The year was 2017 and an excited
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were
announcing their relationship to the
world.
And you know what, the world was excited
along with them.
Giddy at the thought that a beautiful,
mixed race woman from America
could join royalty by landing the most
eligible bachelor.
This wasn't just a fairy tale. It was
better!
This was real life, damn it! And people
were obsessed.
Meghan's profile went from a barely known
actress from Suits
to world renown and heralded as a model
for
young girls everywhere and a fashion
icon to boot.
England saw a huge surge in tourism
thanks to what the media dubbed
as the Markle Sparkle and a whopping 1.9
billion people tuned in to watch the two
tie the knot.
So how did it go from this to an
emotional Meghan in front of a camera
in 2019 because as she put it "it's been
hard".
How did it get to such a point that the
two of them felt they had
no option but to leave the royal family
and move to America? Before we get into it, if
you're new here
please be sure to hit the subscribe
button for more content
like this around understanding people,
relationships,
and love. Thank you! After Harry and Meghan
announced their departure from the royal
family,
it's become common knowledge at least in
America that the reason for this walkout
was a racist, sexist, and elitist press
as well as an unwelcoming royal family
that was too attached to the old ways of
doing things.
But i wanted to see for myself if that
was true.
When Meghan and Harry's relationship was
announced, the press were actually
incredibly excited at the prospect
of minority representation within a
historic institution. Many pointed out that this
would be great for the commonwealth
and show that the monarchy was moving
resolutely into the future. There was also praise
from the press that Meghan was easily being accepted despite
being older and previously divorced. Again the press
were excited by the positively changing
times
that this act of acceptance represented.
In fact,
looking through the historical data of
four prominent british newspapers
from 2016, when it came out that the pair
were dating,
I saw that 95% or more of the stories
were very positive about Meghan including
the stories from The Sun,
the publication that Meghan is infamously
suing.
In the instances that the newspapers
were critical, it was either fixated on
Harry being
overly sensitive or the white side of
Meghan's family
acting out. This fixation on Meghan's
father and step siblings
only seemed to play into the overall
narrative that Meghan herself was pushing -
that she wasn't too close to her father or
anyone else in her family
save for her mother. Mother Markle was
generally represented glowingly in the
newspapers,
while papa Markle was sold to the masses
as a sloppy drunkard.
The royal family in the meanwhile was
extending as much courtesy
and warmth as they could muster. Going as
far as to break custom and inviting
Meghan and her mother to Sandringham for
Christmas prior to Meghan and Harry tying the knot
when it was unusual to invite
non-family members. Even Kate had to wait
till she was married to William
before getting this honor and her family
has never received an invitation
like Doria Markle did. After, Harry
famously made the statement
that Meghan finally has a family like she's
never had before.
And yet again confirmed the narrative
that Meghan was a beautiful princess
that needed to break free from her
drunken father and evil step siblings.
The press actually often put down her
father and sister's attempts
at contacting Meghan, calling them losers
and asking them to leave
Meghan alone. The press were being
protective of her,
finding her quite charming, stylish, and
excusing all the times
she broke protocol as justified and
endearing.
When she showed her shoulders at a Royal
engagement, they said who could blame her for choosing that dress. When she
constantly wore black,
something that is forbidden for Royals,
unless they're in mourning,
they assumed it was because she wanted
to take a backseat from the constant
spotlight.
All these ideas of Royal protocol might
sound silly to us Americans,
since we're not aware of them, nor their
importance. And frankly we wouldn't
understand.
America is an incredibly casual society
that cares all about breaking out of the
pack
and flaunting individuality. And as much
as I love that about America,
I also respect that the British have a
very different way of thinking
and their philosophy and customs are
very important to them.
But even though Meghan wasn't following
British royal protocols to a T,
the press were having a love affair with
her, taking as many opportunities
to shine their rosy light on her. Even
when she closed her own car door,
something that is just not done by
Royals, they appreciated her for her
down-to-earth nature,
and yet again found another reason to
fawn over her.
As her relationship with Harry became
more public, details of how she
changed the rogue prince came out, and yet
again the press showed gratitude that she had
reigned in his party boy persona
and brought him onto a path of the
healthy and thankfully,
the stylish. Now i'm not saying there
were no negative opinions about Meghan.
