MARRYING UP OR CRACKING UP?

Putting romantic ideals aside, traditionally, marriage has always been, to some degree, about getting ahead. Over the last 100 years or so people have been choosing to marry more so for love. Seeped into pop culture, marriage has become the end goal only once you’ve fallen in love and found “the one.” But things are changing. Shows such as The

Bachelor, and The Real Housewives franchise have repackaged the idea of marraige to mean something else. Money and fame are as important if not more important than being in love. What’s more disturbing than those reality TV narratives is the way the media has been covering the weddings of particular couples. Nicky Hilton, a successful heiress in her own right married James Rothschild, the heir of a European banking firm. For those of you who don’t know, the Rothschilds are one of the wealthiest families in the world. Google them, they are quite interesting. A lot of the media reports around the time of the marriage have centered around the fact that allegedly the Rothschild family is worth more than $700 trillion. In my mind the fact that both Nicky and James must have had a similar upbringing which includes the pressure of being part of large dynasties must have bonded them. Not too different from the upcoming wedding of Anna Wintour’s daughter, Bee Shaffer who is engaged to Francesco Carrozzini, the son of the late editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue, Franca Sozzani. Romantic, ironic, fashionable beyond imagination people have been gushing over the wedding that will be the biggest fashion event of the century. All I wondered was whether Bee and Francesco initially bonded over having extremely successful, very determined mothers? The relationship of Meghan Markle with Prince Harry has been given the same narrative treatment in the media, with a much more sinister undertone. She’s an actress, bi-racial, and was married before. Megan’s mother is a yoga teacher, her father is a bankrupt cinematographer, her half brother might be heading to jail and her half sister has been talking to papers about her sister non-stop. “They are about to hood out the palace,” said Day Time talk show host Wendy Williams, a sentiment that I’ve noticed has been prevalent in a number of publication in less obvious language. I was recently at a wedding where the couple had been the source of much gossip since rumours initially started that they were dating. The bride was beautiful, accomplished and much younger than the groom who was not the most attractive of men with thinning hair, an ex wife and a tyrannical mother. But he was rich, everyone told me, very, very rich. While on the dance floor, I couldn’t help but ask the bride while we took a selfie why she was initially attracted to the groom when they started dating.

“He was just so funny,” she said, “on our third date he made me laugh so hard that I choked on my food.” Maybe marrying up just means marrying someone who makes you crack up. Call me naïve but maybe Harry just makes Meghan laugh.