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Around this time last year, when the pandemic was strengthening its grip on humanity, Harry and Meghan turned to Instagram, as is their custom, to confer their wisdom on the world.
“How we approach each other and our communities with empathy and kindness is indisputably important at this time,” they wrote. “For the next several weeks, this will be our guiding principle.”
Noble feelings indeed. Except, as the actions of these two have shown over the past year, and in the past few days in particular, it is one thing to preach and quite another to practice.
These are two people who never seem to tire of reminding us how warm and caring they are, but whose actions sadly tell a very different story.
Their response last week to the Queen’s statement about their future as members of the Royal Family is a classic example. Empathy and kindness? Not quite.
These are two people who never seem to tire of reminding us how warm and caring they are, but whose actions sadly tell a very different story.
The message from Buckingham Palace was, insofar as these things can be, sincere, expressing deep affection for the couple, as well as regret for their decision to leave. “The Duke and Duchess are still very dear members of the royal family,” he concluded rather sadly.
One imagines that the importance of family and loved ones is at the forefront of the queen’s mind right now, with Prince Philip in the hospital.
And anyone reading that statement couldn’t help but feel the excitement between the lines. Anyone, it seems, except the famous compassionate and empathetic Harry and Meghan.
When issuing their response, at 4.30 am Los Angeles time, it did not even occur to them to express any empathy for the situation of the Monarch. Wish the best to her and the Duke of Edinburgh? Thank you for your patience and understanding. Apologize, perhaps, for causing such upheaval and pain?
Don’t be absurd. Instead we got the usual teenage pout, hair flick, bedroom door slammed shut. “ As evidenced by their work over the past year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain committed to their duty and service to the United Kingdom and around the world, ” they said, adding, with a smug flourish, “ All we can live a life. ” of service. The service is universal. ‘
In other words, talk to the hand, old lady, because the face is not listening. Such callousness and rudeness is staggering enough on its own. But what really loses faith is the level of his own illusion.
Their response last week to the Queen’s statement about their future as members of the Royal Family is a classic example. Empathy and kindness? Not quite
“Duty and service to the United Kingdom”. His words, not mine. And yet the last time I looked, Harry and Meghan were living in a 16-bathroom mansion in sunny California, as far away from the icy cold Blighty torn by Covid as possible. The only service that matters is whether the pool attendant is on time.
Most of the people in your situation can be a bit shy about it. But, like other self-obsessed celebrities, the stark contrast of their lavish lifestyle to the grim fortunes of the average peasant at home doesn’t seem to bother them in the least.
In fact, if anything, we are supposed to thank you for “sharing”, for allowing us to stain your window pane with our greasy proletarian noses.
Hence, presumably, his decision to announce Meghan’s pregnancy through a vanity photoshoot in the garden of said mansion.
As the moments of letting them eat cake go by, Marie Antoinette seems like a hobbyist. The arrival of baby number 2 is, of course, very happy news. It will be wonderful for Archie to have a brother, and after Meghan’s miscarriage last year, it must be a huge relief to both of them. But a plainly worded statement would have been enough.
Except it wouldn’t have been, because nothing is enough for Harry and Meghan. Not the adoration of the British public, who reveled in Harry’s happiness and greeted Meghan like a breath of fresh air.
One imagines that the importance of family and loved ones is at the forefront of the Queen’s mind right now, with Prince Philip in the hospital.
Not the help and advice of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, nor the wise advice of Prince Charles and the Queen herself. Not the no-cost lavish wedding, or the cozy Frogmore Cottage, or the choice of jewelry and tiaras or the earrings that we all skip in an attempt to avoid incurring their displeasure.
Few newlyweds entering life enjoy even a fraction of the privilege accorded to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. And yet, for whatever reason, none of it was good enough.
As for duty, some of the little that was expected of them, for example, introducing baby Archie to the world, seemed to be driven with such rude discontent that it hardly seemed worth it.
The idea that they should preach to the Queen – the Queen, of all people, a woman who has devoted her entire life to duty and service, often to the detriment of her own personal happiness, a woman who has fired 14 First Ministers – it is, when you stop to think about it, extraordinary.
When it comes to duty to one’s country, Elizabeth II wrote the book. Duty is to be there when times are bad. It’s about making tough decisions that no one is grateful for. You bite your tongue when you want to scream. It’s being charming to people you can’t stand.
But perhaps more than anything else, you are setting aside all personal ambition in favor of doing what is required, for the greater good.
In other words, the exact opposite of what Harry and Meghan have done.
The idea that jumping on the occasional Zoom call, dropping empty topics into galleries of carefully scrutinized viewers by the stars, or issuing lofty statements on social media constitutes “duty and service” is honestly ridiculous.
Eighteen months, they lasted. The Queen has been at it for 68 years. How dare they lecture her on duty?
But what makes it all the more irritating is that the very institution that Harry and Meghan so clearly despise, the very principles they’ve so summarily rejected, is the only reason anyone gives a damn in the first place. If it weren’t for his royal birthright, Harry would be lucky to hold a job as a second-rate real estate agent in Fulham. Under those circumstances, would Meghan have looked at him a second time?
Everything they have, from sycophantic acolytes to lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify, they owe to their association with the Royal Family and the Queen.
Would they be sitting in Celebrity Valley in California, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Beyoncé and Oprah, people who have risen to the top thanks to their hard work and dedication, if they hadn’t relied on generations of privilege? No. Harry would be just another bald ex-military man and Meghan an actress in a little-known legal drama.
“We can all live a life of service.” We certainly can. And many do.
No one in this country has the slightest hint of doubt in whose service the Queen and Prince Philip have given their lives: the British people. When they leave, it will feel like the Earth has tilted off its axis.
But Harry and Meghan? Once the glamor of royalty wears off, once they’ve sold all their secrets to the highest bidder, they’ll be just another pair of celebrities desperate for attention, just two more windshield mistakes in history. And I, for one, really won’t miss them.
