Just when critics believe Meghan Markle’s public-relations choices cannot become more provocative, another post reignites the debate.
For Prince Harry and the wider royal family, few places carry more emotional weight than Princess Diana’s final resting place: the secluded island on the grounds of Althorp, her ancestral family estate in Northamptonshire.
Yet on Thursday, Meghan shared an image showing Harry and their son, Prince Archie, holding large bouquets of flowers while Princess Lilibet followed behind. The polished, sunlit scene appeared to have been captured on the grounds outside Althorp House, though not on the island where Diana is buried.
The suggestion many viewers drew was immediate: had Harry brought his children to pay tribute at their grandmother’s grave?
Neither Meghan nor Harry has publicly pushed back on that interpretation.
People magazine, the U.S. outlet often regarded as sympathetic to the Duchess of Sussex, has reported that the Sussex family stayed at Althorp during their recent trip to the United Kingdom, reportedly as guests of Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer.
That detail has also revived questions about Harry’s repeated claims that returning to Britain without official royal protection poses unacceptable security risks for his family, including fears over paparazzi attention and threats to Meghan’s safety.
So the central question remains: why would Meghan choose to share this particular image now?
Meghan Markle has shared a series of ‘summer holiday’ photos of Prince Harry and their children Archie and Lilibet while in Europe
There is also a shrine to Diana next to the water, which the public can see when the estate is open (pictured)
Lilibet was seen walking through an avenue of trees and hedges at Althorp, Princess Diana’s childhood home – with Harry and Archie strolling together up ahead appearing to hold bouquets
Alison Boshoff reported in the Daily Mail last week that a source who is hardly sympathetic to the couple dropped a bombshell.
‘I don’t think [Harry’s] ever wanted to be estranged from his family,’ this source said. ‘I think when he was madly in love with Meghan he could be blind enough to choose her. Now things are different and the veil is lifting.’
Note these key phrases:
‘Was madly in love.’
‘Things are different.’
Perhaps Meghan’s decision to post this picture of Harry and the children at Althorp, seemingly on their way to Diana’s grave, is an act of defiance.
After all, it was widely reported that the immovable conditions of Harry, Meghan and the children meeting with King Charles were no leaks and no photos.
If one considers that admonition literally, then Meghan has abided. If one also considers the spirit of this requirement, as I do here, then Meghan has breached it.
Consider that Prince William has visited Diana’s grave, surely with Catherine, Princess of Wales and their children.
Have we ever, ever, seen a photo of them at Althorp?
Of course not. William and Catherine are decent, serious people who understand that some things are sacred.
Diana was buried on that island, at her family’s private residence, precisely to keep her gravesite from becoming a circus, a tourist attraction, a commodity.
For Meghan to share this, in my opinion, is beyond callous. It’s vulgar. It’s as obscene as that video she took in Paris, seemingly filmed from the back of a chauffeured car near the tunnel where Diana died — Meghan’s feet up on the backseat, crossing them as if in bored repose.
She posted that to Instagram too, and William was said to be fuming.
What must his reaction be now? Diana was his mother too, but the way Harry carries on, you would think he was the only brother to suffer her loss.
What must King Charles be thinking?
He allowed his traitorous son — one whose claims of royal family squabbling have been injected back into the news cycle by none other than Oprah Winfrey — back into his life with, reportedly, one request: Do not break my trust.
This act, which has sparked revulsion online and among good people everywhere, seems to be further proof that William is right: Harry and Meghan cannot be trusted.
So what has changed since last week, when Meghan’s camp was briefing — despite everything we have all seen, heard and read to the contrary — that Meghan, according to a July 16 People magazine report, ‘always lets [Harry] lead’ when it comes to his family and that she ‘is very supportive’ of a royal reconciliation?
A separate source told the Daily Mail that financial motivation was suspected to be behind the Sussexes’ new attitude toward the royal family.
‘The American dream is cooling,’ this source said, adding that Meghan may be ‘trying to push fresh thoughts and projects, but it is not easy.’
Indeed. No new comparable ventures have been announced since Meghan’s deal with Netflix was significantly downgraded.
While she may have been nominated for an Emmy for her show ‘With Love, Meghan’, that is largely regarded by Hollywood and the American public as a joke.
Netflix hasn’t even listed her show on their own Emmy nomination page.
Harry, meanwhile, spent most of his time in the UK making public appearances alone.
He also attended an NBA finals game without Meghan and showed up without her at last week’s Time100 Gala, where he was an honored guest, promoting the cause we’re told is closest to his heart — Invictus.
No reason for Meghan’s absence was given.
So perhaps this is the message behind Meghan’s Thursday photo dump, depicting idyllic, wholesome family summer days, the first photo a black-and-white shot of Meghan seated next to Harry at a meal and covering her face in laughter: Meghan will continue to do exactly as she pleases.
And if that means showing the children from behind — even as she and Harry still bang on about their privacy — as they walk solemnly to pay their respects to ‘the most hunted woman in the world’, as Diana’s brother put it, so be it.
It’s hardly as if we could think less of Meghan.
