate choice to deny Harry protection and I’m guessing it’s coming from the top.
Prince Harry already done told these fvckers that HE WILL NOT GO WHERE HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN ARE NOT SAFE!!!!
They can point all they want to the fact that IF HE TURNED UP ALONE, he would be covered under the umbrella of protection of his father and brother and ignore the fact that he could only go where they go, as if he is still the whipping boy of the BRF.
Thats why these fvckers will forever fvck up their royal tours to civilized countries because they insist on living in the past and refuse to get with the present. In the present, Prince Harry is HIS OWN MAN. He does what he wants to do when he wants to do it and with whom he wants to do it.
Honestly, there is a mass hysteria that covers much of the UK, vis a vis the royals and I am sad to say, we’re not gonna see it end in our lifetime.
H&M know this, which is why theyre just living their life and doing their thing and ignoring the baying from the leftovers on Shithole island.
^^ ITA @Charm! +1,000!!!
The tabloid media and the body language “experts” were the ones that were disappointed, is more like it. With all of those stories about “Harry making his family uncomfortable” being printed, the “family” should have been glad he didn’t come. I guess they’ll really be in a twist when he skips the Jubbly too. Bah!
The only ones disappointed were the RR who couldn’t get a picture of him or criticize him for being an environmental hypocrite….flying thousands of miles for an hour long service for example.
He went to the funeral. He paid his respects. They’re just salty their revenue keeps drying up.
Yup!!! I saw this saps interview yesterday on DF website! Please tell me how someone, who isn’t relayed and worked for PP for 14 years, is relevant in ANY of this families drama? Was the horse groomer not available or did he/she REFUSE to discuss family matters? Why would HIS opinion count OR carry weight?
They all need to STFU and sit down!!
I may be wrong, but I don’t think the rota would have criticized Harry about environmentalism if he’d flown to England, even for an hour’s event. When Philip died, the BM was pleading with H & M (especially H since Meghan was still pregnant) and publicly urging him to come. They repeatedly wrote (without irony) that he SHOULD get on a private flight during the pandemic and acknowledged without rancor that they understood that Meghan may not come, but that Harry must definitely come for Philip’s funeral. I noticed that when the BM perceive that Harry does something “for the queen/monarch” they don’t tend to mind so much, mostly because of the money they’ll make and because they want Harry to do it too.
But if Harry was to go to England for his work, even worthy charitable events, without public contact with the monarchs (#photo-ops), then the long knives would come out and the rota would want to know how he got there, how much he was being paid, what happened to his desire to be safe, and so on. Then, they would break out the 14-million-dollar mansion talking point.
You know what’s even MORE disappointing? That Harry’s family is so toxic and backstabbing that they created an environment which alienated him to the extent that he felt the need to avoid the memorial service of his beloved grandfather because no one would guarantee his physical and emotional safety.
Telling on themselves in the exact same paragraph:
“ The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have faced backlash for not attending the memorial in person… Harry is currently in pursuit of legal challenge against the Home Office after being told he would no longer be given the ‘same degree’ of personal protective security when visiting from the US, despite offering to pay for it himself.”
If they really wanted PH there, the family could have worked it out so that it was more convenient to when he travels for Invictus and could have called him and worked out security, etc. So BS.
So true! I bet the Dutch royals will be present for some of the Invictus Games. The rota is going to be incandescent with rage if photos of Harry and the Dutch royals circulate without them getting any. If anyone was really missing Harry there it was the royals from the other countries and (at least on of) the York sisters.
They’re just mad because they couldn’t use him to distract from Andrew and get their money shots and in turn, stories from them. They really don’t like that he has control over his life and is not playing into the manipulation tactics. They haven’t learned that Harry and Meghan don’t care about the fake polls and manufactured outrage. They keep trying to use those old tricks and it’s not working and I keep saying they’re traumatized and don’t know what to do about that. The loss of control is killing them.
