Modern (Royal) Family

As Meghan, Harry and Archie head to South Africa on their first official foreign trip as a family, Deborah Herd looks at how the couple will be raising their son to be feisty like his mom and fun like his dad. But they will also raise Archie to be free – free from the sort of boundaries that have defined their lives. Or at least they will try

Meghan Markle once said that ‘you draw your own box ... that you create the identity you want for yourself’.

The comment was made specifically about race, but it’s a conversation we know that she and Harry will have had about life in general.

You can imagine, in the early weeks of their romance, a discussion as they worked in the kitchen of Nottingham Cottage preparing their favourite roast-chicken dinner. They would have talked about the fact that each has, in very different ways, been delineated by the singularities of their births and backgrounds.

There will have been tears, laughter and, one can imagine, a tirade against the media from Harry. But you can hear Meghan telling her Prince Charming that what his position – along with her pizzazz – gives the couple, what they have above everything, and almost everyone else, are choices to direct their lives. It is the very definition of privilege.

She will have told him that neither of them needs to be bound, nor gagged, by their backgrounds. Quite the opposite. She will have said that they can write their own script, march to the beat of their own djembe drum; that they can be royal but relatable, free but fulfilled.

Meghan would have guided her prince towards the realisation that you can ‘continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it’, as she has said.

It is the former actress, no-one doubts, who is the scriptwriter and director of The Meghan and Harry Show.

It is her confidence and her feisty, feminist determination that has shown Harry how they can use their position for the greater good in a way that no royal couple have done before.