Sunday Punch 2

He is Britain’s most eligible bachelor. Well, at least he was until he announced his engagement to a woman across the Atlantic coming from a background as different and as wide as the ocean that separates London from New York. But what does it matter when this crazy little thing called Love makes even a Prince of the Realm bite the dust to seek bliss in chalk to his cheese.

His grandmother is the Queen of England. His father Prince of Wales, next in line to the throne of that sceptered isle of Britain. His elder brother waiting his time and turn to assume the British throne thereafter. And he, himself, the sixth in line to the throne. Not bad a pedigree, when you come to thinks of it, is it now? Even though Britain has fallen on hard times, and is now as common as the common market they voluntarily exited from last year, royal blood still counts.

But is he truly royal, with blue blood throbbing through his veins? Poor Harry. For the last few years he has lived under a cloud of rumour and calumny that he may not have royal blood at all, that he is not Charles’ son but the illegitimate son of Diana and her bodyguard married father of two Barry Mannakee. Especially after Diana admitted to the affair in a series of videos which became public earlier this year when Channel 4 aired the documentary titled Diana: In her own words.

She said “I was deeply in love with him, I was playing with fire and I got burned. But I never had sex with him. I was quite happy to give it all up... just to go off and live with him. Can you believe it? And he kept saying he thought it was a good idea too.” Mannakee, who was 40 at the time, was killed in a road crash three weeks after he was removed from his post in 1987. Diana claimed that he had been murdered. She said: It was all found out and he was chucked out and then he was killed. And that was the biggest blow of my life I must say. ” And she, Meghan? Well, though she was not born with a royal tiara upon her head, still none will deny that she has earned a few dubious diamonds to make her Harry’s best friend as wife, hopefully, for life.

For starters, she’s American. And divorced. She’s also three years older than him. She’s also half black. But there’s more. She’s also an actress. A small time TV one at that. She has also appeared semi nude. And now, splashed across the front pages of the world’s newspapers, are photographs which reveal Meghan Markle sparkle in topless glory to be viewed by every lecherous eye. If that’s okay for a prince, why should it not be okay for frogs, you might as well ask? As Harry told the BBC in an interview last month, his late mother, Princess Diana, would have been "over the moon" about the pair's engagement.

On Thursday the couple released two photographs of their engagement. The Ralph & Russo gown was a daring number for the future member of the royal family, but braless Markle opted for a nude-colored lining to make the see through dress more modest. London’s Daily Star wrote, “Prince Harry’s fiancé Meghan Markle left fans goggle-eyed yesterday when she ditched her bra for the sauciest official pictures ever released by the Royal Family” and headlined the story ‘Saucy Meg’s Royal Flash’.

The price: 56,000 British pounds or nearly twelve million Lankan bucks. This had a Daily Mail columnist writing, “Not for Meghan a nice bit of LK Bennett or even a Catherine Walker. Oh no. This is from the stable of Ralph & Russo, a label deliberately created to help the very rich dispose of their cash by dreaming up ever more extravagant ways of stitching together a few pieces of fabric”. Britain’s best selling daily The Sun slammed the extravagant price of the one off dress saying, ‘its £56,000 price tag is equivalent to a three-bedroom house in Hull or double the average annual UK salary’.

Eighty years ago Harry’s great grand uncle Edward the Seventh, King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 was forced to abdicate the throne of England when he chose love placed in his heart than to the crown placed upon his head. Times certainly were different then.

But then, of course, Edward was the Prince of Wales, directly in line to the throne when he began his affair with Mrs. Wallis Simpson. And neither was he a nerd. Before he met her he had already established his credentials as a womanizer, who could wake many a sleeping married woman with a kiss from his lips, The world was his oyster, and many a young debutant, the prized realm’s cream of Britain’s aristocratic society, awaited the honour for him to crack the pearl’s shell.

And, when he became king on the death of his father, he wished to have his crumpet and eat it too, the British establishment would have none of it. He had the support of Winston Churchill to canvass the case for him but even the old bull dog who within ten years would win the war for England with his morale soaring oratory, could not save the king his throne and had to make do with writing the King’s ”The Heart Has its Reasons” abdication speech and make the last of the romantic king of England say ”I cannot discharge the burdens of my office as king without the love and support of the woman I love.“

You also may ask, but Edward was king, and that was different. Presently Prince Harry, formally called Prince Henry of Wales, is fifth in line for the