Only six months have passed since Prince Harry went public on his greatest frustration. “Everyone has a right to privacy. Sadly, that line between public and private life is almost non-existent.” A clear, almost plaintive wail. He was 32, fifth in line to a throne he will never sit on, trying to do good works while he can – and feeling increasingly isolated after a series of romances laid low by publicity.
Well, good luck with that. Maybe Meghan Markle, the latest woman is the frame, is made of sterner stuff. Her education and long record of charitable works might argue so. Maybe when Harry strikes up a relationship with the divorced star of a TV series, he can’t expect any newspaper to leave him alone – with the Times, Telegraph and Guardian all joining in.
But, equally, there’s a shrug somewhere in the works. Is the predictable tsunami of human interest real or confected? For once, it would be good if Harry was just left alone to make, or break, his own life in the waiting room – not play episode 97 in Netflix’s The Crown.
• Six years ago, in a blast of vaulting ambition, Mr Rupert Murdoch, expanded his Wall Street Journal, added a greater New York section and talked of supplanting the New York Times as the city’s top paper. And now? That section has shrunk to two pages in the general finance run. Reporters are being laid off. It’s a retreat, a loss, a defeat worth mentioning because this humble pie has Rupert’s name on it.
