Photographs have appeared on Instagram showing the child in a July 4th parade with his parents, exposing a sad new reality.
The American national anthem closes with the lines: “Oh, you say, it makes this starry flag still wave, over the land of the free.”
For more than 200 years since these words were written, tens of millions of people have flocked to the United States in search of that same powerful promise, emancipation, and freedom, and in March 2020 the nation achieved two of the his most famous liberties. -Wanting for arrivals in history: Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
They could have immigrated with a $ 220 million private jet, not a ship with leaks or a tired foot, but they wanted the same thing as everyone else.
But new images appeared on Thursday showing the Sussex, along with their three-year-old son Archie, questioning the freedom of their new lives.
Look, this week the Americans have celebrated the 4th of July holiday, which is Independence Day, a day that was especially bad news for Harry’s great-grandfather, George III, but an excellent one. news for those who want to take the tyranny out of the British monarchy.
The Sussex celebrated that day, an envelope escaping royal domination (much symbolism?), In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, according to photos shared on Instagram.
The shots themselves aren’t so noticeable: a very handsome boy sucks on a lollipop while watching a parade, Meghan dressed casually but elegantly and Harry making his usual impression of a shaggy cloud of thunder.
But significant here is the fact that even the shots were fired.
Ask yourself this: Have you ever seen similar images come out of the sons of William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge?
Very occasionally, paparazzi images of children appear, such as when the family was surreptitiously photographed arriving at the entrance to Heathrow’s A +++ list last October for a holiday, probably in Jordan. (The family’s Christmas card last year and the picture posted to commemorate UK Father’s Day in June were taken during this trip.)
But while the troika is heavily protected by both security and the intent of both parents to protect them as much as possible, they are not locked up at home or kept permanently away behind six-foot walls.
Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis go to school, have tennis lessons at Hurlingham Club and have been shopping with Kate.
And yet, how often do we really take pictures on social media, captured by children and taken unawares?
In January, a photo of George climbing the playing field with the school football team appeared on a Cambridge Instagram fan page, but was taken by a father who was attending the game whose account is set to private.
Beyond that, if you dig a lot, you can find some social media, you can find a short video, filmed by a person walking through the gardens of Kensington Palace years ago, showing George and Charlotte riding their bikes inside the private palace gardens.
For the past five years, these children have been raised in central London (and less than a mile from the Daily Mail’s headquarters) and yet they are generally left completely alone to move on with the business. to grow. up.
It’s not that eagle-eyed locals don’t have opportunities to record or photograph the Cambridge Three, but whether it’s out of education, the British reservation or a constant desire to respect their privacy, it seems like people don’t May.
So what happens in the so-called “land of the free”?
Although the British press has regularly hooked, and sometimes well deservedly, for its treatment of Sussex, the culture of tabloids in the United States is a far cry from that of the United Kingdom.
America is home to websites like TMZ and Radar Online that will gladly pay the public for smartphone images of celebrities outside and for doing such brilliant things as standing, walking, and storing up toilet paper.
Harry and Meghan may not enjoy Beyonce’s popularity levels (the latest poll shows that less than half of Americans view them favorably), but the fascination with the country’s royal family branch is endless.
The whole family is, in short, a valuable prey for anyone who is with the family away from home.
(Let me point out here in the strongest possible terms that I am not a single second to approve of this and I think all children should be strictly out of bounds for all snappers, without exception. The end. Good night. Forever.)
What would it mean for Archie and his little sister Lilibet to grow up in a country where there is a market ready for iPhone photos?
The Sussex family could live on a seven-acre estate, but by the time they step on these doors, they are not protected from the glare of the lenses, both professional and amateur.
In the two years or so that the Duke and Duchess were transplanted to California, we had photos of Harry on the beach with his dogs, a miserable-looking Harry with his bike dragged by a Range Rover full of security, the couple goes. going out to dinner with friends on several occasions, Meghan shopping in Montecito, Meghan picking up her young son from preschool and recently photos of the couple leaving the house of neighbor Oprah Winfrey.
A large backyard, a children’s playground, a tennis court and a swimming pool can offer more than just entertainment and space for the little ones to play and go safely away from the public eye and the press gaze, but the couple can’t keep Archie and Lili locked up. home forever.
For centuries, America has been sold to the world as the land of the free, but I’m not sure how free life can be or will be for Sussex and their children (especially as they get older) when family represents possible cash. or instant fame on social media for anyone who can see them in nature.
George III, contemplating the loss of his American colony, wrote that there will always be an “emigration of unstable, unhappy, or unfortunate people, who, failing in their efforts to live at home, hope to succeed better.”
Here we hope that Harry and Meghan and their family can, in fact, “get better,” even in a country of 298 million (true) smartphones.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and writer with over 15 years of experience working with several of Australia’s leading media titles.
Read related topics: Meghan Markle Prince Harry