The Duke & Duchess of Sussex

This evening the interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by Oprah Winfrey will air and will generate a huge amounts of media sensationalism. I have already been inundated with interviews and have taken a strong stand in support of the position of the Queen.

The fact is, whilst the Duke is the son and the Duchess the daughter-in-law of the Prince of Wales, by their own decision they have left the Royal Family as working royals. Accordingly, as far as Australia is concerned, they are individuals and now have nothing, constitutionally, to do with Australia. Even when visiting this country in past years, other than in regard to the 2018 Invictus Games, they have done so as representatives of the Queen, our sovereign head of state.

However, the Duke of Sussex was born a prince is the grandson of the Queen and, until the birth of the children of the Duke of Cambridge, was third in line to the Throne. As such he and his wife, the Duchess enjoy a privileged status and as such they still have a responsibility and duty to honour and to protect the system of constitutional monarchy both in the United Kingdom and in the Realms.
In no way should they use the status they have as members of the Queen’s family to disparage the Royal Household and in so doing demean the Queen. At 95 years of age with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh in hospital, the last thing she needs is public discontent amongst her family.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex should at all times consider the position of Her Majesty before they had decided to give any public interviews.

Today is Commonwealth Day and our focus should be on the Queen who will be paying tribute to all those courageous hospital, quarantine and other workers on the front line tackling Covid throughout the Commonwealth and the World rather than on the squalid attempts by Harry and Meghan to justify the decisions they made go their own way.

It is such a great shame that a brave and personable young man should have turned away from his duty to his grandmother, the Queen.

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