DAN WOOTTON: Why is Meghan Markle not telling Prince Harry he’s making a fool of himself?

Often a partner’s most important role is that soft whisper in the ear — or sometimes a knowing look, gentle punch in the ribs, or harsh honest private conversation — to insist: Just stop, now!

Since the beginning of the year, Prince Harry has gone into self-destruct mode.

After throwing virtually every blood relative under the bus and cutting himself off from the most close friends of his pre-Meghan era, it seems the only person in the world who can save him from himself is his wife.

But apart from their grossly misjudged joint statement about the “near catastrophic” car chase in New York that wasn’t, the Duchess of Sussex has chosen to withdraw completely from her husband’s public affairs.

And the missteps of his kamikaze mission spiral out of control, destroying what little credibility the Sussexes had left.

The horrifying consequences of his autobiography Spare continue to mount, from being shamed for revealing private conversations with the late Queen to having his US citizenship questioned in a US court, with the threat of deportation even a possibility due to his revelations of extensive illegal drugs. usage.

And now the humiliation of having to admit under oath in court that he has no evidence of phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers, despite being the first senior royal to testify in 130 years claiming just that.

This was all so painfully inevitable.

What was needed more than ever was the woman who claims she puts Harry’s best interests first to intervene.

“H,” Meghan could have said, “none of this is worth the toll it takes on our lives. You don’t have the evidence to win this lawsuit – you look stupid, it hurts our business interests and makes it nearly impossible to create the happy California utopia we envisioned.”

Instead, she left him in the hands of a ghostwriter who has helped him destroy every family relationship Harry had left, and the Hacked Off cabal, a rabid group of the rich and powerful mingled with attention-seeking reformed phone hackers on a decade-long mission to bring down the British press.

The consequences of all this were, as King Charles warned, a “suicide mission” in terms of credibility.

Harry’s two days on the witness stand were a dismal spectacle, as the dim-witted Duke realized as the world watched that the vast majority of the articles he was assured must have come from phone hacking were already in the public domain.

The victimization woe-is-me story that Harry believes can save him from any awkward question when challenged by awake friends like Oprah Winfrey and Tom Bradby didn’t work when presented with the factual facts by the sharp KC Andrew Green from the Mirror.

And while no one belittles the pain of losing his mother before the eyes of the world as a youngster, we are all now exhausted from a man born with every conceivable privilege in the world and constantly complaining about his lot in life.

It’s hard to pick the most ridiculous moment from Harry’s evidence, but I think to me it’s his claim that the only reason he became a prolific drug user and playboy prince was because the media covered his activities.

He whined, “Ultimately I felt like I was playing into a lot of the headlines and stereotypes they wanted to put on me, especially because I thought if they print this bullshit about me and people believe it, I might as well ‘get the crime. to commit’.’

Oh come on, even his waking friends won’t swallow that nonsense.

In fact, I think just including that statement in his testimony proves that Harry doesn’t have the right people looking after his best interests.

I’m afraid, in Meghan’s strategic mind, the worse things get for Harry, the more able she becomes to take the lead in their relationship.

What else explains his solo meltdown this year?

Had Meghan been a responsible wife and not trying to lean into Harry’s extreme if sometimes understandable paranoia, she would have spoken to him about the reality of the media.

After all, like Harry’s mother Diana, before Meghan entered the royal family, she was one of many celebrities who regularly used journalists and photographers to promote her image, meeting with showbiz columnists to ask them to print stories about her private life. and arranging for paparazzi to be available to shoot her when she arrives at certain locations.

But Harry would also have to work harder to protect his marriage, which has come under increasing strain in recent months.

There is nothing positive to be gained by focusing so incessantly on a romantic relationship that ended more than a decade ago.

Harry’s ex Chelsy Davy has moved on; she lives a happy life out of the public eye with a devoted husband, a beautiful child and successful businesses.

But for Harry, the woman his friends considered the love of his life will always be the one who escaped.

And because Harry believes he lives an impeccable existence, it will never be his own immature behavior, including those visits to strip clubs, that caused the split, but rather the media coverage that Chelsy endured.

As a result, Chelsy was mentioned 118 times in his testimony, while Meghan was only mentioned five times.

Now, of course, Harry would say that’s because the Mirror’s apparent evil deeds happened during his relationship with Chelsy and not Meghan.

But isn’t that the point why now is the time to move on; this is all old stuff.

There’s a real toxicity to Harry’s constant desire to rewrite history and right wrongs that often didn’t exist in the first place that might make Meghan reluctant to intervene.

But someone has to now.

Because Harry wallows in victimhood and misfortune in a pointless struggle that will ultimately help no one, least of all himself.

Meghan may think that Harry’s campaign against a free press will polish her political ambitions and keep him busy, but I think the consequences will ultimately be much more destructive for him as a person and their marriage.

Not to mention the terrible position it continues to put King Charles and Prince William in, who are increasingly encouraging his father to take a harder line on Harry and perhaps finally strip him of his formal titles.

For the sake of Harry’s health and happiness, Meghan must stage an intervention and help her husband focus his energies on a positive cause.