Royal biographer Ingrid Seward has some thoughts about what Prince Harry’s reaction to his reduced role at Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations might be. The editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine sounded off about the sixth in line to the throne, but there are a few points we’d like to push back on. While we respect Seward’s long career as a royal observer, there are some fine points that she’s missing.
Prince Harry’s Demeanor At Jubilee Under Microscope
Prince Harry’s appearances at Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations were highly scrutinized by both the media and viewers watching from home. While many, including one longtime critic, focused on Harry’s wife Meghan Markle, longtime royal biographer Ingrid Seward only had eyes for the Duke of Sussex.
The author of several royal biographies, including her latest Prince Philip Revealed, Seward wrote a commentary piece for the U.K. tabloid The Sun where she insisted that Harry looked visibly “fed-up” at the St. Paul’s Service of Thanksgiving. The reason behind Harry’s supposedly sourpuss was his seat at the event, which was placed behind the Duke of Gloucester who is the 31st in line to the throne.
Harry Bitter Over Royal Demotion?
That’s quite the demotion for the sixth in line to the throne, who would typically be seated near his brother Prince William and his family at any other point in time. Protocol normally calls for members of the royal family to be seated in order of precedence, but since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their roles as working members of the royal family, their positions have changed drastically.
Seward hinted that some royal sources claim this was to minimize the chances of photographers snapping photo evidence of the alleged rift between Harry and William, though there have also been reports that the brothers are getting along better these days.
Seward argued that this new shift into a “second row royal” has been “difficult for Harry to swallow.” Respectfully, we’ll disagree. Though Seward has written about Prince Harry in the past and has developed her own reputation as a royal expert over the decades, there’s no way she can read his thoughts simply from looking at images of him at an event that she did not attend.
Our Take On The Matter
It’s quite forward of her, to say the least, to presume to know his thoughts from his brief appearances. Harry made the decision to step back as a working royal and has known about the consequences of that choice for over a year now. Despite the endless rumors from the tabloids that the supposedly publicity-obsessed Sussexes would go out of their way to divert attention from the queen, the pair kept a low profile during their brief visit across the pond.
By all intents and purposes, it would appear that the two decided to attend the Jubilee in order to honor Queen Elizabeth after voluntarily stepping down from their positions. Why would seating bother Harry in that case? It feels out of character that Harry would suddenly care so much about a petty matter of seating while otherwise going out of his way to minimize his presence in his home country.
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When it comes to members of the royal family, they don’t really come more non-traditional than Prince Harry. We just find it hard to believe that he’d really be so bent out of shape as Seward insists, though it would certainly be ironic if her speculation was correct. This is, after all, a position that Harry and Markle chose for themselves.
That detail, however, is one that helps convince us that it doesn’t matter much to the Sussexes where they sit, even if it is behind the 31st in line to the throne, as long as they’re together.