I've been asked to explain the current Netflix documentary by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to Italians, who do not know what to make of it. I have not watched it myself not being a subscriber to Netflix, but I have read up on reports about it.
Money is the issue: they are no longer funded by the British taxpayer
Since The Sussexes left the Royal Family as public members of 'The Firm', they are no longer eligible for the £5m a year that they received from their father's Duchy of Cornwall (buildings, farm products and agricultural land) in the financial year 2018-2019 (the first year of their marriage). Prince Charles's Duchy of Cornwall paid this to cover their lifestyle and public duties. The British taxpayer's Sovereign Grant made up the other 5%. This is the funding which comes from the Royal Family's surrender of the profits of the Crown Estates to the Treasury, in return for which working members of the Royal Family get an assured income to carry out duties, maintain palaces and castles and pay staff. The financial arrangements are complex but this is roughly how they operate.
Due to the age of the Queen, the Sussexes could envisage that their funding would soon come not from King Charles, but from Prince William, who has now become Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall i.e. he controls funds from the lucrative The Duchy of Cornwall. I eat organic food created by the Duchy (and, actually, the Duchy is commercial).
Reliant on the Duke of Cornwall
This means that Harry would be reliant for funding on his elder brother (unless the King took those costs over from William). We know the two brothers fell out really badly, probably over William not wanting Harry to marry Meghan Markle - or asking him to think carefully about marrying her, for longer. I cannot imagine that this is the only reason. Probably, jealousy plays a part. Meghan, as an actress, is used to being in the spotlight and she does not want to play 'second fiddle' to the Princess of Wales who has not earned a living but who is ideally cut out for her part, looking very fine in British designer clothes. Knowing them better now, it is clear that the Sussexes are not really suited for dutiful if sometimes tedious roles in the Royal Family. Prince William and Kate came to our home town this week, meeting local people, largely unpublicised, where Diana opened its shopping centre 30 years ago. I cannot imagine Harry and Meghan doing that.
The Sussexes wanted their income to come from another source, so they tried to negotiate staying in public life and receiving funding for their duties and expenses while also being commercial. The Queen informed them that they could not mix the two because only working members of the Royal Family can keep patronages and their 'HRH' title. So these were removed, or put in obeyance. The Sussexes have ended up in in a grand mansion in California earning their own commercial income.
They were rich in our terms - but not in theirs
Meghan and Harry together were worth probably in excess of £30m, but £30m is not a lot in the world that they move in. Security is an issue and costs a lot. If they had stayed doing their royal duties, their security costs would have been covered, but now they are not covered. They were funded for the first year by their father, Prince Charles, but this funding reportedly stopped as they developed their own commercial plans. Members of the Royal Family are representatives of the Monarch and because they are funded for carrying out their public duties and putting up with press coverage, they do not charge for their services (while Meghan wanted to be funded, for whatever she did).
The Monarch does not treat his or her children equally because the lion's share, as in most aristocratic families, goes to the first born to continue the royal line and legacy. The late Queen bought country mansions for her 'spare' three children, Anne, Andrew and Edward and presumably, their living costs came from the Sovereign Grant (or personal income of the Sovereign). My impression that is such mansions in England would not have satisfied the grander ambitions of the Sussexes. There has been talk that Meghan wants to become a future Democrat President of the USA (hence her woke politicising). She would need huge funding for that. The Sussexes were not given a country mansion, possibly because of security but they were leased Frogmore Cottage at Windsor, which was initially was renovated for them at taxpayers expense, on the presumption that they would stay and serve as Royal Family members in the UK, supporting the King and Prince William and living on a meagre £5m a year. This probably does not satisfy them especially in comparison with Prince William's much larger income. Their ambitions are clearly 'global'. When it became clear they would not want that, the money for renovations of Frogmore Cottage (about £3m) was repaid to British taxpayers. They still hold the lease to Frogmore Cottage, which could be terminated.
Netflix and the pressure to ceate a story
The Sussexes made a contract with Netflix (which was already making 'The Crown' which was critical of the Royal Family, in later episodes) for a reported £75m. This was to make a 'docuseries' lasting 6 hours in two parts about a) their relationship and b) why they left the UK. Nowhere, do they discuss the funding issues.
They clearly need < <£20m a year to run their high lifestyle, PR, staff, private planes, polo, security, a mansion with 16 bathrooms so this income will last them only a few years. They need more money or need to downsize, but what have their got left to sell? They have to fund the rest of their lives outside the Royal Family e.g. 50 years. No one knows how much, they were left in the Queen's Will or what they will be left in the Will of King Charles. Therefore the Duke of Sussex is writing a book called "Spare" to make more money while there is any remaining public interest in him. Meghan Markle has been doing podcasts.
