CrownsOfBritain

With Harry and Meghan very much being the “IT” couple of the moment, and dominating headlines when either of them so much as farts, it goes without saying that there are millions of theories being banded around the internet in relation to their marriage, baby and otherwise. 

I receive a lot of questions in the comments on my blog about my thoughts on certain matters, so I figured I’d do an entry laying out what I believe to be the truth regarding the Sussexes. 

(Meghan haters take note – I said what I believe to be the truth – not that it’s gospel.)

It may not always be obvious, but I’m a realist – I don’t buy into exceptionally wild theories regarding the two of them, largely because even if I find them entertaining, I don’t want to look like a raving lunatic; but like anyone else, I have my own thoughts on what could possibly be going on behind the scenes. 

So with that, let’s get stuck in – right from the very beginning…

First off, the circumstances regarding the couple meeting are very unclear, largely because neither Harry nor Meghan seem to remember when it is they actually met. Most reports seem to indicate that they met in either May or June 2016; Piers Morgan went to the pub with Meghan here in London at some point in June 2016, and insists that Meghan took off in a cab after to head to a dinner that Harry was attending – where they were introduced by a mutual friend. 

Another such report says that Meghan met Harry at an Invictus Games dinner that her ex-boyfriend Corey was catering for in May 2016, and that she slipped him her number. While she was still living with Corey as his girlfriend. So be it May or June, it was pretty much confirmed that Meghan was still in a relationship with Corey when she met Harry.

We all remember that statement Harry issued via Kensington Palace in November 2016, addressing alleged racist comments toward his “girlfriend” – claims of which couldn’t actually be justified because there was no evidence of this anywhere. I stand firm on the fact that Meghan forced Harry’s hand on this one, made up the fact she was being “bullied” (even though nobody knew she was his girlfriend) and backed him into a corner to issue a statement so the world would know they were dating. 

Let’s face it, it’d been about five months since they’d started going out and Meghan was probably getting worried Harry would end it with her before the world had a chance to learn Rachel Meghan Markle had banged a Prince – so she took full control.

Like any relationship in it’s early stages, I think they found it all rather exciting. Flitting back and forth across the Atlantic for a quickie every now and again must have been rather thrilling – especially when you’re not living right next to each other and don’t have to put forth the serious effort to see each other a few times a week like other newly-dating couples do. 

But – it goes without saying that a long distance relationship has it’s downsides. 

If you’re hopping back and forth between Toronto and London for a few days here and there every couple of weeks, you don’t really know each other very well. You know the brief glimpses that you see of them, but it’s not everyday domestic life, and that’s what kept it so fresh and exciting for Meghan and Harry.

In my opinion, I do think they split briefly during their “courtship”, likely the same year of the engagement. 

I personally don’t think Harry was feeling it and probably saw Meghan as more of a royal bed-warmer until someone better came along – but Meghan had set her sights on a Prince and there was no way she was letting go of him without a fight. 

I think it’s likely the split came before Tom Inskip’s wedding in Jamaica in March 2017. And if I’m going all out there with my theories, I’d say it even went as far as Meghan forcing herself on the trip while things were super rocky (or potentially over) with Harry.

One look at the wedding photos would tell you as much: Harry isn’t smiling in a single one of them and is barely acknowledging Meghan at all – while she drapes herself over him, an insanely desperate expression on her face.

He didn’t touch her. He barely even looked at her. In fact, he looked furious. Something was wrong.

Earlier this year, we learned that Skippy (Tom) and Harry no longer speak, and I do think it stemmed from events at the wedding. 

Apparently, the main reason was because he warned Harry against marrying Meghan (there seems to be a common theme here).

First of all, this is quite shocking; anyone who knows much about the royal circle will know that Harry and Skippy had been close friends for years, so Harry’s decision to axe him from his life is rather sad and somewhat confusing. 

