Will the popular couple be able to reconcile their royal responsibilities with their desire for privacy?

As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex take time out away from the spotlight, Juliet Rieden investigates why this royal duo is clearly not okay and talks to experts about what their future holds.

P

rince Harry has always worn his heart on his sleeve and currently that heart is hurting. His wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is finding life in the spotlight uncomfortable at best and unbearable at worst.

Her torment behind Palace doors is reminding him of the battles faced by his own mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, he says. “I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”

For Harry and Meghan, the media are at fault, and specifically the British tabloids, which Harry claims are “destroying lives” with their “bullying”. In today’s digital age these “derogatory”

fabricated stories, says Harry, are then repeated on clickbait websites and media platforms around the globe (including in Australia). “No longer tomorrow’s chip paper” but a snake that grows heads, spitting more venom as the hours go by, the lies multiplying exponentially. “There is a human cost to this relentless propaganda, specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious,” writes Harry. “I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been.” Whether the Sussexes are accurate in their sweeping criticism, it is now evident that the endless barrage of criticism – from supposed family rifts, to ideological hypocrisy when taking private jets while espousing environmental activism, and keeping baby Archie away from the public that pays for the roof over his head – is taking its toll on the new parents. Behind the smiles, the heartfelt speeches, the hugs and the infectious energy there is no question that this would-be changemaker couple is struggling.

We’re not okay

Of course, it’s not the first time that royals have been battered in the court of media opinion, but that the sixth in line to the throne wants people to know about their pain is where Harry and Meghan are charting new royal territory. It is rare to know what the Royal Firm thinks. Leaked Palace sources with varying degrees of veracity are often quoted as barometers of House of Windsor opinions, but never the Queen, princes, dukes and duchesses themselves. So, yes, this is different. First came Prince Harry’s strongly worded statement, released on a previously unused Sussex website, calling out the “British tabloid press” as bullies and liars, and announcing that Meghan had taken legal action against UK’s Mail on Sunday newspaper for “the misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018.” This was all about that heartwrenching private letter that Meghan had written to her father Thomas. →