As one headline put it after publication of the report into the racism row at the Duke of Sussex’s beloved Sentebale youth charity: ‘Harry’s response was so typical of him: Flounce off and blame others.’
Following his bitter and very public fall out with the chair of the trustees Dr Sophie Chanduka, Harry had quit the charity as patron alongside other key figures including co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho
Harry had clearly expected to be exonerated of all wrong-doing in the report by the Charity Commission watchdog.
Yet the investigation said ‘all parties’ were to blame, the Prince included. And it criticised him and others who quit for ‘harming’ the charity’s reputation.
Worse, from Harry’s point of view after he‘d walked away from the charity – set up in memory of his mother Diana to help children living with Aids and HIV – the commission said Dr Chanduka could stay as its chair. And when his nemesis followed this up by hailing the ruling and referencing Princess Diana, Harry reportedly accused her of acting in ‘the poorest taste’
Harry’s friends briefed that he was ‘emotionally devastated’ and ‘drained’ after losing the battle with the charity he has championed for the last 19 years. We were told that it was the destruction of ‘his life’s work’ which has now ‘all gone up in flames’.
Yet the commission concluded that if Harry and Dr Chanduka had sorted out their differences in private, not announced them to the world in a bitter battle of words, all the damage to Sentable’s reputation could have been avoided.
In other words, he’s as much to blame as anyone else for his ‘life’s work going up in flames’.
Former Sentebale chairman Dr Sophie Chandauka and Prince Harry attend a benefit last year
But Harry will never accept that. His life mantra is one of: ‘Leave, blame, reposition’, while never taking any responsibility or accountability for his own actions.
And let’s face it, Prince Harry now has a long record of quitting then blaming others. Oh, how tired we all are of Harry the ‘Spare’ playing the victim card, blaming everyone else.
As with most of his ‘career’ paths since, his modus operandi has been one of getting out when the going got tough.
He was a distinguished officer who survived in Afghanistan and could have forged a successful career in the Forces, but he quit.
Despite being part of the once-celebrated Fab Four with William and Kate which held such promise for the future of the Royals, he and Meghan left.
And rather than trying to work out problems allegedly encountered by his new bride Meghan, the young woman who was so supported by our late Queen he chose to quit the Royal family.
As for his royal duties, he went off to America to make his putrid millions vilifying the Royal family. Same old mantra: bail then blame.
I’m not a fan of Sentebale’s chair Sophie Chaddauka – she looks as hard as nails – but she’s chewed up and spat out the privileged hapless Harry.
The Duke of Sussex while on his Afghanistan tour as an Apache helicopter pilot in December 2012
Quitting his beloved charity set up in the name of his beloved mother Diana? Even she would be dismayed by his gutlessness and sanctimony.
And who are the real victims of this? Not him luxuriating in his Montecito mansion with his Netflix wife flogging jams and wine as he’s feeding his organic chooks. But the impoverished children he vowed all those years ago to protect to the end.
Harry quit the Army, quit the Royal Family, quit his brother William and sister-in-law Kate and, in my view, quit his ‘life’s work’ Sentebale.
So forgive me if I have no sympathy for serial ‘quitter’ Harry.
Test audiences condemn Saltburn director Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights as being gratuitously full of her trademark ‘stylised depravity’, for which read endless ‘d***’ scenes.
Saltburn was revoltingly explicit enough, yet she’s reached new heights, or depths, in her adaptation of Emily Bronte’s classic. Which is kind of odd for a happily married mum and actress who played Camilla in The Crown.
The PM’s wife Victoria Starmer is rumbled after taking £650 worth of freebie tickets for her and family members (though not hubby) to Ascot. Blimey how is it that Lady Invisible always seems to turn up for a jolly?
M&S White Christmas
A brave move for Marks & Spencer to ditch last year’s Christmas fairy Dawn French, 67, for the gap-toothed White Lotus actress Aimee Lou Wood, 31, on a hefty seven-figure sum. Aimee starred in the third, critically panned series, playing the promiscuous, nubile girlfriend of sleazy, much older, on-the-run, criminal Rick. Jolly good and oh-so on trend. But is M&S forgetting that those who spend the most money at Yuletide in their stores are still mumsy women over 45?
White Lotus actress Aimee Lou Wood, 31, is the new face of Marks and Spencer Christmas
Westminster wars
- Kemi Badenoch has rejected God – but still defines herself as a ‘Cultural Christian’. What arrogance. There is no such thing. Christianity is not a ‘culture’, it is a faith possessed by huge numbers of Conservative voters. With her own God complex, Kemi must be the most tin-eared Tory leader since Liz Truss.
- Labour’s new one-in-one-out asylum policy hit the buffers in its first week. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper can’t explain how it works or tell us how many illegals would be removed – and now we learn even failed asylum seekers will still be able to dodge deportation using a laughable human rights loophole.
David Beckham on his superyacht in St Tropez, looking au naturel as he takes a dip
We’re always criticising women being airbrushed for photoshoots, but men like David Beckham in his pec-perfect ad campaigns clearly do it too.
So some solace for blokes to see this picture of a balding, heavily wrinkled Becks on holiday, au naturel-looking like a slightly flabby extra in a Guy Ritchie gangster movie.
As ITV signs Gary Lineker to host a new Saturday-night game called The Box it is triumphantly headlined Snatch of the Day. Gary’s show will put a dozen celebrities in separate boxes and give them a challenge to complete. Let’s hope the tasks don’t include who can construct, unfurl and wave a pro-Palestinian flag the fastest.
Katie Price… the role model
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Katie Price, banished from daughter Princess’s TV debut in ITV2’s The Princess Diaries because Mum is considered too ‘low-rent’ – or as Katie says: ‘They think I’m trash.’ Katie raised her handicapped son Harvey and has shown gumption throughout her colourful life. And that’s something Princess, 18, could learn from.
Moss bags Ibiza beach break
She’s ditched her long-term boyfriend Nicollai von Bismark, her wellness brand Cosmoss has gone bust owing £2.3million, and now Kate Moss has spent the summer partying in Ibiza, carrying a stained sand-covered £35,000 Hermes bag as a beach tote.
It was gaping open, perhaps to allow easy access to the bottles of beer and fags the once-fleeting health guru feels happiest with.
Supermodel Kate Moss has summered in Ibiza, pictured using a £15,000 Hermes Birkin for her beach bag
The love affair with the convertible is over as the market for soft-tops drops to a 25-year low.
Maybe it’s for the good as these motors were mostly bought by men having a mid-life crisis.
And driving around with their bald heads and sunburnt arms they ended up not looking cool but like prawns left too long on the barbie.
Basket case BBC
The latest scandal to hit the BBC is Strictly professionals using cocaine on set following the sacking of Givanni Pernice and Grazia Di Prima.
This comes after the Huw Edwards horror show, the Bobby Vylan antisemitic rant at Glastonbury – and the debacle of sacking both MasterChef hosts Gregg Wallace and John Torode.
The only man not sacked is the BBC’s DG Tim Davie who shamefully is still in his job having presided over such chaos.
Campaigners for laws to crack down on cosmetic surgery cowboys include the daughters of Alice Webb, 33, who died after a liquid Brazilian butt lift. A tragedy for those girls, yet mystery remains why a mum would take any risks when she looked lovely to begin with.
Justified outrage after a 6ft 2in trans employee offered to help a 14-year-old girl with a bra fitting at M&S. My first bra wearing experience was also traumatic. My older brother called me ‘sailor’s delight’ which I thought was a compliment – before he added ‘sunken chest’.