Comment: Harry and Meghan’s whingeing is obscene when so many are struggling

While they were making their documentary, did they pause to consider how it might come across, to the eight billion people on Earth who are less fortunate than they are? Photo / AP

OPINION:

At the height of a cost of living crisis, the Sussexes are on TV, moaning about how hard it is to be rich, famous and Royal.

Right now, the news is awash with stories of suffering and struggle. Children going to school hungry. Nurses using food banks. Pensioners freezing in their flats.

And then every so often, between these stories, we see trailers for a Netflix six-part documentary about two multimillionaire celebrities in California, sobbing about how tough their life is.

It’s now almost three years since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex started wailing to the world about their innumerable woes. It seemed tin-eared enough at the time. But now, at the height of a cost of living crisis, it feels outright obscene. While millions of the Duke’s compatriots panic about paying their bills, he and his wife are on TV, moaning about how hard it is to be rich, famous and Royal.

The misery of having to have your photo taken all the time. The agony of newspapers running unflattering stories about you. And, worst of all, the cruelty of the Royal family, who so callously drove this blameless couple out of Britain. Of course, the rest of us can only imagine how terrifying it must have been when, as the Duke said to Oprah Winfrey last year, “My family literally cut me off financially” – forcing him to fall back on his estimated £10 million ($19.2 million) inheritance from his mother. Thank goodness the couple have been able to supplement it with their £88 million Netflix deal, his £35 million book deal, and her £15 million podcast deal. Otherwise, I dread to think how they would get by.

The first volume (episodes 1, 2 and 3) of Harry & Meghan, their new documentary, airs tonight at 9pm. While they were making it, I wonder whether, even for just a brief moment, they paused to consider how it might come across, to the approximately eight billion people on Earth who are less fortunate than they are. Might it, perhaps, look just a touch spoiled and self-pitying, at a time when people in even the wealthiest Western nations are struggling to put food on the table? While ordinary families barely dare turn on the heating, might they be a shade less inclined to sympathise with a Hollywood actress and a literal Prince complaining about disrespectful gossip columnists and insufficiently deferential courtiers?

Seemingly, this possibility did not cross the Duke and Duchess’s minds. Surprising, from two people who pride themselves above all else on their empathy and compassion.

Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t be too hard on them. Because, in a sense, the Duke and Duchess really are victims. Victims of victimhood itself.

These days, we live in a culture that prizes victimhood. A culture that equates victimhood with virtue, goodness, moral superiority. We no longer just feel sorry for victims; we admire, even venerate them. In such a context, it’s only natural that so many people should actively want to be victims - or rather, to be seen as victims. To be seen as a victim gives you social status, at least among the young and progressive.

That’s the real reason the young and progressive instinctively side with Harry and Meghan. They view them as victims. And the more victimised Harry and Meghan profess to be, the more the young and progressive admire them. Imagine if Harry and Meghan were to make a Netflix series purely about how fabulously pampered and privileged they are. The young and progressive would soon lose interest. To them, what’s aspirational about Harry and Meghan isn’t their wealth: it’s their victimhood. So, to keep the audience watching, the tears must continue to flow.

This week, we did briefly get to see Harry and Meghan enjoying themselves. They were in New York, collecting an award for their “heroic” stance against “structural racism” in the Royal family. Even that, though, is arguably a prize for victimhood. And it’s not easy to imagine them winning awards for much else in future. Unless Harry’s autobiography gets the Booker Prize for Fiction.

Still, at least the money’s rolling in. But sooner or later, I suspect, Harry and Meghan will realise that they’re trapped. Like actors of limited ability, they’ve allowed themselves to become typecast – and, as a result, victim is the only role their audience will ever let them play.