And I have to admit: my first reaction was utter glee. Harry deserves to be shunned, I thought, after his and Meghan’s betrayals of the Royal Family.
Then I thought again. For once I actually felt sorry for Harry, cut adrift from the people he loved.
Because I’ve been there, too: the prodigal daughter who left home in Perth to seek a new life half a world away, who flew in and out for happy times and holidays — but who wasn’t there when my elderly parents became frail and needed care. That hard work was left to my family back home.
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Prince Harry and Meghan on a visit to a primary and secondary school in Abuja, Nigeria, today as part of a three-day trip
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Prince William visits St Mary’s Harbour in the Isles of Sicily in south west England today
Unkind words, which I now regret, were said at times between us siblings. And it broke Mum and Dad’s hearts that I was so far away: for them, family was everything. Yet over the past year, I’ve said sorry to my relatives, many times in many ways, for the things I got wrong. Especially to my younger brother and his family.
That’s why the highlight of my trip this month was seeing my brother again: knocking on his door and feeling his big, warm, loving — and forgiving — embrace. It was as though the bitter years just melted away: I felt a burden lift from my shoulders.
And that’s all I would wish for Harry: that he says sorry.
Not in an email, nor a voice message, but a full and complete apology to his father, his brother, Kate and Camilla — all of whom he and Meghan have slurred.
I’ve said sorry to my family, Harry. Can you say sorry to yours?
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Prince Harry and Meghan in Abuja, Nigeria, as they visit the country as part of the Invictus Games anniversary
Why’s Bridget woke?
Renee Zellweger is filming the latest Bridget Jones movie Mad About The Boy, in which our gal no longer obsesses about her weight. Insiders promise to be ‘more reflective of what people think about body image these days’.
So farewell to those fat pants and what about the ciggies and booze? As for single mum-of-two Bridget, 51, seducing One Day’s heart-throb Leo Woodall, 27, I’d need a pack of fags and a bottle of wine just to get through that cringefest.
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Renee Zellweger is filming the latest Bridget Jones movie Mad About The Boy
More than two months since my dear elderly friend Gary died — and I’m still unable to get the electric hospital bed they provided for his home removed. Websites don’t work, phones aren’t answered, emails bounce back. We’ve had three dates to collect it and no one turned up. What is going on when NHS beds worth thousands are stuck in the homes of people who no longer need them?
Westminster wars
After the Tories are wiped out in the local elections, Kwasi Kwarteng says he plans to stand down at the next election. His term as Chancellor under Liz Truss was brief, although given the allegations — hotly denied — that the pair were rather more than colleagues, perhaps the least said about ‘briefs’ the better.
How long can Angela ‘Two Homes’ Rayner last after yet another neighbour says they will testify in court that the Deputy Labour leader fibbed about where she lived to avoid tax. As one of the Tory ‘scum’ Rayner so often derided, may I enjoy a moment of schadenfreude?
What is more shameful, that the hard-Right Tory Natalie Elphicke abandons ship and joins the Labour Party she despised, or that Keir Starmer accepts her when polls predict he will get a 403 majority. No wonder he has received a fierce backlash from his party for embracing this traitor.
Chisel-jawed British actor Nicholas Galitzine, 29, reveals he’s terrified his handsomeness will be his defining feature, insisting: ‘The most important thing to me is that I’m taken seriously as a performer.’
Nicky moans that movie execs have treated him like ‘a cut of beef at a meat market’. Welcome to the world most actresses face their entire careers.
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British actor Nicholas Galitzine, 29, reveals he’s terrified his handsomeness will be his defining feature
Wearing an Arabic keffiyeh, eco-warrior Greta Thunberg was among thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters demanding Israel’s Eurovision entrant Eden Golan be removed from the competition. Because she’s a Jew.
Despite the protests, Eden has made it to tonight’s (Saturday) grand final. Perhaps Eden has taken Greta’s own wisdom to heart in her long campaign of truancy on behalf of climate change: ‘Giving up cannot be an option.’ I hope Eden wins. And nul points to Greta, targeting another woman brave enough to stand up for her beliefs.
Five years after Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s acrimonious divorce, they’re still at each other’s throats in court, with Ange claiming her children suffer PTSD from Brad’s behaviour and a former bodyguard claiming he witnessed her ordering their children to shun Brad during agreed custody visits.
And to think Brad dumped his wife Jennifer Aniston for all this. I hate to be unsisterly, but Jolie had ‘fruitcake’ etched on her Botoxed forehead from the moment he met her.
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Angelina Jolie as Maleficent in the 2014 Disney classic
Marking her 40th year as a presenter on daytime TV, Lorraine Kelly modestly informs us she will never retire and ‘wants to be like David Attenborough’, who is 98 and still working. Yes, that would be Britain’s greatest-ever broadcaster, biologist, national treasure and chronicler of all that is magical on Earth. Sorry, Lorr, but there’s not a monkey’s chance of that ever happening.
Research shows a third of men aged 20 to 34 still live with their parents, claiming they’re saving to get on the property ladder. Which leaves one wondering, what woman would want a man still having Mummy doing his washing and cooking in his mid-thirties? Talk about a red flag.
Having cast his mother Elizabeth Hurley as the star of his first movie Strictly Confidential, Liz’s son Damian, 22, claims Mum is one of the all-time great actresses: ‘She goes into this zone where she just ‘is’. Great actors can do that.’ Elizabeth Hurley a great actress? Whatever Damian is on, I want some.
Friends of Mick Jagger’s fiancée Melanie Hamrick, 37, say she is keen to have a second child with him. Maybe Mel should remember You Can’t Always Get What You Want: the last thing any child needs is an octogenarian dad.
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Mick Jagger and his fiancee Melanie Hamrick attend a gala in New York last June
Long life? My cat’s feline lucky
My cat Ted is appalled by research claiming crossbred cats outlive pedigrees or mixed-breed moggies like him. Ted reminds me he is 13 and in fine fettle, his uncle Jim was 19 before he went to cat heaven and brothers Ronnie and Reggie made it to 17. And all of them, like him, were happy fat cats.
