Megxit is the most complicated, self-involved, grandiose, shortsighted, letter of partial, fingers-crossed resignation in history.
www.theatlantic.com
Anyone who wants to look back at the Queen's early life should read the recent biography,
Young Elizabeth. Fascinating and enlightening. Neither the Queen nor Margaret received formal educations due to quaint, old-fashioned notions of their parents. Government officials were appalled when they discovered at the age of 13 that Princess Elizabeth had no formal education. They busily set about trying to instruct her in British history and knowledge of how the government worked which she would need to understand as a future Queen of Great Britain. Margaret was not so lucky -- she was not included in any of the lessons taught to her older sister.
As far as the
Atlantic writer's viewpoints, she definitely seems like a royalist who is all put out at Meghan & Harry for scuttling her romantic fantasies and her overly aggrandized fairy tale notions of this couple living life happily ever after in the royal bosom post a beautiful royal wedding with all the drama. The uniformed prince, the lovely bride, the stained glass grandeur of St. George's Chapel's high ceilings, and the fabulous horse drawn carriage winding its way through quaint historical Windsor, down the long walk and into the gates of grand Windsor Castle
Equating the hardships of war torn England during WWII with the present day marriage of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry is ridiculous and laughable. Meghan is most certainly correct that stifling and repressing one's emotions can have a deleterious effect on one's life and well being. Just take a look at what happened to Princess Margaret and to Prince William of Gloucester after they were both denied the possibility of marrying their true loves.
There is no equivalence between the 38-year-old Duchess of Sussex being continually slammed and racially abused by the British media during her first pregnancy and the 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth bucking up her courage to provide inspiration to other British youngsters and to adults who faced far more grievous hardships and frightening times during the war than Elizabeth and Margaret had to endure.
The writer (Caitlin Flanagan) furthermore has not experienced what M&H have dealt with in their royal gilded cage, so it's easy for her to be blindly and viciously judgmental. Flanagan has no personal investment, no involvement, no knowledge of behind-the-scenes royal relationships, and nothing riding on whether or not her bitter assessment comes anywhere near containing even a modicum of truth.
Unsurprisingly, Flanagan is also completely wrong about the South Africa documentary. It chiefly covers the Sussexes' visit to a number of countries in southern Africa, during which they met with leaders, young people, community activists and regular people. M&H helped highlight serious issues of gender violence, poverty, oppression, and the ongoing need to eradicate land mines, etc. The filmmaker Tom Bradby used about ten minutes or less of the film to ask M&H individually about the stress they were under in England. They had received death threats in addition to being the object of intense media scrutiny, with Meghan in particular having to endure palace leaks that fueled continual harassment and heinous targeting by the British tabloids, all while carrying her first child. Meanwhile, none of her husband's family members could be bothered to speak out on her behalf against this unforgivable abuse.
Flanagan's over-romanticism about Diana is OTT too. It reveals more about Flanagan than it does about flesh-and-blood Diana. And her assessment of Meghan/Harry's personalities and their relationship is also inaccurate. Suggesting that Meghan should have known the tabloid campaign would continue unrelentingly after her marriage is harsh and baseless. We can see from their engagement interview that M&H were eager and hopeful, and that they felt together they would be able to weather any difficulties. In addition, how could they have known they would receive little support and no public protection by any senior royals against the unfair and unrelenting media onslaught?
There is so much to counter in this opinion piece, it's mind-boggling. How does Flanagan know that Meghan Markle wanted to be a princess?
In my view, and from what I know about Meghan, she already had a wonderful, highly successful life prior to meeting Prince Harry. Sure, she's someone who enjoys the good things in life, but Meghan didn't need Prince Harry in order to live a good life or to feel like a princess.
Meghan has admitted to being naive about her expectations of royal life, but Flanagan is off base accusing Meghan of wanting to be a princess. She simply happened to fall in love with a prince, but her head was not turned by his royal status or by his titles. Neither Meghan nor Harry appear to be caught up in those kinds of status perks. That's surely one reason why they weren't interested in their son bearing a title. Meghan is definitely ambitious and she's not shy about asserting herself. But she's ambitious about living her truth, achieving great things, encouraging others, and giving back to those less fortunate. As Meghan has said,
"I never wanted to be a lady who lunches. I always wanted to be a woman who works." Certainly it's better to be strong and to know who you are and what you want in life, rather than being a wilting wallflower pushover or a hapless, malleable nonenity.
All this and I still haven't gotten to the part about M&H, in Flanagan's words, 'overplaying their hand.'
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Harry is a gentleman and he got along well with Kate, and he spoke up for her against the maligning in the press that she received in the lead-up to her marriage. Harry even had to remind William (caught on camera during the 2012 Jubilee ceremonies) that he'd walked forward off the boat with the umbrella, while leaving his wife Kate behind, looking forlorn. Another very telling 'umbrella-related' photograph with a back story. 
Still, she had to know it wasn't going to last forever. But little did anyone know Harry would eventually meet the love of his life: a strong, accomplished, multi-ethnic, divorced American actress. It is what it is. 
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