The Social World

Tag: Sussexes

  • Is Prince Harry’s charm offensive working?

    Is Prince Harry’s charm offensive working?

    Over the weekend, Prince Harry attracted the best headlines and coverage in Britain that he has received for months – possibly since he and Meghan staged their abdication of all responsibilities and fled to Montecito in 2021. This was all because of his carefully choreographed charitable and public endeavors. The praise included “how easy he made it look” and how Harry had “stopped sulking and played a blinder.” Even the Daily Telegraph wrote that “it was genuinely gratifying to see Harry back in Blighty, doing what he does best this week” and urged Prince William to reconcile with him.

    This was exactly what Harry had wished for with his quasi-royal visit to his home country. In order to celebrate, naturally, he gave an exclusive interview to the Guardian, that well-known bastion of royalist sentiment, to mark his trip to Ukraine after his British visit. Those expecting revelations about his father after their brief meeting earlier in the week would be disappointed. Harry stuck to the party line, speaking highly of his work with the Invictus Foundation and his military service. 

    This made Harry sound like a respected statesman. It also certainly makes a change from petulant serial litigant, although I suspect that I am in the category of the media that he detests. He said to the Guardian that:

    It is only in certain elements of the press where you see this talk about me being down or saying I am not smiling. This comes from people who think they know what I am thinking and how I am feeling. They are wrong.

    Some of us have had to sit through Harry & Meghan, where he’s definitely not smiling, but clearly that wretched show was not a fair insight into his psyche. He sniffed instead that “I think parts of the British press want to believe that I am miserable, but I’m not. I am very happy with who I am and I like the life that I live.”

    The interview was positive – almost sycophantic in places – and included the attention-grabbing hint that Harry probably had a private audience with Zelensky during his visit. If that had been made public, it would have gone down poorly with the British government, who tend to frown on freelance diplomacy of that sort. Harry was asked whether he had regrets over any of his actions, and he responded with typical bullishness:

    I don’t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public. It was a difficult message, but I did it in the best way possible. My conscience is clear.

    He refused to acknowledge that he may have been recalcitrant (“it’s not stubbornness, it is having principles”) and described Spare as “a series of corrections to stories already out there. One point of view had been put out and it needed to be corrected.” Well, up to a point, Lord Copper. 

    The Prince Harry charm offensive stands at an interesting crossroads. Many people would prefer that he were in closer touch with the royal family, less out of filial obligation and more because he might be easier to influence or control. He himself appears to wish for more regular family visits to Britain, saying, “I feel a lot of support from the British public. Even now, when I feel like I have been destroyed by certain members of the British press.” Even those who are now praising him are not spared. Instead, Harry remarked that:

    For as long as I have known, certain elements of the British press have tried to speak on behalf of the nation. I think they are out of touch with the nation on lots of things. They hope to bring the public with them, but… I think the British public can speak and think for themselves.

    Although Harry tried to conjure up his mother’s spirit in the interview, remarking, when it was said that he followed his own path, “You know who else did that? My mum,” I was also reminded of another America-based royal, the Duke of Windsor. Like Harry, he left the country because of his love for a divorced American; like Harry, he became bored in exile and started pining for England. While the former Edward VIII initially believed his people’s great love for him would see him returned to popularity, he soon discovered that their affection for him only went so far, and he ended up spending his days miserable and alone in Paris, with only Wallis for company. 

    It remains to be seen which path his great-great-nephew will take, but Harry might be well advised to bank the goodwill that he’s received from this visit, concentrate on mending relations with his father and wider family behind closed doors and then – and only then – give any more interviews. Otherwise, the whole process of blame, anger and media outrage is likely to repeat itself all over again.

  • With Love, Meghan 2 is just as vacuous as season one

    Like death and taxes, the second instalment of With Love, Meghan has come around again, sloughing into view to the usual chorus of disapproval and confusion. The news recently broke that Netflix has deigned to allow Harry ’n’ Meghan another five years of deciding not to make their future projects. In light of that, this second series of the hitherto unloved show – filmed at the same time as the first – has been presented to a previously indifferent global public in the hope that it will distract from many of the unflattering and embarrassing stories about the Duke of Sussex that have proliferated this year.

    Harry is entirely absent from this series of With Love, Meghan, although he and the couple’s children are often referred to. Instead, this is Meghan: the solo show, and as she trills Californian-inflected pieties to her sycophantic assortment of not-so-special guests, there is the occasional gleam of desperation just about visible underneath her equally gleaming smile. It is fair to say that the many attempts to launch her as a solo star – via television, podcasts and, of course, her “As Ever” product range – have not been as successful as she (and those with a vested interest in her earning power) might have wished. Unless she is prepared to write yet another tell-all memoir, she risks dwindling into obscurity.

    With this in mind, what’s With Love, Meghan II like? The surprising answer is that the second run-around is actually slightly more bearable than the first. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still ghastly, tedious dreck, seemingly produced for an audience that has no critical faculties whatsoever and is content to regard whatever is taking place on their televisions without any necessary judgement – but it throws up a few minor points of interest, which is more than the earlier series did. The presence of the Michelin-starred British chef Clare Smyth – who did the catering for Harry and Meghan’s wedding – in the sixth episode lifts proceedings considerably. Smyth is a proper person, unlike most of the non-entities featured here, and in her brief appearance manages to imbue the show with a professionalism and dry wit that are entirely absent from the platitudinous nonsense elsewhere.

