The late queen made history on numerous fronts: she was the first monarch in British history to have her coronation televised; the first monarch to abolish male primogeniture; and the first monarch who knew how to change a spark plug.
She was also the first Commander of the Armed Forces and Defender of the Faith to go out in public wearing lime green, electric purple and the hottest of pinks. (Though trying to imagine Queen Victoria meeting Benjamin Disraeli in a violent shade of orange is kind of fun, isn’t it?)
There was a method to the rainbow madness – it meant the petite monarch could easily be seen by the masses as she left Buckingham Palace for a busy day of greetings and pose-taking.
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Now it turns out that another female royal was making strategic decisions about her wardrobe while on the Palace watch, none other than Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Last week, the first volume of her and her husband Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex’s Netflix series (sigh) landed, a testament to a couple’s preoccupation with themselves.
At one point, Meghan says: “Most of the time I was in the UK, I rarely wore color. I had thought about that. In my opinion, you can never wear the same color as Her Majesty, if there’s an event But you should also never wear the same color as one of the other older members of the family.
“So I said, ‘Well, what’s a color they’ll probably never wear?’ Camel? Beige? White? So I wore a lot of muted tones, but it was also so I could match.”
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A quick search through any photo library will provide plenty of evidence of her countless chic designer looks with a neutral palette, a fact that, to the shame of royal obsessives everywhere, nobody quite noticed at the time.
However, this is where we get to the inconvenient truth part of things; the part where I try to find new ways to say “but”.
Yes, Meghan chose plenty of colorless ensembles during her 20 months as a working duchess, but there were also plenty of occasions when she fully embraced color.
Take the bright yellow Brandon Maxwell dress the Duchess wore to a Commonwealth youth event or the red coat and purple dress she wore to an outing in early 2019 or the other purple dress she wore at the opening ceremony of that year’s One Young World Summit in London or the green dress. the embellished coat and dress she chose for Commonwealth Day that year.
The deja vu here is almost as overwhelming as the fragrance Fergie is probably working on in a spare room at Royal Lodge to sell on the home shopping network.
When the Duke and Duchess sat down with Oprah Winfrey last year (for what now seems like a blissfully short two hours) they made a number of scathing accusations about their time as HRHs, mostly of an institutional nature . racism and personal suffering.
However, they also managed to include quite a few anecdotes that later turned out not to be exactly the facts, such as Meghan’s claim that they were married three days before their multimillion-dollar wedding in Windsor, or her claim that after of signing the royal life, “that was the last time, until we got here, that I saw my passport”.
Given that only the sovereign can travel without a passport, how did the Duchess get to Amsterdam, New York, Ibiza and the French Riviera for private outings? (There were also official trips to Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific and Morocco).
Still, here we are again. In the exact same situation. With the Sussexes appearing on TV screens to make a number of claims while in London, royal sources say: “Umm wait guys.”
Take Meghan saying that “there is no class and one person saying ‘sit like this, cross your legs like this, use this hairpin, don’t do that, bow, wear this type of hat’, it doesn’t happen… I never see photos or videos of a walk, [I was] like, what’s a ride?”
That is, according to a “well-placed royal source” he has spoken to the times a “total lie”.
“There was preparation for everything, walks, even though she was engaged to someone who had done hundreds of them, clothes, everything. The level of support was intense,” the source said.
The same report also said that at the time Meghan was busy learning this The Princess Diaries It wasn’t a documentary, Harry’s then private secretary and Prince William’s brother Ed Lane Fox, known as “Elf”, produced “a 30-point, painstakingly researched dossier full of information and contacts for to the life he was taking” which includes a list of “experts[s] who could help Meghan.”
He did the first dresses Did the star set off to learn all she could about the arcana of palace life? She didn’t, according to him timewho reports that he only later met with the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Christopher Geidt [now Lord Geidt]the late Queen’s private secretary, and with a “very well-connected and trustworthy fashionable person”.
Then there was the Sussexes’ engagement interview in 2017, which Meghan described to the Netflix cameras as an “orchestrated reality show” and said it was “rehearsed”.
The BBC’s Mishal Hussein, who conducted the interview, commented: “We know memories can vary on this particular subject, but my recollection is definitely very much, I asked to do an interview and I did this interview.”
A source said she was “involved” with that beloved TV sit-down The Sunday TimesRoyal editor Roya Nikkhah that “every word in that interview was what they meant. She controlled every micro-detail of how their engagement went publicly.”
Then there was Ashleigh Hale. Hale, an immigration lawyer, is the niece of the Duchess of Sussex and the daughter of her half-sister Samantha Markle.
Meghan said in the third episode that “the guidance at the time was that she wasn’t coming to our wedding” because the “very small communications team” “couldn’t get around it”. And I have compassion for it. How do we explain that this step-sister is not invited to the wedding, but the step-sister’s daughter is?
“I was in the car with H. I had her on speakerphone and we talked to her about what guidance we were being given and why this assessment was done and … And this is painful.”
“That didn’t happen,” a source said of the duchess’ allegations. “We never gave any advice, guidance or direction about who in her family or friends should or shouldn’t come to her wedding.
In the same way, sources have explained The sun, that “the press team was desperate for Meghan to have more family and friends at the wedding” and a source said the former blogger’s accusation was “a total lie. Meghan said she didn’t want [Ashleigh] exposed to the media”.
There’s a bigger question here, which is, if this pattern continues, will there come a time when the Duke and Duchess’s credibility really suffers?
They seem hungry to be seen as statesmen, a sort of “they’ve got the UN Secretary-General’s number, they’ll travel” dynamic duo with a self-styled global mission. However, what if they continue to face accusations of “total” lies and “complete” lies?
If his reliability continues to be challenged after the second of this week Harry and Meghan output, could it compromise or affect your brand in the future?
There is also the question of whether the show will make evasive maneuvers around controversial Sussex issues. Will the show address allegations that Meghan “harassed” Palace staff (which the Duchess has always denied)? Will he face head-on the hypocrisy of the Duke who takes up the cause of climate change and then takes four private flights in 11 days? (The couple still frequently use private jets.)
And will director Liz Garbus (in episodes four through six) include anything resembling a dissenting or opposing viewpoint, given that the first volume only featured those who embraced the Sussex Gospel?
“The truth shall set you free,” or so says the Bible, a book full of fantastical stories and made-up stuff. What will be the consequences for Harry and Meghan to share their truth with the world?
Just to really descend into bad cliché territory, stay tuned.
Daniela Elser is a royal writer and commentator with over 15 years’ experience working with various Australian media titles.
Read related topics: Meghan Markle Prince Harry