White House lines up with US cheerleaders
And TV hosts praise duchess for ‘honesty’
CoURTING public opinion in the United States paid off for the Sussexes yesterday as the US media – and government – praised the pair’s ‘honest’ interview.
Joe Biden’s press secretary hailed the couple for having the ‘courage’ to ‘speak about their own struggles with mental health and tell their own personal story’.
Aware of how this might go down in parts of Britain, Jen Psaki added: ‘And let me just reiterate that we have a strong and abiding relationship with the British people and a special partnership with the Government of the United Kingdom on a range of issues and that will continue.’
Hillary Clinton said she found the interview ‘heartbreaking’, it was reported last night. The former presidential candidate is reported to have said: ‘It was just heartbreaking that this incredibly accomplished woman, Meghan Markle, who falls in love with Prince Harry, was not fully embraced...’
Across the Atlantic, news outlets have made no secret of their affinity for a fellow American in distress, accepting Meghan and Harry’s insistence that they were forced to flee snobbery, racism and an oppressive and archaic Royal Family.
The couple’s latest broadside against the Palace was compared in the US yesterday to sex abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests and to the MeToo movement’s campaign to expose predators such as Harvey Weinstein.
The US media poured scorn on the ‘vicious’ UK Press’s coverage of the Sussexes and treated as fact every bombshell claim against the Royal Family and its staff.
As the interview dominated yesterday’s TV, the near universal verdict was that the Sussexes had simply lengthened the charge sheet against Buckingham Palace with claims that were treated as revelations rather than allegations.
Some presenters said that, having watched the portrayal of Princess Diana in the drama series The Crown, nobody needed to be told that royal life could be very lonely.
They showed their support when the duchess talked about her mental health, saying it had been ‘heartbreaking’ and ‘brave’. on social media there were calls to ‘finish what the American Revolution started’ and ‘burn down’ the monarchy.
Ana Navarro, host of The View, America’s top-rated daytime talk show, said: ‘oof. There hasn’t been this much English tea spilled in America since the Boston Tea Party.’
The US media is fixated on the issue of race and inevitably its attention focused on alleged concern expressed by a relative to
Harry about the colour of the couple’s then-unborn son’s skin.
on NBC, Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of former president George W Bush, said of the duchess: ‘There were so many things that she was honest about.’ CBS anchor Gayle King, who is a close friend of Miss Winfrey, agreed when a correspondent described UK media coverage of the duchess as ‘vicious’, saying: ‘Yeah. The negativity – vicious is the word.’