Comment
TONY PARSONS
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah felt like an attack on a country that only wished them happiness
THEY sure as hell don’t make fairytales like they used to.
It took more than 14 years for Diana to go from her wedding day in St Paul’s Cathedral in July 1981 to sitting down with Martin Bashir in November 1995 and confessing: “There were three of us in this marriage.”
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But Meghan Markle needed less than three short years to transition from her glorious sun-drenched wedding day in Windsor in May 2018 to telling her tearful truth to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.
Less than three years! In this week of bombshell revelations, my mind struggles to grasp that it all went to hell so fast.
Because I can vividly remember what it was like to stand among those ecstatic crowds on that dazzling day in Windsor.
Truly, it felt like this golden couple were some kind of new start for the Royal Family, for this country and for the world.
I have been to a few royal beanos and the wedding of Harry and Meghan was different. More optimism, more joy, more euphoria.
And the fact that Meghan was of mixed-race heritage was nothing but a good thing. At last, our Royal Family was starting to look more like our country.
'HISTORIC BLITZ ON THE BRITISH MONARCHY'
And, of course, it was not just about that beautiful bride with the hint of Hollywood stardust. We all remembered the groom as a broken-hearted child trudging wretchedly behind his mother’s coffin.
Hardened Fleet Street hacks, who I had last seen at Diana’s funeral, were giddy with joy — because we all loved Harry and Meghan.
Yet today, we don’t even like them very much.
The Oprah Winfrey interview is being presented as a historic blitz on the institution of the British monarchy.
It feels more like an assault on the country that never wanted anything but happiness for them, a country that welcomed Harry’s bride with open hearts.
But credit where it is due — Meghan Markle just gave the performance of a lifetime.
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A global audience of millions, Oprah Winfrey eating out of her hand, a great review from the President of the United States, Joe Biden, who praised Meghan’s “courage.” They can put his quote on the DVD.
The Americans lapped it up — the idea, hammered home relentlessly for two one-sided hours, of the British Royal Family and nation as a bunch of backward racists who made our heroes flee to the USA, that glorious bastion of harmony between the races.
Harry and Meghan just cracked America. For those of us in the old country — the despised nation that Harry still laughably refers to as “home” — their tsunami of self-pity leaves a bitter taste.
The half-truths and the smears cannot — and must not — be allowed to go unchallenged.
As a piece of investigative journalism, Oprah’s ego-tickling didn’t even get started. This was American TV at its most banal — a butt-kissing PR job disguised as a hard-hitting interview.
Though Oprah boasted nothing was “off limits”, she chose to give all of Meghan and Harry’s sensitive areas a very wide berth.
'COLONIAL RACISTS'
A better journalist would have asked why only one member of her family made it to the wedding.
And Oprah should have asked if it was just possible they loathed the British Press not because we are colonial racists but because we laughed at their hypocrisy — sermons on climate change preached from Elton’s private plane.
They profess to loathe the institution they have fled and yet no royal couple were ever keener on deference, no self- entitled privileged pair were ever keener on the doffed forelock.
They love nothing more than an eager sycophant willing to believe their every word. Even when not every word is credible.
For example, Meghan’s casual suggestion that the “real” wedding was not the big day in Windsor — cost to the British taxpayer, £32million — but a private ceremony in the back garden of Kensington Palace a few days earlier.
This seems unlikely as a Church of England marriage requires two witnesses and nobody is allowed to get married twice just because they feel like it. Not even Meghan.
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And it beggars belief Meghan can seriously suggest her son was denied the title of prince because he is of mixed-race heritage.
A royal ruling of more than 100 years standing means that Archie, as he is not in direct line to the throne, does not have a birthright to be a prince and will have to struggle by as a lowly Earl.
But the genius of Meghan’s appearance was that the barrage of bleating came so thick and fast that the Royal Family are now struggling to — as we say in La La Land — change the narrative. And some of her assertions need to be taken deadly seriously.
She says that life in the royal family drove her to the brink of suicidal despair.
Nobody can or should dismiss anyone’s battle with depression. But what can — and should — be verified is, if it is true, she was refused help because “it wouldn’t be good for the institution”.
Perhaps, Oprah could have asked Meghan why she didn’t ask her doctor for a referral to a mental health specialist. But then that was the great flaw in this confessional.
'ILL-FATED FAIRYTALE'
Each and every allegation — major and minor, impossible to verify and patently untrue — was left to stand unchallenged.
Which brings us to the great smear and the tipping point in this ill-fated fairytale — the moment an unnamed member of the Royal Family pondered what Harry and Meghan’s baby may look like.
In nearly two hours of tears and bile and accusations, this was the nuclear bomb.
It was presented as a nakedly racist statement — some anonymous white supremacist toff recoiling in repulsion at the thought of a little brown baby suddenly appearing in all those gilded palaces.
Certainly, this was how Harry and Meghan chose to present the incident.
But perhaps the truth is somewhat different. Any parent of a mixed-race child will tell you there is always speculation about what their unborn baby will look like.
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It happened with my own Anglo-Japanese daughter, and the speculation was always benign, kind-hearted and even touched with a sense of wonder.
The enquiry about the unborn Archie seems to have sent Harry into something approaching a rage, so perhaps the interest was far more toxic. But until they tell us who said what and in exactly what context, we will never know.
As it is, they have smeared an entire family, and by extension an entire nation, with the charge of racism. The British people, and the Royal Family, are right to resent that accusation.
Because I clearly remember the joy on their wedding day, and I remember the love.
'FRAGILE, BROKEN-HEARTED, UNHAPPY MAN'
Whatever reason they have chosen to quit Blighty for Santa Barbara, I do not believe it is racism.
Thomas Markle, Meghan’s dumped father, was on ITV’s Good Morning Britain following the Oprah festival of whining.
Thomas seems like a fragile, broken-hearted, unhappy man. He spoke from the heart and, unlike the Oprah puff-job, I found what he said brought tears to my eyes.
He said: “The thing about ‘What colour will the baby be’, I’m hoping it’s just a dumb question, it could be that simple.
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“I married a beautiful black woman and had a beautiful child. I love my daughter very much.”
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If Meghan and Harry really mean what they preach about compassion, they could pick up the phone and give Thomas a call while they still have the chance.
Before they heal the world, they could make a start with their own shattered families.
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