EDüsseldorf is surprisingly relaxed on Tuesday. The 37-year-old Prince Harry and his four-year-old wife Meghan are about to come. But in the city, which is often suspected of being superficial and receptive to any form of chic-chi, there is little sign of heightened security or anticipation of royal splendour; the marketplace is not even half filled with onlookers. Seen in the light of day, it’s not a question of a royal visit, which then begins in the early afternoon in the town hall. Rather, Lord Mayor Stephan Keller welcomes two private individuals right there, where the high point of the foolish season usually begins with the arrival of the madness – who, of course, only really made it to global fame as runaway royals.
A good two years ago, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex renounced their royal duties in order to immediately start marketing on their own on the other side of the Atlantic. Instead of being “working members” like Harry’s father Charles and brother William on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, the Megxit couple who have moved to Montecito, California, are now only on the road with their own watery soup, as “global voices”.
Tasks after the “Megxit”
In mid-July, Harry was surprisingly allowed to give a speech to the UN General Assembly at an event commemorating the South African freedom fighter and President Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013. On Monday, Meghan spoke about gender equality at a charity event in Manchester, according to the announcement, but in fact it was “me, me, me”, as the “Daily Mail” bitingly noted. In her first “in Britain since Megxit” speech, Meghan managed in just seven minutes to be self-referential 54 times, gushing about Harry and how life-changing becoming Archie’s mother was.
Good or bad reviews, what counts is attention. In any case, “revelations” about or attacks on the “company” are particularly important for the capitalization of the Megxit brand. In March 2021, the two interviewed Oprah Winfrey, in which the royal family was portrayed as latently racist, raised a lot of dust. It also caused a stir that the couple baptized their daughter, who was born in 2021, with the nickname of Elizabeth II: Lilibet. Most recently, Harry’s attempt to legally enforce the police protection that he and his wife have been denied since the Megxit for private stays in the kingdom made headlines. British journalists reporting live from Düsseldorf on Tuesday reported with all the sharper pen that the couple was not accompanied by motorcycle police officers on their journey from the airport to the town hall and that patrol cars were not driving with blue lights.
To feed the self-promotional machine, Meghan now also has her own podcast, Archetypes, presumably named after her son, which is said to be part of a multi-million dollar deal with Spotify. There’s also an even higher-priced deal with Netflix. In addition to a podcast production company, the Sussexes also operate a video production unit that will take care of the announced Invictus Games documentary. The Invictus Games are also the reason for the flying visit of the glamor couple from California on the Rhine.
A matter of the heart
Because in exactly one year, Düsseldorf will host the Paralympic competitions for war veterans together with the German Armed Forces. Prince Harry himself served as a soldier in Afghanistan, where he was initially deployed on regular duty unnoticed by the public. When the British media learned of the prince’s deployment, Harry was hastily withdrawn because there were fears for his safety. A soldier who lost an arm and a leg in an attack is said to have been on the plane the prince flew back on. The fate of the comrade, whom he later visited several times in rehab, is said to have deeply moved the Duke of Sussex and gave him the idea of creating the Invictus Games based on the US Warrior Games. The first games then took place in London in 2014, followed by Orlando in 2016, Toronto in 2017, Sydney in 2018 and this year The Hague. Düsseldorf will be the first German city in 2023 – under the motto “A Home for Respect”.
Connoisseurs of the House of Windsor believe that Harry was first taken seriously by a broad British public through the patronage of the Invictus Games. Today it is one of the few tasks that Harry has saved from his time as a “working member” in his new life. His short speech makes it clear that it is not just any job for him, but a matter close to his heart. “Far too often, soldiers have to pay a high price for the safety of all of us – through visible and invisible wounds.” He can assure from his experience that the encounter with the participants of the Paralympic sports festival is extremely intensive. “We can learn so much from them and also grow from them.” In their stories, however, one can often recognize oneself.
Harry and Meghan appear in a relaxed manner on Tuesday in Düsseldorf. He’s wearing a gray suit, but he hasn’t worn a tie and his shirt is surprisingly unbuttoned. His wife wears a white ribbed halterneck top and wide-leg beige trousers. The outfit of the two goes with the summer trip that Harry and Meghan go on after they have entered the city’s golden book: the ship takes them across the Rhine to the arena, where the Invictus Games are to take place. They then fly back to Great Britain to attend further appointments on their “pseudo-royal tour” from their official residence in Fogmore Cottage in Windsor, as the “Daily Mail” etches.
