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What a difference a year makes.
On the first of February last year, a pregnant Meghan Markle, accompanied by Prince Harry, visited Bristol where she was greeted by hundreds of adoring fans who had lined up behind steel fencing barriers for hours for a chance to see the biggest royal celebrities in a generation.
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It was a brutal day, with snow and sleet falling. The streets were slick wet with freezing water, but none of that mattered.
People just wanted to see Meghan, Harry and their unborn child. And who could blame them? These three, after all, were the great hope for the future of the monarchy, an extraordinary era-defining statement of modernity, tolerance and progress.
When they arrived in Bristol, stepping out of a modest people carrier, no-one could have suspected this happy, beaming couple were even then planning their escape from the suffocating embrace of a royal family which they were already finding overwhelming.
A little over a year later, and with the abdication agreement signed, sealed and posted on Instagram, the couple are back, briefly, in the U.K, conducting themselves in a cautious and low-profile fashion as they carry out their final ever week of royal engagements.
The deliberately low-key profile follows a collapse in Meghan’s domestic popularity ratings (she now has a 44 percent approval rating), and a sharp downturn in Harry’s (down to 63 percent) as the British media continues to seethe with confected outrage at Meghan and Harry’s alleged disavowal of their duty.
The couple are not expected to engage in any significant public walkabouts on this, their last visit to the U.K. as working royals, with some commentators suggesting that they could even be barracked by aggrieved citizens angry at the way they have managed their departure from the monarchy if they did.
Harry’s biographer Penny Junor told the Daily Beast: “They may be feeling very uncertain about the reception they would get, and I would think that goes for Harry as much as Meghan. While there is a lot of sympathy for his decision to step down from royal work and protect his wife from being hounded by the press, I think many people are disappointed in how he has gone about it, particularly in the way he/they have treated the Queen.”
A new flashpoint for public anger was the revelation this week that the British taxpayer will likely have to continue funding security for Harry and Meghan overseas after the Canadians said they wouldn’t be stumping up for it. The couple will likely have a team of 10 British cops flying over from London in shifts to protect them 24/7. Those emissions won’t do much for their environmental credentials either.
While it has been confirmed that the couple will be attending a number of large events (complete with carefully curated members of the public attending), Buckingham Palace declined to comment when asked if there were or were not any plans for wider public engagement.
Buckingham Palace also declined to say whether there would be any reconciliatory meetings between Harry and Meghan and senior royals.
However, that possibility seemed increasingly distant after apparently well-connected friends of Meghan briefed DailyMail.com that she felt she and Harry were being picked on and persecuted by a vengeful royal establishment, and that they were the ones who should be upset.
Such briefings of the press, attacking other members of the family, which insiders suspect are being carried out by Meghan’s American advisers, are anathema to the royal establishment which insists above all on a united front, whatever the divisions under the surface.
Harry is believed to have been in London since Thursday night (earlier that day he was in Scotland where gave a speech to launch his Travalyst initiative and asked to be called just “Harry”) and Meghan is expected to join him at some point over the next few days.
Whether or not she will be bringing baby Archie has not been confirmed. Friends of Meghan’s briefed DailyMail.com that her priority was protecting Archie, saying: “She said she and Harry will continue to rise above jealousy and pettiness and focus on the good they are creating and on being the best parents to Archie.”
Of course, the decision to keep a low profile could be judged in a more charitable light, in which case it might be attributed to a noble desire not to cause a big scene, overshadow the continuity royals, or open themselves up to accusations of vainly courting fan-like displays of public emotion.
In that reading, the low-profile strategy of the next few days is a recognition of the distinct possibility that for the Sussexes, their move away from being royals will ultimately lead to them being less famous and less well-known people.
Certainly, Harry seems to be moving towards that place. When he arrived at Edinburgh train station on Wednesday night, ahead of his big speech, he carried his bag off the train and slipped into the evening commuter crowds like any other passenger—well, almost like any other passenger were it not for the two security men on his tail, and the fact that on the way home he booked out a whole first class carriage for himself and his team, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Of course, this could just be down to security advice and doesn’t change the fact of Harry’s overall direction of travel away from the limelight.
As the royal writer Michael Farquhar told The Daily Beast, “Harry and Meghan would have found themselves further and further away from the action, anyway, especially as his nephews and niece grow older and assume royal responsibilities.
“One has only to look at Queen Elizabeth's uncles, her dad George VI’s brothers. Other than the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII before his abdication) these princes, sons of a king, gradually faded from the forefront. It’s just the way it goes when you’re dealing with an ancient power structure based on primogeniture. Indeed, the day will come when people will say, “Who’s Harry?” They’re probably perceptive enough to see what the future holds.”
It’s an intriguing point, and one that encapsulates a dilemma that lies at the very heart of Harry and Meghan’s decision to recalibrate their lives, and go forward with a non-royal existence.
A fascinating story in the New York Times this week tracked the way that follower numbers for the Instagram accounts of Harry and Meghan have moved in lock step with those of William and Kate, and rehearsed a long-standing conspiracy theory that William and Kate may have benefited from some form of artificial inflation of their follower numbers.
The piece failed to make a determination either way on the substance of this accusation which has been reverberating around the royalty-obsessed corners of the internet for some time now.
The truth is, when Harry and Meghan relaunch their Instagram account sometime later this year, without the benefit of the “Sussex Royal” handle, they’ll be starting over.
This is (probably) peak Meghan and Harry meaning they will (probably) never again be quite as famous as they are right now, and whatever global fame they stand to gain will be more akin to a Hollywood celebrity. They will still command considerable attention, but as with so much else in their lives it will be different—as will be the power they wield.
The low profile of the next few days in the U.K. will be as instructive for Harry and Meghan, as for their fans, the media and general public. They are not just leaving their life behind as “senior royals,” they are becoming something entirely new and unknown—for them and us.