Much like Prince William, I think he saw right through Meghan and her antics at the wedding, and decided she wasn’t the one for his pal to marry. There was no immediate fall-out between Harry and Skippy at the time though, which makes me think that Harry didn’t totally disagree with his mate to begin with and was probably actually looking to ditch her. The fireworks between them must’ve come after, either just before the couple got engaged or just afterwards. 

I think after Jamaica, Meghan really dug her claws in and forced her way back in. Harry was seen getting quite close and friendly with a mystery blonde at a concert for The Killers in July 2017, a mere four months before the engagement was announced, so how serious could they really have been at this time?

Their “relationship” clearly wasn’t stopping Harry from having fun with other women and this was less than a year before they married, so something was definitely up.

Realising this and determined not to let him slip away, sometime in October 2017, Meghan decides to give a tell-all interview with Vanity Fair, making sure the whole world knew just who she was and hinting at the possibility of her becoming his wife. 

Was this to brag to the universe that she was in a relationship with a British prince? Partly. But I do also think it was a calculated move to hold the Royal Family over a barrel. 

Harry had issued a statement accusing people of racist behaviour and now she’d told the world and it’s wife she was his girlfriend, they were “in love” and it was “serious”; it was checkmate. This way, the House of Windsor couldn’t edge her out of the picture quietly because now everyone would want to know the full story – she was already all over the tabloids. There was no easy way out for them or for Harry.

What makes me think she forced her way back into Harry’s life? Well – certain things just don’t add up. 

Harry and William have always talked about how much they value discretion and respect for their privacy from friends and partners alike, so I’m not sure how Harry thought Meghan speaking to Vanity Fair about their relationship in a four-page spread was honouring this; it’s not something he’d have allowed usually. 

And Harry’s dalliances with other women throughout the relationship just didn’t scream “serious” to me; he’d seen her as easy sex and she’d set her sights on the tiara – the two were bound to clash eventually and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

When the engagement news broke, I remember being quite shocked. This is a woman he’d dated (and perhaps not even consistently) for barely a year-and-a-half and hadn’t lived with up until they got engaged; how well could they possibly know each other? 

She’d jacked in her acting “career”, ditched an elderly pet or two and moved continents for somebody she’d only met the year before – if that doesn’t have “desperate to be a Princess” stamped on it, I don’t know what does. 

I think at the time they got engaged, William had already given Harry a little warning about Meghan, the fact the may have had an agenda and wasn’t all she seemed – but Harry being Harry wanted to ignore this and this could’ve been the start of things souring between the Wales brothers.

Nevertheless, maybe William accepted at the time that he might be wrong, the engagement news breaks and the Cambridges publicly congratulate the two; I’m sure at this time, while there may have been some trepidation, the Duke and Duchess were genuinely pleased for them and the fact Harry was settling down.

I don’t believe things started to go wrong until after Harry and Meghan married.

As we all know, William served as Harry’s best man for Harry’s May 2018 wedding to Meghan, along with his two elder children Prince George and Princess Charlotte serving as page boy and flower girl respectively. It was here that I noticed that things may not have been totally ok between the Sussexes and the Cambridges.

For one, Kate looked totally disinterested and as though she couldn’t wait to get her arse out of that church. Secondly, following suit, none of the rest of the Royal Family looked that bothered either. Zara and Camilla were laughing at the preacher for most of it, Prince Phillip dropped off a few times and The Queen was caught giving Meghan a few death stares – hardly a family pleased for one of it’s members getting married.

I feel like it was all downhill from here; on 15th October 2018, Meghan and Harry announced that they were expecting their first child – met with zero comment from the Royal Family, unlike with Kate’s three pregnancies. With Harry and Meghan’s engagement, the Cambridges managed to muster a “we’re delighted for them” – but absolutely nothing from them for the baby announcement.

Of course, this could be because Kate’s sister Pippa gave birth to her son on the same day the Sussexes broke their own baby news, but I still didn’t see what was stopping William and Catherine from releasing a dual statement, congratulating both couples.

