You can blame the Obamas for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s ill-fated adventures in America. There they were, Barack and Michelle, with eight-figure book deals and a lucrative spin on the global keynote circuit after Donald Trump’s triumph in 2016.
Barely two years later, Mrs. Obama was filling major arenas on a rockstar-styled promo tour for her White House-memoir Becoming. I remember sitting up high at the Barclays Center in New York in 2018, when Sarah Jessica Parker interviewed Mrs. Obama with awkward sycophancy, clearly dazzled by the former First Lady’s sheer presence. Obama’s candor and intellect, no matter how commodified to maximize book sales, stood as a sharp contrast to the icy aloofness of her replacement, Melania Trump.
Brutally weaponizing identity politics was a high point in Meghan’s canon of manipulative volleys
I left the event a Michelle Obama believer and can easily assume Meghan Markle imagined similar stardust was destined to fall on her after the Sussexes’ abrupt departure from Britain in 2020. Same with Prince Harry, who likely eagerly-eyed Barack Obama’s ascent as the moral center-point of the global plutocracy; establishment enough to demand entry to any corridor of power, but still the avatar of America’s unresolved racial chaos.
In the case of Harry and Meghan, the Duke brought the millennia of access and privilege; she an Obama-esque backstory that immediately felt meaningful for the identity-obsessed elite. They made an excellent package: the Sussexes were good-looking, message-focused and accessible enough to keep crowds coming back for more.
The problem for the couple is that the crowds never came. To make matters worse, Covid and lockdown kiboshed their bid to “make it” in the United States. Suddenly, with the global conference circuit shut down and “public events” broadcast via Zoom, all of the couples’ USPs became meaningless. It’s hard to manufacture #warmth through a computer screen. Nearly impossible to transmit #relatability via webcam. The duo, still working to establish their foundational relevance – and cement reasons for the world to actually care about them – was cut off from the audiences on which they had staked their futures.
And so, once set up in Montecito splendor, they pivoted inelegantly from classy exiles to trashy tabloid fodder. The tell-all book, sit-down with Oprah, and look-at-me streaming deals all had the feel of cash-grabby desperation. But it was, admittedly, a desperate time – the world ill and sequestered – celebrities navigating a new normal that demanded they invent reasons for the press and public to admire them. And Harry and Meghan’s brand of celebrity demanded oversized spectacles to match its thousand-year pedigree.
Their Oprah Winfrey interview (broadcast in March 2021) most cunningly demonstrated the extent to which they were prepared to grab the spotlight by any means necessary. Who can forget Oprah’s shock at learning that a senior member of the Royal Family apparently expressed concern at the possible skin tone of the Sussexes’ future children?
Never forget, there is no greater embodiment of evil among the woke overclasses than a racist royal. Meghan knew this would be a cut of globally deep proportions and it played out masterfully. Brutally weaponizing identity politics – while deftly melding it with her mental health woes – was a high point in Meghan’s canon of manipulative volleys.
Who could argue with her hurt and horror, the specter of a Prince of England forever relegated to second-class status because of his skin color? Actually, I could argue with Markle, who like me is mixed caucasian and African-American.
When she first arrived alongside Harry’s arm, Markle had been a breath of fresh air. In a nation where so many biracial people opt to only identify with one side – see: Barack Obama – Markle had always been out and proud with claiming both. In a 2016 essay for Elle magazine, she stridently asserted her dual black and caucasian identities; I applauded with each paragraph.
Which is why the subsequent claims of Royal racism felt so hollow. I cannot claim to speak for Markle, but I, too, have been surrounded by racial curiosity my entire life. And I’ve been equally curious myself. My strongest curiosity focused on the color of my children before they were born. Indeed, while awaiting the births of my sons, I obsessively poured over images of the one-quarter black offspring of Hollywood celebrities. Trust me, there are more than you might think.
I wondered with my mother and former-spouse about the skin tone of my future sons, not out of concern, but curiosity. And I suspect that Meghan and her mum and Harry’s family probably did the exact same thing. It’s just human nature.
Could it be possible that the unnamed Royal’s queries were actually more akin to visualizing the unknown than vilifying a potential one-quarter black sheep? I think so, and I bet that Meghan, deep down, probably knew so. But such human practicality doesn’t make for good television, and so Markle spun the affair into a web of ill-intent which can never be undone.
They pivoted inelegantly from classy exiles to trashy tabloid fodder
This was the moment the Sussexes shifted from waywardly sympathetic to simply, well, pathetic. After all, never before had race and the House of Windsor so unseemly co-mingled. But playing the race game has serious repercussions; which is why it’s best avoided by amateurs like Markle.
We all know what has happened since the Oprah get-together: More books, lifestyle shows, brands and products showcasing the unquenched spectacle-seeking of a family clearly struggling to find itself.
Now it seems the Sussexes never did. The most saddening part of this whole story is the sheer waste of it all. Two other paths would have been far more sensible for the Sussexes to have considered. The first, hunker down in California and quietly wait out the pandemic like the rest of us. Then, once the masks were gone and the vaccines working, pick up where you left off. A royal reveal complete with a pair of Windsor tykes to burnish the family’s shiny wholesomeness.
Meghan could have served as a pillar of progress in Britain
Meghan and Harry did not do this.
Nor did they do what could have been not merely impactful, but truly historical: Remaining in Britain and doing their part to modernize a monarchy they were uniquely suited to update. Rather than speak about anti-racism and equality from the safety of virtue-affirming America, Meghan could have served as a pillar of progress in Britain.
Simply showing up each time to represent the Windsors would have been an act of radical visibility. And then, in 2024, when both King Charles and Princess Kate retreated from public life to combat cancer, Meghan could have stood center stage, holding the royal court together: a biracial American the improbable glue binding the most exclusive good-genes club ever imagined. That would have been real power; think how she might have wielded it.
Sadly, we will never know what might have been. And so Meghan and Harry return to Britain in yet another manufactured swirl of importance. The press will certainly ogle them after arrival, they’ll continue to be of curiosity. But many will no longer concern themselves with the Sussexes in England. What a waste.
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