The brouhaha over Prince Harry receiving the Pat Tillman Award for Service has come at an interesting time for the Windsors. I absolutely believe the Windsors are driving some of the fury and shenanigans behind the nasty coverage of the ESPY award. I also think it’s downright hilarious that in the midst of the Windsors and British media’s temper tantrum over “Harry receiving an award,” the senior royals trudged up to Scotland so that Prince Edward and Queen Camilla could be inducted into the Order of the Thistle. You know, some would that an award or an honor. The Windsors give each other awards, honors, ribbons, medals and orders constantly, but they still want to be able to say that Harry and Meghan are so wrong for simply accepting a few awards here and there. Well, here’s the latest tantrum, via the Mail’s Palace Confidential show:
Charlotte Griffiths, editor-at-large for the Mail on Sunday, told the Mail+’s weekly talk show that the Montecito-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex are treating life ‘like a red carpet event’. The panel discussed the growing backlash over the decision to give Prince Harry the memorial award set up in the name of Pat Tillman, an American football star who gave up a £3million contract to enlist in the US Army after 9/11.
Host Jo Elvin asked Charlotte whether the Sussexes were being ‘tin-eared’ to the criticism they’ve faced over the past week. Charlotte responded: ‘I get the impression that life for Meghan Markle at the moment is a sort of prom event and [Harry] is the prom king and she’s the prom king and she’s setting up all these events over the years that they can attend together. Although at the Living Legends of Aviation one, she actually didn’t turn up with him because a similar controversy had happened before the event and then she didn’t go with him.’
‘I’ll be very interested to see if this time next week she goes with him. Serena Williams, her great friend, is presenting the award so she may well attend. Life isn’t a red carpet event for them to show off their brand, there are some very serious events out there and they are being tin-eared. Ever since they left the Royal Family for America, the Sussexes have been living the California lifestyle, walking on red carpets, going to film premieres, accepting awards and making more content for Netflix.’
Rebecca English, Royal Editor at the Daily Mail spoke on Palace Confidential about how different their lifestyle is to that of The Firm. She said: ‘You very rarely see a member of the Royal Family getting an award for something they have done. There have been joking ones over the years, maybe the King or the Prince of Wales have accepted one environmental award. But you don’t [often see it] because they consider public service to be an award in itself.’
‘Obviously Harry and Meghan now, I think maybe as you said Jo, are a part of that showbiz celebrity lifestyle, where part of their lifeblood is to get another award and it just shows you how different their lives are to what they would’ve had in the UK.’
Charlotte added that Harry has been put forward for the Pat Tillman award based on work he did when he was in the army between 2005 and 2015. ‘I think that’s why it’s so jarring, because it’s not new work, this is old work. I mean this is also a celebration of his time in the army but that was a long time ago now and it feels like he needs something new,’ she said.
“I mean this is also a celebration of his time in the army but that was a long time ago now.” I swear to God, the ESPN press release was not written in Latin. ESPN gave their reasons for awarding Harry: his military service and the tenth anniversary of the founding of Invictus, which is still ongoing and growing year by year. “Life for Meghan Markle at the moment is a sort of prom event and [Harry] is the prom king and she’s the prom king and she’s setting up all these events over the years that they can attend together.” They think Meghan… set up the ESPYs and convinced them to give Harry the Pat Tillman Award? They think Meghan got Harry a Living Legends of Aviation Award? This is John Travolta slander!
Once again, these people can’t just say The Thing. The Thing being: we’re so mad that our four-and-half-year-long hate campaign hasn’t worked, we’re mad that Americans aren’t being widely influenced by our deranged talking points, we’re mad that the Sussexes are allowed to thrive and win awards.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.