The Meghan Markle and Prince Harry scandal shows: The British royal family is lagging behind reality. In a modern monarchy, it would not have come to that.
Is she telling the truth or not? Meghan Markle’s allegations and her loyal Prince Charming Harry against the British royal family have plunged Britain into a religious war. Not only the tabloids fight the battle of all battles with unique pages for “their” beloved-hated royals. On Monday morning, still overtired from the nocturnal interview, the British were roused from their sleepiness by the icon of British breakfast television, Piers Morgan: “I’m pissed off what I had to watch. It just pisses me off,” raged Morgan the cameras. “They just portray the royal family as white gentlemen and then come up with this racist number,” he snorted. He didn’t believe a word of Meghan, heard the 1.6 million viewers of the morning show. He’s on the queen’s side.

When a colleague later criticized him for his outburst of anger towards Meghan, it was all over: “You can all do me,” called the moderator and left the studio in front of the camera. The ITV media star had to resign on the same day. About 36 percent of the population also have more sympathy for the royal family. About 32 percent – mostly younger – of participants in a YouGov poll believe that Harry and Meghan are being mistreated. The rest of the gossip about the royal family is not of interest.

There are also more important things: the fight against the corona pandemic with more than 120,000 deaths in the country or the worst recession of the post-war period. The screwed up diplomatic relations between “global Britain” and the EU would also be an issue. Instead, the British are racking their brains over who in the royal family might have asked about Harry and Meghan’s descendants and which princess cried first.

The palace responded with a statement that, in its perfectly formed nullity, resembled polite silence. The family is sad to learn how much the past years have burdened Harry and Meghan, said from the communications office of the royal family. Above all, the question of racism is taken very seriously. The family will take care of all of this in private. And so the practised game between the royal family, the public and the press continues.