It is always so lovely to get a glimpse into the lives of the royal family, especially at Christmas. So a new post from Carole Middleton – mother of Kate, Duchess of Cambridge – is a real treat for the festive season. Carole, 65, looks happy and confident in the accompanying image, and her caption is a message of warmth and optimism in a difficult year. I do wonder, however, if the reaction would be the same if it came from Doria Ragland, mother of Meghan Markle.
Yesterday Party Pieces – Carole’s party supplies company – posted the cheerful image of Carole posing with gold balloons and trinkets. The caption establishes that while ‘we may not be able to get together but, after a year like 2020, we need to remember what’s really important this Christmas.’ Then, she offers the real gem: an insight into her loving relationship with her grandchildren. She does not name them, but she has four: Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and little Arthur, son of Pippa.
‘For me, what really matters is that my family feels connected,’ Carole says. ‘I normally let my grandchildren help me decorate the tree. This year, I’ll ask them by video call to decide which decoration should go where. It may need to be tastefully rearranged later!’
The idea of our future king instructing his beloved gran on where the tinsel should go is a real, human image that can only make the nation feel closer to the family. The comments reflect this.
‘Apple does not fall far from the tree,’ says one. ‘No wonder HRH The Duchess of Cambridge is such a phenomenal person, she had such a great role model growing up through Carole.’ ‘This is so lovely’, adds another. ‘I love everything about this!’, chimes another. Former controversies - Carole was once front page news for chewing gum at a royal event - have rightly been forgotten.
Like everyone else, I love that Carole has shared this. It’s adorable, I can’t deny it. But it is also a post that will do her company no harm. While most of Party Pieces’ social posts rarely surpass 400 likes, this one is currently approaching 4,000. Its success will, inevitably, lead well-wishers and royalists to her site to purchase everything from paper plates to streamers. In invoking her connections to royalty, however subtly, she is sure to benefit financially. I’m not against it – even actual members of the royal family have cashed in from endorsements – but I do not believe that the mother of Meghan – Kate’s sister-in-law – would receive the same warm outpouring.
So severe has anti-Meghan rhetoric become that I believe Doria Ragland – the American sexagenarian who Meghan has called her best friend – would be criticised at length if she dared use her connections to royalty for personal gain. If, for example, she posted an image of herself at an exercise class – she is a yoga instructor – and wrote a caption about how she had raised Meghan to love yoga (which is true) and hoped that her lovely grandson Archie would follow in her bare footsteps, she would inevitably be called out for promoting her business as bearing the unofficial seal of approval. I don’t think there is any harm in what Carole has done, and I would not criticise Doria for doing the same, but I truly believe that Doria would be attacked online for setting out to cash in. The post would be called tacky, and cheap.
Meghan has become a target of such venom that I don’t think her most spirited detractors would be able to resist judging her mum simply by association. Is this racist? Classist? Who knows which individual prejudices each ant-Meghan person holds. But what I can say with certainty is that there are many, many people out there who hold one rule for Kate, and one for Meghan.
Are you as fond of Carole’s latest post as I am? Wonderful. But have a think: would you feel the same way if Doria presented a similar offering? If the answer is no, then it may be time to ponder why.
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