There always seems to be another twist.
Just two days after Archie and Lilibet began school in the UK, Harry and Meghan have reportedly withdrawn them. The family had been back in Britain for only a little more than two weeks.
The reason given is security concerns.
It is an awkward development for a couple so often portrayed as meticulous planners, particularly Meghan Markle.
Since her marriage to Harry, we have repeatedly heard that her alleged 5am emails to staff reflected a highly thorough and exacting mind — someone whose pace others struggled to match.
Yet surely a meticulous parent would consider every likely complication before enrolling two young children at a new school, in a country that is also unfamiliar to them.
Harry is hardly blameless. However, he often appears more hapless than calculating — and less attuned to the practical demands of everyday life.
The question now is whether the latest upheaval could be used to support Harry and Meghan’s continuing campaign for taxpayer-funded security, which they have been denied since stepping back as working royals and moving abroad as private citizens.
Just two days after their young children started school in the UK — with the family back in Britain for a little over two weeks — Harry and Meghan have reportedly withdrawn Archie and Lilibet.
It is, in many respects, a familiar Sussex-style crisis: poor preparation, impulsive decisions, a sense of grievance and the belief that others are to blame.
As has so often been the case, Harry and Meghan’s return to Britain appears to have been followed by confusion and disruption.
Being mocked on SNL UK last weekend might have prompted a rethink. But then again, the “Worldwide Privacy Tour” episode of South Park failed to do so, suggesting that public criticism is unlikely to change their approach.
They are also likely to continue arguing that other people and circumstances are responsible, even while maintaining that their own security is under serious threat.
Reports suggest that Harry and Meghan were unprepared for the level of traffic during school drop-off and pick-up.
Having spent considerable time in rural Long Island, where a single main road can control access in and out, I would suggest that heavy traffic at those times should not have been unexpected.
There were also reports that Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, were taken to school in a convoy. Even without specialist security knowledge, that arrangement might seem difficult to justify.
A line of dark SUVs moving among muddy Land Rovers and sports cars would do little to keep the family’s presence discreet. If anything, it would signal conspicuously that the Sussexes had arrived.
Would a quieter arrival have been wiser — an effort to blend into the surroundings rather than attract attention?
It is understood that security checks were carried out along the route before the school term began. But were the school and other parents properly consulted? During rush hour, the journey can take as long as an hour each way.
Dal Babu, the former chief superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, described the situation as a “saga” and said it pointed to a rushed return to the UK.
‘It does beggar belief why they haven’t thought this through,’ he said.
Respectfully, Mr Babu: Does it? Does it, really?
One mother of students at the school said that the Sussexes’ furor over the school run had left other parents ‘completely baffled’.
‘You don’t need to be an expert,’ she said, ‘to know how congested that area is. It’s one of the worst places to drive in the UK.’
Though the Sussexes have declined comment, reports are that on one school run, the convoy of vehicles got separated, which was said to have left the children ‘sitting ducks’ in traffic.
Harry and Meghan did, however, let it be known via friends that they were ‘reluctantly’ removing the children from school.
Additionally, Meghan is said to be disappointed that her mobile number was being shared among other parents — even though she messaged other parents on WhatsApp from said number.
The alleged message, circulating in a screenshot: ‘Hi moms! Thanks for the warm welcome [heart emoji]. So happy to be a part of this community xx’
Thoroughly anodyne. Nice, even. So what’s the big deal?
Does Meghan not have at least two cell phones? One for necessary communications such as this, and another that is wholly private?
Hey — at least now she may have a sense of how Kate felt when her private text messages to Meghan were reprinted in Harry’s memoir Spare.
If Harry and Meghan’s track record is anything to go by, they’ll continue demanding privacy and security while making utter spectacles of themselves, feeding their own grandiosity by bellowing how important they are.
As former head of royal protection Dai Davies told LBC radio, ‘If you keep a low profile, most people outside the school wouldn’t know where you are, what they’re doing, and all the rest of it.’
Yes! It really is that simple.
Why not let the world continue to think their children are still enrolled at the school for the moment?
As ever, it seems logic does not apply.
