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Tuesday 8 November 2016

Harry and Meghan

I see Prince Harry is miffed about the unpleasant attention his latest paramour is receiving. 

Prince Harry has confirmed US actress Meghan Markle is his girlfriend, in a statement from Kensington Palace attacking the media for subjecting her to a "wave of abuse and harassment".

Why anyone is interested in the chap or his personal entanglements I don’t know. He is merely a celebrity and may as well get used to it. Perhaps he is used to it though. After all, this kind of spat is part of the celebrity game, it raises the profile. 

What a life he has to lead though - I don’t envy the guy.

5 comments:

Demetrius said...

I suspect that Prince Harry is not fully aware of the world as it is these days. If a Royal decides to connect with the celebrity culture then he or she is wide open to all the nastiness and stupidity that is part of it. Also, once they have become "copy" for the lower reaches of the popular media the pressure will be relentless. Sad but very difficult.

A K Haart said...

Demetrius - yet surely he must have been warned about going anywhere near celebrity culture. Maybe he thinks he can handle it.

Demetrius said...

True, but then King Edward VIII thought he could handle it.

Andrew Zalotocky said...

I have no strong opinions about the preservation or abolition of the monarchy. The monarch has no real power and the cost of maintaining the monarchy is such a small percentage of overall government spending that it's barely more than a rounding error. The argument for abolishing it is really an argument about symbolism, and that seems like an indulgence when there are so many other matters of real substance that have a better claim on our attention.

But perhaps the current difficulties of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are evidence that the continuation of the monarchy would be inhumane. Members of the royal family are expected to devote their lives to the preservation of this institution and to ignore their own desires for the sake of duty, but in return they get treated like any common celeb. Once monarchy loses its power and its mystique it becomes a gilded cage in which the inhabitants are constantly reminded of their lack of freedom because they can hardly move in any direction at all without bumping up against the bars. It seems unreasonable to expect anybody to live like that simply because of the circumstances of their birth.

A K Haart said...

Andrew - I agree. Although the peripheral actors can opt out to some extent, those who are close to the throne or otherwise deemed interesting are doomed to the gilded cage. Most probably adapt to it pretty well, it's hard to tell from such a distance. One would have to be very close to know how things really are on the inside.