Meghan’s astonishing tale of harmonious fatherhood
EVER since I was a child, I have suffered amusia.
It’s not a disability that has ever held me back, belting out songs while in my car or the shower, but ultimately, I’ve yet to meet anyone as tone-deaf as me.
However, this week, it seems I may have competition. If there was an award for the most tonedeaf person on the planet, Meghan Markle would be up there.
As the fallout from the accusations the Duchess of Sussex and husband Harry made in their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey continues, she has announced she is to publish a children’s book.
Called The Bench and out next month, Meghan explained it was inspired by a Father’s Day poem she wrote for Prince Harry.
“The Bench started as a poem I wrote for my husband on Father’s Day, the month after Archie was born,” the pregnant Duchess gushed.
“That poem became this story.” Meghan, 39, who is expecting a daughter in the summer, said she wanted her book to be told through an “inclusive lens” and feature a “diverse group of father and sons”.
In one illustration in the book, a ginger-haired soldier dressed in army fatigues is seen holding his son aloft as a woman watches on, crying from a window.
It is no doubt a reference to Harry, who served in Afghanistan with the Blues and Royals.
According to publisher Random House, The Bench is a story that “touchingly captures the evolving and expanding relationship between fathers and sons and reminds us of the many ways that love can take shape and be expressed in a modern family”.
“Evoking a deep sense of warmth, connection, and compassion, The Bench gives readers a window into shared and enduring moments between a diverse group of fathers and sons – moments of peace and reflection, trust and belief, discovery and learning, and lasting comfort,” the company adds. Such a book from someone whose relationship with her own father is broken beyond repair, while that with her father-in-law, Prince Charles, was trashed by she and Harry in front of billions of viewers around the world. Quite astonishing.
It is little wonder many accused her of hypocrisy. Meghan famously cut her own father adrift ahead of her May 2019 wedding, while in March, she sat by as Harry claimed his father and his family cut him off financially at the start of 2020, when the couple said they wanted to leave royal life.
The interview is said to have left Charles “in a state of despair” and he and Harry have been unable to repair the damage.
The choice of the book’s subject is odd to say the least, given all of the things she could write about.
It has been viewed by some to be an indirect dig at the Prince of Wales as a father after all the accusations Harry made during their Oprah interview.
Perhaps the last chapter is about a dad telling his son he’s old enough to earn his own money now, and the son having a massive hissy fit and moaning to the world about it?