There were. But they were few and far in
between.
I reviewed the articles and found
approximately 7%
negative stories about Meghan between
2016 and 2017. But in 2018 the year Meghan
married Harry stories about her past started to come
out. Now negative stories come out about
everyone so the press treated them like
they were outliers, initially. Everyone already knew that
Meghan was previously married.
Then it came out that the way she had
initiated the breakup was to mail the
rings
back to her then husband. Her childhood
longtime friend came out and explained
how Meghan's desire to be high-flying
and use and discard people ended their
30-plus year friendship.
After months, years of being
misrepresented as a terrible
family, Meghan's father and siblings
fought back explaining that they had been close with
Meghan and helped her,
supported her. Her father paid for her
college and supported her while she was a
struggling actress pushing 30,
something Meghan has always denied. Her
uncle helped her land her first job with
the UN.
And yet none of them received invites,
save for her father and mother.
But her father was unable to attend
because of his deteriorating health.
So as it turned out, no one from Meghan's
childhood,
apart from her mother, was at her wedding,
making people wonder if it were true
that Meghan used
and discarded people. British tv host
Lizzie Cundy, shared that Meghan
befriended her
and asked her to set her up with a
famous, wealthy British man
and then ghosted her after she met Harry.
Piers Morgan talked about his
friendship with Meghan,
how she messaged him on Instagram and
then ghosted him too.
A pattern was starting to emerge but it
only got worse when all the stories of
Meghan's difficult behavior
started to come out. Like when Meghan
received the honor
to be married in St. George's chapel,
the 500 year-old chapel, steeped
in Royal  history, the Queen's chapel,
where she prays.
Well Meghan felt that it smelled musty so
she asked people to go around with
air freshness before her wedding. Or
when she asked for tiara
for her wedding that had already been
promised to Princess Eugenie.
Turns out Eugenie had to delay her
wedding since Harry was the more senior
Royal and had precedence. Knowing all of that
Meghan still insisted that she be allowed to wear
that particular tiara.
The Queen's staff had to slap down both
requests as inappropriate while Harry announced
that "What Meghan wants, Meghan gets."
There are also reports of Meghan
mistreating both her
own and Kate Middleton's staff to the
point that Kate had to intervene
and stop her. Meghan is also known to have
yelled at the chef for her wedding
and called him a liar. Unsurprisingly,
Meghan has seen high turnover in her staff, bodyguards,
and once their child was born,
nannies. Now staff turnover to us
Americans is not a big deal but when it comes to
staff for the Royals,
turnover is very rare. Generally, the
British consider it
a great honor to be in royal service
and are usually in their posts for
decades. But the fact that Meghan's office
had a revolving door due to her difficult behavior, the
pattern becomes even clearer.
The press were also catching on to a very
intense rift growing between what they called "The Fab
Four".
William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan. While the
initial hopes were that the Fab Four
would bring a modern surge of energy
to the antiquated Crown, now it was
becoming obvious that there was a rift
between William and Harry after William
cautioned Harry not to move too fast in
his relationship.
As well as between Kate and Meghan. The
press reported that
Meghan made Kate cry over the dress
fitting for Princess Charlotte
for Meghan's wedding. The rift was so bad,
in fact,
that Harry and Meghan moved out of their
joint residence with Will and Kate.
Meghan was now the common factor in all
these stories -
her family feeling rejected and
forgotten, her friends feeling
used and ghosted, her staff feeling
overwhelmed and mistreated.
Meanwhile Harry was constantly taking
her side no matter how many traditions
or protocols that she rejected
and openly flouted. As much as the
British wanted her to do well in her new
role,
it was becoming obvious that Meghan did
not intend to follow the British
traditions.
Where the press started to turn on the
two of them though was their general
hypocrisy.
After lecturing their subjects about the
importance of reducing carbon emissions,
they proceeded to take plenty of private
jets all over the world.
Then there's that dig they took at
William and Kate by saying that they
would never have more than two children
for the sake of the planet. William and
Kate happen to have
three children. Then there was that time
that Megan attended Wimbledon
and had all the seats around her cleared
for the sake of her privacy and her
staff even stopped people from taking
photos.
