Harry & Meghan are putting private pleasure ahead of public service – they’re exploiting their titles, say experts
PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle are ”rogue royals” who are exploiting their titles, an expert has claimed.
Despite having left the UK and stepping down from official royal duties in 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, want to capitalise on their royal links.
Sharing his thoughts with The Sun‘s Matt Wilkinson on the final episode of the Royal Exclusive show of the year, royal biographer Andrew Lownie said: ”If they were sensible, they would know where the boundaries lie.”
Reflecting on the past year, which saw the US-based couple organise a ”faux royal tour” in Colombia and Meghan now sitting 17th in a royal popularity poll behind Prince Edward, Andrew said: ”You don’t hear these scandals about some of the old members of the Royal family.
”It’s what I call the ‘rogue royals’ – it’s Harry and Meghan, Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
”One of the tropes of the Crown somewhere is the division between the public service and private pleasure – and here, I’m afraid, people are putting private pleasure and profit ahead of their public service.”
This comes after Royal Correspondent at GB News Cameron Walker analysed the couple’s Christmas card this year and pointed out to an ”odd” feature that proves the Sussexes don’t really care.
The card – which included a rare new image of their kids Archie, five, and Lilibet, three – was a collage of photos from their year.
In the family snap, the young kids could be seen running towards Meghan, 42, and Harry’s, 40, outstretched arms in a garden.
In total, six images are featured with the forest green card, sent by email, which has the message: “On behalf of the office of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Archewell Productions and Archewell Foundation, we wish you a very happy holiday season and a joyful New Year.”
One picture shows Meghan embracing a young girl while in another Harry puts his arm around his wife.
Another photo shows the couple laughing while sitting in a row of people, the fifth is at an outdoor event with the Sussexes wearing sunglasses and smiling, and in the final image the duke clasps hands with a man lying in a bed.
He told The Sun: ”The first thing I noticed were the words on the top, which was ‘On behalf of the office of the Duke ad the Duchess of Sussex […]’ – which was very odd phrasing to me.
”It didn’t seem very personable, it didn’t seem like it was from Harry and Meghan themselves,” noted Cameron.
”It sounds to me that maybe somebody in their office thought that it was a good idea to send a Christmas card.
”I can see what they were trying to do – the six photographs were almost kind of like a review of the year.
”There was one from their Nigeria visit, there was one from their Colombia visit, one of Meghan hugging children, one of Harry hugging somebody in a hospital bed as well, and one which perhaps has been talked about the most – the two of them with their two children from behind.
How do Meghan Markle and Prince Harry celebrate Christmas?
ONE royal tradition that Prince Harry has taken into his new California life is opening presents on Christmas Eve.
The royal wrote in Spare about his 2020 celebrations: “It was Christmas Eve. We FaceTimed with several friends, including a few in Britain.
“We watched Archie running around the tree. And we opened presents. Keeping to the Windsor family tradition.”
Harry also opened up about how they chose their Christmas tree.
He wrote: “We took Archie to find a Christmas tree.
“A pop-up lot in Santa Barbara. We bought one of the biggest spruces they had.
“We brought home, set it up in the living room. Magnificent.
“We stood back, admiring, counting our blessings. New home. Healthy boy.”
In an interview with Marie Claire, Meghan shared that Archie and Lilibet leave out “carrots for the reindeer”.
The couple are likely to spend the festive period with Meghan’s mum, Doria Ragland.
”That emphasises that they aren’t doing things perhaps in complete Royal Family way – because unlike William and Catherine‘s children we see them in regular intervals each year, whereas last official photograph of Lilibet, for example, was on her first birthday in 2022.”
Although some may feel that the Sussexes, who didn’t feature their kids on last year’s card, have given up following the royal protocol, Cameron suspects the couple follow the advice their PR team recommends.
”They have said to them ‘You need to keep some kind of royal link- because that is what gives you importance’.
”Because otherwise, what have you got? You’ve just got somebody doing a cookery show or having a lifestyle brand like everybody else has in Hollywood.”
Sussex Netflix show
This follows the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s polo series airing on Netflix.
Harry and Meghan are executive producers of the five-episode series which is shot primarily at the US Open Polo Championship in Wellington, Florida.
But journalist and author Phil Dampier said he wasn’t sure their new show would appeal to a massive audience.
He told The Sun: “Polo is a very niche sport. It’s very much a sport for very wealthy people.
“The average person can’t afford a polo mallet or stick let alone a horse or a horse box.”