The Duchess of Sussex
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It was reported this week that the Duchess of Sussex is keen to see the upcoming Sussex biography published as soon as possible, in order to ‘set the record straight’. Now come further claims regarding Meghan’s wishes to control her own public narrative. As the public awaits the release of Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family in August, Sebastian Shakespeare has revealed in the Daily Mail that the Duchess of Sussex could one day publish her own, first-hand account of her life as a royal.
Shakespeare claims that one of Meghan’s friends disclosed to him that the Duchess kept a diary during her time in the UK, which could be used to compose her own first-person chronicle. Royal biographer Andrew Morton, author of Meghan: Hollywood Princess, offered his take on the claims, stating: ‘She is a good writer, with a nice turn of phrase… Remember she studied English in her first year at Northwestern College.’ He highlights that authoring her own version of events based on her diaries would grant Meghan ‘total control’ of the account.
The Duchess and Duke of Sussex
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Shakespeare alleges that while it is likely that Royal Family members have kept diaries in the past, their contents have not been publicly disclosed. Indeed unlike traditional royals, the Duchess has some experience with communicating directly with the public. During her time as an actress, Meghan authored a lifestyle blog, The Tig, while Shakespeare also alleges that she anonymously wrote another blog, The Working Actress. A spokesman for the Sussexes did not respond to the Mail’s request for comment – just last month, the couple sent out a letter stipulating a new ‘zero engagement’ policy with the British tabloid press.
Meghan is not the first royal to seek to have a say in the narrative that surrounds her. According to Morton, who wrote Diana: Her True Story with cooperation from the late Princess of Wales and her friends, Diana had grown paranoid after the fracture of her marriage. Having heard that Morton was researching a book about her, she made contact with the author to ensure that her own side of the story was represented in the work. The candid account exposed Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall (then Camilla Shand)’s affair, as well as Diana’s depression, her battle with bulimia and incidents of self harm.
The late royal consented to record six taped interviews with her friend Dr James Colthurst in her sitting room at Kensington Palace, which were then passed on to Morton for use in the book. The information was presented so as not to disclose Diana’s cooperation, and Morton wrote in the Foreword to the 2017 edition of the book of the ‘shock, disgust and astonishment that greeted the first instalment. Criticism was severe and unrelenting… In the ensuing furore, the book was banned by numerous major bookstores and supermarkets.’
He continued: ‘It is one of the ironies of this whole affair that a biography written and produced with the complete and enthusiastic co-operation of its subject should be piously boycotted on the suspicion that it was a false rendering of Diana’s life.’ Ultimately, however, Diana ‘began to receive the kind of support that always meant so much to her, from her public… Thousands of women… expressed how, through reading about her life, they had discovered and explored something in their own lives. Letters came flooding in. Many from people who had suffered from eating disorders and accepted their lot in silence.’
A ‘friend’ was quoted in the MailOnline this week as stating that Meghan similarly feels that ‘people need to see her vulnerable side, something the book does in great detail… I think [she] wants people to feel sorry for her, or at least have compassion for her and all she’s been through, which has been anything but a fairy tale.’
‘With unique access and written with the participation of those closest to the couple,’ the upcoming authorised Sussex biography is being billed as a work that ‘goes beyond the headlines to reveal unknown details of Harry and Meghan’s life together, dispelling the many rumours and misconceptions’. Yet perhaps the privileged access it grants could be trumped only by an autobiography, authored by Meghan herself. Watch this space.
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