Royal Pains

First up, I’ve been waiting 25 years for someone in the royal family to cause trouble so I could use that headline- “Royal Pains.” Now that that’s out of the way let me tell you a funny story before I talk about Harry and Meghan.

Work long enough as a journalist and eventually you get a phone call like this one. A guy calls the newsroom and asks to talk to a reporter because he has a very important story and he’s willing to give you the “scoop.” You take the call and the man on the other end says, “Hey, I live near the airport and for years and years we had peace and quiet but now they are sending planes right over the house and we can’t sleep.”

You scratch your head and ask if it isn’t a normal occurrence for planes to fly near an airport? The caller says, “Well, duh, yeah, of course but not over my house. I bought a house on the side of the airport where they don’t fly and now all the sudden they do. Not all the time but enough that it bugs me. Something has to be done about it.”

You take copious notes, get the guy’s phone number and promise to call back after you do some digging. Your one and only call is to the public relations person at the airport and you ask if something has indeed changed in the flight patterns? He or she tells you that nothing has changed but the direction of the wind on occasion and when that happens they use different runways for take-offs and landings.

They tell you they’ve been doing this since the Wright brothers flew planes hither and yon.

You call the first guy back and share what you’ve learned and he says everybody is lying and it’s not windy and it’s all a big cover-up. After another ten minutes of this nonsense you lose patience and say the one thing you’ve been thinking since the moment this man first called you, “Sir, with all due respect, if you don’t like the sound of planes, why would you buy a house near the airport?”

After calling you names that involve your mother, the man hangs up.

By now you’re wondering what a man complaining about the airport has to do with the royal family? Well, let me tell you my friend. Prince Harry has been Prince Harry since the day he was born. This whole Buckingham Palace thing wasn’t sprung on anyone as a surprise, wouldn’t you agree? In fact I’m guessing that, once you put aside his boyish good looks and charm, Harry being a very rich prince and part of the royal family of England was one of his most attractive qualities.

So, imagine my surprise (and I’m guessing the surprise of most of England) when Harry’s wife Meghan married into the royal family and noticed it comes with a lot of attention; some of it unwanted.

I normally don’t follow anything royal or British but I was always a fan of Princess Diana and my heart broke when she died and left those boys without a mother. Secretly, from my modest home in Rensselaer County, I’ve been rooting for both of them to find happiness in this cold, cruel world. William found it first and then came Harry and the beautiful American actress.

Now my heart breaks a second time as I see, not very long into his marriage, Harry is trying to make his wife happy by breaking away from his own royal family. I’m not blaming anyone, especially Meghan Markle, but I feel like they both bought the house by the airport and now she and her husband are complaining about the sound of planes.

Listen, I don’t have a dog in this fight one way or the other, I just hate to see two brothers pulled apart like warm soft bread. When William said he used to always put an arm around his little brother Harry and now he can’t, I thought of my own two brothers and felt sad. I have to believe there are lots of families all over where this storyline is hitting all too close to home; a child gets married and suddenly they pull away from the family and traditions.

Sometimes they even move far, far away. Good luck seeing the grand-kids.

I know some of you could care less about the royals and maybe you’re secretly glad to see such privileged people dealing with nonsense like this on a public stage. But for me it’s not about Meghan or the queen or who gets to someday be king. For me it goes back to Diana and her two boys. When she died they had each other. Best friends forever.

I hope they never forget that, no matter what.

I’m all for branching out and making a life of your own but I hope when the dust settles Harry remembers who he is and finds his way home, with Meghan and a couple royal rascals by his side.