Book plan: Royal folly or a cleansing tell-all?

Choose your parents wisely, stay thin and keep moving. Those three statements have become my mantra over the years and whenever I have uttered this as my personal philosophy, I get the strangest looks and the inevitable discussion about choosing parents ensues. Of course, you can’t, and that is the point.

There has to be an acceptance of the lack of control we have and to accept a certain inevitability that goes with that. There are some things that no matter what we want or do, we cannot control and obviously our birth parents and with that our place of birth are among those features.

I might not have chosen to be born in suburban Oakleigh in Melbourne. It was dull, working class, riddled with quarter-acre blocks and mainly weatherboard 1950s postwar houses. But then again, it could have been downtown Afghanistan. And being female and a teensy bit of a feminist in my youth, I might have ended up shot as I opened my big mouth. So much of our life is initially predicated on luck and for some that is fortunate.

Read: Prince Harry – victim of the ‘heir and a spare’ rite?

Prince Harry managed to be fortunate and chose his parents wisely. He was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth and has continued to enjoy the finer things in life such as having a private jet to fly him from place to place as he bemoans his lot in life. The rest of us get to moan in cattle class but no-one much listens.

I read that he plans to publish his memoir (ghost written of course, but don’t get me started on that issue) revealing his early life. He says he wants the focus to be “not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become”.

The man he has become rolled around in my head for a few moments. A few sarcastic thoughts bubbled up, but I tried to squash them. Perhaps I am a little old-fashioned and expect that a man does not go blabbing to the public his litany of woes. Somehow, I expect a man to be more stoic and certainly a man of privilege to be aware of the label ‘entitled’ to be flung at him from all manner of the media and the public.

Read: Lucky country or the lazy country?

Now maybe I am judging him too harshly, and of course I have not yet read what he has to say. Perhaps he will not attack the institution that he has run away from, perhaps he will give us insights into the appalling chasing of his mother by the media, and the no doubt profound effect that had on his young self. I do not mean to diminish his suffering or make light of it. However, by producing a version of ‘tell-all’, regardless of how he labels it, isn’t he also continuing the perpetual harassment and coverage by the same media that hounded his mother?

Of my three mantras, Harry can certainly stay thin and keep moving. California has a good climate for a jogger and a natural liking for the wellness brigade. He can no doubt get his fill of kale.

The first mantra, like all of us, he has no choice about, but sometimes staying silent about it might be the best option.

Are you sympathetic to the difficulties of royal life? Is Prince Harry’s decision to write a book wise? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.