A PRINCESS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY?

“Well, that settles it,” said Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail. “If there was any lingering doubt about the strength of Prince Harry’s feelings for Ms Meghan Markle, we now know for sure: he is madly in love with the woman he has been seeing for ‘a few months’.” Kensington Palace last week issued an “extraordinary statement” on Harry’s behalf, furiously denouncing what it called a “wave of abuse and harassment” directed at his 35-year-old girlfriend, and declaring that he was “deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her”. His concern is surely misplaced. It seems unlikely that Markle is “a shy and retiring individual” who “hungers” for anonymity. She is not only a transatlantic TV star, thanks to her role in the legal drama Suits, but also “one of the new breed of online lifestyle gurus”, or “influencers”, who profit from sharing details of their lifestyle with a vast social media following.

Good for her, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times. “For once, a royal appears to have picked a proper person.” She may have made “a few mistakes” (including once being married to a man called Trevor) but, “unlike those sly pearl-eaters the Middletons, Princess Meghan has a recognisable job”. She also brings much-needed excitement to the currently dull Windsor brand. “She is Wallis Simpson (sex) meets Koo Stark (bare flesh) meets Michelle Obama (speeches to the UN).” This “self-made, self-assured woman seems the perfect embodiment of a 21st century princess”, agreed Judith Woods in The Daily Telegraph: glamorous and media savvy, but also outspoken and “admirably articulate” on matters of gender and race (her mother is African American, her father is white).

Markle’s convictions seem to have rubbed off on Harry, said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. In last week’s statement he didn’t just complain about the usual intrusions by the newspapers (Markle’s mother being besieged by photographers, reporters trying to enter her home, the “substantial bribes” offered to her ex-boyfriend, and so on). He had a crack at their readers, too: deploring “the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments”. The fifth in line to the throne seems to be discovering his “inner liberal feminist”. Much good it will do him, said Rachel Johnson in The Mail on Sunday. The entire world ignored his plea for restraint, and simply leapt on his confirmation that he was dating Markle. Harry should have sent a “two-line advisory to editors, rather than making an international incident out of it”. Obviously, he has his reasons for hating media intrusion. But it would be far better, and far more effective, just to rise above it.