Meghan and Harry: Was It Too Much?

Did they really think things through?

As I sat in front of the TV yesterday evening, eyes glued to the screen listening to Mehgan and Harry’s every word, one thought kept running through my mind: how will their revelations affect their children’s lives?

From the minute I decided to have children myself — and mixed-race children at that, I have weighed every decision with their best interests in mind. Life isn’t easy as a mixed-race child — too black for white folks, and too white for black folks. Mixed-race children live in a world where they are always in between, and so it is important to help them build their self-confidence and identity.

I am not convinced that Meghan and Harry thought enough of their children before sharing all that they did. I think that they are both hurt — and justifiably so — by how they were treated by the British Royal Family aka the Firm. By doing the interview, they wanted to correct certain narratives and also, I suspect, get back at the Firm. But, they might not have thought about how their interview and the revelations therein may adversely affect the lives and future of Archie and their unborn daughter.

To recap, Meghan and Harry shared several things:

1. Meghan didn’t want to live anymore while she was 5 months pregnant with Archie.
2. A member of the British Royal family expressed concern over how dark Archie’s skin might be.
3. The British Royal family denied Archie a title in all likelihood because he is mixed-race.
4. The British Royal Family stopped paying for Archie’s security detail once his parents left the UK, thus exposing him to significant danger given his high public profile.
5. The British Royal family cut Harry off financially — the only income he had was an inheritance from his late mother — Princess Diana.
6. Prince Charles (the children’s grandfather), stopped speaking to his son at a time when Harry most needed his help.

Archie and his unborn sister will start their lives with all this baggage. Wherever they go in the world, people will know all these most intimate details about them, and that is not fair to them.

Like all children, they have a right to build their own lives, their own narratives, but now they’ve been stripped of that opportunity. Now, they don’t get to paint their own canvas — they’ll have to add to their parent’s own canvas for as long as they live.

As an adult, I can’t imagine how Archie will feel knowing that the whole world knows he may have never seen the light of day. I understand that Meghan was in a deep depression at the time, and I do not at all seek to diminish that in any way. But does the whole world need to know that she sought to end her life and as a consequence that of her unborn child? That is something that they could have shared privately with their children when they were old enough to understand, not with the whole world.

Alternatively, Meghan could have still shared that she had suicidal thoughts, but she didn’t have to share specific details about the exact period of time – namely 5 months into her pregnancy, just before she attended an event with Harry.

A member of the Royal Family was concerned about Archie’s color. Meghan and Harry reveal this but do not disclose who the person is. Every single person that ever meets these children in the future will ask them to nametheracist. Everyone will want to know who it is and this is an unfair burden for these children to carry. They’ll be bullied, mocked, and trolled with that nametheracist hashtag for the rest of their lives.

I mean, if Meghan and Harry were truly thinking of their children’s well-being and future, they would not have shared this piece of information and then left us with the mysterious enigma about whom the racist actually is. Is it their grandfather Prince Charles, their uncle, Prince William, or the Queen herself? Their children will always be asked this question.

Also the part about Archie’s lack of a title. Yes indeed, the British Royal Family didn’t give him a title, but is that set in stone? Society is in constant evolution — things change — things have to change, including the British Royal Family.

If ever Prince Harry was to become king, yes by a long shot, but still possible, Archie would automatically become a prince. So while the Firm did not anoint Archie with a title now, that’s not to say that they wouldn’t at one point in time. When that time comes, it will be quite an awkward situation for both siblings given the revelations of their parents.

Meghan and Harry proclaim their love and admiration for the queen. They seek to dissociate the Queen from the Firm, and that is simply too weird for words. The CEO of the Firm is the Queen. So if the Firm decided to remove Archie’s security detail once they moved to Canada, somehow the Queen must have given the order. So in a way, the message is, the Queen didn’t care enough for Archie. In short, Archie’s life didn’t matter.

I’m not sure I’d want the whole world to know that my grandmother didn’t care about my life, that she knew I could get hurt yet she took away my security detail. How will Archie ever have a normal relationship with his great-grandmother now? How will he manage this information throughout his life knowing that everyone else in the world knows it’s too?

The other revelation about the British Royal family cutting Harry off financially is also difficult to process. How does one deal with that psychologically? How will Archie and his unborn sister?

Lastly, is the fact that Prince Charles stopped talking to his son at a time when Harry most needed him. Again, these children will grow up with this and will always have a doubt as to whether their grandfather actually loves them.

I’m not for keeping secrets from children — they have the right to know, but does the whole world have the right to know all their deepest darkest secrets too? When one has children, one also needs to think about their well-being and future, but Harry and Mehgan blinded by their pain did not think well enough about the repercussions such revelations could have well into the future.

They made a choice — that to leave Britain and the Royal Family. With what they shared this week, it is safe to assume that they were right to leave. But in their quest to get back at the Royal Family, they have sacrificed their children’s well-being. In their quest to get back at the British tabloid press, they have provided fodder for that same press to harass their children forever.

At one point during the interview, Harry says that they had to get out of Britain because he wasn’t sure that it would end well. They had an opportunity to lie low and have a chance at all of this ending well. But now, with this tell-all interview, I’m really not sure that this fairytale will end well at all.

Thanks for reading my perspective.