Wednesday, March 10, 2021

ROYAL KERFUFFLE

Maybe it’s because I wasn’t brought up in the UK but I absolutely do not understand the whole THING, the whole kerfuffle palaver sound and fury and earth-shattering repercussions of a TV interview conducted by celebrity Oprah Winfrey with celebrity couple Meghan and Harry, a nice couple in love, happy with their adorable little boy and the no doubt adorable baby daughter inside Meghan’s bump. They’re sitting in the garden of their beautful house in California telling Oprah why they left home - or rather Harry’s home, a palace inside an institution they call The Firm which is actually The Monarchy and that’s why the Media, the Tabloids, the Royals, the Courtiers, the Pundits, the influencers, the Presenters and The Public - zillions of them all over the planet - have been watching and listening open-mouthed, entranced and/or outraged by every word dropping from the celebrity lips.

WTF??????

Now all those entranced and/or outraged people here in the Disunited Queendom are feverishly outdoing each other in analysing, predicting, condemning or praising every word that was pronounced by that celebrity couple having trouble with their family. The only difference being that, in this case, the family are The Monarchy and, in the eyes of zillions of people, the Monarchy and Monarchs themselves are not like other people. They can do no wrong and if they accidentally happen to do wrong it must never be called “wrong” and certainly not admitted. Ever. The Institution of Monarchy must survive. That’s just how it is, they say. The Firm’s problem is: the rebel couple in California want to tell everybody how it really is.

2 comments:

Vincent said...

Well-said! I go along with most of it, except for one important detail. Meghan can be excused. She had no idea what she was letting herself in for. Harry knew all too well and is culpable for not opening the closet (before it was too late) to display all the inherited skeletons, some hundreds of years old, some fresh in Harry's own lifetime.

It could have been so different. Knowing what to expect, they could have pocketed the royal stipend and kept a low profile. But I suspect that rebel Harry wanted and still wants to avenge his mother, and declare war against the Queendom publicly, as she did before him.

And to the rest of us, it's just a cynically-exploited drama.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Vincent, I don't agree about Harry. I don't believe he wants revenge and I don't think there's any cynical plotting involved in the couple's decision. In anything involving the monarchy, it's very difficult to believe that anyone can actually be sincere and open but my impression of both Harry and Meghan in that interview (and I'm not among those who are awed by celebrities, royal or otherwise) was that they were speaking sincerely and honestly about their experience with the Firm.