Maines apparently thought it was a good idea. Or she was goaded into it by Harry, who ended up unleashing a \u201ctsunami\u201d of a media event that probably won\u2019t get him what he wants in terms of security, reconciliation with his family or the ability to spend more time in the U.K. and return to the good will of the British public.<\/p>\n
As the king and other royal family members led VE Day commemorations Monday<\/a>, the reverberations of Harry\u2019s bombshell interview are still being felt, and some of the scrutiny is likely to fall on the Duke of Sussex\u2019s communications team, led by Maines.<\/p>\n According to the Daily Mail<\/a>, she is\u00a0Harry and Meghan\u2019s neighbor in Santa Barbara County, and her LinkedIn page<\/a> touts her as \u201cexperienced brand and communications leader\u201d who previously worked for Google and Hulu and got her undergraduate and MA degrees in communications at Stanford University.<\/p>\n Perhaps Maines didn\u2019t know that Harry\u2019s interview would go off the rails. However, the Times reported that nothing was off limits, unlike previous interviews with him that have been \u201cheavily controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n The BBC team, led by interviewer Nada Tawfik, expected only 10 minutes with Harry at a private home near Harry and Meghan\u2019s Montecito mansion, the Times reported. In the end, he spoke for about half an hour and made all sorts of incendiary claims, alleging mistreatment by his father and supposed shadowy figures in the royal establishment. In Harry\u2019s words, these figures have been in cahoots to \u201charm\u201d him and his family, like his mother Princess Diana, by denying them appropriate levels of security for the few days each year they might be in the UK.<\/p>\n At the time same, Harry spoke of wanting to reconcile with his family and lamented that his 76-year-old father, who has been battling cancer, won\u2019t speak to him because of his court battle over this \u201csecurity stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family,\u201d Harry said. \u201cLife is precious.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Daily Beast<\/a>, Harry especially upset royal insiders by raising doubts about the king\u2019s health by telling Tawfik. \u201cI don\u2019t know how much longer my father has.\u201d<\/p>\n Tawfik reported<\/a> that the interview took place at dawn in a \u201cbeautiful, expensively landscaped home\u201d near Harry and Meghan\u2019s own $14 million estate, where they live with their children, Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3.<\/p>\n Tawfik said Harry arrived \u201cwithout an entourage,\u201d though it\u2019s not clear if he had least had Maines with him. One person who definitely was not present was Meghan, while she has generally distanced herself from Harry\u2019s court fights in the U.K. over security and his lawsuits against the tabloid media, the Times said.<\/p>\n However, Meghan issued what royal insiders are seeing as more than a show of support for her husband, but \u201ca giant (expletive) you\u201d to the royal family and to his critics, by posting an Instagram photo of Harry walking in the garden of their Montecito home with Archie and Lilibet, the Daily Mail\u2019s royal correspondent Rebecca English reported.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n To Tawfik, Harry came across as down-to-earth and soft spoken during the interview, though \u201csurprisingly candid and forthcoming.\u201d She also said he didn\u2019t get \u201cdefensive or combative\u201d when she asked him why British taxpayers should pay for his security, why a change of status wasn\u2019t warranted after he stopped being a working royal and left Britain, and why he wasn\u2019t satisfied with police security being provided to him and his family on a case-by-case during their U.K. visits.<\/p>\n While Harry presented his side, he still betrayed some agitation, according to Tawfik. His foot tapped \u201cfrequently\u201d as he explained that his security, \u201cor lack thereof,\u201d was the sticking point preventing a reconciliation with his family, he said.<\/p>\n Many viewers, especially in the U.K., saw something more alarming in Harry\u2019s demeanor.<\/p>\n \u201cDesolation, interspersed with barely contained rage,\u201d Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine wrote<\/a>. \u201cHe seems to veer between wanting to punch someone \u2013 and bursting into tears. It\u2019s clear that we are meant to feel desperately sorry for him, poor lamb. He obviously feels desperately sorry for himself, at any rate. The self-pity is palpable, together with the paranoia.\u201d<\/p>\n The Daily Beast\u2019s European editor Tom Sykes said the interview \u201cwas shocking to witness \u2014 not just\u00a0because of the tone, but because of the astonishing naivety on display. Harry genuinely seemed to believe that he could go to war with the entire British establishment, from the Palace to the government, and somehow emerge victorious.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe interview itself was a mess, riddled with contradictions and misplaced delusions of his own importance,\u201d Sykes also said.<\/a><\/p>\n The Daily Mail\u2019s English said it\u2019s understandable that Harry would be concerned about security, given the 1997 death of his mother. She was fatally injured in a Parish car crash while not being protected by U.K. police officers. Then again, she herself turned down round-the-clock protection in an effort to live a more private life.<\/p>\n But English said Harry also won\u2019t get any sympathy from large segments of the British public over his claims that his security fight is the sole cause of his \u201ccatastrophic\u201d estrangement from his family. From comments on social media, it also appears that a number of Americans have become weary with Harry\u2019s ongoing complaints, his \u201cvictim narrative\u201d and his sense of entitlement, as English also said.<\/p>\n \u201cOprah, \u2018Spare\u2019 (his memoir), all those podcasts and interviews in which he took potshots at his family and repeated their private conversations again and again\u2026 is he really saying that has nothing to do with it? Oh please!\u201d a royal source told English.<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible Harry got what he wanted by speaking his \u201ctruth\u201d in the BBC interview. If so, Maines did her job by helping her boss fulfill that aim by arranging the interview.<\/p>\n But thus far, it doesn\u2019t look like his interview has moved the king or Buckingham Palace to intercede in Harry\u2019s security fight, which actually has been with Ravec, a government committee for the Home Office that decides on levels of security for royal family members. Following Harry\u2019s interview, Buckingham Palace issued a terse statement<\/a>: \u201cAll of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n Harry\u2019s interview also could lead to additional consequences down the road, with the possibility that he and Meghan will lose their royal HRH titles, once William becomes king.<\/p>\n![\"(From](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/RoyalFamilyVEDAY.jpeg\")
(From L to R) Britain\u2019s Princess Anne, Princess Royal, Britain\u2019s Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Britain\u2019s King Charles III, Britain\u2019s Queen Camilla, Britain\u2019s Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain\u2019s Prince George of Wales, Britain\u2019s Prince Louis of Wales, Britain\u2019s Catherine, Princess of Wales and Britain\u2019s Princess Charlotte of Wales watch the flypast over Buckingham Palace after attending the armed forces procession on May 5, 2025 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day also known as Victory in Europe Day, marking the end of the Second World War in Europe. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS \/ AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS\/AFP via Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"TOPSHOT](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CharlesCamillaVEDAY.jpeg\")
TOPSHOT \u2013 Britain\u2019s King Charles III and Britain\u2019s Queen Camilla wave to crowds, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after attending the armed forces procession on May 5, 2025 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day also known as Victory in Europe Day, marking the end of the Second World War in Europe. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS \/ AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS\/AFP via Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n