’Lacklustre’: Embarrassing Meghan crowd video surfaces
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are in Canada for the Invictus Games – and one seriously awkward moment has been caught on camera.
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Recently, a photo of a stone wall in Monifieth, Scotland caught my eye.
Just over a dozen tending towards the middle-aged rugged-up locals leant on it, phones aloft, looking like they had popped out for a pint of semi-skimmed and a Twix and seen a few bored-looking policemen standing around.
This, based on the photos I could scrounge up, was the sum total of the masses who flocked to see Prince William in the flesh last week during an official engagement.
To be royal is to require a fairly sturdy ego, you’d have to think.
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Or to be a West Coast transplanted, still-royal-titled-TV-maker like Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex.
She and husband Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex flew north on Friday, like reverse snowbirds, to the snowy climes of Vancouver for the latest Invictus Games, the biennial sporting competition that brings together international wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women for an extraordinary celebration of the power of the human spirit.
And Chris Martin. He brought his guitar.
The duchess, relatively freshly returned to the warm embrace of Instagram, used the event to share her first story on the platform and since then, managed at least 16 more. We have gotten all the usual Sussex high notes – a cockle-warming vibe-a-thon of hugs, dancing and a lot of high-level striding, and with the added sheer glamour of them being ferried about in a golf cart.
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One video she has not posted, however, was one taken during an unscheduled speech the 43-year-old gave during an opening reception, the first seconds of which offer a distinctly less ebullient view of things.
It starts with Meghan taking to the lectern to some applause.
“Hello you,” she says, to some laughs. Some. Then, “hey everybody, how are we feeling?” before the video cuts to the underwhelmed audience, only a few of whom appear to be clapping.
It all feels a bit flat, it feels a bit like it puts the ‘ackkkkk’ into ‘lacklustre’.
Who did get a rapturous welcome from the crowd, you ask? Another video, showing Meghan introducing the “Dooook of Sussex” shows him getting a much more enthusiastic – and louder – reception, including hooting and hollering and repeated rounds of clapping
That degree of gusto and very obvious support could not come at a more convenient and serendipitous time, the Sussexes having just endured a bruising January.
A visit to a fire-ravaged part of Los Angeles saw them forced to add “disaster tourists” to the list of headline-grabbing put-downs they have earned, along with a Spotify executive’s 2023 labelling of them as “f***ing grifters”.
Then, the release of the duchess’ new show, With Love, Meghan, was delayed, the charred remains of LA hardly the perfect backdrop for the marketing and roll out of a celebration of lush, aspirational So-Cal plenty.
The same month, Vanity Fair, the same magazine that saw fit to fawningly splash the former Suits star all over their cover in 2017, pulled a switcheroo. They officially went from having been vocal Meghan supporters to publishing an extremely lengthy piece about the duke and duchess that could not have been more unflattering if had been scratched out by Piers Morgan’s trusty poison pen.
(The Sussexes, for what it’s worth, have not directly refuted any of Vanity Fair’s bombshells).
Notably, the 8000-word story claimed that staff who had worked with the duchess on creative projects had ended up needing long-term therapy or quit and alleged that bullying behaviour could happen on “any given Tuesday”.
But the real jaw-dropper came with the claim that the duchess’ team had shopped to publishers the concept of a post-Harry divorce book.
Clearly, that never came to pass and the vitality and lovey-doviness of the Sussexes’ marriage has become the subplot of this year’s Games, thanks to them sharing a conspicuous smooch at the opening ceremony. (Talk about seizing the PR initiative with two hands).
But can that face-grabbing translate into a wider face-saving?
With plenty of publicity ground to make up, Meghan and her Instagram stories are doing their darnedest to remind us all about the Sussex Love Story ™ (divor-what now?) and to reassert the image of them as dedicated and celebrated humanitarians.
That’s something they could definitely do with, given the Sussex name, of late, is more likely to be associated with their struggling Netflix careers, like last year’s belly-flop Polo, with them recently being openly ridiculed in front of the streaming giant’s execs.
The Games, for Harry and Meghan, represent safe, dry ground and a chance to refocus attention on their philanthropic bonafides, coming at a handy juncture for the couple given their royal lustre has dimmed as their Hollywood woes have piled up.
Some good old-fashioned palace-style speeches and getting to pose for photos surrounded by beaming supporters? Yes and please.
The Duke of Sussex might see his life as “charity — always has been, always will be”, but that’s a view that puts him in the minority.
A new poll has revealed that the majority of Brits no longer think of Harry as indeed still royal, with twice as many identifying him as a celebrity. For Meghan, 60 per cent of respondents said that she was more of a celebrity now.
Likewise, a Wall Street Journal article over the weekend about the travails of Soho House, the members’ club which played a key role in their early romance, saw “Prince Harry and Meghan Markle” lumped in with “celebrities like Lady Gaga” in its reporting.
“Celebrities”, that is, whose TV-making futures are reportedly in doubt; “celebrities” who have struggled to establish themselves as much beyond titled curiosities that the entertainment world doesn’t quite know what to do with.
Thus, the Sussexes need a win. Maybe two. Maybe 17, and the Games gives them the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.
And if all else fails, they can easily buck themselves up with one simple move – just pin up a photo of the “crowd” scene in Monifieth last week.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles
Originally published as ’Lacklustre’: Embarrassing Meghan crowd video surfaces
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