Julie Burchill, a Royal commentator and self-proclaimed ‘rad-fem’, has launched a scathing attack on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, likening their year to the Queen’s infamous ‘annus horribilis’ in 1992 when Windsor Castle was engulfed in flames. The writer for the Spectator described Meghan as being ‘hollow – like, a Russian doll’.
Drawing parallels between the Royal couple’s 2024 and the events of 32 years ago, she highlighted instances such as the Queen’s “favourite son being photographed canoodling with an American” and Princess Anne’s divorce. She also mentioned Princess Diana’s involvement in a candid book about her troubled marriage to Prince Charles.
Burchill labelled 1992 as the ‘annus horribilis’, noting a ‘marked difference’ between the Queen’s ‘awful year’ and that of Prince Harry. In her biting critique, she wrote: “The Queen’s year might have happened to anyone who had a bit of bad luck and a lot of castles. Harry and Meghan’s ‘annus horribilis’ is the direct result of them being, as that Spotify exec said, ‘f****** grifters’.
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She further referenced a South Park episode mirroring the Sussex’s embarking on a ‘Worldwide Privacy Tour’. She recalled a ” genuinely chilling moment when the Prince suggests to his wife that they might actually embrace a life of privacy and do good things rather than just talk about how good they are. When she doesn’t answer, he opens her head and finds that she is hollow, like a Russian doll”.
She then blasted Harry and Meghan’s fans as bullies, claiming they ‘still spread nasty rumours’ during Princess Catherine’s absence from Royal engagements while she underwent preventative chemotherapy.
On the topic of Meghan’s new brand ‘American Riviera Orchard’, she mocked it as sounding like a ‘urinal cake’. Further commenting on lifestyle brands, she said: “while people don’t need to like you for your lifestyle brand to be a success (see Paltrow, G. and Stewart, M.), they do have to be slightly envious of you and think: ‘I wish I had what she’s got!'”
However, Burchill is sceptical about anyone coveting Meghan’s life, adding: “Tina Brown said this year, ‘The trouble with Meghan is that she has the worst judgment of anyone in the entire world. She’s flawless about getting it all wrong’, it sounded like an understatement”.
After her critique of Meghan, Burchill turned her scorn to Prince Harry, describing him as seeming “like a baffled child playing at being a grown-up”, despite his having once ‘proudly’ worn medals from 10 years of service in the Army.
She then remarked that “two things this year have made Harry appear not merely daft, but callous”. The first incident she refers to is when he received – against the mother’s wishes of the deceased – the Pat Tillman Award for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly. Tillman was a US football player who forsook a £3 million contract to join the US army. Mary, his mother, expressed her dismay: “I am shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award. There are recipients that are far more fitting.”
She continued, highlighting the efforts of others in the veteran community: “There are individuals working in the veteran community that are doing tremendous things to assist veterans. These individuals do not have the money, resources, connections or privilege that Prince Harry has.”
Commentator Burchill then offered a scathing critique of the couple’s recent Netflix projects. She described Prince Harry’s polo documentary as failing to change his “out-of-touch playboy prince” image and took a jab at Meghan’s forthcoming cooking show, suggesting it was an attempt to “see how down-to-earth she is”.
Burchill also remarked on the public’s perception of the couple, saying, “we don’t even hate them any more”, but rather “just think they’re ridiculous”.
However, she did leave room for a potential turnaround, noting, “It’s feasible that the marriage could implode and Harry will come limping home. But whatever next year holds, it’s hard to imagine that it could be worse than 2024.” She concluded.