Ironically, the one unexpurgated consolation, acknowledged by everyone within the family and at the palace, was Meghan’s bi-racial identity. It was the single most important aspect of her identity that overrode all the reservations created by her dominating personality, political inclinations, and past conduct which had generated such mixed reports. As the prince told me, ‘Had Meghan not been a woman of colour, they would never have allowed the marriage. It was the only thing that was unreservedly in her favour.’ It reinforced the diversity of British society and was viewed as an updated version of Queen Elizabeth’s statement when the Germans bombed Buckingham Palace during the war: ‘I’m glad; now I feel I can look the East End in the face.’
With the die cast by Harry’s determination, everyone tried to be positive. Meghan definitely had many virtues. She was beautiful, stylish, vivacious. She was bright and energetic. She had a good work ethic. She was good company if you agreed with her. She had set out to charm Charles and the Queen, and to an extent she had succeeded. Everyone hoped that such misgivings as had arisen would be laid to rest when she became a member of the Royal Family. ‘The Queen and Prince Charles were particularly delighted with her virtues, not the least of which was her colour,’ a European royal told me.
To show how welcome Meghan was, the Queen even included her in the Sandringham Christmas house party in 2019. Although everyone did their utmost to make her feel welcome, although she responded with the charm and grace which she possesses when she wishes to respond positively, there was nevertheless an undercurrent emanating from her that some people picked up as disdain or disapproval. One of the British royals told a European counterpart that she made it clear that she disapproved of hunting and shooting and would therefore not be hanging around to participate in the traditional Boxing Day shoot. ‘I suppose it’s to her credit that she has the strength of her convictions, but what worries me is this: Why can’t she be like my cousin’s wife, who would sooner die than kill a fly? She doesn’t make a point of disapproving of us. She has her ways and we have ours. We all rub along happily despite our differences of opinion. I’m just worried that someone who is so dogmatic that she makes it clear that hers are the only opinions worth having isn’t going to fit into our world, or indeed, into any world at all where anyone disagrees with her. What gets me is the underlying disrespect she seems to have for anyone who doesn’t agree with her. I hope I’m wrong, but I can’t shake the feeling that young Harry’s picked up a right little madame. I only hope Havoc isn’t her middle name.’
Havoc comes in many forms and is precipitated by many things and, in the run-up to the wedding, the white side of Meghan’s family proved a rich hunting ground for the British tabloids. The black side of the family was deemed to be off limits, not through any humanitarian sentiments, but because the British public would have attacked the press for being racist. But the Markle family was seen as rich pickings, to be got at at every turn. Tom Jr, Samantha, Tyler and his mother Tracey were all made to look ridiculous, their every action picked to pieces as the tabloids competed with each other to relate how un-English, how working-people American they were. What hicks. There really was no excuse for such conduct. It was unedifying and unconstructive, but the price you sometimes have to pay for a free press is injured feelings. These are infinitely preferable to politicians who can’t be called to order owing to a toothless tiger which has lost the ability to inflict damage when it bites, but that did not help the unfortunate Markle family. All of them were pilloried in varying degrees, very occasionally with some merit, but largely without any whatsoever.
Embarrassing though the Markles found the way they were being represented in the British tabloids, it was nothing compared with the way they now started to portray Tom Sr. He has rightly stated that they made him look like a slob, like white trash, like a drunkard. They hounded him day and night for the six months from the announcement of his daughter’s marriage until the week before the wedding, when he fell out of view following his heart attacks. Tom Sr has spoken on television about how embarrassing it was to be made to look like a dolt in front of the whole world.
From morning till night, his every action was observed, his ever movement commented upon and decried. Harry and Meghan’s advice to him was as impractical as it was impersonal. ‘Don’t talk to the press at all,’ they said. When, at the beginning of the couple’s romance, Doria had been given the merest hint of what Tom Sr had been having to endure for months, Harry had waded in, specifically complaining about the tabloids’ treatment of his future mother-in-law. Now that his father-in-law to be was being dished up an even more intensive dose of the same poison, he was left to fend for himself with what was really ineffectual, even silly, advice. If they did not realise how unrealistic it was to tell him not to talk to the press when every day his every action was dogged by them, they should have. If you are a man on your own, living in a house in the middle of a populous town, you are exposed
