PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle should not make the same mistakes Prince William and Princess Kate made on their trip to the Caribbean, a royal expert has said.
Harry, 39, will take a transatlantic trip to the UK next week for an Invictus Games event without Meghan.
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The Duke and Duchess will head to Nigeria together for the next stop on their Invictus Games tour.
The couple will participate in “cultural activities” at the invitation of the chief of the Defense Staff of the West African country.
On Harry and Meghan’s first trip to the country as a couple, they will meet military personnel and their families, according to Nigerian media.
Now ITV News royal correspondent Chris Ship has told The Sun’s new royals program that Harry and Meghan should learn from William and Kate’s experiences during a trip to the Caribbean.
Unfortunately timed photos of Will and Kate shaking hands with Jamaican children through chain-link fences have sparked criticism aimed at the royals in 2022.
It wasn’t William and Kate’s intention, but you don’t want that accusation that there were these white ex-colonial masters seeing people in the colonies
Chris Ship
And the prospect of visiting a country where Britain has a colonial past must be carefully managed, the royal expert said.
Chris said The Sun’s Royal Exclusive Show: “If I was in Harry and Meghan’s office and I was planning this tour, I would be looking at what William and Kate did in the Caribbean and I wouldn’t do any of that.
“I would try to do it a little differently.
“It wasn’t William and Kate’s intention, but you don’t want that accusation that there were these white former colonial masters seeing people in the colonies.
“This is something they want to avoid for a number of reasons.
“If I were planning the tour, I would think very carefully about the optics of it.”
And Chris believes Will and Kate were unfairly criticized due to the photo’s unfortunate timing.
Chris added: “It was just a moment where William ran over to talk to some kids.
“It wasn’t because someone put up a fence to keep Jamaican royalty and children segregated from the locals.
“Ten seconds later they were shaking hands in the street, it was just a private moment.
“That image misrepresented the tour, but it was part of the problem when it came to optics.”
The reality is that the unkempt fence that surrounds the field has existed for decades as a security measure.
As Chris made a point of remembering, the crowd shouted “we love you” to Will and Kate.
He also noted how Raheem Sterling, who is of Jamaican descent, was on the same side of the fence as the royals.
However, photos of the English football ace doing exactly the same have not attracted anywhere near the level of negative attention.
William and Kate have also been accused of evoking images of the colonial past when the Prince of Wales – in his tropical military uniform – rode atop a Land Rover with his wife.
Meghan, who is of partial Nigerian descent, could help make the visit to the African nation a “successful trip.”
Megxit timeline
- November 2016 – Harry formally reveals he is in a relationship with Suits actress Meghan Markle.
- September 2017 – Meghan tells Vanity Fair the couple are in love and happy together.
- September 2017 – The couple makes their first public appearance holding hands at the Invictus Games in Toronto.
- November 2017 – Prince Charles issues a statement revealing that Harry and Meghan are engaged.
- May 2018 – Harry and Meghan marry, becoming the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
- October 2018 – The couple announce they are expecting their first child during their first trip abroad, in Australia.
- March 2019 – Harry and Meghan created their own household, sharing their joint operation with Prince William and Kate.
- May 2019 – Meghan gives birth to a boy named Archie.
- October 2019 – Harry reveals his fight with his brother William in a bombshell documentary.
- January 2020 – The couple surprised the Queen by announcing plans to leave senior roles and settle in North America. After ten days of negotiations at Sandringham, it was agreed that the couple will no longer work as royalty and will give up their “Royal Highness” titles.
- March 2020 – Harry and Meghan make their last official engagement and move to California.
- September 2020 – Netflix announces a major deal with the couple.
- February 2021 – Buckingham Palace announces the couple’s separation as working members of the monarchy are permanent and they will lose their royal patronages.
- March 2021 – The palace says it is “very concerned” about allegations of bullying made by Harry and Meghan’s former staff, launching an investigation.
- March 2021 – Meghan tells Oprah Winfrey that Archie did not become a prince after “concerns and conversations” about “how dark” his skin would be when he was born. She claims Kate “hurt her feelings” and made her cry before the wedding. Harry says Charles stopped answering his calls and was “cut off” financially.
- January 2023 – Harry publishes his memoir Spare, launching scathing attacks on William, Kate and Camilla. He says he and William once got into a physical fight over Meghan.
- April 2023 – Harry has a “frank” talk with his father before agreeing to attend the coronation in London.
- September 2023 – Harry rejects an offer to spend the anniversary of the Queen’s death at Balmoral with his father.
- February 2024 – Prince Harry flies to the UK to be with his father, as royal experts say their four-year feud could be put to rest. They meet for half an hour before Harry returns home. He doesn’t know William.
Chris added: “I think Nigerians will do everything they can to make this trip a success and put Nigeria on the map.
“But we must remember that as much as Meghan in this country There’s a bit of a Marmite character, people either love her or really don’t love her, she’s likely to be seen very differently in Africa.
“So I would have thought that she would draw a large crowd to see her because she is a figure on the global stage and she is coming to their country.
“They’re going to want to put out a red carpet, almost as red as they would put out for a king or a queen.”
It turns out Mr Ship told our exclusive program that Meghan is scared of being booed at St Paul’s for a second time.
He said: “The difficulty is that you remember the last time they went to St Paul’s Cathedral, which was for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, they were booed.
“We heard boos for them. We should make it clear that there were people rooting for them too, but there were definitely boos in St Paul’s Cathedral.
“So going back there, I can see why Meghan might not want to accompany Harry there.”
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
