Different treatments
Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry, announced their engagement in November 2017. However, after the news went public the Royal Familyfailed to introduce the future Duchess of Sussex to royal journalists in the same way they did with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, when she became engaged to Prince William, an expert has claimed.
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Writing in this week's Telegraph, royal newsletter expert and editor Camilla Tominey brands the Firm's failure to treat Meghan the same as Kate 'deeply regrettable' and argues it may have helped cement the 'anti-press' stance Harry and Meghan hold to this day.
Touching on the royals' tricky relationship with the media, Ms Tominey mentioned a recent interview she did with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Duchess of Cornwall
Despite the bad press the Duchess of Cornwall has received in the past, she remains friendly towards journalists, Ms Tominey explained.
She wrote:
I’ve just written a piece on the Duchess of Cornwall, out this weekend. This is despite the tabloids spending most of the 1990s and early-2000s vilifying her as 'the most hated woman in Britain' and 'public enemy number one.
She loves a gossip, she loves a good story and she knows journalists are inherently interesting people.'
Camilla's treatment at the hands of the media dwarfs what Harry and Meghan went through, Ms Tominey argues.
She added:
What Camilla was put through makes Prince Harry and Meghan’s treatment by the newspapers look like a walk in the park – and yet the Sussexes remain the most anti-press of all.
Meghan and Harry's anti-press stance may have been prevented if Meghan had been introduced to royal journalists from the start like Kate was, Ms Tominey suggested.
She continued:
I have always thought it deeply regrettable that the palace never properly introduced Meghan to the royal press pack – as they did when then Kate Middleton became engaged to Prince William.
It is only really when the Royal family and journalists meet face to face that both sides come to realise that there is probably more that unites them than divides them.
Meghan and Harry's struggle in the limelight was one of the reasons they gave for quitting as senior royals.
However, since their departure from the Firm, the couple have maintained a strong public profile.
