Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's 'royal' visit to New York. Video / ABC
Opinion
OPINION:
In 1989, when Diana, Princess of Wales made her famous trip to New York (and which was recently revived in the public imagination by The Crown) her first daytime engagement was to visit the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side, a non-profit organisation which offered (and still offers) social services, education, and healthcare.
Later, she attended a gala dinner to benefit the Brooklyn Academy of Music before undertaking her iconic visit to an AIDS unit at a Harlem hospital where she hugged a seven-year-old patient.
I'm mentioning this because it's worth keeping in mind what a sanctioned, legitimate royal trip to the Big Apple looks like given that Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have made the first major appearances of their post-palace careers by staging their own quasi-official tour in New York.
Barricades for the public? Check. A press pen for the media? Check. A rolling security cordon involving plain clothes officers, suited security guards and more than 100 New York police officers, some armed with M4 machine guns? Check.
A clearly defined charitable agenda? Umm…
And it is precisely there that Harry and Meghan's DIY royal "tour" veers dramatically off course from the palace blueprint.
It is now 18 months since the Duke and Duchess arrived in the US. Photo / AP
Because while appearance-wise their first "official" outing as the Stateside outpost of the house of Windsor might look deceptively like a royal trip, bearing many of the hallmarks of a Whitehall-sanctioned international jaunt, the picture starts to fracture is when we get to the substance of what they are actually doing.
On Thursday they kicked things off by visiting the 9/11 memorial and One World Trade Center, during which they met with New York Governor Kathy Hochul, the city's Mayor Bill de Blasio, National September 11 Memorial & Museum President Alice Greenwald and Bloomberg Philanthropy CEO Patricia Harris.
Then, it was back to the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side, where the Duchess underwent a quick outfit change, before they zipped off to the United Nations for a meeting with US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, for what the ambassador termed an "important discussion of Covid-19, racial justice, and raising mental health awareness". (The Sussexes then paid a visit to the World Health Organisation in conjunction with their Archewell Foundation.)
Wonderful meeting with Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Important discussion of COVID, racial justice, and raising mental health awareness.
Let's just pause here because the question must be asked: just what was the point of their One World Trade Center visit? What charity, organisation or cause did it help? As the Latin phrase goes, cui bono? That is, who benefits?
The only obvious answer: the Sussexes' image.
Wanting to pay their respects at the site where thousands of people lost their lives is one thing. Planning an event that involved two photocalls is entirely another.
Likewise, no matter the trappings like the security cordons, Harry and Meghan have no diplomatic standing or roles and no longer in any way represent the Crown. So why are they traipsing around UN Plaza and the WHO? (Surely the latter has much bigger pandemic-related fish to fry.)
It is now 18 months since the Duke and Duchess arrived in the US and the Covid pandemic, along with Meghan's second pregnancy, would seem to have delayed their ability to fully launch themselves onto the American market as public figures.
This New York trip, however, can be considered the opening move in their campaign to establish their new, shiny Stateside public identities and to try to carve out a place for themselves in the national firmament.
The Sussexes visit the 9/11 memorial and One World Trade Center. Photo / AP
(The symbolism of Meghan's choice of earrings for the day, her Cartier halo diamond earrings which she has previously worn on her wedding day and at son Archie's christening, has not been lost in the mix.)
So, how did the Sussexes decide to use their US coming out? What did they choose to do with this potent, not-to-be repeated opportunity?
To take part in a visit with no clear or definable philanthropic goal aside from ensuring a volley of images making them look "royal".
If there was one image that underscores this, it was that when Harry and Meghan emerged from their five-star hotel for their UN meeting, the Duchess had changed her outfit.
For her second designer look of the day she kept the $1727 The Row merino turtleneck sweater she had worn to One World Trade Center but replaced her wide-legged black trousers and black coat with what was mooted to be a Max Mara number, a $4555 bag from Italian brand Valextra and black sunglasses.
While the 40-year-old might have looked like the reincarnation of Jackie Kennedy with a black American Express card (which is to say, chic as hell), the very fact she changed clothes is striking.
(It would not appear to be because Meghan had gotten the New York weather wrong with the temperature on Thursday hitting 26 degrees Celsius because both of her outfits featured warm coats. Huh.)
Meghan and Harry pose for pictures at the observatory in the One World Trade Center. Photo / AP
The fact is, her switching up her (truly sublime) ensemble ensured that there were two sets of distinct photos from their day, thus potentially ensuring more press coverage and more sets of images for the media to pore over.
It is hard to get away from the feeling that, so far, the Sussexes' big New York coming out seems driven by image and to sell themselves to the United States as royals.
After only one day, it has felt less like a monarchical outing and more like a marketing opportunity.
All of which is a damn shame.
Contrast what the Sussexes were doing on Thursday with the schedule of Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, who was not only also in the city but also at the UN. She has been attending this week's General Assembly in her capacity as the UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development and who was, on the same day as Harry and Meghan's outings, taking part in discussions focusing on women's digital financial inclusion in Africa.
This is exactly the sort of work Meghan can and should be doing. As a lifelong advocate for gender equality, the former Suits star has one of the most influential platforms in the world to advocate on this front.
Imagine if Meghan had joined Maxima for even a brief session. She would have ensured that the world's attention, even momentarily, was on an issue which affects hundreds of millions of lives.
That is the incredible power that Meghan possesses - a power that she is currently squandering while she and Harry take themselves off on their self-styled 'royal tour'.
After all of this, what is so strange is that when the Sussexes' quit as full-time working members of the royal family, they said they wanted to "carve out a progressive new role" - and yet their new roles look curiously like knock-off copies of their old ones, all shaking hands with officials and posing for photos before it's off to the next meeting.
I'll leave you with this thought: the US is also home to two other siblings of future monarchs, namely Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Princess Martha Louise of Norway. Neither spends their time trying to pass themselves off as something they are not. Instead they are both women with jobs, families and charitable interests, all of which they manage to do without having to alert Good Morning America.
Just saying...
• Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years' experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.
