Once upon a time, in 1936, a British monarch named Edward VIII was
forbidden to marry his divorced American girlfriend and also be king, so he
renounced the throne, moved with her to France and lived not-so-happily ever after.
Nearly 20 years later, forced to make a similarly unpleasant choice,
Edward’s niece Margaret opted to keep her title but jettison her (also
divorced) boyfriend. She ended up herself divorced from the man she married in
the boyfriend’s place.
But that was another century, another world and many divorces ago.
As we ponder the news that Prince Harry, the raffish younger son of the
future king of England, has become engaged to Meghan Markle — an American
actress who, like nearly everyone in this story so far (except Harry) is
divorced — it is worth noting how dramatically Britain and the royal family
have changed in the intervening years.
It is also worth noting that the engagement, announced in front of Kensington
Palace with traditional fanfare, the unveiling of a massive diamond engagement
ring and a burst of details about who-said-what-to-whom-when and how they knew
that this was it, is at once a huge deal, and not much of one at all.
It is not a big deal because Prince Harry, 33, a former army officer with
an earthy sense of humor who brings an element of edgy sex appeal to a family
that could use a bit more of it, is only fifth in line to the throne. The only
way he could plausibly become king is under some sort of “And Then There Were
None” or “Kind Hearts and Coronets” scenario involving his grandmother, Queen
Elizabeth; his father, Prince Charles; his brother, Prince William; and
William’s young children, George and Charlotte.
But the engagement is significant, in part as a frivolously welcome
distraction at a time of unrelenting bad news about the economy, about
Britain’s painful “Brexit” from Europe and about Britain’s place in the world.
More than that, it is an example of openness and inclusivity in a country that
is sorely divided over issues like race and immigration.
Ms. Markle’s father is white and her mother is African-American, and so
with one heady announcement, it seems, Harry and Ms. Markle have thrown out
generations’ worth of quietly repressed tradition and presented a new royal
model to a country that will have to adjust to it, whether it wants to or not.
“The royal family and the standards they normally have — they want them
to be white and not divorced,” said Asha Duncan, 31, who works in fashion
advertising and was strolling in Kensington on Monday. “Maybe she will get them
moving with the times more,” she said of Ms. Markle, “showing we live in a
multicultural society.”
Visiting from Boston, Trevor Gailun, who is 41 and works in finance, said
the emergence of a royal American in London could be only a plus.
“It’s very exciting that we have an American woman,” he said. “I think it
is good for the royal family and also for the world to have a little bit more
diversity.”
Not only that, he said, but “Americans are celebrity obsessed, and I
think having a pretty well-known actress now as a princess — it does not really
get better than that.”
Everyone loves an engagement almost as much as they love a wedding, and
Britain’s monarchy-obsessed newspapers quickly produced tons of
Meghan-and-Harry news, examined from every possible angle.
But if you read carefully you might find veiled traces of the racism and
class-based snobbery that last year spurred Prince Harry to issue a highly
unusual statement of indignation on Ms. Markle’s behalf.
He was responding, for instance, to a Daily Mail report saying she was
“Straight Outta Compton.” In the statement, a spokesman for the prince
denounced, among other things, “the smear on the front page of a national
newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and
racism of social media trolls and web article comments.”
But there was The Daily Mail back at it on Monday, explicitly pointing
out that most of Prince Harry’s previous girlfriends had been blonde, and going
out of its way to make Ms. Markle’s family back home sound like a bunch of
eccentrically inbred rednecks.
“The extended Markle family is possibly the most unusual to marry into
the House of Windsor so far,” the paper said on its website. Her half brother,
for instance, is newly engaged (to a woman named Darlene), “despite being
arrested after pointing a gun at her during a drink-fueled argument,” the
article reported.
And then there’s Ms. Markle’s uncle Frederick, 75, who as leader of the
“Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church in America,” is known as “Bishop Dismas,” the
paper reported, and is said by a former disciple to preside over such a
dwindling congregation that it is possible there are no worshipers left. (He is
married, the paper said, to Theresa Huckabone, and lives with her and their
38-year-old son in a house in Florida that cost $80,000.)
Meanwhile, the conservative columnist Melanie McDonagh groused in The
Spectator about Ms. Markle’s left-leaning political views and unsuitability, as
a divorcée, to be married in the Church of England. “Obviously, 70 years ago,
Meghan Markle would have been the kind of woman the prince would have had for a
mistress, not a wife,” she wrote.
By contrast, writing
in the left-leaning Guardian, the commentator Afua Hirsch spoke admiringly
of Ms. Markle’s politics and said that her addition to the royal family would
force Britain to confront truths about race relations that it prefers not to
discuss.
“One of the problems with the discourse in Britain today is the tendency
to downplay racial difference,” Ms. Hirsch wrote. “By contrast, Markle has
owned and expressed pride in her heritage, speaking at length about the
experience of having black heritage in a prejudiced society; of seeing her
mother abused with the “N” word, of working
in a highly racialized industry as an actor, and the identity struggle to
which so many people who grow up as visible minorities can relate.”
The paper’s website was full of a range of comments reflecting a range of
views: from readers who marveled at what this new development signifies for
Britain and for themselves, from readers who hate the royal family and want it
to go away, and from readers who do not care at all.
“I’d love to agree with this,” wrote a reader named “Nyder,” “but I have
to point out that the current royal family have German heritage and it hasn’t
exactly lead to English people viewing the Germans as their kin.”
This article originally appeared on New York Times
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