Meghan and Harry ‘seized upon the welcome timing’ of Kate Middleton’s Photoshop scandal and ‘crashed’ the Diana Legacy Awards to launch the American Riviera Orchard lifestyle, say leading PR experts
Daily Mirror
Mark Borkowski, whose celebrity clients have included Sir Cliff Richard, Van Morrison and Graham Norton, said that the Sussexes have taken a leaf out of Kanye West and Bianca Censori’s playbook by ‘causing chaos left, right and centre’.
He said Harry and Meghan’s urgent and over-riding need for money to support their expensive lifestyle coincided with a falling-off of support from super-rich friends in the United States where they have begun to generate ‘negativity’.
Mr Borkowski said: ‘There would be a lot of planning for the launch of Meghan’s lifestyle and baby brand. Meghan and Harry are in the space now where they are looking at a strong commercial business to get them the money they need.
‘Of course they planned to launch it at this time. It was calculated. They understand about creating a noise on the internet. To launch anything you have got to get a huge surge of interest.
‘So timing it with the Diana Legacy Awards, why not? It’s akin to what Kanye West is doing right now, causing chaos left, right and centre.
‘I think the timing of the Photoshop thing is incident is coincidental, it was all about this week I suspect.
‘If they can succeed with this in the way they didn’t with Netflix and Spotify and get a range of products the public like, this could make a mark for them’.
Mr Borkowski has doubted there was very much communication between the PR teams for William and Harry before yesterday’s event.
‘I wouldn’t expect dialogue between the parties given the estrangement,’ he said. ‘Opportunist PR manoeuvres are something that a competitive business would consider in the commercial world.’
He said: ‘The timing was an attempt by Harry and Meghan to plunder the news agenda, and most of all it shows that what they’ve always got to do is generate income,’ he said.
‘There has always been speculation about Meghan returning to her strengths, dumping all the woolly ideological future thinking of their institute or legacy projects.
‘At the end of the day, they have a very expensive lifestyle, and when you look at the flights that they’re taking, many of them have come from donors,’ said Mr Borkowski.
He added that recent news of the couple’s apparent snubbing by Elton John who left them off the guest list for his Oscars Party this week, ‘reflects a certain unease in America, where they don’t like any kind of negativity.
‘It’s always got to be glossy and yummy, and marshmallow, Disneyworld – anything negative is frowned on where people just don’t want to pick up the virus.
‘I suspect there’s been less support from super-rich people who were there for them before, so if that is the case, she in particular aggressively go to her strengths, and their move closer to Hollywood sends a message that she’s available for work.
‘Looking at the poor results they’ve had with their Netflix and Spotify work, people don’t want to be associated with losers, but they haven’t really delivered on content, which was going to be their big play, with all that hype about them being the next Obamas.
‘So they’re returning to something that actually might just might deliver some cash, but they’ve got to engage with a younger audience who are genuinely curious and feel that Meghan has been treated badly. ‘