It was the usual chaos outside Buckingham Palace on Saturday afternoon. Tourists squashed themselves up against the palace gates, e-bikes whizzed around the memorial of Queen Victoria and security staff hurriedly erected impromptu barriers to manage the heaving crowds.
For the family drawing this familiar circus, things have been equally chaotic.
Prince Harry sat down with the BBC for another emotional and pointed interview this week in which he said it would be “impossible” to bring his family to the UK after losing a legal battle over his personal security.
He also appeared to extend an olive branch to the royal family, saying he would “love” to reconcile with them, despite King Charles’s refusal to speak to him “because of the security stuff”.
Did the wantaway prince’s calls for a truce cut ice with the royal watchers outside Buckingham Palace? The views were mixed.
“He can’t have it both ways,” said Chris Jones, 67. “He’s made a decision to go and live in America and that’s his decision. He can’t just change his mind and come back to the UK and expect everything to be as it was before.”
Jones said Harry “could afford to pay for his own bodyguards” if he wanted to. “He’s not doing royal duties. He’s living a life in Hollywood, isn’t he?”
After permanently stepping down as royals in 2021 and relocating to the US, Harry told Oprah Winfrey in a blockbuster interview that racism was “a large part” of why he and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, left Britain.
“She has literally been hated on so much and received a lot of racist comments. I think she’s been treated awfully, really,” said Hannah Taylor, 25.
On Harry, however, her words of support were more reserved. “I don’t have much sympathy for somebody that’s really rich and has a lot of choices,” she said. While she acknowledges the poor treatment faced by Meghan, she is more mixed on the couple’s security battle. “I’m sure she can afford it,” said Taylor.
What of the Americans who Harry and Meghan have so consistently marketed themselves to since what the tabloids have termed “Megxit”?
“We wouldn’t miss them,” said tourist Keith Andrews, 66.
“They have no relevance to the United States, especially Meghan Markle. She sold her soul over here and then ran back to the United States when they hurt her feelings. Goodbye.”
In the BBC interview, Harry called the security row a “good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up” and urged Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper to look into the matter.
“Why should the British taxpayers pay for his protection? He’s got enough money,” said Michael 67, who did not want to provide his last name.
“I dare say he could get a taxi from the airport to the palace,” said Caroline, 80. She said Harry is “having a bit of a pity party for himself” and he “wants sympathy from people”.
“We saw it this morning and thought, get over yourself. He’s made his bed and he’s got to lie in it. He is a very bitter man. He left his own country for a so-called better life. Now I think he’s having regrets.
“He wanted to go to America with Meghan. Good luck to him, enjoy your life over there. Don’t start crying over it now,” she said.
