Harry & Meghan: Fractured Fairy Tale

And the handsome prince and his kind and beautiful lady lived happily ever after? … Well, not anymore. Not in Great Britain’s current little dysfunctional family kingdom, that’s for sure.

What Oprah’s interview with Prince Harry and wife Meghan so vividly revealed was how The Crown’s inherent bias against non-Royals — i.e., outsiders like Meghan — was alive and well and still thriving in our 21st Century World. How hopelessly and inappropriately old-fashioned! Audiences world-wide finally got to see and hear how easily a divorced commoner with no outstanding royal bloodlines could get royally screwed by The House of Windsor.

Just when memories of the last Royal Wedding still lingered, just when we started to believe the times, they truly are a changin,’ we — along with Meghan and Harry — got sucker punched by a timeless, rigid reality.

In this corner stands Meghan Markle: an exceptionally gifted, highly accomplished woman who willingly gave up her own status, career, lifestyle, and everyday-freedoms, just so she could marry Prince Harry and become a good wife and mother. If ever you could create someone who should marry a prince, it would be Meghan Markle. She’s the total woman — a down-to-earth yet elegant lady of eloquence, grace, and charm who also retains her refreshing American originality in understated ways.

But in the opposing corner stands an oppressive, judgmental class system sanctioned by The Crown that has decided she will never be good enough to marry their prince — even if she was granted a royal wedding. She’s a commoner. She’s also the daughter of a white father and a black mother. That means she’s biracial. So she will never be white enough. She will never be good enough to bear the title Duchess of Sussex, or any other kind of elevated stature bestowed upon her. She’s unworthy. And so is any child she might produce. That means Meghan and her baby son Archie will never be good enough for this royal house on this island, this sceptre isle, this England.

Before you denounce my observation as just another example of “playing the race card,” dear readers, look at the facts. Consider the information and the context in which it was presented and discussed during Oprah’s interview. Then consider that Queen Elizabeth II’s official response from The Royal Palace never categorically denied these facts, either.

The “institution” DID drop their bombshell while Meghan was pregnant with baby Archie. These royal regulators chose that time to inform her that her future son would NOT be given the official title of “prince.” And that lack of royal title meant he would not be given any security protection. (As in no bodyguards, no surveillance) But then, security protection for Prince Harry himself was inexplicably taken away. As Meghan explained to Oprah, she wasn’t concerned about the title per se but with the lack of protection that would ensue from having no title. She also wanted some kind of explanation about the change, since her husband and she were still The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. After all, Harry was still a prince and still in line — albeit a long line now — to the throne. So Meghan wrote a letter pleading with the powers-that-be to please not take away her husband’s security protection…It fell on deaf ears. Worst of all, no explanations for The Crown’s actions were ever given.

Pretty scary stuff to pull on a young mother-to-be, especially when she and her husband had been getting death threats. Most members of the royal family and their associates often have been targeted, you know. That fact, unfortunately, wasn’t emphasized enough during the interview. It should have been.

No added emphasis, however, was needed to convey that racism was indeed playing a part in these unexpected changes that began to affect the young couple.

Without going into explicit details, Harry revealed other members of The Royal family had inquired about “how dark” the skin tones of their children might be. After this interview aired, it was clarified that these inquiries were made BEFORE, not after, the wedding. As though that would make things seem less racist? How quickly Buckingham Palace forgot that, right before Archie’s birth, DJ’s and tabloids alike were coming up with odds and actually betting on how dark their new baby would be. Also absent from the Queens’s official response is how Archie’s proud parents were ordered NOT to present him to the public in the traditional, expected manner. Add these inexplicable changes with the smear campaign against Meghan, and it’s not difficult to see systemic racism at work.

As if that weren’t enough, this couple had to deal with yet another archaic prejudice: outdated notions about women’s health.

Meghan encountered surprising disinterest about her physiological health and symptoms, concerns that should have been red flags. When she asked for help in treating her depression and suicidal thoughts, she got blown off by the institution. They refused to help her because they told her “it wouldn’t look good.”

Like, living in the 21st Century with 17th Century ideas about women would make The Crown “look good?”

What’s so insidious here is how these royal regulators keep kicking women when they’re down — and keep getting away with it. Oh, they’ve been doing it for years. But the way they targeted Princess Diana, and now Meghan, seems pathologically heartless and disrespectful.

Not only were their cries for help repeatedly downplayed and ignored, but during the most stressful times in their lives both women were sent off on these “goodwill tours” when they should have gotten more rest and medical attention.

Remember when Diana was ordered to go to Australia on an extended “meet and greet” with Charles? That was back in March, 1983, when baby William was just 10 months old. For her, leaving her new baby thousands of miles behind was not an option. Taking him with her, though, was strongly discouraged by the powers-to-be. In the end, she did get her way and won the enthusiastic approval of the land-down-under — which irked a jealous Charles to no end(according to various bios and biopics). But, really, why send a young mother on such a demanding journey when her baby’s not even a year old?

I’m not saying she should have been confined to the Tower for long-term bedrest, but Diana was experiencing postpartum depression. She was also suffering from the situational depression and stress of being married to a man who loved his mistress more than he loved her. To her distress, Charles was flagrantly carrying on with Camilla without even bothering to hide it from her. Talk about stressors!

