We only have one life to live. Let them live their lives with their rules and doing what makes them happy.
Let's not forget Harry has been raised as "The Spare". What does that tell a kid? I cannot imagine raising my kids to believe that one is more important than the other but that is what was done essentially. One had his father, one did not. At least in my opinion. Did Charles spend as much time teaching and guiding Harry through his roles and responsibilities?
Harry has always been a free spirit and that came out because he did not have the burden his brother does. He was raised by a woman that suffered all throughout her marriage and was ultimately killed in the end. No happy ending for Diana. Too late. Can we blame the guy for wanting to stop history from repeating itself with his own family? He lost his "only" parent. Harry has no reason to stay, have his family be run down like that, have his wife portrayed like she is. What kind of a man would allow that? Is that who people want Harry to be? "Hey the paps destroyed my mom and ultimately killed her but let's let them have a go at my wife now too..... "
As for his titles etc. He should keep what he EARNED and lose what he was GIVEN.
The Royal Family IMO is like an ugly antique piece of furniture that nobody wants to throw away but nobody knows what to do with it either IMO.
This is a good point and I’m surprised people are so accepting of it in this day and age.
I also think more thought should be given to points that have been brought up throughout this thread. “You can leave the royal family but you can never
really leave the royal family.” That Harry will need to find a way to pay for a multimillion dollar security detail now that he’s on his own every year for the rest of his life. That his mother’s death wouldn’t have happened if she had still been under royal protection. That her death is evidence of what happens when someone tries to leave.
I try to imagine if someone had come to me prior to my children’s births and told me I could choose which careers they would have in adulthood — would I do it? Would I make that choice for someone else? Someone I had not yet even met and whose interests and personalities I didn’t even know? No, of course I wouldn’t. You could argue that I could set my children up to be successful doctors or lawyers, financially stable and highly respected. Yeah, but what if they weren’t happy? What if the job I chose for them made them miserable and they’d be stuck with it for 30 years, unable to pursue what they really wanted to do, not free to make their own decisions regarding what they wanted to do with their lives? (This could make for an interesting spinoff thread: Would you choose your unborn child’s future career? I don’t think many people would be in favor of that idea.) Frankly, I would pass harsh judgment on any parent who would make that choice for their children.
Yet, here we have a situation with the royal family where not just the career is at stake, every facet of a child’s life is being predetermined for them. They are known to the entire world from the first moments of their life. They will have global fame from birth until death whether they wish for it or not. Their schooling, their jobs, their volunteer activities, their personal pursuits, even their romantic partners will be determined, or at least will need to be approved, by the monarchy. They will not have ultimate control over their own lives; that control will lie with someone generations-detached from them. Everything they do will be open to scrutiny from the general public — the same general public that is simultaneously a threat to these people’s lives requiring them to live in a highly protected bubble and making it dangerous for them to leave. The fact that one child will be raised as the chosen golden child while the others fulfill the role of “backup plan” adds another twisted layer to an already dysfunctional situation. Why are we, as a society, still allowing children to be put into these circumstances in the 21st century?
Stories occasionally make the news about these golden calf situations where a child is born with some unique feature or rare disability and suddenly the child has deity status and people are traveling from faraway villages to catch a glimpse of them. I think those of us in “developed” countries tend to look down on these practices as silly or even harmful to the child in question, but how is the royal family anything but a premier example of this kind of thing still taking place in the western world? This child was born special because, well, he just is. Let’s put him up on a pedestal for the rest of his life.
Strangely, most people are critical of the couple who want to break their children
out of this cycle instead of being critical of the couple who are eyes-wide-open choosing to offer up their children’s lives to perpetuate this cycle.
Time will tell. Harry and Meghan may very well choose to put themselves in front of the cameras at every opportunity, they may happily ride the wave of Hollywood fame. Maybe because they have some very expensive security bills to pay
or maybe because they just like the attention. Either way, their children will have a better chance of living relatively normal lives now that they’re out of the royal family. George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Hugh Jackman all have uber-celebrity status — do any of you really know much about their kids? Heck, even the younger Kardashian kids probably wouldn’t be recognizable to most and they grew up on a reality show. Hollywood fame doesn’t seem quite as oppressive and all-consuming as royal family fame, it would seem. And, the kids will be able to navigate their own course in life, at least, instead of having it chosen for them.
