Sex Pistols’ John Lydon Criticizes Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Drama With the Royal Family” width=”700″ height=”573″ srcset=”https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=200&quality=86&strip=all 200w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=300&quality=86&strip=all 300w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=400&quality=86&strip=all 400w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=600&quality=86&strip=all 600w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=700&quality=86&strip=all 700w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=800&quality=86&strip=all 800w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=900&quality=86&strip=all 900w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=1000&quality=86&strip=all 1000w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=1200&quality=86&strip=all 1200w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=1400&quality=86&strip=all 1400w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=1600&quality=86&strip=all 1600w, https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/John-Lydon-Criticizes-Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-2.jpg?w=1800&quality=86&strip=all 1800w” sizes=”(max-width: 680px) calc(100vw – 6em), 660px”/>Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Kirsty O’Connor/WPA Pool/Shutterstock
Some not-so-nice advice. Former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon has a few words about how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are handling life away from the British royal family.
“If you want to be normal and outside of [the family], then f–k off. Just f–k off and shut up,” the rock star, 67, said in an interview with The Telegraph published Wednesday, April 12. Lydon owns a house in Malibu, California, not too far from the Sussexes’ Montecito estate, which they purchased in 2020.
Prior to moving to the U.S., Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, stepped down from their senior royal duties in January 2020. In the years since they have continuously spoken out about their difficult experiences with the royal family in projects such as their 2022 Netflix series Harry & Meghan and Harry’s 2023 bombshell memoir, Spare — the latter of which Lydon called “spiteful.”
“I’ve never been one for kiss-and-tell books,” the musician — whose wife, Nora Forster, died at the age of 80 after battling Alzheimer’s on April 6 — stated. “They’re very, very spiteful to families and friends.”
Harry’s book featured several surprising revelations about the monarchy, especially his relationships with his father, King Charles III, and his brother, Prince William. Harry claimed that Charles, 74, once joked that he wasn’t his biological father — rather that it was his mother Princess Diana’s former lover Major James Hewitt — as well as revealed that he and William, 40, got into a physical fight after his brother called Meghan “difficult” and “rude.”
John Lydon on the ‘This Morning’ TV show S Meddle/ITV/Shutterstock
Lydon, however, has his own experiences breaking things off with people, as he left the Sex Pistols in 1978 and disbanded his band Public Image Ltd — who announced their first album in eight years on April 11 — in 1993. “I’ve had to make decisions like this in the past,” he explained. “I had to leave the Pistols. I had to break up PiL a couple of times because the situation was unsustainable.”
Unlike himself, Lydon doesn’t think that the couple has been able to move on from their former royal life. “If that was their dilemma then please go away, all right?” he told The Telegraph. “And we’ll love you for it.”
The singer-songwriter’s comments differ from previous ones he’s made about the couple — who share kids Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 22 months. He defended Harry and Meghan months after they tied the knot at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in May 2018.
“It seems as if they like each other, Leave them be happy,” he said in a September 2018 interview with the New York Post. “I love [the royals] as human beings. I just hate the tax fraudulence we have to endure.”
Lydon’s interview was released the same day it was announced that Harry will attend Charles’ upcoming coronation solo. “Buckingham Palace is pleased to confirm that The Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on May 6th,” read a statement from the palace on Wednesday. “The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.”
The following day, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that the reason behind Meghan’s absences from the event would be because it will be held the same day as Archie’s 4th birthday, which lands on May 6. “Despite being the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan is a mom first,” the insider noted.
Indian-American author Deepak Chopra stated that the couple is currently “struggling” leading up to the coronation in an interview with the Daily Mail published Wednesday. “I hope they get through it light-hearted,” the alternative medicine advocate added, 76, added. “People should mind their own business.”