PIERS MORGAN: It takes a staggering degree of narcissism to play hard-done-by victims from your Californian mansion as the world reels from a pandemic and Prince Philip lies seriously ill in hospital. The only service Meghan and Harry know is self-service
‘I want to be alone,’ Greta Garbo famously said in the movie Grand Hotel, ‘I just want to be alone.’
The Hollywood actress adopted the same mantra in her own life off screen, with a slight twist, explaining: ‘I want to be let alone.’
And she got her wish, mainly because she behaved in a way that enabled almost complete privacy.
The more famous that media-hating Garbo became, and for a while she was the biggest star in the world, the more she retreated from the limelight.
She shunned interviews, stopped attending premieres and awards shows, refused to sign autographs, and didn’t even respond to fan mail.
It worked.
She was left alone and enjoyed the privacy she craved.
Compare and contrast Garbo’s behaviour with that of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who’ve also regularly pleaded to be left alone since quitting the Royal Family 14 months ago.
They were sick of the dreadfully intrusive British press, sick of the constraints of royal life, sick of being criticised, and desperate for a new life in America that would free them from their terrible lives.
Duke and Duchess of Sussex have regularly pleaded to be left alone since quitting the Royal Family 14 months ago. They were sick of the dreadfully intrusive British press, sick of the constraints of royal life, sick of being criticised, and desperate for a new life in America that would free them from their terrible lives
But it turns out that being left alone is the very last thing Meghan and Harry wanted. In a trailer for their tell-all with Oprah, Meghan, wearing a $4,700 black Armani dress, says nothing, and is only seen either cradling her baby bump or holding on to her husband’s hand in the garden of their luxury home. ‘It sounds like there was a breaking point,’ Oprah asks her. ‘Were you silent or were you silenced?’
In the most jarring part of the Oprah tease, Harry says ‘it’s been unbelievably tough for the two of us but at least we have each other.’ It really does take a staggering degree of self-wallowing narcissism to say those words after a year in which 2.5 million people have died in a global pandemic and tens of millions have lost their jobs and are suffering horrific financial hardship
In the most jarring part of the Oprah tease, Harry says ‘it’s been unbelievably tough for the two of us but at least we have each other.’ It really does take a staggering degree of self-wallowing narcissism to say those words after a year in which 2.5 million people have died in a global pandemic and tens of millions have lost their jobs and are suffering horrific financial hardshi. And to do all this as Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, lies seriously ill in a London hospital is frankly outrageous
Above all, they wanted PRIVACY.
Today, they have everything they wished for.
They live in a vast $11 million mansion in Santa Barbara, California.
They are no longer required to perform any royal duties despite retaining their royal titles.
They can lead exactly the lives they want.
They’re free!
The more famous that media-hating Greta Garbo became, the more she retreated from the limelight. Compare and contrast Garbo’s behaviour with that of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who’ve also regularly pleaded to be left alone since quitting the Royal Family 14 months ago
But it turns out that being left alone is the very last thing Meghan and Harry wanted.
Granted, there were a few weeks after they first fled Britain when they did keep themselves to themselves in Canada as a global pandemic swept the world.
But since then, they’ve embarked on a relentless media blitz that makes a complete mockery of their claim to want privacy.
Barely a week has gone by without some new announcement from the couple – from their lucrative Spotify podcast and Netflix documentary deals, to endless Zoom interviews and chats, a newspaper op-ed written by Meghan revealing she’d had a miscarriage, and then news of a new baby accompanied by intimate pictures of them lying under the tree of love.
They even invited a photographer to join them as they visited an LA cemetery on Remembrance Sunday after Harry was refused permission to have someone lay a wreath on his behalf in London at the official ceremony.
Amid all this endless self-promotion, they’ve been engaged in a furious indignant war against news organizations, especially the British press, complaining about intrusion and inaccuracy, and filing lawsuits to protect their privacy.
I’ve watched all this with increasing disdain and repeatedly ridiculed their obvious double standards and extraordinarily arrogant desire to want to have their privacy cake and eat it as they exploit their royal status for huge financial gain.
Harry decided to prove his lust for privacy by giving an interview about his private life on top of an open-top bus in Hollywood to his mate James Corden. On what planet does the latter think he’s on that permits him to continue pleading for privacy when he’s spilling his guts about his family on a bus tour of Beverly Hills?
I’ve watched all this with increasing disdain and repeatedly ridiculed their obvious double standards and extraordinarily arrogant desire to want to have their privacy cake and eat it as they exploit their royal status for huge financial gain. Pictured: Prince Harry appears on James Corden’s The Late Late Show
It’s the same hypocrisy that caused their rift with the British press in the first place.
Right up to their wedding in May 2018, Meghan and Harry enjoyed a fantastically positive press from the same papers they now profess to despise.
The fact a royal Prince was marrying a bi-racial woman was seen as a brilliant thing for the country, and almost universally welcomed by the media and public.
Then came the furore over Meghan’s father, and her decision to disown him after he colluded with a photographer to take pictures of him to improve his image.
Imagine how Thomas Markle must feel today when he sees the way his estranged daughter, and the son-in-law he’s never met, constantly collude with photographers to improve their own images?
After the wedding, Meghan and Harry decided it was their job to now lecture the rest of us on how to lead our lives.
They banged on about the environment whilst using private jets like taxis.
They preached about poverty whilst throwing $500,00 baby showers in New York.
They took millions in tax-payer cash to refurbish their gifted home Frogmore Cottage, then refused to release even basic details about their son Archie’s birth.
