There was a burning ambition that Meghan seemed to have when she left the royal family – now Kate seems to have watched her.
What do you get a woman for a birthday who has pretty much everything? We’re not talking about an ordinary big day here, but about a milestone day, an anniversary that will require more than a Quality Street club and the latest Liane Moriarty. What do you get for a future queen who is about to reach the big 4-0?
In just a few weeks, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge will reach that milestone, an event that will likely see the various royal social media accounts pick up old snaps and Prince William hitting Bond Street in a sweat. (Don’t buy his binoculars as he once recently admitted…)
In the United States, weekly supermarket People magazine has skipped the occasion, slapping the mum-of-three on the cover of this week’s issue with the headline, publishing a story so sickly a more suspicious mind might have thought Carole Middleton herself the had written.
Just in case anyone was counting, this is the Duchess’s fourth cover star on the glossy entertainment magazine in the past 12 months, including her second solo outing.
Here’s the kicker: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex? In one of the biggest years of her life, including one in which she accused the royal house of institutional racism and ignored cries for help as her mental health suffered, when she welcomed her second as a child and when she launched her post-Megxit career?
Not a single cover of her.
(Meghan twice appeared on covers with Harry, while he landed two more covers without his wife.)
While the cover of People isn’t the most accurate of barometers of reputation and public approval, which Kate’s continued appearance and Meghan’s lack of fame cast a less than stellar picture of the Sussexes’ campaign in the United States. United to establish themselves as dazzling public figures.
In fact, nearly two years after landing in the United States, they still seem to be struggling to gain ground as the leaders they seem so eager to be.
January 8, which is just three weeks away (and which happens to be the day before Kate’s 40th birthday) will mark two years since Harry and Meghan (allegedly) succeeded in shocking the world, the Queen and the Dorgis abruptly announcing that they were finished. with all the din of the crowd and the unveiling of the plaques and were oorrrfff. A new financially independent life awaited them, a life in which they (as Meghan once did) would not be expected to spend their working days opening new bridges, and could supposedly away from the intrusive lenses and beaks of the British press.
They flew, in January 2020, to Canada where they locked themselves in a borrowed (and hideous) mansion to prepare for their takeover.
The probable territorial division seemed clear. The energetic Sussexes would join the upper echelons of American glitter, hello Sunday brunches with the Carter-Knowles and Boggle party with the Obamas, while earning squillions and charming the pants of the 350 million adoring Americans while William and Kate, the royal family of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (and the rest of the stuff) are said to have left to enjoy the parochial affections of their little gray island.
This is funny.
Like just about every assumption the world has made in these feverish early months of 2020, nothing has gone quite as expected, including the Sussexes’ post-palace careers.
As we are about to start 2023, Harry and especially Meghan are increasingly polarizing figures who have failed to build the kind of broad base of support that many, including myself, expected. them.
A poll taken in the United States after their interview with Oprah Winfrey in March found that while 71% of Americans had watched, excerpted, heard or read it, they were hardly sympathetic to their self-proclaimed plight with only 40% saying they had “a lot or quite a bit of sympathy”. Meanwhile, 31% said they had no sympathy for the couple.
When news broke in July this year that Harry was putting Bic to paper and writing a memoir, for which he was said to have received a $27 million advance, the reception in the United States was lukewarm. If its Penguin Random House publishers are hoping to recoup their eight-figure spending on schilling copies of the book in the overflow states, let’s hope they have a back-up plan given that only one in four Americans surveyed at the time said that were “very or somewhat interested” in reading the memoirs. (Meanwhile, just 14% of Britons said the same.) Similarly, less than half of stars’n’stripes waving masses polled said they thought it was appropriate for Harry to post a autobiography.
More recently, the Duchess of Sussex’s attempts to insert herself into the political bloodstream, while brandishing her gifted title (both for her conversation with Gloria Steinem when she said she thought women should be “linked and unranked”) met with mediocre success at best with conservative voices seemingly happy to report how indifferent they were to his lobbying.
After spending the past two months trying to push for paid parental leave, there doesn’t appear to be anything even remotely resembling an outpouring of support behind the Duchess.
Their excruciatingly grumpy Time cover and faux royal New York tour seem to have failed to truly establish the duo as the power players they seem desperately hungry to be (although the magazine’s release spawned a slice less than – flattering memes).
Along with that is the fact that the royals left behind, you know, the Queen’s parents who don’t brag about their own Netflix offerings or vegan latte brands, would seem to be enjoying a degree of surprising popularity considering the presence of not just Kate but William and the Queen, all over the magazine covers.
In fact, next year could see another Windsor assault on the US with news that the Duke of Cambridge’s next Earthshot Prize outing will take place in the US, raising the possibility of a royal tour. there too.
A source close to the couple said vanity lounge in September that “the Cambridge team is very focused on America and making sure they have great visibility there. The possibility of them making a high-level visit is quite possible for next year.
Beyond that, the continued public interest in the Stateside Windsors would seem to suggest that the American people haven’t wholesale bought the Sussexes’ version of events. The fact that People slapped Kate on the cover, which they wouldn’t if she didn’t sell well, indicates that the Duchess still holds a relatively positive place in American hearts and minds.
None of this bodes particularly well for Harry and Meghan. In order for the Sussexes to continue enjoying big commercial deals, it’s essential that they can attract tens, if not hundreds of millions of viewers, like streaming Pied Pipers. But what remains to be seen is if they can pull it off?
The pressure on the couple’s Netflix and Spotify offerings, when the world can finally see and hear them, will be immense – but given their fragile public reputations, will their famous names translate to the huge streaming numbers that many would have? could you guess? (So far, they’ve announced they’re making a children’s cartoon and a Harry’s Invictus Games documentary, two projects that stand out only for their lack of creative verve.)
Frank Sinatra sings in New York, New York, “If I can do it there, I’ll do it anywhere.” But what if you can’t get there Frank? Then what ? There are a pair of American transplants who may be looking for a puzzle to be answered in the near future.
Daniela Elser is a royal pundit and writer with over 15 years of experience working with a number of top media titles in Australia.