BREAKING DOWN MEGXIT
WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THE ROYAL SPLIT?
Laura and Teuila are royally divided
Upon polling Weekly readers, we found quite a division – between those who are very disappointed in the way that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have stepped back from the royal family, and those who are cheering them on for forging their own paths. Everyone has their own view on the matter and many are very passionate about it, as we discovered was certainly the case for two of our local stars who are avid royal watchers! Here, The Hits’ Laura McGoldrick and actress Teuila Blakely give their opinions on the split.
LAURA McGOLDRICK
Let me just start by telling you I am a huge royalist.
In fact, I have taken on the unofficial role of royal expert on The Hits. I love them, their traditions, the fact that they are a tradition in my family – my nana loved them and so does my mum! But this latest move from Harry and Meghan has left me pretty cold.
I was a massive fan of Diana, Princess of Wales. I have grown to like Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, over the years. And of course I grew up loving Prince William and (the artist formerly known as) Prince Harry.
I believe William, his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Harry are single-handedly responsible for keeping the royal family current, popular and as down-to-earth as you can get when your family home is Buckingham Palace.
I too got swept up in Harry and Meghan mania when they came to Auckland in 2018, waiting for hours to meet them.
I thought it was so lovely when the second son of Diana found the woman he wanted to share his life with. What a great opportunity for Meghan to join Harry, William and Kate to make change, do good and be a part of something as prestigious as the royal family.
Surely no-one more than Meghan knew what she was marrying in to. She had to.
Did the royal family need to make changes and modernise? Yes. Were Meghan and Harry the perfect catalysts for change? Absolutely. But I don’t believe in change for change’s sake, just to prove a point, which at times seemed to be what Meghan was doing.
I felt as though she didn’t understand that tradition was something that this family valued and the UK held dear.
I can’t pretend to understand the pressure the couple felt.
I will never understand that media scrutiny. I do not condone the online bullying. But to announce something as massive as leaving your own family on
Instagram without, as has been reported, warning your family is utterly disrespectful.
An announcement of that magnitude should always come from the palace or the Queen herself.
And let’s take a moment to stop and think about 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth. This is a woman who has given her entire life to her country.
She has led and held the monarchy together through some extraordinary times.
At the end of the day she is a wife, a mother, a grandmother and of course a great-grandmother. Do you think she deserves to be told via social media that her grandson and his wife, who let’s be honest, has been around for five minutes, are quitting? Come on.
Sure, Harry was never going to be king, and being a royal can be hard, but what makes him – and her – so special that he gets the easy way out?
What about Prince Charles? And William? The pressure they must now feel to pick up the slack, to try to show a united front... It just makes me so sad.
I am not pitting woman against woman but let us not forget that Kate endured the same amount of criticism as Meghan. The difference is that Kate kept her head down, worked hard, and has over time become a treasured member of that family. You can’t walk into an institution as sacred as the British royal family and expect instant adoration and gratification. You earn it.
I still love the royal family, and I look forward to the day I can teach my daughter about them. I hope Meghan and Harry find the peace they’re looking for – I just hope they haven’t destroyed an entire family in the process.
TEUILA BLAKELY
When Harry met Meghan, I couldn’t have been happier.
Prince Harry, the people’s prince, had fallen in love with Meghan Markle, an actress. An American. A divorcée. A woman of colour.
As a young girl of colour growing up in New Zealand, there was not one fairytale I read in which the princess was of colour, or even of mixed race. Once upon a time, a relationship like this would have been unacceptable within the royal family.
Actually, not too long ago, a relationship like this would have been difficult to accept within a lot of families. Just ask my Samoan mum and Central Otago Kiwi dad, who have
been married for 50 years. And then, lo and behold, here in real life in 2017, along comes Meghan Markle. Clearly, the picture-perfect couple were truly, madly and deeply in love. And I was here for all of it.
Meghan’s very presence within the family is empowering and validating for girls and women of colour everywhere. If you’ve grown up without it, you will understand how powerful representation is.
And it seems as if the duchess’ very presence and what she represents has been intimidating for others, judging by the level of scrutiny and criticism to which she’s been subjected by the press and royal observers, who have sifted through every aspect of her life, past and present.
But the couple endured it all and managed to fulfil their royal duties. I understood when they became increasingly wary of following certain expectations, such as presenting their newborn son Archie to the media within hours of his birth. I could see
why they were protective of themselves and their little family.
Thanks to her acting career, Meghan was already a celebrity in her own right. She knew public life to a degree. But no one can imagine what royal public life is like until one is actually living a royal public life.
I felt for Meghan when she said in an interview (perhaps somewhat idealistically) that she thought she would at least be treated fairly. I wouldn’t have thought fairness would be an expectation for anyone living a public life, especially not in the age of the internet and 24-hour news feeds.
But honestly, who needs to put up with that, and why should anyone? Life is too short. In Meghan’s words, it’s not enough to merely survive. You want to thrive. Hear, hear, girlfriend.
Can we really be mad at their decision to put the health and happiness of their family before anything else? Even Harry’s birthright and heritage?
We celebrated Princess Diana for doing the same thing. She too became a public figure by marrying a royal. But we loved her because she was Diana. Princess or not, she was a phenomenal woman.
After her official royal life, Diana continued to use her platform and time to raise awareness of otherwise ignored people and causes, earning her the endearing unofficial title Queen of Hearts.
At her funeral, a 12-year-old Prince Harry stole and broke our hearts at the same time as he walked behind his mother’s coffin. That dear boy who experienced all that pain in his young life is now a grown man and a loving husband and father.
It is this man who has chosen to protect his wife and son from the scrutiny, criticism and pressure of royal life.
We should respect their decision, just as Harry’s grandmother has. That’s enough for me.
I’m sure Harry and Meghan will continue to do good in the world, just as Diana did.
And hopefully, unlike with Diana, we will respect that they are a family and have a right to as much of a normal life as possible.
I hope we still get to see a lot of them. Though they may no longer be official working senior royals, perhaps they’ll simply come to be known as the Prince and Princess of Hearts.
‘If you’ve grown up without it, you will understand how powerful representation is’