A Duchess and her duty

Harry and Meghan seem to have been behaving like naughty teenagers. Perhaps it’s one of their ways of trying to stay in the spotlight and build up more social media followers.

Whatever way you look at it, their behaviour gets worse and worse.

Meghan hangs on to her title Duchess of Sussex, which keeps her a member of the British royal family, despite making it clear she dislikes the monarchy. It also reminds the public that for a mere 72 days she was a working member of the most respected monarchy in the world, which she is never grateful for.

Such women, however, are not expected to wear a thin see-through white garment as she did recently for all to see her white pants and bra. Was her exposure to make mischief and displease senior members of the family?

Was it carefully timed to try to outdo Princess Catherine’s Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey? Or just extremely silly?

Her behaviour towards her father, Thomas Markle, is unbelievable. He hasn’t seen her since before her wedding more than seven years ago, and not once met Harry or his two grandchildren. Aged 81, he fell dangerously ill in the Philippines, where he now lives. He had a blood clot which cut off his circulation, a three-hour operation as his left foot had turned black, and an amputation of his left leg below the knee.

Meghan claims she had sent him an email but it didn’t make sense to send a message to someone who was under sedation in intensive care. He has now come round and would no doubt love to hold Meghan’s hand. After all Meghan has no trouble getting on a plane to go to an awards ceremony but apparently not to the Philippines. It’s not a case of whether she likes her father or not, it’s her duty to do so for a sick man who brought her up and loves her.

Her latest excuse is that she has lost the phone number. Thrown away no doubt. Thomas Markle has said he never changed his phone number in the hope that Meghan might call, and appealed to her to see him ‘one more time before I die’. He told The Mail On Sunday newspaper that he also dreamed of seeing Harry, his son-in-law, and grandchildren Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, ‘before it’s too late’. One of Meghan’s staff has said she has been trying to reach him since the wedding, but that’s not believed one jot.

Harry’s current behaviour is also bad. During the 15 months I was writing his biography, I found him quick-thinking with a natural way of being positive and making people laugh, whether they were young, old or wounded veterans. Several depressed veterans who felt they would never be the same again told me Harry gave them the wish to live.

Since then he has gone so fast downhill that he agreed to be seen on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a man who dislikes the UK and mocked Princess Catherine when she was having chemotherapy treatment.

Watching Harry trying to make fun of himself was pathetic and unnatural. Perhaps Meghan, whose suggestions he listens to and usually follows, suggested he should try to be a comedian so they could both be entertaining performers. She should have known better. He is also a member of the British royal family and mocking the royal family is so un-funny many people might think that King Charles is part of the joke. He was also extremely rude to the American Present Donald Trump, describing him as ‘the new king of the United States’, a risky thing to do as he doesn’t know how American politics work and Americans are not interested in a prince making suggestions.

Meghan and Harry made a mistake letting Oprah Winfrey interview them when they first returned to the US as the interview contained so many lies. Harry shocked a great many people with his memoir Spare, much of which was also lies. And now he has made a fool of himself with Colbert, whose TV slot will be dropped in May 2026. If he really wants a reconciliation with his family, as he intimated not long ago, he has a weird way of going about it. How could you trust either of them?