Well, she’s done it. In less than 2 years, Meghan Markle has successfully broken up the Royal Family, in a way that only Americans seem able to do. Harry has been forced to choose between his wife and son and his extended family of birth, and so far, he has chosen the former. The expression, “What Meghan wants, Meghan gets” (quoted at the time of the wedding about a spat over a tiara) has never been more prophetic. She can now use her royal connections to make a very large fortune indeed, which may well have been her intention all along.
So, what now? Well, they are to stop using the title “HRH”, and they are to pay back the money spent on renovating the cottage that they are never going to use. It was originally stated, by the couple themselves, that they expected to continue to use Frogmore Cottage as their home in the UK, but either the queen put a stop to that, or they have realised that Meghan never wants to set foot in the country again, so there is not much point in allowing the place to simply fill up with cobwebs. But the world hasn’t ended; the sun will still rise tomorrow, and as far as I can tell, the planets are all still in alignment. So much for the crisis of the decade.
But now comes the hard part – for Harry at least. What the hell is he going to do with himself now?
While people often refer to Meghan as a Hollywood star, in fact, she is merely a B-lister, having done a few game shows and an extended stay on the legal drama Suits. It will be easy for her to return to her old life; apparently they are going to live in Canada, where she lived while filming Suits. Harry, however, is leaving his old life behind. It is very hard indeed to see exactly how things will go for Harry from here.
Royals are born. He has been a royal all his life. He has known nothing else. He has known nothing but respect, duty, adulation, lots of attention, and no doubt he will still get plenty of that – for a while. There is considerable speculation that press interest in the couple will be greater, not less than before, but expect that to die down after a while… unless these is some salacious gossip to report. The paparazzi followed Diana around in her last few years mainly because they were interested in her love life. From heart surgeons to riding instructors to wealthy Muslims, Diana would hang around with them all, and the press couldn’t get enough of it. But if Harry follows his wife around as she visits soup kitchens and women’s refuges, they will get bored fairly fast. And so, of course, will Harry.
The only other American best known for causing a crisis in the monarchy was, of course, Wallis Simpson, but she, by all accounts, was well aware of the sacrifice that King Edward VIII had made for her, and reportedly spent the rest of her life trying to keep his life as royal as possible, and as fulfilling as possible. But it was an uphill struggle that she never really achieved; David was born to be king, had been brought up expecting to be king, and when all of that was taken away, albeit by his own hand, it left a gaping hole in his life that nothing was ever able to fill. While he was still the Duke of Windsor (as Harry is still the Duke of Sussex), he had status, but his title was a hollow one. His biggest problem was that he had nothing to do – no purpose in his life, as it had all evaporated when he married Wallis. He spent the rest of his life longing to be accepted back into the Royal Family, believing that, if he served a suitable period of punitive exile, the King and the rest of the family would welcome him back as the prodigal brother with open arms. It never happened, of course, and Edward VIII went to his grave a sad and unfulfilled individual who had given up everything for the woman he loved.
Will this be Harry’s fate too?
Harry does, of course, have Archie, which is something that Edward VIII did not have as a form of solace. They may, of course, have another child. (Only one – Meghan is thinking of the planet.) But somehow, a picture of Harry at playschool with Archie, mopping up vomit and changing nappies is not the kind of thing one would expect a prince, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, to be doing. Can you see Harry, former serviceman (who reached the rank of Captain), furious that he was forced to return home from a tour in Afghanistan because some idiot reporter gave away his location, happy in a role like that? No. I can’t either.
Wallis Simpson may have spent the rest of her life trying to make it up to her husband for what he gave up, but honestly, I cannot see Meghan doing the same thing. Simpson was pilloried as a scheming and social climbing woman, but it is hard to describe Meghan in better terms. However, I had better stop here, because, of course, I am being racist. Everything anyone says about Meghan that is in any way critical is an act of pure racism. Of course it is.
Harry’s life is about to mirror that of his great-great Uncle David in more ways than one. I genuinely feel for Harry, and I hope he has made the right decision, but history tells me otherwise. Oh well. He can’t say he wasn’t warned. Both his brother William and the history books foresaw that this marriage would be a disaster. But the world’s interest in this shabby little drama will wane, Harry will be left alone as he claims to want, and he will have all the time in the world to ponder the wisdom of his choice. Just like his Great-Great Uncle David did.
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