QUENTIN LETTS: Flowery, banal psychopath talk that smells of opportunism – Harry and Meghan ride like trams on the sadness of others

Veteran Sussex viewers stood in their power showers yesterday trying to scrub clean after Meghan and Harry's latest syringe.

The couple had issued another press statement, this time about child safety on the Internet.

Such announcements have become part of the Sussexes' modus operandi, linking them to a current issue about which they can show off their empathy.

Their statement was, not for the first time, laced with American emotionalism, tear-stained platitudes mixed with a certain egotistical preachiness. Flowery, banal, light-hearted, reeking of opportunism: it is an art form that the exiled monarchs quickly master.

Commenting at a US Senate hearing into horrific cases of online child abuse, the duo praised the “courage and determination” (one noun alone will never suffice) of parents whose children had suffered.

As they wound their way into the circle of virtue – out of the way, folks, this is about us – the Sussexes boasted that “over the years we have spent time with many of these families, listening to their grief and their hopes for the urgent change that is needed'.

This was “an issue that transcends divisions and party lines.” They also revealed that a father had told them, “If love could have saved them, all our children would still be here.”

The journalistic skepticism may seem harsh, given the sensitivity of the issue; But if an issue is so delicate, wouldn't it be appropriate for petty royals to keep their psychological chatter about self-promotion to themselves?

This isn't the first time Prince Harry and his actress wife have voiced their understated thoughts on a raucous area of ​​public debate.

If they did that spontaneously after, for example, having a microphone shoved in their face at a public event, it might feel good.

But the Sussexes make sentimental statements at the level of low-grade greeting cards, and they do so by posting them under the “news” section of their personal website. Sorry, but this is pure PR pudding. “Turn pain into purpose,” Harry said at a World Mental Health Day event in New York in October. Coincidentally, he was talking about how those who experience adversity can sometimes become stronger as a result.

“The days are long, but the years are short,” his consort added at the same event.

Eh? It's the kind of inscrutable gibberish guru Master Po said to Grasshopper on the 1970s TV show Kung Fu.

Or take this corker. “I am confident,” Meghan said, again addressing mental health, “that with more ears, awareness and visibility of what is really happening, we can make significant change together.” More ears? Aren't two enough for someone?

As part of her payback to Netflix, from which she and her husband received millions of dollars, the Duchess revealed that in her wedding speech she spoke of “the eternal knowledge that love conquers above all.”

If you were to say that at most English weddings there would be a ripple of mirth and a teasing forest of fingers down the throat. Heaven knows what Harry's old fools thought of his bride's claim.

The Duchess is a lover of California psychopath talk and fears worn as social and political emblems, says Quentin Letts

Guy Pelly must have almost done the nose trick.

But Meghan seems insensitive to British tastes. She is immune to the most diabetic levels of rhetorical saccharine.

Together with the hapless Harry with the hanging tail, the Duchess is a lover of Californian psycho-talk and of fears worn as social and political emblems.

Look at me, these say: I'm sensitive, I'm not a viciously ambitious, multi-millionaire, West Coast actress who cynically takes positions for career purposes. I am a truly humble, vulnerable, touchy soul. And if you suggest otherwise, my lawyers will beat you up.

If British politicians were to issue the kind of bombshell press releases that Harry and Meghan are doing, they would quickly be indicted for gross errors of judgment and for trying to profit from the misery of others. Again, you may find this a harsh statement.

You could say 'but Harry and Meghan are not politicians'.

I'm afraid I don't agree with you. They behave in an intensely political manner and pride themselves on public consumption. Also note the repeated calls for 'change'. These smack of political campaigns.

The Sussexes may think their press releases are powerful and poetic. To British tastes they may seem more manipulative and opportunistic.

As literary undertakings alone, they are cloying and syrupy in their sentimentality.

Whoever writes them has the prose style of a schoolgirl diarist. It is sad that the prince has lost sight of the British virtue of understatement. When it comes to expressions of compassion, less is always more.

Instead, we are subjected to this mush and flow. On Planet Sussex there is always 'light' shining, whether it is empowerment or inequality. Banal stylistic doubles are deployed.

Meghan wrote in Elle magazine that women should “focus less on glass slippers and more on breaking glass ceilings.” And then there was “a glimmer of hope that can turn into a wave of change” – a phrase the couple lifted from the late Robert Kennedy and used at some 2022 humanitarian awards.

There is a lot of 'focus on well-being' and 'related to shared experiences and challenges' and 'discovery of growth opportunities'.

“Mentorship” is a must-have, both for mentors and, that terrible word, “mentees.” And 'hearts' are invariably 'heavy'.

The disasters and sorrows of others are ridden like trams.