Kate and William’s little Louis stole the show during the Jubilee, but behind his crossings is a double standard.
It is a little known fact that the queen loves when things go pear-shaped. We’re not talking about the Harry-And-Meghan-Buggering-Off calamity levels or, say, the kind of disaster it would be if it turned out that Prince Andrew had been using all his free time to actually get into QAnon. No, what Her Majesty (and Prince Philip in his day too) really loves is when the best plans of the courtiers go to hell.
Prince William himself has said of his grandparents’ unusual fantasy: “They love it because obviously it always has to go well, but when things go wrong around them, they are the first to laugh.”
Which is practical because Her Majesty’s appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after Trooping the Color last week was completely staged by the theatrical journeys of her great-grandson, Prince Louis, instantly worthy of memes. If the helpers had waited a while in August, then the four-year-old boy’s monkey was firmly in favor of it.
British newspapers and the public, however, had a field day in front of the juxtaposition of the queen, often bitter-looking, and the naughty little SAR.
Then, on Sunday afternoon, the extended royal family gathered to watch the Platinum Pageant, an extravagance of 5,000 participants with taxpayer money and national spirit. William and Kate’s three sons, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, were there, including Louis’s older brothers, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
Once again, it was Louis’ headache that unequivocally stole the show.
He stuck out his tongue, he had what looked like a rage, at one point he put his hand in his mother’s mouth when he seemed to be telling her to behave, he yawned spectacularly, he looked like a small cloud of thunder and sat on his grandfather Charles. ‘turn.
Most commentators in the British press and social media applauded Kate’s calm approach to her rebellious son who, I think we can say for sure, seems a bit of a handful. Fatherhood, even for future kings and queens, is an eternally difficult business.
But what kind of reaction could we have seen if we talked about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex here, and her son Archie?
Last week, Louis’ cousin Archie Mountbatten-Windsor returned to the UK for the first time since 2019, along with his parents, Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and his little sister Lilibet.
For the Sussex, their British departure was a jealous and degrading affair.
His condition of personae-not-particularly-pleasing was confirmed when the Daily Mail ‘s Rebecca English reported that “they were not invited” to the private luncheon at Buckingham Palace hosted by the Queen after Trooping the Color.
Then came the service of thanksgiving to His Majesty in St. Paul. Although the last time Harry and Meghan attended a royal church service, specifically for Commonwealth Day in March 2020, they came in with the Cambridges and occupied the main seats.
This time they were publicly relegated to B-list status, nestled in the middle of the great lower Windsors clutch that make up the Queen’s extended family and then forced to wait 20 minutes for HRH headlines to arrive. (The Sussex were also booed by the outside crowd.)
So let’s do some experimentation here. Consider one of Louis’ angry photos and replace it with Archie and Kate with Meghan. Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Earl Dresses star who seemed completely relaxed by his brazen (and age-appropriate) nonsense.
You don’t have to be a committed real observer to know that the reaction would have been a world apart.
Meghan would have been crucified for her lax fatherhood with lots of sharp copies writing her delicate, Californian parenting style. Where is the discipline? Where is the respect for the Crown? Can’t control your own child ?! What a shame!
That Kate is given an affectionate pass at certain times when Meghan is never, ever new.
In fact, there is a small internet industry when it comes to counting all the cases where Kate has done or said something that looks with a beatific lens and then when Meghan has said / eaten / carried / touched / or has done exactly the same. has been relentlessly reprimanded.
Although Meghan has faced cases of racist coverage from the beginning, I think the answer to why can be found elsewhere.
It hurts my feminist core, but I think that to understand this double standard you have to understand that Kate has somehow survived almost two decades of an excoriating trial by the media.
Year after year, she was a sticky upstart with a social climbing mom or a lazy party with less substance than canapés that haven’t been eaten at a Chelsea cocktail party. When William left her briefly in 2007, it was because she was supposedly too possessive, with a gimlet eye already redecorating Kensington Palace.
Then there were the years of shy work in which he usually lacked something as worrying as ambition, while patiently waiting for his royal boyfriend to be his finger and continue with the proposal.
Even when he finally got Diana, the sapphire and diamond engagement ring from the Princess of Wales in his left hand, things weren’t kinder because he was suddenly too thin, a story that clearly came papers.
Joining the official ranks of the royalty hardly repressed the heart of carpings, because then came the years of the Fleet Street columnists going to town when it came to how many vacations she and William and her family took. continued reluctance to submit to royal duties. (Only in 2017 did they become full-time working RHS).
Somehow, Kate took it all, occasionally good and very, very bad and came out on the other side of it all after she had resisted the constant slingshots and arrows, a test that had to have the psychological skin of a rhino or a good therapist. or a weekly delivery of Waitrose gin. (Or all three.)
As a sort of mythical hero, the Duchess of Cambridge completed the Herculean work of resistance imposed on her and emerged as a sacred cow in the British public consciousness and in the media.
And Meghan? Well, he even refused to go out on the field to play this particular game.
All the women who have been married in the Windsor house for the past 40 years have been further mutilated by the press, interspersed with occasional periods of adoration, a punch from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
For whatever reason, royal women are expected to endure this long test of their courage, commitment, and masochism for years until they reach a kind of promised land where they are routinely kept on the brink of holiness.
It is a brutal initiation and no frontline person has married a member of the Queen’s family who has been spared this hazing.
I really think that if Harry and Meghan had remained silent and faced the waves of criticism they attracted in 2019 (for private jet flights, the $ 4 million renovation of Frogmore Cottage and their Kardashian-worthy baby party in New York, among other controversies) would have followed exactly the same trajectory.
I think in time we would have seen him go from being Meghan The 5 am-Sending-Sending-Interloper to Meghan the Savior. Her work ethic, soul, and out-of-the-box approach would have gone from being considered a clumsy American to being framed as what the antediluvian palace needed!
I don’t agree for a second on any of this nor do I think it would have been anything less than a grueling and horrible experience to pass up.
But none of this was a secret or a close private acquaintance that Meghan could not have learned when she started dating a nasty British guy in 2016.
When the Sussex sat down with Oprah Winfrey for her infamous corrosive interview last year, she admitted that she had not done any research on what it would mean to marry the royal family.
Even Oprah, whose questions were so softball that they were the journalistic equivalent of cotton, seemed to get stuck at this point, asking the Los Angeles native three times about the fact that she went without make no preparation. It’s strange then that Meghan admitted, “I didn’t quite understand what the job was.”
If only he had talked to Kate or Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall or Sophie, Countess of Wessex, or even made Sarah, Duchess of Ferguson, briefly leave Instagram for a second to prepare her for treatment. at the hands of some elements of the press he was not going to be kind or fair.
Explain to her that the standard to which she was to be subjected would be totally different from that which would be subject to Kate, simply because her sister-in-law had years of royal tenure under her command. belt and Meghan no.
The day after the Jubilee, Cambridges’ official Instagram account posted a series of backstage photos of the family, ending with the title “We all had an amazing time, especially Louis,” which was very nice. .
Thanks to the decisions made by their respective parents, Louis has a life of appearances on the balcony of the Palace in front of him and Archie may never. I’m really not sure which kid had the best deal.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and writer with over 15 years of experience working with several of Australia’s leading media titles.
Read related topics: Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle