If there’s one characteristic that would have benefited both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle above all others, it’s surely self-awareness. As Sophie Chandauka, the chairman of Harry’s former charity, Sentebale, continues to spray-gun the pair with accusations (of causing significant damage to the charity’s reputation, of bullying and toxicity), one can’t help but feel that even a few drops of it might have helped the embattled couple avoid yet another scandal, the emergence of yet another “ghost of howlers past”. But no. They knew best.
They knew that Megxit was the way to go, that ditching the only job Harry had ever been any good at was a bright idea, and that once safely ensconced in America, giving an interview in which they effectively bad-mouthed both the Queen and the Duchess of Cambridge (two of the most popular women in the United States) was the wisest thing to do.
They knew that publishing an autobiography (filled with factual inaccuracies) in which Prince Harry revealed that he had been suffering from a frostbitten penis during William and Kate’s wedding was judicious, that listing the illegal drugs he had taken while living there on a US visa was, yup, a good plan, and that continued whingeing about their royal plight in a Netflix documentary series was definitely going to endear them to their target demographic. Because everyone loves a prince sawing away on the world’s smallest violin – five years on. It was also never in doubt that Meghan had exactly what it took to be a television domestic goddess. That she had neither of the attributes crucial to making those shows a success – natural warmth and authenticity – wouldn’t be a problem.
Now, I’d hazard a guess that members of the Royal family aren’t terribly self-aware as a species. How can you be when you’ve grown up in such a privileged bubble? But that’s why the machine is there: to act as a buffer between you and the outside world. To save you from yourself while capitalising on any natural talents. (In Harry’s case, this would be the foreign trips, where he seems to go back to being funny, down to earth and genuine.) Ditch that machine and you are at the mercy of your own cretinous impulses.
Someone who used to work with the Sussexes once told me: “It’s not that they are consistently being given bad advice. It’s that they won’t take good advice from anyone.” Perhaps now might be a good time to start?
