Since last week, I have taken to watching the American legal drama television series, Suits, on Netflix again in my free time.
Yes, you guessed correctly; it’s all about Meghan Markle.
It’s time to meet this woman all over again, and what easier and cheaper means than to insert oneself into the offices of Pearson and Hardman and enjoy her daily struggles as she as Rachel Zane and co-star, Mike Ross, navigate the landmine of office romance even as highly dedicated and focused professionals.
After all, art does imitate life.
Meghan, the all-powerful 38-year-old woman of African American heritage, a divorcee, whom the enemies have weaponised to disrupt the over 400-year-old British monarchy in such an interesting and unexpected fashion.
Indeed, whether or not we truly appreciate it, all the rantings against this woman have made her out as one of the most powerful women of our time.
But is she really?
Is Meghan truly capable of rattling the British monarchy and even the rest of the world as much as many of us have given her credit for in the last couple of weeks?
I don’t think so.
Yes, we know all about the power of love. Also, history is rife with how men have given up all sorts for their subjects of affection.
Meghan or no Meghan, it was only a matter of time before Prince Harry showed up
Even Prince Harry has an example in his own family.
Queen Elizabeth II, might not have been the all-powerful head of the British Royal Family today, if Prince Harry’s grand uncle, Edward VIII had not abdicated.
In Edward’s case, it also had to do with an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson (these Americans sef) and how marrying a woman with two living ex-husbands was untenable for a British monarch who was also supposed to be the head of the Church.
While it might be easier but a tad too simplistic to put the recent events all down to ‘what men do love’, doing so gives Meghan Markle too much credit and Prince Harry, too little.
But who’s thinking of that in the usual haste to blame the wife whenever a man chooses to suddenly begin to dance to strange beats?
Hardly, anyone. Rather In small or great things, once there is an outcome we don’t find desirable, the tendency to lay all the blame on the supposed stranger in the family, usually sends our sense of reasoning and fairness into coma whereas just a bit of unbiased prodding would have revealed that the horses had left the stable long before the stable hand resumed his duties.
For instance, in the case of Edward VIII, history has it that before Wallis Simpson became an issue he, as a king, ‘showed impatience with court protocol, and caused concern among politicians by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions.’
All on his own.
However, almost every narrative one reads now has it that his intended marriage to Wallis caused a constitutional crisis which led to his abdication.
But did he truly want to be king?
Yes, he might have desired and enjoyed the comfort that comes with the office but did he truly want the throne and all it represented?
I guess we will now never find out. After all, the American socialite divorcee, Wallis Simpson, and his ‘intended marriage’ to her already took the fall for that mega royal disruption more than 80 years ago.
So, today, here we are again, like the proverbial chicken that would leave the knife that cut its neck and rather give the pot attitude.
Harry is the sixth in line to the British throne and it would be easier for the Supreme Court to return Emeka Ihedioha to Owerri as governor than it would be for Harry to become king.
But I digress.
It’s always been a complicated and difficult life and the little we have seen of Harry even from afar, right from when he was still a preschooler in Princess Diana’s arms, he isn’t made for that life
However, you only need to read the history of different royal families all over the world and the political intrigues that usually almost consumes even the most insignificant member to understand that theirs hasn’t always been a simple life.
You don’t need to be the king or queen to get your head on the chopping block. Just being born into royalty is enough.
The British monarchy isn’t any better. In fact, it’s worse because the British press, which unfortunately has replaced the hangman of the old, is forever sniffing for blood.
It’s always been a complicated and difficult life and the little we have seen of Harry even from afar, right from when he was still a preschooler in Princess Diana’s arms, he isn’t made for that life.
Add that to his own mother’s extremely difficult life as a royal and her eventual death and you already have the complete recipe for this disruption.
The queen knows this too. But it’s the British monarchy we are talking about here and denial is their middle name.
Meghan or no Meghan, it was only a matter of time before Prince Harry showed up.
However, the royal family being what it’s always been, they find it easier and perhaps, politically correct, to blame Meghan than to deal with a Prince probably still deeply troubled by his mother’s tragic and totally avoidable death.
