ATLANTA — ATLANTA – America’s fascination with the royal family was on display as Prince Harry and his bride Meghan Markle revealed the name of their new baby.
Social media in the United States came alive when Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor made his television debut. The event comes one year after Meghan and Harry’s wedding drew 29 million American television viewers.
“We know that people are obsessed with the royals,” says Dr. Taylor Miller, Assistant Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism. “The Prince and the Dutchess have been doing things in an unorthodox way. We delight in seeing that monarchy, those traditions, that structure being challenged.”
Why are Americans so obsessed with the royal family?
After all, we severed ties with the British over during the Revolutionary War over 200 years ago.
Boston University History Professor Adrianne Chernock says our ties to the royals never left us.
“That connection to the monarchy was very intimate,” says Chernock. “That personal tie was strong enough that it was able to survive the revolution.”
Chernock says Americans see the British royals as likable celebrities. There’s a fairy tail aspect that drew us to Lady Diana, one that continues with Kate and Meghan.
Television helps us keep up with the royals.
“We’ve always viewed royalty as a story with Disney princes and princesses,” says Miller. “It’s all been fun escape for us.”
The weddings and babies wrap us in a world of romance, providing relief from the American political scene that can, at times, be a downer.