City Safari: A Grande Dame Deigns To Explain Meghan And Harry Meghan and Harry, The Real Story Wed, Oct 21, 2020 By Thom Nickels Contributing Editor
My interest in the Royal Family and the unconventional antics of Prince Harry and his Hollywood wife, Meghan Markle, led me to an astounding new book, Meghan and Harry, The Real Story. The author, Lady Colin Campbell, is The New York Times bestselling author of biographies of Diana, the Queen Mother, and Queen Elizabeth II. Lady C, as she is called, hails from a wealthy Jamaican family (Ziadie). She grew up in the United States and met her former husband Lord Colin Campbell, the brother of the 12th Duke of Argyll, in 1974. Their marriage lasted 14 months. In 2013 she bought Castle Goring in West Sussex, England, at that point a complete ruin with crumbling walls and one functioning bathroom. To finance the cost of a new roof, Lady C appeared as a contestant in Britain’s popular reality TV show, "I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” I felt a connection with Lady C the first instant I watched her on You Tube. After contacting her publicist for a review copy of Harry and Meghan, I was offered an interview with the author on Zoom, with Lady C talking to me from her home, Castle Goring. Castle Goring was designed by John Rebecca for Sir Bysshe Shelley, the grandfather of the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley’s death at age 29 prevented the poet from living in the castle although it was Mary Shelley’s home for a time. Lady C’s book is a virtual X-ray of Harry and Meghan who have opted to trade their royal status for a life of (financially lucrative) California-woke-visibility.
It is an illuminating read that does not shy away from devoting a considerable amount of space to the couple’s positive points, so the book cannot be classified as a character assassination. Lady C was quick to say that Meghan is far more intelligent and worldly-wise than Harry, "who has spent his whole life being cosseted by nannies, servants, private detectives, staff and courtiers.” My interest in religion prompted me to ask whether the couple steps out on Sunday to attend church. "I think Harry worships at the altar of Meghan, and she worships at the altar of celebrity. Meghan has been Catholic, Jewish and Church of England, so you could say she has something going on with the world of religion.
I think they ultimately believe that God should serve them as opposed to them serving God.” In Meghan and Harry, Lady C quotes an astrologer who predicts a long and fruitful marriage for the pair. This contrasts with a number of You Tube psychics (the list is endless) who predict a breakup once Meghan has had her fill of Harry and established herself as The Most Famous Woman in the World (something she’s committed to doing since signing with the PR firm Sunshine and Sachs). Lady C believes the couples’ marriage is very strong despite the predictions of those who dislike them and wish to see the union fail. "I actually think their marriage is a lot stronger than their detractors say it is.” The detractors often base their claim on the fact that Harry looks miserable in pictures. "But Harry has always been miserable. He’s a spoiled brat,” Lady C says. The American public view Harry and Meghan in a more favorable light than do the British because they see them as being on a quest for independence from an "outdated monarchy” that no longer has any relevance. Yet any astute observer can see that since his marriage to Meghan, Harry is no longer as much fun as he was before he met Meghan. "Now he has to save the world for her. Woke rhetoric, hyper-political attitudinizing, yoga and meditation have replaced the fun sessions the couple had enjoyed prior to meeting each other,” Lady C writes. "Since their marriage, the couple has been pushing the boundaries of what they have been allowed to. They have been breeching rules, protocols and agreements with a degree of alacrity which is actually frightening. This is happening on the basis ‘Let’s see what we can get away with while things are still up in the air,’” Lady C told me. The Queen gave the couple one year to try out their ‘half in and half out’ hybrid lifestyle but once the trial period ends, Buckingham Palace will weigh in on what’s to be.
