All one can say is, thank God the Queen isn’t alive to see it. I refer obviously, to Queen Elizabeth, who was far from pleased when Meghan and Harry appropriated her childhood nickname – rather than her baptismal name – for their daughter, Lilibet. But that distaste would have turned to incredulity – pure bafflement - if she’d seen the video that Meghan has posted to mark her daughter’s fourth birthday. It’s she (with contributions from Harry), four years ago, twerking vigorously in the labour room, as she tries to bring on the birth. It’s not just grotesque; it’s obscene. That bit where she does a squat and pulls her dress seductively up her thighs really, really shouldn’t have been shared with anyone but Harry. It’s impossible to unsee once you’ve seen it, so if you haven’t already looked, I say, don’t.
There’s now no divide between the personal self and the commodity Meghan Markle is flogging on Netflix
A heavily pregnant woman is not a sex object, but this seems to be news to Meghan as she gyrated holding the enormous bump. It’s quite difficult to send out the up-for-it vibe when the stomach is distended to the point where it feels indecent to look, but she leaves nothing to the imagination. What world does she inhabit where it’s possible to put all this up for public consumption? What point is she trying to make? That she’s terrifically sexy even when she’s almost in labour? Is the bubble she lives in so sealed that there’s now no divide between the private and the public, between the ghastly sex play between her and Harry and the self she puts up for general consumption? Because that’s what this is: a horrifying blurring of the boundaries between the personal self and the commodity she’s flogging on Netflix.
The really grim aspect of this exhibition is Harry, suggestively gesturing around his groin
The really grim aspect of this exhibition is Harry; the other thing you can’t unsee is him, suggestively gesturing around his groin. If twerking is simulated sex, we’re in the room with them looking at a light hearted sort of foreplay.
You can’t expect much better from Meghan, I suppose. Her family, according to Tom Bower’s excellent biography, was free and easy in a bad way when she was growing up; she’s got all the look-at-me neediness of the bottom of the barrel celebrity class. But Harry has been nicely brought up; he does know better; he’s had to unlearn all sorts of constraints in order to share this stuff with an interested global audience. Put it another way, he’s had to unlearn the sense of shame, of decency, of reticence – all good things. Whatever we think of as class – he hasn’t got it. And even for a not-terribly bright minor royal, that’s tragic. That it’s done in the interest of celebrating their daughter’s fourth birthday makes it worse. What’s wrong with a picture of a little girl blowing out a birthday candle?
It's hard to think how much lower the couple can go now, but I suppose they can always manage it. And just think: we’ve still got the next instalment of Meghan’s grim entertainment series to go. Can you wait? Like I say, thank God the Queen isn’t around to see what her family has come to.
