ROYAL COLUMN: the latest regal round-up from The Weekly’s Juliet Rieden
It has been a cataclysmic month for the royal family on so many fronts and as The Weekly goes to press one thing is certain, there’s a lot more hurt and upheaval to come. With Prince Philip in hospital – he underwent heart surgery on March 3 – and COVID-19 preventing the Queen from visiting her 99-year-old husband, early snippets from their grandson and granddaughter-in-law’s interview with US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey started to screen. One can only imagine how the 94-year-old monarch felt sitting alone in her “Windsor bubble” as Oprah declared, “you’ve said some pretty shocking things here” to Harry and Meghan in the bucolic garden of a Californian home (not theirs or Oprah’s we were later told) and offered, “I just want to make it clear to everybody there is no subject off limits.”
Daggers had already been drawn when The Times newspaper’s respected veteran royal correspondent Valentine Low reported that Meghan had faced a raft of bullying accusations when she was a working royal. The complaint came in October 2018 from the then Head of Communications for Kensington Palace and talked about “totally unacceptable” bullying of key royal household staff – the newspaper had the leaked email as proof. It appears nothing was done at the time, so for Palace insiders who suspected they might be in the firing line in the tell-all Oprah-o-thon it seemed the pertinent time to reveal their “truth”.
Almost immediately Meghan’s spokesperson released a statement declaring “the Duchess is saddened by this latest attack on her character”. Sources were quoted suggesting The Times story was part of a brazen smear campaign. But as damaging rumours swirled about the inner workings of the monarchy, Buckingham Palace felt compelled to respond announcing they would begin an internal investigation into the bullying accusations. (Actually, that investigation is now being carried out by an external law firm to ensure impartiality, but I digress.) The point is the battle had already begun before we’d even seen Oprah’s interview and those early shots across the bow only heightened tensions.
When the interview aired on March 7 with Prince Philip still not home – the longest hospitalisation ever for the proud royal – the timing felt at best unfortunate and worst callous. But Meghan and Harry held their nerve.
In advance of the two-hour TV event, ultimately watched by some 60 million at different times around the world, it was reported that Her Majesty had been joined by two new corgi puppies. The lively young pooches no doubt proved welcome companions for the Queen in Windsor Castle as aftershocks from the interview threatened the very foundations of the 1200-year-old monarchy itself.
The Queen and other senior members of the royal family had been on British TV screens only hours before the interview in a message recorded for Commonwealth Day. Ironically – or perhaps not – the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in 2020 was the last royal duty carried out by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Much was made of the tetchy body language between Harry and his brother on that day, and after the event Meghan hurried back to Frogmore Cottage, changed her clothes and fled to the airport with baby Archie to board a plane for Canada. She hasn’t returned to the UK since.
Walking down an avenue of Commonwealth flags in Windsor Castle, where Harry and Meghan’s wedding reception had been held so joyously in 2018, Her Majesty talked of “the courage, commitment and selfless dedication to duty demonstrated in every Commonwealth nation and territory” during the pandemic. There was nothing selfless about the Sussexes interview a few hours later, which was about to hit at the heart of the royal family’s position in the Commonwealth with its shocking allegations.
Royal advisors sat through the night to watch the US premiere and then faced the daunting task of briefing Her Majesty, Prince Charles and
“Many, especially in the US, think The Crown is a documentary.”
Prince William in the morning.
Many expected the confessional to be uncomfortable for the House of Windsor, but as Meghan and Harry ignited grenade after grenade aimed directly at the family itself, the world reeled and a rather ugly game of royal whodunnit began.
The revelations
In the choppy wake of the interview someone I met on my own whirl of media appearances said to me: “I wonder what Princess Margaret thinks?” When I confirmed that the Queen’s sister had sadly died in 2002, the questioner blushed. “Sorry, she’s still in The Crown,” she said. And herein lies one of the issues with current perceptions of the royal family – many, especially in the US, think the Netflix TV drama is a documentary and through this prism they settled in to watch Harry and Meghan. While putting The Crown out of our minds, I’d also advise before passing judgement that there are two, if not more, sides to every story and here the Sussexes presented their side.
But let’s start with the positive news – the couple is expecting a baby girl in the US summer. It was a rare moment of relief in the interview and Harry looked over the moon. The baby will complete the Sussex family, which also includes two dogs and chickens rescued from a battery farm. Oprah was welcomed into the chooks’ coop, which included a rustic house
– “Archie’s Chick Inn” – and later in the show viewers were treated to rare footage of toddler Archie on the beach with Meghan and rescue dog Guy.
