Meghan in a royal hell of her own making

“Sudden Prominence Syndrome” is the new victim melody for befuddled social justice warriors. People that are struggling with having become suddenly famous on a global scale can now excuse themselves as victims of media attention, even though they courted all the publicity in the first place.

Self-styled victims clambering for this fictitious psychological title, include Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasia-Cortez, Monica Lewinsky and Meghan Markle. This sounds like satire, but the celebs take it seriously.

A campaign to pull heartstrings might work for Meghan, at least in the United States, to provoke sympathy for six weeks of mental wellness time off to convalesce in safe spaces, planning her next moves after being bruised by the British media.

Congresswoman Ocasia-Cortez’s tweet about her own current suffering from the “dehumanization” of sudden prominence, resulted in an instant 40,000 retweets and splash across social media. It’s narcissism in an amplifier, proclaiming one’s victimhood due to excessive attention in traditional and social media channels in order to attract even more media attention.    

The British public and tabloid press bridle at PR manipulation by the Sussex court, who are expected to remain royal and apolitical. The last thing the British will accept from members of the royal family is self-serving self-pity.

“Not many people have asked if I’m ok,” stated Meghan in this week’s ITV-ABC interview by Tom Bradby and is exactly the reason why the British media, and public-at-large, have found her most unpopular.  She has traded her position of privilege for power and it’s her own silly fault for selling herself to the devil.

It’s all about what Meghan wants and it’s all about blame, and it runs against the mission of Monarchy, namely, to be a cornerstone of unity and continuity, especially in these divisive times.

Meghan Markle’s outburst came at the conclusion of a successful royal tour of Angola, Botswana, Malawi and South Africa. Rather than using her public platform to call attention to the struggles of the people of Africa, she used the soapbox to air her personal complaints.

Meghan has become one of the most vilified women in the British media, not because they are racist or anti-American, but because Meghan has made the mistake of thinking that she matters.

Supporting member

To be the wife of sixth in line to the throne means in real terms that Meghan is constitutionally irrelevant. She thought that she personally mattered in her position in the pecking order in British society, which is merely a supporting member of the Monarchy, carrying the baton for Britain.

She has riled senior royals, courtiers and the taxpaying public with her attempt to trade off her status, often at the expense of the sanctity of the Crown.  She has confused modernize with politicize. With the help of the American media, who have hijacked her ‘high profile image’ and manipulated her husband Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, into liberal political business onto a global media platform.

She did not feel oppressed by “sudden prominence” during times of more favorable press coverage. Notably, the American media did not refer to the malady of sudden prominence to support Melania Trump, in similar media backlash relating to her often unkind and extreme, although not self-solicited, fame.    

As Meghan’s reputation started to wane, the A-list celebrities have been distancing themselves from the Duchess of Sussex and avoiding media scrutiny. Recent public support has dropped her to the Kim Kardashian and Hillary Clinton levels.

Kardashian claims to be a huge fan of Meghan, with Clinton defending her ‘inexplicable treatment’ by exclaiming, in a Sunday Times interview:  “If the explanation is that  she is biracial, then shame on everybody.”

In a recent interview on Australia’s 60 Minutes, media provocateur Katie Hopkins put her finger on the problem: “Instead of living and acting in accord with the true role of a British Duchess, Meghan is at the nexus of the UK and America’s divisive political environment where young social media-loving public versus the older skeptics who get positioned as hateful and racist.”

While Meghan’s star has fallen in the UK, an all-star American PR team strives to keep her on the front page in the US. The American media never report anything negative about Meghan and puffed her efforts to put together a new global charitable foundation on the Clinton model.

Britons ask themselves why a member of the royal family requires an all-American PR machine. Senior palace courtiers have been left puzzled by the Sussex’s refusal to take advice from their own highly professional team.

It makes no sense to ignore the system that has protected the Monarchy for a 1,000 years, against fires, plague, foreign invasion and epic scandal, and instead listen to outsiders, such as the Hollywood crisis PR firm Sunshine Sachs, whose clients include  Ben Affleck, Hillary Clinton and Snoop Dog.    

Karen Tracey Blackett, a British entrepreneur and chair of Mediacom, the largest media company in the UK, was appointed as a trustee to the charity, which is head by Gerrard Tyrrell, one of the most powerful libel and defamation lawyers in London. Markle’s friend Keleigh Thomas Morgan is a consultant in Sunshine Sachs’ Hollywood office, tasked with launching their newly formed foundation to be launched in 2020.

Meghan’s public display of self-pity reflects badly on other royals. Some Palace officials believe that this is the beginning of the end. Prince Harry is the odd man out. Theoretically speaking, Harry could renounce his titles and privileges so that Meghan won’t be in the public eye, and he mused about the possibility while in Botswana.

Life of luxury

That would leave him out in the cold if his marriage did not last and leave him without the taxpayer-subsidized life of luxury to which he is accustomed.

For many women, the first year of marriage is a struggle. Having a child is challenging and simultaneously managing a job is stressful, especially without all the privileges of wealth and royalty.

A doting husband who is a Prince, six-figure designer outfits, a multi-million dollar home, private jets, nannies, celebrity weddings in Italy, luxury vacations in Ibiza and Nice, and a  US$250,000 baby shower in New York, is quite different from the circumstances of British taxpayers, many who struggle to pay their rent.

No one asked Meghan to start work at 5:00 am each morning, ‘break the internet’ with the launch of Sussex Royal Instagram account, or to guest-edit high profile edition of Vogue timed to coincide with her giving birth.

The British don’t buy PR manipulation. They know they have an ‘American’ Duchess who wants to use her platform for ulterior means. While it may sound reasonable that new parents would want a life out of the spotlight for their child, that’s just not how it’s done in the royal family.

Moreover, Meghan courts the spotlight only when it suits her own agenda, which does not coincide with the mission of the Monarchy.

Meghan’s decisive blunder was to take the Mail on Sunday to court after letters to her estranged father were leaked by her own father. The Royal family finds this sort of behavior distasteful and embarrassing. Allegedly quite embarrassed and worried by the action, they will keep their distance.

Notably, Prince Charles, close to his reign as King, who struggled with neutrality his whole life, distances himself from Meghan’s connection to what the media dredge up. Notably the publishing of his own diaries 10 years ago about the handover of Hong Kong, when he wrote that Chinese officials were “appalling old waxworks.”

The diagnosis of “Sudden Prominence” syndrome for Meghan’s distress isn’t likely to elicit compassion from the British public. Pop maladies such as “Sudden Prominence,” like “Climate Grief” and “Eco-Anxiety,” aren’t likely to find their way into the diagnostic manuals of Britain’s National Health Service.