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Harry and Meghan fighting? William not buying Kate roses? Let’s check in on the state of the royal romances


Royalty and fairytalelike romance have always been entangled tighter than a pair of amorous turtle doves. With all due respect, it wasn’t Gary the CPA who roused Sleeping Beauty from her hundred years of slumber, was it?

The reality of royal love, however, often seems to be less about dodging Cupid’s arrows than it is batting off endless scrutiny and speculation about the status of your relationship. Case in point? Meghan Markle has had a quiet start to 2023, with nary an appearance or pap shot, and so certain corners of the internet are furiously speculating that this translates to two possible extremes of the romantic spectrum: She and Harry are either so loved up they’re about to announce Meghan is pregnant with baby number 3, or they’re fighting so much that a divorce announcement is imminent.

The third and more likely option is that the duchess is being a supportive partner, giving her husband and his book the full share of the limelight, and also might need a little breather after a very busy, very public-facing 2022, but that has had astonishingly little airtime.

As with everything to do with being a royal, a royal marriage is a bizarre blend of public and private, as much a part of a couple’s brand as it is two people trying to make a relationship work that, even without the extraordinary pressure they face, only has a 50/50 shot of lasting.

Much of the scrutiny is based on straight up misogyny. For instance, the idea that both Meghan and Kate managed to ensnare their princes into marriage (and not the other way around) has been baked into their commoner-marrying-into-royalty narratives from the start. Kate, the daughter of self-made parents, worked her sorcery through class-climbing at university, while Hollywood actress and woman of colour Meghan’s powers come from a whole vipers’ nest of appalling stereotypes.

The spotlight on these relationships is intense and there’s a particularly rabid excitement that emanates from certain corners of royal watching whenever there’s even a whiff of trouble in paradise.

So let’s dive into the status of the two royal relationships everyone cares the most about: How they’ve showed up together lately, what we know about their Valentine’s Day celebrations, and which rumours are swirling.

Meghan and Harry

Meghan and Harry's love story is the stuff of romance movies.

If there’s one thing Meghan and Harry want us to know about them, it’s that theirs is a romance pulled straight out of a Hollywood movie. Literally: Their six-part Netflix docuseries was, in their own words, a chance to tell their “love story” onscreen. As royal couples go, these two are straight out of the imagination of a romance writer: The glamorous actress, the unhappy prince, the blind date that was so good they forgot to eat their burgers. (An incomprehensible level of infatuation.) If the series was light on bombshells, it was heavy on the details of their relationship, complete with photos, and painted as a kind of cosmic connection stronger than all the slings and arrows the world tried to pelt them with.

It’s certainly a departure for the royals, who are much more comfortable with romance as a sensible dynastic move than as all-consuming Hallmark passion. Consider Charles telling a journalist his feelings for his bride, Diana, were best described as “whatever in love means.”

It’s also a narrative that leaves Meghan and Harry particularly vulnerable to divorce rumours. The Sussexes’ is a passion which, by their own telling, is dialed up to 11, a whirlwind of infatuation that’s been high octane from the start. It’s not a stretch to wonder if the flip side of it all is equally as intense. And when your brand is built primarily on how very much in love you are, with all the attendant hand-holding and PDA, it’s practically an invitation to those who might not wish you well to be on an endless watch for cracks in the fairy tale. (In a similar way, Will and Kate leaning into the Boring Married Couple line makes them vulnerable to the tropes about dull, controlling wives who force their poor husbands to seek excitement elsewhere.)

The “cracks” can be created out of almost anything. The fact that Harry was pictured standing on the opposite side of the room from Meghan at Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s vow renewal earlier this month? Divorce papers in the mail, surely.

Sorry, too far. Let’s go with they’re expecting triplets by a surrogate just as Harry is rekindling things with the older, horse-loving lady who featured so prominently in one of Spare’s most indelible scenes, shall we?

William and Kate

William and Kate's flirty competition is a part of their "friends to lovers" narrative.

Don’t presume William sent Kate flowers this Valentine’s Day. At a recent engagement in York, a flower vendor tried to sell the Princess of Wales a bouquet. When she demurred, he said, “No doubt William will be buying you some red roses,” to which Kate replied, “I don’t think he will do.” Which kind of tracks for a couple of over 20 years, no?

The Prince and Princess of Wales have been together since university, and their relationship narrative is very much “friends to lovers.” If you remember any royal romantic lore, it’s probably that seeing Kate model a see-through dress in a student fashion show suddenly had her platonic bestie Wills thinking some rather spicy thoughts. But they’ve always projected a wholesome affection that’s the uncomplicated, happily domesticated antithesis to the tabloid soap opera of William’s parents’ relationship.

But it hasn’t protected them from rumours of affairs, divorce and the wildly salacious #princeofpegging tweets that trended last summer. Clearly they’re aware of all this unsavoury talk, and have responded by dialing up their display of cosy unity even more.

Both are PDA-averse, although we’ve seen an uptick in supportive arm touches and pats to the lower back recently, along with a commitment to wearing colour-coordinated outfits. And to paraphrase Diana, there are three people in Will and Kate’s marriage. The third wheel, however, is not a person. It’s their flirty spirit of competition, on full display at their most recent public engagement, which saw the Prince and Princess of Wales battle it out not once, but thrice: They raced motorboats, played ping-pong, and competed to see who could nail a ship the best.

But while we’ll get a glamorous joint appearance from them at Sunday’s BAFTAs, there’s an element of professionalism that’s creeping into their public perception. The adjectives that are often applied to them — steady, a safe pair of hands — could equally be applied to a new manager taking over a regional sales division.

With their recent promotion to Prince and Princess of Wales, their relationship has undergone a fascinating shift in dynamics. Kate, long having lived in William’s shadow, is increasingly asserting herself as a person outside her marriage. In fact, the big story from their office this year hasn’t been anything William is up to, it’s Kate’s campaign for early childhood awareness that’s dominated royal coverage, while William has laid fairly low.

It’s a move that seems to demonstrate a couple operating in a healthy, equitable partnership (fingers crossed!), rather than the petty competitiveness that marked Charles and Diana’s tenure as Prince and Princess of Wales. It also signals that Will and Kate are firmly moving away from their Cute Young Couple era, and into a comfortable, drama-free connection a decade into marriage. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Sarah Laing is a Toronto-based freelance contributor for The Kit, writing about about celebrity and culture. Follow her on Twitter: @sarahjanelaing

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