A not-so fond farewell to Harry and Meghan
They say parting is such sweet sorrow, but, if you ask me, Harry and Meghan’s final appearance as working members of the Royal family seemed distinctly short on sweetness. It wasn’t quite Murder in the Cathedral, more looking daggers in the Abbey.
You didn’t need a doctorate in body language to gather that things are just a teensy bit tense right now among the Windsor clan. The Cambridges could hardly bring themselves to acknowledge the Sussexes. The Wessexes acted as a buffer zone.
Prince Edward made animated small talk with Meghan on his right, while Sophie Wessex on his left pretended to be incredibly interested in the order of service. No order of service has ever been more fascinating than the one for the Queen’s Commonwealth Service as far as Sophie was concerned. If she needed to memorise every single hymn, she would, rather than make eye contact with that bloody actress.
Meghan had arrived dressed as a pea pod with matching pillbox hat in jealous green. Like all her glamorous outfits on this “Farewell, Stuffy Royals, Hello Disney Princess!” tour, this one almost seemed designed to make her sister-in-law look frumpy. Kate isn’t frumpy, she just looks royal, something Meghan never really understood.
You could tell how anxious things were because Buckingham Palace was forced to make a last-minute change to avoid upsetting the swansong couple.
Harry and Meghan were supposed to be shown to their seats while the Cambridges joined the Queen. Instead, faced with the dread news that the Sussexes were “emotional and upset” at being excluded from the royal line-up, the one they had chosen to leave, William and Kate defused the situation by dropping out of the procession and also being taken to their seats. There was no time to reprint the 2,000 orders of service which stated clearly that the Cambridges would enter with the Queen and the Prince of Wales.
Once seated, everyone looked tense and utterly miserable except the person who had done most to cause the tension and misery. Meghan kept her newly whitened smile on full beam lest she damage the brand by appearing unhappy in the photographs.
Boy, I have seen some awkward family gatherings in my time, but this took the Bath Oliver. It will be one year, 10 months and 12 days since Meghan joined the Firm on March 31, the day that she and Harry bow out of royal life. A short time to have sown such discord. Diana would be devastated to see her boys so coldly estranged.
Perhaps Harry was always looking for a way to leave the life he thought had murdered his mother. Given time, people would have respected his decision. But it has been done so impatiently and with such arrogant obliviousness towards the Queen. It was Her Majesty who appointed the Sussexes as youth ambassadors to her beloved Commonwealth, a thoughtful wedding gift that, at Monday’s lovely ceremony, they threw back in her face.
I count myself a Harry fan, but I find I now care very little that he is leaving our national life. I am not impressed, not at all, and I suspect a lot of people feel the same way. One day, the Prince may have cause to reflect that, in pursuit of love, he carelessly squandered the affection of millions.