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Prince Harry made the headlines again and royal commentator Neil Sean thinks a story about a small white pill could revive questions about the Duke of Sussex’s US immigration history.
The Story By Charlotte Griffiths
Writing in the Daily Mail, Charlotte Griffiths wrote an article titled “The Truth About The Prince And Me.”
In the article, she spoke about the first time she met Prince Harry in 2011 during a shooting weekend in Hampshire. Griffiths was a trainee journalist at the time.
She wrote, “According to the table plan, the prince and I were to sit next to each other at dinner… he decided to kick start our relationship by subjecting me to a little test.”
Next, she added, “From his pocket, he removed a small white pill. Then he held it up to my face, popped it onto my tongue, and said with a smile: “Now I know I can trust you!”
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Charlotte also said that she quietly slipped the pill out of her mouth and hid it inside a paper napkin. While she noted it was “almost certainly paracetamol,” she admitted she “couldn’t be entirely sure.”
The Story Follows A Lawsuit Loss
The timing of her story matters. She published the account soon after Harry lost his High Court privacy case against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
Harry had previously testified under oath that he only met Griffiths once in 2011 and cut off contact after learning about her job. Griffiths disputed that account and produced Facebook messages they had exchanged.
A Huge Blow?
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Talking on his YouTube channel Daily News Headlines on Friday, royal commentator Neil Sean called the claim a massive blow.
He said the headline is “more damaging for Prince Harry in my opinion than anything that he wrote in his ill-advised book Spare.”
Sean believes the incident represents the “final nail in the coffin” for Harry’s court battles against the publisher. He pointed out that Harry’s legal team has not hit back or tried to sue over the pill story.
“Where is her proof?” Sean asked in his video. “Is it his proof against hers and what could she back it up with? Well clearly there’s something and Harry claims he doesn’t remember but he must remember it and I can tell you there are witnesses.”
Because of those alleged witnesses, Sean thinks Prince Harry cannot easily fight the story.
The US Visa
Sean talked about Prince Harry’s visa controversy, saying, “over in America, as we know…his legal team have successfully blocked the release of his visa application.”
US visa forms ask applicants directly about drug history, and drug-use admissions can affect visa eligibility, depending on the circumstances. A deliberate material misrepresentation can result in permanent inadmissibility.
The Heritage Foundation argued that Harry either received special treatment or failed to disclose his drug history. Previously released records found no evidence that he received special treatment.
As Sky News noted, “So much of the text has been blacked out that there are still many unanswered questions, particularly about whether the prince admitted on his forms he’d taken drugs.”
Constant Noise
Sean suggested that the image of Prince Harry placing an unidentified pill in a journalist’s mouth plays into the hands of people questioning his past behavior.
In Sean’s opinion, it creates constant noise as State Department officials process records requested under FOIA. The next joint status report is scheduled for October 13.
Neil Sean is of the opinion that Prince Harry hoped his previous behavior could remain buried under paperwork. That’s despite officials processing a FOIA request, not reassessing Harry’s visa.
Sean argues the story creates damaging publicity, which it might well do, and he opined that the situation is an “utter embarrassment once again.”
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