Meghan’s Instagram treated us to a whole carousel of happy selfies late on Friday night.
Billed as ‘A very fun date night’, they’d been taken at Beyonce‘s Cowboy Carter tour in Los Angeles.
Here were the ecstatic couple, in raptures. Here was Harry, leaning in for a quick peck on the cheek.
Beyonce in a flying car. Harry and Meghan, both wearing cowboy hats, as if to reinforce they are Team USA now! You can take your fancy fascinators and top hats and stick them where the sun don’t shine!
But, my goodness, the stream of snaps was so much more than just another date night.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, one in particular – an immaculate, pink polished hand on his chest, he in turn beaming down at his wife with a look of sheer adoration – spoke just two very important ones: ‘We’re happy!’
And, oh, a couple more words, this time from Meghan (we know how loquacious she is): ‘I’ve won.’
She’s had a torrid few weeks of negative podcast reviews and ridicule – for taking several hours to do the school run, even though she has a nanny, for example.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this one speaks just two very important ones: ‘We’re happy!’
Meghan and Beyone at the London premiere of The Lion King in 2019
Criticism of unfulfilled orders for her products. Of the ill-advised use of an HRH on a gift card.
Mockery at the almost unanimous panning of her With Love, Meghan Netflix series (although I found it strangely soothing and harmless).
Sneering at Harry’s inexplicable court battle for security, and a doorbell snap of the prince wandering, lonely as a cloud, searching for an old friend in London, prompting a Twitter storm along the lines of ‘he’s deeply troubled’.
Well, at the end of that tumult, here was the couple we’d been led to believe were cowering in a panic room, showing that all the criticism was like water off a duck’s back.
Here they were, mingling in the crowd at the stadium in LA for all the world as if the last five years of arguments and brickbats and tears had never happened.
These two aren’t brittle cast-iron Le Creuset after all: they are clearly made of Teflon.
Yes, Harry is still estranged from his family, but from the look of him, maybe a different, smaller family – his wife and two children – is all he needs.
Meghan I still feel, given she is a former actress, is yet to scale her personal career summit. We all know actors yearn for good reviews, awards, adulation.
Harry shakes hands with Beyon’s husband Jay-Z during the Lion King premiere
That Meghan can emerge, shimmering, almost covered in silver droplets, from the ocean of online trolling to appear carefree, undimmed, smiling, takes real guts
Harry during his interview with the BBC after losing his court battle over his security arrangements the UK
But she’s doing pretty damn well. Who wouldn’t crave her lifestyle, pottering amongst peonies?
Baking. Making lavender towels. It is a different kind of success, less demanding than the one she wanted but success it certainly is. And I’m sure preferable to 14-hour days waiting around on set, wondering when your next screen role will appear on the horizon.
The beaming smiles, the feeling Harry and Meghan had both exhaled a big sigh of relief, of contentment, of solidarity, on Friday night looked absolutely genuine.
And I must admire Meghan in particular. That she can emerge, shimmering, almost covered in silver droplets, from the ocean of online trolling to appear carefree, undimmed, smiling, takes real guts.
Meghan showed a similar fortitude – an inkling of how she’s dealing with it all – following the apparent ‘spat’ with Gwyneth Paltrow.
She appeared on the film star and fellow influencer’s Instagram looking beautiful – my WhatsApp girlfriend group was alight with, ‘Oh My God, Meghan’s stunning!’ – and simply shrugged her shoulders.
I’ve written before that Meghan is not a monster, so let’s just give the woman a break. Rather than continue to attack this young woman we should see her, and Harry to some extent, as examples for those young people who might sit alone in a bedroom, broken by what they read about themselves online, seeing no way out.
Actually, I was sympathetic to Harry’s BBC sit-down with the BBC. Only one fellow newspaper commentator agreed with my take, saying that the rest of the Royal family – as Christian and as the ones with the power – should offer an olive branch to their troubled son.
To the Windsors, I say ‘be a team, a united front’. This is your way out. The only way.
California looks more fun than Kensington. This snapshot tells anyone being abused to rise above.
And to Meghan: ‘block out the noise!’ (Meghan has said she sees only about one per cent of what’s written. Megs. Sweetheart. I hope you read this).
Turn your phone off. Find someone who has your back. Because happiness really is the best revenge.
