Harry and Meghan skip awards gala, ‘shocked’ their credibility is under siege

Meghan Markle reportedly skipped a start-studded awards show in Beverly Hills Tuesday night, which would have provided another headline-making opportunity for the American duchess to be seen in the company of other accomplished female celebrities and to get some positive PR for her media projects that empower women.

Instead, she and Prince Harry continue to deal with the fall-out from their disputed claims about surviving a “near-catastrophic” two-hour car chase with “relentless” paparazzi  through in the streets of New York City. They reportedly are “shocked” that people think they “exaggerated” their tense encounter with photographers last week, which occurred after they and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, attended a gala for the Ms. Foundation, during which the former TV actor received another honor for her work on behalf of empowering women.

“They insist their account of the car chase was absolutely not exaggerated, and for people to say otherwise is so hurtful and out of line,” an “insider” told Us Weekly. But as much as this source said the couple won’t be “scared to show their faces” in public and to speak out when “they feel wronged,” Meghan opted to stay away from Tuesday night’s Gracie Awards in Beverly Hills.

As one of dozens of honorees being celebrated as “visionary” women in media, Meghan was to receive the award for her “Archetypes” podcast. Given the number of recipients, including Christina Applegate, Ava DuVernay, Marlo Thomas and Amanda Seyfried, Meghan perhaps felt her presence wouldn’t be missed or she may want to limit her public appearances. It also could be that she didn’t want to risk another public mishap, or perhaps, as royal commentator Kinsey Schofield said on British TV, she didn’t like not being “the center of attention.”

Meghan issued a statement back in March, thanking the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for the “prestigious honor.”

“This is a shared success for me and the team behind ‘Archetypes’ — most of whom are women — and the inspiring guests who joined me each week,” she said in a statement shared with People.

There’s no doubt that the Duchess and Duke of Sussex remain at the center of pop culture attention. However, it’s been for mostly controversial reasons this past week, as the Montecito-based couple have been mired in questions and debate about their credibility and whether they inflicted serious reputational damage on themselves. The renegade royals received considerable pushback over their car chase statement, in which they implied they were in serious danger from paparazzi and that they even faced similar circumstances to the paparazzi pursuit that ended with the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

The pushback and skepticism came from multiple quarters, including New York city authorities, major news outlets, security experts, other New York-based celebrities and a taxi driver who was briefly enlisted to help them evade photographers.

“This is another public incident when credibility becomes an issue for Harry and Meghan,” Eric Schiffer, a Los Angeles-based expert in public relations and crisis management, said in an interview with this news organization. “It’s another incident that has the public beginning to question whether there is a level of histrionics and perhaps less-than-transparent communications (they are sending) to public and to the media.  That’s what you try to avoid when you’re managing celebrity brands of this nature.”

Schiffer said that Harry and Meghan are particularly vulnerable to credibility questions because they don’t just want to be glamorous celebrities; they also want to be seen as world figures with gravitas who are respected for championing some of the important causes of the day, including equality, mental health and the environment. But another issue for Harry and Meghan, Schiffer said, is that they still want to be associated with the British royal family, even as they rejected full-time royal life and have been outspoken in their criticism of the monarchy and specific members of the family.

“When you are actively utilizing your royal association to maximize revenues and attention, credibility is something that must be maintained or you’re going to get the kind of blowback and missiles from the sky that have been coming at them of late,” Schiffer said.

Like many, Schiffer is sympathetic to the idea that Harry was “triggered” by being followed in his car by the paparazzi — that he was terrified that the tragedy of his mother’s death would repeat itself in New York City.

“That doesn’t mean the incident rose to the level he described,” Schiffer said. He also explained that “it’s one thing to share how you feel,” but it was another thing for Harry to equate his feelings with facts and to not put his feelings into “the perspective of how all parties will view (the situation).” That’s an important lesson that Harry and Meghan should take from the controversy going forward, Schiffer said.

Newsweek royal correspondent Jack Royston said on his Royal Report podcast that the paparazzi should not have followed the couple and Ragland in the “relentless” way they did. He also has no doubt that the ordeal was “horrific” for Harry.

However, Royston noted that it hasn’t just been the couple’s usual media enemies — the Daily Mail and The Sun — suggesting or saying outright that they exaggerated the danger. Top U.S. newspapers, such as the Washington Post and New York Times, also published stories last week that questioned the “near-catastrophic” narrative. The New York Times said the facts — coming from the police and witnesses — “began to diverge from (the Sussexes’) account.” As a result, the NYPD concluded that the situation “warrants no further investigation.

“The reputational implications of having these very American sources of skepticism I fear could be profoundly significant for them,” Royston said. “It could have wide-ranging implications.”

Royston said the blowback against Harry and Meghan in the United sates began with their splashy Netflix docu-series and Harry’s memoir “Spare.” While both projects were major hits and Spare was a best-seller, Harry was mocked online and by late-night comedians for his revelations about his frostbitten penis and the manner in which he lost his virginity.

Schiffer noted that Harry and Meghan also were mercilessly ridiculed by the animated comedy show “South Park,” which focused on the perception that the couple demand “privacy” while aggressively and strategically courting media coverage. Harry’s criticism of the royal family had also begun to lose him favor in the U.K., but he also turned off Americans who weren’t comfortable with the way he dished about his private conflicts with his father, King Charles III, or his brother, Prince Williams, Schiffer said. “That turned off middle American and others who believe that if you’re going to have issues with family, you don’t write a book about it and you don’t try to monetize it,” he said.

The roiling controversy about the couple’s car chase claims also comes as Harry lost his legal challenge in the U.K., in which he was seeking to pay for police protection when he visits his home country. The duke was challenging the decision to withdraw his police protection after he stepped down as a working royal. The judge denied Harry’s bid to pay for his own police security, saying the duke shouldn’t be allowed to set a precedent in which rich and famous people are allowed to buy taxpayer-funded police services.

Unlike Royston, Schiffer isn’t so sure that the car chase controversy will prove profoundly damaging for Harry and Meghan’s reputation, given that news cycles and people’s memories can be short. But he said they and their PR team should stop letting distractions take away their focus, which should be their work on causes that appeal to younger people.