Years after satirizing Queen Elizabeth II in 1977’s hit punk rock version of “God Save the Queen,” S– Pistols frontman John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten, is coming for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The punk rock icon shared about the royal rebels: “I don’t want to be judgemental, but it’s very hard to think kindly towards them when they’re so d— nasty to their own families.”
“You can’t disrespect your parents and grandparents like that. And writing a kiss-and-tell book about your family? God, that’s mean,” he added when likely referencing Harry’s bestselling memoir Spare.
The explosive book turned 1.5 years old on July 10, and although the autobiography remains a hit with his and Meghan’s fans, the anger the royals feel may never lift.
“I think Prince Harry misplaced his hand by writing it in Spare and being so vindictive to his brother and sister-in-law, who he formerly really loved,” royal expert Kerry Parnell told an outlet.
“I think it’s very difficult for the rest of the family to come back from that, which is what we’re seeing,” she added. “He had already spoken on Oprah, he had already spoken on Netflix, it was Spare. I think, like, any family, if I wrote that, or you wrote that as a journalist, and printed it, do you expect that they would speak to you again? Probably not, the trust is broken, isn’t it?”
The Duke of Sussex published the tome on January 10, 2023, and like Parnell pointed out, it followed the sensational revelations in the 2021 Oprah special and the December 2022 Netflix, six-part docuseries. Numerous royal analysts thought those ventures would cause the royals to immediately recoil from their self-ousted fiery-haired prince, but what he wrote in the book “was unforgivable.”
“It is a deeply sad and unfortunate thing when you sit back and truly think about it,” a palace insider shared in February 2023. “He has absolutely and totally destroyed his relationship with his blood family. The senior royals are done with him. Mark my words that the Prince and Princess of Wales will never utter a single word to him ever again. His only ally remains his father, the King, and that is understandable.”
Lydon’s work with the legendary punk rock band from the 1970s still reverberates today despite the group only creating one album. He went on to a successful stint as the frontman for Public Image Ltd which won him a wider range of fans starting in the 1980s to today. Some critics have pointed out that Lydon has abandoned his anarchic roots, which the singer/songwriter fiercely pushed back against.
“People who begrudge me doing well for myself are the nasty dirty f—— in life that you really don’t want much to do with,” he stated. “They’re the jealous crabs at the bottom of the barrel who will call out any ambitious ones at the top.”
