Yes, the
pictures are all over the Internet, everyone has seen them, and the
likes. Honestly, I was so in love with the pictures of the couple.
*sigh* so dreamy, right out of a fairy-tale book. Meghan looked like a million bucks and Prince Harry looked like the happiest man in the world to be
finally marrying his woman at the altar. Like any social
event around the world, this one also had its fair share of 'ooh' and
'aah' moments, plus more than a fair share of memes and trolls.
But, what bothers me the most was that everyone was gushing about Meghan Markle being so lucky to marry the prince, the son of Princess Diana herself. Inspirational messages of how she finally found her Prince Charming kept doing the rounds, and I couldn't help feeling sad for how typically misjudged and misinterpreted this entire affair has turned out to be.
If you think about it, I'd rather say Prince Harry was the luckier one. Read on to know how!
1. No career. Alert! No career!
Given the Royal Decree that disallows the pursuance of any career for a member of the royal family, Meghan has to give up her acting and theatre career (which is sad, since I loved her as Rachel in Suits). Not only has she won hearts with her character in the super-hit legal drama series, Meghan has had a rich professional life of her own. She has acted in several TV series and has two films to her credit. She also had a lifestyle website The TIGSs and has been at the helm of several humanitarian and charity campaigns around the world. Imagine giving that all up to marry into a family, where there would never be any way to get back into a career she spent two decades making up for!
2. Leap of faith with Harry
Meghan
Markle is of mixed descent, already divorced, 3 years elder to Harry, and
was apparently indifferent to
his royal status when they got set up on a blind date. After irreconcilable
differences with her ex-husband, Meghan separated in what must have been an
emotionally vexing affair post 6 years of companionship. Yet, she chose to take
her time and not be swept away by Prince Harry, who's had his fair share of
courting pretty girls. To choose to marry into a family that has always
preferred white people, follows Victorian era standards of etiquette, and
hasn't earlier been too kind to the remarriage of divorced individuals--all
this, indeed, must have been a leap of faith for Meghan.
3. Not a gold digger
Barring aside her now-royal status, Meghan Markle still has her estimated worth at $5 million. She reportedly made $50,000 per episode of Suits, in which she starred for seven seasons. With several other roles in movies and TV series, and a lifestyle website, this wasn't her only source of income. A thrifty woman, Meghan has been sensible with her income and investments so far, which makes her a woman self-made. On the other hand, Prince Harry might have a much higher estimated worth, but as sixth in line to the throne, he is entitled to a handsome annual allowance of $4.5 million. Still an allowance. Well, if you count playing FIFA games a real money-making talent. In addition to this, everyone know the stakes involved in a royal wedding. Even though there is no such norm to a royal wedding, there was no prenuptial agreement. Just saying!
4. Giving up social media privileges
Let's face it. As attractive does it sound to marry a prince, it gets boring. I got my fodder from the Netflix series Crown, where I realised that the royal family has very little say in the day-to-day activities of their own schedule. Living a disciplined royal lifestyle, making social appearances, going off on cordial tours to charities and forsaken nation, having every minute of your life planned at least 6 months in advance--well, all of it sounds nice at first. But I wouldn't ever trade my pajama-junkie, bookworm, Instagram-addict life for the above. But she did. And, am sure she's gonna be a boss lady at that too. Oh please don't get me started on the lack of personal accounts on all social media.
Apart from all that, I find it just so beautiful that Meghan sought to give it all up to marry Prince Harry, all of her own will. By breaking the norms of how royal brides are supposed to be, she has certainly set an example of how, if you will, you could be the fairy tale Princess Charming to sweep a common prince off his feet.
