Modern royalty is not easy to define. This is partly to do with the fact that it is full of paradoxes. On the one hand, being royal is something deeply personal. It binds a royal family together in a way no other families experience. It also means that the royals have to live with a significant interest in who they are, what they think and feel. Who they fall in love with and marry. How they raise their children. On the other hand, being royal is something very impersonal. You have not become king or queen, prince or princess because you have achieved something. It’s a role you’ve been assigned through a genetic lottery, and it’s a win that brings disadvantages as well as advantages. CONTROVERSIAL: Princess Märtha Louise and Durek Verrett have sold the photo rights for their wedding to the celebrity magazine Hello. Here is the couple in Ålesund ahead of the celebration. Photo: Frederik Ringnes / NTB One of those who has written several books about royalty is Patrick Jephson, who for many years was Princess Diana’s private secretary. In his book on Meghan Markle, he points out the importance of distinguishing between the fame you’ve worked for and the fame you’ve been born into, or married into. A princess, writes Jephson, will always be listened to. She can say obvious things from a podium and the applause will faithfully follow. It can be difficult to accept that this goodwill is not really personal. It would be there for anyone who filled the royal role dutifully and kindly. Jephson’s point is relevant to the debate about young royals in general, and Princess Märtha Louise in general. There was a reaction when it became known that the princess and Durek Verrett had sold the rights to their wedding to Netflix and to the celebrity magazine Hello. MARRIAGE NUMBER TWO: The princess’s first wedding took place in Trondheim in 2002, when she married writer Ari Behn. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix The two are far from the first famous couple to have made such a deal. When the movie star George Clooney and the lawyer Amal Alamuddin got married, they sold the rights to the wedding photos to the British Hello and the American People. The couple made it known that the money would be donated to charity. So did former spouses Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, when they sold their wedding photos to People. By emphasizing that the money would not go to themselves, the couples also gave the impression that they were selling the rights primarily to retain control over publicity and avoid paparazzi in the bushes, rather than to get even richer. Not all brides and grooms with similar deals have been equally generous. Artist Nick Jonas and Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra also sold their wedding to People. In addition, they received so much sponsorship from commercial actors that their wedding was derisively called “sponsored content” on social media. SOLD THE WEDDING: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas made many lucrative deals in connection with their wedding in 2018. Photo: AFP But it attracts attention in a different way when a princess does the same as movie stars. It has to do with the impersonal part of her position. Unlike the other celebrities, it can appear as if the princess is selling something that is not really hers. The interest, and the money Hello is willing to pay, is ultimately there because she is her father’s daughter. In the Norwegian royal context, the Märtha case is unique. But in Great Britain there is a comparable example. When Peter Philips, Queen Elizabeth’s eldest grandson, married Autumn Kelly in 2008, he also sold the image rights to Hello. The Queen was not informed in advance. When she realized what had happened, she must have strongly disliked it. The Daily Telegraph was later able to quote a source at the court that “it will never happen again. In retrospect, it should never have happened in the first place.” PROVOKE THE QUEEN: Queen Elizabeth’s eldest grandson, Peter Phillips, sold the photo rights to the wedding of Autumn Kelly to Hello. The Queen was not informed in advance. Photo: AP Princess Märtha Louise is far from the only European royal who creates challenges for her family. Heirs to the throne across Europe have rebellious brothers and sisters, who feel they spent their entire upbringing conforming, and enduring an attention that was distressing to many of them. Several of them, such as British Prince Harry and Danish Prince Joachim, have reacted strongly when they feel that the institution is still trying to control them, after they have become adults. It is understandable. But like the Norwegian princess, the royals learn that the gold dust from the castles cannot be completely washed off. It is not difficult to sympathize with the young royals who experienced growing up under great pressure. The celebrity press can be harsh, harsher in many countries than in Norway, and the style was more invasive in the nineties than it is today. But in addition to the disadvantages, royalty brings with it significant advantages. UNCOMFORTABLE: Princess Märtha Louise has told many times about being in agony at being a royal. Here she waves from the castle balcony with her parents on 17 May 1997. Photo: Cornelius Poppe / NTB Princes and princesses grow up in a family that is financed by the public. They feel that doors are opening for them, invitations are pouring in. They regularly have personal meetings with men and women who are changing the world. And they always carry with them something extremely marketable, something many people want a piece of. This is part of the art of being a modern royal, if you don’t have a throne waiting. It is a matter of discretion. It’s about being able to see which of these doors you can enter, and which you should leave closed, if you don’t want to provoke reactions and make people wonder if this monarchy thing was really such a good idea when it comes to the play. Published 30.08.2024, at 13.40
ttn-69
It may appear as if she is selling something that is not really hers – Speech
