TENSION BETWEEN ROYALS

The royal family of the United Kingdom is the most well-known family in the entire Western World. Sixteen countries today, including the U.K., recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state.

Even I, someone who was born in and spent the first seven years of life in Germany watching British television, recognized the royal family and what they meant to the essentially the world.  I’ve learned quite a bit about their family structure and heritage. I’ve watched both the televised weddings of Prince William and Prince Harry.

Because of the fame of this family, the apparent publicized split between Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, and the royals has taken the world by storm.

For those who don’t know what is happening, there was a sudden and surprise announcement made by the couple (Harry and Meghan) stating on their new website, Sussex Royal, that they “intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family” and “balance [their] time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen.”

This came as a massive shock to the rest of the royal family, even causing the Queen to call for a meeting between herself, Prince William, and Prince Harry, in which she has reluctantly granted such independence to the couple.

I feel that people must put themselves in the couple’s shoes to understand why they would give something up, like this.

Say you’re Meghan Markle in 2017. You are a successful actress who has managed to stay out of the limelight for a majority of the time.  Now you announce your engagement to the FIFTH IN LINE TO THE BRITISH THRONE. Within about 5 minutes, you have gone from essentially nobody, to being associated with one of the most famous families in history. From then on, British tabloids such as the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Daily Express, (mind you, maybe even historically worse than American tabloids) are speculating on and conjecturing everything about your personal life. You now need to know every royal duty you must do when you are married.

Fast forward: You are now married, tabloids are even harsher to you, you now have a newborn child, and the divide between family members is starting to show. In your mind, what would you do? Continue being harassed by the British media, or do you do something seemingly radical and separate yourself and your husband from all that pomp and circumstance and create your own life out of it?  

When we take a second to stop and see the bigger picture, we must realize that just because the royal family has all the money in the world, and all the fame that a 1,000-year-old monarchy brings, its members are still just people. They have their issues, just like we have issues with our own families. They have their jobs and duties, just like we do. The only major difference is that their entire lives are documented, and lied about, constantly.

Fame has a cost, and while Harry and Meghan will still be associated with the royal family, we can’t be too hard when we judge giving up that kind of scrutiny and pressure.