Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Star Turn Shows Up Prince William

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were welcomed with open arms by the same Jamaican Prime Minister who ambushed Prince William and Kate Middleton with his desire to break with the monarchy.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were seen smiling and chatting with Andrew Holness on the red carpet at the premiere of new biopic Bob Marley: One Love at the Carib 5 Theatre, in Kingston, on January 23, 2024.

The warm display was a far cry from an awkward encounter between Holness, Prince William and Kate Middleton in March 2022 when the politician announced, in front of the news cameras, that Jamaica was "moving on" from the monarchy.

And he has since indicated there will be a referendum on removing King Charles III as head of state, with legislation due in April.

Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a prominent U.K. commentator on race and colonialism and author of This is Why I Resist, told Newsweek: "The fact that Harry and Meghan are being warmly received in Jamaica after Jamaica had pretty much shown William and Kate the door, that is just a clear indication that Jamaica is not here to mess, 'we're not here to cower, we're not here to bow our heads and go, yes ma'am, thank you sir.' I love that it's fantastic.

"The royal family are complete fools to have let those two go. If Harry and Meghan had maintained some partial role with the royal family I think they would have succeeded in showing a side of the royal family that the royal family certainly lacks."

William and Kate's tour was organized to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee but, in reality, was a catalyst for debates about becoming a republic.

Professor Rosalea Hamilton of the Advocates Network helped organize protests which overshadowed the tour and was at the premiere on Tuesday.

She told Newsweek: "Jamaicans looking on, and all black people across the world, empathize with Meghan because you were facing what we all face. So we understand. This is racism at work.

"And so Jamaicans empathize and they see them not through the lens of the king as head of state and the monarch and so on.

"Most Jamaicans are looking on and seeing this woman being effectively kicked out of the monarchy," she said. "Some of them would see it that way, and being treated the way she has been treated because she's black, she's from a black family.

"If they were to drive them through the streets of Jamaica there would be lots of cheering and love for them and its not to do with the monarchy. They like her and they would love Harry by extension because he's embraced one of us."

Hamilton felt their appearance at the premiere was a distraction, however.

"It was a surprise for all of us," she said. "I was at the premiere and I didn't see them. They were whisked in and whisked out. A good portion of the audience that I was a part of did not see them. This is clearly for the global audience and the national audience."

"We feel this visit is a distraction away from the focus that Jamaicans ought to have on the move to become a Republic," she said.

Hamilton has been concerned for months that the Jamaican government has not triggered a sufficient debate among the Jamaican people to be sure of an effective referendum on removing the monarchy.

By contrast, the Bob Marley biopic, to her, spoke to some of the key issues she feels the country needs to address and specifically relating to Trench Town, a world-famous but economically struggling part of Kingston.

"It brings back to the inadequate focus on the Monarchy," she said. "The essence of the Bob Marley movie last night was essentially highlighting the urgency, the need, to move Jamaica to a different place, to become a Republic where what we saw in the 70s which is depicted in the Trench Town movie, that persists today, changes."

And the issue of living standards for people in Trench Town chimes with one of William and Kate's various PR disasters during their visit.

The Prince and Princess of Wales were heavily criticized on social media after they were photographed greeting children through the gaps in a wire mesh fence.

"Your audience will have seen the Trench Town reality through that memorable picture of the hands through the fence," Hamilton told Newsweek.

"But the physical infrastructure and sociology of Trench Town is pretty much the same as it was when Bob Marley was around, that's what he was fighting against."

Harry and Meghan's supporters have certainly wasted no time pressing home the radical difference between the reception received by the Sussexes compared to William and Kate.

In one symbolic moment, Harry was filmed hugging Ziggy Marley, son of Bob Marley and Rita Marley.

By contrast, during their tour Prince William and Kate were left posing alongside a life-size cardboard cut-out of Bob Marley at the Trench Town Culture Yard Museum, at Bob Marley's former home.

It would be tempting to think there was a coded message here from Harry and Meghan to William and Kate about the star power that was lost when the Sussexes themselves broke with the monarchy.

Mos-Shogbamimu said: "Harry and Meghan are simply being natural. It is their natural charisma, their natural connection with people that speaks far louder than any coded message, I don't think they're thinking that.

"What is going to keep the royalist heads spinning is that you cannot fight natural charisma, people just seem to like them better."

"They probably see a vast difference between Harry and Meghan in contrast to William and Kate," she continued, who are representative of the Empire.

"They are not responsible for what happened in the past empire but they are representative of today's non-apologetic British Empire. They are the face of it, they are the voice of it and they are not naturally charismatic or connecting at all.

"When people like Harry and Meghan come along who have now settled in their own identity, who have stepped away from the image and branding of the royal family they can shine in a way that the royal family never let them shine. And I think the world can see that, hence the difference."

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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