Why Meghan and Harry's confessions pose a serious threat to British royalty
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey is becoming the most publicized criticism of the British monarchy in many years. In her meeting with the journalist, Meghan Markle confessed her suicidal thoughts while she was pregnant and claimed that someone from the British royal family came to show her concern about how dark the skin of her first child would be .
Many commentators have described the interview as an attack on the British royal family. The royalists' demand that Meghan and Harry "be quiet" recalls the many occasions when members of British royalty went to confession in public, and how those who wash their dirty clothes in public are ignored to protect the people. institution.
Royal confessions have a long history. Marion Crawford, who wrote a book in 1950 about her time as the Queen's nanny and her sister Margaret hers, was allegedly ostracized for selling her story without permission. Wallis Simpson, the American socialite for whom Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936, wrote a memoir in which she sarcastically recalled the Queen Mother's "justly famous charm" as a thinly veiled criticism.
Princess Diana's 1995 BBC interview is perhaps the most iconic royal confession. Diana spoke to interviewer Martin Bashir about the adultery of her husband, Prince Charles, the palace plots against her, and the deterioration of her physical and mental health. The phrase “well, there were three of us, so our marriage was a bit crowded,” referring to Prince Charles's affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, is still remembered almost 26 years later. Sir Richard Eyre, former director of the National Theater, confessed that the Queen called Diana's decision to tell it all "creepy".
Unwanted confessions
All these examples have in common that it is women who use real confessions to reveal their experiences.
Celebrities often resort to these confessions to air intimacies before the public. In this way, they reveal something personal and show their "authentic" self. However, as scholars Helen Wood, Beverley Skeggs, and Nancy Thumin point out, confessions by male, white, and elite celebrities tend to be treated seriously, but confessions by women, particularly women of color or associated with "Petty professions" are too often treated as inappropriate and narcissistic.
All of these confessions have been described as attacks on the British royal family. They were, and are, regarded as an erroneous and immoral exposition of the inner workings of the monarchy. Commentators such as Piers Morgan have called the Oprah Winfrey interview a disgrace, wondering how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could have been so ruthless as to call Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of Edinburgh liars when he is currently ill in Hospital.
Protective power
Articles describing royal confessions as immoral also seek to protect the monarchy, rather than acknowledge the importance of holding a powerful institution accountable. In my next book, I argue that the British monarchy relies on a careful balance of visibility and invisibility to stay in power. This is an ancient institution that operates in the heart of a so-called democracy; Drawing a thick veil over these contradictions is essential for their survival. The royal family may be visible through spectacular displays (state ceremonies, for example) or family displays (royal weddings, the birth of royalty) but the inner workings of the institution must remain secret.
Like Meghan, I also like to talk about The Firm (The Firm, the popular term to refer to the British Royal House) to describe the monarchy as a corporation that invests in reproducing its wealth and power. But this is a corporation whose operations must remain secret. Any publicity of her behind-the-scenes activities, such as recent revelations in “The Guardian” about the misuse of Queen’s consent to influence laws affecting her personal interests, runs the risk of destabilizing her.
One time when the monarchy came under high visibility was the 1969 documentary Royal Family, which followed royalty for a year and threatened to upset that careful balance of visibility and invisibility. As the constitutionalist Walter Bagehot wrote in the 19th century: "We must not allow daylight to unveil magic."
Like previous “confessors”, Meghan and Harry's claims about life within “The Firm” continue to be viewed as disrespectful, blasphemous and immoral attacks on Queen Elizabeth II and her family. But perhaps what we should ask ourselves is why so many people, and especially the British media, seem to have trouble holding one of the UK's most powerful institutions to account.
