London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 29, 2025

Britain's bruised royals stay silent as Prince Harry lets 'light in on magic'

Britain's bruised royals stay silent as Prince Harry lets 'light in on magic'

Some 150 years ago, the acclaimed constitutional writer Walter Bagehot wrote that the British monarchy needed reverence and mystery. "We must not let in daylight upon magic," he wrote.

With their six-part Netflix documentary series, a succession of high-profile TV interviews and a tell-all memoir, all featuring intimate revelations and accusations of discord, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have shone not just daylight but a blinding floodlight on the private affairs of the royal family.

When the dust settles, Harry's father King Charles and the other bruised Windsors will wonder if any of their royal magic has been permanently extinguished.

"This is a huge constitutional issue for him, a huge reputational issue for him and it comes ahead of his coronation and in the very early phase of his reign," said Catherine Mayer, author of the recent biography "Charles: Heart of a King".

"This is a huge institution of state, it has significant powers, it has significant influence, it gets a shedload of money from us the taxpayers, the king is head of state in 14 other realms as well - and we are treating it like a soap opera."

At the heart of Harry and Meghan's narrative is that Britain's sensationalist popular press is a "devil" that members of the royal family have colluded with to protect or enhance their own reputations.

Those like Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have not played this game, they argue, have therefore been subjected to cruel and untrue stories that have threatened their mental health and their very safety.

Harry has also made specific accusations against his stepmother Camilla, Charles's second wife and the queen consort, and his elder brother William, heir to the throne.


KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON


So far, both have declined to respond.

"It's absolutely the right strategy - to rise above it," one former senior royal aide told Reuters.

"He's having lots of shots at William, and some shots at the queen consort, but I'm not sure they're ones that fundamentally will undermine confidence in their ability to fulfil their roles and their rightness for those roles."

There is no doubting public interest in the melodrama. The series attracted a record number of viewers for a documentary debut on Netflix, while Harry's memoir ranks as the best-selling book on Amazon's UK, U.S., German and Canadian websites.

Its title - "Spare" - hints at the deep-seated frustration of being seen as a back-up heir to the throne, in case anything happens to William.

Royal biographer Tina Brown said Americans found Harry and Meghan appealing and that they were "winning" in the United States, while a recent visit by William and his wife Kate to Boston had made little impact.

In Britain, sympathies seem to be divided between the generations: polls suggest older people have little time for Harry and Meghan, while the young are far more supportive, something that may hint at future problems for acceptance of the monarchy.


'NEVER LET THE LIGHT IN'


"As Walter Bagehot said in the 19th century, never let the daylight in upon the magic, because if you do, the royal family become just like the hoi polloi, just like you and me," royal commentator Emily Andrews told Reuters.

"They cease to be special, they cease to be different. Then you wonder, 'Why is billions of taxpayer money going to fund this family that effectively act like the Kardashians?'."

The royal family have been here before, though.

In the 1990s, the breakdown of Charles' marriage to his first wife Princess Diana, Harry and William's mother, was played out in lurid colour in the pages of the British tabloid papers.

Both revealed extra-marital affairs in prime-time TV interviews, and in an authorised biography penned at about the same time, Charles bemoaned his unhappy childhood, with his mother Queen Elizabeth II cast as distant and his father, Prince Philip, as overbearing.

But media and public eventually moved on - although Harry argues poignantly in his book that he was given little help, at the age of 12, to come to terms with the death of his mother in a car crash in Paris - as she was herself fleeing the attentions of newspaper photographers.

Buckingham Palace can also take solace in the fact that the overwhelming majority of papers have sided with the royal family: unsurprising, given Harry and Meghan's views on the tabloids and the fact they have sued a number of publications.

"That said, you could argue it only reinforces the victim narrative from Harry and Meghan in America," the former aide said.

"The one thing the royal family has on its side is time. So it can play the long game - which Harry and Meghan maybe can't, in that they have to be telling their story now."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
×