What TV’s Tom has got to tell Harry and Meghan...
WHEN celebrity couples announce they’re taking a break from social media, it usually means they’re either heading for rehab or the divorce courts.
So it was a relief to see that no sooner had the Duke and Duchess of Sussex taken tearful leave of their millions of Instagram followers they were back, broadcasting loud and clear via an alternative outlet: ITV’s Tom Bradby.
Bradby, you may remember, is the Royal interviewer who fed Meghan the line about no one ever asking her if she is OK, thus giving her the perfect opportunity to unleash the full force of those Bambi eyes.
Having known Harry since he was a young man, and been a guest at the Sussexes’ wedding, Bradby has a knack for asking all the right questions – and as a consequence has been hand-picked by the couple as one of their trusted representatives on Earth.
Along with a few others – including Omid Scobie, co-author of that 300-page glorified press release, Finding Freedom – Bradby has privileged access.
And this evening on ITV, presumably to mark the anniversary of ‘Megxit’, he ‘opens up’ about how the pair are feeling now that they’ve left behind the dreary shores of Blighty for life in La La Land.
By most people’s standards, it’s been a huge success.
Already they have secured lucrative deals with Spotify and Netflix, invested in some super-duper new health drink that’s endorsed by all the right people – and taken possession of a luxury home in the Californian hills.
No more shaking hands in the drizzle with the wife of the undergardener at Windsor for Meghan. She is now back where she belongs – surrounded by proper queens – the likes of Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Elton John – not some white-haired old biddy in a padded riding gilet.
And Harry is where he wants to be, by his beloved’s side and unencumbered by Royal duty and tedious questions from the British press ( not to mention his own brother). He has even, according to his new neighbour, Rob Lowe, grown a ponytail.
In theory, then, all good. Except, of course, it’s not. This is Harry and Meghan, remember. More drama than the season finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
It turns out that far from being delighted to have finally made a new start, poor Harry is ‘heartbroken’ at the situation with his family back home.
‘I think they wrestle with their position in life,’ Bradby gushes. ‘I think they all do.’
I’m sure Bradby means well. He wants the public to see the humans at the heart of this drama. But at a time when people are losing their lives and their livelihoods, I’m afraid Meghan and Harry’s ‘struggle’ seems at best irrelevant, at worst narcissistic. Don’t get me wrong: I am not one of those people who thinks that lucky people have no right to be unhappy. I have been extremely lucky in my life and I’m no stranger to the black dog.
But it is important to maintain perspective, and right now neither Harry nor Meghan – nor those close to them – are seeing this.
If Bradby really wants to help them, he needs to tell them this. He is a highly effective journalist and perfectly capable of speaking truth to power. The only possible explanation for why he doesn’t is that he is scared of being cut loose. It’s true that Harry can be very petulant when he doesn’t hear what he wants to hear. But, as the Queen herself put it so wisely, you can’t have it both ways. Either you’re a Prince of the realm, bathed in privilege but also bound by certain conventions, or you’re just an ordinary citizen subject to the vicissitudes of everyday life.
Similarly, either you’re Tom Bradby, respected broadcaster, impartial reporter, or you’re just another Scobie, a woke Boswell but without the balls or the wit.
I know which I’d rather be.