SARAH VINE: Is there a plan B for Prince Harry?

You can’t help feeling that Prince Harry’s ghostwriter, JR Moehringer, spoke for all of us when this week he revealed his annoyance at having to deal with Prince Harry’s edits of his memoir, Spare.

“My head was pounding, my jaw was clenched, and I started to raise my voice,” the Pulitzer-winning author admits.

The prince meanwhile said ‘nothing more. He just looked into the camera’ (presumably they were on a Zoom call).

They argued over a passage in the book where the duke tells how he was “captured” during military training by colleagues playing the role of a terrorist.

As part of the exercise, the soldiers shouted insults at him, including a vicious swipe at his mother, the late Princess Diana.

The Prince wanted to record his own comeback – not because, as Moehringer explained, it added anything to the story, but because Harry thought he looked smart.

All his life, Harry explained, he had felt belittled by people who questioned his intelligence. This incident, he thought, would prove them wrong. But Moehringer insisted on keeping it out: in his eyes it was “unnecessary and somewhat pointless.”

The episode speaks volumes about Prince Harry and his behavior, not only towards his ghostwriter, but also towards everyone around him – and they are legion – who have ever tried to protect him from themselves.

On this occasion Moehringer’s judgment prevailed. But there have been countless times when Harry’s irritability and stubbornness won out, where those less confident, more easily intimidated – or perhaps more in awe of his regal stature in general – have given in.

Old school friends, former army colleagues, friends of the family, people he grew up with and who have loved him since he was a little boy. Mere observers, like myself. And, of course, members of his own family.

All of us, annoyed by Harry’s destructive – and self-destructive – behaviour. Individuals, young and old, who at various times have tried to talk him into some sense, to save him from himself – and who seem to have been systematically banned from his life, as if they were being punished for daring to confront his increasingly venomous and paranoid nature. to speak. story.

And where has it brought him? Up a creek without a paddle, that’s true. Because if the coronation has shown us anything about the future of the royal family, it’s that Harry isn’t part of it in any way.

In just a few short years he has gone from the adored youngest son to a frowning and irrelevant presence.

With his grandmother gone to keep the peace, it’s remarkable how quickly the royal waters have closed on him, washing away any trace of the glittering future that once belonged to him.

At the abbey he made a terribly sad impression: he arrived alone, in a Dior suit that had obviously not been properly ironed. That’s another disadvantage of being a ‘citizen’: not a servant. And the Duchess had clearly forgotten to pack the portable iron.

Obscured by Princess Anne’s beautiful red plume for much of the proceedings, Harry appeared gloomy and dejected when he was in sight. A lip reader saw him tell Princess Eugenie’s husband, Jack Brooksbank, that he was “fed up,” though it’s unclear if that was related to the event itself or life in general.

Hardly anyone acknowledged his presence and both his father and older brother seemed to ignore him. He played no part in the ensuing celebrations, arriving at Heathrow for his flight back to the US not long after the King’s golden coach had pulled into the courtyard of Buckingham Palace.

While his brother’s three children stole the show, Harry’s two were thousands of miles away, denied their place in history.

Aside from the personal tragedy of the situation, it inevitably raises the question of where Prince Harry goes from here.

He has yet to deliver two more books as part of his multi-million dollar deal with Penguin Random House. But what is there left for him to say?

As the Duchess of Sussex’s children’s book and podcast proved, outside of the pair’s sycophantic cheerleaders, there’s little appetite for the dignified, faceless, virtue-signaling stuff.

People want the dirt – that’s what sells. But dishing out more of it will only push him further away from the royal family – and ultimately from the source of his rapidly dwindling star power.

Because what Prince Harry seems to have overlooked in his grand master plan is that his main currency, the reason anyone had any interest in him in the first place, was his association with what he was trying to destroy: the British monarchy. .

By consciously and with such resentment detaching himself from the institution, he has fatally undermined his USP. No longer a happy Harry, but a bitter and brittle Haz leg.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. And he wonders why people question his intelligence.

As his older brother, William, matures into his new role as Prince of Wales, with his perfectly professional wife at his side, Harry now faces the challenge of reinventing himself in a vacuum.

Two more books, and then? Looking for other plans to raise cash to pay for the estate and security? He’s approaching middle age with no pension pot, no health insurance (you really don’t want to get sick in California without that insurance), and nothing to feast on except his regrets?

The worst part is that he’s really burned his bridges with his brother, who, let’s face it, will be in charge of whatever remaining generosity the royal family owns after King Charles finishes paying back all those Empire reparations he owed. seems so excited. address. Again, maybe not the smartest move.

Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps Harry will live happily ever after in his bubble of American psycho waffle, rescuing rhinoceroses and making dignified documentaries about cultural appropriation in the Andes, or whatever latest fashionable goal rests on his hand-carved, reclaimed driftwood desk.

But if he had stopped and listened more, he could have done all that – and more – while also enjoying the love, friendship and support of his family and the British people.

Not to mention someone who can steam their suits well.

Eurovision’s Mae hits the wrong note

The Corbynista cheerleader selected by the BBC to represent Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest this weekend has said she is applying for a German passport so she can live in Spain.

Mae Muller, 25, once tweeted ‘I hate this country’, berating Boris Johnson for ‘going to bed’ when he was seriously ill with Covid.

She is apparently eligible to apply for German citizenship thanks to her Jewish grandfather, who fled Nazi Germany for the safety of Britain, fleeing the Holocaust.

No offense, but isn’t it a little ungrateful to “hate” the country that saved your grandfather’s life?

The best weapons of Royals

It may be a relief to the wife of the King’s equerry, Major Jonathan Thompson, that he has some competition. Namely the Queen’s Squire, Rifles Major Ollie Plunket and Lieut Cmdr Rob Dixon, Equerry to the Prince and Princess of Wales. Forget Take That at Windsor Castle: those three are the ultimate military boy band.

The most glaring detail in ex-No. 10 Communications chief Guto Harri on the disagreement between the king and former prime minister Boris Johnson over the government’s Rwanda policy is that the former was furious with the latter for arriving late for a meeting. Likewise, at his coronation, Charles III waited at the entrance to the abbey, berating a poor footman that ‘we can never be on time’. In my experience, there are two kinds of people: those who wait and those who make others wait. As the first, I share the king’s frustrations. The world is full of people who think their lives are more important than others. And even being the king can’t save you from them.

I’m sorry, but someone has to say it. The King’s purple coat, which he wore after the coronation and which appears in the official photos: is it just me or was it a little too Cadbury’s Dairy Milk for the occasion? There is a fine line between being on point and panto. Speaking of which, buckle up with dress pants? No wonder the late Queen’s dresser, Angela Kelly, wasn’t invited — she never would have passed that up.