Royal experts question wisdom of Harry and Meghan documentary

The Guardian

 

As fallout over the extraordinary interviews continued, the PR expert Mark Borkowski said the couple’s participation in Sunday’s “heart-on-sleeve” programme had broken all the normal royal family rules of “never complain, never explain”.

“You should just say, ‘that’s off limits’. But he made a story,” said Borkowski, who called the documentary a “complete and utter disaster”.

“The population is split. I think younger people get it and are more attuned with it. But the rump of people who are monarchists still probably go out and buy the Daily Express. Those are the people he is not convincing.

 

“You allow the intrusive lens into your life, and you are out of control. No matter how much editorial control they had with their mate, Tom Bradby, he’s caused chaos,” Borkowski said.

The decision by Harry and Meghan to speak out so openly about their struggles, he said, had a hint of the A-list celebrity Hollywood PR strategy. But the rules were “totally different for celebrities and royals”.

He said: “The royal family are a publicly-funded heritage business, and as anybody that has entered in to [it] has discovered, the rules go out of the window. [Celebrities] don’t have the same responsibility, don’t have the love of the nation to deal with.”

While celebrities could demand “approved quotes, approved pictures, playing hardball, controlling photo opportunities”, he said, “with the palace there is an uneasy relationship with the media and the public”.