For a time, the whole UK was talking about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Twitter and Instagram housed the memes and younger discourses, while the papers and Facebook mediated the older generation in sharing their opinions. Just as this started to fade away after giving up their royal duties, Harry releases his book [and Netflix series].
The book is, in all honesty, well written. At times, I thought it was too well written, with passages of eloquent text and near-perfect structure. Despite whats written on and inside the front cover of the book, no one really thinks that Harry wrote this. Passages of good writing would swiftly be followed by some shite, almost like when you cheat on a test and don’t want to be suspicious by getting 100%. For a man who “never wanted a desk” and “scraped through [his] exams”, it’s unrealistic. If he did actually write it, fair play.
The book follows his whole life. I first thought it was selling out the Royal Family secrets, releasing untold stories for his economic gain. The truth is, his whole life had already been exposed by the media, a focal point of the book. He spoke about other family members, bar Camilla, very positively. The only embarrassing stories he revealed about the Royal Family, were about himself. His honesty in opening up about previous media scandals was admirable:
“‘Harry – are you doing cocaine?’
‘What? Am I-? How could-? No!’
Of course… I had been doing cocaine around this time.”
The public and the media initially called Harry out for oversharing. The sections about his penis were always brought up. I thought that was kind of funny. Out of context, it seems like an insane remark. But he builds up to it quite well. It definitely works to create a sense of intimacy between the reader and himself, in more ways than one. I have to admit, it is very ‘mens changing room’ of him. It’s very private school. Very rugby. But, again, it’s not a comment that deserved the hate it got.
The Nazi costume explanation was hilarious though, a feeble excuse which was laughable at best. Apparently, in the arse-end-of-no-where near a Royal lodge, there was a costume shop. All they had in his size [probably mens large, very common size], was a Nazi uniform. Then he later blamed it on William and Kate for telling him to wear it. Oof, quite poor Haz.
No mention of Andrew either, apart from a brief remark once which merely recognises his allegations. I was certain that had to come up. Everyone hates him already, what did Harry have to loose? Only makes you think it must run deeper than that.
Throughout the book, he seems a very genuine guy, the sort who would be great fun/danger on a night out and cracks a lot of jokes. Some of the stories are representative of any private education within the UK, not just Eton. Others are fit for a prince, completely disconnected from reality. He definitely got better at recognising this as he got older.
The stories of his time in the army were particularly interesting. The army is a melting pot of different cultures, classes and demographics. He seemed to fit in quite well, he speaks about his army friends quite a lot. As a person, I quite like him; as did half of the women in the UK during the 2000s.
There’s a lot of talk about self-victimisation: he is the spare to the heir. It’s repeated a lot in the book. A part of me sympathises with this, I’m the younger brother in my family and there’s a load of internal politics about that, even without the throne on the line. I think it’s easy to make the argument that he feels hard-done by, so wants to out the Royal Family in spite. I don’t agree with this. Simply, he’s involved but not necessary to the continuation of the Royal Family. Thus, he is able to provide a counter-claim to the extremely conservative [small ‘c’] nature of the other Royals *. I have no doubt that part of this was fuelled by the way his brother and others behaved. But it does seem he has a different, more contemporary, viewpoint to the family than others.
Harry giving Harry’s viewpoint was also very important to him – it was self-evident in his tone of voice in the audiobook. And the fact he decided to do an audiobook in the first place. His whole life, the media had followed and reported his every move to the public through their subjective, sales-focused lens. I genuinely couldn’t think of anything worse. I get scared enough putting these posts up and they get 3 views [thanks Mum, Papa and P]. Every mistake you’ve ever made is on display for the public to see. No take-backs. No wonder it started to fuck with his mental health, and Meghan’s.
Think what you want about the two of them, but no one can deny they are in love. I don’t agree with the argument of Meghan leading Harry along. She’s eccentric, very successful, and American… of course there are going to be some differences in communication between the two; even to this day. But in the start of their relationship, she was way more into him it seemed. Coming over every two weeks, leaving her job, and all the rest of it. Harry could have strung her along like the rest of his ex-girlfriends. Luckily for Meghan, the feeling was reciprocated.
