Prince Harry-Journalism vs Reality

Phil and I are both avid readers. Here we are three weeks and 4 days into our West European adventure and we haven’t watched television once.
This year to date I’ve read 23 books and one of the latest is “Spare”. I had purposely not bought it before we left the UK because I knew I would want to be in a position to fully absorb what Harry was going to tell us about his life. I wanted to be able to weigh this up against what the media had been reporting about him. 

In giving my opinion I should say immediately that I realise I am just a “midlife adventurer’. I’m not a journalist, I’m just a normal, everyday person but we are all entitled to an opinion. I am also quite simplistic. I like to “boil things down to a basic level”. It’s how I’ve managed to solve my own personal troubles during my life and not allow myself to get embroiled in the what, why, when and if, grey murky waters of life. 

It’s probably worth mentioning that Phil is a dedicated newsreader whereas I have no time for the “stories” that the tabloid media spin. I probably look on line about once a week, normally at the weekend, when you can get a summary of the key events that have taken place in the last seven days. 

I grew up in an age where newspapers were printed and were not just on line competitors. I was one of those children, who at thirteen, had a paper round and would wobble up the road on my bike, the heavy paper sack flung over my shoulder. Health and Safety was non existent and no one cared about how much it weighed, it was just part of the job. As long as you could get yourself out of bed early enough before school to deliver your papers then that was all the newsagent cared about. 

I dreaded Thursday because that was when the local newspaper came out which doubled the load and also Sunday. 
Sunday was a nightmare with customers often taking two-three different newspapers complete with supplements. The newsagent, if he was considerate, would employ extra help on Sunday and normal rounds were divided up so you had less houses to deliver to otherwise no one would be able to lift their sacks!

Having read Harry’s autobiography, for me, I feel there are three key questions to answer:

Why did he write the book?
Do I personally believe what he has written?
What is the key message? 

Why did he write the book?
Harry definitely has an issue with the media, it is a consistent thread throughout the book. He still blames the paparazzi for his Mother’s death nearly 26 years later. If I was in his shoes I would too. 

He is also incredibly protective of his wife and children and will do all he can to ensure they are kept safe and there is no repetition of the tragedy that befell him and “Willy” as a result of his mother’s demise. Would I feel like this if I was him? Yes I would. 

From my personal experience of being a single Mum I still have that protective nature. There is a reason my daughter refers to me as “Mama Bear”! 

I believe Harry wrote the book because he was fed up of all the stories being spun in the media. Tabloid newspapers were making immense sums of money from his family. He saw this as an opportunity to tell his own story in the hope that the general public would read the book, believe what he was saying and maybe just wake up to the fact that some journalists are no longer committed to writing the truth. Instead they sensationalise and dramatise because they are put under pressure to write stories that will sell newspapers basically catering to the purchaser to secure retail sales. They can’t afford for the truth to get in the way of a good story. 

In the UK alone, print newspapers are read by 1 in 4 adults over the age of 15 every day (13.6 million daily) and reach larger audiences weekly (24.9 million) and monthly (30.8 million). 

When they are not selling newspapers these same journalists are creating on line content

According to a recent survey, almost 80 percent of UK news consumers between the ages of 18 to 24 considered the internet their leading news platform, and as of 2020, roughly 70 percent of the UK population read or downloaded news content online. That is a huge audience. 

In telling his truth did Harry achieve his goal? 
The problem is the same journalists who made money from his family also then read his book and wrote their own “story” about it in the paper and on line. How many of those people reading these summations actually went on to read the book themselves? Or did they just, once again, merely believe what was written in the news?
Too many people in the world today believe what they read without question, without listening to both sides of the story and they base their opinions on this. The general public, through no fault of their own, don’t have enough personal experience of the world as a whole to formulate their own opinions based upon real life and so they are easy prey for the journalists creating stories for a pay check. I challenge you, do you believe what they write without question? 

Although the book broke records becoming the fastest selling non fiction book of all time, because this type of opinion exists, I guess the jury is still out as to whether he achieved his goal.

Do I personally believe what he has written?
He certainly lays himself bare. He doesn’t gloss over how he felt about his mother’s untimely death or how he tried to cope afterwards. He talks frankly about his feelings and how he tried to convince himself that Diana had faked her death in order to escape the media spotlight and that she would, therefore, one day reappear.

From my own experience of losing my Mum at just fourteen, I can easily see how this worked in his head. It’s a proven fact that trauma of any description affects the brain. How we cope with these periods in our life is very individual. 