No, I believe that the Wales brothers were on fairly bad terms from not long after the wedding, and the situation just hasn’t ever quite fully repaired itself. Whether it was down to Harry’s annoyance that William tried to dissuade him from marrying Meghan, or because the Cambridges saw the way Meghan conducted herself and wanted to distance themselves, I don’t know – but it’s been clear that there have been issues for a while now. I don’t personally believe they speak very often, if it all anymore and that Harry no longer sees his nephews and niece – which I find rather sad. Both men are frosty and awkward with each other in public and don’t have anything close to the same banter that they did before.

In summary? I think like most people, William and Catherine (and especially William), didn’t actually think Harry would go through with marrying Meghan, so they didn’t really need to worry. I mean, I’m more than happy to raise my hand in agreement with this and say that I, like many others, didn’t think it would happen either and figured something would fall through in the six months between the engagement and the wedding. It was too rushed. Too fast. Lightning speed. How could that possibly work in the long run for two people who barely knew each other?

I think Meghan knew that letting go of Harry would be the biggest mistake she’d ever make – and Harry, in his early thirties and with no other willing participants, realised that Meghan was probably the last chance to marry and start a family. In the thirty-five years that he has been on this earth, she is really the only person who wanted to marry him – yes, likely for all the wrong reasons, but I don’t think he ultimately could’ve passed that up.

So, true love? Nah. Sheer desperation on both parts? Most definitely.

I think Harry was in love with the idea of having a relationship grow organically with a woman like his brother did; I think he was in love with the idea of settling down with a woman who wanted him for him; and I think he was in love with the idea of having a happy family like the Cambridges – three children and a cute dog.

But I also think he eventually realised that the way he had led his life meant that this was never going to happen. I mean, you can’t go around chasing actresses and models for years and expecting to land a homely wife – content with wearing pearls, raising the children and cutting ribbons. The two don’t go hand in hand.

I think Harry puts up with Meghan’s very public faux-pas and clear attention-seeking because he knows there’s a baby arriving – and that seems to be pretty much all Harry has ever wanted – to be a father. He has publicly expressed that for years and he isn’t going to let go of that now.

In regards to the Sussex baby – now into May, who knows what’s happening with that. As I said on my Twitter, it’s one of three things; either Meghan is savagely overdue and they’re about to induce her, they lied about her being 12 weeks when the announcement broke or the baby has already arrived… I’m putting my money on the latter.

I figure the kid arrived sometime last week and they were waiting for Louis and Charlotte’s birthdays and the Cambridges’ wedding anniversary to be out of the way first before they announce anything.

I mean, it’s not likely she’s this seriously overdue, especially pushing 40; and why would Harry be heading to the Netherlands next week if there was a chance of him missing the birth? I do think we’ll hear something any day now – it’s somewhat inevitable.

But to wrap up – if nothing else, this is a total soap opera and one that won’t end well. I know some marriages last the course when the couple married after a short period of dating, but it’s quite rare; and given the backlash they’ve both received and Meghan’s inability to carry herself properly as a royal, I do feel the odds are stacked against them.

My parents only dated for less than two years before marrying as well, and they lasted 23 years and had two children, but they’ve also been divorced for ten… and I should point out that their wedding anniversary, like Harry and Meghan’s, was also May 19th.

Honestly though, I give their marriage another two years tops. I predict the possibility of another Sussex baby next year (to really lock things in for Meghan) and then a separation and divorce drama to rival Charles and Diana’s. Meghan likely won’t be able to leave the country with the kid(s), but I still think once the separation happens, she’ll jet back off to the USA and give the first tell-all interview to anybody who will listen – likely Oprah, as she lives with her head up Meghan’s arse.

Whatever happens, we’ve got the entertainment scheduled for another five years at the very least; there’ll be interviews, chat-show appearances and a book released by Meghan and the palace desperately trying to cover it all up… I can’t wait! It’s going to be amazing.

In the meantime, let’s just sit back, relax and wait for the fireworks… The show is about to start any day now.