With that in mind, Harry and Meghan had been using social media to put their case in subtle and not so subtle ways for the better part of a year. Their posts had gradually become both mischievous and competitive, begging the question whether the bad old days of Diana had returned. The late Princess of Wales would do anything to grab column inches away from Charles and the other royals, sometimes even the Queen. Such as the time she had started to play the piano as he was about to make a speech, or when she wore a new hairstyle while accompanying the Queen to the State Opening of Parliament, or when she posed in pathetic solitude outside the Taj Mahal.
It certainly seemed that the spirit of Diana had returned in the body of Meghan, and that Harry, who had been too young to appreciate the nuisance his mischief making mother had been, was only too eager to go along with what royalists regarded as the unnecessary and potentially destructive competitiveness which had crept into the Sussexes’ PR at the expense of the other royals’ activities. In the past year, there had been too many occasions on which he and Meghan had snatched publicity away from the other members of the family, usually by means of carefully calibrated postings. This was just the sort of conduct no one at the palace, in the Establishment or the Royal Family wanted, and while the press were having a field day with it, it was not up to the media to suppress the reporting of valid news by ignoring the obvious antipathies. The way for Harry and Meghan to avoid the criticism that was coming their way was to desist from being newsworthy in a negative way and at counterproductive times.
The first brazen scene-stealing ploy had taken place in April 2019, shortly after the Sussexes had branched out on their own. Catherine Cambridge is a keen photographer who posts pictures of her children for their birthdays. She had posted an adorable one of Louis for his first birthday. Within hours the Sussexes had knocked her out of the news by cranking out wildlife pictures taken by Harry of a lion, a rhinoceros, and an elephant in celebration of Earth Day. These received 787,000 likes compared with Catherine’s 1.2m, but royal author Phil Dampier expressed the view of many when he said, ’It starts to look like Harry and Meghan are in competition.’
There was an almost amusing postscript to the picture Meghan and Harry posted. The Mail on Sunday published an uncropped version of the elephant, showing that it had been tethered and sedated, while the other two animals had also been drugged into docility. The pictures therefore represented anything but wildlife. Harry complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation, denying having misled the public, but his complaint was rejected at the end of January 2020.
In June 2019, Meghan successfully belittled Catherine Cambridge’s appearance at Wimbledon following her own disastrous appearance there. William’s wife is an avid tennis player as well as Patron of the All England Club. In that capacity, she presents the trophies to the winners at Wimbledon. This she did as usual, but Meghan managed to knock her and the champions off the front pages of the papers and acquire 1.3m likes - compared with her sister-in-law’s 670,000 - by turning up with Harry for the premiere of the Lion King and, after greeting Jay-Z and Beyoncé, who called her ‘my princess’, successfully garnered sympathy for herself when Pharrell Williams told her how much her ‘union’ meant to people of colour, and how ‘We cheer you guys on.’ After thanking him for his words of encouragement, Meghan’s response, which was reported upon worldwide along with her attendance at the event, was, ‘They don’t make it easy.’
What, people wanted to know, intrigued by the apparent anomaly of Meghan’s comment, did she mean? Was she struggling? And if so, why? In a few well-chosen words, she had managed to suck the public into a mystery of her own fabrication, in the process making herself and her feelings into the story. Undoubtedly, Meghan was every bit as skilled as her late mother-in-law at winning the limelight away from all competitors.
Despite this, critics wanted to know why Harry, Captain General of the Marines, had missed the memorial concert marking the 30th anniversary of the death of 11 Marines when the IRA had bombed the Royal Marine Depot at Deal. Surely Meghan could have attended the Lion King premiere on her own while he attended the memorial concert? This again struck a wrong note with people who genuinely wanted harmony, and moreover wanted to see the Royal Family function as a dignified and unified unit, each one in step with the other, rather than one couple knocking another off its perch.
Controversy, however, had replaced unity, with Harry and Meghan overshadowing the other royals even when it was not in the best interests of the Family or the Nation. Twice in a calendar month they managed to overshadow royal tours, the first being their own in South Africa, the second being the Cambridges’ tour of Pakistan in October 2019. This had been an important event, long in the making, with high hopes on both sides for its success. However, it was completely eclipsed by the sensational teaser tapes of the Sussexes’ forthcoming interview with Tom Bradby, resulting in a courtier stating, ‘This move has certainly overshadowed the Pakistan visit and what has been achieved here during the last few days, as well as a lot of work by an awful lot of dedicated people here on
