Sir Ian McKellen, the esteemed actor, has recently been quite vocal about his opinions on the Royal Family. He didn’t mince words when he criticised the late Queen Elizabeth for being “rude” and also made remarks about Prince Harry’s intelligence.
Despite his contentious comments, the 85 year old actor affirmed his support for Harry in a recent interview with The Times. As he perused a copy of the Duke of Sussex’s memoir Spare, McKellen remarked: “Imagine being born into the royal family. I’ve been in public life a bit, but these people are in prison.”
He further commented, “They can’t do anything normal. Can you imagine having to be nice to everyone you talk to? “.
Harry, 39, is the youngest son of King Charles and the late Princess Diana. He has stirred up a fair amount of controversy since stepping back from Royal duties with his wife Meghan Markle in 2020.
Since relocating to the US that same year, it’s safe to say that Prince Harry’s relationship with his Royal kin has been tense at best, especially after he made several damning allegations against the royals in various interviews and in his memoir, reports the Mirror.
“My family literally cut me off financially, and I [needed to be able to] afford security for us,” Harry disclosed in a bombshell CBS interview from 2021. He added, “[I was cut off] in the first quarter of 2020. But I’ve got what my mom left me [when she died in August 1997] and without that, we would not have been able to do this.”
At that time, Harry also expressed, “I will always love [my family], but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened. I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship.”
Despite voicing his desire for healing, Harry later claimed that his father King Charles and brother Prince William had played a role in leaking harmful and untrue stories to the media regarding his wife Meghan and her family.
Although none of these accusations were ever publicly acknowledged by the Royal family, tensions seemed visible between them for quite some time. Recently, however, the ice appears to be thawing, with progress towards reconciliation sparked by King Charles’ battle with cancer.
Upon learning about his father’s health scare, Harry immediately flew to the UK and earnestly sought a meeting with him to express his good wishes. Speaking to Good Morning America after the visit, Harry reflected, “I love my family. “The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that. I jumped on a plane and went to go see him as soon as I could. “
A source revealed to Us Weekly that King Charles was “extremely touched” by the gesture, hinting at the possibility of a full reconciliation in the future.
Meanwhile, Sir Ian McKellen shared his thoughts on the Royal lifestyle with The Times, praising those who manage to “stay sane in that world.”
“Hats off to anyone who [does] … like the [late] Duke of Edinburgh managed to do, although even he was deeply, deeply eccentric and I suspect deeply unhappy. Same with the present king,” the actor jested.”[Charles] sort of survives, but he is clearly damaged.
“As for Harry, he’s probably not bright enough or doesn’t have the right friends to really help himself. Mind you, he had the pick of all the pretty women in the world. I hope he’s got the right one [in Meghan]”
