I am losing sympathy for Harry and Meghan
The Netflix documentary the California-based couple have launched destructs the main argument they made when they left the Royal Family’s inner circle.
I remember the events of Saturday, May 18, 2018, quite well. Gloriously sunny in Windsor, the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left many, myself included, feeling that this new royal couple were indeed made for royalty. Witnessing Harry and Meghan, alongside Her late Majesty the Queen and other immediate family members, left us with an impression that this American actress, this outsider who was marrying into the family, would hopefully change the Royal Family’s image as an archaic, primitive institution (to some, anyway). The welcome offered to the new Duchess, I felt, was right. And I was also hopeful.
From my perspective, it now feels rather sad to recall the events of that dazzlingly bright day. With royal regalia on show, Union Jacks blazed across the Berkshire town and cheering by now accustomed for the newlyweds, all in all, it was a day to remember, certainly when one even contemplates the frosty encounters we are now viewing.
The announcement the couple made on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, that they would “step back as ‘senior’ members” of the Royal Family divided royalists between two camps: one group supported the newlyweds’ move to North America, believed it could work, and so on - as long as it kept royal relations content, so be it. The other group, in the ascendancy at the moment, believed it was a cunning plot by the Duchess; to marry into the family, and tear her now husband out of the ‘system’. But here we are. Four-and-a-half years from the wedding, the contrasting situations between then and now could not be more different.
The story went: a marriage that received unbridled support from both family and country; now a marriage that is arguably despised by many in our nation, and one in which relations between royals are now evidently fractured.
The Netflix six-episode documentary the couple are releasing was meant to shine a light on their lives, including viewers hearing Harry and Meghan’s side of the story. The first three episodes, released on Thursday, were rather more focused on their original meetings with one another, recollecting how they first met and the adoration they both felt.
But what lies beneath this documentary and the affairs of the couple over recent months and years is this: blatant hypocrisy. Before a social media mob heads my way and before individuals deem me a Right-wing fascist, let me set out my case, especially as I most certainly identify as a social democratic progressive.
This argument is not new, to clarify. But seldom can convince me that this argument isn’t hypocritical, because the duplicity with which it is now seen cannot be ignored. So, here goes.
The couple, when announcing their departure as ‘senior royals’ in January 2020, set out their reasons for doing so. One was that they wanted a degree of privacy to return. Fair request, I remember saying to myself. Anybody in the public eye can sympathise with the Royal Family’s lack of independence when it comes to doing simple tasks: going to the supermarket for essentials; dropping the children off at school; or merely visiting family members. All such assignments require a certain degree of intrusion. Thus, it was in this spirit that, upon hearing the Sussexes’ announcement, I believed it unsurprising.
Yet that is where my degree of good faith terminates rapidly. If the couple wished to retain independence, freedom (and all the rest of it), why on earth would one participate in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, as the Sussexes did in March 2021? Additionally why on earth would they sign an exclusive deal, reportedly $100 million, with Netflix for this six-part documentary if they cared so deeply about privacy?
To distinguish the difference between the arguments many on the Right make and the ones I am putting forward, here’s why I sympathised. The press intrusion that has taken place with the couple has been quite vast, particularly with Right-wing newspapers ever since the January 2020 announcement. They have taken the “Meghan had this cunning plot to destroy the Queen” viewpoint, where every single thing that now goes wrong in Britain must therefore be blamed on the Sussexes. Some of the coverage laid on the couple has been based on sheer lunacy. Moreover, it is interesting that those who despise the couple the most - and I’m not one of them - seemingly have the most time to discuss their antics and find themselves obsessed with the couple’s every move.
But this is where, regrettably, I agree with some of the coverage: the levels of hypocrisy on show since the January 2020 news has been comprehensive. “We want freedom!”, they proclaimed justifiably. Then they went on Oprah and signed themselves up for a Netflix documentary about their lives. The two are merely incompatible without any equivocations.
For that, I am losing sympathy for Harry and Meghan. It’s a sad state of affairs, particularly for the relationship between Harry and William, the Prince of Wales. That’s not to mention the relationships Harry has with his father, His Majesty the King, his stepmother, the Queen Consort, and other immediate family members. The situation at present is most different to that of Saturday, May 18, 2018 - a dazzling day that now seems like a utopia in itself, certainly compared with the frosty royal encounters we are now accustomed to.