Nicolas Aujula is a psychic who hails from south London and now emanates his predictions from LA. One he has for us in 2023 is that there will be “turmoil in the royal family”. Nicolas is definitely onto something there. This year was one of shock for the real-life cast of
The Crown, with the death of the Queen in September altering the look and feel of the royal family. The “sad music-playing” revelations and revenges on
Netflix from Harry and Meghan were the culmination of a battle for public opinion in the Windsor family feud.
Next year is, however, another significant one for “the Firm”, for a number of reasons. The first is that King Charles will have his coronation in May, an event now in intense planning stages as “Operation Golden Orb”. If the codename does not shriek originality, it is because the Queen’s successor is aiming for an event which fits seamlessly into decades of coronation rituals. At the same time, there is a pared-down guest list of about 2,000 and a desire to bring more “normals” into an event which has been firmly in the grip of an interconnected elite of friends and aristocrats alongside foreign dignitaries. Signalling continuity and alternation is the Palace equivalent of New Labour’s “traditional values in a modern setting”. But getting the tone of this right is vital.
So Charles’s Christmas message will be an intriguing example of how far he varies the Queen’s familiar recipe of homespun wisdoms and reassurance after a torrid year for the country. By general agreement, neither Charles or William will touch openly on the rift with Harry and Meghan. But that leaves one rather large elephant in the coronation ante-chamber. Too many bridges have been burned by the couple airing grievances so freely, including the charge that William “screamed” at his younger brother, for there to be a reconciliation on a balcony. It looks likely though that the new monarch will soon issue an invitation to the couple, which they can interpret as an olive branch, but also has the effect of looking more sovereign (in every sense of the word).
That planning will mean difficult conversations about what is expected of them and how prominent (or not) they will be in everything from the seating to the public moments. As a guest at William’s wedding (due to journalism, not cousinage), I earwigged on many senior members of the Spencer and Windsor tribes jealously comparing notes about who was seated where and what that signified. Accommodating a family at war at the crowning of a King and his Queen will be a major diplomatic challenge.
More ink and some distemper will be spilt sooner, when Harry opens his bruised heart (again) in the run-up to publication of his autobiography Spare shortly in an interview with ITN’s Tom Bradby, who secured the first broadcast chat with the Duchess of Sussex, airing her unhappiness on a royal tour of South Africa in 2019. Bradby is experienced and knows how to “take the story on”, so this outing may end up being a painful viewing session for Charles, who stands accused of neglecting Harry in favour of his heir-brother — and William, whose greater ease with the constraints of life in the Windsors rubs his brother up the wrong way.
As badly as a lot of this lands in Britain, it is worth remembering that the “Oprahfication” of telling the truth from a single vantage point is more accepted in the parts of upper-crust US society that the Sussexes want to conquer. From their point of view, there is little to be gained by stuffing the “my truth” genie back into the bottle. What they do value, however, are their titles and access to make more lucrative streaming shows. The upcoming one features a predictable list of heroes, from the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Greta Thunberg.
It is, however, notable that New Zealand’s leader, Jacinda Ardern, has distanced herself from the series (made with the Mandela Foundation) and that the Obamas now stay away from the Sussexes’ Archewell brand. Not all liberal opinion in the Anglosphere is keen to be embroiled in a proxy fight with the royal family. The “hard” Left grievance edge of the Sussexes’ worldview grates on more centrist political sorts who do not think every slight or disagreement is about race or patriarchy.
TV series and memoirs have a shelf life. Royals, by definition, don’t expire — they just crown the next one and tweak the model to future-proof it. Next year will tell us what that looks like, beyond the sound and the fury of a right royal 2022.
