This is currently the top story of the Daily Mail’s royal section: “AMANDA PLATELL: Meghan’s silence says it all. I know the sad conclusion… it’s so clear to me the toxic end that’s coming.” The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been married for over seven years, mind you. They’ve weathered an eight-year international smear campaign, a relocation to America, a sudden withdrawal of security, a miscarriage, multiple lawsuits and legal actions, setting up a new business, and on and on. But according to Platell, THIS is the moment which will break them. Why this moment in particular? Because… Meghan hasn’t posted her support of her husband on Instagram, or issued any statement about the Sentebale catastrophe. Really, though, this is yet another attempt to emasculate Harry and make him sound like he’s being overshadowed by Meghan. They really can’t keep their stories straight. Here’s an excerpt:
It’s been a tricky few weeks for Prince Harry. First, he quit his beloved African charity Sentebale, which helps children and young people, following a ‘race’ row. Then, just a few days ago, the prince announced he might set up a new charity to rival Sentebale, claiming he is ‘absolutely committed to continue the work he started’. All rather humiliating, you might think.
Harry was exonerated by an inquiry into the most serious claims – that, with the charity’s trustees, he had been guilty of bullying, ‘misogynoir’ [a combination of racism and misogyny] and straightforward racism. Yet the sour smell of failure mixed with arrogance – a privileged prince saving vulnerable children then appearing to abandon them – still clings to him.
The Sentebale row is, as we now know, a complicated mess of claim and counter claim. Yet, amid the tangle, one question is clear: where was Meghan as the whole imbroglio unfolded? Where was the support from his beloved wife as Harry stood accused – what an irony! – of committing some of the very sins she heaped on the Royal Family in that explosive Oprah interview in 2021. Why was Meghan, a woman usually so determined to parade their perfect family life to four million followers on Instagram, not out there in public to defend her beloved ‘H’? Why, for that matter, was there nothing but a passing reference to her husband when she celebrated – with a solo picture of herself – her 44th birthday last week? The duchess merely thanked ‘my husband’ in passing, without so much as naming him.
I have to agree with my respected colleague Dr Max Pemberton, a leading NHS psychiatrist, when he wrote this week: ‘What’s puzzling is that Meghan has remained silent. No signs of support. While Harry is battling court cases and losing his beloved charity, Meghan seems to be on a high with her As Ever brand and Netflix show.’
My sad conclusion is that Meghan now understands Harry is bad for her brand of love and gorgeousness and homemade jam. And that she will allow nothing, not even her husband’s despair, to get in the way of her plan to rake in millions from it.
With his star in decline as his wife’s ascends, it seems Harry, so far from being the breadwinner, is increasingly powerless. Commercially toxic, even. Perhaps in the dark hours of the night when Harry contemplates his future, he may be haunted by the way his wife appeared to drop her former best friend Jessica Mulroney or dumped her father who, incredibly, Harry has never even met. Perhaps when he wakes up in the cold light of day, hapless Harry will recall what his brother tried to warn about of all those years ago: to be wary of a foreign TV actress he hardly even knew.
As Daily Mail psychiatrist Dr Max Pemberton puts it: ‘In successful partnerships, there is always one person to lift you up when you fall down. Without someone like this, life is infinitely harder and less fun.’ Living, as he does, in the shadow of his wife’s ambitions, it is unlikely that Prince Harry’s life will become much more fun any time soon.
Of all of the nastiness and bile directed at Harry, the part which I find most appalling is “the sour smell of failure mixed with arrogance – a privileged prince saving vulnerable children then appearing to abandon them – still clings to him.” Harry didn’t “abandon” those kids, Sophie Chandauka did, as she cozied up to Prince William’s allies and looted Sentebale’s coffers. As I’ve said before, the British media absolutely knows that Chandauka is a lying grifter and con artist, but they’re in too deep to ever acknowledge it. As for the rest of it… man, they’re just furious 24-7 that Harry and Meghan refuse to be controlled. This feels like a direct reaction to the Netflix contract too. It’s getting harder and harder for these people to convince themselves that Harry will come back to them. They’re still trying (and failing) to drive a wedge in between Harry and Meghan.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
