Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Colombia Tour Stokes Tension With King Charles
The news that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are undertaking a quasi-royal tour of Colombia hasn’t gone down brilliantly among Windsor loyalists.
One former courtier told The Daily Beast: “I’m afraid it shows the utter contempt they have for the king and for very long-established ways of doing things. Royal tours have always, always been about diplomacy, building bridges and reinforcing friendships on behalf of Britain. This tour may well have the noblest intentions, but it is clearly not being carried out on behalf of Britain, and yet they still basically portray themselves as British royals. It shows you exactly why the royals want these two kept as far away as possible.”
It is certainly true that the trip to Colombia later this month casts an interesting light on exactly why King Charles III, as many believe, is failing to use his influence to get Harry the automatic protection in the U.K. that he so desires.
The idea of Harry and Meghan doing their mini-foreign tours (as they did in Nigeria earlier this year) is disruptive enough for royal planners, but the idea of the couple being able to touch down in the U.K. and carrying out visits to wherever they wish without running it past the palace is the stuff of true nightmares for the king’s aides.
On social media there is far from widespread understanding that Harry and Meghan are any less royal than, say, Prince William and Princess Kate—Harry and Meghan are celebrities in their own right.
Of course the couple will be kept safe during the tour, but Colombia seems an unlikely choice for travel as it is well known for having one of the highest murder rates in the world. Only this week, sources close to Harry were telling The Daily Beast that the family needs automatic police protection in the U.K. restored—and blame the king for not delivering it.
The palace insist that none of the decisions around Harry’s security are personal. A royal source this week told The Daily Beast that it was “well-established” that “security provision is not decided on by the king” but by the government and added, “For the king himself to attempt to intervene directly in this process in any way would be wholly inappropriate.”
However, a Sussex source told The Daily Beast, “If the king wanted, he could do this for his son.”
Currently when visiting the U.K., Harry is required, like any other high-profile visitor seeking police protection, to give 28 days notice to the British security forces of his intention to visit the country, list locations he intends to visit, and present a detailed itinerary of his plans.
This suits the Palace down to the ground, some suspect; as a Harry source told The Daily Beast this week: “It’s about control.”
Deep freeze
The more personal impact of the ongoing fight around Harry’s security is that it has led to the total and complete breakdown of Charles and Harry’s relationship. The Daily Beast has been told by a well-placed source that the king is no longer even taking his son’s phone calls, a claim which echoes allegations made in People magazine this week.
The freeze out represents a return to historic lows; in his famous interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry said there was a spell of time back then when Charles wouldn’t take his calls.
