Meghan speaks out A blow to the royal family
A bomb was “dropped on the monarchy” on Monday night, said Camilla Tominey in The Daily Telegraph. Viewers in the UK who watched the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey were left wondering whether “the cratersized hole” in the couple’s relationship with the other royals could ever be repaired. The Duchess claimed that she was so unhappy during the first years of her marriage that she “just didn’t want to be alive any more” – but that the Palace gave her no help or support. That was deeply damaging. Worse still were the allegations of racism within the Firm – that an unnamed royal had, before the birth of their son Archie, raised concerns about “how dark his skin might be”. The interview also laid bare “the fractured nature of Prince Harry’s family ties”. Harry revealed that his father had stopped taking his calls during discussions about his plan to step aside from royal duties. And he confirmed that there is a rift between him and William: their relationship, he said, is one of “space at the moment”.
Be in no doubt, said David Olusoga in The Guardian: this is the most serious crisis the royal family has faced since the death of Princess Diana, possibly since Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936. At Harry and Meghan’s wedding, just three years ago, Britain “projected to the world an image of itself as a confident, modern country”; at ease with multiculturalism, its ancient institutions adapting to changing times. “The truth is that living up to that image, of a land with a black princess and a mixed-race child in the line of succession, was simply too difficult.” And that is potentially fatal to the Windsors’ claim to represent modern Britain.
Perhaps, if you take the claims at face value, said The Daily Telegraph. But we only have Meghan’s version “of the circumstances that caused such despair”. The Palace put out a statement this week expressing concern and a determination to deal with the matter privately, but observing that “recollections may vary”. The interview reflected “her truth”, as Oprah likes to say, said Melanie McDonagh in The Spectator: Kate made Meghan cry, during a row about flower girl dresses before her wedding, not the other way round; Prince Charles kept them short of funds. Some of her claims were clearly dubious, said Allison Pearson in The Daily Telegraph. For instance, she said the Palace decided that Archie, the first person of colour in the royal family, would not be made a prince – and so would not be given royal protection. But the monarch’s great-grandchildren aren’t usually given such titles; and neither Princess Anne nor Prince Edward’s children are princes or princesses. The decision to keep the titles in the direct line is not unreasonable or unprecedented. And police protection is given to working royals, not to those with titles. Yet Meghan and Harry chose to view all this as “a personal slight”.
Let’s be honest, the whole interview was appalling, said Quentin Letts in The Times. “A steaming dump of indiscretions: whinges about money and titles and bodyguards and the rotten tabloid press (presumably quite different from tabloid television).” When it came to the “intended killer blow”, the racism allegation, Harry piously intoned: “That conversation I am never going to share” – just after he and his wife “had disgorged its existence to a worldwide audience”. Have some sympathy, said Helen Lewis in The Atlantic. Every royal wife has been subjected to “the tabloid ducking stool”. Remember Kate the social climber, and the “Duchess of Pork”? Meghan was shocked by the Firm’s attitude: “keep your head down and let your work speak for itself”. And really, she was right to be. With her Californian therapy-speak, she may not appeal to British audiences – but if Meghan can “change the tone of royal coverage”, she’ll have done us a favour.
“This is perhaps the most serious crisis the royal family has faced since Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936”
I very much doubt that will happen, said Marina Hyde in The Guardian. The Sussexes may have “stepped back” from their royal duties, but they’re still working in the best Windsor tradition, of providing “great drama” for the people. This is not, of course, what people say they want from the royals. “People say they want dutiful ribbon-cutters who speak in platitudes, and only biannually.” The truth, though, is that they want “high drama, pure mess, grotesque villains and a side to take”. And these, Harry and Meghan have most certainly provided. The Duke and Duchess seem to think that “having now had their say, they will be able to draw a line under this sorry saga and move on with their new lives in California”, said The Times. Unfortunately, “the remorseless logic of celebrity life” means this will never happen. They worry about media intrusion, but have now provoked a worldwide frenzy of interest in their lives. It will inexorably lead to many more such interviews and more lurid claims and counter-claims. “That is their own self-inflicted fate.”