I can imagine that the Royal Family are not willing to 'pay them off' with a huge lump sum to silence them. They are not legally 'gagged' by signed confidentialy agreements like Royal staff but let's face it, there is no assurance that they will stay the course. We have to presume that the issue of funding of what to us is their unsustainable (and contradictory) lifestyle is behind most, if not all their increasing provocative actions. The rest is driven by resentment.
What is their USP?
To earn megabucks via the media you need USP (unqiue selling points) i.e. star quality". Meghan was a little recognised cable TV actress who was never going to become a Hollywood star. She was pretty enough to marry a prince but has an unappealing 'woke' agenda (which has put off most of her fans). She is now over 40 when acting roles for women become scarcer. Harry is the son of charismatic Princess Diana, but lacks her star quality.
Breaking a taboo on 'family'
Harry appears willing to say almost anything about his family, unsupported by any hard evidence, including that they are 'racists' in spite of his father leading the muti-racial Commonwealth. So his slurs are politically damaging to British interests overseas. He must also know that calling someone a racist is now almost worse than labelling them a pedophile or sex offender. What about the fifth Commandment ('so things go well with you') to honour your father as well as your mother (however bad your father has been)?
What is there left to say?
The difficulty is that the Sussexes have already divulged most of their (largely false) narrative and probably they have little left to divulge i.e. to sell for millions of dollars. Therefore, because watching them 'in love' is not entertainment (being inappropriately intimate), they are throwing in some 'political views' to justify earning their vast payment, such as:
- insinuating that the Royal Family is filled with "unconscious bias";
- bowing to the Monarch is 'medieval' and demeaning;
- the Commonwealth created by the late Queen's tireless diplomacy is 'British Empire 2.0', when it is a voluntary organisation of mostly small, island states (not power blocs) which attracts new member countries that were never part of the British Empire.
All this creates a 'noise' which makes people watch what has been described as a "three hour borathon" and then watch the second series of three progammes next week. It builds anticipation that the Sussexes will finally spill some terrible revelation, with evidence, such as: Princess Diana was murdered by the Royal Family. In fact, she died because she was in a car accident, possibly caused by clipping another car in the early days of airbags which momentarily blinded the driver, who wrongly put the automatic engine into neutral, losing steering control. She would have lived if she had been wearing a seat belt, as required by law. Her death was not actually directly caused by being chased by paparazzi. The car was illegally speeding anyway.
Summary
In my view, the Sussexes are building up a false narrative of 'unbearable' harrassment by the British press, being put "in danger of their lives in the UK" (which they never were, due to having full royal security which Princess Diana cast off partly due to paranoia largely created by BBC's Martin Bashir). This is to cover up the fact that the real reason for their flight from the UK is all about money plus the superior status of Prince William and his wife.
Would I like my income to come from my brother, The Prince of Wales? Probably not, but there are always ways of ensuring fairness. One gets the impression that there is a lot of resentment involved i.e. William is the heir apparent and Harry is just 'the spare'. There seems to be a lot of ambition to be mega-rich in Califormia and moving among mega-rich stars like Ophrah Winfrey. Meghan probably never wanted to live in 'stuffy', wet England which clearly she is not cut out for, being 'a hugger'. The rest appears to be a money-making 'cover story' but a malicioius, damaging and false one.
Happily, most people in the UK see their narrative as a lot of nonsense. In their Winfrey TV interview, they jointly told a number of falsehoods and they need constant 'fact checking'.
The Royal Family has never been perceived by the public as racist. The British people are not racists, though a few closet racists still exist, as they do all over the world. The Royal Family travel the world and talk to everyone with respect. Protocol ensures they treat everyone equally. Meghan was initially feted by the British press because she was glamorous and mixed race: there was little or no overt racism. Their complaints lack any substance and British people are not just bored but outraged by slurs on not just the Royal Family but on themselves - as if they are all rampant racists. They feel that American divisiveness is wrongly being imported to Britain, for no reason.
Finally, to sell one's family down the river for any amount of money is a taboo, for us. You do not speak openly about your family being horrible, let alone being racist, though you might call a relative "a bit difficult". Over-entitled Harry does not seem aware of this.
For all these reasons, over 90% of British seem to want the Sussexes to lose their Ducal titles and to become merely "Prince Harry and Princess Henry" like minor Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. It is unlikely to happen. What is more likely to happen is that Harry will be seen as a very damaged individual whose perceptions cannot be trusted.
An insult to "Sussex"?
We reside in Sussex and it is one of the most blessed and beautiful of English counties. The Sussexes are doing nothing for it.
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