Meghan and Harry

by Lady Colin Cambell

  It was now apparent that Meghan was a formidable propagandist, on a par with Diana, Princess of Wales, whom Sir David English, head of Associated Press, described as possessing a genius for self-promotion. Because Diana functioned at a time when the internet did not exist, she was handicapped in having to use the press to get her message across. Although Meghan replicated Diana’s practice of exploiting her links to sympathetic organs within the media such as People magazine, she had direct access to her supporters via the web in a way Diana never had, and was making skilful use of this access to mould her followers’ opinion of her and Harry. What was interesting was how she possessed the same cocktail of traits that Diana had: charm and sincerity mixed with contrivance and opportunism, all overlaid with a patina of vulnerability and dextrous assertiveness.

  The developing parallels between the two women, as they went about fashioning their public images, were truly remarkable. Both women had the same technique: providing journalists and photographers with the variety and novelty necessary to keep themselves on the front pages of newspapers. Even when they were out of sympathy with both women’s viewpoint, these representatives of the media nevertheless guaranteed them attention they would thereafter use to their ultimate advantage as they did the alchemist’s trick of turning the base metal of negative publicity into the gold of ever-increasing celebrity.

  If variable reinforcement was a tool both Diana and Meghan knew the value of, so too was the lure of letting the public get glimpses of their ‘secret’ and ‘private’ worlds. Diana’s most outstanding example of this was the Panorama interview with Martin Bashir, but on a daily basis she used to drip-fed ‘private’ and ‘secret’ information about herself to friendly journalists such as Richard Kay. It was interesting to see how Meghan was updating that concept, sharing such things as ‘secret’ visits to charities and in the process shaping her public image into that of a dedicated humanitarian.

  In one regard, Meghan’s deployment of her media skills was more akin to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s than to Diana, Princess of Wales’s. While married, Elizabeth had always taken care to project herself as one half of a golden couple, pushing forward the reticent Duke of York who then became King George VI. In the process, Elizabeth became acknowledged as a wonderful wife and marvellous human being. Diana had never done this. In fact, she had done the opposite, always running Prince Charles down or competing with him to his detriment, but to her daughter-in-law’s credit this was one error Meghan was not making. Harry might no longer be the boy who could do no wrong in the eyes of his formerly adoring public, but he remained visibly one half of the Sussex double act, with the core message being that he and Meghan were a great love story, on a par with the greatest lovers of history such as Romeo and Juliet, Abelard and Heloise, Tristan and Isolde, Albert and Victoria, even Bonnie and Clyde. Whenever and wherever they appeared, Harry and Meghan held hands, their overwhelming love and obvious affection for each other evident as they acted out being the embodiment of true love. There should have been no doubt that theirs was a genuine love story, for their every movement and action projected how strongly they felt about each other. Sadly, however, the British press and too large a proportion of the British public seemed unconvinced that they were anything but a conniving actress and her willing dupe. Meghan’s public displays of affection were not regarded as marks of sincerity, but methods of control which only Harry could not see through.

  Now more than ever it was becoming obvious that Meghan had two hurdles to overcome before either the British press or public would become convinced that she was a genuine humanitarian, let alone a sincere individual. The first hurdle was the unfortunate state of her relationship her father, which perturbed all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons, and the second was her patent lack of respect for the traditions which many Britons held dear. Little did both the press and public know, but they were about to be relegated to insignificance the way her father and British traditions had been. She was preparing to move on from her twin nemeses with a decisiveness which would shock them all.

  Few people except Harry and Meghan knew what they were planning as 2020 dawned. Someone close to them said, ‘I’m pretty sure neither of them knew exactly how things would pan out. They knew what their objectives were, but they didn’t have the nuts and bolts nailed down. He’s an innocent abroad and she’s a great visionary who feels her way strategically towards her goal without actually being able to read a roadmap. A lot of their tactics are ad hoc, spur of the moment stuff. They make things up as they go along. They play their cards close to their chest because half the time they really don’t know what they’re going to be doing next. What they do know, though, is where they want to be. That’s living an A-List billionaire lifestyle in California, feted by the film world as great humanitarians.’

  With that in mind, Harry and Meghan had been using social media to put their case in subtle and not so subtle ways for the better part of a year. Their posts had gradually become both mischievous and competitive, begging the question whether the bad old days of Diana had returned. The late Princess of Wales would do anything to grab column inches away from Charles and the other royals, sometimes even the Queen. Such as the time she had started to play the piano as he was about to make a speech, or when she wore a new hairstyle while accompanying the Queen to the State Opening of Parliament, or when she posed in pathetic solitude outside the Taj Mahal.

