A deliberate attempt to cause most harm

The interview given by the Duchess and Duke of Sussex (in that order) to the American chat show host Oprah Winfrey was every bit as damaging as had been feared. The couple were afforded two hours of prime time television in which to unburden themselves, unchallenged, about the perceived injustices inflicted upon them by a distant, uncaring and suffocating institution, the British monarchy.

We were invited to accept “their truth” as an objective depiction of what happened when a mixed-race woman, unversed in royal protocol, sought to become part of “the Firm” only to be left to flounder without help, money and security while being confronted with barely suppressed racist attitudes.

The couple evidently feel hard done by, though their principal gripe seems to have been the failure to treat them as equals with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. We were told that little effort was made to integrate the Duchess into the family, yet at the time of their engagement everyone from the Queen down strove to welcome Meghan Markle into the public role she had voluntarily assumed.

Unlike the 19-year-old Diana Spencer, to whom the Duchess clearly wishes to be compared, she was a divorced woman in her 30s fully versed in the ways of the world. That she almost immediately found the conventions of royal life too restrictive has had baleful ramifications, leading the Duke to break with his family, friends and country.

Perhaps it should have been made clearer before her marriage what was in store. Perhaps some royal traditions should have been abandoned to accommodate the Duchess’s wishes and ensure the couple stayed on board.

That her life was made so miserable she apparently contemplated ending it is dreadful. But we only have her account of the circumstances that caused such despair, unless Buckingham Palace responds with a point-by-point rebuttal, which would be unwise, if tempting. Amateur psychologists might also point to the Duchess’s fraught relationship with her father and how some of the difficulties could have been avoided had he been involved at the outset of her relationship with Prince Harry, whom he has never met. He has not even seen his grandson, Archie, who will be two in May.

Family dysfunctionality is evident on both sides and in the Duke’s case has hardly been eased by the disclosure that the Prince of Wales declined to take his phone calls or that his rift with the Duke of Cambridge has not been healed, though he hoped it would be.

The greatest furore has been caused by the Duchess’s claim that someone in the Royal family had shown “concern” about the colour of their baby’s skin. She would not say who because it would be “damaging to them” so it was left hanging in the air as an accusation, besmirching the entire institution, though the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have since been exonerated. Since the Duchess never heard this directly and the Duke would not comment further, it is impossible to establish either its veracity or context and yet it has led to an explosive debate centred on the premise that the UK monarchy is racist. To call this accusation toxic would be an understatement. The Duchess even implied that their son was denied the title of prince because of some racist slight rather than as a matter of protocol.

Will the interview do lasting damage to the monarchy? The institution has withstood far worse in the past but the artful way this onslaught was put together suggests a deliberate attempt to cause maximum harm by playing up the most damaging tropes of the modern culture wars, namely racism, bullying, a lack of empathy and a failure to emote. This may play well with the younger generation but more traditionalist supporters of the monarchy will find it grotesque.

They will also question the timing of such an intervention in the midst of a pandemic that has blighted the lives of millions of people less fortunate than them, and conducted while the Duke of Edinburgh, approaching his 100th birthday, remains in hospital. At the very least it points to staggering levels of self-absorption and sits uncomfortably with their oft-stated desire to be left in peace.

The couple have taken legal action against newspapers for breaching their privacy yet are happy to bare all to 100 million viewers on primetime TV. The programme makers promised “shocking revelations” and the Duke and Duchess delivered them. Sad to say that, in doing so, they have well and truly burnt their bridges.

Unlike the 19-year-old Diana, the Duchess was in her 30s and fully versed in the ways of the world

Their accusations have led to an explosive debate centred on the premise that the monarchy is racist

Will the interview do lasting damage to the monarchy? The institution has withstood far worse