Over the past month, legitimate, above-board American media outlets and international outlets have been covering the British royal clownery. Specifically, there’s been a lot of coverage of the Princess of Wales’s disappearance and subsequent reappearance in a heavily edited Mother’s Day photo. All of this international interest has upset the royal rota, because they believe that they alone should be able to royalsplain the peculiarities of the Windsors. The royal reporters don’t want anyone looking too closely at their system and business model either, because instead of acting as journalists, they’re stenographers to power. All of that to say, I’m getting a kick out of how many American outlets are on the royal beat now, and I’m enjoying all of the columns and coverage. Like this one, from Vogue: “The Royals Could Use Harry and Meghan Right About Now” by Michelle Ruiz.
As royal gossip swirls and Kate-related conspiracy theories bubble to fever pitch, as an inept Palace comms team scrambles to explain away a Photoshop fail and my text chains spiral into concerned chaos over Kate’s health and that of her marriage, a thought is crystallizing amid the noise: they should have never let Harry and Meghan go.
The current imbroglio is exposing that the royal family isn’t half as savvy or strategic as people are led to believe, nor as singularly focused on preserving the Crown. If they were, they would have tried to keep Prince Harry and Meghan within the Firm at all costs—not only because they were stars, and she, in particular, could appeal to Commonwealth countries in a way the rest of the family never will—but also because the Firm has left itself weak and short-staffed.
During rosier times, though, the King’s vision [of a slimmed down monarch] was one of efficiency, an effort to scale back the number of distant relatives living for life in taxpayer-funded “apartments.” Image-wise, a streamlined monarchy also trains subjects’ focus on King Charles, and his direct heir Prince William, and his next-in-line George—a reminder, however unsubtle, that these people don’t intend to go anywhere, no matter how anachronistic they’re starting to feel in modern society.
Be careful what you wish for: in light of recent events, the King’s slimmed-down monarchy is wasting away to nothing. If the royals are silent film stars, as British playwright Bonnie Greer once noted, their cast has been dramatically diminished after the deaths of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the defection of Prince Harry and Meghan to Montecito, plus the disgracing of Prince Andrew. With King Charles battling an unnamed cancer, Queen Camilla taking a break after holding it down in her husband’s stead, and Princess Kate (at least officially) recovering from unnamed abdominal surgery, only Prince William is wading back to work after an initial hiatus around Kate’s operation. The monarchy is so slender, it’s two illnesses away from being a one-man show.
Whoever might have been helpful in this situation? Which two people—and their two cute children—could be shearing sheep and christening ships as we speak, providing a picturesque, PDA-filled distraction from the disaster-upon-disaster spilling forth from the Palace? The void left by Prince Harry and Meghan has never been more glaring. Neither has the Firm’s lack of foresight. Standing up for Meghan against a torrent of racist and sexist abuse—making it tenable for the Sussexes to stay part of this operation—was not only the decent thing to do, but the most prudent for the monarchy. Even if they didn’t care for Meghan (or Prince Harry), they should have been strategic enough to recognize that the Sussexes were an overall positive and diversifying force for the institution. They should have known that they couldn’t afford to lose two of their youngest, supplest stars, a couple with a global fanbase and tons of runway for the future.
What I enjoy about this piece is that Ruiz cleanly places the blame where it belongs, on the monarchy and the institution. If this was the Mail or the Telegraph, it would have been “why can’t Meghan and Harry come back and help us out, it’s because William hates his brother, and Harry must apologize!” It really is this simple: the Windsors are idiots who failed to strategize and understand that the Sussexes were vital to the whole operation. Besides the whole Sussexit thing, the way the monarchy sat back and allowed Meghan to be abused and smeared has come back to haunt them too – the racist double standards involved between Meghan and Kate have never been more evident and contemptible. Anyway, it’s “f–k around and find out” on an institutional scale.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.