It is the one royal group that
no one wants to join. Referred to only half-jokingly as the ‘Sussex Survivors’
Club’, its membership is sadly rising.
But its select band of members
have one thing in common: all have worked for the Duke and Duchess of
Sussex and lived to tell the tale.
Joking aside, some even
believe they may have a form of post-traumatic stress, defined by doctors as an
anxiety disorder caused by distressing or frightening events.
Such experiences, of course,
are now widely acknowledged not to be limited to soldiers who have undergone
traumatic experiences on the battlefield, but also to people at work.
Even if that work is in a
palace.
And today, many former palace
staff look back on the moment that Prince Harry introduced to the world his
beautiful, intelligent and passionate bride-to-be as the beginning of one of
the most traumatic periods in their lives.
Let us be clear: Harry is a
complex man but one with a strong sense of natural justice and charity, given
to acts of compassion and kindness.
‘He wears his heart on his
sleeve and genuinely wants to do good in the world,’ one admirer tells me.
But he is also equally
capable, say those who know him well and like him, of behaving ‘like an
absolute brat’.