  It certainly seemed that the spirit of Diana had returned in the body of Meghan, and that Harry, who had been too young to appreciate the nuisance his mischief making mother had been, was only too eager to go along with what royalists regarded as the unnecessary and potentially destructive competitiveness which had crept into the Sussexes’ PR at the expense of the other royals’ activities. In the past year, there had been too many occasions on which he and Meghan had snatched publicity away from the other members of the family, usually by means of carefully calibrated postings. This was just the sort of conduct no one at the palace, in the Establishment or the Royal Family wanted, and while the press were having a field day with it, it was not up to the media to suppress the reporting of valid news by ignoring the obvious antipathies. The way for Harry and Meghan to avoid the criticism that was coming their way was to desist from being newsworthy in a negative way and at counterproductive times.

  The first brazen scene-stealing ploy had taken place in April 2019, shortly after the Sussexes had branched out on their own. Catherine Cambridge is a keen photographer who posts pictures of her children for their birthdays. She had posted an adorable one of Louis for his first birthday. Within hours the Sussexes had knocked her out of the news by cranking out wildlife pictures taken by Harry of a lion, a rhinoceros, and an elephant in celebration of Earth Day. These received 787,000 likes compared with Catherine’s 1.2m, but royal author Phil Dampier expressed the view of many when he said, ’It starts to look like Harry and Meghan are in competition.’

  There was an almost amusing postscript to the picture Meghan and Harry posted. The Mail on Sunday published an uncropped version of the elephant, showing that it had been tethered and sedated, while the other two animals had also been drugged into docility. The pictures therefore represented anything but wildlife. Harry complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation, denying having misled the public, but his complaint was rejected at the end of January 2020.

  In June 2019, Meghan successfully belittled Catherine Cambridge’s appearance at Wimbledon following her own disastrous appearance there. William’s wife is an avid tennis player as well as Patron of the All England Club. In that capacity, she presents the trophies to the winners at Wimbledon. This she did as usual, but Meghan managed to knock her and the champions off the front pages of the papers and acquire 1.3m likes - compared with her sister-in-law’s 670,000 - by turning up with Harry for the premiere of the Lion King and, after greeting Jay-Z and Beyoncé, who called her ‘my princess’, successfully garnered sympathy for herself when Pharrell Willi
ams told her how much her ‘union’ meant to people of colour, and how ‘We cheer you guys on.’ After thanking him for his words of encouragement, Meghan’s response, which was reported upon worldwide along with her attendance at the event, was, ‘They don’t make it easy.’

  What, people wanted to know, intrigued by the apparent anomaly of Meghan’s comment, did she mean? Was she struggling? And if so, why? In a few well-chosen words, she had managed to suck the public into a mystery of her own fabrication, in the process making herself and her feelings into the story. Undoubtedly, Meghan was every bit as skilled as her late mother-in-law at winning the limelight away from all competitors.

  Despite this, critics wanted to know why Harry, Captain General of the Marines, had missed the memorial concert marking the 30th anniversary of the death of 11 Marines when the IRA had bombed the Royal Marine Depot at Deal. Surely Meghan could have attended the Lion King premiere on her own while he attended the memorial concert? This again struck a wrong note with people who genuinely wanted harmony, and moreover wanted to see the Royal Family function as a dignified and unified unit, each one in step with the other, rather than one couple knocking another off its perch.

  Controversy, however, had replaced unity, with Harry and Meghan overshadowing the other royals even when it was not in the best interests of the Family or the Nation. Twice in a calendar month they managed to overshadow royal tours, the first being their own in South Africa, the second being the Cambridges’ tour of Pakistan in October 2019. This had been an important event, long in the making, with high hopes on both sides for its success. However, it was completely eclipsed by the sensational teaser tapes of the Sussexes’ forthcoming interview with Tom Bradby, resulting in a courtier stating, ‘This move has certainly overshadowed the Pakistan visit and what has been achieved here during the last few days, as well as a lot of work by an awful lot of dedicated people here on the ground as well as back home for months.’

  All journalists press thrill to a competition, and now that they were aware that one genuinely existed between the Sussexes and the other royals in general, and the Cambridges in particular, they focused on it. Even before they discovered that Meghan had instructed her American representatives to make her the most popular woman on earth, with the largest Instagram following, and bigger than Diana, they began noting how Harry and Meghan were using postings to trump his brother and Catherine.

  Up to January 2020, the Cambridges had more Instagram followers than the Sussexes. While both couples were small change (11+m followers) compared with the big hitters such as Cristiano Ronaldo (187m), Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (159m), Selena Gomez (158m), Kim Kardashian (150m), and Kylie Jenner (148m), Meghan and Harry’s postings systematically rained on William and Catherine’s parade. Even though Meghan’s ambition was ultimately to put Ronaldo in the shade, she nevertheless timed her posts for maximum impact with the seemingly specific purpose of knocking her in-laws out of the running. For instance, on a day that Catherine was fulfilling three official engagements, Meghan managed to steal her thunder yet again by posting a picture of herself, taken two weeks before in London at the Mayhew animal charity, as she beamed beatifically while stroking an infirm dog. The Daily Express royal correspondent Richard Palmer felt compelled to tweet, ‘Wow what unfortunate timing that once again, just as a senior member of the Royal Family was heralding an important initiative, the Sussex Royal Instagram account kicked into life with some PR pictures at the very same moment.’

