Last year at this time: Issue dated December 19, 2016
Original post:
Issue dated December 18, 2017: Meghan Again
Issue dated December 11, 2017: Harry and Meghan
It's official, Harry and Meghan are engaged, and it's big, big news, with two cover stories in a row. If you don't follow the royals as closely as I do, you may not be aware of how groundbreaking this engagement really is. First, consider the last time a 2nd royal son got engaged, back in April, 1986, when Prince Charles' younger brother Prince Andrew planned to marry Sarah Ferguson. Here's how People explained "an especially significant aspect of the engagement":
Thirty or 40 years ago this marriage would never have been allowed to happen.
Fergie, as her friends and now the world know her, is a woman with a past. It isn't much of a past, actually, but she has lived with two men and openly enough so that it has been widely reported by the ever-diligent British press. At Buckingham Palace, where divorce is still enough to get a servant kicked out, Fergie might once have been blackballed for that. Three things have served to give the story a happier ending. The royal family, along with almost everybody else, has loosened up. Andrew (who almost certainly will become the Duke of York) stands a remote fourth in the line of succession, behind Charles and his two sons. And everybody likes Fergie, especially considering the alternatives. (The word "alternatives" is a cheeky reference to Andrew's previous, non-aristocratic girlfriends, including American Koo Stark, who was described as a soft-core porn star.)
Some number of years ago Harry's marriage to Meghan would also never have been allowed to happen. Why not? Because of one or more of the following, officially or not:
She's American. She's been married and divorced. At 36, she's three years older than Harry. She's an actress. She's bi-racial, with a white father and an African-American mother. Something about religion. (I've seen reports describing her as both Catholic and Jewish, although neither appears to be true. She attended Catholic schools, apparently, and her first husband was Jewish, but she is neither. It's been announced that she will be baptized into the Church of England.)
The royal family really has loosened up. Everyone from the Queen to Camilla to Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge has said they're delighted and the wedding will take place at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, with the Queen herself in attendance. (Will Harry's good friends the Obamas be invited? I hope so. Will the Trumps be invited? Almost certainly not.)
There will be a lot more to say about this and more blogging to come, I promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment