Americans like to ask: What’s the big deal with the British royal family?
A few of us truly couldn’t care less.
But most of us, if we are honest, are fascinated with the royals, just as the Brits are, though our fascination may be more on a surface level.
We make our own royals in America. They are called celebrities — movie stars, TV stars, rock stars, game show hosts, even people famous for being famous, like the Kardashians or Paris Hilton.
What the royals have over celebrities and stars is a long history, duty and public service, and, at least until recent years, dignity.
The monarchy is part of what gives Britain cohesion. The current queen, Queen Elizabeth II, like her great father, George VI, is not only the head of state, but a living symbol of British decency, perseverance and grace in all matters and moments.
There has always been intrigue and soap opera in every royal family, but in the media age much of it has become public. Now we see some, and at times much, of the royal family’s dirty linen. We see that they have problems like every family.
And it only makes us all the more fascinated, as is evidenced by the American fixation with the TV serial “The Crown.”
The upshot of these formerly very public lives exposed is that, like the Wizard of Oz after his true identity and human frailty are revealed, much of the mystery, and hence authority, of the monarchy has been swept away, at least for now. The royals have been reduced to celebrityhood.
Into this forever changed royal reality came Harry and Meghan, the perfect young couple whose royal wedding touched hearts the world over. They were handsome, beautiful and very much in love. And they were not ready to be minor royals.
Harry and Meghan were abused and harassed by the British press. They were treated badly by the royal bureaucracy — “the firm.” And, in the end, they decided to “step back,” in Harry’s words. They fled to California, where those wanting a new life have fled for 100 years, be they farmers, sharecroppers, actors, hillbillies or composers. There Harry and Meghan were welcomed and protected, often by the most unlikely people imaginable.
And now they have given a “tell-all” interview to Oprah Winfrey who, in the land of celebrity, is the one, true, secular queen. It is to her that fellow celebs must go to be anointed, to confess and to bare all — if possible more than all. Once Barbara Walters served this function. But she was a mere high priestess of fame. Oprah is our queen.
What does it all mean?
It is possible to view this opera bathos as the end of the monarchy — the ultimate trivialization that finally brings it down.
But Brits won’t let that happen and neither will this queen.
It is also possible to view this drama as yet another revelation of the generational and cultural divide: the stiff upper lip against the self-absorbed or self-actualized; the wizened against the woke; the “get on with it” adults against the idealistic young. Thus Meghan, in particular, becomes either heroine or actress/spoiled brat; Joan of Arc or Joan Crawford.
Finally, it is possible to view the story as a tale that begins in England and ends, as it ought, in the United States — a tale of human beings seeking a better life and creating that life in their own way.
The finer, more revealing interview than Oprah’s was Harry’s with British ex-pat James Corden. It was as lighthearted as the Oprah emotional striptease was lugubrious. And Harry was revealed to be, well, just a nice guy who loves his wife and kid — a strong fellow with a sweet nature.
Harry said two things of note in that interview: He said the British press was destroying his mental health, so he did what any husband and father would do. He got out, to protect his sanity and his family.
And he said his life has been and will continue to be about public service.
There was no reason for him to say that. And if he makes good on the promise, perhaps he will serve the crown from afar, as he did in two military tours in Afghanistan, which he also did not have to do. That might help restore some luster to the royals: doing good.
A celebrity can be canceled and obliterated in an hour.
A monarchy has roots and can withstand harsh winds and long assaults.
As for Harry and Meghan, they came to America for what the first Americans came here for — a fresh start; a new life. We ought to give them a break and welcome them.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS
