The public is growing tired of royal scandals, a columnist of The Sun claimed amid a seemingly bad year for the royal family, image-wise.
According to Rod Liddle in his opinion piece, the public is growing weary and disheartened over the news of Prince Andrew's involvement with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, excessive spending by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle and Prince William's issues with depression.
Liddle said that Prince Andrew's association with Jeffrey Epstein even a year after he got out for serving time for procuring a 14-year-old for prostitution is a sign of poor judgment, even if he was good friends with the late millionaire. Because of his continued contact with the convicted sex offender, Prince Andrew could be called as a material witness in an ongoing US court case against Epstein and his madame. Prince Andrew's photograph with one of Epstein's accusers has caused the Palace a major PR crisis, even after Epstein was found dead in his cell via suicide.
Liddle also called to task Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle who were recently accused of spending millions to travel on private jets. Public criticism came amid the release of a report that royal expenses for travel and security have ballooned to almost double since 2016. The couple also came under fire for spending millions to renovate Frogmore Cottage in previous months.
The writer did not let Prince William escape criticism as his talk of depression and suffering from poor mental health is not connecting to the masses who have much more reason to feel depressed. It can be recalled that in a BBC interview, Prince William opened up about having problems maintaining his composure under the pressures of his royal functions and his former role as an air ambulance pilot.
"I've thought about this a lot, and I'm trying to understand why I feel like I do, but I think when you are bereaved at a very young age, any time really, but particularly at a young age, I can resonate closely to that, you feel pain like no other pain.I felt that with a few jobs that I did, there were particular personal resonations with the families that I was dealing with," he said.
Liddle said that the changing values of the new crop of royals are a far cry from the time of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, who are models of decency and duty. With the younger royals "acting up" and trying to be too modern, he said they are losing sight of their role as royals. The author expressed fear that if this continues, public opinion could turn against the royals shortly.
