OPINION: Meghan Markle has proven once again that she can’t be trusted by the Royal Family – they must be at their wits’ end.
It didn’t come as a surprise to many when Meghan decided to share a glimpse into her family’s trip to the UK, including a shot of her children at Althorp Estate, Princess Diana’s ancestral home, last month. If the Duchess of Sussex has made a name for doing anything over her last decade in the international spotlight, it is knowing how to position herself for maximum visibility. It’s no wonder she was reportedly so upset to have been sidelined during the reunion between Prince Harry and King Charles last month.
The summer-themed carousel of images shared to Instagram may have been a bid to pivot the conversation back to her, with a shot of herself lounging by a pool with what appears to be Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, in the background perhaps the most revealing of the bunch.
But the move could destroy whatever remains of her relationship with a senior royal, by flouting the “no social media” rule Queen Camilla reportedly issued for the July trip. A source told New Idea the Queen was “very clear” about the rule but feels she has been “ignored”, motivating her to “shut the door” on the duchess indefinitely.
“Camilla’s words appear to have fallen on deaf ears,” they said. “She feels that she was clear about no social media posts, and if Meghan thinks Althorp was an exception, she was very wrong.”
It highlights the stark difference in how Meghan and Harry view the prospect of bringing years of estrangement to an end, in comparison to the King and Queen.
For Charles, lowkey, intimate visits from his grandchildren would likely be the best-case scenario, dodging the media hullabaloo while allowing a man approaching 80 with a cancer diagnosis to spend time with his nearest and dearest.
If this was a view shared by the Sussexes, we would know nothing of the trip beyond baseless speculation and we certainly wouldn’t have photo evidence of the family seemingly en-route to Diana’s grave.
Camilla is said to be among the royals most sceptical of Meghan and Harry’s intentions, and while Charles could resist completely cutting off his son, this incident may serve as a useful example of their transactional approach.
Suggestions that Harry was using Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, as bargaining chips in his bid to recruit his father in his ongoing fight for taxpayer-funded security seemed overly harsh in the run-up to the trip last month.
But the King’s clear desire for a relationship with them, and Meghan and Harry’s apparent inability to let anything linked to the Firm fly under the radar, speak for themselves.
Whatever happens next, they must expect to be treated with mistrust and reservation going forward, at the very least.