Jennifer Selway:
AN ECHO from the past: “As he aged, he came to adopt the permanent, hurt attitude that he had been condemned to exile for nothing but his great love. He more and more saw himself as a martyr and was assisted in his self-pity by his circle of American friends.” Is this a prophecy for Prince Harry? This is the late Alastair (Letter From America) Cook on the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936 to marry US divorceewallis Simpson.
A fan of America with a habit of Americanising certain words, the Duke would spend a lot of time in the States where he and Wallis felt appreciated. From their gilded Parisian home he gazed bitterly across the Channel as though he could never quite understand how it had all gone wrong.
The announcement of Harry and Meghan’s plan to go it alone, to be financially independent and carve out a “progressive” new role, caught everyone on the hop, including, we’re told, the Queen and Prince
Charles. Maybe we should not be surprised, for many people have suggested that if they weren’t happy with their lot they should retire from public life and stop the finger wagging. Now they’ve done just that. And it’s probably for the best. Harry was the spare, not the heir, not an easy role especially in one who now seems so thin-skinned. The Sussexes’ secrecy (the honeymoon, Archie’s birth, the identity of his godparents) alienated many who would otherwise have wished the couple well.
The Queen may be hurt but families fall out and life goes on. Anyway, she, wisely, wants a slimmed-down Royal Family as was evident in that Christmas photo – Queen, Charles, William, George. This picture is said to have upset the Sussexes too.
Meghan and Harry will never be poor but they may find appearing to earn a living as humiliating as they seem to find being royal.they’ll be offered huge amounts of money for celebrity tat and be fawned over wherever they go (especially in America) without the protective shield of royal protocol. How “progressive” is that?
Though he served in Afghanistan Harry’s experience of the real world is limited. He may find it harder to be private than he imagines.and what ofarchie?will he resent being surgically removed from his father’s family?
Meghan of course could return to acting. As some wag suggested, she is now free to play Meghan in a future series of The Crown.
‘They’ll be offered huge amounts for celebrity tat’