The Sunday Times Magazine • 23Harry have a great connection to the young
and could be successful ambassadors for
‘the new Commonwealth’. Meghan can
speak to the need for diversity in a way no
one else in the royal family can.”
Harry may soon need to return to rain,
rugby and warm beer before he goes
completely la-la in La-La land, Brown says.
“The last comment I heard him make was
bizarro. He said, ‘America is much more
open about mental health issues than
England.’ That’s true and a good thing. But
he went on to say, ‘You talk about it here in
California, I’ll get my therapist to call your
therapist.’ I’ve lived in America since I was- As editor of Vanity Fair, I met the most
“out there” celebrities and I’ve never heard
anybody say anything so out of touch
with reality and plain silly as that. Patient
confidentiality means it could not possibly
happen, even if someone actually thought
it would be a good idea. He’s extremely
emotional, vulnerable and reckless.”
Most commentators say Harry’s decision
to follow up the excoriating interview with
Oprah Winfrey last year with, later this year,
an “intimate and heartfelt” memoir, will
make any return to royal duty impossible.
Brown agrees: “I’ve heard it is going to be
tough on the royal family.” She recommends
the Palace “takes steps to persuade him
to abandon the book. Somebody needs to
go to Harry and try saying, ‘We’re going to
give you a cheque for whatever fee you’ve
negotiated for the book and, in return, we
ask that you don’t do it.’ ” Harry’s advance
is rumoured to be $20 million. The Palace
could add a sweetener that, if he decides
not to “tell his truth”, it will pay for the
police protection his family lost when they
moved to the US and which they still crave.
Harry and Meghan might be tempted to
return to the royal fold because their new
media careers could turn out to be less
successful than they hoped. “The decision
to bank all on entertainment deals is
hazardous,” Brown warns. “You can be as
boring as you like if you’re in the royal family.
You’re still going to have status and top the
bill. But if you’re in entertainment, you
need hit after hit and there is a limit to how
many even the biggest stars can generate.
If you’re someone whose last movie was a
flop, it’s amazing how fast you can fall.”
She leaves unsaid the other big problem:
Meghan’s most bankable role appears to be
slagging off the snooty royals but she doesn’t
have an endless supply of revelations, and
several she has voiced so far have turned
out to be flaky. “Unlike Harry with Invictus,
Meghan has not really developed a post-
royal ‘brand’ yet. She’s all over the place with
assorted causes from vaccines to mentoring
— all worthwhile but not original, unifying
or focused. She’s struggling for relevance.
There’s been a dimming of the halo.”
Netflix recently cancelled the
development of Pearl, an animated seriescreated by Meghan that would
have chronicled the adventures
of a 12-year-old girl who is
inspired by influential women
from history. The streaming giant
continues to work with Archewell
Productions, the company formed by
Harry and Meghan, on a documentary
about the Invictus Games, “but
documentaries are never that big in terms
of the money they bring in”, Brown says. If
the documentary does not generate serious
cash, will Netflix, under extreme financial
pressure as subscribers desert in droves,
renew its contract with the couple, which
is estimated to be worth $100 million?
A return of the prodigal son and
daughter-in-law is a tantalising prospect for
those who think Megxit was a self-inflicted
disaster on all sides. But even if Harry does
ditch his book, hasn’t too much bad blood
flowed already for a reconciliation with, in
particular, Charles, William and Catherine?
Father and brother were deeply upset by
the Oprah interview — notably by the
explosive claims that it was Catherine who
made Meghan cry, not the other way around
as was reported, and hints that an unnamed
senior royal inquired what colour their then
unborn son Archie’s skin would be.
“The biggest sadness for Charles is
‘losing’ Harry. Charles was actually muchcloser to Harry than William. He used to
call him ‘dear old Harry’. He’s very hurt and
puzzled by what Harry has done and said,”
Brown says. The pictures of William and
Harry at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral
last year confirmed they can scarcely look
at each other, far less talk. “William thinks
Harry has lost the plot. The major issue
between them is trust. I actually think
that after Oprah there could have been
reconciliation — privately, gradually. But
the trouble is, Harry keeps lobbing bombs.
It’s an open wound.”
Brown acknowledges that her royal
makeover is so bold it is likely to make some
Palace officials reach for the gin. Crucial to
its success will be advisers who keep a cool
head. Tony Blair managed to rebrand
Labour and win three consecutive general
elections because he had a great frontbenchteam — Gordon Brown, Peter
Mandelson, Jack Straw, David
Blunkett — and wily image-makers
behind the scenes, notably his
press chief, Alastair Campbell.
King Charles is going to have to
deploy “a diverse brain trust of fresh
thinkers who do the big, visionary,
entrepreneurial thinking.” Who should he
turn to? “Historians like David Olusoga and
Simon Schama, as well as image-makers
and very clever speechwriters. People who
understand a diverse 21st-century Britain
and how a modern monarchy should look
and sound.” The biggest risk is “doing
nothing, sticking to business as usual and
hoping that by ‘keeping buggering on’
everything will be all right.”
And if Charles bottles it? “The royal
family could face its Kodak moment, its
BlackBerry moment, its Nokia moment,
its Blockbuster moment. Choose any big
company or institution that carried on
doing things in the way it always had,
ignoring huge changes in the world around
it because it could not bring itself to bet
the farm. Until, one day, at the speed of
light, it’s irrelevant.” nThe Palace Papers: Inside the House of
Windsor — the Truth and the Turmoil by
GETTY IMAGES, REX Tina Brown is published by Century at £20
“MEGHAN HAS NOT DEVELOPED A POST-ROYAL
‘BRAND’. SHE’S STRUGGLING FOR RELEVANCE.
THERE’S BEEN A DIMMING OF THE HALO”
From left: William and Catherine’s
Caribbean tour in March was a PR disaster;
Harry’s Invictus Games has been a triumph