Prince Harry speaks to Oprah Winfrey in a new TV series on mental health. Photo / Supplied
Prince Harry speaks to Oprah Winfrey in a new TV series on mental health. Photo / Supplied
OPINION:
If you got in a time machine, travelled back to exactly this date in 2018 (that is the day before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding) and told anyone that in the future the prince would one day star in a TV series alongside Glenn Close and Lady Gaga, they would have thought you were bananas.
A long, quiet stint in Bedlam would be just what the (white coat-wearing) doctors would have probably ordered.
Yet here we are, days away from the debut of Harry's first TV series, the mental health focused five-parter The Me You Can't See which he co-produced with Oprah Winfrey.
And consequently, here we are, facing the question of, has the dissident royal finally gone too far?
The first trailer for the Apple+ offering was released yesterday revealing a beautifully shot, emotionally-charged series that promises a discussion about mental health that is soul-baring and deeply moving.
However, it's the inclusion of footage of Harry appearing at his mother Diana, Princess of Wales' funeral in 1997 that is making waves.
Prince Harry and his father Prince Charles in the trailer for The Me You Can't See. Photo / Supplied
An unnamed woman says "Treating people with dignity is the first act", with the visuals cutting from her speaking to her words overlaid over footage of first Diana's funeral and then a close-up shot of a traumatised-looking Harry with his father Prince Charles.
The tacit implication seems to be that Harry was not treated with "dignity" and that culpability for this rests with none other than king-in-waiting and part-time gentleman farmer Charles.
Really? Again? More public brickbats flying?
While the world has until Friday for the show to land on the streaming service, today's trailer raised the prospect that the loss of his mother when Harry was only 12 will feature in some way.
In 1997, one billion people, according to Newsweek at the time, watched not only Harry but also brother Prince William make the 34-minute walk behind their mother's funeral cortege, the boys' grief etching itself irrevocably on the global consciousness.
The world especially took the youngest boy under its collective wing and for decades Harry has occupied a unique position in the collective psyche, his flubs and mistakes regularly being cheerfully forgotten by a compassionate public. This was the little boy whose searing pain we all bore witness to. He had suffered so much on live TV.
But so much has changed, so fast, and we are coming perilously close to that formerly nearly boundless well of sympathy for him being tapped dry.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in the trailer for The Me You Can't See. Photo / Supplied
For months now, Harry and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have been trawling out their allegations of mistreatment by the royal family in the media, chucking grenade after grenade at the palace with the duke only last week criticising Charles' parenting, and by extension, the Queen and Prince Philip.
We were wronged, badly, the Sussex message has been, with the duo painting themselves as martyrs to the cold-hearted monarchy.
That Harry has suffered tremendously is not up for debate. What is questionable here is his continued hauling out of all of this trauma in the public arena, because, really, what is it achieving?
To be a highly effective leader when it comes to mental health and to campaign on this hugely important issue does not require him to dredge up this anguish repeatedly. Nor does it require him to regularly flagellate the royal house.
Were grievous wounds dealt to Harry in 1997? Of course. Imagine being forced to walk past tens of thousands of weeping people while you were unable to cry for your own mother while the world watched.
Were mistakes made in the days, weeks and months after Diana's death? Without a doubt. William and Harry were sent back to their boarding schools only weeks after she was killed and as far as is known, were never offered any sort of counselling.
However, the question now is, does that give him the right to repeatedly attack the royal family in the public arena? Just how much appetite is there for another bout of finger pointing?
There is also the question of the inclusion of the Diana funeral footage in Harry's new show.
Prince Harry speaks to Oprah Winfrey in a new TV series on mental health. Photo / Supplied
There will be a very, very fine line between striving to share his own experiences with a view to quashing stigma about mental health and using this tragedy in an uncomfortable, self-serving way.
What never gets mentioned about Diana's death is that Harry isn't the only person who lost someone that day: A mother (William), a sister (Lady Jane Fellowes, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and the now Earl Spencer) and a daughter (Frances Shand Kydd).
Imagine if say Diana's sisters made a TV series and talked about losing her – they could very well face being excoriated for exploiting her death for their own purposes.
Again and again and again since Harry and Meghan excised themselves from the royal family they have pushed the boundaries but how much time before the very, very thin ice which Harry especially is standing on starts to crack?
How many more times can – or will – he be forgiven for trouncing his fallible, far from perfect family while on camera?
In the summer of 1997, Diana was laying down the foundation for her post-royal life. The world was waiting and she was, according to reports, hungry to make even more of a mark and to help even more people.
She was leaving the draughty palace behind and was on the precipice of fully embracing the future and all the possibilities that being freed of the royal cage presented.
The day will come when it's time for Harry to do the same.
