"Royal Pain" OR "Whazzup With Harry & Meghan"

As an avid watcher of BBC programming (Doctor Who, naturally, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the occasional nature documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough) as well as someone who watches The Crown on Netflix, it might be assumed ye olde blogger may have a few thoughts on the dramatic brouhaha unfolding across the pond with the royal family in England. 

Well, no. Not really.

On the subject of The Crown, I watch it in my role as a loving and supportive husband to my wife Andrea who watches the show. She watches the show because Matt Smith was on it as Prince Phillip. But then Prince Phillip got zapped by a Cyberman or a Dalek or some damn thing and regenerated into Tobias Menzies. In fact the whole cast regenerated into older actors which confused Clara Oswald a lot until Madam Vastra set her straight and I realize that I am conflating Doctor Who and The Crown and I should shut up now.

Regards to the Crown in real life, the kerfuffle as I understand it, is that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle don’t want to be full time working members of the royal family. They want to move to Canada to do their own thing.

Prince Charles is, I’m sure, stunned to hear this is an option.

Going back to The Crown for a moment, Andrea and I are up to the episode where a young Charles is seeking to woo a young Camilla Shand. Nothing would make him happier than to have Camilla by his side if and when he should have to step up and be the King.

Spoiler alert but that doesn’t quite work out the way he wanted it to.

As we learned from the drama that surrounded the marriage and the subsequent dissolution of that marriage of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, the spectacle and pageantry of royal life does not erase the hurts and the disappointments that abound within castle walls. 

Likewise, we should not have expected the celebrity-studded fairy-tale wedding of Harry and Meghan on the grounds of Windsor Castle 2 years ago would necessarily lead to a fairy-tale happily ever after life. Certainly not under the spotlight and the microscope attendant with life in the royal family. 

Meghan particularly, American and bi-racial, was under intense scrutiny in her royal role and frequent criticism for any perceived missteps she made.

Harry undoubtedly felt an added level of pressure to protect his wife from such persistent and cruel scrutiny. After all his mother is over 20 years dead as a result of a bludgeoning and persistent press that wouldn’t leave her alone for one damned minute. 

There is also the matter of what the hell does Harry and Meghan get out of being scrutinized and criticized in the media. Harry is, I think, 6^th in line to be the King of England. A lot of people would have die and in the right order for Harry to be King. The upshot for Harry is there really is nothing to be gained for him or his wife to taking pot shots from a hostile media to be ready to take a job he’ll likely never get or maybe even doesn’t want. 

So Harry and Meghan announced that they would step back from the designated roles in the royal family and would seek to pursue their own financial independence. 

Apparently, the Queen was not in the loop on that decision. 

Going back to The Crown for a moment, a frequently recurring bone of contention for Queen Elizabeth II is not getting the heads up on important developments in the government or in her family. She hates reading in the newspaper stuff she should have known about before she sat down at the breakfast nook for her morning nosh. As the Queen herself might express it, “I say but it is quite important for me to know when shit is going down.” 

OK, she wouldn’t phrase it exactly like that. But it’s fun to imagine a petulant Queen Elizabeth II saying the word “shit”.

Or imagine this turn of a phrase: “I say but it is quite important for me to what the holy fuck is going on.” 

<giggle>

So the family had a get together. And the Queen gave a directive of “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”

No, she didn’t.  (At least, not out loud.) 

The Queen gave a reluctant blessing Monday to Prince Harry and Meghan's decision to "live a more independent life" in both Canada and the U.K., but she said she "would have preferred" that they remain "full-time working Members of the Royal Family."

"My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family. Harry and Meghan have made clear that they do not want to be reliant on public funds in their new lives. It has therefore been agreed that there will be a period of transition in which the Sussexes will spend time in Canada and the U.K."

The details of how the young couple will forge a new life separate from the royal family still have to be worked out, the queen added.

"These are complex matters for my family to resolve, and there is some more work to be done, but I have asked for final decisions to be reached in the coming days," the queen said.

Translation: “Get this shit the fuck over with already!”  

At any rate,  if you’re wondering if I have any insights into this royal family in England? 

Well, no. I don’t.