One thing really struck me about Prince Harry’s media blitz last week. Not so much the careless inaccuracies in his various accounts of events, from the Queen Mother’s death to memories of his first date with Meghan. Not even his irritation (verging on naked aggression) towards the handpicked handful of journalists recruited to help sell his story if any of them dared ask him anything remotely matching a search query.
No, the real question on my mind is: Where was Meghan?
I don’t mean in relation to the book – after all, her fingerprints are all over it. I mean physically, where is she?
We haven’t seen her skin or hair in days. Which is really most uncharacteristic.
The real question on my mind is: where was Meghan? Pictured: Meghan and Harry on their royal tour in Johannesburg, South Africa on October 2, 2019
Normally she never leaves Harry’s side. It’s usually practically surgically grafted onto him and hangs on him like an extra appendage.
Wherever he goes, she goes, he scowls at anyone who comes within ten feet of him, her with her fixed smile firmly in place.
It is most unlike Meghan to miss an opportunity to show the world her fabulousness. And finally, what better occasion than this, the publication of her beloved husband’s long-awaited, tell-it-all memoir, with all eyes on him?
You would have thought she would have been the center of attention with her couture outfits and sparkling jewels to hug his as he sat through various interviews. That she would gladly catch his eye, reassure him with an encouraging look, put a guiding hand on his back as she has done so many times in the past – in short, that she would stand by her man , while weathering the inevitable storm of criticism.
After all, he sat steadfastly by her side as she told the world her “truth,” whether it was recreating her first curtsey to the queen or holding back tears at the memory of yet another royal trauma.
“It is most unlike Meghan to miss an opportunity to show the world her fabulousness.” Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala, New York, December 6, 2022
He fooled around in the chicken coop while she shared her secret grief with Oprah, juggled obligingly at the window while she delivered another of her meaningful sermons to a grateful world.
One would have thought the least she could do was put on a little cashmere and show a little solidarity. But no. Not a whiff of the fragrant, not even a glimpse of those exquisitely well-turned ankles.
Of course, there may be a perfectly logical explanation. Maybe one of the babies is ailing and she’s too busy administering Calpol. Maybe she doesn’t feel good, in which case it’s only fair.
Who knows? One thing is for sure though, it’s not her style to avoid the limelight.
I really hope there is a good explanation as otherwise their absence is a bit concerning. Because it would be terrible, wouldn’t it, if Prince Harry, having left home, devastated his entire family, burned his bridges to the army and deserted the British public, found that he was no longer the center of their world?
When you think of all that he gave up for her, of all the personal sacrifices he made to make her happy, it would be an unthinkable tragedy to see this extraordinary bond between them crumble under the pressure of public exposure would solve.
And the truth is, that memoir didn’t have the desired impact. Yes, it sold a lot, yes, it made headlines around the world, but in terms of the Duke and Duchess’ poll numbers, it was an absolute disaster.
One would have thought the least she could do was put on a little cashmere and show a little solidarity. Pictured: Harry & Meghan Documentaries, Netflix
An overwhelming majority of the public now wants them stripped of their royal titles. They were roundly mocked on social media.
And according to a YouGov poll, the prince’s popularity has plummeted, with some sections of the population even ranking him below Prince Andrew.
And while 21 percent of Brits buy the line that Harry’s motivation for publishing the book is “to tell his side of the story”, almost twice as many (41 percent) think he’s in it just for the money.
This will be the real test for Harry and Meghan.
Relationships are easy when things are going well. Romance thrives in favorable conditions. The hard part is what happens when the going gets tough.
As much as I’m irritated by Prince Harry’s behavior, I don’t want him to get hurt. He has publicly proven his loyalty to her beyond a doubt. It would only be right if she did the same.
Oh, to be cool like Coolidge
I just love Jennifer Coolidge. She’s everything women her age – 61 – shouldn’t be, as we saw during her hilarious acceptance speech at the Golden Globes last week.
There’s so much pressure on us to age gracefully, stay slim, fill our wrinkles with mucus, live like saints…but she’s doing none of it. And the fact that she can thrive in Hollywood against a backdrop of hungry, tight-lipped actresses botoxed to the eyeballs gives me an odd kind of hope.
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but if I did, it would be this: be more Coolidge.
I just love Jennifer Coolidge. She’s everything women her age shouldn’t be. Pictured: Jennifer Coolidge with her award for Best Supporting Actress for The White Lotus, Beverly Hills, California, U.S. January 10, 2023
The strike will only affect poor students
The University and College Union has joined other neo-Marxist organizations such as the British Medical Association (whose vice chair of the council is Dr Emma Runswick, a supporter of China’s disastrous “zero Covid” policy) in announcing industrial action.
The university teachers are now going on strike for 18 days next month, which in February with only 28 days and including the weekends means basically the whole month off. Students who have already endured endless disruption over the past year due to Covid and additional strikes must continue to pay their tuition and housing fees, which for the vast majority of them means running into debt that will take years to pay off.
But of course the unions don’t care. They only care about causing as much damage to the government as possible – at the expense of the future of thousands of young people.
Keep the kids out of this, Harry
One of the aspects of Prince Harry’s revelations that I find most uncomfortable is his reference to the children of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Not only is it an appalling invasion of a child’s privacy to reveal that Charlotte burst into tears over those stupid, overpriced bridesmaid dresses (I still can’t believe she got Givenchy to design them – the most absurd waste of money) , he is also imposing on his niece and nephews exactly the kind of testing and pressure that he claims has led to so much of his own suffering.
Unforgivable.
Former Labor MP Simon Danczuk, 56, is shown frolicking in a pool with his new love, 28-year-old beauty therapist Claudine Uwamahoro. She claims he’s the “love of my life,” and he says he wishes they’d met sooner. Not too much sooner, one hopes, or else he’d be dating an embryo.
The Brit Awards, Britain’s pop Oscars, has ditched separate categories for men and women to become more ‘inclusive’. Nominated for the all-important Artist of the Year category are Central Cee (oddly enough, a “drill rapper” my kids went to school with in Kensington: a nice, polite kid I remember), Fred Again (a DJ ), George Ezra, Harry Styles and Stormzy. In other words, all men. Funny, isn’t it, how “inclusiveness” always seems to come at the expense of women these days.
Nominated for the all-important Artist of the Year category is Central Cee (oddly enough, a “drill rapper” my kids used to go to school with in Kensington: a nice, polite kid, I remember). Pictured: Central Cee at Alexandra Palace on November 22, 2022
Gary Lineker says MPs should be better paid to attract ‘brilliant minds’. I dare say that when you make as much as he does, a base salary of £84,144 must seem shockingly unreasonable. What a pity not all taxpayer-funded organizations are as generous as the BBC, are they?
I was amused to see the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a monogrammed doormat in a recent photo taken at home in Montecito of Prince Harry with a friend. The epitome of sophistication – or too cheesy for words? You decide.
Radio 2 in the afternoon used to be a gentle mix of dad jokes, musical nostalgia, and cheesy banter. Then they replaced Steve Wright with Scott Mills, and now it’s a nightmare of frenetic dance music and too much trying to be cool. In other words, indistinguishable from every other pesky radio station on the air.
Poor Lisa Marie Presley, dead at only 54. She was proof that money can’t buy happiness. But in 2020, she suffered a devastating blow when her son shot himself. I know she had substance abuse problems, but if you ask me, the cause of her death is simple: a broken heart.