The Duchess of Sussex shoots red balls on the royal family in an interview broadcast Sunday evening in the United States. She accuses him of having brought her to the brink of suicide and of being racist towards her son Archie. Enough to stir up trouble across the Channel, and widen the gap between the monarchy and public opinion a little more.
"Bombshell". The word was on everyone's lips this Monday in London, the day after the broadcast across the Atlantic of the shock interview granted by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to their now Californian neighbor, the American journalist Oprah Winfrey. It is an understatement to say that the accusations against the royal family have had the effect of a bomb in England: they go even further than what Buckingham expected, and strike him even harder than expected.
Hours before Meghan and Harry's interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Queen underscored the importance of "closeness and community" in her Commonwealth Day message - which aired on BBC One.
Meghan accuses the royal family of having pushed her to the brink of suicide and self-harm by denying her the assistance she requested after the battering of the British tabloid press. She also accuses her of racism, accusing one of her members, whose name she does not name, of having expressed concerns to Harry about the color of their baby Archie's skin, even before he was born.
“They didn't want him to be a prince,” she explains, adding that the conversation was about “how dark his skin color would be when he was born”. She finally accuses him of lying. “I understood that not only was I unprotected, but that they were willing to lie to protect other family members,” she points out.
Jealousies as in Lady Di's time
Harry is not left out: he confirms the relationship difficulties with his father Charles and his brother William. He sympathizes with what he considers to be a form of captivity for the two of them. "My father is trapped, my brother too, they cannot leave", he regrets. “I was too, but I didn't know that until I met Meghan,” he says.
Such attacks go far beyond the mere accusations of lying that leaked in excerpts from the interview before it aired. The excitement is likely to be enormous, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States. They throw a violent spotlight on a royal family welcoming newcomers all the more difficult as they envy their popularity. Harry evokes the couple's problems during their 2018 tour of Australia, the success of which would have irritated Buckingham as in Lady Di's time. Worse yet, they give the image of a monarchy that is not only old-fashioned, but backward.
What delight the Republicans, who will not fail to denounce such archaisms, while annoying a little more those who reproach the couple for having fled their obligations by deserting London for California, and for having granted such an interview even then. that he pretends to flee the light. This explosive interview is enough to throw real trouble in people's minds, and widen the gap a little more between the monarchy and British opinion, even as the handover between the very popular Elizabeth II and her son Charles - who l 'is much less - already announces itself, when the day comes, particularly delicate.
The tabloids on the teeth
Even if the Queen is not directly targeted, the couple always taking care to distinguish her from the rest of "The Firm", all commentators are now awaiting her reaction. "Because it is she who runs the shop," said Monday morning the presenter of SkyNews posted in the cold in front of Buckingham Palace. It is therefore up to her to put things in order. "
In the meantime, all the "tabloids" are on the bridge - the affair monopolized for example this Monday all the front page of the site of the "Daily Mail", with a multitude of articles piling up under the title "I wanted to kill myself "(" I wanted to kill myself "). But they are also on the teeth, as the couple has, as the “Financial Times” playfully noted on Monday, unveiled in a single interview “enough nuggets to keep the English tabloids alive for a decade”.
