Kate Is Charming, But Meghan Is Cheesy: The New Anniversary Video Shows Double Standards Continue

A new video released yesterday by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge showed the future King and Queen with their three children. Filmed by Will Warr, it presents the family at their most comfortable, running around rural Norfolk, gambolling in the dunes and toasting marshmallows on an open flame. It is a truly rare glimpse into what happens when they are not cutting ribbons or leading Zoom calls or waving to crowds, and it is the latest piece of evidence that these two people are stepping up in their aim to be the new, human faces of the British monarchy at a time of building uncertainty. The response has been warm. Yes, it has Boden advert vibes, The Daily Mail's Sarah Vine writers, but it is a 'charming' and 'authentic' depiction of five key members of The Firm. And yet, watching the hugely positive comments roll out, I don't think it's unreasonable to note that yet another case of double standards is at play. Where was all this positivity for Meghan and Harry?

Cast your mind back to March - can you believe it was only March? - when Oprah Winfrey sat down with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to investigate why they decided to leave the UK, and their senior royal roles, behind. The interview was conducted on neutral ground: the home of Meghan and Oprah's mutual friend Gayle King. But clips interwoven into the broadcast showed Meghan and Harry at home. Wearing casual clothing - which reports gleefully pointed out were nevertheless expensive - they took the TV icon into their garden and their personal chicken coop, laughing and smiling as they showed her around. Was it labelled as 'charming'? Was it called 'authentic'? Of course it wasn't. They were widely mocked as smug hippy types, out of touch, cheesy and unrelatable.

Was this display of their oh-so-laidback life a little saccharine? A little twee? Undoubtedly. Even I, a huge fan of Meghan and the work that she has done, felt my eyes begin to roll when she looked wistfully at a chicken and said something like 'I love saving things.' But it was a presentation of their private home life that I see as completely comparable with the one that Kate and William have just released.

Harry and Meghan were also criticised for showing off their privileged private life after complaining of press intrusion. People wondered what right they had to pick and choose when they opened their doors to the world. But is this new video showing the kids at play, the perfect five-piece smiling and laughing, not Kate and William's version of the same? Their own curated montage offered as tribute to their subjects as an appeasement for their otherwise hidden life? They have also complained of press intrusion. They have also launched legal cases to protect themselves. And yet the debate we had in March, about where the line between public and private lies, is not being had today.

I like this new video. I don't want to sound like I don't. I think it's important that the monarchy modernises. But if you love it unequivocally while hating the footage in which Harry and Meghan participated, then I think it's valid to say that you need to think about why that is.

If you find one 'authentic' and the other 'inauthentic', one 'charming' and the other 'cheesy', then why is that? I don't have the answer. It could be any number of things on the anti-Meghan rainbow populated by racism, classism and misogyny. But for as long as the double standards continue, I'll keep asking the question.

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