Prince Harry and Meghan Markle just can’t seem to shake rumors of their divorce, as almost gleeful detractors wait for an official announcement of a legal separation. So far, none has come.
While speaking with Andrew Sorkin at the DealBook summit, Harry discussed causes close to his heart, like mental health, the responsibilities of media companies, and the role social media has in perpetuating misinformation and dangerous content — as well as his relationship with Meghan.
Just hours after giving the interview, Harry and Meghan released an official statement on their website. Far from an announcement of impending divorce, the statement underlines and supports the comments made by Harry in his interview with Sorkin.
Harry is no stranger to media attention, growing up in the spotlight and then being subjected to unethical and unlawful phone hacking by unscrupulous newspapers before he met Meghan Markle. For a prince, media attention is an often unpleasant fact of life, and Harry’s own experience with the media, the volatility of social media attention, and the lengths to which people will go to sell a story give him an interesting perspective on the role of media in the digital age.
Although Harry is keen to discuss the wider, global, implications of these issues, he can’t get away from the deeply personal effects they have on his own life. In the Sorkin interview, Harry directly addressed the swirling rumors about his relationship with Meghan, saying with humor, “Apparently, we’ve bought or moved house 10, 12 times. We’ve apparently divorced maybe 10, 12 times as well. So it’s just like, what?” Saying that he “ignores” the torrent of speculation, he adds that the people he feels “most sorry about are the trolls.”
Harry jokes, but the comments belie the frustration simmering under the surface, especially in the context of the interview. Speculation over a divorce is fueled by the couple’s solo engagements and their increasingly separate personal brands, despite the pair releasing a video saying there is no divorce on the horizon. The problem for Harry and Meghan isn’t coming from within their relationship but is instead dropped at their doorstep by segments of the public and the media, in a perfect example of Harry’s point.
Even the most thick-skinned person isn’t an emotionless rock, and Harry is clear in the interview of the profound impact that words in the media — social or otherwise — can have on people. Discussing the impact of media companies in creating “distorted narratives on society,” accountability, and the role of algorithms in shaping narratives, the statement is angled towards global societal problems rather than Harry and Meghan’s personal problems with the media.
Yet it’s easy to see where those two things intersect. Harry’s interest in media and its role in mental health, distorting narratives, and the accountability of media companies is inherently personal even though it is emblematic of problems facing the entire world.
Where Harry’s problems are writ large across swathes of international media, social and traditional, most people have encountered problems on one platform or another. In this, the prince is speaking to a core problem faced by many in their daily lives.
Social media trolls are the bane of an entire generation. Misinformation and artificially controlled narratives battle for attention with the truth. In a world where hidden algorithms control which content is seen by different groups of people, and with an increasingly atomized population, the prince’s calls for “a future where truth, empathy, and responsibility lead the way” seem ever more poignant.