And so, it went on.
They kept doing hypocritical stuff that deserved criticism, but when the media duly criticised them, they then accused the media of racist bullying.
Just 18 months after the wedding that sent Britain into a frenzy of joy, fuelled by an ecstatic press, they were gone.
And now we’ve reached the absolute nadir of this absurd ongoing royal soap opera, the week when everything the Sussexes have claimed to be, and profess to want, has blown up their faces in a a manner so laughably hypocritical that it’s almost beyond parody.
First, Harry decided to prove his lust for privacy by giving an interview about his private life on top of an open-top bus in Hollywood to his mate James Corden.
Now don’t get me wrong; it was another cracking scoop for Corden, who’s been a mate of mine for a lot longer than he’s been a mate of Harry’s.
Barely a week has gone by without some new announcement from the couple – from their lucrative Spotify podcast and Netflix documentary deals, to endless Zoom interviews and chats, a newspaper op-ed written by Meghan revealing she’d had a miscarriage, and then news of a new baby accompanied by intimate pictures of them lying under the tree of love (above)
Amid all this endless self-promotion, Harry and Meghan had been engaged in a furious indignant war against news organizations, especially the British press, complaining about intrusion and inaccuracy, and filing lawsuits to protect their privacy. Pictured: The couple appear in a Zoom call for Black History Month
But on what planet does the latter think he’s on that permits him to continue pleading for privacy when he’s spilling his guts about his family on a bus tour of Beverly Hills?
Well, it turns out he’s on the same planet as his wife Meghan who also thinks that privacy is a commodity to be traded for self-publicity, fame and financial gain.
Harry’s bus confessional was just the hors d’oeuvres for the main 8-course meal this Sunday when the pair of them sit down with chat queen Oprah Winfrey for a mega prime time CBS interview that’s apparently so juicy (Oprah says it’s the best she’s ever done, which should ring alarm bells at Buckingham Palace given how many extraordinarily revealing interviews she has conducted in her long career) it’s had to be extended from 90 minutes to two hours.
If the movie-style trailer tease released last night is anything to go by, it could make Princess Diana’s infamous BBC interview look like a tea party.
Oprah promises ‘shocking’ revelations, says ‘no subject was off limits, and tells the couple they’ve said, ‘some pretty shocking things.’
Meghan, wearing a $4,700 black Armani dress, says nothing, and is only seen either cradling her baby bump or holding on to her husband’s hand in the garden of their luxury home.
‘It sounds like there was a breaking point,’ Oprah asks her. ‘Were you silent or were you silenced?’
We’ll hear the answers on Sunday, but we can already have a good guess at them because during his bus chat, Harry blamed the ‘toxic’ British press for the decision to quit Britain and the royals, and in the Oprah tease, he says it was to avoid Meghan ending up the same way as his mother.
Of course, he’s said all this many times before, and there will be many who have sympathy with a man who as a young boy had to walk behind his mum’s coffin after she was killed in a car crash.
For what it’s worth, I do too. No kid should ever have been made to go through that, and I speak as someone who attended his own father’s funeral aged one.
But it was 24 years ago now, and Harry’s belief that the press killed Diana on that fateful night in Paris ignores the fact it was in fact a speeding drunk driver.
Yes, she was being chased by paparazzi, as she always was, but Diana played the media game hard and fast when it suited her, as I can attest from numerous personal experiences of her colluding directly with me, when I was a newspaper editor, on stories and photos.
I now see the same contradictory trait in Meghan and Harry – a furious pretence that they hate media attention, but a constant willingness to use the media when it suits them.
At the heart of the debate over them lies two things: 1) why, if they really want freedom from the royals, do they still use their titles to promote their brand and make millions? 2) why, if they truly want privacy, are they now doing all these huge TV interviews, dishing the dirt on their families?
Even now, the usual suspects will be screaming at me to ‘LEAVE THEM ALONE!’
But whether you love or hate them, surely we have passed the stage of thinking they have any wish to be left alone?
In a new updated cover note to their charity foundation, they declare: ‘Welcome to Archewell. Through our non-profit work, as well as creative activations, we drive systemic cultural change across all communities, one act of compassion at a time.’
This all sounds great until you remember this a couple who’ve been at bitter compassion-devoid war with both their own families for years.
We’ll hear a lot more of this cheesy guff on Sunday.
Meghan will clutch her bump and cry about the awful intrusion into their lives.
Harry’s lip will tremble as he rages against the negative media.
And they’ll do all this whilst using the biggest media platform in the world to intrude into their own lives and be negative about everyone they blame for their current life of duty-devoid luxury in America.
In the most jarring part of the Oprah tease, Harry says ‘it’s been unbelievably tough for the two of us but at least we have each other.’
It really does take a staggering degree of self-wallowing narcissism to say those words after a year in which 2.5 million people have died in a global pandemic and tens of millions have lost their jobs and are suffering horrific financial hardship.
To say them from the gloriously safe luxury of a Californian millionaire row, as the glorious year-round sun beats down on you and your family while you bank gazillions trading off your royal status, is the most tone-deaf load of entitled garbage since Marie Antoinette was told that starving French citizens had no bread and sneered: ‘Let them eat cake!’
And to do all this as Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, lies seriously ill in a London hospital is frankly outrageous.
But what more should we expect from a couple who recently tried to lecture the Queen on ‘service’?
The only service these two self-obsessed, rankly hypocritical, professional victims know is self-service.
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