Prince Harry has issued a legal warning to the very same newspaper whose parent company Meghan Markle is currently suing, telling the Mail on Sunday that their recent report about him falling out of touch with the British Marines is “false and defamatory.”
Harry’s lawyers at Schillings issued the legal warning on Monday, responding to a Mail on Sunday article that claimed Harry “has not been in touch by phone, letter nor email since his last appearance as an honorary Marine in March.” Sources say that Harry, who was made Captain General of the Marines in 2017 but withdrew his position when he stepped down from the royal family this spring, was upset at the insinuation that he has abandoned the Armed Forces for whom he served for two decades.
“He might have been made to give up his titles, but he has not given up on the military, far from it,” said one friend. An aide for the Duke clarified, “To say he has not been in touch with the Marines is not the case. He had many conversations with former colleagues during the lockdown and is in regular contact with a lot of military personnel on a private and personal basis.”
Harry inherited the role of Captain of the Marines from the Queen in 2017, succeeding Prince Philip, who had held the post for 64 years. There has been some suggestion that Harry’s aunt Princess Anne could replace him as Captain of the Marines. Being stripped of his military titles is something friends say was particularly painful to the prince who has forged close connections to the military and launched the Invictus Games to help wounded service personnel.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Major General Julian Thompson, who led 3 Commando Brigade during the 1982 Falklands War, said, “I’m not trying to give him a lecture, but he has to take the job seriously and not just say, ‘Well, I’m still the Captain General and I’m going to live in Los Angeles and never visit the UK.’ It’s wrong. You can’t do that. He is expected to attend events and be around and be as accessible as his grandfather was.”
The Mail on Sunday also suggested that Harry had snubbed Lord Dannatt, a former Chief of the General Staff, who wrote to the prince requesting more support for Britain’s military community but never received a reply. Sources close to the Duke, however, claim the letter was never sent on, and that his office has since been in touch to request a copy of the letter is sent to the duke’s staff in Los Angeles.
Harry’s legal warning to the Mail on Sunday comes as Meghan is in the midst of her own lawsuit against the paper’s publisher Associated Newspapers, which she is suing for breach of copyright after it published a private letter she wrote to her father Thomas Markle. Meghan’s lawyers will be back in court later this week ahead of a High Court trial due to take place in January.
According to royal biographer Robert Lacey, there is evidence of an ongoing campaign at the palace to discredit Harry and Meghan, with some courtiers speaking negatively about them to the press. It’s made a reconciliation between Harry and Prince William even less likely, Lacey said in an interview with Vanity Fair last week. against the Sussexes which has made Harry feel alienated and a reconciliation with
Added a source close to Harry, “It does seem to be the case that there are still some people trying to make the Duke’s life difficult and in some cases just take a pop at him.”
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