By Kate Halfpenny
Prince Harry may come to regret his part in his wife’s bombshell sit down with Oprah Winfrey.
Meghan will not. Her performance was a triumph.
When she fled the UK, the Duchess of Sussex knew she was giving up the Buckingham Palace balcony forever, but chose a more lucrative prize – dazzling the US as its homecoming queen and most marketable celebrity.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in conversation with Oprah Winfrey. Credit:Harpo
Arise, the new Kim Kardashian.
Meghan’s Oprah turn was a flawless example of how to reposition a struggling personal brand with use of a shocking narrative designed to grab sympathy and sponsors.
Instead of burning a bridge, she lit 20,000 sticks of dynamite under it, painting the royal family as cold-hearted racists with Borgia tendencies.
In telling her ‘truth’, Meghan – with a complicit Harry – sold his family up the river. She justified the alleged $100 million deal with Netflix and the stonking speakers’ fees their Hollywood agents are said to be negotiating.
The tale of the beautiful young couple who saved their sanity by fleeing a hostile evil empire will transfix Americans, who can’t resist the story of a mama bear protecting her cubs.
For much of the explosive two-hour sit down with a fawning Oprah, Meghan trashed the 1200-year-old monarchy she was part of for less than two years.
Prince Harry and Meghan Duchess of Sussex, Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, with Prince Charles.Credit:AP
Delivering a series of astounding accusations and revelations, she took a passive-aggressive shot at her palace ‘rival’ the Duchess of Cambridge, claiming Kate made her cry but is a “good person”.
That was just girly gossip compared to Meghan’s most headline-making claims about race and mental health, both global hot-button topics that leave the palace with no wiggle room to defend itself.
The duchess told Oprah unnamed members of the royal family questioned before his birth how “dark” son Archie’s skin would be, and that – unsupported and alone – her mental health struggles made her feel suicidal.
Those claims are unprecedented for the monarchy, and it is dreadful that anyone trying to build a life in a new country with new relatives should feel so marginalised. Buckingham Palace has some thinking to do.
But at no point did the Sussexes accept any responsibility for the Markle debacle that has turned the Windsors into the villains in a high-stakes drama. Their version has them as blameless deers in the headlights fighting back against the inevitable ‘men in grey suits’.
An identified royal is said to have asked questions about Archie’s skin color.Credit:Getty Images
Summoning her past acting career, Meghan appeared to be auditioning for the role of Princess Diana 2.0, from the inherited diamond tennis bracelet to the kohl-rimmed eyes which echoed Diana’s watershed 1995 Panorama interview.
As she told Oprah, she was a naive girl so in love with her man she didn’t bother to Google him or his family. She just didn’t understand what she was getting into or that she wouldn’t be able to go out for lunch.
Like Diana, who told author Andrew Morton she threw herself down palace stairs and tried to cut her wrists with a lemon slicer, Meghan said her lack of support from the royal family left her suicidal.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Princess Diana both spoke to the media about life in the royal family.Credit:Jamie Brown
The problem is, of course, that Meghan is no Diana, no matter how hard she tries to position herself as a misunderstood human lightning rod who meshes innocence and compassion with charisma.
Meghan strove to be authentic, but everything from the ‘rebirth’ symbolism of the lotus print on her $6500 Armani gown to her purplish words came off as carefully planned theatrical touches.
She was in an “unsurvivable situation”, she said of the torment of living in restored Frogmore Cottage, being banned from wearing nail polish and having to go through a $57 million wedding.
At one family event, she said, “every time the lights went down in the royal box I was weeping” because of mental health issues. “I didn’t want to put more weight on my husband’s shoulders. He’s already carrying the weight of the world.”
Yes. The struggle of reading the polo roster and being a prince of the blood is real.
Harry’s part in the whole sorry episode sees the beloved prince fast draining the UK reservoirs of sympathy he earned in 1997 as a heartbroken boy walking behind his mother’s coffin.
The princes said their mother's death was like an 'earthquake'. Credit:AP
By sitting down with Oprah so soon after his turn with TV host James Corden, he has shown himself keen for gaudy fame and willing to horse trade family loyalty for pieces of silver.
“Haz” revealed “things have been unbelievably tough” for the Sussexes as they sat out the pandemic in a fancy California mansion.
Thank heavens they didn’t have to hand out relief boxes at nursing homes like those poor still-working royals.
The optics of having a massive whinge to a serial celebrity money maker like Oprah to raise your own stocks was ghastly. And a total master class in getting ahead of the curve.
Kate Halfpenny is a Melbourne writer.
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2021-03-08 08:30:00Z
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