Harry’s wild behaviour has come between the duchess and scandal-plagued Pippa, who is furious about the royal family’s double standards.
The fallout from Prince Harry’s Las Vegas nude photos scandal has been spectacular, with everyone from palace insiders to the US mass media taking aim at the party-hard royal. But what he didn’t count on – and what he’s most ashamed of – is the effect it’s had on those closest to him. The Duchess of Cambridge is said to be the most disappointed in the 27-year-old prince, who she has come to regard as a confidant and a brother – especially because of the huge rift he’s opened up between Kate and her controversial sister Pippa.
Once one of London’s society queens, 28-year-old Pippa has been conspicuously absent in recent months. Palace insiders have informed Woman’s Day that she’s been politely requested to go to ground after her now infamous Paris trip in April, where she partied with strippers and was pictured with a male friend who waved a replica gun at photographers. Compare it to Harry stripping naked in a hotel room with at least 15 party girls during a weekend-long booze session, and it’s no wonder Pippa’s sick of being cast as the villain when he blatantly flouts royal etiquette. And that’s exactly what she’s believed to have told her sister.
According to UK magazine Now, Pippa’s told her sister she’s “sick of being treated unfairly”. “Pippa feels like it’s one rule for the royals and another for her,” the magazine’s royal insider explains. “After the dressing down she was given, Harry’s behaviour grates.” Kate heard her grievances loud and clear – and turned on Harry. “She’s upset she was ordered to reprimand Pippa over her behaviour while he’s essentially got away with it,” the source says. “In the heat of the moment, she even said he’d ruined everything between her and Pippa.”
Harry, who once described Kate as “like a sister to me”, is devastated over her cutting words. And that’s not the only cross he has to bear – big brother Prince William is similarly disgusted and is also getting stuck into Harry. “When the pictures first surfaced, it was Wills, not Prince Charles, who was straight on the phone to give Harry a piece of his mind,” a source tells Woman’s Day exclusively. “Wills gave him both barrels and told him he’d really let the family down, not to mention himself and his own reputation.”
Read more about Kate and Pippa's showdown over Harry in this week's Woman’s Day on sale Monday September 3, 2012.
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