There was little doubt by this time that Meghan and Harry were planning a move into the world of commerce, despite such activity being strictly forbidden for senior members of the Royal Family. There was rather more doubt as to whether she and Harry understood the significance of trademarking a name containing the word royal. It is a word restricted by law in the United Kingdom. No one can use it without the permission of the Crown. The question was: Were Meghan and Harry even aware of this, or did they know it and were they canny enough to register the trademark while they were still working royals, in the hope that they had a better chance of retaining the ability to use a royal description to which they would have no right once they embarked upon commercial activity?
Even before Meghan and Harry’s attempt to trademark the Sussex Royal brand was known, it was obvious to the palace, the press, and all sophisticates what Meghan’s aim, and with her Harry’s, was. This was summarised by the Guardian columnist Mark Borkowski, a PR expert and author of two books on publicity stunts, who voiced the universal viewpoint that Meghan intended ‘to build a global brand’.
He also cautioned against the aggressive approach she and, through her, Harry were taking with the media, contrasting it to his mother’s policy of ‘charming’ the press into coverage Diana had wanted. He foresaw trouble for the couple as ‘American PRs don’t get charm. They get size and power. And they don’t understand the world outside America.’
These warnings would come true only too soon. Although it would take another few months for Meghan and Harry to sue the British press, Meghan’s guest editorship of the September 2019 issue of British Vogue quickly resulted in yet more criticism from the British press rather than the praise she had hoped for. Sunshine Sachs had helped her with the project. On the face of it, it was a golden opportunity to shine, but once the magazine came out, becoming the bestselling issue of all time, excitement turned to disapproval, demonstrating just how totally lacking in appreciation of British culture and British sensitivities Meghan and Sunshine Sachs were. The cover, of fifteen women in boxes, with the sixteenth box left bare for the reader to insert herself in it, or anyone else of her choice, was deemed to be a good idea highjacked by superficiality and woke bias to such an extent that it had become a bad idea slickly executed.
By common consent, Meghan’s editorship was judged to be too Hollywood. Where among her choice of the fifteen most important Women for Change was a heavy-hitter like her grandmother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II or the female British Prime Minister Theresa May? Why, in an edition dedicated to women who were forces for change in society, were most if not all of the women connected to Hollywood? Why were most of them actresses, models, celebrities or left-wing activists? Yet again, the clash of British and American culture was apparent. In Britain, Hollywood is viewed as the slickest and most famous source of entertainment in the world, but beyond that, it has no gravitas. Very few people in Britain care one iota about the opinions of Hollywood personalities. They are there to entertain, not to instruct, and those who get on the bandwagon, such as Vanessa Redgrave or now Meghan, turn the public off. They prefer to obtain their instruction, elucidation and education from more conventional sources such as educationalists, writers, politicians, newspaper editors, even television pundits. This contrasts sharply with the respect Hollywood and its representatives generate in the United States.
What further reduced the respect of the public reaction was Vogue editor Edward Enninful’s confirmation that Meghan had approached him rather than the other way around. This immediately removed all the cachet of an invitation and replaced it with a degree of pushiness which might earn respect in the United States but did the opposite in the United Kingdom. In the British scheme of things, royalty acquiesces to invitations; it doesn’t seek them out. Doing so converts those who are in a position to endow into supplicants. As such, there is a loss of stature and with it, concomitant esteem.
Also, in Britain the fashion industry is regarded with less reverence than it is in the United States. Although it is viewed as glamorous, it simply does not have the solemnity it possesses across the Atlantic. Here, it is regarded as frothy and frivolous, so dedicating an issue to a sociological subject like women who are forces for change in society became, in British eyes, a bizarre mixture of the superficial and the profound. Had Meghan guest edited a serious publication like the Economist or even a newspaper like the Telegraph or the Guardian, and had she chosen really hard-hitting women like her grandmother-in-law, Angela Merkel the German Chancellor, Christine Lagarde (President of the European Central Bank) or even the incoming President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, she would have gained respect rather than
