Leave Harry and Meghan alone - life is short, let them live it

More than 20 years ago we watched a heartbroken little boy walk behind his mother’s coffin. Now that little boy has grown into a man determined to protect those he loves. Who can blame him, asks Kylie Lang.

I HAVE abstained from opining about Harry and Meghan until now – but it’s time to give this couple a break.

Life is short. Let them live it.

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There are two things we know for certain – one is that we will never know the full story behind Harry’s “defection” from the Royal Family, The Firm, Demanding Relatives, Public Life or whatever you want to call it.

The second is that he loves his wife.

Meghan Markle ruffled feathers from the get-go, being an American divorcee, an actress (in a TV sitcom, at that) and being bi-racial (which she herself has identified as a reason people target her and which, predictably, has backfired on her in a world gone mad on political correctness).

Sassy Meghan might not be everyone’s cup of tea – a few in the Royal Family are said to be less than enamoured, as well as Wimbledon watchers and people who think new mothers should show off their babies seconds after giving birth – but she is, now and hopefully forever, Harry’s.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Picture: AP Photo/Matt Dunham

To have body language experts and other “insiders” (so deeply inside they can’t possibly be named) now trying to poke holes in Harry’s brave and emotional speech in London, hours before he flew to Canada, really is beyond the pale.

“It is my contention that Harry is in a state and has been a mess for some time,” declared Dr Louise Mahler, revealing what any average Joe could plainly see - that he was tired and saddened by the turn of events.

But hang on, didn’t Harry himself say this? Yes, he did.

Thank you, body language expert.

Harry’s exact words: “It brings me great sadness that it has come to this.”

Dr Mahler also observed that Harry’s jaw was tight.

“His voice was a big giveaway he is traumatised about what is happening,” she said.

“When he arrived on stage he literally stared at the audience without blinking. This is a sign of tension.”

You think?

Prince Harry (second from right), then just 12, bows his head as the hearse carrying the body of his mother, Diana, passes by. He stands alongside (from left) his uncle Earl Charles Spencer, his brother Prince Williams and his father Prince Charles.

Why would anyone in their right mind expect Harry – who has grown up in the public eye to the extent of having to walk solemnly behind his mother’s coffin as a heartbroken 12-year-old prince – be delighted to be delivering such a speech?

Harry touched on losing his mum, Princess Diana, 23 years ago; on the UK forever being his home; and on his “utmost respect” for his grandmother, The Queen, his “commander in chief”.

He acknowledged that he was “taking a leap of faith” with Meghan and he thanked the audience – aka Britain and The Commonwealth – for “giving us the courage to take this next step”.

None of this can have been easy for 35-year-old Harry.

And let’s not forget he is just one year younger than his mother when she died.

The “people’s princess” was killed in a crash in Paris, aged 36, as the car she was in sped through the Pont de l’Alma tunnel followed by paparazzi photographers.

At her inquest in 2008 it was ruled that the gross negligence of her driver, Henri Paul, who was drunk, and the paparazzi, were to blame for the crash.

Harry told the BBC in 2017, almost 20 years after his mother died: “One of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying on the back seat of the car.”

This boy, who has become his own man, is seemingly still struggling with this.

Wouldn’t you?

People can speculate all they like on low long his marriage with Meghan, 38, will last.

They can quibble over titles and trademarks (the “suss ex-Royals” is getting a laugh, although The Queen is allowing Harry to remain a Duke after all).

They can label Meghan the Yoko Ono of the Royal Family (with apologies to Yoko), accuse her of being manipulative (a descriptor casually applied to almost any woman who tries to assert herself), and they can frown at her estranged father’s odd comments (what has he got against Walmart, anyway?).

Maybe they are peeved that they might not get to see as much of Harry as they’ve become accustomed, and feel entitled, to.

But at the end of the day, it is Harry’s decision to exit the Royal Family.

He is the one with the pedigree and the most to consider.

He has grown up in a very particular, make that peculiar, existence that certainly wouldn’t be for everyone, as it wasn’t for his beloved mother.

A simpler life – without pernicious protocols and excessive public scrutiny, and with a beautiful young son to raise with the woman he loves – is surely not too much to ask.