Nacho is the star of Harry’s polo show
Prince Harry making a show for Netflix about himself playing polo always seemed a curious idea. Isn’t the long term goal of Harry and wife Meghan Markle to encourage us to identify with them? And wouldn’t a film about playing polo—a famously expensive sport, requiring access to multiple pricey “ponies”—merely confirm suspicions that they live fabulous, millionairey lives while the rest of us struggle to pay vet bills for the dog, let alone maintain a stable of stallions?
Well, now it emerges that, according to a report in the Daily Mail, the polo film is not about Harry at all. It’s star is actually his buddy, the handsome Argentinean polo player Nacho Figueras.
The efforts of the polo industry to promote Figueras as its figurehead go back decades—it’s hard to find a long serving magazine writer who hasn’t been offered an interview with him—and while he has plenty of followers on Instagram, its fair to say he hasn’t exactly cracked the mainstream.
Needless to say this news that Prince Harry’s polo film doesn’t feature much of Prince Harry has reportedly been received by Netflix with about as much enthusiasm as a bunch of badly dressed, poor people would be not welcomed at the polo in the Hamptons.
The series, titled Polo and due to drop later this year, has been nicknamed “the Nacho Show” by insiders at the streaming giant.
Dr Sophie Chandauka MBE, Chair of Sentebale, Nacho Figueras, Sentebale Ambassador, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Co-Founding Patron of Sentebale and Dan Carter, ISPS Handa Ambassador and former All Blacks Rugby Player at the Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup on August 12, 2023 in Singapore.
Matt Jelonek/Getty Images for Sentebale
One source told the Daily Mail: “Any reasonable person tuning into a show about polo made by Prince Harry would expect Harry to take a starring role. That he’s not is hugely disappointing for Netflix. Let’s face it, polo isn’t exactly a mainstream sport so the attraction would have been watching Harry. Without him, it’s marginal at best. The Netflix deal expires next year, so the Sussexes need a big hit. This sounds like a big nothing burger.”
Another insider said: “For a show about a sport of kings, polo barely features any royalty. It’s not the Harry show, it’s the Nacho show.”
One source is quoted as saying: “Nice of Harry to do his mate a favour, but Nacho speaks broken English and is just not mainstream enough to pull in the ratings.”
Has the eagle landed?
All eyes are on Heathrow airport and the clutch of luxury London hotels Harry is known to favor today, with the prince due to make the keynote speech at tomorrow’s WellChild Awards.
As The Royalist writes in guest a piece in today’s London Sunday Times, the appearance offers Harry the chance of a do-over on last week’s brilliant speech by Harry to the Clinton Foundation about the harms social media can inflict on children, after Harry and Meghan achieved the rare feat of overshadowing themselves with that story in Us Weekly saying what brilliant bosses they were, according to staff including, er, their head of PR.
Stepping onto the stage for the WellChild Awards isn’t quite the same as being a keynote speaker at the Clinton Foundation. But it will have to do for now.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex walks outside the Rolls Building of the High Court in London, Britain June 7, 2023.
Hannah McKay/Reuters/File Photo
Arguably of more importance to Harry, however, will be whether his father King Charles agrees to see him during his sojourn in his homeland.
Neither side has definitely said whether a meeting is planned, but all the indications so far are that it is not. The king is in Scotland, gathering his strength for a forthcoming trip to Australia, and is said to be reluctant to meet Harry lest his son plunge him into constitutional difficulties by asking him to intervene in his ongoing battle to get the same high-level security he enjoyed as a working royal reinstated for him and his family. Camilla, her friends have told The Daily Beast, is keen that Charles doesn’t get unnecessarily stressed out and is not encouraging a meeting.
But if Harry really wants to be taken seriously as major player in the philanthropic world, he is going to have to make some kind of settlement with his family—not least because many top-tier humanitarian organisations will shy away from associating themselves with an individual at war with the British royals for fear of alienating them.
There can be no meaningful rehabilitation without reconciliation, as The Sunday Times piece makes clear, and Harry’s father’s cancer diagnosis means that task must be prioritized.
Boris bounce
The ebullient former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been publishing extracts of his memoirs in this week’s Daily Mail. One of the many mad revelations is that he made a last-minute attempt to stop Harry leaving the royal family.
Johnson says he delivered a “manly pep talk” to Harry trying to persuade him not to go.
It was a “totally hopeless” endeavor and Harry hopped aboard his famous “freedom flight” the next day. Buckingham Palace has subsequently denied it had asked Johnson to intervene. Johnson described his reluctant effort as a “ridiculous business.”
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is applauded as he arrives to speak during a Conservative general election campaign event in London, Britain, July 2, 2024.
Hollie Adams/Reuters
Johnson also describes what sounds like a fabulous night time barbecue with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Balmoral, which began by being driven at top speed by the late queen, then 93, over moonlit tracks on the moors.
He describes watching the queen “bustle around and make her special vinaigrette and lay out the elements of the picnic in their Tupperware boxes.”
“Finally, we were summoned outside, where a torchlit procession of pipers had appeared. I will never forget the sparks of the torches flying upwards into the night sky, and Her Majesty watching her piper intently, beaming, and tapping time with her foot.”
Boris also recounts his last meeting with the queen when they discussed, of all things, magpies, after Boris admitted he believed seeing a single one brought bad luck.
She told Boris: “If you see a single magpie, you just say, ‘Good morning Mr. Magpie, today is Monday the 12th of March,’ or whatever the date is. That sorts it out.”
This week in royal history
This is the week it all began. On September 29 1066, William the Conqueror landed in Hastings. Only another 42 years till the big 1,000th, folks.
Unanswered questions
Will Harry meet Charles on his U.K. sojourn?
