Daniela Elser: Meghan's Texas school shooting visit and pics problematic

What did the Duchess of Sussex achieve by being in Texas, asks Daniela Elser? Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

OPINION:

Does anyone else remember the forget-me-nots? It was September 1, 2020 when photos popped up of freshly-minted Californians Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, planting forget-me-nots seeds at a preschool in Los Angeles to mark the anniversary of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales' death.

We know all of this because the couple released moving images of the outing, showing them surrounded by small children as they created a garden bed of the tragic Princess' favourite flowers in an outing that nearly groaned, so heavy-handed was the symbolism and pathos.

That same confluence of Meghan, camera lenses and other people's children is back in the headlines after the 40-year-old mother-of-two flew three and a half hours from their home to visit Uvalde, Texas where 19 schoolchildren were murdered earlier this week by a gunman.

"Meghan took the trip in a personal capacity as a mother, to offer her condolences and support in-person to a community experiencing unimaginable grief," People, which has a canny knack for getting the inside Sussex scoop, has reported.

That's a line that might be easier to swallow if she hadn't chosen to "offer her condolences" smack back in front of the horde of photographers and cameras posted at a memorial to the young victims and if her presence hadn't immediately ricocheted around social media and news outlets.

Let me say, I have no doubt that her heart is hurting, like millions of other people in the US and around the world, at the thought of such unspeakable loss. What is not up for debate is how genuine, or how strong, her feelings here might be. Not in the least.

But what is deeply problematic is that this trip looks horribly like an attempt to co-opt an unimaginable tragedy for her own PR gain.

The biggest question here is, what did Meghan think would happen when she rolled up in Texas? She is far from being a babe in the woods when it comes to understanding how the press works and surely she must have known that her pitching up in a small Texas town was always going to set off a media storm and would prove a major distraction from the bigger issues at play.

So why go? What did she think she could achieve by going there?

This was not a moment where Meghan's presence could help highlight an overlooked issue or bring national media attention to bear on a forgotten community.

It's worth pointing out here that US President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden and other prominent Texan celebrities like Mathew McConaughy, who has pondered a tilt at the governorship, have stayed away from the town in the immediate aftermath of the heinous killings. (On Friday it was announced the Bidens would be travelling to Texas this coming Sunday to "grieve with the community".)

There are many generous and smart ways Meghan could have used her reach and wealth to support the Uvalde community and did not necessitate her becoming the star of the show.

How about using some of the reported $153 million that Netflix could pay the couple to make a sizeable donation to any number of the charities and organisations working towards gun control reform.

Every town is a "movement of moms, dads, students, survivors, educators, gun owners, and concerned citizens" trying to deal with the scourge of gun violence – why not just give them a whopping cheque and urge their supporters to follow suit?

There is also the question, why now? Where was the Duchess last week when 10 people were murdered in what authorities believe was a racially-motivated massacre in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York?

There have been 26 school shootings in the United States this year prior to the devastating events in Uvalde. At no other time has gun violence been a cause that the humanitarian Duke and Duchess have spoken out about.

Then there is the Netflix question. With Page Six having revealed last week that Harry and Meghan have agreed to something that sounds markedly like a reality series (sorry, the correct nomenclature here is a "'at-home with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex-style' docuseries") did the TV cameras also travel with Meghan?

Will, months from now, we be watching teary close-ups of Meghan as she recounts her heartstring-tugging mercy mission to Ulvade? (At the time of writing, the Daily Mail has reported it is "unclear" whether the Duchess was accompanied by a crew from the streaming giant.)

On face value, Meghan's visit looks a lot like Kate, Duchess of Cambridge's in March 2021 to pay her respects at the memorial for murdered woman Sarah Everard, but look a little closer and that argument falls apart.

Most glaringly, the only images we have of Kate were ones taken by those in the crowd at the memorial on their phones and show her walking, head down, and with purpose, to lay flowers.

Meanwhile, there is a veritable smorgasbord of high-resolution shots of Meghan in Uvalde thanks to the fact the world's largest photo agencies and news outlets were out in force already at the memorial she visited.

In one video posted to social media, it is clear how close snappers got to the Duchess. Given that her head of security, Alberto Alvarez, was on hand, according to the Daily Mail, and could surely have been interceded here, the most obvious conclusion was that she did not have a problem with photographers getting so close.

(Another distinction – Sarah Everard was abducted from a neighbourhood only a 15-minute drive from the Cambridges' Kensington Palace residence, so this literally hit close to home for Kate.)

Also while in Texas, Meghan visited a local community centre which was running a blood drive and where she donated food. "She did not want anybody to know who she was," a volunteer there told the Mail.

Just how plausible is this? She is one of the most famous people on the planet. Did she really think she could pop in without being recognised? She could also have ordered pallets of food and water to be delivered to the community centre without ever having to go anywhere near the press.

The Sussexes have quite the track record when it comes to ostensibly private moments finding their way into the public realm. In August 2020 they volunteered at a Baby2Baby event in Los Angeles, handing out back-to-school supplies, and took their own photographer to capture them helping out.

Then in November that same year they staged their own DIY Remembrance Day service by laying flowers on two Commonwealth War graves in Los Angeles with a professional snapper in tow.

Her own husband has spoken about the complexities of grief last year having said of the mass outpouring of anguish at his mother's death: "[I was] showing one-tenth of the emotion that everybody else was showing: This was my mum – you never even met her. I was so angry with what happened to her and that there was no justice, at all. Nothing came from that."

The saying goes, charity begins at home. In this instance, it might have been better if the charity had stayed at home too.

• Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years of experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.