Then consider Meghan’s p.r. excursion to Africa in October, 2018. To be sure, she and Harry charmed everyone there. But she was also 4 months pregnant. And as an expectant mother, she tired out more quickly than she usually would have. So why schedule such a lengthy tour for a woman with child in her late 30’s who probably needed extra rest and relaxation?

But wait. What about Prince William’s wife Kate(A.K.A. future Queen of England)…Did she have to endure any extended goodwill tours during her pregnancies? Nope. She didn’t have to run their little gauntlet. The Palace already decided she knew her place. They pegged her as deferential and compliant. So they didn’t have to send her off the island. No point ordering Kate to do any grueling “meet and greet” when she already knew enough to follow instructions and keep her mouth shut. She already knew how to play the game. She didn’t need any trips.

Isn’t it obvious? These trips had nothing to do with goodwill.

They were more grueling than goodwill for a reason: control. They’re all about testing, then identifying, any streaks of independence that need to be squashed. They’re deftly designed to disempower, to put any upstart who might eclipse the Queen in her place. Evidently, The Palace decided Meghan really needed to be put in her place. As in, So now you think you represent the British Empire? Ha! Know your place and mind your tongue, girl. Do what you’re told. Go to Africa! Those were the tacit marching orders for Meghan, and she had no way to refuse this royal command.

In other words, when The Crown orders you to go on any extended trip anywhere, you obey. No questions asked. No offers to go anywhere else, or do anything else instead. You have to do what Her Majesty commands or else.

Although the powers-to-be won’t admit it, these trips are designed to show The Monarchy’s dominance. So any hesitation or complaining comes across as insubordination that will not be tolerated. That means any semblance of high-spiritedness, originality, or personal style on tour will not be tolerated. Remember, ladies, you’re supposed to represent the Queen, not eclipse her Majesty. So maybe sending Diana and Meghan away on tour was simply a passive aggessive way of laying down the royal law. Why else would The Crown expect women struggling with unforeseen changes in body and spirit be expected to travel and then endure such a busy itinerary?

Of course, that’s just my own opinion on the matter(that’s why this is an opinion editorial and not another interview.) Personally, as a supporter of the Divine Feminine, I’m also bothered by the archaic way the institution has tried to invalidate these exceptional women by using their mental health against them. No doubt, both women had issues with mental health. Both women also admitted that concern and asked for help. Instead of a beneficial referral, they both got stigmatized by the institution, as though they were complaining too much and embarrassing The Royal Family.

From the way the institution(along with the tabloids) put it, they should have been subdued in straight jackets and banished to the asylum. Or else they should have learned to just shut up and “man up” and quit complaining. NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR YOU WHINE!

But their problems didn’t seem to be that uncommon. In fact, everything I’ve read and heard points to a striking similarity between Meghan and her late mother-in-law Diana when it came to their respective health issues. After they married their princes, they each faced tremendous life changes. They each became overwhelmed by changes in their marital status, occupation, workload, privacy, personal and public image, as well as eating, sleeping habits. Then any remarks they might have made about the stress that accompanied these changes was dismissed with, “You knew what you were getting into when you married him” — when that rebuke was clearly inaccurate. But then, within 2 years of marriage, both women got pregnant.

Not every woman will experience the same changes the same way in pregnancy, however. Kudos to women who can do manual labor, even serve in the military, have their babies, then report back to work the next day. Needless to say, not every woman is capable of doing that. I myself have never been pregnant, but I’ve listened to enough mothers who’ve agreed that delivering a baby is a lot like trying to pee a grand piano.(Ouch!)

Furthermore, hormonal fluctuation that occurs during and after pregnancy also affects different women differently. Some women are able to handle these changes without much difficulty. Others cannot.

In fact, hormonal flux often results in mood swings similar to bipolar disorders. Moodiness, weepiness, angry outbursts, even despondency to the point of suicidal thoughts — all these things can and do happen when hormones are out of whack. Such imbalance also occurs during menopause and peri-menopause. That’s just what happens to some women. Apparently, Buckingham Palace didn’t get the memo.

It’s pretty obvious that both women had situational depression resulting from the stress so much change brought into their lives. Then that stress was exacerbated by clinical depression that was probably influenced by some hormonal imbalance that came during and after pregnancy. The usual treatment would probably involve talk therapy, supplemented with anti-depressants and/or hormones. No, I’m not a doctor, but you don’t need to call in Holmes and Watson when these women themselves were blatantly undergoing massive life changes and stress, then actually asking for help. DUH!

Characterizing Meghan as some whining, barking mad dog because of her health issues isn’t just unsympathetic, it’s cruel. So is denying racism in Great Britain.

Next time Prince William publicly denies it, I wish someone would ask him if he’s ever read The Raj Quartet, or watched “A Passage to India.” Then ask him, “What would The Royal family have done if Harry had wanted to marry a beautiful, intelligent East Indian woman?”

Probably no discussions about skin tones would have ensued, and his fiancee would have been sent to work in the kitchen.