America, the land of the free, the home of the brave, and the mega-bucks media contract, greeted the Sussexes as they left the horrors of royal life in 2020.
In that iconic interview with a fawning Oprah Winfrey, the public and press eagerly devoured every single bit of the couple’s horrific narrative of bigotry and rejection. Shock and empathy were evoked by how cruelly the British Press treated them.
They quickly rose to the status of Duke and Duchess “across the water,” creating their own modern court, mixing with Hollywood celebrities and the super-rich, cultivating their own brand of philanthropy, and exploiting their royal titles in order to close multimillion-dollar business deals. To most Americans, this was respectable, if not admirable.
However, just two years later, there are alarming indications that America could be becoming weary of it all.
Worrying for the Sussexes, who must continue to capitalise on public curiosity in order to support their opulent lifestyle in Montecito, which was partially exposed in the Duchess’ most recent interview with New York fashion website The Cut.
Could it be that Americans are realising that the Sussexes may not be much more than a never-ending source of resentment about how they were treated in the UK?
The New York Post’s top page had the title “Toddler and Tiara: Spoiled princess Meghan STILL complaining about royal family,” as The Mail reported yesterday, marking Meghan’s most recent media appearance.
More crucially, the legendary Washington Post counselled her that ‘to flourish in the media, [she] ought to leave royal tragedies behind’. And according to a U.S. TV insider, “some of the sparkle” has faded.
That interview with The Cut may end up being a turning point in the Sussexes’ relations with the United States.
It was very revealing—and not only because of Meghan’s wild and oftentimes comical headline-grabbing remarks, including the startling assertion that her joining the Royal Family had sparked as much excitement throughout the world as Nelson Mandela’s release.
Even more unexpectedly, she was given a rather bad interview.
A major factor in the Sussex camp’s decision to give its journalist an audience was undoubtedly the fact that The Cut is a part of New York Magazine, which is about as woke as you can get in the mainstream U.S. media.
However, it was difficult to ignore the undertone of disdain in the 6,400-word article by African-American feature writer Allison P. Davis.
At the couple’s £11.2 million estate, Meghan welcomes her with “the ideal degree of warmth,” and the author is stunned by the affluent, beautifully elegant if “marshmallowy” splendour.
A Soho House candle is lit by “an unseen hand” amid the grandness of a couple who renounced the life of royalty but work from two luxurious club chairs positioned “facing into the room like thrones” behind a single desk.
Davis chronicles every comment made throughout the conversation, no matter how absurd, while subtly suggesting that Meghan is far more cunning and self-absorbed than she would have us think.
Davis claims that the Duchess “occasionally converses like she has a miniature Bachelor producer in her head, dictating what she says” in reference to the corny and cliched American dating reality TV series The Bachelor.
She recalls how Meghan, at one point, advises how her interviewer “could copy the sounds she’s making” rather than responding to a question. (In a guttural voice, btw.)
Later, Davis writes arrogantly, “the Bachelor producer in her brain deliberates how much should be spoken” in answer to a query about why she believes the Royal Family treated the couple differently than other members of the family.
She replies, “I don’t know,” with a knowing look into the distance.
On another occasion, the Duchess makes a dramatic, clandestine announcement that she is preparing to return to the social media platform Instagram (though she later backtracked).
According to Davis, Meghan “looks around, making sure nobody (who would be?) is listening in.”
When Meghan reveals to her that she and Harry originally couldn’t afford their new house, she responds in a similarly sarcastic manner, finding the discovery to be “utterly humiliating.”
Even if the interview scarcely resembles a Jeremy Paxman interview, the Sussexes should have been on guard. A year ago, such mocking of the former Meghan Markle in the American media would have been unthinkable.
They can’t expect us to doff the hat indefinitely, as a veteran member of the American news media told the Mail yesterday: “It had you wondering whether [they] can still count on any of us to fight their battle without just a touch of balance.”
And this interview’s subtly sarcastic tone undoubtedly had an impact on its audience. The elite of liberal New York ripped on the Duchess in online comments, branding the Sussexes as utterly’self-obsessed’ and stupid, while others simply said, “Who cares?”
