What to Know
More than six years after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle walked away from their lives (and jobs) as senior royals, a new theory about why they chose to leave is getting people thinking again.
When royal expert Omid Scobie appeared on a podcast this week, he shared his belief that Meghan joining the royal family was a test that the monarchy failed pretty spectacularly, and maybe if they hadn’t, she and Harry would still be working royals.
Omid called Meghan marrying into the royal family the ‘ultimate test’ for the monarchy.
During his appearance on the Pop Syllabus podcast, Omid shared his take on what led to Harry and Meghan fleeing to the U.S. in early 2020 after spending some time off in Canada, and it all comes down to the way Meghan was being treated — and not being treated — by the royal family.
“The arrival of Meghan was like the ultimate test for the royal institution,” Omid said. “It was like, can it adapt to a multicultural or a diverse Britain and the Commonwealth in a way that it needs to? And it was its one and only chance. And we saw that in the actions that followed, it failed at that.”
Not a great thing, considering the fact that at this point, it seems like the monarchy needs to modernize or it’s not going to survive.
Speaking out only made things worse for her.
If Harry was hoping that the monarchy would come to Meghan’s defense when the tabloids started coming after her the way they never did for his mother, Princess Diana, before her death, he was likely very let down by them.
“Without opening her mouth, without even knowing anything about her personality, she was getting the British tabloid treatment, which is always going to be from that place of, if you are different, we’re going to treat you as such. And we’re going to lean on stereotypes,” Omid continued.
So Meghan tried to defend herself, but that backfired on her even more when it came to the public’s opinion of her.
“When it got to the point where she started speaking out, because she was already a woman of color in a hallowed, ancient, traditional institution, the fact that she spoke up and didn’t seem deferential to it or indebted to it for this golden opportunity made people angry,” he said.
Yeah, that seems to sum up what happened pretty well.
Omid also doesn’t believe there’s any hope for William and Harry in the future.
The royal expert touched on a few other topics during the podcast, including where he believes Prince Harry’s relationship with Prince William stands today. It sounds like Omid doesn’t have much hope for a reconciliation, and he even said that he believes the brothers have passed the point of no return.
In fact, according to Omid, Harry even tried to initiate a reconciliation a few years ago and Will wasn’t having it.
“It was Harry’s suggestion that they could have a conversation and it was on William’s side that there just wasn’t an interest there,” he said.
Harry and Charles seem to be (maybe) getting along again, so who knows? We could see him and Will buddying up in the future. It’s just going to have to be a really long time from now.
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