Whatever unhinged parasocial relationship the adoring public had with Diana, Princess of Wales, their relationship with the Duchess of Sussex is its shadowy reflection.

For decades, Diana was the subject of public adoration that was locked in a permanent hysterical register. Clive James, for example, captured the hyperbole when he described himself as a “besotted walk-on mesmerized by the trajectory of a burning angel” and Diana as like “the sun coming up; coming up giggling”.

Yet in terms of public opinion, Meghan is stuck in its opposite register – a perceived darkness to Diana’s light.

In a single year in 2019 – still in the honeymoon stage – Meghan appeared in negative news stories 21,100 times across 29,000 tabloid and broadsheet publications, according to data analysis firm Brandwatch.

The data revealed that in 2019, Meghan received roughly five times more negative newspaper stories than Catherine, Princess of Wales, with the analysis showing 4.3k negative stories for Kate.

I can understand the hatred and disgust at a figure such as the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – given his associations with Jeffrey Epstein.

But I cannot imagine why anyone at a remove would have anything other than a mild or neutral view of Harry and Meghan.

What choices they make have so little to do with any of us. If we don’t approve of the products they are peddling, we can simply not buy them.

Yet eight years after........

© The Guardian