When Harry and Meghan took on ‘the firm’ in front of 50 million
viewers, it put the spotlight on the future of the royal family. Will it change with the times or fade under a future Charles III?
Last week’s incendiary Oprah Winfrey interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex amounted to the most revelatory royal appearance since Princess Diana’s infamous Panorama interview 25 years ago. If it provided a welcome break in the tedium of lockdown for the public at large, it has also rattled Buckingham Palace and raised issues about the monarchy that could yet build into a serious crisis for the royal family.
Chief among these is a question of modernising values. Even her most voluble detractors would admit that Meghan Markle brought a much-needed flavour of the 21st century to the Windsors. She spoke of inclusivity and diversity and, while she may not have been a nail technician from a Bradford council estate, she was avowedly not an identikit posh blonde from the home counties.
