It’s been said that if you like getting perks that one of the best jobs in the world is to be the Vice-President of the USA. You get the similar perks to being President (the car, the house and the plane) but you don’t get the responsibilities of the office (it’s “The President’s Administration”). Unless the President makes you head of some task force or other, your job is pretty much to sit there to fill the main seat in the event that the president dies in office (as happened to LBJ after JFK got shot).
You could say that being the American Vice-President is like
being the second son a monarch. You get the perks of being royalty but sine you’re
unlikely to be king, nobody really cares about what you do. Like the Vice-President,
the second son has a certain amount of freedom to shape his destiny that the
guy in the top spot does not have.
The record of second sons in the British monarchy has been
patchy. There was Albert Windsor, who was a happy and shy man with a stutter
until his brother chose to marry an “unsuitable” woman, thus making him become
George VI (his reign involved World War II and the dissolution of Empire). Then
there’s a current Duke of York who for want of a better description forgot that
defending your regular attendances at the parties of a convicted sex offender wasn’t
the smartest thing to do.
Prince Harry, the second son of Prince Charles, the current
heir to the throne seemed to have gotten the right formula of being the second
son. Whereas his brother, or the “King-in-Waiting” did all the serious stuff,
he took the path of being a royal who was open about his emotions. He served
his nation by fighting in Afghanistan and championed good causes, including the
ones that his mother once championed (landmines and mental health) and was not
afraid of being seen to be having a good time with his Grandmother (who isn’t
known for having fun)
Having Fun with Grandma – Copyright Vanity Fair
William may have been the “modern” face of royalty but it
was Harry that the rest of the common folk could relate to. It was he, rather
than his brother who seemed to represent Britain as it actually is rather than
what it would like to be.
Harry’s proverbial crowning glory came when he married
American Actress Meghan Markle, whose main claim to fame was being the
attractive love interest in a legal drama called Suites. Much was made about
the fact that Ms. Markle is “bi-racial” (dad is white and mum is black) and
this was a wonderful “first-ever” for the royals ruling an increasingly
multi-racial Britain.
Everyone seemed happy until one day, the Duke and Duchess of
Sussex decided that they were going to step back from royal duties and then
they’d move off to America where they could “earn their own money.”
Well, the infamous “Megxit” as that event was known has
become even more infamous with an interview that the couple gave to American talk
show host, Oprah Winfrey. This was an interview that showed the genius of
someone’s PR spin. In that interview, it was insinuated that the Royals were a
group of racist because someone in the family had “expressed concerns” about baby
Archie’s skin colour and that Ms. Markle like her late mother-in-law, Princes
Diana, felt suicidal about locked up in a castle. To add to the insinuation of being
cruel racist, it was also insinuated that they were cheap – too cheap to pay
for their security.
The interview has created a predictable amount of news ink.
It was, perhaps what you’d call the transformation of Prince Harry from
proverbial lad to actual Twat. How did it happen and why did they do it? What’s
interesting is that the Prince and Ms. Markle seemed to have pretty much what
they wanted. They had signed lucrative
TV deals with the likes of Netflix and once “Megxit” was announced, the British
Press only really covered them when it came to “Megxit” news, which was
something both had cited as reasons for wanting to step back. So, what was the
point of doing the interview and dropping so many bombshells?
One can only assume that either Ms. Markle felt aggrieved by
the treatment the royal family gave her or this was the perfect opportunity to enhance
the “Sussex” (Prince Harry is the Duke of Sussex and part of the sticking
points of Megxit was the branding of the couple as “Sussex Royals”) brand. What
better way to get people talking about you than by picking a fight with the
very reason why you’re famous in the first place.
Let’s note that no specifics were given as to the “racist”
incident where a senior royal expressed the concern about the little Archie’s
skin tone. All we know is that the Prince went out of his way to call Oprah Winfrey
to say that it wasn’t the Queen or Prince Philip. We are left with the question
of which member of the family “expressed concern,” over the baby’s skin tone
and we should also ask ourselves what exactly was said. There is a difference
between “Oh, this is the first baby with bi-racial blood, I wonder if he’ll be
slightly tan,” and “Oh God, hope it doesn’t turn out looking like it’s N***grandmother,
it would be embarrassing if he came out looking tan.”
Then there’s the reaction of the Duchess to the former host
of Good Morning Britain, Mr. Piers Morgan, who said he did not believe her and
called her Princess Pinocchio. For
disagreeing with the Duchess’s take on things, Mr. Morgan lost his job because Ms.
Markle made a personal complaint to Offcom, the official regulator. It’s clear
that Ms. Markle has her pulse on what the media is saying about her and her
husband:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/meghan-markles-oprah-interview-discrepancy-23742234
To make matters even worse, private conversations between
the Prince and his brother and father was leaked to the media and described as
being “unproductive.” One might suggest that the “Sussexes” don’t really intend
to patch things up with the rest of the family unless it suites them.
As a former Royal Photographer said, Prince Harry was a
happy and friendly fellow, who suddenly became withdrawn. What was the main factor?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCRy5aaNkus
Nobody doubts that being a “royal” can be brutal and members
of the House of Windsor are not known for being emotionally available. However,
these are facts that are well known and given the amount of “dirt” that her
late mother-in-law dished onto the family, there is no way that Ms. Markle can
claim she didn’t know what she was getting into
As for Prince Harry, he has the option of walking away from
it all. Unlike his older brother, he does not have a destiny and nobody would
have begrudged him if he had walked away from “royal life.” However, leaving
the problems brought about by being royal would also mean giving up the perks
of being royal.
The House of Windsor is by no means perfect but they didn’t
deserve to be hurt by cheap tricks from a couple they had given so much to.
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