At an unnamed location near Santa Barbara, replete with plush pillows and decorative lampshades, CBS News anchor Jane Pauley sat down with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for an interview.
“I’m so, so happy you’re here. Thank you,” Meghan said, giving the famous American TV host that special big hug she reserves for famous American TV hosts.
Then it was straight to the point. Harry and Meghan were launching a Parents Network to help those whose children had died due to the harms caused by the internet. Harry was the first to speak.
“We always talked about how in the old days, if your children lived under your roof, you knew what they were doing,” he said, making a circle with his fingers to illustrate the shape of a roof, presumably so any hobbits or igloo dwellers would know what he was talking about.
—And at least they were safe, right? —But were they, Harry? Really? They could be trying on Nazi uniforms or playing naked pool or doing cocaine or all sorts of things. You never know with kids.
CBS News anchor Jane Pauley sat down with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for an interview.
In the four years the Sussexes have been living in the US, Meghan has honed her elegant duchess-in-exile persona: regal yet approachable, grand and bland in equal measure, writes Jan Moir
However, the Duke was particularly concerned about online bullying and the extreme effect it could have on the most vulnerable people. “They could be in the next room with a tablet or a phone and they can be going down those rabbit holes and before you know it, within 24 hours they could be taking their own life,” he said.
“We’ve reached a point where almost every parent has to be the first responder to a suicide situation, and even the best first responders in the world wouldn’t be able to spot the signs of a possible suicide. That’s the scary part of it all.”
Just when you thought this might be a rather disproportionate response to an equally serious problem, Pauley reminded viewers that even the Duchess herself had once considered suicide.
Meghan nodded sadly as she remembered that time in old England, when Archie was just a baby, and she felt like his life wasn’t worth living.
“I didn’t want to be alive anymore,” she said, clutching Harry’s left knee for support. Jane Pauley thought Meghan looked “uncomfortable” with this line of morbid questioning, but the duchess seemed pretty relaxed to me.
“I understand why you’re going through this. I didn’t expect it,” she said nobly, going on to explain that her “healing journey” involved talking openly about her suicidal thoughts.
‘I would never want anyone else to feel that way, I would never want anyone else to make those kinds of plans and I would never want anyone else to not be believed.
“So if expressing what I’ve overcome can save someone… I’ll take the hit for it,” Meghan added, giving viewers an inspiring example of the emotional benevolence that makes her so special.
Indeed, in the four years the Sussexes have lived in the United States, Meghan has honed her elegant duchess-in-exile persona: regal yet relatable, grand and bland in equal measure.
Harry and Meghan are launching a Parents Network to help support those whose children have died due to online harm.
She smiled beatifically when she talked about “changes for the better” and her “amazing” children, but sometimes she stared intently at Harry when it was her turn to speak on camera. Husbands around the world would recognise and interpret that icy, wifely look in a matter of seconds: “Watch your mouth, sir.”
And don’t think twice. In a brief exchange of hugs on a terrace, the Sussexes met some of the grieving parents. One couple had lost a daughter to online bullying, two others had lost their children who had ordered drugs online that killed them.
However, the Parents Network, which was launched on the Sussexes’ official Archewell website, will meet online in the future. “This in-person meeting was just for the launch,” Pauley said. I bet it will.
Sometimes one wonders how Harry and Meghan can possibly have the courage, the brazen audacity, to do what they do. Of course, the altruistic drive is evident in launching an online parenting network.
Essential goodness can be seen in building an “empowered community of families” to “support and uplift each other.”
It is no secret, however, that the Sussexes are estranged, to varying degrees, from their own parents – parents like Mr T. Markle, who lives in precarious circumstances in a dusty Mexican border town. The 80-year-old is in poor health and has yet to meet his daughter Meghan’s husband or be introduced to his two grandchildren, whom he longs to meet before he dies.
Is there a network he could join? Or how about a network for King Charles, the father who has become so concerned about his youngest son’s indiscretions and public confessions that he reportedly avoids taking his calls and keeps his meetings to a minimum?
It’s all very confusing. Do the Sussexes have good intentions or are they just evil? You may think I’m being too cynical, but I’ll take my sting for that.