As members of the Royal family gather to mourn and celebrate the remarkable life of Prince Philip it is entirely appropriate that Meghan Markle should be ‘elsewhere.’

In this debased world of fakery and self-styled celebrity, Meghan Markle is the High Priestess of her peers.

Woke, fake, deluded, utterly self-obsessed, obscenely privileged, ignorant of history and much else besides — describe her how you will — but be sure of this, Meghan Markle is everything she’d prefer us to think she isn’t. 

What a demeaning, grotesque pantomime the interview with Oprah Winfrey was.   Not content with her newly acquired $A20 million Californian mansion, Markle wished the world to know of her ‘deep personal anguish’ on entering the Royal household.  

By her own admission, Markle said she knew “nothing” of the Royal family before marrying into it.  As Oprah might well have exclaimed: “what”?  “Thank God, I didn’t know a lot about the family,” Markle said. 

“Thank God, I hadn’t researched. I would have been so in my head about it,” she said (whatever that means).

I recently did more research purchasing my new car than Markle apparently did marrying Harry Windsor, whose role in life (like it or not) could scarcely be described as conventional. 

Markle was not merely marrying the Monarch’s grandson. She was marrying into an institution.  A Royal institution which, by its own admission, is far from perfect and not without its significant blemishes.  The institution is 1,000 years old.  Markle’s declared ignorance of it does not make it any less significant or relevant.

In the event that the actor might actually read this short piece, the Monarchy is quite important to the conduct of perhaps the world’s most resilient Westminster form of government, democracy, our courts, the military and to thousands of community organisations whichenjoy royal patronage of one kind or another.  The institution is also a major employer, taxpayer, innovator, inspirer and contributor in a myriad of ways. 

Among the astounding revelations by the actor was her total lack of awareness and appreciation of and or understanding of the history of the monarchy in the United Kingdom. 

This reflects as poorly on her husband as it does on her. That Harry is not one for the books in no way excuses his abject failure or unwillingness to fully prepare Meghan for her ‘place’ within the royal hierarchy.

It is a shame that Meghan feels she was poorly received into the Royal fold. But that’s all it is — a shame. It is neither a scandal or a seismic event and nor is it of the slightest consequence to anyone but her. The actor played her hand on American TV and revealed a great deal about herself in so doing. 

As if proof of the actor’s unbridled self-indulgence were needed, the repugnant timing of the Oprah interview, coinciding with the appalling death toll from Covid-19 and the illness and imminent death of the 99-year husband of the Queen, confirmed for all time the fake and flake this person to be.

Let’s us not be in any doubt, the interview and its timing were intended to inflict harm on the Palace and its occupants.  The consequence of her grubby efforts is a diminished Meghan and an even more diminished Harry.

Other claims made by Markle fall squarely into the minutiae all families face and should have been dealt with privately and sensitively.  The co-conspiracy by her husband, despite all his privileges, reflects disgracefully on him too. 

While the actor is glued to one the many wide-screen televisions in her California mansion watching the Prince’s funeral perhaps she might quietly reflect on the millions of people who have lost their jobs, lives and loved ones during one of the most challenging peacetime years on record. It may, just may, place her ‘agonies’ into context.

If, for one moment, she could focus on others rather than herself, she might appreciate the world population has serious matters to contend with.  Life and death matters, which are of considerably greater moment than her equilibrium or her dietary habits.

I wish Harry and Meghan well in the United States but I, for one, will be trying hard never again to hear or read another word about them. 

May they vanish into the woke, fake world so vividly real for the actor and enjoy the jolly company of other like-minded souls in that fakest of all fake nations — Meghan’s nation — the United States. 

John Simpson is a Melbourne company director and governance adviser.