Awkward detail in new Meghan picture during Sussexes’ Colombia tour
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been caught in an awkward personal exchange as they stage a “royal” tour of their own.
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What do you think body language experts and lip readers did before the advent of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex?
Lucky for them, these days, they are in hot demand to analyse the every blink and utterance of the Duchess and her beardy bloke Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. And lucky for us today, one of them has just caught an interesting exchange between the couple.
For the past few days, the Sussexes have been in Colombia, proving how far they have come since leaving the royal family by taking themselves off on a suspiciously royal tour. (The British Foreign Office is yet to hand-write them a thankyou note for this bit of unbidden freelancing).
On Thursday, when the couple arrived in capital city Bogotá to meet Francia Marquez, Colombia’s vice president, images were released showing the duo clasping one another and giving us tried and true blissed out twosome vibes.
Enter lip reader Nicola Hickling, who has offered an interesting take on the moment. The
Mirror reports that, according to Hickling, as the couple arrived for the meeting, “Meghan quietly muttered an order to Harry, saying simply, ‘hand’, before he replied, ‘Here you go’.”
How much weight can we give “hand”? I have no idea, but despite the Sussexes’ visit being as tightly controlled from an image perspective as an uptight Soviet Ministry of Information, it’s worth looking a little closer.
Just how bueno have things really been going for Harry and Meghan?
Take that there is only one journalist who has been approved to cover their four day trip – from Harper’s Bazaar. For people who are busy trying to prove themselves as serious voices talking about serious issues, you’d think they might choose a publication which is less given over to multi-page features on the return of the brooch.
Their itinerary bears scrutiny too because, if one did not know any better, it would appear to have been borrowed out of a Buckingham Palace bottom desk drawer. When the Sussexes declared in 2021 “service is universal”, perhaps they could have added, “and does not necessarily require new ideas” too.
The Duke and Duchess have, while in Colombia, planted trees, charmed children, met with dignitaries, tried out some drumming, danced to local music and failed to address the historical legacy of slavery – pretty much all of which Prince William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales did during their disastrous 2022 Caribbean tour. (Well, apart from the tree bit).
You’d be forgiven for assuming that two people freed of the diktats and strictures of the Palace would have come up with a program that better reflected their independence and for it to have looked less like the schedule once put together when the Duke of Kent was sent off to tour Slovenian tractor factories.
“But it’s about their impact,” I hear you say, and indeed, speaking at a summit on a “responsible digital future” co-hosted by their Archewell Foundation, Harry’s comments about society having “completely broken down” due to online misinformation were particularly judicious and well timed. (You know, what with a famed liar, liar, overly-saggy pants on fire running for the US Presidency and anti-immigration riots having recently swept the UK).
But was it really worth 18 hours round trip of flying, and, per the Daily Mail, the deployment of 3000 police, snipers, a Black Hawk and a bioterror van for the duke to make a point he has made before?
Meghan, for her part, spoke at an Afro women and power forum, which brought together 400 women, demonstrating her fluent Spanish.
The question of who is footing the bill for the wider trip is not known, with the Sussexes having paid for the trip with “economic support by international co-operation”, per the Telegraph. Do I have any clue what that sentence means? I do not.
Meanwhile, the British media has had people on the ground in Colombia finding locals unimpressed by their titled visitors.
The Sussexes are being protected by what the Times reports is “triple belt” military security. However, that has meant they have, according to the Mail on Sunday, hardly been seen by actual Colombians, with their “elusiveness” irritating some people. (One unverified video on X, formerly Twitter, purports to show their convoy featuring four police motorcycle outriders, seven white 4WDs and an ambulance).
Meanwhile, some people in the cities of Bogota and Cartagena, according to the Mail, “remain determinedly incurious – ‘they’re nothing special’ and ‘who cares?’ are common refrains”.
“I know about your [late] Queen but I’m not familiar with these guys,” a street trader told the Mail.
If this street trader had seen “these guys”, he at least would have been treated to seeing one of the at least nine outfits Meghan has worn so far. And she has looked, and let me just excitedly spittle-fleck my keyboard here, sen-bloody-sational. However, such a roll call of chic ensembles and designer pieces makes for slightly awkward viewing given they are in a country where nearly seven million people live on less than $2.50 a day and 18 million people live on less than $5 per day.
Even just consider the Duchess’ choice of accessories. As identified by royal and fashion accounts on X, the 42-year-old toted a $7300 handbag, repeatedly wore a Cartier necklace worth at least $23,800, has worn an “Against Evil Eye” diamond bracelet that Google suggests costs around $30,000, and donned a $19,000 diamond tennis necklace.
Most of these are pieces the Duchess already owned, but still. The decision to wear them feels oddly tone-deaf.
By contrast, in 2019, when Meghan and Harry, then still firmly on the royal clock, travelled to South Africa she made a point of wearing accessible and high street brands and looked fabulous to boot. The choice was reportedly a considered one – she did not want her wardrobe to distract from the work they were there to do. It would have made complete sense to see something similar here.
Likewise, it would have made sense for Harry to use the trip to engage with the ghosts of slavery. While Colombia was a Spanish colony and not a British one, the Duke’s homeland was still responsible for the kidnapping and enforced transportation of millions of men, women and children. In Spare, he wrote about the “unjust” system and that “enslaved people” had contributed towards royal wealth.
And yet, like his brother William in the Caribbean in 2022, Harry has failed to publicly come to grips with the issue while in the region. The third day of the Sussex trip saw them in San Basilio, South America’s first “free town”, which you would have thought would be the natural setting for the 39-year-old to comment in some way.
Speaking to the Telegraph, locals called him out over the omission.
“His ancestors made our ancestors go through terrible times and he can make good faith and repent to show that they don’t agree with what happened before,” hairdresser Elida Canarte Diaz said.
The president of the town’s police commented: “I think he does have to [apologise]”.
The Sussexes, it must be noted, are not the only Windsors to have travelled to Colombia recently, with Harry’s aunt Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh there last November to advocate for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence after decades of armed conflict gripped the country.
Strangely, Harper’s Bazaar was not there to cover it and Sophie, as far as I’m aware, failed to wear a diamond tennis bracelet even once.
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 Awkward detail in new Meghan picture during Sussexes’ Colombia tour
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