Huh. OK then. Alrighty, I supposed?
The hugely successful Invictus Games have wrapped in Germany and with the national banners being tidied away and competitors on the way home, the biggest takeaway I have is: Golly, that was weird.
Not the incredible scenes of bravery and of the human spirit overcoming visible and invisible trauma but the highly unusual ‘what the’ behaviour of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.
What the hell has happened to her?
In a horrible turn up for the books, in the four days she was in Europe, Meghan became the very thing she seemed to fight so hard during her palace tenure – an ornamental, mute adjunct to a prince.
Day after day, the duchess smiled, clapped, cheered, posed, posed some more, hugged contestants and children, posed with NATO chiefs beside her husband (and the happiest man in Dusseldörf) Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, gave out medals and read a book to some children. Not once did the duchess feature on the official program and the only proof we have that the 42-year-old has not lost the power of speech was an “off the cuff” speech she gave at a reception hours after landing in Germany.
Remember during the couple’s Oprah Winfrey interview, when the Duchess of Sussex talked about watching the Little Mermaid and seeing the similarities with her situation, proudly telling Winfrey “But by the end, she gets her voice back”?
In a strange reversal of fortune, the version of the duchess seen at the Games was one who was doing a worryingly good impression of Ariel when she first washes up on land and has sacrificed her power of speech.
Somehow, for some reason, Meghan, a woman whose entire public identity is defined by her outspoken ways and refusal to remain silent, was going about last week like some sort of invasion of the body snatchers scenario was going on; like she has been possessed by the spirit of a mid-Western trad wife who knew all the words to Stand By Your Man by heart.
Back home in California, her pal and neighbour Gloria Steinem must have choked on her morning prune smoothie.
The only time Meghan took the mic at The Invictus Games was in an “off the cuff” speech at a reception hours after she landed. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation
Unlike last year’s event where the former Suits star took centre stage at the opening ceremony and then proceeded to trot out designer outfit after obscenely expensive designer outfit, this time around Meghan did not give a single official speech and her wardrobe had been toned down such that she started to resemble monochromatic wallpaper. (The only hint of the Meghan we have known and some have come to love was her final look, a blue leather cut-out Cult Gaia dress.)
I do not for a second think this is a permanent state of being and that Meghan is about to launch her own line of pie dishes or that we are going to see her writing a book about the importance of never outshining one’s husband.
However, the Invictus Games has been quite the turn up for the coupley, Sussex books.
The obvious question at this point, what the hell? Why have just witnessed Meghan transform herself, momentarily, into a beige-loving Tammy Wynette figure?
Meghan greets Yuliia ‘Taira’ Paievska during the Swimming Medals Ceremony during the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, Germany. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation
One explanation might lie in the public hostility towards the duchess in the US, with more Americans having an unfavourable view of her than a favourable one. (At the Sussexes’ worst point polling-wise this year, Queen Camilla had better numbers in the US than Meghan. Just let that sink in.)
Harry, while polling better, is still hardly a popular figure.
Going into the Games, it was crystal clear that Harry and Meghan needed to overwrite the increasingly negative image they has calcified around them throughout this year: Of them as chronic complainers blinkered to their incredible privilege; as overpaid, underworked hires whose lack of talent was only matched by lukewarm public interest their non-Palace baiting projects; and as two people whose royal lustre had tarnished, perhaps irreparably.
By the time early September rolled around, Sussex Inc seemed to be taking on evermore water.
Something had to be done, something like a brand transplant, a holus-bolus replacement of them being seen as gripers and “f**king grifters” and them trying to recast themselves as bubbly, positive, happy, clappy sorts who just want to help others!
The Sussexes are clearly hungry to start new chapters, new matching notebooks and new eras of their careers and a key part of that thinking would seem to be a professional separation of sorts.
Are Meghan and Harry going through a professional separation? Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation
Splitting off their brands and projects, while still resolutely backing one another, would explain why we have just witnessed Meghan being cast in an adoring supporting role to Harry as he took the lead and was the leading face of the event.
This career bifurcation would not seem to just be rooted in them playing their strengths but their interests too.
Meghan has a (likely) Instagram return in the offing along with some big new digital venture, a mega agent representing her and an adaptation of bestseller Meet Me At The Lake to turn out for the screen after Netflix bought the rights. (Really, this project doesn’t exactly have Harry written all over it does it?)
It looks increasingly like the duchess is in the midst of launching herself back into the over-bronzed, underfed scrum of Hollywood, leaving Harry to slop around their shared home office, doing good and more good for the world and never having to take off his Uggs.
The 39-year-old seems about as eager to play the Los Angeles game as to join Prince William’s four-a-side Dads’ rugger tournament.
Meghan and Harry look set to take very different career paths. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation
Harry, when he went to see Beyoncé in concert with Meghan, her mum Doria Ragland and some friends earlier this month looked like a man having a middling time at best and was nowhere to be seen when the duchess returned for a second concert days later, happily posing for the cameras.
Meanwhile, Meghan would seem to have a much more voracious appetite for limelights, spotlights and being smack dab in the public eye.
The divvying up of duties looks like, going forward, the duchess will wear the glitzy superstar hat with a side line in do-gooders, while Harry will carry the humanitarian can while occasionally turning out some doco to keep Netflix off of his back.
out in front and lead.
Still, I find the events of the last few days a bit depressing if it is indeed the case that for the Sussex brand to regenerate, it requires a woman muting herself and playing agreeable second fiddle. And, I’m sure Ariel and Gloria would agree with me too.
SOURCE: NEWS.COM
