There’s no question that Prince Harry’s life is one of unfathomable privilege and incredible opportunities, but last night the world was given a painful glimpse of the realities of that gilded cage with an unprecedented statement from Kensington Palace that seemed to come straight from the heart.
This felt like Harry crying out, pleading not just to the media but directly to consumers, and I suspect aside from a brisk edit from his Private Secretary, this was largely Harry’s words, a telling overture from a young man desperate to protect and preserve his new love.
Since news broke more than a week ago in the UK tabloid the Sunday Express that Prince Harry was dating US actress Meghan Markle, the world’s media shifted into overdrive.
The Toronto-based Suits star and her family have been under siege and former boyfriends harassed with bribes. But possibly worse than this for both Harry and his new girlfriend, the most pernicious tentacles of social media let rip, with vicious comment pieces jibing at Meghan’s ethnic background – her mother is black, her father white. Meghan has spent her life battling racism and at a time of such joy in the first flush of a new romance to the world’s most eligible bachelor she can hardly have expected such vile rants.
“Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment. Some of this has been very public – the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments,” explained Prince Harry’s statement.
“Some of it has been hidden from the public – the nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers; her mother having to struggle past photographers in order to get to her front door; the attempts of reporters and photographers to gain illegal entry to her home and the calls to police that followed; the substantial bribes offered by papers to her ex-boyfriend; the bombardment of nearly every friend, co-worker, and loved one in her life.”
Meghan Markle on-set in Suits. PHOTO: Getty
This reporting, the Prince feels, has crossed a line, but is he right?
Interest in the private lives of Harry, his brother William and indeed all members of the royal family has always been a thorny issue. Where is the line between genuine public interest and salacious intrusion?
Certainly one clear line is in the truth of the story and that has been violated here. Much of the media babble has been either pure fiction or speculative gossip which is both unfair and bad journalism. But let’s not forget that his statement from the Palace, the first to discuss The Prince’s girlfriend, is also the first to confirm the relationship therefore giving credence to the original story.
Journalistic ethics aside, Prince Harry’s statement, like his uncle Earl Spencer’s famous enraged cri de coeur at the funeral of Harry’s mother Diana, Princess of Wales, reaches into our souls.
In recent years Prince Harry has continually expressed how much he would love to find a life partner and settle down and start a family like his brother. And yet his relationships flounder, one suspects, because of the very ugly glare of the media spotlight that the fifth-in-line to the throne finds himself in every minute of every day.
Harry’s romantic future looks very bleak in this light and with this entreaty he is going into battle for his love, like a courtly knight on a white charger, only how can he protect her in the face of such an onslaught?
In the modern world the Prince must fight with talk, and his words have already filled all forms of media – traditional and digital. Well done, Prince Harry. We hear you and the world is listening.
