Meghan, Harry, the palace and the crushing media machine
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The couple accuse the royal family of failing to protect him. In the background, a media war, latent for two decades, is rekindled
Take out the exclamation points! Print huge and bold headlines !! Take a scandalized tone !!! The British Throne Fair has found its way back to the 1990s these days, when Diana was chased by the paparazzi, the royals washed their dirty laundry in public, and the tabloids referred to the good guys and the bad guys from the biggest " soap-opera 'of the world.
Let's face it, Harry and his wife Meghan dared to unpack everything in front of the high priestess of American denominational television, Oprah Winfrey. They say everything (!), We had been promised for weeks. How dare they (!!), indignant a British press that we have known less cautious. All this will end badly (!!!), we say to ourselves. The famous two-hour interview, pre-recorded, was finally broadcast on the American channel CBS on the night of Sunday to Monday. The British will have to wait until Monday evening to watch it on ITV, the country's leading commercial channel. In France, it was the TF1 group that won the exclusivity, on TMC this Monday evening.
The princely couple did not hold back, describing a cold, calculating royal family that cut them off. Harry recounts how his father, Prince Charles, stopped answering the phone for a period. He accuses him of having "let it down", when the latter "had experienced something similar". As for his brother, they are “on a different path”.
Meghan tells of a life in constant control, leaving her no choice but to feel abandoned. She brings up a member of the royal family - whom she does not name - asking if her son's skin color would be "dark." As for the racist-smelling press articles of a few British tabloids, no one in the royal family has ever spoken to him about them, even though a group of MPs were concerned about the situation. "Were you thinking about hurting yourself, were you having suicidal thoughts?" Oprah Winfrey asks. "Yes, very clearly, replies Meghan, I just didn't want to live anymore."
Save Elisabeth II
The princely couple, however, are holding back their blows against one person: the queen, arguably too popular, and untouchable at 94 years after one of the longest reigns in history. Harry says his relationship with his grandmother is "excellent".
Let's recap, without an exclamation mark, for those living in a parallel universe. Prince Harry, youngest son of Prince Charles, who has no chance of ever ascending to the throne, married in 2018 to a Métis American actress, Meghan Markle. The culture shock was frontal. On the one hand, the "firm" - Meghan's word - where nothing ever changes, whose raison d'être is to have no opinion and to ensure representation in ceremonies with a smile. On the other, a divorced woman who has a career and doesn't hide her distaste for Donald Trump on occasion.
After growing tensions, Meghan and Harry moved to Canada and then to California in early 2020. In February, the split became final when the Queen issued a dry, no-frills statement. "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge [their official title] have confirmed to Her Majesty The Queen that they will not be returning as active members of the Royal Family." All of Harry's military titles and the couple's association patronages are withdrawn. Break the ban.
The interview was therefore seen as revenge. For the royal family, this is the worst-case scenario, reminiscent of the famous interview Diana gave in 1995, when she said: "There were three of us in this marriage."
Meghan reveals that the mere possibility of speaking to Oprah Winfrey is "liberating". She recounts a conversation the two women had in 2018 about a possible interview: "I couldn't have said yes back then, I wasn't the one deciding."
Remembering Diana
Behind this very real family quarrel is also the return of the British media grinding machine. After Diana's death in 1997, the tabloids promised to settle down. For two decades, they more or less kept their word. The arrival of Meghan has shaken that balance. Hollywood creature, it wanted to impose its standards, according to which the press has no access and only receives photos and videos made by the star team themselves.
Last year, the princely couple decided to step out of the "Royal Rota". This system is the one and only source of press information on the royal family. At each event, a small group consisting of a television journalist (BBC and ITV in turn), one from the written press and the Press Association agency (grouping of regional newspapers) has the right to to be present. No question of asking any questions, but it is possible to film quite close and vaguely feel like you are in the front row.
The tabloid about-face
Instead, Meghan and Harry have decided to manage their relations with the press directly. When their baby was born, they refused to show it to photographers, unlike William and Kate, preferring to release their own photos a few days later. The same happened again with the baptism. Furious, the tabloid press turned on Meghan, who went from being a wonderful modern princess to being an ambitious intruder. Today, the media mass is said: a Chronicle of the Times treats it of "Marie-Antoinette", the Daily Express rebels against this "selfish" interview and Piers Morgan, star presenter of ITV, considers that she " deserves an Oscar ”:“ Prince Harry and his wife have spent two hours destroying everything the Queen stands for […] while her 99-year-old husband is seriously ill in hospital. It is despicable. "
A toxic relationship with the press
The subtext of this communication war is Harry's toxic relationship with the press. Whoever walked headlong behind his mother's coffin in 1997 hates journalists. "My main worry was seeing history repeating itself," he told Oprah Winfrey of her move to California. Harry, who dreams of a normal life, is nevertheless obsessed with his image. "He regularly reads articles about him and even readers' comments," said a journalist who interviewed him.
Added to this terror of the orphan is Meghan's Californian methods. The Californian couple have signed very lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify. He even registered the "Sussex Royal" trademark before giving up exploitation, at least for now. He is accused of hypocrisy, complaining about press intrusion while appearing on American talk shows. The break is now consumed. The soap opera can continue. The press can put out the exclamation points: we haven't seen this in a generation!
