‘Swaggery’ Prince William Needs Prince Harry To Save the Monarchy, Royal Expert Says

But Brown said it was concerning to see King Charles III, looking “old and bleak.” The 75-year-old monarch also has undergone treatment for cancer over the past year and attended the ceremony without his wife, Queen Camilla, who was reportedly sick with a chest infection.
Brown said it was impossible to watch the coverage and to not think about the late Queen Elizabeth II, who considered the annual ceremony to be “the most sacred and unmissable of her royal duties.” Brown continued: “For Elizabeth, military service was anything but an ornamental necessity.”

For this reason, Brown said, there was “a gaping Harry-shaped hole in the depleted royal line-up” at the ceremony. She pointed out that the Duke of Sussex is a veteran of two military tours in Afghanistan and a founder of the Invictus Games, the nonprofit that “brings hope through competitive sports events for injured vets.”
But the Duke of Sussex was stripped of his military honors after he and Meghan acrimoniously left royal life and settled in the United States in 2020, with the idea of becoming rich and powerful Hollywood media moguls and global thought leaders. Harry and Meghan became further estranged from his relatives after he, especially, publicly criticized the royal family, alleging racism, cruelty, indifference, and dysfunction.

But despite all that, Brown said Harry “surely deserved a place on the balcony,” and she argued that the British nation “needs his human touch and so does his ailing father.”
William recently acknowledged that the past year had been “brutal,” with both his wife and father struggling with a life-threatening illness. But the prince who “could plausibly lighten the load is still benched in Montecito,” Brown said.

Brown then asks the ongoing question for royal fans and critics: Could things change? Could Harry reconcile with his father or even with his brother, who reportedly is especially angry about swipes that Harry took against Catherine in his memoir, Spare.
“Enough with the feuds,” Brown said. “Families, including this one, need to stick together.”