It’s no secret that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have pressure with some members of the royal household. Nonetheless, the couple additionally has pressure with the press. As royals, Harry and Meghan usually saved members of the media at arm’s size, although royal consultants consider they might have finished one factor otherwise.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have a fraught relationship with the press
Ever since Meghan joined the royal household, she has usually spoken negatively about the British press. For instance, in the 2019 documentary Harry and Meghan: An African Journey, the Duchess of Sussex complained about the approach the media handled her.
“When I first met my now-husband, my friends were really happy because I was so happy but my British friends said to me, ‘I’m sure he’s great but you shouldn’t do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life,’” Meghan mentioned. “And I very naively — I’m American. We don’t have that there — [I said], ‘What are you talking about? That doesn’t make any sense. I’m not in any tabloids.’ I didn’t get it.”
She additionally added, “I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair. And that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile.”
That very same 12 months, the Sussexes additionally launched a lawsuit in opposition to a few British tabloid papers for publishing a letter Meghan despatched to her father.
After shifting to the United States in 2020, Harry and Meghan additionally started to communicate out about misinformation in the media.
The Sussexes may have finished 1 factor otherwise, in accordance to consultants
Some members of the press have talked about their relationship with Harry and Meghan. In the new BBC documentary, The Princes and the Press, some consultants speculated that Harry may have launched Meghan to reporters higher throughout their engagement announcement in November 2017.
“A royal engagement is typically an opportunity for the bride to meet the press informally, but this one was different,” documentary host Amol Rajan mentioned of their engagement announcement at the Sunken Backyard in Kensington Palace (by way of Express). “Harry and Meghan stuck a pond between them and the reporters.”
In the meantime, journalist Camilla Tominey mentioned, “There was the initial press conference outside Kensington Palace when they got engaged and she was in the white coat. That was very much done from a distance. And then there wasn’t really a proper meet and greet.”
She added, “Maybe the lack of understanding of what Meghan was all about might have been down to the fact that they never introduced her to the press properly.”
Different royals are extra cooperative with the press
Nonetheless, not each royal approaches the media in the identical approach Harry and Meghan do.
For instance, Prince William and Kate Middleton are extra cooperative with reporters. The Cambridges invite the media to cowl particular occasions of their and their kids’s lives, together with births, christenings, and first days of faculty.
In The Princes and the Press, royal consultants speculated that being on good phrases with the press is a approach for William to put together for his future as king.
“William knows he has to deal with the media day in day out for the rest of his life,” BBC presenter Andrew Marr mentioned. “Therefore he has to have a relationship with the media that works. He’s constantly thinking, I think, in a strategic way, about how to handle that, how to deal with that.”