The usual suspects have been in a frenzy this week as they try to do some advance smears on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex ahead of the Invictus Games. As I’ve said before, they’ve had time to prepare, and I’m not looking forward to whatever stunts the Windsors have planned for the coming weeks. As for the British media, it’s a case of “is this all you’ve got?” They’re desperately trying to make “Meghan made an Instagram thanking Billie Eilish” into the centerpiece of their latest hate campaign. But that’s not all – Richard Eden got sent out to whine and screech about… the Sussexes’ 2021 Time Magazine cover. Yes, this is another “The Mail Remembers” piece. With a new twist! Apparently, as Eden pored over old photos of Harry and Meghan (which seems to be 90% of his job at the Mail), he noticed something: that Harry is Meghan’s spare and he hides behind Meghan! They’re still doing that.
Prince Harry was so fed up with his position in the Royal Family of playing second fiddle to his brother Prince William, that he angrily titled his memoir Spare. But some commentators have suggested history could now be repeating itself in his marriage, as he is becoming like the directionless spare to his wife Meghan Markle and her Hollywood ambitions.
The Daily Mail’s Diary Editor Richard Eden has explored the theory by analysing their body language in the latest episode of the YouTube series Reading The Royals. In the show he exposes that beneath the carefully curated public displays of affection, their behaviour reveals a shifting power dynamic in Meghan’s favour. The acclaimed royal expert looks back at their relationship through some famous and some less well known pictures, and analyses their behaviour while explaining the context of what was going on behind the scenes when they were taken.
Speaking on the show, he said one of the most revealing photos was the cover photo on Time magazine for its 100 list of the World’s Most Influential People in September 2021. The picture shows Harry dressed in all black and Meghan in all white on a terrace at their $14.65million mansion in Montecito, California.
Richard said: ‘Oh wow, I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say this is one of the most striking pictures ever taken of a royal couple. It is amazing that an image can say so much. It is also, I don’t think it is unfair to say, absolutely absurd. To set the scene we are in September 2021, we have had the controversial interview with Oprah which left royal and royal watchers aghast, but Harry and Meghan as an independent couple still have a huge popularity and interest around them. Which is why they are on the cover of Time magazine’s 100 list of the world’s most influential people.’
Richard added: ‘That a royal couple would ever do a shoot like this is extraordinary in itself, what does it say about their changing power dynamic? Meghan dominates the image with Harry positioned firmly in the background. A clear reversal of the roles we might have expected as he is the royal. Meghan stands unquestionably confident wearing bright white and splayed hair stands out, while Harry pops out behind her shoulder in what just looks a bit awkward, like a child appearing behind an adult’s knee or like he wants a piggyback. It was an image that spawned endless memes and comments on social media. One of my favourites was: “This looks like Harry is her hairdresser and he’s looking into the mirror explaining what he did to her layers”.’
However, the Time cover picture is just one of the many images Richard analyses in the 26-minute episode. The first ones that Richard looks at are in September 2017, when Harry and Meghan were pictured at their first ever public appearance at the Invictus Games in Toronto. Richard said the couple instantly showed they were prepared to ignore the traditional practice of the royals being formal in public as they displayed how comfortable they were being ‘touchy-feely’. He said the appearance would go on to ‘set the tone’ for the rest of their relationship, describing them as ‘very tactile’ and ‘determined to do things their own way’.
This is just sad. It’s giving stalker, it’s giving loser. To sit around and look through years-old photos of Harry and Meghan just to hate on them on a Daily Mail YouTube show? To use that platform to look through photos and cry about how Harry and Meghan hold hands? Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, I also look through old pics of H&M for my job too – but I do it with joy, because they’re pretty and photogenic and it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that they’ve always made each other so happy. They’ve been enamoured with each other from Day 1. I look at these old photos and think “wow, they were destined to find each other.” Eden looks at these photos and cries because “Harry is Meghan’s spare!”
Cover courtesy of Time, photos courtesy of Backgrid and Cover Images.