    This is brand reinforcement, pure and simple

    As for the rest of it, your tolerance and enjoyment for therapy-speak and carefully ladled-out nuggets of minor gossip will be tested. Meghan offers fleeting, inconsequential details that are expressed with virtually the same amount of gravity, whether it’s her reminiscing about her love for the “grandma radio” show Magic FM, describing her three-week separation from her children in the aftermath of the Queen’s death as something that left her “not well,” or the revelation that she made her husband a personalized baseball cap for his 40th birthday party, emblazoned with the logo PH40. There is also the surreal reminder that Meghan and her friend Chrissy Teigen briefly appeared as briefcase-wielding models on the American version of the quiz show Deal or No Deal, although sadly Meghan never appeared alongside Noel Edmonds, which would have made for a cosmic shock of toxic proportions.

    I cannot imagine that those who shunned the first series of With Love, Meghan will be lured back in for this go-around, and I’m already dreading the Christmas special. The food cooked is largely unappetizing, and viewers are likely to be mystified by both the identity of the “special guests” and why, say, putting a roast chicken in the oven is treated with the kind of reverence usually reserved for the opening of the Ark of the Covenant, but this is not the point. 

    This is brand reinforcement, pure and simple. And should – heaven forbid! – Harry and Meghan ever go their separate ways, this is a reminder that the distaff half of the brand is more than capable of putting herself out into the public eye as a solo prospect. That revelatory memoir has, you feel, just come a tiny bit closer.   

  • Did I underestimate Harry and Meghan?

    It is important for any self-respecting writer to admit when they get it wrong. So it is with an element of contrition that I must report that, despite my confident belief that the dynamic duo themselves, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, would not have their lucrative Netflix deal renewed, such an event has, indeed, come to pass. Amid what must surely be the raucous sound of organic kombucha bottles being opened in Montecito in celebration, it has been announced that Netflix and Hal & Megs will be in business for another five years, giving the haters and naysayers ample reason to weep and gnash their teeth.

    The treats on offer will include not just a second series of the Duchess’s largely unloved and unpopular lifestyle show With Love, Meghan, but a Christmas special – no doubt filmed about now – and a range of potential projects from Archewell’s hitherto undistinguished film and television production arm. This might potentially include their feature film debut, an adaptation of Carley Fortune’s romantic novel Meet Me At The Lake, and worthy-sounding documentaries, including one about orphans in Uganda, tentatively entitled Masaka Kids, A Rhythm Within. If all goes according to plan, then the schedules will be choc-a-bloc with Archewell programming over the next few years. Springtime for Netflix and the Sussexes; winter for the rest of us.

    Certainly, the smug quotes from all parties suggest that this particular fait accompli has worked out very well indeed. Meghan, forever with an eye on the prize, announced that: 

    “We’re proud to extend our partnership with Netflix and expand our work together to include the As Ever brand. My husband and I feel inspired by our partners who work closely with us and our Archewell Productions team to create thoughtful content across genres that resonates globally and celebrates our shared vision.” 

    Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria, meanwhile, gushed that:

    “Harry and Meghan are influential voices whose stories resonate with audiences everywhere. The response to their work speaks for itself – Harry & Meghan gave viewers an intimate look into their lives and quickly became one of our most-watched documentary series. More recently, fans have been inspired by With Love, Meghan with products from the new As Ever line consistently selling out in record time. We’re excited to continue our partnership with Archewell Productions and to entertain our members together.”

    So there we are. The wholesome, upstanding couple has been vindicated, sarcastic detractors like me humiliated, and we can expect a happy half-decade of shows ahead. Well, not quite. 

    Springtime for Netflix and the Sussexes; winter for the rest of us

    Dig beneath the PR carapace and in fact there’s a sting in the tail. The Sussexes have indeed signed a new five-year deal with Netflix, but it’s on considerably reduced terms from the original $100 million handout. Instead, it is trumpeted as a “multiyear, first-look deal,” which sounds impressive enough, but in reality means that Netflix are not obliged to make any of the shows that Archewell pitches, simply that they will be the first port of call for their offer. 

    Should, heaven forfend, they not meet with the streaming service’s interest, they can attempt to flog their wares elsewhere. But given the negligible viewing figures for all the non-Sussex shows – and the unexceptional numbers for the much-maligned With Love, Meghan – this is by no means an inevitability.

    Therefore, one cannot begrudge Harry and Meghan a moment of relief after what has been a largely rough and difficult year so far, particularly for the Duke. Yet it is hard to believe that this really does represent the triumphant return to our screens that this has been superficially marketed as. If most of these mooted shows and films do make it to Netflix, I will take pleasure in eating my As Ever-branded raspberry spread (“with a hint of lemon”) in public, with the smallest spoon I can find. But if they don’t, then this should be seen as a face-saving retreat rather than a progression in an increasingly tarnished media empire.