Ein Soldier has nothing to smile about. His life is “terribly hard,” says Alice in AA Milne’s famous poem about Christopher Robin’s outing to attend the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The little boy and his nanny hope to catch a glimpse of the king too. But he signs files and is far too busy to come to the window, says Alice. The lines come to mind in the recent Netflix lyre about the former soldier prince Harry about his difficult existence with the curse on his life, the press and the “system” associated with it into which he was born. Alice tells Christopher Robin that big festivals are often held at the estate. Still, she says, no matter how much money she would want to be king.
Privacy, in front of the camera?
One can only agree with that. After all, who wants to be in the media spotlight all their life, especially when you’re as obviously damaged as Harry is? The catch with the prince and his wife Meghan Markle’s well-treated view is that the couple are using the hated medium of the media to let everyone share their burden with the ugly old world from which they fled on a private “freedom flight”. and the supposed bliss in the brave new California Eden where it can now materialize. And doing exactly what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex constantly accuses the press of doing: raking in big bucks from the royal “property” Meghan once referred to in terms of the NPV of the space newspapers give the Windsors. It is also curious that even in the most private moments, such as when the couple is alone in the kitchen reviewing a festive evening event, a photographer is there to capture everything.
In the second batch of the six-part documentary, the royal family is harder on the collar than in the first three episodes released a week ago. Like Princess Diana, Meghan presents herself as a victim of envy because for a while she was more prominent in the media than other family members, including the queen. Astonishing as it may be that the press has access to correspondents everywhere, part of the reason given for the decision to leave England is that royal correspondents are based in London and cannot cover the Sussexes abroad. Meghan was ready to vacate the field “so you’re the ones on the front pages and we just do the work on behalf of the Queen”. All for nothing because they didn’t want anything from the taxpayer, says Meghan, forgetting the dispute over the Sussexes’ right to security protection.
