Harry and Meghan in PR Freefall
The Sussex Show May be Over, For Good
2022 is probably not ending the way Harry and Meghan hoped.
A couple who should be basking in the PR glow of a Netflix docuseries, are instead fending off rough reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, and facing an audience that seems to have rapidly, and suddenly, tired of them and their story.
The Sussex show may be over for good, and for one very simple reason.
Harry and Meghan’s great mistake? They spent so much time complaining about the Royal Family, they forgot to sell themselves. They forgot to tell us why we should care about, well, Harry and Meghan.
I’m not just talking about what we saw on Netflix, but the overall “show” that Harry and Meghan have been performing for a global audience for several years now. Their story, of a couple forced to flee an evil palace for freedom because of numerous (but still vague and unsubstantiated) slights, has apparently been told one too many times, and is now officially on its last legs.
After watching six hours of Harry and Meghan with no new revelations, and certainly no moments of accountability, many of their most sympathetic supporters could no longer hold back.
It’s as if, all at once, the crowd and critics alike realised, “The Emperor has no clothes!”
The most glaring example may have been that Hollywood bible, Variety magazine. After a glowing front page cover story on Meghan weeks before, their tune changed dramatically after the docuseries. In the scathing review, “It’s Well Past Time for Harry and Meghan 2.0”, the author wrote right off the top, “perhaps this one-trick pony is due for the glue factory.”
OUCH.
So, what went so wrong, so quickly?
It’s simple. Harry and Meghan keep complaining about one, very narrow part of their lives. Harry obviously has a longer, more interesting Royal story to tell. That, in the right hands, told factually, might be worthy of a proper documentary film or serious book.
But as a couple, the Sussexes existed very briefly in the world of the monarchy. There simply is not that much to talk about. And if there were blockbuster stories (with evidence to back them up) they would have been revealed, and monetised, by now. Even a Royal source wearily told a reporter, “There’s nothing true left to say.”
Not only do the Sussexes keep complaining, but they’ve also taken no responsibility, no accountability, shown no regrets about their own behaviour, or at the very least, even addressed that behaviour — which has been a major news story on its own. There’s been no acknowledgement that they may have played even a tiny part in the breakdown.
They want an apology. They are victims, everyone else is at fault. We do see a fraction of Harry’s errors (why only Harry’s is worth a full examination in itself…) but it’s genuinely astonishing that Meghan has never allowed even the tiniest flaw to be laid at her feet.
That brings us to Politico, which had a story about ego and narcissism that exploded on Twitter right after Christmas, because it dared to include Harry and Meghan as people who, “used attention as currency and ego as fuel, and were rewarded, for a time, with what they craved.”
The author, Joanna Weiss, wrote that, “somewhere between the fifth and sixth hour of “Harry and Meghan,” — which suggests that there is no one more in love, no one more socially conscious, no one more aggrieved — my natural sympathy for the couple started turning to irritation, and it occurred to me that ego has its limits.”
Ego has its limits. That’s what this Sussex PR crisis is really about.
If Harry and Meghan had done even ONE interview with a serious journalist, answered difficult questions about the less flattering stories out there, or in any way taken some responsibility, they’d have better standing. They probably wouldn’t be in a public relations freefall right now. But when you refuse to admit your own mistakes and just repeat a one-sided, self-serving narrative, your act is going to collapse.
Especially when the things you are saying, are often easily disproven.
For instance, on top of the bad reviews, the Toronto Police Chief spoke out to say that claims made by Meghan Markle, that his police force failed to protect her when she was first dating Prince Harry, are inaccurate. Extensive details were also reported, that, “police did respond to her street, routinely monitored it, deployed undercover vehicles and teams, and spoke to paparazzi.”
Then New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke up, distancing herself from a second series the Sussexes produced for Netflix. Making it clear in a lengthy, detailed statement (more than was really necessary which is why it made such news) that her agreement was with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, had been filmed two and a half years ago, and that “there has been no communications” with the Sussexes. “It’s not so much a snub, more of a diplomatic put-down,” wrote Valentine Low in The Times.
If you’re going to be in the public eye, you need a thick skin. If you’re going to aggressively push yourself and your projects to the public, you’ll get critical reviews, some positive, some negative. That’s the business.
If you put an unrealistic, perfect image out there, people who know the facts are going to correct it. If your content is shallow or egotistical, people will see through it.
Newsweek, normally quite sympathetic to the couple, also published an article on Harry and Meghan’s slipping popularity in the United States, and what the “real life consequences” would be for their commercial success. “If American public opinion were to go the way of the UK polls, the crisis for Harry and Meghan would be greater than the prospect of being unpopular.” In short, the Sussex livelihood is on the line.
Most performers, in stage or screen, will argue you should always go out on top, leave the audience wanting more. The “Quit while you’re ahead” strategy.
The Sussexes have failed to grasp that.
Why, is anyone’s guess. I personally think that they must genuinely believe that if they keep talking and explaining people will come round. “Oh! Now that I’ve heard it again for the 99th time I see your point, you’re right!” When in fact it’s just turning off the shrinking pool of support.
After Oprah, they could have moved on. But instead, they set themselves on a train that is still going full steam ahead until it almost certainly careens off the rails.
No sooner will 2022 end, then 2023 will begin with the release of Harry’s book “Spare” on January 10th. Talk about Sussex fatigue.
There’s also something else to worry about. According to the New York Times, US book sales, even high-profile ones, have been on a downward trajectory. They pointed out that even Michelle Obama’s book underperformed this year, with less than one quarter of the first-week print sales of her 2018 memoir, ‘Becoming’.
Let’s be frank. Harry’s book will lack the substance or depth of a Michelle Obama. It’s hard to imagine how he’s filling the reported 400 pages.
By concentrating attention on sensation over substance, the Sussexes failed to put themselves in the serious league of the Obamas, or other global leaders and philanthropists. They also end up feeding the very beast they claim to hate.
As Ross Clark wrote in The Telegraph, “The irony is that a couple who lose no opportunity to blast the tabloids have condemned themselves to be tabloid fare for ever after.”
The New York Times also released their most read, most shared stories of 2022, as well as the articles with the most engagement. Despite the talk of American adoration, not a single one on the list was about Harry and Meghan.
Their most read article of the year? The Queen.
The Royal Family is still the main attraction.
Perhaps the most fitting analysis on the Sussex situation came from The Constitution Unit in the UK, which posted this blog post:
“A final comment on Harry and Meghan is this. The Netflix documentary conveys the impression that they have been uniquely victimised. But this post has shown that the difficulties they faced are shared by all the royal families of Europe. It is monarchy which is unique, in the extraordinary demands which it makes of close members of the royal family… it is understandable if sometimes the more junior royals might want to escape.
BUT… “opting out would need to be total: giving up not just their public duties but their public funding, their royal titles, their security — trying as far as possible to become private people. It would not be easy to undergo such a complete change of lifestyle. And it may not prove possible.”
It seems 2022 proved that Harry and Meghan couldn’t let go. And as long as they keep making that mistake, it will be impossible for them to ever move forward.