Exactly. They also wanted M&H there to distract from Pedrew, PP mistress, Will mistress and the utter incompetence of the Windsor clan. Also the failure of Keen and Peen. No one is interested in them and keen looked like a nut job. Add in Pedo Uncle Andy. Nope don’t mess up the sussex brand by mixing with these people.
he gave it away, didn’t he? Harry would get protection if he stuck close to his father and/or brother. that’s what they want, right? for Harry to be under their roof so they have stories to leak about him or so they can control his movements. no wonder he said “nah.” Not even taking into account the long flight and the brevity of the service.
Yepp! That’s what they want!
Under their roof and under their thumb.
Yep, they want Harry to stick close to the abusers who are preventing his family from getting security. They want to continue the abuse of Harry by the His father, his brother, and the media. The abuse they’ve been gleefully indulging in for years. They’re angry they can’t abuse him, control him, and get little details to feed the papers.
Boo f*cking hoo. Cry more, Arthur Edwards.
Yes, with Chaz, I am certain, the next day begging Harry to come back due to the f#cking mess that Bitter Brother, and his pathetic wife, are leaving everywhere! There would be begging, pleading, lies of protection and the quintessential “ you owe it to your country, your family” line in there too.
Chaz is watching The Monarchy go down in flames and it’s his own fault, no one else’s! Maybe had he taught Bitter Brother that his antics of acting like a toddler all of the time is old, very old for a supposed frown man!!
Who is this Richard Griffin they’re quoting? Where’d they dig him up from? Notice they threw in the $14 million dollar house, in case someone might be unaware. Surprised they left out the bathrooms.
Yup. And only protection for Harry on his own, of course. They’re really hoping we forget about his wife and children.
Even sadder that at a ceremony devoted to Prince Phillip’s life, his toxic family and their handlers were in the pews complaining about one of his grandsons. The day wasn’t supposed to be about Harry. It was supposed to be about Phillip.
I seriously doubt whether many people in the church were talking about Harry, tbh. He came back for the actual funeral. It’s not like he didn’t show up at all.
They had a pedo on Row 1 and Harry was the disappointment? Ok…
Lol. Exactly.
I know!! No mention of the absolutely disgusting display of Pedrew up front and center!! No, that’s not a problem for the BRF, but Harry who has been the dutiful son and loyal grandson to the Queen is ALL they can talk about. 🙄
*‘Prince Philip was their grandfather so William has obviously had a great training from him and is going to learn examples from him,’*
We all witnessed just what William learned from PP first hand in the Caribbean tour the world had front row seats, thank god Prince Harry is nothing like them. The rehabilitation of the man who can not legally deny he raped a trafficked minor was what the event was all about, with the blessing of the widow for all to see.
We witness what he learned when Will opens his mouth and commits the same sort of “gaffes” that Phil did.
They say both H&M should have been there. They could have used C or W’s security. I noticed Louis wasn’t there (I felt like he’s old enough but maybe not). If Louis wasn’t there, who would have had a better relationship to Phillip bc of proximity, then A&L wouldn’t be either. What would their security look like? C&W would have theirs at the service. Would they have been left home in LA so the BM could freak out about them skipping the opp for the Q to see the kids?
Harry paid his respects at the funeral.
As for everyone else that showed up. Most weren’t allowed to be there at the funeral. The European royals were probably like “We better visit Aunty Lilibet while we can, she could go at any time.” The rest of the family is on the payroll and they had to show up.
If William was mad it was because he couldn’t use a Harry visit to distract from his Caribbean fail. Kate’s mad she couldn’t fake being the peacemaker. The RRs are mad because they were denied weeks worth of pre-written stories that hinged upon Harry being present. Photographers are mad because they had no fresh photos to sell.
Philip and his legacy played no part in their “disappointment”.
Didn’t spell my name out above. Snuffles not Snuff. 🙃
Do you have to reenter your name and email everytime? Me too, even though I click the “Save my name”. I thought it was something weird about my browser, but maybe it’s the site?
I do too, @Moss. Every time I post I have to fill in the fields or retrieve my comment from the name box. I use the save button too.
I click the button before I start typing and don’t have to re-enter my information each time. That may help if you don’t do that already.
