bitchy | Duchess Meghan didn’t mean that Prince Harry ‘lost his dad’ in the Sussexit

It’s always fascinating to watch what happens immediately after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do something big. It usually takes a couple of hours for the British media to catch up and figure out their strategy for how they will attack, smear, demean and insult them. The Mail couldn’t quite figure out their talking points on Duchess Meghan’s The Cut cover profile for hours. It was interesting to see what they did (eventually) latch onto. One of the issues was the section where Meghan is asked about her toxic father and I believe The Cut sort of misrepresented what Meghan said: “Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process.’ It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision.” It probably should have been “Harry said to me that I lost my dad in this process” rather than a sub-quote, making it clear that Meghan was speaking about losing her father, not Harry saying that he lost his father.

Well,the Sussex PR people actually did some minor damage control on that. A source “clarified” to Page Six that “Meghan actually meant to say she did not want Harry to lose his relationship with his dad — and not that it was already ‘lost.’” Omid Scobie also got contacted by Camp Sussex, and he posted this:

There seems to be confusion in some headlines about this quote in The Cut interview. I understand that Prince Harry is actually referring to Meghan’s loss of her own father, and Meghan is saying she doesn’t want Harry to lose his. pic.twitter.com/rAZBK9J6Qz

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) August 29, 2022

Yeah. As I said, the royal commentators latched onto that odd quote after a few hours, to the point where palace sources were even huffing and puffing about it to Page Six:

Prince Harry “lost” his father, Prince Charles, following his exit from the royal family, Meghan Markle said in a bombshell new interview.

A source tells Page Six exclusively that Markle actually meant to say that she did not want Harry, 37, to lose his dad.

One highly placed royal insider adds, “I’m not aware that Harry has broken up with his father. Charles gave Harry and Meghan millions when they left the UK. Right now, the family are all at Balmoral, and I’m sure they are aghast at this interview.”

[From Page Six]

AGHAST! Were they, gasp, blind-sided? Did The Cut slap the Queen in the face? Did Meghan’s palm trees set off a grenade in the heart of the monarchy? Please tell me more! Anyway, I believe Charles gave the Sussexes some money before they left, but that’s because he knew the palace was cutting off their security. And then Charles cut off contact with them. Things were bad between Montecito and Clarence House for a while, but… there has been some minor thawing. Charles and the Sussexes met privately during the Jubbly. Charles apparently met Lilibet and got to see Archie too. The relationship between Charles and Harry is not dead, it’s just irrevocably damaged. I doubt Charles was aghast.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, cover courtesy of The Cut.