Changing the face of the Royal family?
Beautifully captured moment at the wedding reception, photo via Google/Netflix
The wedding, the highly anticipated union, is finally here! According to reports, there were an estimated 115.000 people packed in the streets leading to the chapel. There was a fleet of celebrities in their best attires. Every detail was accurately curated. One of my favorite moments was seeing the two Princes walk toward the Chapel, laughing and talking.
I loved learning that Prince Charles (now King) was very involved in the wedding, from walking Meghan down the aisle and helping put together the choir that sang at the ceremony to picking the orchestra that played the song Meghan walked down the aisle to.
My seventh take: "The symbolic importance of having a Gospel choir perform at a Royal wedding." this was how one of Meghan's friends and attendee recalls what that moment meant when the choir started to sing. According to him, he looked at Oprah Winfrey, and they smiled as they nodded in agreement, thinking of how important that moment in time was. All of this is to say that having a Gospel choir sing at a British royal wedding was such a historical precedent because it had never been done, and "they" were able to capture the significance of that. I am not sure how all of that was deduced from a gospel performance; the last time I checked, the British family is protestant Anglican, so what exactly is the big deal?
Moving on, Meghan reminisces about her first-ever royal engagement with the late Queen Elizabeth. There was nothing but admiration and kindness in her voice. She talked about how that time was special because she got to see another side of the Queen that the majority of us never see: a woman, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. I thought that was sweet.
The first anniversary of the Grenfell fire
We learn of Meghan's great help and contribution to food preparation and distribution in the aftermath of the disastrous Grenfell fire that happened in 2017, claiming the lives of a bunch of people. Then came Meghan and Prince Harry's first Royal tour as a family; it was a 16-day trip, they were to cover Australia, New Zealand and Fiji (all part of the Commonwealth). Meghan was pregnant, and she talked about how rigorous the tour was, having to do it whilst pregnant. Understandably so, but I couldn't help but wonder if that focus was placed there strategically to draw similarities to Princess Diana's struggles during her tours.
Following the success of the tour, Prince Harry comments, saying:
The issue is when someone who's marrying in, who should be a supporting act, is stealing the limelight or is doing the job better than the person who is born to do this, that upsets people, it shifts the balance
Prince Harry insinuates that the media's coverage of them shifted because Meghan was during flawlessly and that was a threat to the "institution" - again, footage of Princess Diana's infamous interview with Martin Bashir was shown, in what I think was a deliberate move to show that this wasn't a new occurrence and that the shift in media coverage from an overall positive coverage to a negative one was as a result of the institution's fear of Meghan's popularity.
Talk about taking charge of the narrative...
Nonetheless, it would be utterly wrong not to point out the hideous comparisons between Meghan and Catherine. It was vicious, in my opinion. There are headlines criticizing Meghan for how she chose to place her hand on her baby bump; it is just outrageous.
Side-by-side screenshots of the DailyMail subheading:
The saddest point in episode 4 was learning that Meghan contemplated suicide; it was incredibly painful to listen to. She went on and spoke about how she wanted to get help but was met with pushback from the Royal family, and the reason given by Prince Harry was that Meghan getting help would have reflected poorly on the "institution."
My eighth take: I couldn't believe what I was hearing?! If what Prince Harry shared in that episode is true, why in the world didn't anyone have a problem with it? I mean, it would be mind-boggling and unfathomable that one is refused help after they have repeatedly asked for it. This begs the question: was it all true?
The birth of their baby and their choice not to show him immediately to the public was also heavily criticized because it was unprecedented.
My ninth take: her experience as part of the Royal family is one only she knows completely and can share with the world as she sees fit. We, as the viewers, might never be able to fully grasp her struggles or difficulties adjusting to her new life. One thing I can say is that, so far, I have seen a desperate attempt on Meghan and Prince Harry's part to create a great divide. It is unbelievable to me that Meghan didn't know that her life would change coming into the Royal family or that security measures would be taken when it came to the lives of all Royal children.
The claim that racism was a defining factor is also one that I can't fully get behind. The reason is simple: if there were so many similarities between her and Princess Diana in how they were both treated by the media (as we are constantly reminded throughout the docuseries so far), how come Princess Diana's criticism is solely because of her popularity and individualism and Meghan's fuelled by race?
Two more episodes to go!
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