+1
Exactly. They also wanted M&H there to distract from Pedrew, PP mistress, Will mistress and the utter incompetence of the Windsor clan. Also the failure of Keen and Peen. No one is interested in them and keen looked like a nut job. Add in Pedo Uncle Andy. Nope don’t mess up the sussex brand by mixing with these people.
I don’t think any of us really understand how angry the press is that Harry didn’t go to the memorial. It was so smart that he didn’t because this event was basically held to get him and Meghan to go the UK so the press could get some pictures and stories about them.
@amybee They’ve been making up events with the sole purpose to get them over there. The press was banned from the statue reveal and they made up a stupid party for the sole purpose of getting the Sussexes in the same room. Then the memorial and that was pointless and then Lilli’s christening. They know after the Jubilee there’s nothing they can “hold” over them. These people are struggling hard.
Talk about a dereliction of duty, when the BM have had over a year’s worth of juicy scandals like Andrew’s trial and agreement, cash for honors/Russian involvements and W & K’s Caribbean DisasTour (as someone coined). Then, just this week, they had Andrew’s re-introduction back into public life, the queen willing. They can’t say that they’re not regular journalists so they can’t report on such things because these events and scandals directly involved the royals, so why not report on such things unless they viewed their first duty as reporters was to protect the monarchy?
I don’t know – it was a 40 minute service, 1,800 people who hadn’t seen each other for a long time, people wondering how TQ will arrive and how she will look, and then showing up on Andrew’s arm. I just don’t believe Harry was the topic of conversation, especially since everyone has known for weeks he wasn’t going to come and the BM has been shouting for months that it would be a relief to the RF if he didn’t come. Maybe somebody said something back where the ex-royal protection officer was sitting, but we know how the BM likes to give people two seconds of fame so they can exaggerate things.
I don’t even understand what the point of this service was in the first place. The man had a funeral and like a month of memorializing last year when he died, plus a tv special. This all feels like it was just an excuse for one big royal get together before Liz dies. And imo Andrew’s prominent presence cast more of a pall than Harry’s long known and explained absence.
I’m sorry if this isn’t right place to say this, I hope it is. Please find and watch a doco called Fighting Spirit: Wheeling Diggers’ Invictus Games Dream. It just got released on a streaming platform in Australia called Stan so I have no idea where anyone outside of Australia can see it but please find it and watch it if you can.
Weren’t these idiots tooting their horns about how they didn’t want H to come? Make your mind up
He told these people like a month ago he wasn’t coming so them acting shocked and clutching their pearls is a joke. Not to mention they even did a poll which had their readers they claim saying he should not come.
But he’s still bad for not coming even though he shouldn’t come? Make it make sense! What’s really going on is that they had this great article planned about “Why Harry was WRONG to come to Philips memorial!” and now they can’t use it, lol.
They are nonsense. What makes me upset is if PH had come it would have been how dare he ruin the environment for this, how dare he come after doing that Oprah interview, he needs to apologize, etc.
What gets me is that none of these idiots even though that he didn’t come not only because of protection issues, but because COVID is very much a thing. He would have to quarantine from his family, fly into the UK, and would have to worry about catching it and then having that impact him being ready for Invictus.
“The Duke of Sussex, 37, who was the only senior member of the royal family not to attend today,”
Um, since when did Harry become a senior member again.🤔 Cause the RR love to remind us everyday how Harry and Meghan are “no longer senior members and were STRIPPED OF THEIR TITLES”!
They are so hurt that it’s becoming more and more clearer that H&M are not, nor will they ever give them what they (RF & RR) want!
Isn’t that funny? He’s a “senior member” when they want something from him.
Regarding seating arrangements…I was wondering whether Harry & Meghan would have been given the seats Princess Anne and her husband occupied next to Charles and Camilla? Normally William & Kate would have occupied those two seats except they had the children with them and wanted to sit together as a family. Harry as next in line after William and kids would certainly have trumped Princess Anne and her hubby, but would the RF placed Harry & Meghan there? Interesting scenario.
