display
Last Sunday afternoon, the BBC broadcast a televised address by Elizabeth II on the Commonwealth Anniversary.
The camera followed the almost 95-year-old as she, accompanied by her secretaries, crossed a hall of Windsor Castle with a friendly laugh and gracefully.
A few hours later, the US broadcaster CBS broadcast "Oprah with Meghan and Harry".
There were few friendly moments, let alone dignity, in the two-hour conversation between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
"Tell her," Meghan teasingly asked Harry to reveal the gender of her unborn child.
"No, you do it," replied the husband, to give in immediately.
"It's a girl!" Announced Harry, who was supposedly very careful to protect his privacy, in front of millions of viewers in 70 countries around the world.
The prince clenched his fists like after a rugby goal.
The talk show host gave a high-pitched cheer.
"Much worse than the royal family feared"
Racism allegations and thoughts of suicide, the interview by Meghan and Harry makes waves.
For the royal family, the allegations are even worse than feared, says WELT correspondent Stefanie Bolzen.
These are the most important statements.
Source: WELT / Thomas Klug
In most of the other moments of the TV evening, meanwhile, it was about hard allegations of the couple to the royal family.
The issues of our time were systematically dealt with in front of the increasingly shuddering audience.
Racism?
Checkmark.
Sexism?
Checkmark.
Unprocessed trauma and mental burnout that an obdurate institution is not ready to confront?
Checkmark.
display
Paradoxically, the Meghan and Harry Show left the central figure in this system the only one to get away with it.
For the Queen, the couple was full of respect.
But without the blessing of Elizabeth II, nothing happens in “the company”, as the Windsors call themselves internally.
Not even the final expulsion of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in mid-February.
Unimpressed by the obvious, Harry and Meghan dragged the world and especially the British on their private roller coaster ride on International Women's Day.
Sometimes there were serious accusations in free fall, which naturally remained one-sided and unproven.
Then it went leisurely in pastel-colored rounds to relax, on which the Duchess compared herself to Ariel, Disney's mermaid.
She had to give up her voice, damned to silence, in order to be able to be with her prince.
Of course, as with Disney, there is a happy ending with the Sussexes.
"The story is better than all fairy tales" (Meghan).
“She saved me, no question about it.
There was a bigger plan ”(Harry).
"He saved us all" (Meghan).
display
If so - why this interview?
Because not only fate but also the dukes have a “bigger plan”?
It is legitimate, and be it now, to make the world a better place through philanthropic work.
Or simply making a lot of money through Netflix deals and leading a jet set life in California.
Or was the appearance at Oprah rather the prelude to Harry and Meghan's own Hollywood branding?
A finely balanced branding with which the glamorous couple positions themselves in all questions of the present for their liberal US audience and at the same time counteracts “the targeted slander” at home?
In any case, initial reactions show that this can work.
"My selfless friend Meghan teaches me every day what it means to be truly magnanimous," said tennis star Serena Williams on Twitter.
Far away from Hollywood, the British nation stands in front of the latest "Megxit" heap of shards, at least perplexed and in many cases angry.
If the royal family is indeed systemically racist, as they suggest, why didn't they both stay in London to give the Windsors the urgently needed modernization in demeanor and thinking?
"Meghan was the greatest asset the Commonwealth could ever have wished for," Harry said at Oprah.
And if the two really care about cementing the broken family china, the bang at prime time was hardly the right approach.
"Strong stuff that Harry and Meghan dished out"
Thoughts of suicide and accusations of racism: Meghan and Harry's scandalous interview is likely to have ruined the Queen's morning tea.
London correspondent Arndt Striegler.
Source: WORLD / Arndt Striegler
display
With their CBS event, the couple will do no permanent harm to British royalty.
Certainly not in Harry's home, and probably not in the Commonwealth of Nations either, with the exception of Australia, which is not very fond of heir to the throne Charles.
There is no question that the allegations that the couple has raised against the institution and their own family are very serious: The Duchess received no help when she fell pregnant and isolated into depression.
Prince Charles refused to talk to his own son because he did not agree with Harry's exit from the royal apparatus.
In other words: Even in the second difficult moment of his life, the father was not at the side of his son.
Once upon the death of her mother, Princess Diana, who had an accident in 1997.
And 20 years later, when Harry was afraid for his own wife and therefore thought about saying goodbye to the royal family.
The heaviest weight in the spectacularly prepared CBS barrage is the claim that a member of the family speculated about "how dark" the skin of Harry and Meghan's first unborn child could be.
Meghan Markle puts this statement in the context of her dispute with the royal family over the question of what title Archie, born in May 2019, should get.
It was quite possible that her son, as the first child of the royal family with mixed ethnic origins, would not have been the first to receive the title of prince, claims the mother.
A serious allegation.
The Queen holds privileges to her great-grandson because his skin is not white enough?
Problematically, it sounded different with Prince Harry.
The comment was made to him alone and "was awkward, I was a bit shocked," he said.
The couple also contradict each other about the point in time when this comment was made.
Was it now racism of the royal family, as the mother explains?
Or an unacceptable but not uncommon stupid saying for the old Windsor generation?
There will be no clearing up.
Neither of them will ever say publicly who the accused is.
"This interview will fundamentally change the perception of the royal family"
The latest statements by Meghan and Harry in an interview with Oprah Winfrey are likely to have caused unrest in the British palace.
Above all, the reasons for her withdrawal from royal life weigh heavily.
Source: WORLD / Fanny Juschten