Sometimes it seems as though everything that Prince Harry and Megan Markle do manages to divide opinion.
Following their well-publicized interview with Oprah Winfrey, the couple is under even more scrutiny than ever, and even their reaction to the sad news of the death of Prince Philip on Friday has been picked apart and over-analyzed by their critics.
In a short statement made on the website of their Archewell organization, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex wrote:
"In loving memory of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, 1921-2021 Thank you for your service... you will be greatly missed."
The instant it was published, various pundits came out of the woodwork to grade its tone, sincerity, length, and emotiveness, as though those 21 words constituted a fourth-grade English assignment.
For example, The Daily Telegraph quickly published an article quoting a royal insider, who allegedly said: "Quite a few people read it and thought: 'Is that all they’ve got to say?'"
Meanwhile, royal commentator Annabelle Sanders told Sky News: "They have been criticized for their response. It did seem a little bit cold to me."
Really?
Fair enough, it's not really something an ordinary person would write on social media in the wake of a close relative's death.
If my grandfather, who's also in his nineties, passed away, I'd have a lot more to say on the subject. But I'm not a member of the Royal Family or the head of an organization with connections to it.
I'm allowed, as a private citizen, to wax lachrymose about my grief; even publish a 20-page eulogy, if I so desire. I have that luxury when hundreds of journalists aren't inevitably going to critique every word I put out on the subject.
The important thing to remember is that this is an official statement from Archiewell, the charitable initiative as a whole, not a personal statement from the two people in charge of it.
When organizations, corporations, and charities, make official statements on current affairs, they have to be extremely careful what kind of message they send out, or else risk harming the image of their brand.
I don't know much about the inner workings of Harry and Meghan's PR team, but I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that they didn't dash out their response in five minutes on their phones.
That statement is a horse designed by a committee. It will have been filtered through dozens of publicists, speechwriters and agents; finely tuned and precisely composed to provoke the least amount of drama.
Let's compare Harry and Meghan's responses to other people's. When Buckingham Palace announced the news of Philip's death on Friday morning, the public statement read:
"It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
"His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle."
It's brief, to the point, and informative, communicating its most salient points clearly and economically.
Prince William and Kate Middleton's reply wasn't much different. When the news of the Duke of Edinburgh's death broke, their response was to modify the homepage of their Royal Foundation website.
The couple's website now bears a large black-and-white smiling image of William's grandfather alongside the words: "HRH The Duke of Edinburgh 1921-2021," which is even more laconic than Harry and Meghan's response.
The Royal Family has shared a longer statement from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, which is dated Monday, April 12 – a full three days after Philip's death.
Here, William appears to go into more detail about his feelings and relationship with his grandfather. But even still, the statement is an understated three paragraphs.
The Prince of Wales has been a lot more verbose during his time of bereavement, but crucially he spoke on the subject in a statement made to the BBC.
Prince Charles was addressing his own feelings when he said that his father was "a very special person who [...] above all else would have been amazed by the reaction and the touching things that have been said about him."
He wasn't speaking as a spokesperson for an organization via an intermediary website or social media account, and you can still tell his words have been chosen carefully to avoid over-sharing or giving offense.
The couple's statement has also been criticized for the timing of its publication. For instance, The Telegraph's aforementioned inside source stated:
"There’s a natural order here and they just ignored it by putting their own statement out, without telling anyone, before the Prince of Wales had even issued a response."
However, this ignores the fact that Harry and Meghan have already made the decision to retire from public life. They are no longer active members of the Royal Family, and thus the orders of precedence no longer apply to them.
In addition to the Sussex's response to Philip's death, others have gone on to criticize Meghan for choosing not to attend the funeral, ignoring the fact that she made the decision because she is pregnant and at the advice of her doctors.
Indeed, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed he will not be attending the funeral service, citing his own government's COVID-19 restrictions on such gatherings.
If Johnson, who lives in 10 Downing Street, London, won't be showing face, is it reasonable to expect Meghan to travel all the way from California during a pandemic while pregnant, potentially putting her unborn child at risk? I hardly think so.
Harry and Meghan's statement isn't cold, but matter-of-fact.
I can't help but think that the pundits criticizing it are more disappointed than offended. No doubt they were hoping for something less guarded to spawn more column inches and headlines.
Well, what they're getting is a televised funeral and a couple of soundbites. Because, although the death of Prince Philip death is a public matter, his grandson's private grief is absolutely none of our business.