Lady C believes that Harry and Meghan aren’t going to wait for the Queen’s Royal edict but have already been "discussing the voluntary release of their titles so that she [Meghan} can muck in the political, which as royals they are not allowed to do.” "The British monarchy is not a television show,” Lady C said, leaning forward into the Zoom camera for special emphasis. "It’s one of the most eminent institutions in the world and I think it is almost laughable that Meghan has this almost complete disdain for the royal family and the institution of the Monarchy.” She adds that Meghan has modeled herself on Princess Diana, a maverick and rebel, "who until the end of her life was trying to position herself to try to be bigger than the Royal Family. Diana was cleverer than Meghan. Meghan is flagrant, Diana was obtuse. Diana understood that she was not in such a position of power; Meghan actually thinks she’s a great power broker.” At the time of the couple’s wedding, Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, was generally portrayed in the United States as a publicity seeking buffoon, but according to Lady C that is the opposite of the truth. The book lays out all of Meghan’s lies and obfuscations about her father. Meghan’s pretensions about being a new sort of ‘peoples’ princess’ falls apart when one considers how deeply ashamed she is of her birth family.
"Everything Meghan said about her father 2 weeks before she met Harry contradicted the assertions that were being made on Meghan’s behalf through Harry. I was outraged,” Lady C says, "and I will go to my grave outraged. It was one of the lowest things that any human being can do to another human being. To do it to a parent showed me the nature of what we’re dealing with. It chilled my blood. I have a great deal of sympathy for Thomas Markle. I also know how completely devastated he has been by the loss of the daughter that he thought he had. It’s almost like a Greek tragedy, it’s that profound.” The British Monarchy welcomed Meghan into their ranks as a woman of color. "Meghan and Harry have both played the color card not only in terms of the British nation but in terms of the Royal family,” she says. "So, the Royal Family has had to be very careful to be seen bending over backwards to be seen to be accommodating…also the Royal Family understands that Harry is a very disturbed individual.” The Crown welcomed Meghan with open arms but Meghan returned that welcome by treating her staff in impolite ways, says the author. Shortly after her marriage, Meghan hurled a dress onto the floor "that had not been ironed to her exacting standards.” In yet another incident with staff, "she lost her temper and threw a hot beverage in the direction of someone who had annoyed her. This had resulted in the member of the staff resigning and being paid $250,000 to leave without disclosing the incident.”
Meghan, Lady C says, is an arriviste. She was a second-rate Hollywood actress who didn’t even have a career in Hollywood. "She’s an avariste who doesn’t have the character, the demeanor, the modesty to understand that she was given one of the greatest roles on earth.” Lady C has the sort of infectious laugh that makes you curious as to what she’ll say next. She tells me about the time she almost knocked the Queen over when the Queen opened the door in her flat thinking she was doing Lady C a favor by letting her dogs out. "She’s really a great gal, as you Americans would say.” What about Harry, the disturbed individual? "There was an incident many years ago when Harry, at a private event, tried to physically attack a friend of mine for no reason at all. Harry is also very paranoid. He’s a puffed up character who complains about everything, a person full of his own importance. Harry also suffers from rage. He is the typical spoiled brat second son. You guys in America don’t really understand the whole business of being the second son. "\ Some Lady C facts about Harry: He was desperate to get married but none of the well-bred girls wanted to marry him. Meghan, when she realized that Harry was a marriage possibility, read up on Diana’s life and copied everything Diana did, including wearing the same perfume.
When Meghan became pregnant with Archie (the name ‘Archie’ was also an insult, since ‘Archie’ is a name royals usually call their dogs) she clutched her pregnancy bump whenever she could while wearing tight clothing. "That was never done before,” Lady C says. "She was behaving like trailer trash. It appalled all segments of the British population.” "Meghan wants to be the most famous human being on earth,” Lady C cautions, "But you cannot be hyper famous unless you are controversial, unless your reputation is a mixed bag. "So Meghan jumps on the bandwagon with the Obama’s and by inviting Hilary Clinton to tea at Frogmore Cottage and then leaking that news to the newspapers while she does not go to a state event at Buckingham Palace because she doesn’t approve of Trump—all of this is deeply disturbing but it gets her the attention she wants. She cares about Hollywood, the Bill Gates,’ the Obamas and the Clintons of this world. She has calculated that they are her meal ticket to billionaire status and possibly political power.” The Zoom interview, which lasted one hour, ended when Lady C commented on the pictures on my study wall. "You do what I do,” she said, smiling, referring to the artwork and portraits.
