Why Diana would be disappointed in Meghan and Kate

Diana was the people’s princess — and Meghan’s latest “stunt” would have her rolling in her grave.

Oh, what damage can be done with a Sharpie.

In the space of moments last week, a meticulously orchestrated trip to Bristol for newlyweds and vegan paint lovers, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, went off the rails with the former actress deciding to go off script.

It happened when she and Hazza, AKA the Ginger Charmer and newly converted yoga devotee, were visiting One25, a charity that supports sex workers.

“Oh, actually do you have a Sharpie marker? I have an idea,” the knocked-up royal told a charity worker. “I saw this project this woman had started somewhere in the States on a school lunch program. On each of the bananas she wrote an affirmation to make the kids feel really, like, empowered. It was the most incredible idea — this small gesture.”

(Side note: I love that all the journos covering this have kept the ‘like’ in there. Kinda shady.)

While Harry stood in the background with his arms crossed, the first woman to both star on Deal or No Deal AND spend a night on the royal train ploughed on, writing “You’re loved,” “You’re strong”, and “You’re brave” on the fruit.

Meghan’s motivational bananas. Picture: Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP

Some critics viewed this moment as revelatory — Meghan at her best — showing just how natural, caring and delightfully human she is, as opposed to all those stuffy Brits.

Other commentators have been quick to point out her off-piste move smacked of being carefully calculated to grab headlines, which it did.

I’d argue the whole incident revealed just how far Meghan — and Kate too for that matter — has fallen short of Princess Diana’s legacy. The Princess of Wales knew a thing or two about using her position for more than frivolous stunts.

Let’s rewind, shall we.

In 1987, the AIDS epidemic was at its peak in the Western world. There was incredible stigma attached to the disease and many people still believed you could contract the virus by touch. When the Princess of Wales was invited to visit the UK’s first AIDS ward, she not only turned up but shook hands with nine HIV-infected men. The move instantly made global headlines and nearly immediately helped shatter the myth you could get the illness via physical contact.

Diana talks to an HIV-positive man with AIDS. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Carlos SANTANA

It was a profound and unquestionably powerful move. It was a stunning use of her platform to substantively change conversations about a highly taboo issue and to help those who were in a vulnerable position.

That is far from the only example. Diana visited leprosy sufferers in India, Nepal and Zimbabwe throughout her royal career (she was also patron of The Leprosy Society) and played games with kids, touched sufferers, and shook hands with those affected, again adroitly using her position to create real change.

Perhaps her most famous example was the fight against landmines she took up in the months before her death in 1997. During a visit to Angola that year she literally put her life on the line by walking through a recently cleared landmine field (there was no way of knowing if they had missed any).

Diana walks on a literal minefield in Huambo, Angola. Picture: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Diana’s humanity translated into a deep-seated hunger to actually do something substantive about the issues she cared about, not just to turn up, accept a posy from a nervous child and have media breathlessly report on what shoes she was wearing.

Neither Kate or Meghan have come anywhere near doing justice to her legacy. Both have opted to support decidedly uncontroversial charities and diseases, each of their official visits being dominated by coverage of whatever $3000 dress they had picked out of their vast Kensington Palace wardrobes that particular morning.

Both of these women have global platforms unlike pretty much any other person on the planet (even Oprah and Michelle Obama don’t have quite the same reach), yet both of the Duchesses have totally failed to use that incredible power to really help people, sway public opinion or challenge conventions in any way at all.

Meghan has chosen inoffensive charities to support. Picture: TREVOR ADAMS / MATRIXPICTURES.CO.UK

Kate has never been one to stick her head above the parapet. Picture: Ian Rutherford — WPA Pool/Getty Images

Just how would the women who received those bananas have reacted? Women who daily put themselves in extreme danger often because of drug addictions and mental health issues, not to mention being judged, abused, and generally denigrated by society?

Women in such dire circumstances need some combination of counselling, financial support, medical treatment, drug rehab, legal services and vocational education.

They don’t need the sort of motivational quotes some two-bit Instagram “influencer” posts on top of an image of a sunset.

The fact Meghan thought this superficial, off-the-cuff move might actually help these women betrays just how far she falls short of her late mother-in-law’s example.

Diana made a real and striking difference in the world. Picture: Tim Graham/Getty Images

If Diana had wanted to help sex workers, she would have arranged a visit, sat down with them, had tea and then corralled a bunch of her billionaire friends to put money into the cause.

She would have found out what these women really needed to turn their lives around and then worked out how to use her particular sort of fame to achieve that.

And, if Diana was alive today, the sorts of causes she would be supporting would be things like trans rights, the opioid epidemic, and the global refugee crisis — and she would know that fruit and Sharpie love hearts are not the way to actually help.