On Meghan, not too much is directly revealed about her in the book. It’s not her book after all. The Netflix series does a better job of doing a deep-dive into her past. She differentiates public opinion more than Marmite, but none of that excuses how persecuted by the media she was. I remember it at the time on Twitter. The racism. It wasn’t good. They make a good point in the series: even with Royals, they’re people too. The comments people make hurt. I have only partially experienced this in an embodied sense, but I can’t imagine what constant comments from the press and whole online community feel like.
She could have been so good for the Royal Family. If she is to be believed, they were extremely foolish to drive her away. Diversification, inclusion, modernisation, honesty, knowledge, experience. All the things the family needs to continue. I similarly think the family was stupid enough to not recognise this and drive them both away.
Of course, she had her own personality flaws as everyone does. Namely, her apparent and complete bemusement at the Royal traditions inter alia was pretty unbelievable. Just Google it? There are thousands of websites out there which discuss every minuscule, arbitrary and outdated detail. Everyone wants to know the ins and outs of how the Royals behave. How do you not know the national anthem? I know yours. She was often criticised for her dress sense. Although she concedes that she didn’t wear much colour as to not clash/match with the Queen, recognition of what clothing is required of you in public and private interactions is an easy fix. I, similarly, concede that she shouldn’t have to suppress or change her personality and style; something she has ample of. However, some more consideration would have saved some media headlines. The better of two wrongs. But no ones perfect… especially not any of the Royals.
The interplay of newness, race, gender, personality and nationality made Meghan an easy scapegoat for the Royals. So much was unfairly blamed on her, no matter what side of the fence you sit on. In one breath, Harry recalls his father commenting on how well-mannered she was. In the next, the press and other Royal Family members say she is uncouth. A contradiction. Do I believe everything she has said? No. Do I believe she was treated unjustly? Most definitely yes.
The same is true for Harry. The non-heir, troubled and naturally mischievous; he too was a clear vehicle of blame for the Royal press office to deflect stories away from more important members. He didn’t help himself, feeding the press story after story in his misspent youth. This, too, created a rhetoric around Harry which enabled the later events to play out. A perfect media storm.
‘Troubled’. My own words are an understatement for what Harry experienced. Any individual loosing their mother that young, walking behind their coffin, requires careful nurturing; something not provided by the hands-off and formal atmosphere his immediate family was hell-bent on upholding. Harry also lost his best friend very young, with the Queen Mother also passing in moderately quick succession.
His mother, from what I am told outside of the book, was a saint, a quasi-religious character. But I do know, she is not a woman lost to time. Everyone still knows dear dead Diana. Not many people remain in the public consciousness for that long. Enigmatic.
Harry’s overt and explicit discussion of his own mental health is so important. If a spoiled Prince can get depressed, from external and/or internal reasons, then anyone can. He speaks of how he reconciled with himself through medication and hallucinogenics. Mushrooms and ayahuasca to be precise. Lots of people, especially ex-addicts, have turned to them for assistance. It did make me wonder if there was something he wasn’t telling us. Then again, maybe not.
Overall, I’m happy for Harry. He needed this. As biased as his writing is [as is everyone’s], he needed to tell stories from his side. Not what The Sun says. I think the media, as we know it, is changing. Social networks have destabilised the formal channels of communication established by Royal Corespondents. There’s simply less money in newspapers too. People don’t care about reporter’s articles anymore. Now it’s all about what they Tweet. Harry had the unfortunate experience of living through an age of unchallenged media chaos. As mentioned, I couldn’t think of anything worse.
Love him, love her. Loath him, loath her. Mixture of the two. Neither. Either way, his life is interesting. It’s unique. It’s troubled. It’s a good read. I, for one, do not envy him for one second. Can his book be believed as gospel? Most certainly not. But it’s a damn sight more genuine, moving and personal than any release from the Royal Family.
Change. Something the Royal Family is ever-afraid of. Once Kings and Queens of the world, now a soap opera for the masses. How have they not realised this.
* Of course the Royal Family is conservative. Their main goal as a unit, an institution, is the continuation of their own bloodline. Founded on principles of the church, vast property owners, extremely wealthy and socially traditional; can’t get more conservative than that. With calls to abolish their presence entirely, if anything they need to conserve [pun intended] their position now, more than ever.
Tommy Nagle 
Leave a comment