More than 1b to watch Harry and Meghan wedding
EXPERTS SAY TOTAL COST OF THE WEEKEND-LONG CELEBRATIONS WILL EXCEED £32.5M
More than one billion people around the world are expected to watch television sets live to watch the fairy tale wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Windsor tomorrow. Even the British Broadcasting Corporation is changing its schedule to provide for three days of largely uninterrupted viewing of the wedding of the year.
On average, most British couples spend an estimated £16,000 (Dh79,300) on their nuptials. But the wedding of the Harry, sixth in line in the House of Windsor, and American actress Meghan Markle is no ordinary affair. Security alone for the wedding will set British taxpayers back £30 million, while the bill stationery alone to invite the 2,000 guests comes in at £30,000.
According to experts’ estimates in a series of celebrity magazines and United Kingdom newspapers, the total cost of the weekend-long celebrations will exceed £32.5 million.
Fans of the royals and the House of Windsor have been awash in glittering titillation over the upcoming nuptials — so much so that counsellors and psychologists warn there is a
dark side: extreme and potentially dangerous obsession.
With millions drawn into the fairy tale love story of a prince and his Hollywood bride, mental health experts warn fans to guard against losing touch with reality.
Sue Varma, a psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor at New York University Langone Medical Centre, said fandom can safely intensify into a mild obsession but when it deepens, it can raise red flags.
Time wasted?
“I absolutely don’t have a problem with somebody having an obsession with the royal family,” Varma said. “It’s the lack of other activities, the lack of flexibility, the fact that you’re taking away time from something else.”
British pottery makers are producing
royal wedding mugs emblazoned with images of the couple, with companies cashing in on tea towels, plates, key rings — even miniature dolls of the pair.
All told, the event will likely give a £10-million boost to the British economy.
Why, even the late Princess Diana would approve. Andrew Morton, Diana’s biographer, has also said that the late princess would also give Markle her seal of approval.
“Diana died at 36, Meghan comes into the scene at 36. In a way she’s picked up Diana’s baton — she’s both elegant, she’s glamorous and also, she’s a humanitarian,” Morton said. “So, Diana would have very much have approved of Meghan and seen that kind of working of fate almost.”
Markle made her final TV appearance as an actress last week, marrying long-time love interest Mike Ross in the US legal drama Suits.
Markle has starred in Suits, which follows the fortunes of a New York legal firm, since the show first aired in 2011 but will end her acting career once she marries Prince Harry.
It’s a fairy tale come true for the American who, last week, also choose an open-top Ascot Landau carriage to greet well-wishers as they ride through Windsor after the wedding ceremony.
With millions drawn into the fairy tale love story of a prince and his Hollywood bride, mental health experts warn fans to guard against losing touch with reality.