Tyler Perry's right. They're smart, talented, classy people who have been through more than their fair share of troubles.
Douglas Murray, Megyn Kelly (who called them "Kardashian 2") and Piers Morgan--whom I tend to agree with on other issues--are so wrong I want to knock their heads together. The indignation in Kelly's biting comments, the superciliousness in Murray's, who thinks Markle is lying in the Oprah interview, the ranting jealousy emanating from Piers Morgan, are dismaying. Of course, Murray's real target is cancel culture; a British actor's career was destroyed when he said he didn't think Britain was that racist.
Amazing what a Rorschach test this series is. The complaints usually center around the notion of privilege--as if being rich and famous protected a person or was even enjoyable. I watch these lives and think "how golden my anonymity!"
I admire the work Harry and Meghan did for the royal family and the work they're doing on their own. The two of them are morale-boosters with tremendous energy. They are visionaries: they want to make the world a better place and they go to town making their dreams come true.
The part of the story I hadn't known--the part Murray, Kelly and Morgan don't buy, but I do--is the palace intrigue. Meghan and Harry got too popular and had to be taken down a peg. Somebody did this. Leaving "the firm," I take it, is a bit like leaving the mafia. Takes a lot of work to survive, what with the helicoptors overhead, the men in cars or boats surrounding you, the barrage of hate tweets.
But I'll let the triumverate who dislike her present their argument, which is, essentially, "you don't like the heat? Stay out of the kitchen." In other words, all royals put up with egregiously intrusive lying publicity, so just suck it up.
Yes, well. There's a grain of truth in there somewhere. But Harry pointed out that the race card many papers were playing (the photo of a couple with a monkey in a suit labeled as Prince Archie coming home, for instance) made it all worse.
What these two extraordinarily talented, hard-working beautiful people missed--if they did miss something--was the absurdity of the flat-out lies, the hate mail, and the insulting photographs. There is something absurd about media attention. I'd hate it too if it was in my face all the time but unlike people in their twenties, thirties, I find more things amusing. The piles of money made by invented stories, the things people believe--it is all absurd. There's something to laugh at there. Even Princess Michael's blackamoor brooch. Out-of-touch, tacky, just awful--but not something to be resolved with laughter? Isn't it more "can you believe people felt that way? Can you believe she's wearing that? Can you believe she doesn't get how ghastly that thing is?"
Can you believe somebody didn't take Princess Michael aside (the way you would someone who's tucked her skirt into her underpants) and removed the brooch with a few kind words and an "I'll explain more later?"
The death threats, however, tipped the balance. They are not absurd, and from those I believe the palace could have done more to protect Meghan.
Fame eats people alive. The urge to escape wars with the urge to set the record straight, the urge to tell the true story. I think that's what these two young people have done.
What those who love Harry and Meghan and those who love to hate them seem to agree upon remains that they're really in love. They really are. I can see that, and their marriage reminds me of my own. There really is love like that. It really is great.
But if what you see up on that screen contrasts with what you're telling yourself you have, or understanding you don't have--I can see how you might hate them. Romantic bliss is something real, but rare. It's everything, and of course it's to be envied.
I think it’s not envy of romantic bliss — which others experience besides the couple — so much as the fact that Meghan and Harry broke a taboo, which is that people arena supposed to expose their families to criticism. People just don’t want to hear that a family behaves badly. And there is the mistaken idea that they « should have known » what they were getting into. How could they know? The tragedy is that Harry grew up with a mother who was not kindly treated by her husband, and he was profoundly affected by that. Perhaps he was destined to find a woman like Meghan who would by her very nature, allow the scenario to be replayed by the Royal family. To his credit, he has stood by his wife and together they decided to go their own way. I am sure it was not an easy decision —- despite their wealth and privilege ( which btw do soften many hardships) and they seem to be making the most of it. I wish them much and success on their journey, as they create their own new world without the burdensome and intrusive ties that came with the Palace life.
ReplyDeleteYes, mostly agree. But I do think the romantic bliss plays a role. Not everybody has it. Sometimes I look at Megyn Kelly--she was so smart defying Trump, even enduring having her coffee poisoned. She was so smart about airlines losing everyone's stuff. I find her brilliant on the woke ideology poisoning schools--she pulled her boys out of Collegiate. But what's this (seems to me) rage against Meghan? Wanting to prove Meghan lied and is narcissistic? This sure isn't how Meghan comes across in the series. Speculation, pure speculation: Megyn Kelly (and oh, the similar name is not irrelevant) is a gorgeous woman from a background not unlike Meghan Markle's--a not-rich family. Markle made it bigger. Envy? I just don't know, but there's such a passion in Kelly's comments that I always feel some undefined personal element is involved.
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