He covers all aspects of his life:-school, drugs (which he started taking in his teenage years), how the aristocracy and upper class world works, his time in the army, the royal family and his individual relationships within it and of course his own personal love story. 

I can understand how journalists have decided to pick and choose what they want to write about regarding his book in order to sell further news. How they have conveniently avoided anything Harry has written about their involvement in his life. After all they can’t publicly admit that they have lied, dramatised, or worse still deliberately sold fake news. 

I believe Harry was born into a world not of his choosing. It didn’t fit with his personality, rightly or wrongly he didn’t feel he had to tow the line because he was never going to be King and ultimately he didn’t want to be part of it. 

He is his mother’s son. He doesn’t want to hide his feelings behind the “never complain, never explain” royal mantra. He wants to show those feelings, share those feelings and demonstrate through his charitable causes where he sits morally.

He might not have lived a normal life like you and I but at the same time I believe he is now happy. He has found a world where he belongs, where he can be himself and be the best man, husband and father and in so doing I personally wish him well.

What is the key message?
In my opinion and it is only my opinion, there is one key message that stands out to me and this is not about Harry himself or his life. The book brings into focus how the royal family and ultimately a large percentage of the older generation in the UK think/feel and alongside that a lack of understanding or even denial of the world in which we now live.

I was, as previously described in my blog, brought up in a white conservative area. I have been subject to social prejudice and racism so I feel I have some life experience to draw on.

I have always been in favour of the monarchy. I can see the benefits they bring particularly to the UK economy. Is the new King, his wife, eldest son and family in touch with reality? I think they believe they are but I feel they are missing one valuable change in society. 

The older generation, and I include myself in this equation, are dying out and, therefore, if the royalty want to remain relevant and maintain their position, they need to be appealing to people aged 40 and younger -the Gen Z and Millenials.
Attitudes to the royal family amongst the younger generation have changed substantially since 2019. 

Over 40% of 18-24 year olds now say Britain should have an elected head of state.
The news that surrounded Prince Andrew in 2019, the interview that Harry and Megan did with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, the on going serialisation of the Royal family through “The Crown” and now Prince Harry’s book in 2023 have all had an effect. 

Just as the older generation brought up on printed newspapers delivered to their door believe what they read in the tabloids and the news broadcast on terrestrial television so does this younger generation believe what they read on line and watch on Netflix etc.

Gen Z and Millenials have been brought up in a world where they expect everyone to be treated equal. They don’t remember a time before men and women were entitled to equal rights, when it was illegal to practice your sexual preference, when schools were not multi racial. 

Harry’s book brings into the spotlight how the Royal family operate, where all of the above ideology is apparently taken into account, but when push came to shove they didn’t uphold those beliefs. They did what they had always done and stood back, allowing it all to play out including Harry and Megan leaving the family. 

There is no doubt that both Camilla and Catherine have suffered art the hands of the media as did Diana and Sarah Ferguson before them. However there was a difference this time and that difference centred around Megan’s ancestry. She is a woman of colour. 

Other key people saw what was happening. It wasn’t a figment of Harry and Megan’s imagination. More than 70 female parliamentarians signed an open letter stating that they “stand with Meghan in saying such behaviour “cannot be allowed to go unchallenged” and praising her for “taking a stand”. 

The racism Megan experienced unfortunately went unchallenged by those who should have protected her, her new family, the Royal family. How would you have felt if that was your new in laws?
Would you have felt accepted and supported or would you have been unhappy and stressed and been waking up each morning wondering what awful tabloid malevolence today was going to bring?
These are people we are all suppose to look up to. Through their lack of visible support and continued silence it could be said that they condoned the behaviour of the press. Is this because, as Harry says in his book, the Royal family depend upon their relationship with the media to maintain their prominence and therefore to some degree their position? 

I think this will come back to haunt them. The younger generation will be asking why they didn’t protect or even question the manner in which Megan was treated by the media? They will see the media racism for exactly what it was or, as so often happens now, they will make their opinion known by dismissing the royal family from their lives.

Whether you like it or not Megan represents everything about modern day society. 
A society where 50% of marriages end in divorce including three out of four marriages within the Royal family itself. 

Where the country of your birth doesn’t matter because we are one world.

Where the colour of your skin is irrelevant because everyone’s life matters.

Where love crosses all barriers. 

 That is the key message from this book.