Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: What you missed
Body language expert Dr Louise Mahler has studied the latest batch of Harry & Meghan episodes and explains why Harry is “jealous” of William and Meghan’s strange lack of emotion.
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Dr Louise Mahler, expert in body language, voice and confidence, has given her own insight into the final three episodes of Harry & Meghan. From Prince Harry’s unease around the infamous Oprah Winfrey interview to his jealousy of brother, Prince William, and his obsession with turning wife Meghan Markle into Princess Diana to the Duchess of Sussex’s surprising lack of emotion and her need to get her own version of the “truth” out into the world, Dr Mahler points out all those little things that gives us a deeper look into what’s really going on behind the scenes of the world’s biggest soap opera.
EPISODE FOUR: THE VICTIMS
“This episode felt like the world’s the world’s longest exit interview. It was excruciating to watch as both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle take absolutely no responsibility for their part in this drama and the spiral that led them to exit the royal family. They’re both genuinely convinced they are victims of a great wrong,” Dr Mahler says.
“Ultimately, they’re not special, as anyone dealing with organisational culture knows the scene: over and over in corporate life one hears stories of conflict that have escalated because of an initial incident (or set of incidents) that would have been solvable at the time but have been handled poorly and …. boom … it explodes into a narrative of victimhood.
“In this case, it was post-Australia and Meghan and Prince Harry were feeling poorly, Meghan was pregnant and they felt that their issues were ignored or treated badly by Charles and Prince William.
“Prince Harry began to project his problems with the media onto the royal family while morphing Meghan into Diana – despite her being a very different person,” Dr Mahler explains.
“Diana was alone amid a broken relationship; she showed emotion, she cried in the car, she bowed her head, she was distraught. Meghan, on the other hand, even surprised herself at her total lack of emotion on the biggest day of her life – her wedding.
“Harry belittles himself and shows his insecurities and childish competitiveness with his brother throughout the episode with phrases like ‘look what I got’ when referencing Meghan walking down the aisle, which of course makes the narrative runs wild.
“We see their various complaints – their accommodation wasn’t up to scratch, Meghan lost her father through all this, no one can see how caring she is – after all she took care of her grandmother for so many years and helped feed the victims of the Grenville fire in London – it’s not her fault that the media are splashing her across the front pages.
“This is the victim episode – they did nothing wrong, the family became jealous that Meghan was being a ‘royal’ better than a born to be ‘royal’, she was too popular and had to be taken down – just like Princess Diana. It is a narrative they have created between each other and their loathing for the family (with the exception of the Queen) and those who work for them is obvious – Prince Harry’s relationship with his father and brother has been completely broken, he feels betrayed, they have failed him and his wife.
“Throughout, Meghan is completely lacking in emotion. There’s no expression and a constant sense of Meghan performing, attempting to make the right face at the right time. Her expressions come and go smoothly, as if on-cue and exactly as it shook be in each scenario. This is all congruent with the behaviour of a psychopath, but Meghan’s intentions do not appear necessarily evil.”
EPISODE FIVE: HARRY’S INFERIORITY COMPLEX OVER WILLIAM
“King Charles reportedly once told his sons, ‘You can’t take on the media.’
“Prince Harry’s naivety around this, on the other hand, is astounding. His complete conviction that he could control the media is told to us with a strong and steady voice of surety, that sounds simply unrealistic and bewildering,” says Dr Mahler.
“As Harry speaks of ‘option five’ to leave the family altogether at the infamous ‘Sandringham summit’, his breathing falters. His hand goes to his head with a fist and he rubs his temple in repressed aggression.
“‘It was terrifying,’ he tells us and strokes his leg with reassurance that surely the Queen sitting quietly meant she was not on board with this ultimatum.
“‘It was really hard,’ Prince Harry tells us, biting his lip and explaining how he was bullied by his brother. He knows how explosive that statement will be and unconsciously he’s sorry he has said it.
“His jealousy of Prince William’s birthright and heritage comes to the fore and his accusation of bullying sounds like a small boy complaining to mum about unfair toy distribution. Just like complaints to mum, it is unlikely to stick with the public,” Dr Mahler says.
“It is then that he begins to entangle the royal Family with the media. They become one in his mind and as he breaks the news of their estrangement to Meghan, telling us she burst into floods of tears, which we do not experience. In fact, her emotion in retelling the story herself and ‘trying so hard’ fails to manifest the emotion she attempts.
“As we move onto talk of death threats, this is the first time we hear and feel emotion from Meghan. She was genuinely frightened for her life and would have felt let down by Prince Harry, who had failed her in his negotiations.
“The story of episode five is clear for all to see, Meghan is not the problem, Harry is.”
EPISODE SIX: NO WINNERS IN SAD SOAP OPERA
“This is the victory episode, as our heroes ride off into the sunset, victorious against those who had tried to break them. Yet one is left flat and, ultimately, it comes across as more sad than a victory - there are no winners on this tale,” explains Dr Mahler.
“There is a regressive anger in Harry and he shows clear signs of the stress that he and Meghan have been through. He is furious with his family. When he says it was not a year of transition, ‘just a beating,’ he has a dramatic physical response, choking, coughing and closing his eyes in a response to serious pain as though he had been physically lashed.
“In reliving the upheaval over what happened in the UK, Harry swallows, gulps and looks down a lot. He is a man in pain.”
“Following this stress, we start to see that Harry has been helped by his time in America. He begins to say - with total confidence - phrases like, ‘if you speak truth to power, that’s how they respond’, a phrase that one may say is Harry speaking ‘Meghanese’.
“Talking about their infamous Oprah interview, an awkward Harry gulps as a sure giveaway to his stress of the entire experience,” Dr Mahler says.
“As they watched the Oprah interview together, you almost gain a sense of a normal couple sharing a moment together, until you realise, they are being filmed in this incredibly intimate moment with the dog and blankets over their knees and kissing and stretching.
“And then the following morning talking with her mother the same intimacy repeats. Its intimate, but awkward as you think ‘why are we there?’”
“The response to a legal issue shows a tired Meghan, yet she’s still fairly controlled in her emotions. Never do we see her spontaneous or caught out with emotion. She is as always, ever the professional in front of the camera.
“As the hero’s journey ends, it is all happiness and light, laughter, friends, children, the beach, green grass and Meghan’s pregnancy, yet we know it is not real - these are people are so staged for the camera, it’s hard to catch them out, but we do.
“Meghan shares her word for the year 2022 which is ‘truth’. But she tells us truth has brought no ‘peace’.
“Perhaps the reason for that is that their truth is only their truth. Perhaps a better word for 2023 for Harry and Meghan would be ‘silence’ as right now, the world has heard enough of their story.”
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Originally published as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: What you missed
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