Prince Harry cut a sad and lonely figure walking behind his mother’s coffin in 1997.
Since then, he has served in Afghanistan, partied long and hard, worn a Nazi shirt, fallen in love a few times, and finally, married an American mixed-race actress and been congratulated for his diversity on his choice of bride. This young royal couple was set to blow away the cobwebs from the Royal Family… or so we were told at the time.
We’ve heard it all before though.
It is strange the way that Americans and the Royals never seem to mix well. While it is too early to say that this marriage is a disaster for the Royal Family, Harry is fast losing the enormous popularity and sympathy that he once enjoyed, and rightly or wrongly, his new wife is being blamed for that.
I don’t blame Meghan. Sure, she behaves like the princess she thinks she has become, but that is not entirely her fault. Harry needed to make sure she understood her role as part of the Royal Family, and clearly, he hasn’t had the heart – or the guts – to sit her down and tell her a few home truths.
He should have explained to her that, as a Royal, your life is never your own. Sure, they enjoy wealth and enormous privilege, but it all comes at a price. The public expects a piece of you, and the constant attention from members of the great unwashed is a price they have to pay for the life of luxury and respect that they enjoy.
After all, we all thought Meghan would cope well with the attention, unlike Harry’s former girlfriends, Chelsea Davy and Cressida Bonas, who apparently struggled with the constant media scrutiny.
Meghan, however, insists on having her cake and eating it, demanding privacy when it suits her and courting attention when she feels like it.
But keeping the details of Diana’s grandson’s birth private, including not announcing who the godparents are, is definitely not the way to endear oneself to the British public and it did not go unnoticed that the Queen did not attend Archie’s christening, citing a clash of engagements.
These events could have been rearranged. Everyone knows that. The Queen was sending a message that has neither been received or understood.
Since then, the Duchess (now known as ‘Duchess Difficult’) has snubbed President Trump on his UK visit, demanded that no one photograph her at Wimbledon because she was there in a ‘private’ capacity (on centre court attending a televised match), and issued decrees to neighbours at their home near Windsor not to approach them, not to ask to see Archie and not to pat their dogs.
You can just imagine how this is going down with the British people, who recently paid 2 million pounds for the renovations at Frogmore Cottage to be completed, can’t you?
Harry should know better. While we can understand his loathing of the media, after the way they hounded his mother, there are ways of reaching a happy medium, and issuing decrees to the public about keeping their distance is not the way to do it. The Cambridges manage to steer a path between privacy and public duty, and William and Harry had much the same upbringing.
The announcement this week that the Sussex’s are going to have no more than 2 children came as a bit of a relief because it is high handed and arrogant to treat the British public with such disdain on the birth of a royal baby.
However, this is why I have turned completely off Harry, probably for good.
Dozens of Hollywood A-listers, pop stars and royalty including Leonardo Di Caprio, Katy Perry and Prince Harry raise awareness of global warming by flying to Sicily in 114 private jets to attend a Google Camp on the theme of climate change. Did they think – what? – that we wouldn’t notice the irony here?
There is an expectation that the Royals do not act extravagantly, as they are mostly funded by the British people, and can be severely criticised for spending taxpayers money unwisely. This is an act of arrogance and hypocrisy by our former favourite Royal.
Prince Harry confides that he is only going to have two children by his current wife – ex-Suits actress and Vogue editor Meghan Markle – because any more would apparently be bad for the planet. (This is the same Meghan Markle – aka the Duchess of Sussex – who flew home by private jet earlier this year after travelling to New York for a baby shower)
Breitbart
There is nothing like the hypocrisy of the left and the mega-rich.
And apparently, Harry turned up barefoot. What? Are shoes bad for the environment now?
It is clear that Harry has forgotten, and that Meghan never knew, that the purpose of the Royal Family is to serve its people. The British will support the Royals, so long as they see a benefit in having them around. After all, think of all the tourist dollars that could go into the post-Brexit coffers from guided tours of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral, to mention just a few royal residences.
Unfortunately, this is all going to end badly. The Queen is going to have to intervene at some point and tell Harry and Meghan to pull their rather swollen heads in, or the Royals risk facing the wrath of the British people. This may well end in some form of exile for the Sussex family, as they take their demands for privacy and self-indulgence to unprecedented levels.
It’s funny though. Didn’t something like this happen the last time a royal married an American? History really does repeat, doesn’t it?