An ex-royal butler has delivered a scathing assessment of Prince Harry’s life in the US, claiming “a lot of people” in the US and UK had “made their minds up” about his behaviour.
Grant Harrold, who previously worked for the Royal Family, said there has been growing frustration over what he sees as the Sussexes ‘contradictory behaviour’. Speaking with GB News, he said: “They keep stressing they want their privacy and they want to be left alone but then the next minute they’re doing these documentaries and people are in their homes.
“It’s causing a lot of confusion, which I think is frustrating people.” He said despite this, royal fans he meets have “a lot of love for Harry”.
Reflecting on Harry’s departure from royal life, Harrold said: “It’s really difficult to pinpoint why and how it’s all kind of gone so badly wrong.”
He said when Meghan and Prince Harry married, the assumption was they would undertake royal duties in the UK like Prince William and Princess Kate.
He said: “That’s not what has happened. Initially, I think everybody thought ‘we’ll see what happens'”.
The comments come as a survey by market research firm Ipsos, found that a mere 21% of respondents think King Charles’ youngest son is more a member of the Royal Family than a celebrity, as per The Telegraph.
Meanwhile 40% of those surveyed said the Duke of Sussex, 40, was more of a celebrity and 20% said he was both a royal and a celebrity. A total of 16% said Harry was neither a royal nor a celebrity, the research found, while the rest said they did not know.
The poll, which had a sample size of 1,091, also found that 15% had unfavourable view of Harry’s older brother and the heir to the throne, Prince William, while 43% were unfavourable towards Harry.
More than half of those surveyed viewed Meghan unfavourably (54%), with only 12% per cent saying the same of the Princess of Wales. The Prince and his wife Meghan Markle, 43, stepped down as senior royals in 2020, and now reside in California with their two children Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3.
They’ve since launched various commercial ventures, with Meghan heading up a lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard. But Harry has made only fleeting returns to the country for private visits and for his legal battle with the publisher of The Sun, which he settled in January, as per the outlet.
Relations between Harry and Prince William reportedly remain frosty in the wake of the Duke of Sussex’s tell-all memoir Spare, in which Harry detailed claims of rifts with other family members. The research also suggested Britons are optimistic about how William would fare as king, with 67% saying he would do a good job as monarch, and only 9% saying he would do a “bad job”, as per the outlet.
Prince William has found to be the most popular member of The Firm, with 64 per cent having a favourable opinion of him, followed by the Princess of Wales (62%), Princess Anne (56%) and King Charles (49%). However, only 33% said they had a “favourable” view of the monarch’s wife, Queen Camilla.
