Hidden message in Meghan Markle’s speech uncovered

Meghan shared an impassioned video as part of her and Prince Harry’s latest charity project, but her words might raise eyebrows back in the UK.

Of all the megabucks deals which Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have inked over the 15 months since their hasty dash from palace life, there might be one lucrative commercial opportunity they have overlooked: Bench spokespeople.

In July last year the couple bought a $20 million compound in the exclusive enclave of Montecito and have repeatedly used one particular bench in their garden as a backdrop for some of their more headline-grabbing public outings.

There was the moment in October last year Harry and Meghan sat side-by-side on The Bench and recorded a video for the Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020 event which was widely viewed as the couple wading precipitously into political waters, the biggest royal no-no of all. Then there was the time in December the duchess sat on The Bench for a surprise appearance as part of the CNN Heroes special to pay tribute to the unsung heroes of the pandemic.

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Meghan Markle seated on The Bench for her appearance during Vax Live.

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(It was fitting that when, last week, it was announced that Meghan had authored her first book, a children’s title, it turned out she had called, you guessed it, The Bench.)

Overnight, The Bench made another high profile appearance, co-starring in the video which Meghan had recorded for the Vax Live charity concert, a star-studded outing of which she and Harry were co-chairs. Wearing a poppy print dress from designer Carolina Herrera, the duchess told viewers “the road ahead is getting brighter, but it’s going to take every one of us to find our way forward” while perched on their most famous piece of garden furniture.

Leaving aside the incongruity of someone talking about economic hardship (“Since the pandemic began, nearly 5.5 million women have lost work in the US, and 47 million more women around the world are expected to slip into extreme poverty,” Meghan said) while wearing a $2151 frock, the 39-year-old ended her video by reflecting on the fact that she and Harry will welcome the arrival of their second child, a little girl, very soon.

“When we think of her, we think of all the young women and girls around the globe who must be given the ability and the support to lead us forward,” Meghan told viewers.

That of course is a lovely, heartwarming sentiment which any right-minded person would wholly throw their weight behind.

It also happens the particular wording here could be interpreted as something of a veiled criticism of the palace.

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Harry and Meghan during their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey. Picture: CBS

Of the many charges which Harry and Meghan have levelled against the royal family and the courtiers and underlings who run the regal shop (well, at least who do the mundane day-to-day work which keeps the monarchical show on the road) one of the most persistent has been that Meghan was left to essentially sink or swim, allegedly unaided during her 20-month stint as an HRH by palace denizens.

During the couple’s explosive TV interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, Meghan offered up a number of examples of her being left vulnerable and denied the heft and help of the palace machine when she needed it most.

On the growing chorus of negative press coverage she started to receive in 2019, Meghan told Oprah that she had naively told friends, “Don’t worry. I’m being protected” and that later “I came to understand that not only was I not being protected, but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family, but they weren’t willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband.”

At another point during the two-hour interview, Meghan said “My regret is believing them when they said I would be protected.”

Then there was the far more horrifying charge that when she suffered suicidal thoughts and struggled horribly with her mental health during her pregnancy in 2019, that palace staffers rebuffed her desperate pleas for help.

“I remember this conversation like it was yesterday, because they said, ‘My heart goes out to you, because I see how bad it is, but there’s nothing we can do to protect you.’”

Days after the Oprah interview aired, sparking a global uproar, palace staffers hit back, with the Daily Mail’s royal editor Emily Andrews reporting that “Palace staff watched Harry and Meghan’s interview in horror as they claimed she was left completely unsupported” and that “there is genuine hurt that the couple have perpetuated the image that Meghan was cut adrift and left to fend for herself.”

Andrews reported that, according to royal sources, “the duchess was given a string of the Queen’s most senior staff as ‘mentors’ after the couple became engaged, as well as being allowed to hand-pick her own 15-strong team of loyal and talented private office staff.”

So, was Meghan supported or not supported? That is the question.

Given this particularly loaded situation, it would make perfect sense if, even now, that lack of assistance and succour is still something of a serious sore point for Meghan.

Of all the things we know about the mum-to-be, one certainty is that she is a seriously hard worker. Heck, she set up and launched a charitable fashion line and guest edited an issue of British Vogue while on maternity leave. A slacker she most definitely is not.

But, while no man is an island, no woman, no matter how much of a go-getting dynamo, can do everything single-handed.

In passionately urging that young women “must be given the ability and the support to lead us forward” it sounds a lot like Meghan is calling for girls worldwide to be given the precious commodity she was reportedly denied by the stiff backed, hidebound palace.

With the clock counting down towards the arrival of Baby Sussex, this might be one of the last times we see the duchess in public for a while. In the meantime, if any bench manufacturers out there are looking for an A-list spokesperson or two, there is a couple in Montecito who would be perfect for you …

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.