I think the front row was for the children of the Queen, seated in order of birth. The grandchildren would come next, so William and Harry and their families be seated in the next row. I don’t know whether they would be picky enough to seat them in the order of succession, though.
the seating arrangements were different from usual WA arrangements like @tamsin said. It seems the children and spouses were in the front row, in birth order. But then William and Kate directly behind Charles and Peter Phillips across the aisle, with the York sisters behind W&K. I’m not sure how they do the seating an event like this when you want to prioritize family but still have to pay attention to the line of succession (since that matters so much to these people) AND you have visiting royals there as well.
My guess is H&M would have been behind W&K but maybe where Peter was, IDK.
If it were order of succession, Andrew and Ed are both higher in line than Anne.
I think they wanted Harry there to show him being iced out, and they would have tried to put him next to Andrew. Interesting how they’re once again describing him as a senior royal. If both he and Meghan attended, it would have garnered a lot more international press coverage but it would have been crazy, and honestly, that is not the time for that. The thing is the UK press want both a public humiliation and a public reconciliation with the Sussexes. Not even sure if it made much impact in the US papers since everyone here is still preoccupied with “The Slap”. At this point, it’s so much contradictory info. Some crazy troll summed it up. They don’t want him there, but they get mad if he doesn’t even bother to try to be there.
I am exhausted with this narrative that H&M didn’t attend “because of the security”. The Sussexes never cited that as a reason for not attending.
Has it occurred to any of these morons that planning the first Invictus Games in 3 years might be time-consuming? I would think that is more of a reason for not attending than the security. But it doesn’t fit the RF and BM narrative then does it? If it was so important to have Harry attend, they could have scheduled this service just after the IG ended so H&M could swing by on their way home. Philip would still be dead.
I wonder if Chuckles the Clown will support his son by visiting him in the Hague at IG. Like something a real father does. Will he have the guts?
Well you see @Gabby, Harry and Meghan have no right to a life of their own and they must hop and skip and get on a plane whenever the “family”‘ or the tabloids demand. After all the queen is 95 and Philip is dead! *eyeroll*
Like any abusive ex…
F these salty b—-tches. He was there for years and they treated him and his wife and child like crap and told them to leave. You don’t now get to scream at him to come back and expect that he will. He ain’t your toy. I also notice that again it’s Harry should come back. It’s like Meghan and Archie and lili don’t exist
It occurs to me that the BM has entered the Thomas Markle crisis phase in that they acted poorly and pushed H & M away, then they verbally abused H & M for distancing themselves. Then the BM whined about why H & M won’t come back, offer personal invitations, or meet with them after all the abuse. Rinse and repeat. It’s like a mental sickness.
Expected he is not there due to the security battle with the gov, with that said that event had security like no tomorrow considering there were other monarchies attending form around the world and yes I think he would have been there if it weren’t for that court battle
What was most ridiculous was the spreading of story in the media of Harry and Meghan being at the Academy Awards and their being berated by the media for something they had no intention of doing. There seems real media desperation.
Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. With his family playing dangerous games with his security, Harry made the right decision to avoid the second service!
The anger of the UK tabloid press is evil and dishonest to their core-I thought this event was about Phillip and nobody else-this event was about Phillip’s service to country and the queen-this event was not about photo ops, vicious gossip heads, and making any member of the royal family feel bad-they have no right to Harry or his family whenever they say so-Harry and Meghan will decide who will have access to the Sussex family-because Harry is not a working senior royal he can make these decisions whenever he and Meghan wants-they do not have to jump everytime the UK tabs or the royal family tries to make them do so-this was a squeeze play for going to the Oscars or Phillip’s memorial-It is not the Sussexes fault because Andrew was center stage and the Cambridges had a failed tour-they need to learn to correct and cover their own asses when they make a mistake not try to put it on the Sussex family to help them with their lies and vicious bullshit-God please bless and keep the Sussex family safe.
If Harry had gone to the memorial, he would have been the ODD MAN OUT, because he would have been the ONLY Royal (dead or alive) who did not have a MISTRESS in attendence.