The same delicate economics that have enabled the pair to live in a “palace in a better environment,” as Davis puts it, will be called into question if Americans do lose all interest in the marriage.
According to reports, the pair could only afford their property after they struck two significant media deals: one with Spotify for $25 million to create podcasts, and another with Netflix for $100 million to produce movies, documentaries, and TV series.
They must pay for a lifestyle that includes private guards and private planes in addition to the cost of the residence. However, both agreements rely on the Sussexes creating “content,” which they have so far mostly failed to do.
The fact that both agreements were reached in 2020, when the media firms were much stronger than they are today, adds to the demand for outcomes.
Some business professionals have questioned if the pair is having trouble coming up with interesting things to discuss outside their breakup with the Royal Family.
The Duchess’ passion project, Pearl, an animated children’s series on Netflix, was unexpectedly cancelled in May.
The announcement allegedly “sent off a fire alarm at Archewell,” the Sussexes’ production firm, according to the entertainment industry website theankler.com.
An source from Archewell informed the outlet that “Harry and Meghan called an all-hands meeting.” They had serious concerns about how this would seem.
Ted [Sarandos, the co-chief executive of Netflix] was someone Meghan wanted to speak with.
According to sources, the company’s lacklustre performance is partially down to a “lack of urgency” from a pair with so many other interests (Harry’s polo and their charitable work), as well as the Duchess’s apparent wavering.
According to a person who has talked with Archewell about its content strategy, “she’s frightened of making a choice because she’s so worried about her image, and therefore they can’t pull the trigger on anything.” She wants to be seen as a global leader, but they lack compelling ideas.
Netflix says there are upcoming Archewell projects, but won’t disclose more.
The couple’s second major potential cash cow, Harry’s memoirs with its alleged bombshell disclosures, is also shrouded in doubt and is now being postponed until next year.
Will it ever be revealed, and if it does, will it only be another iteration of their traumatic lives as members of the Royal Family?
Even the fiercely progressive Washington Post, once one of the Sussexes’ staunchest defenders in the American media, lost patience this week after a conversation with singer Mariah Carey for Meghan’s new Spotify podcast, Archetypes, turned into an opportunity for the Duchess to complain that she’d never been treated as a “black woman” until she started dating Prince Harry.
The newspaper’s editorial noted that the couple’s entitled lifestyle made them unfit to lecture others.
According to a Post writer, “the more the couple speak about what they endured in England, the more it appears that’s all Americans want to hear from them.”
The Sussexes must stop making themselves the focus of the narrative if they want to create a really new life and make a greater influence on the things they care about.
In fact, a survey conducted by the Economist/YouGov in March 2021 indicated that the Sussexes’ popularity had already decreased from the previous year, signalling the dwindling support for the couple and their monochromatic story.
Only 33% of respondents had a “very or very unfavourable” opinion of Meghan, compared to 48% who had a “favourable or somewhat favourable” opinion of her.
Another YouGov survey from May of this year revealed that her approval rating among Americans had further declined: 46% now had a “very or somewhat unfavourable” opinion of her, an increase of 13 points.
Only a quarter of Americans said they were “very or moderately interested” in reading Harry’s memoirs, according to a separate study conducted last month. Even while there is still a little more excitement here than in the UK (14%), the difference is rather small.
It’s interesting to see that the pair doesn’t have to search very far to find opponents for their transatlantic love. We are more likely to do anything on William and Kate now, a U.S. TV source allegedly remarked this week.
Two significant visits are scheduled, and the Cambridges just hired Lee Thompson, a new PR director who formerly worked for American media giant NBC.
Prince William will go to New York later this month for a meeting for the Earthshot Prize, his first trip to the United States in eight years. In December, he will travel to the United States and give it to the victors in Boston.
The presence of Kate, who is very well-liked in the United States, is still up in the air.
If she does, Meghan will undoubtedly respond with more news-grabbing behaviour. However, it may not be sufficient this time to keep the Duchess of Cambridge out of the public eye.