Meghan Had Nothing to Do With Kate's Tatler Disaster (Part 2)

Wherein we discuss the social decapitation of a Future Future Queen

Having set the dramatic tone of the bust-up in Part 1, we now get into the real meat and potatoes of this mess. Tuck in, folks - there's a lot to digest!

In May 2020 the Duchess of Cambridge's world was rocked by a spiteful mean-girl article published by Tatler magazine. Under an exceedingly thin veneer of praise, author Anna Pasternak lobbed grenade after grenade at Kate, lambasting everything from her limp work ethic, spectacular sense of entitlement, dull personality, and tenacious social-climbing to rumors of an eating disorder. Kate's nearest and dearest were hit by shrapnel as well, with wounding barbs directed towards her pretentious sister, weakling father, unspeakably vulgar mother, and even her foolishly manipulable husband William.

(Aside: I'm almost totally unsympathetic to Kate, a dyed-in-the-wool mean girl herself, as well as the preposterously rapacious Middleton clan. They have largely brought this catastrophe upon their own heads. However, even I will admit that Pasternak's speculation over an ED crossed the line from tit-for-tat gossip to genuine harm. Uncool.) 

ED ≠ ammunition

A newly Kate-besotted public raised an outraged finger of accusation, and after the briefest of hesitations, swung it directly toward Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, Our Lady of Perpetual Clapbacks and known Mean Girl Extraordinaire. After all, Meghan has indisputably been waging a low-grade press war against Catherine ever since that February 2017 blind item in Lainey Gossip, in which Kate neglected to offer Meghan a ride to the shops. Surely this was just the latest salvo in that ongoing conflict?

(Another aside: This is normally where I'd link to the Lainey blind, but I refuse on the basis that she's not only a liar and a hack, she's also desperate and transparent. I do appreciate the entertainment value of a good triangulating viper, but they better not let that game face slip.)

The public's suspicion further hardened as a personal connection between Meghan and Tatler staff was established. Journalist Vanessa Mulroney, the sister-in-law of Meghan's then-best friend Jessica Mulroney, was revealed to be a former employee of the magazine. Surely then, that must be the conduit through which Meghan planted the story?

The plot thickens

I say no. In fact, I think this connection is essentially meaningless. Elite circles, the likes of which Meghan and the Mulroneys move in, are highly interconnected. I'd be willing to bet that just about anyone could Six-Degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon themselves into the current Tatler inner circle (in fact, I bet *I* could do it and I'm hardly an elite). I'm also skeptical that a former staffer would have enough clout to single-handedly convince current leadership to essentially go to war with Kensington Palace.

This brings me back to a point I made in Part 1: when it comes to royal ructions, we tend to forget that the Cambridges and Sussexes are not the sole four humans in the universe. There exists an entire elite ecosystem, populated by a substantial cast of characters all pursuing their own agendas. This network of relationships forms a kaleidoscope of constantly shifting alliances and conflicts. Kate occupies a corner of this world which is particularly renowned for its power plays and machinations. After all, the term "court intrigue" has long been a universal metaphor for the power dynamics amongst any group of insiders.

And that's what I think happened here. This is the latest episode of a long-running court intrigue which has basically nothing to do with Meghan. In fact, I contend that the Tatler debacle is actually a continuation of L'Affaire Hanbury. How's that for a bold claim?

I'm baaaaaack!

The Hanbury angle is ultimately what ties all of this together - Kate, Anne Boleyn, Catherine the Great, Anna Pasternak, Dan Wootton, Richard Kay, Tatler, The Sun, Daily Mail, the Royal Rota, and so on, from the heart of the establishment all the way to its periphery. Kate is engaged in a society turf war, and it does not appear to be going well for her. We finish laying out this theory in Part 3. See you there.

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