BONOKOSKI: Prince Harry complains again, then feeds the media maw
Author of the article:Mark Bonokoski
Publishing date:May 20, 2021 • 18 hours ago • 3 minute read • 9 Comments
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex during their visit to Canada House in London on January 7, 2020.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex during their visit to Canada House in London on January 7, 2020. PHOTO BY DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS /POOL/AFP via Getty Images
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“The biggest issue for me is being born into it … without choice.”
— Prince Harry
Poor Harry, but isn’t this the case for all of us?
Me, for example, I was born into a family where both were veterans of the Second World War, my father having flown with Bomber Command where the mortality rate was basically the flip of a coin — heads you lived to fly another mission, tails you died.
Like dotty Prince Harry, I had no choice.
My father got a post-war job on an assembly line making silk hosiery for women and became a foreman just before the plant closed forever — the victim of the invention of nylon pantyhose.
Yes, it was a long time ago.
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My mother was a stay-at-home mom, raising five children in rather quick succession, me being the oldest.
She did hairdressing at home on the side to help make ends meet.
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My parents bought nothing for themselves at Christmas.
Taking Prince Harry’s statement at face value, as can be heard on a recent Armchair Expert podcast, I could have been born a prince in the Royal Family but wasn’t. I also could have been born into the poverty of an Ethiopian slum but wasn’t.
I therefore count my blessings, and so should the psychotherapy-addicted Prince Harry, his mental-health issues just now coming to the fore as a bizarre self-pity steeped in a blame game.
Growing up in Brockville, Ont., and being born into a blue-collar family, taught me that I did not want a blue-collar life. But my graduating marks in high school didn’t have universities knocking at my door, and my football and baseball prowess didn’t quite result in scholarships to colleges in the United States.
Upon graduation, I was a part-time pack boy at Dominion Stores, working the meat counter on weekends.
Was this my future? The money seemed good, and there was a union. It was at least an option.
But luck prevailed. It came in the form of the sister of my girlfriend at the time who was studying journalism at Ryerson.
“Apply there,” she said. “They’ll take anyone.”
And so it began.
Prince Harry, born to very white privilege, and his wife, Meghan, now live in a $14.7-million home in the sheltered enclave of Montecito, Santa Barbara, California. Their neighbors are Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Their mansion has nine bedrooms and 16 bathrooms.
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There are just three of them when little Archie is included, but a second child is on the way.
No tag days will be needed, however, to help them get by.
Meghan will never have to do hairdressing in the kitchen on the side to help pay the bills.
That is assured.
But, while Harry is still a societal curiosity piece, he’s being played like a pop-up piano.
What Harry is trying to accomplish with these media run-ins, however, is still a mystery. If it’s empathy, well, good luck with that.
In the interview with Armchair Expert, Harry also discussed three moments when he felt “entirely helpless.” Once in the back of a car with his mother Princess Diana while she was being chased by paparazzi, on a particular occasion in Afghanistan where he served as a chopper pilot, and lastly his well-documented experiences of media intrusion affecting his wife.
By the luck of the draw, not choice, however, he will never have to worry about a mortgage payment.
Once again, he lucked out.
markbonokoski@gmail.com
"The biggest issue for me is being born into it ... without choice." -- Prince Harry
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