Meghan just signalled where her loyalty really sits, but the quietest hint could trigger a family rupture that never heals, Chris Riches writes.
Meghan when in Australia earlier this year (Image: Getty)
Like a nuclear blast, the fallout from Prince Harry’s bitter memoir ‘Spare’ still lingers, threatening to damage future royal generations. So if Harry and Meghan Markle fail to offer vocal and public support to King Charles in his new literary row with Earl Spencer – then the Sussexes must accept the wounds they made will never scar over and heal.
The Sussexes must be looking on Earl Spencer’s new book ‘Swan Song: Diana, My Sister’ with wry amusement as finally there is another royal who has written an explosive book that threatens to tear at the Royal Family’s very core. Spencer sparked turmoil for Buckingham Palace last week when he claimed King Charles told him after Diana’s death, in a private phone call, that “we’ll forget her soon enough”.
Then he told the BBC‘s Laura Kuenssberg that Charles was almost “giddy” ringing him at his home in Cape Town, to inform Spencer how he had broken the tragic news to Princes William and Harry.
The cruel implication is that the then-Prince Charles was somehow celebrating his ex-wife’s accidental death in Paris back in 1997.
The monarch is also accused of telling Diana that he was “not actually in love with her” before their wedding.
Unsurprisingly, Buckingham Palace hit back – they had to – with the strongest wording they could, by saying that “fraternal grief can cloud reason” and “affect judgement”.
That leaves Harry and Meghan in a bit of a bind, because they both reportedly knew about the book – and possibly some of its contents – in advance, when the Sussexes visited Spencer at his Althorp Estate in July.
Now Harry and Meghan are living in the Cotswolds, having returned from California and hoping to set up the next chapter in their life … although hopefully not another chapter in an updated ‘Spare’.
So where do they stand in this row? It could dictate their future.
Charles Spencer’s new book about his sister is now on sale (Image: Getty)
And already, Meghan has been accused of giving a subtle nod to Earl Spencer’s controversial new tome in a recent post from her As Ever brand on Instagram.
The post, which promotes pantry products, includes a swan emoji, with eagle-eyed social media users pointing out that the emoji could be a hint of support towards Earl Spencer’s book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.
One social media user posted: “Nothing this woman does is by accident, she is calculated at every turn.”
Another wrote: “Of course it’s intentional. She’s never used a swan emoji before. She’s pure nastiness. Surely this will be the final straw for the King.”
If the Sussexes are not careful, they will be branded solidly ‘Team Spencer’, and their hopes of Royal Family integration will be a pipe dream.