Not for the first time, it was Jeremy Clarkson’s fault. The weekend news, which began with a forensic dissection of the fallout from the six unrelenting hours of the Netflix series Harry and Meghan, was soon dominated by Clarkson’s extraordinary column in the Sun, in which he wrote of the Duchess of Sussex:
‘I hate her. Not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level.’
He went on to suggest that: ‘At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, “Shame!” and throw lumps of excrement at her.’
The tone of Harry and Meghan was so unremittingly one-sided
Whatever the truth about Clarkson’s feelings towards Meghan Markle – those who read his columns for sober, informed judgement are likely to be disappointed – it had the no doubt inadvertent effect of directing public sympathy back towards her.
As with the contretemps between Ngozi Fulani and Susan Hussey, it has played beautifully into the hands of the Sussexes, seemingly proving their point about the way they are treated by the media.
Harry and Meghan’s Netflix show has been met with stony-faced silence from the Royals. But the couple are seeking something: a ‘sit down with the royal family’ and a possible apology, if reports in the Sunday Times are to be believed. During the course of such a ‘reconciliation meeting’, the King, Prince William and others should, it seems, offer a suitably grovelling expression of regret for all of the wrongs done to Harry and Meghan over the past few years. This was hinted at in the series, when the Duke stated that:
‘I’ve had to make peace with the fact we’re probably never going to get genuine accountability or an apology’.
In California therapy-speak, only the spectacle of his family queuing up to flagellate themselves for their wrongs is going to bring him and his wife ‘closure’.
There are, of course, several problems with this. The first is that it is widely believed the publication of Harry’s eagerly awaited – in some quarters, at least – memoir Spare is likely to make matters considerably worse. Its apparently forensic account of the wrongs visited upon the Duke and his wife could end up being considerably more damning than any of the claims raised in public before. There is a persistent rumour that its most vitriolic assault is reserved for Camilla, who has been spared any public criticism beforehand. And it has been suggested that Harry and Meghan might be barred from the Coronation if this is the case: an insuperable obstacle to any idea of reconciliation, now or forever.
But the other difficulty is that the tone of Harry and Meghan was so unremittingly one-sided, without any hint that the Duke and Duchess might have brought anything on themselves, that it has left no door open for a summit. If they had acknowledged, just once, that their actions were not always faultless, there might have been the opportunity for a meeting of minds. On balance, indeed, such a summit might have been the best thing for the future of the Royal Family. But this request – in view of what has happened over the last fortnight – seems so outrageously provocative that it will simply lead to another ‘snub’. Such a rejection will then, of course, stoke more grievances. This show will go on and on and on – and newspaper columns and off-the-record briefings will merely add fuel to the flames.
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