It's All About Meghan
With Prince Harry in the shadows, she made two high-profile Manhattan appearances as her three new ventures got off to a rocky start
“You’ve got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative,” sang Aretha Franklin behind Meghan Markle’s Instagram reel about her splashy appearance at the Time 100 Summit at Lincoln Center in New York City last week. Although she and Prince Harry missed the cut for Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people, she was nevertheless given a prominent slot on stage for an interview with Time’s CEO Jessica Sibley.
Meghan’s mission was to promote her flailing new podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. A description on “The Office of PRINCE HARRY AND MEGHAN Duke and Duchess of Sussex” website grandly called the conversation “a rare and insightful look into Meghan’s evolving role as a female founder, strategic business leader, and working mother” in which she “reflected on the intentionality that drives her work.”
“This is the happiest I’ve ever been”
In fact, she revealed little, but she knew how to deliver a headline. When asked for her own “confession,” she said, “My confession for you today that I feel very comfortable saying is this is the happiest I’ve ever been….To have a partner and a husband who is just so supportive and to have healthy kids that are so joyful in the freeness [sic] of their life, and the safety of their life that we create for them.” She might have added that thanks to Harry, she has the prestige of a royal title for herself and their children, a mansion in Montecito valued at $29 million (a tidy increase in value from their $14.6 million purchase price in 2020), and a luxurious lifestyle fueled by the substantial fortune they amassed by leaving Britain and their royal roles.
As a trained actress, Meghan can project sunshine on cue and make her words seem almost believable even in the face of withering criticism and questionable commercial prospects for her three recently launched enterprises. While Harry can force a smile, he mostly projects anxiety. It’s hard to imagine that he is currently at his “happiest.” He has alienated his brother and father, who have barely seen Harry and Meghan’s two children, five-year-old Archie and three-year-old Lilibet, he has scarcely visited his homeland over the past five years, most of his British friends are similarly estranged from him, and he lacks a strong and consistent professional purpose. He may no longer be Prince William’s “spare,” but he seems increasingly to be playing the same role with Meghan, consigned to walking two steps behind her or making cameo appearances in her ventures.
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