Meghan Markle, lighten up. You’re not the new Princess Diana and it’s time you and Prince Harry ended this phoney media war
Sun snapper Arthur has some words of advice for the Duchess and how she can start to truly win Brit hearts
GEORGE CLOONEY really should stick to flogging fancy coffee – and stop preaching about his friend Meghan Markle terribly difficult life.
The A-list actor claims the Duchess of Sussex is being “pursued, vilified and chased” in the same way that Princess Diana was, and, like a character from one of his TV melodramas, he warns: “We’ve seen how that ends.
I spent 17 years photographing Diana and we shared a great working relationship.
But that was very different. The truth is that Meghan is not remotely being hunted by photographers and enjoys extraordinary freedoms.
The paparazzi do not stalk her like they did the Princess of Wales — although they were often tipped off about where Diana would be.
Snappers were told when she was going for lunch with a friend, dressed up to the nines, or out for a night on the town in a sizzling frock. She had her favourite writers and her favoured photographers.
But the only paparazzi pictures ever to have been published of Meghan were taken when the story first broke that she was romantically linked with Harry.
This was a genuine news story. But because their media minders at Kensington Palace refused to issue an official photo of the couple together, they had created a market for one, and every paparazzo was desperate to get the first photo of them together.
Since then, in all her public engagements, she has been closely monitored by the Palace Press team. Even her wedding pictures were so tightly controlled that just one Press agency was allowed to photograph the marriage service inside St George’s Chapel in Windsor last May.
As a result, Meghan can quite happily live as a semi-private citizen in her palace.
She comes and goes when and where she wants, with no photographers following her.
We know precious little about the life she and Harry lead in London or at their luxury bolthole in Oxfordshire.
Yes, she likes Soho Farmhouse and she writes on bananas — but that’s about it.
Like everyone in the public eye, she is trolled on social media. Palace aides supposedly “spend hours” deleting hateful comments — but why bother? Why not simply ignore it? Their PR advisers hope to bypass the traditional media by controlling the photographs and stories they release.
Meghan deleted her own social media accounts when she and Harry became engaged. Perhaps the Royal Family should do the same. Instagram does not equal real life.
When The Sun accurately reports about Meghan in fairly harmless stories, their frankly second-rate PR people set lawyers on us.
Yet the biggest invasion of her privacy was triggered by Meghan herself, after she gave consent to friends to talk to People magazine in America last week about the awful relationship she has with her dad.
Although there have been stories about the “difficult Duchess” and the fall-out with Kate, most of her problems stem from back home in the USA.
Meghan’s father Thomas Markle, her half-sister Samantha — who Meghan says she barely knows — and her cannabis-grower half-brother Thomas Jr, have only ever said disparaging things about the Duchess.
I suspect that Meghan knew the letter she sent to her dad last August would be published and she used it to make sure the world knew she was disgusted with the lies being told by her family.
Meanwhile, in his bid to “protect” his wife, Prince Harry — once the Press photographers’ favourite among the royals — has gone from hero to zero in his relationship with the media.
I have asked twice for Meghan to meet Britain’s royal correspondents but so far it has not happened. If she did, I am sure her profile would improve.
Despite being surrounded by great wealth and privilege, the young royals seem to have been seduced by the cult of victimhood.
Harry talked about his anxiety and stress and Meghan is a victim of “global bullying” — whatever that means.
Meghan really needs to lighten up. So does Harry.
The pair of them should look across the road at Harry’s father, the Prince of Wales, and his lovely wife Camilla, who has had more hostile Press coverage than any other member of the Royal Family, including Diana.
But they just worked harder and harder to win people over, and Camilla’s approval rating is now sky high and she will certainly be our Queen.
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Every job I have been on with Meghan she has been the star of the show. She engages brilliantly with people and is a true royal star.
My main hope is that this phoney war with the media — that they started and which has now been intensified by their friend Clooney — comes to an end before the Press loses interest.
Newspapers and websites could, after all, simply stop covering Harry and Megan’s engagements, which I’m not sure would please either of them.
So stick to acting, George, because there is no part for you in this royal soap opera.