Harry slammed as ‘divisive’ as Balmoral opens to public – royal family news latest

The decision to award the Duke of Sussex the Pat Tillman Award for his work with the Invictus Games has not gone down well with the mother of its namesake.

Pat Tillman lost his life in Afghanistan and his mother, Mary, said that she believes there are more deserving recipients than Prince Harry, who also served in Afghanistan.

She told the Mail on Sunday: “I am shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award.

“There are recipients that are far more fitting. There are individuals working in the veteran community that are doing tremendous things to assist veterans.

“These individuals do not have the money, resources, connections or privilege that Prince Harry has. I feel that those types of individuals should be recognised.”

Pat was an American professional football player who gave up his career to serve in the wake of 9/11.

The Invictus Games celebrates the sporting achievements of wounded, sick and injured service people. It was founded by the Duke in 2014.

Balmoral Castle is opening its doors to the public for the first time in its extensive history, giving a never-before-seen insight into the royals’ Highland retreat.

The decision to offer tours of the parts of the castle used by the royals – including its grand entrance hall, red corridor, dining rooms and library – was made by King Charles earlier this year.

“The public who managed to get a ticket will come away [having seen] the Royal Family’s holiday home. That’s exactly what it is, it feels very homely,” James Hamilton Goddard, the visitor enterprise manager for the Balmoral Estate, said.

“It’s a magnificent place, I think the King wants people to see [it].”

The castle has been a staple of royal life since the 1850s.

The King’s interior design tastes will be on display when visitors are given an extensive tour of Balmoral for the first time in its history.

Charles has thrown open the doors of his Scottish retreat to the public, allowing them a glimpse of royal family life in the Highlands.

From Monday visitors can take a guided tour of a number of rooms in the Aberdeenshire castle, where successive monarchs since Queen Victoria have been able to relax and recharge amongst local Scots who have treated them as their own.

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An attorney for the publisher of The Sun has accused Prince Harry of engaging in “shocking” and “extraordinary” obfuscation by destroying evidence it was seeking in his lawsuit claiming that the newspaper violated his privacy by unlawfully snooping on him.

Attorney Anthony Hudson said at the High Court that the Duke of Sussex had deliberately destroyed text messages with the ghostwriter who penned his bestselling memoir, Spare.

A lawyer for Harry said News Group Newspapers was engaging in a “classic fishing expedition” by seeking documents they should have sought much sooner for a trial scheduled in January.

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The Duke of Sussex has opened up about dealing with his mother’s death as he urged children not to “suppress” their emotions as he once did.

Prince Harry, 39, was just 12 when his mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash in Paris.

During the 20th anniversary year of the death of the Princess of Wales, Harry opened up in a newspaper interview, saying he spent nearly 20 years “not thinking” about his mother’s death and eventually got help after two years of “total chaos”.

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The King’s new Family Order has been worn for the first time by the Queen at the Japanese state banquet.

Camilla stepped out wearing the diamond-encased miniature portrait of her husband topped with a tiny gold and enamel Tudor crown and suspended on a pale blue silk bow on her left shoulder for the glittering event in the Buckingham Palace ballroom.

The unveiling of the new King Charles III’s Family Order comes nearly two years after Charles, the longest serving heir to the throne, acceded as monarch following the death of his mother.

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The index is described by Tatler as “an annual report into where the real power lies in British society”, and names 200 of the most important figures.

Last year saw Charles and Camilla top the list following the King’s coronation, but in a preview of this year’s published by the magazine, it appears they have failed to even make the top ten.

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The young royal was among the many high-profile names who attended Swift’s hugely anticipated Eras tour when it finally came to London last weekend.

The Prince of Wales arrived at Friday night’s show (21 June) to celebrate his 42nd birthday alongside Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six.

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A revelatory new biography about Kate Middleton is set to be published in the coming months. Detailing how the Princess of Wales met and fell in love with Prince William, the book is available to pre-order now.

When the new book lands on 1 August 2024, we can expect Catherine, the Princess of Wales: The Biography to shed new light on the story of Kate’s life and the events that have shaped her.

The book, written by New York Times best-selling author and veteran Royal correspondent Robert Jobson, draws on Jobson’s connections within the Royal household and conversations with sources, which have taken place both on and off the record.

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But the abstract paintings, which depict Prince Harry as Bonnie Prince Charlie and Meghan Markle as Dame Elizabeth Grey, have received a strong reaction online.

One commentator on X, formerly Twitter, admits to having fallen to the floor laughing upon seeing the portraits, while a second likened the abstract works to the new, red portrait of King Charles.