Prince Harry has been accused of “asking for trouble” when he spoke candidly about his time outside the royal fold mere days after his reunion with King Charles.
The Duke of Sussex met with his father for the first time in 19 months during a visit to the UK, before making a surprise trip to Ukraine.
While in Kyiv, where Harry was supporting the work of his Invictus Foundation, he spoke openly about the past five years and defended some of his public comments about the Royal Family.
Royal commentator Jennie Bond felt the duke’s openness was a “naive” error, potentially jeopardising his hopes of reconciling with the King.
Prince Harry has been described as 'asking for trouble' after he gave a candid interview just days after his reunion with King Charles
|GETTY
"His first comment was that his dad was 'great'. And I don’t think the Palace would have any problem with that,” Ms Bond began.
“But to have been drawn into commenting on whether he had any regrets about his book was naive,” she said.
Harry declared that his “conscience is clear” and that his infamous 2023 memoir, where he made several damaging claims about the Royal Family, was a necessary “correction” of the public record.
"It was a series of corrections to stories already out there. One point of view had been put out and it needed to be corrected," he said.
The Duke of Sussex issued a robust defence of his comments about the Royal Family over the past five years
|GETTY
“It was a difficult message, but I did it in the best way possible. My conscience is clear,” the duke told The Guardian.
Ms Bond despaired: "He just can’t seem to stop himself from doubling down on his grievances.”
The former royal correspondent felt Harry should have been able to swerve the awkward question and “re-directed the focus of the interview to his visit to Ukraine”.
"To be tempted into asserting that his conscience was clear about all that he had said in his book, and that there ‘cannot be reconciliation before you have truth’, was just asking for trouble,” she said.
Harry was criticised by a veteran royal commentator for not dodging the more awkward questions in his interview
|GETTY
Ms Bond feared the disclosure “may well have set alarm bells ringing at the Palace”.
She felt they may now conclude: “Nothing, it seems, can be guaranteed to be kept private by Harry."
This was particularly risky as Harry is believed to have made a promise to his father to maintain a lower media profile regarding their rapprochement.
“He has told his father he won't be giving any interviews about it and his team have been instructed not to brief journalists about what was said,” a royal insider said of the duke’s meeting with King Charles.
LATEST ROYAL NEWS:
Ms Bond believed Harry would survive this blunder but would need to be careful to preserve his hopes of reconciliation
|GETTY
Even still, Ms Bond was convinced Harry’s reconciliation hopes would be able to survive the blunder if he learned from the error.
“I don’t think it’s serious trouble: he didn’t say anything that we hadn’t already heard,” she told The Mirror.
However, she advised it would be better for Harry to "to stay zipped about his meeting with his father" going forward.