There has been a flurry of newspaper interest in the supposed romance of Prince Harry with an American actor, Meghan Markle.
Is it a rumour? Who knows? But what the hell. Since the “secret” was revealed by the Sunday Express’s Camilla Tominey it has taken off.
And not just in the pop papers. The Daily Telegraph featured a large picture of Markle on its front page on Monday, with a page lead inside, yet another a page lead on Tuesday plus a full-page feature, Could Harry marry a divorcee (when Margaret couldn’t)?.
The Independent, once so fastidious about ignoring royal family matters, thought her worthy of an article. And the Times decided it should get in on the act with a teasing T2 piece, Everything you (secretly) wanted to know about Prince Harry’s ‘friend’.
Note the single quotes. They act as a get-out should the tale turn out to be, well, a tale. But what caught my eye in the Times’s piece, by Hilary Rose, were her remarks about the TV series in which Markle is featured, Suits:
The show seems mainly to consist of pretty people saying inane things with the utmost gravity which, when you think about it, is pretty much what the royal family do.
Off to the Tower with her! By contrast, the loyal Telegraph took the matter __more seriously by observing that the fact she is American and a divorcee will “have raised eyebrows in Buckingham Palace”.
The paper even has “sources” who evidently pointed out that it is still “early days”, adding that “if it got to the stage where the prince wanted to marry Miss Markle, he would need the Queen’s permission”. So that royal prerogative still holds in 2016, eh?
Is it not bliss to put Brexit, Trump and Putin to one side in order to enjoy the real things that matter in life?