ALISON BOSHOFF: The REAL reason Meghan Markle hasn’t been by Harry’s side after his new book

They are, as she recounted, like the conjoined palm trees in her Montecito garden, deeply “connected.”

Indeed, much of the mythology and “branding” of Harry and Meghan’s new philanthropic and post-royal life has been built on this central image: H&M, an inseparable and intertwined unit, portraying their unique and strong bond as if he existed on a higher emotional plane than that occupied by most mere mortals.

Yet when Harry has embarked on his most significant project to date, the record-breaking and best-selling memoir Spare, he has done so mostly solo. Meghan is nowhere to be seen. The former actress never once accompanied him on his exhaustive television studio tour and interviews to promote the book, despite undeniably excelling in life under the spotlight.

When one considers how nervous Harry is about speaking in public, as he himself explains in Spare, and given the extraordinarily high stakes of what he had to say, on complicated topics as varied as being physically attacked by his brother frozen. manly, it seems unusual that his normally ever-present wife remains firmly behind the scenes.

She even penned a tribute to Meghan in Spare, saying, “This book would have been impossible, logistically, physically, emotionally, and spiritually without you.” Most things would be impossible without you. Surely, then, at this point of all points, she would need Meghan by her side?

So where is she? The couple have not been seen in public together since December 7 in New York, where they received the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award for their work on racial justice and mental health. Harry was grimacing and smiling in a ballroom suit, while Meghan dazzled in white, wearing an aquamarine ring that once belonged to Princess Diana.

Some believe Penguin Random House, Harry’s publisher, would have hoped Meghan would be more visible lately, to help boost book sales. A senior media executive tells me, “What most people have come to the conclusion is that Penguin would have told you from the beginning that Harry needed to be front and center during his book tour, that it’s his trip.” , and that it needs to shine”.

“However, most people also know that the two of them together make a lot more headlines, all famous couples do, and I can’t imagine Penguin would have wanted her to be so absent.”

Since they were last seen in public, of course, their six-hour Netflix series has shown them on the small screen sitting next to each other, holding hands, inseparable and affectionately inseparable.

But Meghan was not present, on or off camera, during her interviews with ITV’s Tom Bradby and CNN’s Anderson Cooper. These two sit-down talks were filmed the week before Christmas at the £5,700-a-night Churchill Cottage at Rancho San Ysidro, in Montecito, California.

We know Meghan loves it there — it was the location of her Hollywood Variety bible interview and photo shoot in October. However, she was nowhere on the property when Harry opened her heart to him in those two lengthy television interviews, sources say.

Similarly, when Harry faced off against the quick-witted Stephen Colbert on The Late Show on the eve of Spare’s New York publication, he found himself without his wife, who wasn’t there to cheer him on beforehand, or pour out his expertise afterward.

In this vacuum a wide variety of theories has emerged. The internet, unsurprisingly, is abuzz with baseless, cruel and hysterical suggestions about the reasons for Meghan’s whereabouts.

Others in the mainstream media have also raised ideas. Victoria Ward of the Daily Telegraph suggested last weekend that “media-savvy Meghan was more circumspect about the concept of a memoir, and may have expressed concern that she was the right move.”

However, I can reveal that Meghan’s public absence is something more strategic, not stemming from vague “concerns,” let alone any kind of schism in their relationship.

In fact, they’ve been as close as ever in private, apparently spending the festive season, having slain the reputation of the Royal Family, enjoying family time at Baker’s Bay in the Bahamas.

No, Meghan’s removal from the public eye is, well-placed sources say, part of a carefully considered three-pronged PR approach to neutralize some critics, as well as lay the groundwork for future lucrative ventures.

First, they told me that Meghan’s absence was planned to escape the immediate problem of the poisonous narrative surrounding them, suggesting that Harry is being manipulated by his wife. The couple understandably deplore this thought, viewing it as nothing less than unfounded racist and misogynistic trolling.

Perhaps the best way to sum up this school of thought, which is commonplace in some internet circles, is to talk about ‘The Claw’, the phrase Meghan’s critics use to describe the hand she has a habit of laying on her face. back. presumably to reassure him on public outings.

A friend of the couple tells me that the pair are keen to put a stop to this toxic theory, adding: “They usually break up to promote their own solo projects, so I don’t really see Spare as anything other than, say, the podcast”. which Meghan did magazine covers for etc, but we didn’t really hear from Harry.

“Plus, they made the Netflix series four weeks before the book came out, so she was already telling her side of the story.”

He adds: “I know she’s always supported Spare, so I don’t think there’s a bigger story there, there certainly isn’t a ‘split’.

Another source, who knows the couple through streaming, suggests that Meghan’s absence is part of a long-term focus on being a star in her own right. And your model for this?

Well, his theory is that Harry and Meghan are following the ‘Obama playbook’ of former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. It requires that they carry out separate public engagements, so that the woman can polish her own reputation and escape the shadow cast by the established male figure. This could explain why Meghan laid flowers after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, alone, while Harry laid a wreath at Pearl Harbor without her last year.

The source added: “Harry’s book deal does not involve Meghan. Had she been involved in promoting the book, she would have invited the usual misogynistic hoarding, particularly on social media. Under those circumstances, you can understand why she wants to slip away.

But will it remain silent for long?

That brings us to another part of the long-term public relations plan. This indicates that his absence from the Spare tour was partly to keep his gunpowder dry for his own memoirs. What an extraordinary, and profitable, story that promises to be.

Meghan also has projects in the works with Spotify and Netflix, though the scale and funding of these remain debatable.

In short: it’s worth keeping quiet now, with an eye on your future plans. All of this will inevitably mean that she has to say once again about how impossible she found life within the Royal Family. It is the story that she has to tell and the coin that she has to sell.

Of course, there will be select public events that Harry and Meghan will attend together. The big focus for them as a couple this year is the Invictus Games in Düsseldorf, Germany in September.

But Spare’s post seems to mark a more nuanced phase for their public activities, one in which they are not always seen as incarnations of those famous palm trees, and in which the image of ‘The Claw’ is not available for mockery in line.

Anyone who has made it to the end of Harry’s book, where he recounts what Meghan wrote in her diary after she helped deliver Lili, can be in no doubt how significantly it has strengthened him. The climax of her memories is when she tells him: ‘That was it. That is a man. That’s not a spare. This is the validation that he says that he spent his whole life without being able to get from his family.

And it is this force that is propelling them to conquer the world, and, vitally, even higher-paying deals, both as a power couple and as distinct individual personalities.