‘Everything is fine’: Hidden message in Harry and Meghan’s new video

The Sussexes have returned to the spotlight with a new video after a disastrous few months – but are things really as they seem?

The pair looked loved up sitting side-by-side. Picture: Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund

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Oh, you crazy kids, you.

Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are back, like rollerskates or slap bracelets or low-waisted jeans – things that flare up, hold the world’s attention captive and then peter out for a spell.

On Thursday, the Sussexes and their hair, makeup, lighting, sound and camera teams made a return to the spotlight in a video that could have been titled “EVERYTHING IS FINE!”

Those rumours of marital shakiness, of their careers suffering downward spirals, of brand Sussex looking as wobbly as a badly-made jelly? Pishaw!

Here are the duke and duchess, resplendent in co-ordinating contempo casuals, in the warm Californian light positively glowing with good health, four-figure skincare regimens and the benefit of countless sun salutations just being their brilliant, charitable selves.

You know, just a normal weekday Chez Sussex. Real heroes don’t wear capes, they wear cashmere.

Specifically, the two minute and 40 second video features the couple calling some of the 26 recipients of the inaugural $US2 million funding round from The Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund. (The Archewell Foundation helped found the Fund – however, it’s not known how much they specifically contributed).

During their appearance they donned beaming smiles while they spoke lovingly about Archie and Lilibet. Picture: Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund

The video is charming, lovely stuff on one level, full of people who passionately want to make the world a better place and are actually doing something about one of the great cesspools of 21st century life, ze internet and social media.

But the real stars of the show are the duke and duchess, or as they are billed on screen, “Harry and Meghan” – having seemingly traded in their royal titles to go for mononym status, Madonna or Beyoncé-style.

While the recipients, a bunch of the sort of inspiring, do-something, energetic sorts who deserve medals, grants and to never have to clean their rooms again, are all shot with iPhones, the Sussexes instead are rendered in perfect high-def. No wobbly smartphone wielded by some poor aide designated for human tripod duty here, but a professional crew who looks to have shot the couple from multiple angles, all the better to catch their warm smiles, big hearts and very blatant attempt at a relaunch.

Or maybe we should call it a comeback or a do-over or a reset or a fightback.

But whatever word or phrase you want to use, this is all about as transparent as a vigorously cleaned Kensington Palace window.

The last few months have been some of the rockiest and most damaging for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The pair looked loved up sitting side-by-side. Picture: Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund

They have been hit by crisis after PR flub after humiliation, having caused a commotion and claiming they were caught in a “near catastrophic” clash with the paparazzi, having lost their $US20 million Spotify deal, facing Netflix casting them adrift after their contract is up and with a swirl of rumours about whether all was quite well in the marital state of Montecito.

So too, Harry and Meghan have literally and figuratively become the butt of jokes and their name has been teetering awfully close to becoming a byword for flaming out in spectacular fashion.

Thus, a video or an outing or an engagement was needed, post haste. (I guarantee that someone in the planning meeting uttered the words “take back control of the narrative”).

What Aitch and Em needed to do was to remind the world that they are primarily (or at least want the world to see them primarily) as nonpareil do-gooders, saving the world with their positive vibes and big ideas, unlike those stick-in-the-mud Windsors.

But this video is not the only prong of Operation: Revive! (Oh, you just know there are a lot of highly enthusiastic exclamation marks flying around in team Archewell emails).

Such a coincidence that on the same day that this video came out, People magazine happened to take a break from diligently covering some reality TV divorce to put out a clutch of new, highly sympathetic stories about the Sussexes.

The Duke and Duchess looked happy together despite claims they have taken time apart. Picture: Responsible Technology Youth Power Fun

Just take a look at the headlines – Meghan Markle Has Taken a ‘Much Softer Approach’ to Prince Harry’s Family: She ‘Wants to Focus on Their Kids’, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Are ‘Playful and Flirty,’ Says Source, ‘Not into a Big Scene’ (Exclusive) and Inside Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s ‘Growing Pains’ in Showbiz: ‘Hollywood Loves a Comeback’ (Exclusive).

See? “Playful and flirty”! A “comeback”! They just want to “focus on their kids”!

Even that last story, the “growing pains” one, just frames their professional travails as nothing but such rotten luck, claiming among other things that “some experts say Harry and Meghan are being held to a higher standard than others”, that they were “not set up for success on Spotify” and with a source claiming that the couple “have a lot of ideas and did pitch them”, except that “there was too much red tape between Spotify and the Sussexes”.

See? It’s not their fault their careers are tanking like the Exxon Valdez of content creation.

Meanwhile, the other stories detail a life so idyllic and a couple so effortlessly charming and happy it’s a surprise people don’t need sunglasses to be in the same room as them.

According to the crack reporters at People, the duchess “just wants to focus on their kids and their life in Montecito”, and Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet’s upbringing is “very play-based. They have several play areas, including a climbing gym on their property”.

Meanwhile, when it comes to parents at the school gate, Meghan “talks to everyone; there is no pretence” and the couple, according to some loose-lipped friend speaking to the magazine, are “not into a big scene. They prefer smaller group hangouts at home, karaoke, that sort of thing”.

The Sussex video landed just as the rest of the Windsors are about to disappear to Scotland. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

“Harry’s a beer and steak-and-potatoes kind of dude,” the friend said.

“They’re playful and flirty when they’re hanging out.”

Meanwhile, of the royal family and that hooha, the duchess has “kind of moved on”.

See? They are just two normal Amer-I-cans, who love good, wholesome fun, red meat and the alcoholic drink most favoured by the proletariat!

If prong one was the video and prong two was People, then here comes prong three.

Next month will see Harry get to scratch his pretzel itch when he heads to Dusseldorf for the next Invictus Games. Also on Thursday, a German newspaper reported that Meghan will make the trip with him and moderate a “very emotional farewell show for families and competitors”, with Harry closing the Games out with a speech.

What better way to make people forget things like the couple being called “f**king grifters” than the photo op of Meghan, on stage, doing capital-C caring for the cameras? (Look, I think the duchess really does care, but hey, what a boon that doing something that matters to her will also guarantee lots of bang-up, glowing, global coverage?)

The key to all of this is, of course, timing.

Curious indeed that Harry and Meghan’s play to jump-start their brand happened right at the very moment the entire royal family has taken themselves off the board, so to speak, as they head off on their annual, lengthy summer holiday.

For the next month to six weeks, the most you will see of Team Crown will be if some long-lens toting and very hardy sort decides to scale a particularly tall oak tree to try and get a shot of the King and his family rusticating with a vengeance.

That gives Harry and Meghan a clear run to reclaim the spotlight, confident that no HRHs could pop up and steal their thunder or their next People cover.

So viel Glück für die Sussexes. (Or good luck for the Sussexes if you, unlike Harry, have not been brushing up on your Duolingo German).

They have the will, the wardrobe and the camera crew needed to stage a Lazarus-worthy bit of bouncing back.

Who knows, those kids just might even pull it off.

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 ‘Everything is fine’: Hidden message in Harry and Meghan’s new video