Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie at the Super Bowl 2022. Photo / NBC
Opinion:
It's been a strange week on the royal beat: I can now tell you more about Kazakhstan's longtime despotic ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev than I ever wanted to know (thank you Prince Andrew for your years of cosying up to tin pot dictators!) and more about American football than I ever cared to learn (thank you Prince Harry!).
Because while the eyes of the world were on London where the Duke of York was busying paying Virginia Guiffre, formerly Roberts, a reported $22.7 million to settle her civil sex abuse case against him, over on the West Coast of the United States another very strange royal story was playing out and it has largely gotten lost in the Andrew fray.
On Monday, NZ time, Cincinnati Bengals met the Los Angeles Rams on the latter's home turf for the 56th Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event by a Texas mile and which saw an estimated 112 million people tune in to watch the game and 70,000 fans pack into SoFi stadium.
And wedged in among that number, dressed like accountants who had been told the dress code was smart casual? Two of the Queen's grandchildren, Harry and his cousin Princess Eugenie.
For Harry his appearance in many ways marked his debut in American celebrity life, an entree two years in the making. See, back in those days in 2020, between his and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex's huffy exit from royal life, and the pandemic's global spread, the conventional wisdom was that this was exactly the sort of A-list outing that was going to be part and parcel of their new life. The Sussexes were going to go to the Oscars! The Met Ball!
Instead, everyone found themselves stuck at home knee-deep in sourdough starter and fighting off existential dread.
Which is why this Super Bowl was such a big moment in the Sussexes' US journey, to co-opt some California-ese, the symbolic beginning of them assuming their rightful places in the A+ list firmament.
Except … hang on … there was one big problem.
Meghan was not there.
While the duke and duchess have been a permanently hand-holding double act for years now (awww, it's very sweet) this appearance of Harry and his cousin seemed decidedly curious.
Now, we know why Eugenie was in the United States. This week was the Frieze Los Angeles art fair and the gallery she works for, Hauser + Wirth, always has a booth.
So, how to explain Meghan's very, very conspicuous absence?
Surely being seen very prominently in the midst of the creme de la creme of Hollywood — including Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Justin Bieber and Kendall Jenner — for someone looking to firmly establish their US brand, would be a no-brainer.
Clearly not.
One theory, floated by the Daily Mail's Richard Eden, is that it might all have come down to timing and events which were about to unfold 8500km away in Windsor.
Taking to Twitter this week he posted: "With the benefit of hindsight, it's interesting that #Meghan chose not to attend the Superbowl with Eugenie just days before Prince Andrew's settlement was announced".
When a follower raised the prospect that the duchess might not have wanted to be photographed with her cousin-in-law, Eden replied: "From what I understand, #Meghan has political ambitions".
(One theory is that Meghan could throw her hat in the ring if 91-year-old senator Dianne Feinstein chooses not to run again in 2024, with California Governor Gavin Newsom having previously said he would appoint a black woman to her seat.)
There is a certain ruthless logic to Eden's argument. The end of 2021 saw the former Suits actress launch what looked a lot like a campaign to establish political credentials. In October she wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to campaign for paid parental leave, in a headline-spewing move.
She doubled down on her push, appearing at the New York Times Dealbook Summit to again beat that particular drum in November, before the same month appearing on the Ellen Show to take part in some dignity-free 'pranks' before, you guessed it, getting to her stump speech. All of this agitating looked very much like a political aspirant trying to establish their platform in prime time.
Given all this, being photographed with one of Andrew's daughters hours before news of the settlement broke could have carried with it some fear of reputational contagion.
(The plans for the settlement had been in the offing since the Tuesday of the previous week, according to The Sun, when the Queen met with Prince Charles at Windsor Castle on the matter and who then wrote to his younger brother to urge him to "see sense". Knowledge, therefore, that this was coming would have been circulating in the royal family and, we might guess, the royal WhatsApp chat groups, for days before the Super Bowl.)
On the other hand, the counter argument here is that Meghan has made clear her closeness to the princess, telling Oprah Winfrey last year, "Eugenie and I had known each other before I knew Harry, so that was comfortable". Harry and his then-girlfriend are also known to have spent Halloween in 2016 celebrating with the princess and her now-husband Jack Brooksbank.
No matter why Meghan was not ensconced in the stadium this week (heck, maybe their nanny wanted a night off or the thought of bumping into Kanye West was decidedly off-putting), her staying home is looking like a savvy move for another reason entirely.
One thing which Harry's appearance clearly established was that … the Sussexes don't rate any more.
Celebrities were not thronging to get a selfie with the royal or attempting to cosy up to him. None of the billionaires or the Oscar-winners or the artists with rooms full of Grammys who were in attendance were popping by the private box where the duke watched the game, eager to kiss the ring and to be seen in his presence.
In August 2019, Harry and Meghan walked the red carpet at the London premiere of the Lion King, where Beyonce waited patiently in a line for her turn to put on a deferential display. In 2022, even though she was at the game, she was nowhere to be seen in the royal vicinity.
Nor did any of the other big names. Harry was clearly happy to pose for selfies, appearing on the Instagram feeds of singer Mickey Guyton and Cedric The Entertainer and later on, the LA Rams' Twitter account. And that's it.
The unavoidable conclusion is that after only two years in the US, the Sussexes' star has begun to wane and has very clearly lost some of its lustre. Their stock has obviously taken a precipitous nosedive.
It wasn't just celebrities who ignored the duke but also big business. It was not the NFL's official Twitter account that alerted the world to Harry and Eugenie being at the game, but it was the offshoot NFL UK account, which has a paltry 241,000 followers as opposed to the US version's 28.8 million. That main account did choose to promote the presence of Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, Ludacris, Issa Rae, Rebel Wilson, Adam DeVine, LeBron James, Jay-Z and Usher watching on, but Harry?
Nope.
As a barometer of US public interest this very glaring omission bodes badly for Brand Sussex because it looks a lot like the American public is fast losing interest in the royals who have chosen to live among them.
Just in case you were wondering, the Rams beat the Bengals to take home the coveted trophy on Monday. That's the handy thing about sport: It's clear who is on the winning side and who is on the losing side. Likewise, after this momentous week, it's clear who has come out on top, and who has not, in both London and Los Angeles.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.
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