This seemed in such contrast to the
down-to-earth Meghan that the public had come to know
and love.
The worst of it all though was when
Meghan arrived at princess Eugenie's
wedding.
Yes, the same Princess Eugenie who was
promised the tiara that Meghan wanted to
wear.
Meghan very astutely left a button on her
belly undone in a subtle way to invoke more rumors of
her pregnancy. But that was not all. It
came out recently that Meghan and Harry
went around to the guests
during the wedding and told them that
they were expecting their first child,
knowing full well that it would be this
headline that would eclipse the marriage
in the papers.
I have to admit that I was very shocked
to find out all these details.
Before I looked into this I actually had
no idea why Meghan was being so
scrutinized.
I don't believe that Meghan was the
victim of a sexist,
racist press determined to run her out
of town.
Though her many Hollywood friends seem
to think so, coming out in her support
feeling extremely sorry for her as she
talks about how hard it's been during the ITV documentary. I think Meghan
is very good at weaponizing
vulnerability and emotion, painting a
hard to fight picture of her being the
victim
of a generally dictatorial institution
like the Crown,
and the fiendish newspapers who are
still blamed for victimizing and killing
Princess Diana.
Something that is still fresh in many
people's minds. But I think that's all
unfair.
I think the press was more than kind to
her and tried to ignore all those bad
signs that maybe she's not what she says she
is. They wanted her and Harry to make it ! The thing is that
Meghan is very careful about her image.
I think she's very calculated in every
dress she picks out,
every rule she follows, and every toe she
puts out of line.
And i think she handles even the
slightest criticism very poorly.
Even if it's as light as William
cautioning his younger brother
to not rush into a marriage. In this case,
like many others in her past, Meghan's
tactic is to cut
people out of her life. This is why both
she and Harry have become
incredibly isolated, with both of their
friends and family
feeling like they've been ejected from
the Sussex Royal circle.
I agree with her friends and Piers
Morgan, she's a social climber
that very astutely put herself in
Harry's orbit.
Just like she very easily cut her last
husband loose
when she no longer needed him. But we
still haven't answered the question -
why leave the Royal family? Being a Royal
is not like being a celebrity.
The Royal spotlight is shared, something
you jump into when needed
and out of to make room for the rest of
the family. There is no room to compete
with each other,
or outshine each other, since above all
the goal of the Royals is to serve their people and each person
has to play their part.
The duties of being Royal are not easy.
There are restrictions, rules, limitations. Royals have to be
above commercialization,
above earning money, above political
leanings, and opinions.
They are the representation of an ideal.
I think Meghan is way too competitive to
let go
of the spotlight, as we saw with her
decision to reveal her pregnancy at
someone else's wedding.
Meghan wanted to be a celebrity, not a
duty-bound Royal.
I don't think Meghan had it in her to
play second fiddle to William and Kate
who
after all were going to be future
monarchs.
Megan also realized that she couldn't
control the british media
no matter how much she sued them.
Meanwhile in America, Meghan enjoyed all
the favorable media possible.
There Meghan was being lauded as a
boundary breaking, heroin. All of her charm, her beauty was
all being taken in, while her rough edges, like her pushiness,
being applauded as hustle and grit.
And in America, she could monetize her
celebrity and her Royal title.
From their eager patenting for
everything related to their Royal Sussex
titles,
for t-shirts, sweatshirts, as well as
Prince Harry
cornering Bob Iger, Disney's CEO, at a red
carpet event, to convince him to give
Meghan VoiceOver work - it was obvious that Meghan
and Harry wanted to make money off the backs of
the Royal titles.
This is what bothers the British the
most. But of course Americans feel like what's wrong with
wanting financial freedom from a
government-funded lifestyle?
Another difference in cultural
perspective that suits Meghan's move to
America.
So why would Meghan want to keep
suffering the scrutiny of a press that
no longer loved her,
no longer agreed to perpetuate the image
that she wanted? The image of a
down-to-earth princess that helps everyone around her, that
cares so deeply, that just wants to change the world for
the better, and boy is the American media puckered up
and ready to play ball with this astute
media Princess.
