It basically took the Mail’s resident royalist crackpots a full 24 hours to react to the amazing news that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will visit Nigeria, at Nigeria’s request and invitation. It was honestly brilliant to announce the Nigerian trip the same day as confirming Harry’s trip to London. It took all of the wind out of the royalists’ sails – they were going to scream and cry for a full week about how Harry is unwelcome, how his brother and father will “snub” him, etc. Now it turns out that a commonwealth country had independently invited the Sussexes to visit, and suddenly you would think that Britain still “owns” the Sussexes and controls their schedule. This time it’s Phil Dampier who says the quiet part out loud: that the Sussexes have a rival royal court. Worse yet, the royal court of Montecito is beating the socks off the Windsors’ royal court.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been accused of wanting their own ‘rival royal roadshow’ as they embark on their first non-official royal tour of Nigeria, with royal experts claiming the couple are trying to ‘have their cake and eat it’.

Royal biographer Tom Bower told MailOnline: ‘Playing the “Royal Card” has become Meghan’s and Harry’s income lifeline. Once again, the ‘privacy-seeking’ couple are exploiting the family they have outrageously denounced to pump up their publicity. Undoubtedly, the trip will be financed by the Nigerian government. Their motives, as members of the Commonwealth, remain obscure.’

Meanwhile royal author Phil Dampier suggested there was an irony to the visit, as Harry and Meghan have previously been critical of the Commonwealth, with the Duchess admitting she ‘did not know’ about it until after she joined the firm.

Royal author Phil Dampier said: ‘It’s ironic that the late Queen wanted Harry and Meghan to very much be her ambassadors throughout the Commonwealth and spread goodwill among its fifty or so nations, but they didn’t want to do it as royals. Now they are happy to pick and choose invitations they receive from these countries. They did so in Jamaica and now plan to travel to Nigeria, a country his mother Diana toured with the King in the early 1990s. They are in effect trying to set up a rival court, their own royal roadshow, and I think people can see through it. They heavily criticised the monarchy and the Commonwealth in their Netflix shows and Harry’s book Spare, yet they are happy to be invited simply because of their royal connections.’

Mr Dampier said that unofficial visits conducted by the pair could ‘blunder into a diplomatic incident’ if they couple ‘say or do the wrong thing’.

He added: ‘It’s all trying to have your cake and eat it, do commercial deals where it suits, but do some quasi-official duties to make out you are still important on the world stage. Some will say they have every right to do this but it smacks of the half in and half out position the late Queen tried to avoid.’

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams added: ‘The Sussexes’ behaviour during their visit will be watched with care, as the comments about the Commonwealth in their documentary Harry and Meghan, for Netflix, were far from flattering. If there is to be any healing of the rift in the royal family, they must avoid any comment or action that might be construed as being detrimental to the monarchy and to its pivotal links with the Commonwealth.’

[From The Daily Mail]

The fact that these salty men are saying outright that everything the Sussexes do and say has enormous political implications back in Britain… it’s beautiful. That’s how they justify watching everything Harry and Meghan do as well – it has political implications, it’s about the Commonwealth, it’s about the monarchy! Again, the Sussexes offered to be half-in, and the monarchy could have had a big say in their schedules and where they traveled. The palace rejected their half-in offer. After which, the palace has tried to use whatever political clout they have to convince other governments to “snub” the Sussexes, to little avail.

Isn’t it the Daily Mail and the British media trying to bandwagon on everything the Sussexes do and calling it “royal”? The Sussexes didn’t arrange the Nigerian trip through the palace or the British Foreign Office. They didn’t call it a royal tour. The Nigerian government said: we invited them because of Invictus. “Their motives, as members of the Commonwealth, remain obscure.” Is Bower threatening the country of Nigeria?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.