  Meghan is nothing if not canny. Being a child of Hollywood, she knows what grabs attention. Dogs, kids, and beatific beaming will do it every time, at least for people who like their idols wearing their hearts on their sleeves and showing their admirers what wonderful, caring, feeling, hyper-glamorous but always-down-to-earth individuals they are. There is also the unavoidable fact that Meghan Markle is an infinitely more interesting personality than Catherine Cambridge. People with side are always more unpredictable and entertaining than straightforward women like Catherine. For that reason alone, it is not surprising that she and Harry finally caught up with Catherine and William on Instagram, though their success would remain short lived.

  There is also the fact that while Meghan is obsessively competitive, with the stated goal of possessing the largest Instagram following on earth, Catherine did not want to be in a competition with her sister-in-law. Now that Meghan has departed, the Duchess of Cambridge is said to be relieved that the competitive atmosphere has abated. As far as she is concerned, being Duchess of Cambridge who will one day be Princess of Wales then Queen of the United Kingdom is more than enough for her. She does not need to strip Ronaldo of his crown and disliked the air of tension Meghan created as she set about scene-stealing on her quest for ever-greater acknowledgement.

  Meghan, however, had a far more American view of her position. Her goals belied her heritage, just as Catherine Cambridge’s belied hers. Meghan’s target audience was not and had never been the British people but the American worlds of commerce and entertainment. Being a businesswoman, she understood only too well the monetary value a large Instagram following could have. The Kardashians are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per posting, sometimes even millions, and her goal is to supplant them and derive all the financial benefits they possess.

  Meghan understood that she did not have to be popular with everyone, just with those who liked her. She could therefore afford to disdain her critics, for, painful though their disregard of her was, they were not worth winning over because they did not hold the keys to success. Only her supporters held those, and it was to them she and Harry played, making the point time and again that they were the premiere couple in the royal world, not William and Catherine. That, of course, did not mean that she could abide criticism, and that wouldn’t work to shut down her critics, but it did mean that she had contempt for those who stood in her way as only someone who is as self-righteous and self-confident as Meghan could.

  It was therefore not surprising that she and Harry chose the night before Catherine’s 38th birthday on the 9th January 2020 to reveal to the world and the Royal Family via Instagram that they would be reconstituting their roles.

  They announced:

  ‘After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen. It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment. We now plan to balance our time between North America and the United Kingdom, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages. This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation of the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity. We look forward to sharing the full details of this exciting next step in due course, as we continue to collaborate with Her Majesty The Queen, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cambridge and all relevant parties. Until then, please accept our deepest thanks for your continued support.’

  Once more, Meghan and Harry had chosen to use social media to dictate the agenda and shape the narrative. There had indeed been discussions over the past few months concerning their desire to live on both sides of the Atlantic while engaging in commercial activities. These had not gone as well as they would have liked. There was considerable opposition to them ‘wanting to eat their cake and have it,’ a prince told me. Garter King of Arms Thomas Woodcock, the leading member of the royal household whose brief it is to ensure that the royal image is kept pristine and unsullied by unacceptable commercialism, said, ‘I don’t think it’s satisfactory. One cannot be two things at once. You either are or you aren’t.’

  Meghan and Harry had asserted in their statement that they intended to
be both at the same time. This was despite no member of the Royal Family to date having been allowed to actively participate in commercial activities while at the same time retaining their royal rank with all the attendant privileges, responsibilities and conflicts. The palace did not want any member of the Royal Family to engage in commercial activities for their own benefit, and certainly not while being sponsored financially by the state. ‘What they’ve been proposing is rather like a priest who has taken a vow of poverty going into the usury business, then trying to convince everyone that he’s doing it for the good of humanity when it’s blindingly obvious he’s doing it for his own benefit,’ someone from the College of Heralds said. ‘The inelegant maxim of getting thieves to guard your treasure springs to mind.’

  From the American perspective, what the Sussexes wanted to do seemed not only anodyne, but admirable. They were a grown man and woman, well into their thirties. They wanted to strike out on their own. Good for them. Independence should be encouraged. Best of luck to them.

  Of course, America does not have a royal family and therefore such understanding as exists about its functions is superficial. When people like Caitlyn Jenner liken her family or the Kennedys to a royal family, they miss the point entirely. Royalty is not the same as celebrity, nor can politicians be likened to royals. Royals are representatives of their country no matter when or where they are. They are expected to behave at all times and in all circumstances up to a standard few members of the public could achieve and none would aspire to. Unlike celebrities, who differentiate between their private and public lives, no such distinction applies with royalty. You are a prince or a duchess at all times, not just when it suits you to be. If you are engaged in commercial activities, it is supposed to be on behalf of the institution of monarchy, not on behalf of yourself. Such profits as accrue should never be for your own personal enrichment, but for the benefit of the Nation.