For the past few weeks, the atmosphere between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family have been strained. The couple, who have withdrawn from the crown and now live in California, must speak this Sunday on the Oprah Winfrey show.
Not since the crises and tragedy of the Diana era has the British crown been in so much trouble. The announcement of the broadcast on the American channel CBS of an interview with the Duchess of Sussex, the former American actress Meghan Markle, and her husband Prince Harry, sixth in the order of succession, never ends to shake the press on both sides of the Atlantic. Broadcast on Sunday March 7 in the United States, the interview, conducted by the queen of confessions on the small screen, Oprah Winfrey, seems to give pride of place to the royal settling of scores.
On January 8, 2020, Harry, second son of Diana and Prince Charles, and his wife Meghan Markle announced that they would renounce most of the public commitments attached to their titles as leading members of the royal family, wanting to "gradually build a new role within the institution", and "to work towards becoming financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen".
Franceinfo returns to the chronology of a "so British" scandal.
Act 1: the break is recorded between the couple and the royal family
After a one-year transition period, Buckingham Palace announced on February 19, 2021, that the couple will lose their last titles, including Prince Harry's military titles. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have confirmed to Her Majesty The Queen that they will not return to serving Royal Family,” a statement read. It's official: the third voice, more modern and progressive, that Harry and Meghan hoped to open within the royal family, came up against the rigidity of the British monarchy, unable to imagine a hybrid role, the both outside and inside the protocol framework.
Pandemic obliges, the original promise of a life between the United Kingdom and North America has been erased in favor of a permanent installation in California. On September 2, the New York Times revealed that the couple had signed juicy multi-year (and multi-million) contracts with Spotify and Netflix.
Across the Channel, the press then did not fail to note that the streaming platform produced the series The Crown, an adaptation of the life of the royal family, in which Elizabeth II and her family are presented as ready to do anything to preserve the crown to the detriment of the welfare of its members.
Act 2: Prince Harry castigates the British press
In the interview granted to Oprah Winfrey, the couple must speak about their decision to cut ties with the royal family. But from February 25, Prince Harry lends himself to the game of the talk show in the James Corden show. While the host takes the prince through the streets of Los Angeles in an open-top bus, the prince confides in it that his mental health has deteriorated in the face of the media's relentlessness towards the couple he forms with Meghan Markle. Hounded by the press, and in particular the tabloids, the wife of the heir, American and mixed-race, has indeed been the subject of very different treatment, as this ITV documentary shows, * from that reserved for the other "patch" of the family, Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, the eldest son of Prince Charles.
The media take it for their rank, but Prince Harry does not fail to send a discreet spade to his family when he mentions The Crown. By focusing on the disastrous couple formed by Prince Charles and Lady Di, the fourth season of the hit series angered the palace, outraged to see a fiction depicting an obnoxious royal family facing the young and naive Princess Diana. "It's fiction, then confirms Prince Harry. But it's vaguely based on reality. It gives you a general idea of this way of life, of the pressure that it represents to put duty and service [ of the crown] above everything, including the family and what it can lead to, "he says.
Would he be annoyed to see the palace indignant at a fictitious representation, while this same palace refuses to take seriously the harassment that Harry believes his wife has been subjected to? "I am more comfortable in front of The Crown than when I read what is written about my family, my wife or myself. There is a difference between something that is presented as fiction and what is presented as facts. I have a real problem with that," he continued.
Act 3: the press flies to the aid of the royal family
Prince Harry's interview could not be less timely. Broadcast the night after the Queen spoke about vaccines against Covid-19 in the United Kingdom, it completely eclipsed the royal communication operation linked to the fight against the pandemic. In the morning shows, commentators have it all for Harry, sometimes pointing to clumsy "timing" aimed at pulling media coverage.
Journalist Camilla Tominey, specialist in the royal family for The Telegraph, half-word accuses the prince of spitting in the soup *. "It's hard to continually complain about the intrusions of the press and to keep making these appearances that generate headlines," she says, accusing the couple of "only wanting publicity that is favorable to them ( ...). There are several versions of this story (...). We know that the queen is sad and disappointed by their departure. We cannot put aside this aspect of the story because the other side claims to have been treated unfairly."
