It’s been one full month since Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey resulted in some of the most intense criticism that the British Royal Family has faced in modern history.
At this point, every aspect of the conversation has been painstakingly dissected and re-examined in search for discrepancies or factual errors.
Certain mysteries — such as the question of who made those deplorable remarks about Archie’s skin tone — might never be solved.
And some of the details are immaterial, as no unbiased person in their right mind could possibly take sides against the Sussexes after hearing their side of the story.
But according to one insider, there’s reason to be skeptical about some of Harry’s comments regarding Meghan’s acting career.
Discussing the opposition and lack of support that the couple received early in their relationship, Harry revealed that Meghan was encouraged to continue acting so that she would be able to support herself in the event of a funding shortage.
“That was right at the beginning,” Harry explained to Oprah, “when she wasn’t going to get security, when members of my family were suggesting that she carries on acting, because there was not enough money to pay for her, and all this sort of stuff.
"Like, there were some real obvious signs before we even got married that this was going to be really hard.”
Many viewers were surprised by this revelation, as it ran counter to the widely-reported narrative that Meghan was forced to quit acting by the Queen prior to marrying Harry.
Now, royal expert Andrew Morton — whose 1992 biography of Princess Diana remains one of the most acclaimed and controversial books about the modern royals — says that Meghan was indeed encouraged to continue acting.
However, he claims that in a rare gesture of altruism, the Queen was more concerned with Meghan’s freedom and happiness than with the financial future of the royal family.
“In fairness to the royal family, in fairness to the Queen, she did give them that opportunity to go wherever they pleased,” Morton told Vanity Fair this week.
“And also, they did say to Meghan, ‘If you don’t want to embrace royal duties full time, please be our guest and continue your acting career.’ Those opportunities were open to her.”
So while the gist of Harry’s account remains the same, the wording — you must keep your career versus you can keep your career — might have differed in a crucial way.
Morton is no royalist — in fact he’s been quite vocal in his defense of Harry and Meghan — so there’s no reason to accuse him of bias here.
Elsewhere in the interview, he stated that comparisons between Meghan’s situation and Princess Di’s are absolutely appropriate — which means that it’s no exaggeration to say Meghan needed to escape in order to protect herself.
“When I was watching the interview, I was ticking off, ‘yes, sense of isolation, yes, sense of desperation,’” he said.
“Exactly what Diana was saying to me. But then again, well, friends of mine have seen Meghan walking from Whole Foods supermarket on Kensington High Street with bags of food back to Kensington Palace.”
While we can appreciate that Mr. Morton is attempting to convey the complexity of the situation, we’re sure most people are aware that Meghan wasn’t literally locked in a tower.
The fact remains that it was vitally important for Meghan to remove herself from the situation, so she did so in one of the only ways she could.
And that’s something for which we can all be grateful.