PRINCE Harry has been hailed as a ‘court jester’ who has always been desperate to be popular.
Ken Wharfe, former Protection Officer to Prince William, Harry and the late Diana, appeared on The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show, and discussed the similarities between Harry, 40, and the late Princess Diana.
Speaking to The Sun’s Royal Editor, Matt Wilkinson, when asked if he recognised any similarities between Harry and his mother, Ken confirmed: “Yes, they’re both entertainers.”
Ken also claimed that when Harry and William were children, it was actually William who was less popular, as he continued: “Harry was always the court jester as a child.
“Part of the problem with him and his brother was that William was somewhat jealous of his popularity.
“But like his mother, she liked to be entertained, she liked to be popular.”
After stepping down as working royals and leaving the UK in 2020, Harry, who is based in California with wife Meghan Markle, 43, and their two children, Archie, five, and Lilibet, three, now live in their sprawling mansion in Montecito, with A-listers including Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth Paltrow as their neighbours.
The royal expert claimed that prior to Megxit and Harry’s move to the States, he was ‘popular’ in the UK.
He explained: “I haven’t got a great deal of sympathy for them.
“Prior to Megxit, he was more popular than the Queen.
“He has a style that’s so unique, he thought he could do six months in and six months out.
“It hasn’t worked out like that because the Queen wouldn’t allow that.”
He continued: “I think with Harry, he was popular, certainly when he was here in the United Kingdom.”
But despite this, he “doesn’t know” if there’s a slot for him to slip back into the British monarchy.
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He shared: “He’s still got something to offer. It’s a question of how he puts it together with his wife and family, to see if he can achieve some sort of comeback.
“Is there a slot for him? I don’t know, I think we’ve got to wait and see what happens.”
Despite Harry’s somewhat dip in popularity, Ken shared that many have praised Harry as being ‘fun’, ‘mindful’ and ‘generous’, much like Diana.
Ken explained: “People will say he’s actually very fun to be with, he’s very good in meetings, he’s always mindful and careful of how he speaks to his staff, which was a classic Diana.
A timeline of Prince Harry's family feud
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan, in his memoir.
In Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
In May he visited the UK for a three-day visit without seeing King Charles or Prince William.
“She was very generous, she was a gift giver, Harry is exactly the same.
“I do see similarities.”
Hoever, Whilst relations between William and Harry have been strained for years, their rift became even more apparent when Harry and Meghan spoke out against the Royal Family during their interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 – where they claimed Kate had made Meghan cry ahead of her 2018 wedding in an argument over bridesmaid dresses.
Harry then made a string of bombshell claims about William in his controversial memoir, Spare, last year, claiming that William had once ‘knocked him to the floor’ in a physical fight and that he had also pointed his finger in Meghan’s face and branded her ‘rude’.
William and Harry are no longer on speaking terms, and it’s thought that they kept their distance when they recently attended the funeral of their uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes, in Norfolk.