For photographer Arthur Edwards, there is no doubt: it is Meghan Markle who is orchestrating this war against the media. "For years, Harry had a good relationship with the press. It was only when he met Meghan that it stopped and he never wanted to talk to us again," he says. duplex on the show "Good Morning Britain". As for the "toxic" media environment described by the prince, the journalist brushes it aside: "His father experienced the same thing. His brother experienced the same thing. And they did not run away in Los Angeles though."
Act 4: Meghan Markle is accused of harassment
On Wednesday March 3, the British daily The Times reveals that Meghan Markle is the subject of a complaint for "harassment", addressed to the palace in October 2018 by Jason Knauf, then the couple's communication secretary, and remained unanswered. The newspaper claims that the Duchess has "dismissed two personal assistants and ruined the confidence of a third person." "Is Meghan Markle the victim or the executioner?" asks "Good Morning Britain"* the next morning.
The author of the Times article, Valentine Low, charges the Duchess and explains on the ITV* channel: according to him, Meghan Markle "is doing a very effective job of getting her side of the story out and presenting herself as someone who has been abused by the royal family I have been told by several people that Meghan positioned herself as a victim from day one, as if she had decided that the situation was unbearable and that the only solution was to leave. North America."
He also criticizes the couple for wanting to impose their own "version of the story" and defends the decision of their sources to speak out just before the broadcast of the Oprah Winfrey show. "If they don't do it now, then it will be too late. Once Meghan and Harry talk to Oprah, it's their message that everyone will believe." However, "these are individuals who do not digest the way some have been treated and want their version of the facts to be heard", he said of his sources.
Act 5: Buckingham Palace says it is "concerned" by these accusations
"Never explain, never complain": "Never explain, never complain." Faced with the scandal, the palace bends its motto. "We are clearly very concerned about the accusations made in the Times," the palace said on Wednesday in an unusual statement for the British monarchy, unaccustomed to discussing its differences in public.
Embarrassed, the palace stresses that it "does not and will not tolerate harassment in the workplace". For Camilla Tominey, guest of "The Morning View", this embarrassment implies that Buckingham is not in the maneuver: these accusations, "it is not necessarily something that reflects positively on the palace, because it underlies hears that he did not know how to manage the situation properly and that these people were not listened to”, she analyzes.
Act 6: the couple accuse Buckingham Palace of peddling false information
Meghan Markle reacts immediately to information from the Times via a spokesperson. The Duchess of Sussex is "saddened by this latest attack on her person, especially as someone who has been the victim of harassment herself and who is deeply involved in supporting those who have suffered pain and trauma". he indicates. The couple's lawyers meanwhile told The Times that the newspaper was "used by Buckingham Palace to peddle a totally false narrative" before the interview with Harry and Meghan aired.
These statements are accompanied by the publication of a new excerpt from the forthcoming interview with Oprah Winfrey. It was recorded several weeks ago (and therefore before the revelations of the Times), but Meghan Markle almost presciently suggests that the "firm", the nickname given to the most powerful circle of the royal family, is in "spreading lies" about her and Prince Harry.
Act 7: the press, passive-aggressive, goes after the "ungrateful" Duchess
Unsurprisingly, the accusations did not go down well with the British press. While a far-right commentator calls on a radio show to strip the couple of their nationality, the tabloid The Sun* is busy accusing Meghan and Harry of attracting attention while Prince Philip , the 99-year-old husband of the queen, is hospitalized. In an article published on Thursday, he praised the tact of Carole Middleton, Kate's mother, who asked that the publication of a magazine on which she was on the cover be postponed, out of respect for the queen's husband.
For the specialist of the royal family Angela Levin, questioned by "Good Morning Britain", the attitude of the couple is only a new proof of the ingratitude of the duchess. "I find it amazing that Meghan chose to do this interview while she is pregnant, she has already had a miscarriage, you are very vulnerable when you are pregnant," she said. "She's one of the most famous women, she's rich, she's got more than anyone would ever ask for and yet when things don't go her way, nothing goes... You'd think that would she be grateful? she continues. And to recall, as proof: "Harry said before the wedding: 'What Meghan wants, she gets'."
