‘They’ve Made Every Wrong Move They Could Make’: As the Former Editor of Vanity Fair Blasts Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for Their Very Public Profiles, Biographer Christopher Wilson Reveals Their 20 Worst Mistakes
As the former editor of Vanity Fair magazine, Graydon Carter, has delighted the world for years with his ringside view of celebrities.
Last week, in a withering verdict on Harry and Meghan, he said: ‘I think they’ve made every wrong move you can possibly make,’ and pronounced, ‘if you’re out there too much, the public has a chance to get sick of you.’
Here, Queen Camilla’s biographer Christopher Wilson sets out 20 things the couple have done which prove him right:
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
The couple called their daughter Lilibet, the late Queen’s nickname ever since childhood. They said it was a tribute and that they discussed it with the girl’s great-grandmother. However, the choice was criticised as trespassing on the ’emotional exclusivity’ of the name.
Prince Philip’s friend Gyles Brandreth said members of the Royal Family considered the choice ‘bewildering’ and ‘presumptuous’.
NOT TO BRAG…
Harry says the happiest days of his life were in the Army. But when, in his memoirs, he claimed to have killed 25 Taliban in Afghanistan, war veterans condemned the admission, saying it endangered the lives of those who’d served with him. Iraq War hero Colonel Tim Collins curtly dismissed his words with: ‘We don’t do notches on rifle butts.’
SPARE CHANGE
Princess Diana bitterly regretted making public her version of the breakdown of her marriage, via Andrew Morton’s deeply damaging book Diana: Her True Story. Harry’s memoirs, Spare caused almost the same level of hurt – but while Diana wrought her revenge without taking a penny, Harry got a reported £16.5 million advance.
STREAM OF REVELATIONS
Harry signed a multi-million-pound contract with Netflix in 2020 to make documentaries, films, scripted shows and children’s programmes. The couple created a controversial six-episode series on their lives for the streaming service, but their notorious interview with Oprah Winfrey was made by her company and broadcast by CBS.
FROGMORE NO MORE
After being given Frogmore Cottage amid their fall-out with William and Kate, they only spent six months living on the Windsor estate before moving abroad and having to refund £2.4 million of taxpayers’ money spent on its refurbishment.
THE FAST & THE CURIOUS
Was it really wise to hail a yellow New York taxi after attending last month’s Women of Vision Awards? It led to a high-speed chase – compared to Princess Diana’s last journey – and made headlines just weeks before Harry gave evidence against the press about privacy.
VIS-A-VIS HIS VISA
Army rule No 1 is don’t shoot yourself in the foot. But after confessing in Spare to taking illegal drugs, Harry is now embroiled in a US legal case which could lead to the release of his immigration papers. Visa application forms ask about past drug use, which can be a cause for rejection, although not always.
BULLY FOR YOU
While Harry took his campaign against press intrusion to London’s High Court last week, the voices of courtiers who claimed they were bullied when they served the Sussexes have been stilled. An internal inquiry into Meghan’s behaviour, and why decent people felt the need to leave Royal service, has been buried.
ARE YOU IN OR OUT?
Has Harry made up his mind whether he’s still Royal, or not? The perfunctory attendance at his father’s Coronation suggested he’s still hedging his bets. Significantly, there was no protest when he was addressed in court last week as ‘His Royal Highness’.
MISPLACED ANGER
Harry continues to blame the press for his mother’s death, and has piled it on thick. As the French courts decided, Diana got into a car driven by a drunken man, and lost her life because she wasn’t wearing a seat-belt.
SOAP OPRAH
After he abdicated, King Edward VIII also made money by selling his life story. But once his tale was told, there was nothing left to sell. Now, Harry risks making the same discovery that baring his soul only cheapens his image.
PLAYING THE RACE CARD
In the Oprah interview, the couple claimed they had experienced racism within the Royal Family, something denied by senior Royals. Harry seemed to have forgotten the unbridled joy that greeted his betrothal to a mixed-race woman, before the couple did a bunk.
JET SET, GO
Last year, Harry told the United Nations that climate change was ‘wreaking havoc on our planet’. But he had flown to New York on a private jet, a favourite – but not at all green – form of transport.
IN POD WE TRUST…
The couple signed a Spotify deal in 2020 for three years of podcasts. A dozen episodes aired last autumn, but nothing since. Spotify’s boss said he got ‘carried away’ spending money on talent.
LABOUR PAINS
The birth of their son Archie, in May 2019, was an important historic moment. But the couple were accused of deliberately misleading the public by saying Meghan had ‘gone into labour’ when she was already home with her new baby.
RELATIVELY ISOLATED
As Graydon Carter says: ‘Harry and Meghan have done something they’ll live to regret… their children have no relatives.’ They have never seen their maternal grandfather Thomas Markle, while the broken relationship with William means there’s scant contact with their cousins, George, Charlotte and Louis (and the rest).
LOOSE TONGUES
Spare a thought for digger driver Sasha Walpole, who, out of the blue, became one of the world’s most-talked-about women after Harry boasted that he had lost his virginity aged 16 to an older woman in a cow-field behind a pub. The mother-of-two might prefer to have had the details of their tryst kept private.
WICKED WHISPERS
In his memoirs, Harry calls Queen Camilla a ‘wicked stepmother’. A cheap shot – because as anybody who knows her will confirm, the only wicked thing about Camilla is her sense of humour.
P-P-PICK UP A PENGUIN
Harry’s deal with Penguin, worth upwards of £22 million, requires him to produce at least one more book, and soon. What is there left to say, having trashed his family? A lifestyle manual on how to chill out in California?
