meghan and harry oprah
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Are the Royals Headed for a Televised Battle Royale?

Things are tense, feelings are hurt, and everyone is going on TV

Last Commonwealth Day was a tense one for the royals, as you can plainly see in the pic above. The service was Meghan and Harry’s final official engagement before they quit royal working life, and the last time we saw the family all together.

William appeared to blank his brother when he half-heartedly greeted him; Harry anxiously twiddled his wedding ring and seemed to blink back tears; Kate kept her eyes glued to her program with more attention than any order of service deserves; and Meghan kept a serene smile on her face that felt equal parts defiant and “physically I’m here, but my spirit is anywhere but this hellish parading of our personal conflict in a public forum.”

So where do things stand after 12 months have passed, in which Harry and Meghan have moved to America to forge their own path, and the rest of the royals have attempted to lead their kingdom through a pandemic, mostly via Zoom—and neither side has seen each other since that awkward day? Well, based on events of the past few days, it seems time has not healed these wounds—and may have actually made them deeper, on both sides. In fact, you could make a case that the lines are being drawn for war, and the first battle could go down on Commonwealth Day 2021, a.k.a. the day Meghan and Harry sit down for their 90-minute televised interview with Oprah.

You mean Meghan and Harry are actually going to the service again this year?

No, because technically no one is: Yesterday, it was announced that the in-person gathering at Westminster Abbey has been cancelled, and instead a television program will air, for which Her Maj will record a special message, and William, Kate and other members of the Royal Family will make guest appearances. It will broadcast on March 7, which is, if you’ve got your TV schedule memorized, the very same day that Meghan and Harry’s big sit-down with Oprah will broadcast.

That timing is…something

Technically, they’re not competing for airtime, given the five-hour time difference—though there is certainly enough time for whatever bombshells Meghan and Harry might drop to push whatever sweet-but-banal coverage the royals Commonwealth doc gets off the front page. Could it just be an unavoidable coincidence that they’re on the one night Will and Kate are on TV, too? Maybe. It’s a Sunday evening, the night that 60 Minutes (of which Oprah with Meghan and Harry is a special 90-minute episode) always airs. But the fact that it’s this Sunday of Sundays, the one marking what is apparently the Queen’s favourite royal celebration? Well, the optics aren’t great—and we can’t imagine that Meghan and Harry, Big Get that they are, didn’t get a say in the air-date, especially since this interview isn’t really pegged to anything in particular.

Other than that it marks their official departure from the royals after a one-year trial separation?

Another fascinating bit of timing! Shortly after the Oprah interview was announced, along with the news that Meghan is pregnant, the Queen formally confirmed that Meghan and Harry will not come back to work as senior royals in the family business.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLSL_aqARfv/

There are some camps who argue that their hand was forced here—that the Queen heard about the Oprah thing, felt it to be the last straw and demanded they go for good, leaving all their official patronages behind on the way out—while others see it as a final administrative box-check.

How did the Queen force them out?

The statement reads as if the Queen (“after conversations with The Duke,” the Palace writes) decided that their choice to step away from royal life (and do things like give interviews to American talk-show hosts) meant that it would be impossible for them to keep “the duties and responsibilities that come with a life of public service.” She took back Harry’s beloved military roles and the patronages she’d awarded both of them, and finished it all with a line that could be read as either a final gesture of support—or a major dose of Granny Guilting. “While all are saddened by their decision, The Duke and Duchess remain much loved members of the family.”

The language in Harry and Meghan’s response seems to hint that it struck a nerve.

You refer to their “service is universal” dig?

The entire statement does somewhat feel like it’s seething with passive aggression. “As evidenced by their work over the past year, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain committed to their duty and service to the U.K. and around the world, and have offered their continued support to the organisations they have represented regardless of official role,” they wrote, with strong ‘As per my last email’ energy. “We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.”

Apparently, William took issue with this—a Sunday Times report quoted sources close to William saying “you don’t answer the Queen back—it’s just not done,” and that he’s “very upset by what has happened,” and found Harry and Meghan’s behaviour “insulting and disrespectful.”

Everyone sounds miffed!

If you really want to cast around for shade, you could nod to Princess Eugenie‘s recent baby-naming, too.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLgrGXhlpuK/

Rather than opting for something non-royal like, say, Archie, she went for a very family-centric moniker, naming her baby boy August (Queen Victoria’s husband’s middle name) *and* Philip, a tribute to her grandfather, who is at present in hospital for an infection. (Some reports suggest Harry has been isolating in California in case he needs to fly back to England for a funeral.) Is she just following the Ye Olde Name trend—or is she showing her allegiances lie firmly with the Windsors?

With family like that, who needs enemies?!

And that, of course, is the whole thing here: It’s family drama, playing out for the whole world to see, and, in some quarters, revel in. Stiff upper lips aside, you don’t have to twist yourself into a conspiracy knot to see that there is pain in this situation on both sides, likely exacerbated by the fact that none of the parties have been face-to-face in over a year. This sense of embattlement is fuelled (or maybe even created?) by social media and the press, the constant fight to “win” in the court of public opinion with “palace sources” throwing in their two cents.

It can make potentially unintentional things—like, say, Meghan wearing a lemon-festooned Oscar de la Renta dress in a new spot promoting their Archewell podcast, lending itself effortlessly to “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” interpretations—seem like shots fired when they’re not. Or maybe they are? The motivation will always be murky, and open to serving whichever narrative you’re inclined toward.

They’re also both brands, right? This is business, too, in a way.

Yes—we now have two separate, highly valued entities, each setting an agenda of their own, and that’s a natural source of tension. Sussex Inc. is an existential threat to the Royal Family, because the fact that it exists at all is a damning indictment on the relevance and essential goodness of their institution. Meghan and Harry are, like any other California startup, the disruptors—and it shouldn’t be a surprise when Big Royal comes for them, or when they retaliate. Will it all lead to a Battle Royale with the whole world tuned in? Here’s hoping they remember they’re family, too.

 

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