Prince Harry laughs off the ‘stuff in the news’ during interview about Gaza aid after journalist said Duke ‘didn’t wish to talk about his family or Andrew’
Prince Harry has laughed off ‘stuff in the news’ after a TV interviewer said he did not want to talk about his uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and the crisis engulfing the Royal Family.
The Duke of Sussex is on a pseudo-royal tour in Jordan with wife Meghan amid the ongoing fall-out over the arrest of Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office last week.
And during an interview with Channel 4 about aid in Gaza alongside World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the troubles in Harry’s family were brought up.
The interview began: ‘I understand you don’t wish to talk about your family, your uncle, things back in London, you’re here because you don’t want to distract from the work you’re doing on the WHO and on Gaza.’
Harry was then asked about the current situation in Gaza 16 months after the conflict broke out but seemed to insert a remark about Andrew’s arrest.
He said with a wry laugh: ‘There is a lot of stuff in the news. It goes at an incredible pace and what’s been happening in that region has been going on for a long time and it drops out of the news.
‘So I think it was a really important time for us to collaborate and come here and shine a light and focus on the very real humanitarian catastrophe that has happened and continues.’
It was the first reference Harry has made to his disgraced uncle since he was arrested after being accused of leaking secrets to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy.
Prince Harry has laughed off ‘stuff in the news’ after a TV interviewer revealed he did not want to talk about his uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
Andrew photographed leaving Aylsham Police Station in Norfolk following his arrest last week
He was released under investigation after 11 hours in custody and police last night confirmed they had concluded searches of his former Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge.
Andrew has been spotted just once since his arrest, in a damning photograph of him being driven out of a Norfolk police station last Thursday.
MPs on Tuesday backed a motion from the Liberal Democrats calling for the release of documents on Andrew’s appointment as a UK trade envoy in 2001.
Trade minister Chris Bryant condemned the former prince’s ‘self-aggrandisement’, saying he was constantly engaged in a ‘self-enriching hustle’.
Ministers signalled they would not stand in the way of the move to shed light on a role that led to the royal being dubbed ‘Air Miles Andy’ due to frequent taxpayer-funded trips abroad.
As a result the measure was ‘nodded through’ the chamber on Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Harry has carefully kept himself distant from the crisis surrounding his family during a whistle-stop pseudo-royal tour of the Middle East where he has been visiting victims of conflict and illness.
But he suffered a blow this week after he was seemingly snubbed by the King and Crown Prince of Jordan.
He and Meghan landed in the capital, Amman, late on Tuesday night for a royal-style tour and within hours began a series of humanitarian visits to various charity organisations – providing countless photo opportunities.
This included an event at the British Ambassador’s residence with WHO officials and Embassy staff on Wednesday that has been branded ‘entirely inappropriate’ by critics.
And on Thursday the Sussexes visited a rehab centre in Amman, where the Duchess of Sussex opted for high-street style over haute couture, wearing a £109 jacket from Zara.
The current king of Jordan, Abdullah II, has strong ties to the British Royal Family and is close to King Charles – having met him on an official visit to London last year where they were pictured warmly greeting each other.
Their relationship is so close that King Abdullah and his wife Queen Rania were special VVIP guests at the coronation. Queen Rania also had several meetings with Queen Camilla to discuss women’s issues.
Meghan and Harry pictured on the second and final day of their trip to Jordan as they visit the National Centre for Rehabilitation of Addicts (NCRA) in Amman
Harry’s message of support at Amman’s National Centre for Rehabilitation of Addicts
Their son Crown Prince Hussein is also friends with Prince William, spending time together in recent years in Britain and Jordan, from watching football together to a joint visit to a RAF base.
The Prince and Princess of Wales, who were at a community event in Llanidloes, Wales, together on Thursday afternoon, also attended Hussein’s wedding in 2023.
But despite Harry and Meghan being in Amman, a source in Jordan told the Daily Mail: ‘There is no meeting scheduled between the Duke and Duchess [of Sussex] and the Jordanian Royal Family.’
The only member of the Jordanian Royal Family whom Harry and Meghan met briefly was Princess Basma Bint Talal, an aunt of the current King, during a visit to a venture run by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development.
Indeed, King Abdullah appears to have deliberately swerved any public meeting with the California-based couple – instead choosing to meet Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
While in another seemingly apparent rebuff, King Abdullah met the head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is leading the Duke and Duchess’s trip to Jordan.
Official photographs showed King Abdullah at talks with the WHO chief as well as a sizeable party of delegates but Meghan and Harry were nowhere to be seen.
This is despite the Sussexes’ own charity, Archewell Philanthropies, partnering with the WHO.
The King and Crown Prince also met with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in Amman on Wednesday.
Another source in Jordan told the Daily Mail: ‘The fact the Duke and Duchess of Sussex haven’t met King Abdullah and been given the traditional royal welcome is glaringly obvious.
‘There has been no red carpet treatment, even though King Abdullah has met officials from the World Health Origination have been behind this visit by the Duke and Duchess.
‘It’s well known that King Abdullah and King Charles have a very warm relationship and that was passed down through the friendship between the late Queen Elizabeth and King Abdullah’s father.’
A third royal insider said Harry and Meghan may be disappointed not to have been able to meet the King or Crown Prince of Jordan.
‘It’s a pseudo royal visit, mimicking many of the things they or William and Kate would have done when they were part of the Firm but it seems to be lacking in the ceremonial side of things’, the source said.
