King Charles III has played all of his cards well. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are now facing a difficult choice.
The renegade royals have always wanted to be independent and build an empire. However, this dream comes at a hefty price. It involves selling salacious details about the British royal family.
After “Megxit,” the power couple started sharing secrets and landed deals with Netflix, Spotify, and Penguin Random House. The streaming giant got a docu-series. Spotify made a splash with a podcast featuring the former actress.
The publishing company invested close to $20 million for Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir. It was convinced that it would be a huge bestseller and planned a release around the holidays.
However, Queen Elizabeth II‘s death changed everything. The book got delayed to 2023, and The Duke of Sussex is pushing hard to make some changes.
According to sources in the industry, he reportedly does not want to make things worse with his father, King Charles. The new Monarch prefers to adopt a tough stance when dealing with his younger son and his daughter-in-law.
The publisher wants to make a lot of money and is reportedly not very interested in changing the tone of the memoir. So, The Duke of Sussex is facing a Cornelian dilemma.
Prince Harry can keep the big check and damage his relationship with the Royal Family forever. Or, he can return the money and try to make peace with his relatives.
Many supporters of the British monarchy are hoping that he will choose the latter. However, those fans are ignoring the fact that the Sussexes have huge bills to handle.
Moreover, King Charles will probably not help them financially because he wants a slimmed-down monarchy. Royal expert Tina Brown, who covered Prince Harry’s mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, believes he only has one option.
She told The Daily Telegraph: “They are now in this bind, where they’ve taken all this money, and Harry has made this book deal where he’s supposed to spill everything about his horrible life as a royal, but now he’s actually tortured about it because he understands there is no way back if he does it.”
She continued: “If the book continues, I don’t think there is any way for Harry to return. So my view has always been that the book won’t see the light of day.”
A source said that Prince Harry is trying to please everyone, but it is impossible. The person added: “Harry has thrown a spanner in the works. He is keen for refinements in the light of the Queen‘s death, her funeral, and his father, Charles taking the throne. There may be things in the book which might not look so good if they come out so soon after these events. He wants sections changed now. It’s not a total rewrite by any means. He desperately wants to make changes. But it might be too late.”
In short, the Sovereign has his son exactly where he wanted him to be — the climate activist is cornered. While the father of two has some issues with his family, he still cares deeply about what the monarchy represents.
However, he has a new family to support.
