NOBODY LIKES HYPOCRITES, ESPECIALLY THE RICH ONES

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are the latest celebs to indulge in the ‘do as I say, not do as I do’ philosophy

COSMOPOLITAN magazine once took a stand against the objectification of women, then objectified men by celebrating 36 “Summer Olympic bulges”.

These “peens that deserve gold” were swimmers wearing budgie smugglers, but it didn’t stop the mag’s editor from being called a hypocrite. No one likes hypocrites – especially rich and famous ones.

While the rest of us are sweating on the arrival of the next phone bill and serving up mince for dinner again, A-listers are jetting around the world breaking their own rules and offering us advice on how to do things better.

You know, like Jane Fonda, who raves about how she’s “living proof that it’s possible to age gracefully” but has had so much plastic surgery that blowing out birthday candles would melt her face.

The same goes for Cate Blanchett, who lectured us about the benefits of the carbon tax that would hit low-income earners, while living in a $20 million Sydney mansion.

The maxim seems to be: do what I say, not do what I do. Now, can you please all stand while we introduce the latest celebrity hypocrites: Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. On their new Insta account @sussexroyal, the couple are picking a worthy cause to champion every month to their 8.8 million followers.

There’s nothing useful like how to fit into skinny jeans three weeks after giving birth, or choosing baby names that aren’t popular with dogs. No, they’re pushing much more worthy topics like mental health and gay pride. This month they’ve discovered the environment and climate change and they’re beginning to lose me.

Their latest post calls for more to be done to reduce fossil fuel emissions and plastics. They speak of the “ticking clock to protect our planet” and urge, “Let’s save it. Let’s do our part.”

“With nearly 7.7 billion people inhabiting this Earth, every choice, every footprint, every action makes a difference,” they write.

The post doesn’t mention that the Royal Household’s travel emissions have risen 98 per cent since 2018 due to a rise in the use of “chartered large fixed-wing aircraft for foreign business travel”.

There’s also the inconvenient fact that Meghan used Amal Clooney’s private jet when she went to New York for her baby shower.

Meghan and Harry have travelled to countries such as Morocco, Dublin, Australia and New Zealand, mostly on chartered flights. You won’t see them in the cheap seats on Jetstar, trying to decide whether to splurge on an inflight toasted sandwich.

Private or chartered jets are one of the most fuelhungry ways to get around.

And yet this doesn’t stop jetsetters from preaching to the rest of us.

The same criticism has been levelled at some of Hollywood’s biggest stars like green activist Harrison Ford, who once said he would “often fly up the coast for a cheeseburger” in one of his seven private planes.

There’s also Leonardo DiCaprio, who has a wellestablished environmental charity but once flew 12,000km to pick up an award for his green activism.

These celebrity saviours are missing the point. Most of us have environmental concerns that are much more mundane.

Help me sort my recycling. Tell me once and for all about those milk bottle lids. In or out? How do I get my teenagers to take shorter showers?

How do I convince my partner we don’t need an energy-guzzling second fridge to house his collection of Richmond beer cans he vows to never ever drink?

From now on I am going to ignore all these famous eco-warriors. Unless they’re smuggling real budgies in their trunks to help get them airborne, I won’t listen to a word they say.