Sussex show was no soap Oprah
RI WAS rock-solid certain I’d hate the Meghan and Harry TV show. Not just because of the potential damage it might do to our monarchy, but because of the way I expected the couple to come over. I often quote the late Clive James’s remark about being interviewed on TV: “It’s not what you say that matters – it’s how you come across.”
Well Meghan and Harry (named in the correct order, I think) came across far better than I was expecting. I settled down to watch what I was confident would be a two-hour whinge, laced with theatrics from her and west-coast woke-speak from him.
All those peep-show preprogramme promotional clips had given the impression we were in for the TV version of a supermarket tabloid tell-all exclusive – cheap, trashy and ultimately unconvincing.
But be honest: whatever you think about the wisdom of them submitting to Oprah’s scalpel, it just wasn’t like that, was it? As the interview unfolded, the only theatrics on show were being displayed by the host. Oprah’s little gasps and wide-eyed responses to the couple’s more shocking claims were pure schmaltz.
But Meghan herself, the only actor on set, was (to this cynical old hack, at least) speaking – as Oprah would say – “her truth”.Allegations were delivered with conviction, minus any of the tricks of her trade.
In fact it felt a lot less stagey than Diana’s heavily kohled appearance
on Panorama more than 25 years ago.When Harry made three, he spoke simply and with what was obviously genuine sadness. His face was bleak with sorrow as he described the estrangement from his father.You could see his pain: it was written all over him.
When it came to those allegations of racism within the Royal Family – much trailed in the pre-publicity snippets – I was expecting to dismiss them more or less out of hand.
But again those expectations were confounded.They were horribly believable.Who on earth would even think of asking a new parent what shade of brown the skin of their mixed-race child might be?What a question!Why on earth ask it?What was poor Harry supposed to reply? How could he possibly know, and why would he care anyway?
Both parents stood firm against
Oprah’s repeated attempts to persuade them to name and shame the royal involved (off-camera as well as on, apparently).
They’ve taken a lot of flak for that, but I think it was a wise and even kind decision. “It would be very damaging for them,” Meghan said, evenly. (And it will be – a story as big as this is bound to leak eventually).
Should Meghan and Harry have done it?
Stepping back from that impassioned debate, there’s a deeper truth.When families or institutions stifle discussion, argument and debate (“never complain, never explain”) huge pressures build up from within.
Ultimately, an explosion is inevitable.That’s the lesson the Windsors should have learnt after Diana. Maybe they will now. Despite everything, it’s not too late.
TENNIS ace Andy Murray and his wife Kim Sears have welcomed their fourth child on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Dunblane massacre at his primary school.
The couple already have two daughters and a son – Sophia, five, Edie, three, and one-yearold Teddy.
The gender of the newborn has not yet been revealed, as Andy is notoriously private about his family life. But the double Wimbledon champion has withdrawn from next week’s Tennis Championships in Dubai to take paternity leave.
Andy and Kim, also 33, began dating in 2005 and married in April 2015.
Attention
They live in a £5million mansion in Oxshott, Surrey.
Last year Murray talked about his “busy” life with three youngsters under five.
He said: “It can be difficult because the eldest are always wanting – and getting – your attention, whereas the youngest one is left fighting for it a little bit more. But he’s a lot more interested in the active stuff, so far. He just wants to throw and chase balls the whole time.”
Andy and his brother Jamie were pupils at Dunblane Primary on March 13, 1996, when a lone gunman shot dead 16 children and their teacher.