Of the monarchy’s role, Bagehot famously cautioned, “Above all things our royalty is to be reverenced, and if you begin to poke about it you cannot reverence it. When there is a select committee on the Queen, the charm of royalty will be gone. Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic.”
Whatever magic is left in the House of Windsor today, after “The Crown,” may not survive Sunday night’s airing of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.
Meghan told Winfrey that the royal family, aka “The Firm,” was “perpetuating falsehoods” against her. Her words evoked memories of the tension between Buckingham Palace and Princess Diana in the 1990s.
Peggy Drexler wrote, “It’s easy to feel bad for Harry, who grew up in the spotlight, and for Meghan, who many would say both pursued that attention and fought it.” For all his privileges, “since he was small, Harry’s life was one of being followed, trailed. He was young when his mother, Princess Diana, was pursued to her death by paparazzi, but old enough to remember.”
Harry is sixth in line to the British throne and thus unlikely to ever have a constitutional role in the United Kingdom’s government. But the fascination with his family’s story lands him and…
