It attracted a deluge of criticism from the royal family - and it's all thanks to Meghan. Photo / AP
It attracted a deluge of criticism from the royal family - and it's all thanks to Meghan. Photo / AP
Okay, so the social media manager job for Kensington Palace has got to be one of the best gigs out there. You literally just look at photos of Kate, Wills, Harry and Meghan all day, every day, and get to pick which ones make their fascinators and/or bald patches look best. (Though to be perfectly honest that is not that dissimilar to the job a certain other journalist I knows does, COUGH.)
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, arriving for her baby shower at the Mark Hotel in NYC. Photo / AP
Still, it's usually a pretty easy role. You post lovely pics of royals doing stuff (shaking hands! Accepting flowers! Posing with livestock! Going to Slough!) while you drink tea out of a Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank commemorative wedding mug (presumably).
However, last week the royal social media manager made a bit of a boo-boo. Or, more accurately, there was a rude collision of agendas that resulted in a pretty glaring fail that could not have come at a worse time, reports news.com.au.
It has been hard to escape the fact that for most of last week, the Duchess of Sussex was in New York, being feted by a coterie of A-list pals like Amal Clooney and Serena Williams, enjoying a $700,000 trip that involved a $40,000 floral budget, a Michelin-starred chef and private jets. You know, a totally relatable baby shower celebration.
Amal Clooney were among those who attended the extravagant shower. Photo / Getty Images
However, while she was away, shopping for French designer baby duds and being escorted by members of the Secret Service, Harry was back in London keeping the home fires burning. By which I mean, cheerfully popping out on official visits to charities wearing his best casual blazer and chinos.
On the agenda, a trip to Fit and Fed which provides less fortunate children with nutritious lunches and activities during school holidays. There, he promptly rolled up his sleeves, popped on some gloves and got to charming children and serving salads.
In the meantime, Prince Harry served lunch to less fortunate children during his visit to a Fit and Fed initiative. Photo / Getty Images
The Kensington Palace social media person was poised to highlight the importance of Harry's visit and so jumped on their official Twitter feed, posting:
Open 6 days a week, with evening sports and Arts sessions each night,@StreathamSYCT provides youth services to the young people of Streatham as well as outlying areas. pic.twitter.com/1Kir83qcJU
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) February 19, 2019
Shame that was the exactly same time that his wife was in the Big Apple enjoying a Marie Antoinette-esque fiesta.
I don't care who paid for Meghan's private jet but it is an absolute outrage that given our country's poverty and homelessness, she is lording it up like this. She really should know better. Disappointing https://t.co/35uREIa1Sd
When one half of a couple is out there trying to raise awareness for the number of children who live below the poverty line while the other is enjoying a brief party that costs as much as a one-bedder apartment in Sydney, it's hard to reconcile.
Clearly the royal family are extremely rich. However, their lives are by and large incredibly discreet. They walk a fine line between being very wealthy and still having the credibility to turn up and legitimately seem compassionate toward those terribly less fortunate to them.
(Case in point: Diana commissioned a diamond and pearl suite of jewellery in 1997 that sold for $16.7 million after her death at the same time she was travelling to Angola and being photographed with orphans. The key here is perception, a crucial lesson Meghan has sadly failed to learn.)
Britain's Prince Harry, centre and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, meet King Mohammed VI of Morocco. Photo / AP
This week, Meghan and Harry have been in Morocco, promoting girls education and meeting with the royal family.
In this instance, the dissonance between their public lives — promoting charities whose annual operating budgets are surely less than the cost of Meghan's baby shower — and their private itineraries is grating.
The fact that some poor Kensington Palace media type has not quite grasped the complexity of the current situation can't be entirely their fault.
Still, it might be good to get some sort of content calendar going forward tracking international jollies for the royals and planned charity sorties.
No one wants to see Harry and Charles promoting a clean water initiative while other members of their family are swanning off to Austrian spas that cost as much as a girls' school in Morocco.
