There’s a right royal crisis in Britain! In what could almost be the latest episode from the popular TV series The Crown, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle are giving up their royal duties. They have announced plans to step down as senior members of their blue-blooded family. And though he is not a king or even a crown prince, the move by young Harry and his glam mixed-race bride is being seen as an abdication.
The decision has sent not just the media but also the public into a tizzy. To the people, this is Wally Simpson and Edward VIII all over again. On the heels of Prince Andrew’s friendship with late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein comes this new mortification for Queen Elizabeth and family.
When Harry met Meghan he had already broken up with two serious girlfriends – Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas – because they couldn’t, it was said, cope with how public their lives would become if they married him. From Diana and Fergie to Kate and Camilla, they have all suffered unblinking scrutiny; topless photos and videos of counting cash and tapped telephones and fatal car chase.
Meghan being older then Harry, her divorcee status, her having dealt with the media as a TV star (Suits) led all to believe she would not be a damsel in distress post-marriage, that she will understand the pressures of living in a goldfish bowl and adjust accordingly. The duchess was hailed as the rescuer of a mother-less prince.
Straight-off there was the mushy hand-holding. Unlike his elder brother Prince William and wife Kate Middleton, who always maintain a respectable distance between them, this couple could only walk as one. Soon it was an us-and-them situation. Them against everyone else.
Then came the embarrassments of an expensive baby shower abroad, virtue signalling as eco-warriors, the rift with her family and her teary TV confession that no one asks her if she is okay.
But this exit by them – though recorded in memes and edits – has a surreal soap opera feel to it. The optics are dramatic, with the announcement coming on Kate’s birthday, eclipsing her big day. Reportedly not even the couple’s own press team in the UK knew what was brewing back in Canada during their Christmas break.
Headlines range from ‘Brit hits the fan’ to ‘Megxit’, with them even being described as wannabe Kardashians. Meghan’s dad, naturally, said he was ‘disappointed’, estranged as he is. And, according to a former chef, Harry is an ‘airhead’ just like his mom.
The couple, who have a new website, is to divide time between the UK and North America, looking at earning ‘professional income’ and have blasted ‘misreporting’ by the press. Will they, won’t they lose their HRH titles is the question on everyone’s tongue. Of course, they can earn millions via TV shows, book deals, ad endorsements and live happily ever after outside the UK.
While the Queen and everyone around her calmly wished Kate a happy birthday to circumvent this bombshell news, public imagination pictures Meghan and Harry making a dash for the palace doors with baby Archie in hand. To live life king-size, they have decided to leave the castle.
Shinie Antony is a writer and editor based in Bangalore. Her books include The Girl Who Couldn't Love, Barefoot and Pregnant, Planet Polygamous, and the anthologies Why We Don’t Talk, An Unsuitable Woman, Boo. Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Asia Prize for her story A Dog’s Death in 2003, she is the co-founder of the Bangalore Literature Festival and director of the Bengaluru Poetry Festival.
Read Shinie Antony's columns here.
First Published: Jan 11, 2020 1:40 PM IST
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