So Meghan shed a tear at the funeral and that, right there, is a whole “coming up after the break” anecdote for Oprah. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, it’s time for a recap.
It’s barely more than a fortnight since H&M came back for what they and others, but perhaps especially me, hoped would be a short trip. The hint that transatlantic hostilities were about to resume was an interview in an American magazine, The Cut.
On the cover, Meghan channeled a famous photo of Princess Diana. Inside, she claimed that “just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy”, displaying a bafflement about hereditary monarchy that is natural in an American, but puzzling in someone married to a prince.
The couple went to Manchester, where Meghan gave a speech, they greeted adoring crowds in Düsseldorf at an Invictus event and, with one final charity visit yet to come, they started packing for home.
And then, of course, everything changed. First, there was the dash for Scotland in the hope of a last goodbye before the Queen died. William got on a private jet with Prince Andrew, the Wessexes and not Harry.
It was announced that Harry and Meghan would be going to Balmoral together, hand in hand no doubt. Alas, the prospect of Harry’s plus-one went down at Balmoral like a lead balloon, Kate was deployed to be visible doing the school run in Windsor and Harry, it was duly announced, would travel alone.
In Scotland, he was last to arrive and first to leave, having allegedly had barely any interaction with his brother. The soothing balm that is Prince Andrew’s presence may have made up for that.
Then came the walkabout in Windsor. If this was the start of a brotherly reconciliation, as many hoped, it was the sort of reconciliation in which everyone breathes out when it’s over. William and Harry exchanged barely a word, and Meghan and Kate apparently none at all.
It set a pattern for the coming days, of four people in the same place acting as if they’re on different planets in separate parts of the solar system. They were all at a family dinner at Buckingham Palace the night the Queen’s coffin returned to London, but reports of conversation, there are none. William and Harry had a brief conversation from their cars when they drove past each other in Windsor Great Park.
On the cover, Meghan channeled a famous photo of Princess Diana.
Inevitably, there was a hoo-ha over uniforms, because there always is. Who would wear what uniform and when was eventually hammered out, only for Harry to reportedly be “devastated” after his uniform turned up without the ER insignia on the epaulet.
The Sunday Times’s royal correspondent quoted a friend of Harry’s as saying that he was “heartbroken” about the omission and considered it such a humiliation that he nearly threw all his frogging out of the pram and wore morning dress instead.
He felt, it was said, as if “the majority of the operation is against you. It’s hard — nobody likes to feel they’re being excluded.”
Anyone at the Palace who threw their hands in the air and shouted, “Wasn’t that the whole point of Megxit?” could have been forgiven. Those same people might also have remembered that, before Megxit, Meghan cited maternity leave as the reason she couldn’t accompany Harry to meet President Trump, of whom she disapproved.
Fast forward to a state reception on the eve of the funeral, this one attended by President Biden and world leaders of whom she presumably does approve, and now you’re talking. Perhaps preoccupied with other things, the Palace machine messed up.
They allegedly sent Harry and Meghan an invitation, and then rescinded it. Cue the dread sight of tweets from Omid Scobie (Finding Freedom co-author and unofficial spokesman) and a source quoted in The Sunday Times as saying it would be “beyond bonkers” if they weren’t there. Quite why it would be bonkers was left unsaid, but it was evidently not a view shared by anyone else. They remained NFI.
Inevitably also, there was a hoo-ha over who sat where. H&M were in the second row at the Abbey, but directly behind the King. It was no doubt a happy accident that the seating plan meant they couldn’t be in the same close-up as the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children.
William and Harry exchanged barely a word, and Meghan and Kate apparently none at all.
They were in the front row for the service at St George’s Chapel, in Windsor. Much has been made of the fact that Prince William gestured for the Sussexes to get into the pew ahead of him and his family, and indeed if you are prone to histrionics and narcissism, this may well be a sign that you are upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy just by existing, in a pew.
Either way, both brothers are said to have wanted above all for the focus to be on the Queen, and not them. Might there be a reconciliation, or even a truce? A source told The Sunday Times that there was “no meaningful rapprochement” between the brothers and that being in each other’s company was “difficult”.
They were, it was said, trying to make a show of unity. But it will not be lost on the new Prince of Wales that Meghan had been booked to appear on a US chat show, canceled only because of the death of the Queen.
The publication of Harry’s memoirs, and what he might say, hangs over them all. If it occurs to Oprah that nothing and no one upsets the dynamic of a hereditary monarchy, that the clue is in the name, then she’ll probably keep it to herself. H&M are said to have spent Monday night at Frogmore, but are heading home to Archie and Lilibet as soon as possible. Coming up after the break …
Hilary Rose is a longtime columnist for The Times of London, and the author of the weekly column How to Get Dressed
