Harry who?
King Charles has been criticized for not acknowledging his son Prince Harry, his wife Meghan Markle, or their two children in a Christmas address, which focused on how the holiday was “a chance for family and friends to come together.”
The closest Charles came to acknowledging his family in California was when he spoke about the need to protect and safeguard the environment “for the sake of our children’s children,” however, no direct reference was made to Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
By contrast, multiple images were shown of his son, Prince William, and his wife, Kate Middleton, and their three children, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis.
The refusal to acknowledge Harry’s family went almost entirely unremarked in largely fawning accounts of the annual televised speech in the British media but was criticized on social media.
The king’s failure to acknowledge Harry was made less obvious by the decision not to film the speech from his desk, thereby avoiding critics analyzing photographs and portraits in the shot for clues about who was in or out of royal favor.
The Daily Beast has been told that Charles would like to reconcile with Harry but is being blocked from bringing him back into the family by William, who is implacably opposed to any such move. The elder son believes Harry’s betrayal of the family in his books and interviews, in which he accused a member of the family, later revealed to be Kate, of racism, has put him beyond the pale. William’s consent is needed because Charles, who is sick with cancer, feels he cannot bequeath his heir a settlement with Harry that William cannot live with.
Cold comfort
The beleaguered Norwegian royal family have said they have sought “professional help” after a “challenging year.”
In the course of 2024, the crown prince’s wayward stepson was accused of multiple assaults while high on drugs, a senior princess married a shaman who accused the family of racism and the clan’s leader, King Harald, 87, is widely believed to be close to death.
In a special Christmas interview screened on Norwegian TV, Crown Prince Haakon’s wife Mette-Marit said, “If I had to choose one word for this year, it would be ‘challenging.’ It has been a demanding year and a demanding autumn for us.”
Mette-Marit will be understood by many Norwegians to have been referring to her son, Marius Borg Hoiby, 27, from a previous relationship, born before she married Haakon.
Borg Hoiby has the dubious distinction of being the first member of the Norwegian royal family to be charged with a crime after he was arrested in August, accused of assaulting his former girlfriend and threatening to set her clothes on fire.
He admitted assault and wrecking the woman’s home. He said he was high on alcohol and cocaine then claimed that he was seeking treatment for alcohol and drugs. However, two more arrests have followed, and in November, the London Times reports, he was accused of a sexual act “with someone who is … unable to resist the act”. He denied the charges and was released after a week, the Times said.
Mette-Marit said: “What we can say is that we have been receiving help, professional help, from the healthcare system for a long time. I don’t think we would have been able to be in a situation like this without having that help, together as a family, and at the same time fulfill our obligations to the Norwegian people.”
King Harald, Europe’s oldest reigning monarch, also spoke in the program, saying: “It’s hard that someone we love has experienced this, but now we must let the legal system work as it should,” he said.
His wife, Queen Sonja, said: “But it’s clear that it’s taking its toll,” the London Times reports.
Support for the royal family has slipped from 81 percent in 2017 to 62 percent in September, the Times says, with the family also being damaged by fall out from the marriage of Haakon’s sister, Princess Martha Louise, to Durek Verrett, an American shaman. Verrett claimed he was criticized because “people don’t want a black man in the royal family,” adding, “I have never experienced so much racism as when I came to Norway.”
Further weakening the family’s position is the fact that Harald, 87, appears increasingly frail, and now uses crutches. He was hospitalized after a fall earlier this year.
