Meghan and Harry: The Real Story

changed, that she had a new role and a part to play, but that there were still boundaries, and in this bigger, much expanded role, the approbation she yearned for she would receive only if she understood that it would take an entirely new form from what she was used to. She couldn’t expect emotional gratification the way she had got it from the crew or cast of the show, or even from the occasional reviewer. She would have to settle for an entirely different sort of gratification, this time a more intellectualised, spiritual version that would be less obvious but no less real or significant. The hyper-emotional interchanges upon which she had relied had to be a thing of the past. Instead of twenty indigents or a camera crew, she would be interacting with tens and hundreds of thousands of people on an annual basis, some for no more than thirty or fifty seconds, others for only a matter of minutes, and all within a more formalised, less emotive setting. There would seldom be the opportunity for people to express the approbation they felt, for the life of a royal on public duty is so transient, so busy, the interactions with people so fleeting, that there simply is not time to get feedback the way she was used to from the lightning engineer or the cameraman with whom she had interacted on a daily basis for hours on end on set. However, if she gave herself the chance, with time she would come to appreciate that there was feedback: it was simply more subtle. But the rewards nevertheless existed, and they were profound.

There was also the issue of discipline and control, and here the balance was radically different from what she had been used to. Had Meghan and Harry exercised the patience and diplomacy that his grandparents the Queen and Prince Philip did at the time of the accession, laying down their imprimatur slowly and cautiously rather than stating, as Meghan did, that she intended to ‘hit the ground running’ upon marriage - thereby conveying the message that everybody had better watch out, as the new broom intended to sweep clean - she would have received a more positive response.

Meghan was used to a structure on the Suits set whereby she could interact with the producers, directors, and script writers. Prior to that show, she had had very little luck in influencing anyone to expand her role, but, by her own account, on it she had had so much success that she had got them to tone down the sex scenes and build her character up into something even more potent than the powerhouse they had originally envisaged Rachel Zane as being.

Royalty has a different structure. The courtiers organise and advise. The royals perform, but do so within well-defined boundaries. Royalty is an ensemble act. Each player exists to enhance the Crown. The monarch is the chief player. The importance of each player thereafter is determined by their proximity to the throne. After the monarch comes the immediate heir. After him comes the next heir in line, and so on down the scales of precedence. If you are the sixth dancer in the chorus line and you are supposed to kick after number five and before number seven, you screw up the whole routine if you do so out of time. In royal families as in Broadway shows, each player needs to know his or her place. If you break ranks, you are damaging the show. You are especially destructive if you break ranks in such a way that you make it clear to the audience that you are a better player than all the other members of the ensemble. In doing so, you are not only boosting yourself at the expense of the whole show, but you are also showing up the other players adversely.

Since the whole purpose of a royal family is to represent its nation as a whole, there is only ever one game in town for each royal family. An undisciplined and destructive ensemble player who breaks rank will therefore ultimately be nothing but a force for destructiveness where the royal family is concerned. And the idea of setting up your own dance routine, separate from the one everyone expects to see, was so beyond all comprehension that no one conjured it up as a possibility. With the exception of Meghan, who plainly had contemplated just such an eventuality, for why else would she have failed to disband her Hollywood team when she got married?

It was against this backdrop that the wedding took place. Behind the scenes, it was a massive relief that the day itself went off as well as it did. Aside from the unfortunate publicity involving Meghan’s father and the rest of the Markle family, her own conduct and that of Harry in the run-up had created fear rather than comfort. With his backing, she had demanded control of the wedding, notwithstanding neither of them having any financial responsibility for it and despite her being a newcomer to the royal scene and him acting as if she should be allowed to break every existing precedent and rule. Meghan had never been disruptive or disrespectful of the parameters laid down by the producers of Suits to ensure that it was a success. She had been happy to fit herself into that scheme of things. Yes, she was known to have been demanding and challenging, to push for better lines for herself, to want to expand her character, but all of this had been done in a professionally respectful way. If she could understand and respect those parameters, why would she and Harry seek to disrespect and disregard the parameters of the royal world?

It was no secret in royal circles that Diana had been a maverick who had often not only disrespected but also denigrated the royal world, despite it being her platform for greatness. Harry had also from time to time shown himself