Prince Harry's top 'three errors' during explosive BBC interview after losing security bid
Prince Harry made multiple blunders during his recent BBC interview after the rejection of his appeal against the downgrade of his UK security, claims PR expert David Yelland. After the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) took away his high-level police protection when he left the Royal Family to relocate to the US with his wife Meghan Markle in 2020, the duke, 40, took his case to court.
However, he was unsuccessful and the Court of Appeal rejected his challenge earlier this month. After the ruling, he swiftly gave a questionable BBC interview where he not only slammed the decision and urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to take action but also made some fresh bombshell claims about his family.
Harry stated that his father, King Charles, was refusing to speak to him amidst the controversy and expressed his desire to reconcile with his family. Former Sun newspaper editor and current PR advisor, David Yelland had expressed his sympathy for the Duke of Sussex but also highlighted his biggest mistakes from the interview.
On the BBC Radio 4 podcast When It Hits the Fan, Yelland pinpointed three key errors that Harry made, the Mirror reports.
Firstly, he noted that Harry "went in hot", saying: "You never go into an interview hot with your blood up. You have to be cool, and he wasn't cool. You can see it in his body language and what he said."
Mr Yelland noted that his second mistake was that the duke "was not prepared because he thought he was going to win" the case.
He continued: "And then the third mistake, which he made probably because he was angry and he did expect to win, is that he volunteered what has become an uncontrollable global news story."!
During the eyebrow raising interview, Harry mentioned the King's cancer treatment and expressed fears about "how much longer my father has left".
This careless remark sparked major backlash as it fuelled unnecessary speculation about King Charles's health.
Mr Yelland said: "This interview didn't need to be like this. It could have been so much better, or maybe it didn't need to happen at all, now."
Simon Lewis, Mr Yelland's co-host and former communications secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, highlighted that "the central tenet of PR is often timing – when you choose to do things, and secondly how you choose to do them".
He added: "There was probably someone advising Harry to go on the offensive straight away after the decision.
"The difficult messages about his perceived mistreatment were communicated very directly, to put it mildly."
Mr Lewis also suggested that Harry would likely have benefited from pausing before making his abrupt statements.
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He suggested: "Perhaps he should have delivered some of his messages so much more elegantly – as you say, that reference to how much longer he's got.
"A less confrontational tone might have garnered more sympathy."
The Duke of Sussex, who currently lives in Montecito, California with Meghan and their two kids, Archie and Lilibet, expressed his frustration that he is not able to bring his family back to Britain without adequate security measures in place.
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