“Attention seekers.” “They’ve over egged it.” We’ve heard it all before.
At some point recently, this soap opera crossed over from a compelling, salacious storyline to sad, pathetic and uncomfortable. And now it’s unclear how the continued beating up and hounding of the Sussex couple serves any further purpose.
Harry and Meghan have for years been easy targets for the media. Having run away from the very fame they courted and carefully cultivated, they are being portrayed as public enemy number one. All at a time Vladimir Putin is giving orders to steal children, rape Ukrainian women, lock up his adversaries and bomb the homes of millions of families.
In Britain, the average person has an underlying loyalty and respect towards the Crown and the royal family. Some openly patriotic, many just quietly. Most over the age of 50 think little of the royal absconders who now live in California.
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Since quitting royal duties in 2021 they’ve been called many things by many people. Some, if not most, has been deserving. Their behaviour and motives have at times been questionable and, occasionally, simply dishonest. But along way they’ve exposed some nasty home truths about us.
So, what, now, is the point of the continued hate? Who is it serving, and what is it achieving?
In the past few weeks Harry has used the British courts to expose a history of some fairly abysmal behaviour from the media. Not all of his claims have been accurate, but undoubtedly, many have been. There remain some very uncomfortable facts to confront in the way both he and his wife have been treated.
So, where are we headed? Does it need to take us back to those scenes in a Paris tunnel for us, collectively, to adjust our perspectives? Will it take a deranged person to attack them on the street like slain British MP Jo Cox or Beatle John Lennon?
New York City Mayor Eric Adams walked the tightrope of healthy scepticism and compassion. Adams condemned what happened as “a bit reckless and irresponsible”.
“It’s clear that the press, the paparazzi, they want to get the right shot,” he said. “But public safety must always be at the forefront.”
But then he addressed what we were all thinking when we first saw the headline, and it is something which should make us pause for thought.
“I don’t think there’s many of us who don’t recall how his mum died,” Adams said, “and it would be horrific to lose an innocent bystander during a chase like this and for something to have happened to them as well.”
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The demonisation of Harry and Meghan needs to end before it goes too far. Hating them no longer serves a purpose. Hounding them even less so.
If nothing else those two young Sussex children deserve the chance to have the love and affection of a parent as they grow old.
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