The Silence in Montecito: What Is Harry and Meghan's Next Move?

Yesterday morning, I received a Twitter update showing, among others, a tweet by Omid Scobie. He was sharing his latest piece in Yahoo! U.K. discussing “this week’s crop of fictitious Harry and Meghan gossip.” Because I have been pondering the Sussexes’ silence, I decided to do a rare thing—read an article by Omid and see what the spin is for this prolonged period of peace.

Omid’s theme was to explain how the sustained interest in Meghan and Harry, despite their recent silence, is proof the monarchy as a whole is faltering. Don’t look at me judgmentally for such a bad rationale; Omid said it!

His opening example was to point to the very light coverage Edward and Sophie are receiving from the press during their tour of the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. Omid explains:

The tropical locale and busy itinerary should have provided royal reporting gold, especially after the couple have been hailed by the British media as the family's "secret weapon" and "central figures" for the future of the monarchy. But, despite the hype, no one – including said press – appears to be watching. At the time of writing, I can find only a tiny handful (around eight) articles about their visit online – two of them belong to the Cayman Compass and Cayman News Service.

Either Omid thinks his audience doesn’t know anything about the BRF, or he is tipping his hand about his own ignorance. No one thinks Edward and Sophie are actually central figures, God bless them, or at least not the way Omid defines central figures. Edward and Sophie have always been consistent hard workers with minimal press coverage—even when Edward was closer to the throne as the son of the monarch and Sophie was the Queen’s confidante. Thus the secret in “secret weapons.” Edward and Sophie are rock solid allies of the King, shouldering significant workloads (the type of royal work Meghan seemed to eschew) to keep the monarchy’s charitable presence active while receiving little glam or thanks in the process. That’s the reality of the royal family. A number of working royals do quite a bit of work on behalf of the monarchy—important work that is helpful to the institution—and the real central figures get the lion’s share of the press.

The central figures—defined by the streamlined monarchy itself as the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales (and their three children)—have received steady and positive coverage for all their activities. Later in the article, while continuing to make his specious argument, Omid is forced to concede the Waleses got plenty of press for their appearance at the BAFTAs:

When you realise that the only other royal story this past week to receive even a fraction of the volume of Sussex headlines were articles about the Princess of Wales's Bafta red carpet outfit, it becomes clear that The Firm might just have a public interest crisis on their hands.

If anything, this article, coming on the heels of the a Sussex spokesman breaking silence and rebutting suggestions the couple are irked by their recent roasting on South Park, suggests that the couple are in fact perturbed by recent developments.

It is certainly true that the Sussexes have been very silent since Harry’s book came out and he wrapped up his final media appearances. The mainstream media, however, has not been in overdrive reporting on them. The British press has focused on speculation about whether the couple will attend the coronation—a valid news story and one which it sounds like the media has had various rumblings in both directions. I have also seen an article about Eugenie being spotted at an art fair in Santa Monica, sparking fair speculation the minor royal also visited her cousin and sister-in-law. I saw an article some weeks ago that had found an archived copy of Meghan’s blog from years ago in which she talked about Princess Kate and declared that she (Meghan) would prefer to be a rebel royal—that’s one goal achieved successfully. But the truth is, the Sussexes have been very quiet and there has been a corresponding dearth of coverage in the media.

So much for Omid Scobie’s smoke screen. But let’s talk about the silence of the Sussexes…