By: JurmoloyaRava
MARKLE ‘VULNERABLE TO PALACE HANDLING’
A PRESCIENT article last week in a broadsheet newspaper asked: “Will Meghan be given oxygen to thrive? Or crushed for being an outsider?”
Alas, the early signs are not encouraging.
Readers were reminded what American actress Meghan Markle had said: “I’ve never wanted to be a lady who lunches – I’ve always wanted to be a woman who works.”
It was pointed out that her annual earnings, around £340,000, “will now plummet, given that she will no longer be able to work”.
Prince Harry’s communications secretary Jason Knauf (who accompanied William and Kate on their trip to India last year), also revealed that Meghan would give up all her old charities, become a British citizen and be baptised into the Church of England despite her Catholic schooling and “Jewish first wedding”. She will join the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Harry as its fourth patron.
Knauf said: “She has made the decision that she wants to start with a clean slate and focus on the UK, get to know this country, and travel around the Commonwealth.”
Was this really her decision?
It is known that Meghan was passionate about her work for the charity, World Vision, which took her to Delhi and Mumbai earlier this year. Afterwards she wrote at length on Time magazine’s website how schooling of girls India is disrupted when they have their period.
It seems the process of transforming Meghan from free-spirited woman into a British royal has already started. To some extent this is understandable, but it would be a pity if she is changed into something she is not. What harm would it have done had she been allowed to continue her work for World Vision?
After all, she is alone in this country with no friends or family or support structure other than the man she is marrying. She is clearly vulnerable to manipulation by Buckingham Palace officials who may mean well when they coach her in the dos and don’ts of being a member of the royal family. But the poor girl should be given space to breathe.
This was tactless but high-flying Indian divorce lawyer Ayesha Vardag suggested that for Harry and Meghan, “embracing a prenup would also be an important acknowledgment of the modernity of the royal family”.
That there has been so much interest in Meghan’s mixed race origins – she is the daughter of a white father and an African American mother – is natural. But in reality, it is no big deal. A significant proportion of the British population is already mixed race.
What is unfortunate is so much space is being given by some papers to Meghan’s one-time “best friends” who are dishing the dirt on her. One alleged Meghan was “very calculated” and “very strategic” in the way she cultivates people. Sooner or later, her first husband will probably be paid enough to do a kiss and tell. Some have also started comparing Meghan and Kate.
What would be charitable is a little restraint.
[TheChamp-Sharing]
