CrownsOfBritain

For the last 30+ years, the world has followed Princes William and Harry from their very first steps (quite literally) to them becoming men, getting married and starting their own families. If they went skiing with Diana, fishing with Charles or started a new school, we knew about it almost immediately. We saw them break-up and make-up with girlfriends, fall out of nightclubs drunk and become embroiled in various scandals. 

But as they’ve grown up and gone from boys to men, the differences between the two brothers have become clearer and clearer, and perhaps earlier perceptions of who they both are individually may actually have been incorrect, along with how they’ve handled the media intrusion.

We’ve always know them to be one way; Prince William, destined for the British throne, has always come across more serious and stoic – while younger brother Prince Harry, truly enjoying the perks of being the “spare”, has always been more carefree, happy-go-lucky and not to mention, a raging party animal. 

But what I’ve noticed over the years is that if it’s one thing the media like to do, it’s vilify William for the smallest of things and shrug and wink when Harry fucks up monumentally. 

And that’s lead me to ask – why is the case and where is the fairness in that?

I’ll admit – for several years, Harry was my favourite brother. Let’s be real here, he was for most people because he provided far more entertainment. Harry was off stripping in Vegas hotel rooms and smoking pot while William was joining the Air Ambulance service and beginning life as a newlywed to wife Catherine. He was, for all intents and purposes, the “boring” brother. Why would we want to hear about The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge farming their own vegetables for dinner when we could see Harry falling out of a nightclub shitfaced with his latest squeeze? The media and the public knew which one would sell more papers – and we bought into it every time. 

But why is this? Whenever William and Kate were photographed drunk in the back of a cab after a particularly heavy night at Boujis, the pitchforks would be raised: “The future KING and the potential-but-probably-unlikely-to-be future QUEEN… OUT? Drunk?! How very dare they!” But the next day, Harry is clambering into the back of a Central London cab with some leggy blonde whose name he’s too high or drunk to remember, covered in lipstick marks, and “oh, that’s just Harry. Leave him be.”

I never understood it. Wasn’t William allowed to have fun too at the age of twenty like all of us did and do, future King or not? He’s still a human, right? 

The time it struck me the most was a couple of years ago, when a video did it’s rounds of William dancing (possibly drunk) in a club in Verbier, Switzerland. You could set your alarm clock by the pitchforks being raised the very next morning and the poor bastard all but issued a formal apology for deigning to have a drink and some fun with his pals on a ski trip, like so many of us do. 

What was the big deal here? I wasn’t seeing it. But William, on the off-chance you read my blog (to make fun of your sister in law) and happen to see this, don’t worry; if it makes you feel better, I too once got trollied in Verbier, slipped on some ice outside the bar, knocked all my friends over like a tenpin bowl and had a bruise the size of a football on my arse for three weeks after. Now THAT should’ve been front page news, because it must’ve been outrageously comical to witness. 

But I digress. 
The point I’m trying to make is, in light of recent events with Harry basically asking the press to take a running jump in the lead up to the birth of his first child, likely because he’s suddenly decided he wants to be an adult and treated as such, he has far less reason to request this than anyone else in the royal family.
Harry would do well to remember that while he was behaving like a juvenile delinquent even well into his thirties, he was given a free pass for everything, while his brother was hauled up by the short and curlies for so much as breathing in the wrong direction. Put simply – he is biting the hand that feeds and the public and media simply won’t tolerate it anymore.

Kate was dragged backwards by her hair for years for daring to hit the clubs in a short skirt – even when her and William had split up for several months and there was no guarantee they’d ever get back together, much less marry and have her wind up as the future Queen Consort of Britain. But still, she was crucified in the press for going roller-skating in shorts and today in 2019, you can’t even call Meghan Markle an attention-seeker without being called a bully and having the palace threaten legal action.
Where was this defence for William?

No Prince Harry, sorry – not having it.

We gave you a free pass when you stupidly dressed up as a Nazi and smoked pot in public.
We gave you a free pass when you played at being a toy soldier in the army, when we all know there was no chance in hell they’d let the (then) third-in-line to the throne head out into an Afghanistan war zone without protection, despite the palace rebuffing this claim. 
We gave you a free pass when you stripped off in a Vegas hotel room and openly slept with tonnes of randoms. 
We gave you a free pass the zillionth time you fell out of a nightclub barely able to stand. 

Harry – you’ve been given so many free passes due to losing your mum at a young age, that most of us have now lost count. Your brother lost his mum too that night, but has gotten on with his life and hasn’t expected anything of the media or public. He knows his place and his duties, married suitably and conducts himself as a member of the Royal Family should. You, however, do not. 

So, what now? Are we expected to continue to give you free passes while you and your unsuitable and inappropriate wife continue to give the middle finger to the media that promote you and the public that pay for you?
Are we expected to give you a free pass when you and Mrs Sussex decide you want to play at being respectable adults, and tell us you want “privacy” for you and your kid and that we’ll just have to like it or lump it?

Out of the two Wales brothers, Harry has less reason to treat the media with such contempt. By and large, they’ve given him a damn easy time of it. Yes, his antics usually ended up as front page news, but he really only has himself to blame for it and it was always “today’s news, tomorrow’s fish and chip paper”.You wanna have fun? Go for it. But you’re still a Prince of the realm and expect that whatever you do can and will be documented for the world to see.

As Harry is nearly thirty-five now, married and with a child due imminently, we expected him to grow up and mature at some point or another – that’s not the issue here. The issue is his demands from the public and media, where he will dictate something and expect everyone else to fall in line with it just because “I said so.”

Bottom line; Prince Harry is a spoilt, petulant man-child who has become, I’m sorry to say, a first class wanker since marrying Markle. One lesson he’d do well to learn is that with a life of privilege comes responsibility and a good level of understanding. And as the days, months and years tick away, it’s becoming abundantly clear that Harry has lost his grip on the media, the public and his ability to control both, no doubt aided by the arrival of his narcissistic wife.

William is bound by a sense of duty, knows it’s the public that bankroll him and his family and is aware that in order to be a successful royal and King, he’ll need both the public and media onside to achieve this. It’s a real shame those brain cells didn’t quite extend to the younger brother as well. 

It’s very much our game now, Harry; and from here on out, you’ll have to do as we say – that goes for your wife too. And if you don’t like it, well… you can head to Africa and leave us all alone.