Yes, I expect to be glued to the sofa. Yes, I anticipate toe-curling, tooth-grinding and indignant expostulation emanating from my good self. Should I refuse to watch on principle? Forget that. I’m in, agog, even if there’s a faint whiff of motorway crash rubber-necking about it. Actually, I’m also pre-fuming. I haven’t seen a second of the thing and already steam is pouring out of my lugholes.
In the fragments released in advance Prince Harry tells Ms Winfrey: “I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here, talking to you with my wife by my side, because I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for her, going through this process by herself, all those years ago. Because it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we had each other.”
Frankly it’s hard to imagine a more inflammatory couple of sentences. Harry manages to muddy the historical waters, insult his father, grandmother and sick grandfather and invite the viewing hordes to a pity party all at the same time.
“Her” is obviously his late mother Princess Diana, but what Harry means by “this process” is far from clear. Is he suggesting that Meghan’s induction into the Royal Family and Diana’s were identical?
Does he think the audience will buy into the notion that the virginal 19-year-old Diana and the 37-year-old divorced showbusiness veteran Meghan endured similar tribulations? Are we supposed to think Prince Charles was utterly absent from his new bride’s side? Does Harry intentionally imply that the Queen and Prince Philip were cold and distant? Has he been watching too many episodes of The Crown?
The most infuriating phrase here is, “it has been unbelievably tough for the two of us”. Which part of being welcomed by an enthralled nation, given a dream wedding and housed in the lavishly appointed Frogmore Cottage caused mortal suffering? Why has Harry not learnt from his ill-judged whingeing to ITV’s Tom Bradby while on a South Africa tour?
“Unbelievably tough” is losing a loved one to Covid, lockdown in a tower block, working from home while home schooling three children and caring for a baby or watching the business you have built up collapse.
I’m still going to watch it, though.
