Duchess of Sussex Meghan ‘has to stop behaving like a spoilt brat in public’
If the palace hoped for gorgeous pictures of relaxed royals at the polo to dispel talk of a rift, they got the opposite. Duchesses Meghan and Kate managed to avoid each other and it’s not Kate’s fault, Fiona Wingett writes. Meghan is not royal and she’s not yet learned to behave like one.
It should have been a shoo-in, happy pictures of a family at play which would go around the world, dispelling talk of a rift between the Fab Four — the Dukes and Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex.
Instead they have added more fuel to the fire that the rift between the two couples is deep and, some surmise, permanent.
The images of Meghan and her new baby, Archie, out and about IN PUBLIC (shock, horror) at a charity polo match after all the diktats for secrecy over the birth, the christening and their vow that the names of his godparents will forever remain a state secret, have sent fans and media into a frenzy.
If the palace hoped for gorgeous pictures of relaxed royals as one, the double duchesses stomping in the divots at half time or sharing a chuckle between chukkas, they got just the opposite.
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While any pictures of the royal children tend to the adorable, Meghan looked uncomfortable, holding Archie like a sack of spuds, still trying to protect him from the public, occasionally using a gold-edged blanket to keep his head away from prying eyes.
As the stark juxtaposition, there was Kate, pretty in a pink high street dress, all gorgeous and carefree and at one with her children. And if the Duchesses needed an excuse not to interact the children gave them the perfect shield — who would argue that they needed to exchange a few polite words rather than keeping an eye on their offspring?
The smiles Kate displays when Meghan is near are tight and there is nothing to show she stood up to make small talk with her sister-in-law, who has earned herself a reputation for being difficult and has seen a huge turnaround of staff since she took up residence as a royal.
But that is the nut of the problem. She’s not royal and she’s not yet learned to behave like one. Her ridiculous demand this week that her bodyguard tell tennis fans not to take her picture as she was at the, erm, public event of Wimbledon “in a private capacity” is the perfect example of just how far she is from realising what is expected of her. None of the real royals behave in such a high-handed manner.
And the Palace’s pathetic excuse that she wanted to “engage with people not phones” was shown to be mendacious: 40 seats around her were kept empty while members queued outside. So much for getting up close and communing with The People. It’s all very Marie Antoinette, who would dress as a shepherdess on her toy farm in the grounds of Versailles and make like she was one of the proles — without actually having to meet them.
If we thought Megmania reached its peak during her marriage to Harry last year, it went stratospheric when they came to Australia and smiled and waved and hugged and joked — AND announced here she was pregnant.
Cue cuddly toys and a Meghan who started her habit of cuddling her nascent bump at any given photo opportunity.
But the goodwill has all been squandered with their demands for privacy, blocking out a British public, in particular, who wanted to have the street parties, to break out the baby bunting and celebrate the newest royal, but who were thrown a few crumbs.
While the Sussexes are happy to drink from the public trough, incur many thousands of dollars of extra security bills for Meghan to go to an over-the-top baby shower in New York and spend more than $4m of public money on refurbishing their new home, Frogmore Cottage, they have to understand their contract. And it is not behaving like spoiled brats, while enjoying all the privileges of their position, in public.
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