They want endless praise for abandoning their duties.
(National Review) Nothing gets you in the Christmas spirit quite like a highly public family feud. I know, I know — you don’t care about the royals. But the latest episodes in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix series exemplify the modern trend of abandoning family pieties.
Most of us have a strong sense of duty when it comes to our families. Harry and Meghan claim to have this, too, only they insist that to protect their immediate family — their marriage and children — it is necessary to attack other family members.
Markle explains: “Often when a guy falls in love with a girl, his buddies are like, ‘Oh my God, he changed. I don’t see him anymore. He’s always with her.’ And you blame the girl. They’re angry with her because she’s the thing that took him away. And that’s whether you’re in a town, or a small city, or the royal family.”
No doubt, the situation Markle describes is relatable for many women. Merely by being the object of a man’s love, a woman has the capacity to “release some secret spring in the depths of his personality,” as Fulton Sheen put it. Even as the man and woman become better versions of themselves through their love, it’s possible that some family and friends around them will become jealous or resentful. They may prefer the immature, or more available, version.
Meghan and Harry’s narrative may also be relatable to those who have been on the sharp end of sibling rivalries. In the series, the couple and their cast of witnesses suggest that William and Kate, along with the rest of the royal family, conspired with the media to promote nasty stories about Markle. And why? Because they were jealous that she was getting more favorable attention than them.
This narrative raises two questions. First, and most important, is it true? Is Harry’s family simply incapable of handling his full potential, released through his relationship with Meghan? And is Markle — guilty of nothing other than being brilliant and beautiful — the hapless victim of jealous scheming? Second, if it is true, does that justify their behavior?
A telling moment in the series is when the black British historians speak about how much the monarchy needed Meghan Markle, as a woman of color, to bring it into the 21st century. She could represent the Commonwealth as someone who “looks like” its subjects. Harry says that the family missed a huge opportunity with “how far that would go globally.” This is a rather inflated view of Markle’s importance, to put it mildly.
In one nauseating scene, Meghan and Harry are working on their laptops when Markle announces, “I just got a text from Beyoncé.” Markle reads out the text saying that she has been “selected to break generational curses that need to be healed,” before Harry says, “That’s well said.” Conveniently, professional photographers and videographers were around to capture many spontaneous scenes just like these as well as other “natural” moments — such as the couple watching themselves trash Harry’s family on Oprah.
For how incredibly aware they are of what is being said about them in tabloids and on social media, the couple have astonishingly little self-awareness about how privileged they are compared with most other people. They shared pictures and videos of them enjoying life during the pandemic in Tyler Perry’s multi-million-dollar mansion, frolicking on the beach, enjoying California sunsets. All this as, elsewhere, people were locked in tiny apartments unable to visit sick and dying family members. The couple are also reported to have received $100 million for their tell-all Netflix series.
A telling moment in the series is when the black British historians speak about how much the monarchy needed Meghan Markle, as a woman of color, to bring it into the 21st century. She could represent the Commonwealth as someone who “looks like” its subjects. Harry says that the family missed a huge opportunity with “how far that would go globally.” This is a rather inflated view of Markle’s importance, to put it mildly.
In one nauseating scene, Meghan and Harry are working on their laptops when Markle announces, “I just got a text from Beyoncé.” Markle reads out the text saying that she has been “selected to break generational curses that need to be healed,” before Harry says, “That’s well said.” Conveniently, professional photographers and videographers were around to capture many spontaneous scenes just like these as well as other “natural” moments — such as the couple watching themselves trash Harry’s family on Oprah.
For how incredibly aware they are of what is being said about them in tabloids and on social media, the couple have astonishingly little self-awareness about how privileged they are compared with most other people. They shared pictures and videos of them enjoying life during the pandemic in Tyler Perry’s multi-million-dollar mansion, frolicking on the beach, enjoying California sunsets. All this as, elsewhere, people were locked in tiny apartments unable to visit sick and dying family members. The couple are also reported to have received $100 million for their tell-all Netflix series.
