From junior royals to Disney royalty — the Sussexes have chosen celebrity

National Post, 17 January 2020

Harry and Meghan had a choice to make: Remain junior royals subject to the Queen or become senior celebrities in control of their own events.

The Queen is now busily sorting out the latest Windsor family clash between duty and indulgence. She has had a lot of practice, starting with her uncle Edward VIII and working down the generations to her sister, Princess Margaret, her sons Charles and Andrew, and now on to her grandson Harry, Duke of Sussex.

Some things change — the Duke of Windsor crossed the Channel to France; the Sussexes have gone transatlantic for Canada — and some things remain the same. How much latitude to allow the Windsors or Sussexes to cash in on what is now called the royal brand?

Pity the late Duke of Windsor. His remunerative schemes, launched when the American president was a proper aristocrat, were thought tawdry. Now that the American president is a reality-show celebrity, Harry and Meghan can more respectably haul in the filthy lucre. Apparently Harry has got a jump on that; last summer he importuned Disney CEO Bob Iger on the red carpet to throw a little voice-over work the Duchess’s way. Iger obliged. They are still royals, so this time the cheque was cut for an elephant charity; “financial independence” means in future the Sussexes can cash the cheque themselves.

Why do the Sussexes want out?

It cannot be to get away from media scrutiny. The profession for which Harry thinks himself most suited, celebrity appearances with a side serving of ostentatious philanthropy, requires a considerable amount of media exposure. It might be more friendly in Canada where Meghan’s best friend, Jessica Mulroney, is married to Ben Mulroney, chief host of the celebrity news. But the media are required to keep the “Sussex Royal” brand, already copyrighted (!), lucrative.

A clue to the Sussexes’ aspirations might be the monster home they have been living in on Vancouver Island, arranged by the good offices of David Foster, the music producer. That’s how the Hollywood rich live. Foster himself displayed his own monster home on his foray into reality-TV, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Such a lifestyle, easily achieved as celebrities with the coveted “global brand,” is not on offer to Harry and Meghan as “senior royals.” Because they are not. They are “stepping back” from something they never were.

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