Podcast 134 – Should Prince Harry have attended his late grandfather’s memorial service?
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The question that I am posing for you all this week is  "Should Prince Harry have travelled to the UK to attend the memorial service for his late grandfather, Prince Phillip? " Although Harry had let everyone know in advance that he was not going to come, this did not stopped everyone from: (a)           Speculating as to why Harry chose not to attend, or  (b)          Taking an opinion  over whether this was the right decision or not. Prince Harry was at Prince Phillip's carefully planned funeral in April of 2021.  Back then,  things were frosty between Harry and his brother Prince William,  and we were led to believe that this was due to statements made by Meghan and Harry during their interview with Oprah that aired about a month before Prince Phillip died.  Back then, William was said to be so upset with Harry,  that special arrangements were put in place at the funeral such that William did not walk beside or sit beside Harry. At the time of the funeral,  the UK was in a heavy Covid-19 lockdown which included restricting the number of people able to attend funerals to 30. The Queen dutifully stuck to those rules, with her limiting the number of family and other dignitaries inside the chapel at Windsor Castle. In December of 2021 Buckingham Palace announced that a memorial service for Prince Phillip, a religious service of Thanksgiving,  was being planned for the Spring of 2022 at Westminster Abbey.  No specific date was set for the memorial. It was only in the first week of February this year that Buckingham Palace announced that the service would take place on March 29th, 2022.  On March 11th, 2022, a spokesperson for the Sussexes advised that Prince Harry would not be returning to the UK for the Service of Thanksgiving,  adding that Harry hoped to visit the Queen as soon as possible.  While no reasons were given as to why Prince Harry decided not to come, this did not stop news media and social media from speculating.  The people that know the true reasons for this decision are Harry, Meghan and the Queen.  The UK media are weird though. Having swung from Harry is disrespecting the Queen, and Harry is acting like a spoilt child, onto Harry is not wanted in the UK, and Harry would be a distraction if he came to the memorial service, as well as headlines to the effect that the Royal Family will be relieved if Meghan and Harry don’t come -  they are now saying Harry will live to regret the decision not to come and, the British Public are disappointed that Harry did not come! All going to say that Harry,  like all of us,  can never please everyone. So he focuses on pleasing those that mean the most to him. Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili. Reach out to me through my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/ and on twitter https://twitter.com/JeanetteSongolo
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