Tiffanny Junee

I’m not sure about you, but I am suitably ‘bored’ every time I hear of the CRISIS beseeching the British Royal family, aka ‘Harry, Meaghan and Oprah’.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Oprah Winfrey. I have watched her since I was young and was always fascinated by her mercurial ability to get even the staunchest recluse to spill their personals on her expertly crafted platform.

But what concerns me is the mouthpiece that CBS and Oprah have created to revolutionise the methodologies of another’s country’s Head of State.

An American journalist interviewing an American about her life married to an English prince, is exactly the type of thing you should expect… in America.

But I very much doubt Meaghan would have ever been interviewed by Oprah prior to her entanglement with Prince Henry of Wales and his Royal family.

To me it’s just another high profile family having to endure an in-law hellbent on airing the families dirty laundry from which, there are absolutely NO WINNERS – except for Meaghan.

That’s not to minimise Meaghan’s mental health and well-being challenges since being thrust into the global spotlight as Prince Harry’s love interest, wife, royal in-law and mother to a monarch’s grandchild.

As Harry confessed in his interview with Oprah, “…I knew if would be tricky, but not this tough”.

But anyone who had googled would have known the difficult road hauled to become a working senior member of the royal family and the fact Catholic divorcees and actresses had always struggled to adjust to life with the British royals.

Just ask Wallace or Koo – or Harry about his mother, Diana.

And the family has never been comfortable justifying their personal decisions publicly – because let’s be frank – if they did there would be some doozies!

Nor have they responded well to mediated events about members of the royal family outside of their control.

While the ‘adults’ bicker, ultimately, it will be the children who miss out.

In a family headed by novatarians, there is always going to be disparity between what’s deemed ‘appropriate’ and ‘fair’.

In a family headed by Baby boomers, gullies between beliefs re: terminology and ‘best approach’ are destined to be wide and deep – especially when mediated.

However, when high profile individuals chose to pitch ‘their sides’ to media and turn real family connections and dislocations into entertainment for the masses, questions need to be asked.

Who stands to gain here?

I keep hearing how some are cheering Meaghan for taking it to ‘The Firm’ in her interviews.

A term she uses to refer to her husband’s grandparents – a well respected world leader and (at the time of writing) her currently hospitalised 99 year old husband.

Aka the great grandparents to her son and unborn child.

For a woman who has found a life of royal privilege so traumatic and the service to queen and country so unbearable, it appears it is her husband who has given up everything – all for his wife of four years and their child/ren.

A husband, whose birth was a mediated event.

Whose parent’s relationship, his family unit – the genesis of his sense of ‘home’ and ‘safe’ are still topics for global debate and mediated consumption decades post divorce.

His parents triumphs and failings widely reported as his parent’s workplace – just like his and his bride’s – intertwined with their private lives.

An existence that requires selflessness over selfish indulgence every time.

A reality where a unique set of skills – refined over time and by lived experience evolve with varying degrees of success to ascertain whether one exists, lives or thrives in this always mediated environment.

An environment where personal struggles are seen by only a handful. Trusted advisors and friends are remunerated and ‘real’ just simply doesn’t exist.

Oprah’s interview starts with it’s subjects: two individuals who grew up in trauma.

Two individuals who as adults and parents have ‘come together’ and come out swinging against anyone who didn’t let them do as they wanted to do.

Acting out like the traumatised children they carry within them – evidence of the scars left by their respective childhoods.

A husband who is vulnerable because of his past struggles with depression and anxiety, has given up EVERYTHING – like a dedicated husband is believed to have to do, in order to ensure his family are happy and secure.

Yet in the annals of great relationships worldwide, never has a husband in an equally loving and supportive relationship been permitted by his partner to sacrifice his family, his career, his country and a wider support network.

The difference between this young man and other young men is that he was born – through no fault of his own – into the pressure cooker of service.

A mediated political, social and legal entity, bounded together in an intricate network by blood, determined by birth-rite and emboldened by centuries of embedded rituals under the banner of religious doctrine.

Birth-rite is what has seen this young man referred to as ‘the spare’ his entire life.

His pre-married life was as ‘normal’ as what the childhood of the global ruling elite can be: palaces, personal security, and privileges galore.

All his life, everything he has done has been under a spotlight – by everyone.

There is very few parts of his life – private or public that we don’t now know about – sadly, that is in a large part, due to the commercialisation of his story as told by his wife.

Which begs the question… is Henry an Independent thinker, entitled white guy, retribution seeker or abused spouse?

The evidence speaks for itself.