Alas the most potent parts of the interview were far from positive and will, I’m sure, be discussed for years to come. For me the most distressing revelation was to hear about
Meghan’s crippling mental health struggles. She courageously opened up about her suicidal thoughts while five months pregnant with Archie. Meghan said she felt isolated and lonely and reduced to nothing by the pressures of royal life and racist and sexist media attacks. She said she had wanted to seek professional help but was advised it would not be “good for the institution”. When Oprah asked Prince Harry about his wife’s mental health and the moment when she told him, “I did not want to be alive anymore”, he revealed he was too ashamed to talk to his family about it. Considering his and William’s work in the mental health space with the Heads Together campaign, it was hard to hear. The very message the brothers had been propagating was playing out in their own home. Memories of their mother’s mental health battles rushed to the fore. Both Diana and Harry had sought help from therapists with the Palace’s blessing, so I do wonder why Meghan felt that path wasn’t open to her, but clearly the Duchess was in a fragile state.
As the media pitched Meghan against Kate in a string of gossip stories, Meghan says the Palace communications team refused to protect her. One key incident that has played on her mind was the report that Meghan supposedly made Kate cry during flower-girl dress fittings days before the wedding. This, Meghan said, was “the turning point” when “everything changed”. She dramatically declared “the reverse happened”, it was actually Kate who had made her cry and the Palace aides refused to refute the media narrative.
I suspect we will never know the full truth about the incident, but the royal press team rarely gets involved in this sort of media tittle-tattle, saving their breath for bigger battles. And while I’m sure hurt was felt by both duchesses, as Meghan’s best example of lack of Palace protection this felt petty and underwhelming.
Far more damaging, however, was the revelation that when she was pregnant with Archie, Meghan said there were “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”. This comment, she said, came from a senior royal and was part of a conversation with Harry, though when questioned the Prince refused to reveal the identity of that person, clarifying to Oprah off camera that it wasn’t Her Majesty or the Duke of Edinburgh.
The suggestion of casual racism at the very heart of the royal family became the main line from the interview as a witch-hunt sparked to name the individual responsible.
While the comment is abhorrent and indefensible, without context it’s hard to unpick and neither Meghan nor Harry were prepared to give context.
My own experience of the royal family and the household is to use Meghan’s words “the reverse”. Prince Charles has worked tirelessly to build relations with multicultural communities in Britain and around the world. He champions cultural exchange with initiatives including Islamic art courses at his Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts and multi-faith speeches, while Her Majesty has dedicated her reign to the Commonwealth as a place where leaders from all faiths and races can share ideas.
The couple also raised the issue of security. Harry said the family had cut off his allowance while he was in Canada and his father stopped taking his calls for a while, though they are back in touch now. Meghan complained that Archie was denied the title of Prince and the security detail that went with it.
It was frustrating that Oprah didn’t investigate this issue. Not only was Archie never going to be a prince, according to protocol set out by King George V, but decisions about protection for members for the royal family are a matter for the British police and Home Office, not the Palace.
In fact, Archie will be entitled to be called Prince when Prince
Charles accedes. And of course, in their current situation, no longer working for the royal family and living in the US, the couple could hardly expect the British taxpayer to fund their private security.
As for cutting off funds, wasn’t it Harry and Meghan who declared they wanted to achieve financial independence in their new life?
For me the saddest part of this interview was the breakdown in family relations. Prince Harry said he felt “let down” by his father “because he’s been through something similar, he knows what pain feels like and Archie’s his grandson … there’s a lot of hurt … and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship”. As for his relationship with William there was “space” between them but he would always “love him to bits”.
On the evening on the day after the interview Her Majesty responded. The
“The saddest part was the breakdown of family relations.”
statement was restrained, dignified and in its brief 61 words spoke volumes. “The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan.
The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry,
Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”
The monarch was offering empathy as a grandmother, but it was clear she was not accepting every detail of Harry and Meghan’s exposé.
The fallout has seen nations take sides, with Harry and Meghan praised in the US and slammed in the UK, while here in Australia I feel we are shell-shocked. The bigger question for me is what the couple was hoping to achieve with this interview. I appreciate they wanted to have their say, but in doing so they have severely damaged the legacy of the grandmother Harry claims to love and respect as his “Colonel-in-Chief”.
On British Mother’s Day William and Kate released moving letters of love from Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte for Diana, the grandmother they never knew. And Harry organised for flowers to be laid on his mother’s grave at Althorp House. What would Diana have thought of the brothers so divided and the monarchy attacked? I think she would be devastated.