Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s PR shakeup was too little too late according to a royal commentator who thinks the couple needed it “a long time ago.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced changes to their PR team this week including a new UK hire.
Charlie Gipson, a previous brand manager, will act as the couple’s main point of contact for all UK and European media, and work alongside Harry and Meghan's US-based PR team.
During his time in brand management and public relations, Gipson led campaigns for clients including Instagram, Samsung and Haribo.
Royal commentator, Richard Fitzwilliams, explained how the couple could have benefitted from PR help when they stepped down as working royals.
He said: “They urgently needed this quite a long time ago. They needed far more PR help since they stepped down as working royals.”
Fitzwilliams explained how several comments in Harry’s memoir Spare were “very unwise,” including his admission to using illegal drugs and “mentioning the number of Taliban he took out during his tour of Afghanistan.”
The Duke of Sussex’s visa documents are at the centre of a bitter court battle since the duke admitted to taking illegal drugs in the UK and America in his book Spare.
Harry’s use of drugs could see the prince at risk of deportation if the royal admitted to using illegal substances before gaining a US visa.
Furthermore, Harry has previously recognised the risk to his security in the UK after admitting to killing 25 Taliban fighters while he was a soldier in Afghanistan.
Prince Harry’s court documents claimed Al Qaeda called for him to be killed over the comments in his memoir.
It comes after the Duke of Sussex lost a High Court battle with the Home Office about his security in the UK.
LATEST ROYAL NEWS:
When Harry stepped down as a working royal in 2020, he was told he would not receive the “same degree” of protection as before.
The Duke of Sussex was fighting the 2020 Executive Committee for Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) decision that he should receive a different degree of protection in the UK.
When the duke and duchess moved abroad to California in 2020 the couple did not keep any UK-based staff.
However, the continued interest in the couple in the UK prompted their advisers to search for a UK-based PR team to deal with enquiries in another time zone.
