John Roughan: When will this Harrying of the royals end?

Queen Elizabeth II, and from left, Meghan the Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate the Duchess of Cambridge watch a flypast of Royal Air Force aircraft pass over Buckingham Palace in London. Photo / AP

OPINION:

How bad can it be to be the royal “spare”? I haven’t read Harry’s book or watched any of his television interviews this week because, well, life’s too short and I can’t bear his simpering self-pity. But I read everything about him, avidly.

He and Meghan are such richly flawed human beings it is like a Shakespearean tragedy for our time.

Harry, born in a palace, blessed with charm in his youth and assured of lifelong wealth and adulation for doing little more than smile and wave. He was, you would think, the second-luckiest young man in the world.

Meghan, rags to riches, television star, landing the ultimate role, America’s marriage to the fabulous British institution it loves but barely understands. What could go wrong?

If they wanted to do more than smile and wave, they could. The spare is luckier than the heir in this respect, having a little more latitude to pursue causes and interests of his own. When they visited New Zealand Meghan gave a speech on women’s rights in terms more forceful than usually heard from a royal figure.

If there was any blowback from Buckingham Palace to that sort of thing they would have told us by now.

When the couple renounced royal obligations (but not titles), saying they wanted to use their royal status for causes of their own, I was keen to see what these might be. I’m still wondering. All they have done since is grizzle about the life they left.

This of course is the only subject Netflix and book publishers want from them, and perhaps they will use the fortune they are making from petty family disclosures for better purposes in the fullness of time, but I doubt it.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry meet members of the public at Windsor Castle, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Photo / AP

What Harry wants from his life is not clear. At age 38 he does not appear to know himself. Having run down his father and brother in public repeatedly he now complains they have “shown no willingness to reconcile”. This can only be explained by child psychology. Loved children expect always to be forgiven.

Even as he says he “wants his father and brother back”, he delivers barbs at Camilla, which is about the worst thing he can probably do in the eyes of his father. No wonder his brother once biffed him.

Harry might not know what he wants but Meghan clearly does. She values royalty for its celebrity status and, like many Americans, doesn’t know the difference. As she told Oprah Winfrey, “I didn’t fully understand what the job was. What does it mean to be a working royal? What do you do? . . . I grew up in LA, you see celebrities all the time. This is not the same.”

Quoting those comments in her book “The Palace Papers”, published last year, author Tina Brown wrote, “The notion that the countryside-rooted, duty-obsessed, tradition-bound senior members of the British Royal Family bear any resemblance at all to Hollywood celebrities, is head-explodingly off-track.

“Celebrities flare and burn out. The monarchy plays the long game. There is no time stamp on the public’s interest as long as it’s clear your interest is the public’s.”

Harry and Meghan have gone to the right place. America laps up the celebrity milk that curdles in British stomachs, and the milk they are providing is perfectly flavoured for contemporary taste - sappy, vulnerable victimhood coupled with humourless ultra-sensitivity to the slightest reference to race.

This phase of public puritanism is relatively recent and the older royals will have made jokes they would not make today. Harry and Meghan are milking the zeitgeist for all it is worth in the celebrity market and they are making a fortune.

But it can’t last. Even America will eventually get enough of the royal cruelty shtick. It might have reached its limit now. I did enjoy some of the American networks’ promotions of Harry’s television appearances this week.

“With its raw, unflinching honesty,” said CBS, “‘Spare’ is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination (really?) and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.” It summarised Harry as “a husband, father, humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate and environmentalist. He resides in Santa Barbara, Calif., with his family and three dogs.”

Is that how this Shakespearean tragedy ends, with a boring Duke and a botoxed Duchess living out their days in California while the British monarchy, modernized by Charles III, celebrates the enduring reign of William V and looks forward to George VII? Possibly.

But I’m picking Harry’s childishness will save him in the final act. Loved children really are forgiven. When it suits him, or Meghan, to return to royal service he will be welcomed back.