A sense of history repeating itself has been emerging for the past few days, as the first excerpts of a highly anticipated book about Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have been published in the U.K.
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The names are different. So are the details.
But a sense of royal déjà vu has been spreading for the past few days, as the first excerpts of a highly anticipated book about Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have been published in the U.K.
The portions of Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Family by journalists Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie that have seen the light of day have not offered major revelations about the couple, who stepped back as senior royals earlier this year.
But they have offered more detail and fleshed out stories that have been reported over the past few years. And in doing so, they provide an uncanny parallel with the publication of another book 28 years ago, which focused on Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
For some royal observers, there’s a sense of history repeating itself.
“Harry and Meghan are airing their grievances about their family in public. This is exactly what Diana did,” biographer Penny Junor, author of Prince Harry: Brother, Soldier, Son, said via email.
Publication of the excerpts in the Times and the Sunday Times has set off a flurry of commentary in the U.K. media.
“After finding their freedom at last, Harry and Meghan have never appeared more trapped,” read the headline on a story by associate editor Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
ITV’s royal editor, Chris Ship, wrote about the excerpts under the headline: “The Sussexes and the Royal Family: a relationship that was never going to work.”
But are there blockbuster revelations? Not in what we’ve seen, some observers say.
“Some flesh is put on the bones of a story that we know quite well, but despite the headlines there are no new properly sourced revelations in the book as serialised so far,” the BBC’s royal correspondent, Jonny Dymond, wrote on the BBC website.
“We knew that William and Harry’s relationship was badly damaged; Harry told ITN’s Tom Bradby that in the interview he gave in late 2019. We knew that Meghan felt abandoned by the palace; she went out of her way to make that point to Bradby in the same program.”
Reports quote a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan as saying they did not provide interviews for the book or contribute to it.
But the level of detail it contains has given rise to questions of just where the information in the book, which will be published on Aug. 11, comes from.
“The intimate nature of some details raises questions over who the sources were — and whether Harry and Meghan gave them their blessing before they revealed such closely guarded insights to the couple’s private lives,” the Daily Mail reported.
“Extraordinary personal details littered throughout Finding Freedom include particulars of the moment … Meghan confessed she wrote her estranged father Thomas Markle one final message while on FaceTime in a bathtub.”
Rewind to 1992, and Diana denied having contributed directly to Andrew Morton’s book, Diana: Her True Story, which rocked the House of Windsor and revealed details of the unhappy marriage between her and Prince Charles, along with her own suicide attempts and eating disorders.
Shortly after Diana’s death in 1997, Morton revealed she had, through an intermediary, given him six taped interviews.
Junor doesn’t see the current book doing as much harm to the monarchy as Morton’s did.
“Harry is not likely to become King, so this is not as damaging as Andrew Morton’s book in 1992 was,” she said.
At that time, Diana was married to the heir to the throne and in line herself to become Queen.
“By denouncing her husband and his family, she damaged the future King and in many ways the Queen herself,” Junor said.
In this book, Junor said, Harry and Meghan “have emerged as victims of a system that couldn’t cope with their popularity.”
While we haven’t seen the whole book yet, no one other than Harry and Meghan “seems to come out of it well,” Junor said.
“The public do not need to feast on the misery of others. That is what happened in 1992 and wha