Meghan Markle wants to expose “the company”.
In a teaser for Markle’s eagerly awaited Oprah, the 39-year-old former actress accuses “the Firm” of “perpetuating lies about” her and Prince Harry.
That simple expression stunned royal observers, who say that the nickname for the united members of the highest echelons of royalty is never used by any of them in public, according to Marie Claire.
It is also helping to expose a nickname that has been around for decades and has questionable connotations for the monarchy, which Forbes reported in 2017, worth an astonishing $ 88 billion.
For many, the term carries nefarious connotations, perhaps serving the Duchess of Sussex, who accuses the family of betraying her.
In the UK, it is synonymous with the country’s most notorious crime syndicate, run by twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray in the 1960s.
For movie viewers, he will also remember “The Firm,” the 1993 film in which Tom Cruise plays a young lawyer imprisoned in a secret dark side of a respected law firm.
It was also on the big screen that many people may have heard the expression used for royalty for the first time, in a key moment of the 2010 historical drama “The King’s Speech”.
“We are not a family, we are a company,” said Colin Firth in his role as King George VI.
Although the film featured Queen Elizabeth II’s late father using the phrase, the nickname is widely credited to the monarch’s husband, Philip, who is currently in a London hospital recovering from heart surgery.
He used it when he joined the family when he married then Princess Elizabeth in 1947, and soon became a whispered term for the royal family, according to royal biographer Penny Junor, who titled his 2005 book “The Firm : The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor. “
“The House of Windsor is a big business, although with more ups and downs than the stock market”, explains the synopsis of the book about the nickname.
“Prince Philip calls this ‘the firm’, and all royal executives and their powerful associates must make every effort to avoid even a hint of scandal that could undermine the reputation of the family business,” wrote Junor.
Historical unity and the protection of the real image were, for many important reasons, why the Sussex decision of Megxit and leaving life as senior royalty was a shock.
It was this historic break with tradition that allegedly cemented a “New Company” of eight, according to the mirror.
Joining the queen in the lead was her eldest son, heir to the throne, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the newspaper said.
Charles’s eldest son, Prince William, is also an important leader, aided by his wife, Kate Middleton – with Harry and Markle clearly out after Megxit.
The queen’s other children, Princess Anne and Prince Edward, are also, as is Edward’s wife, Sophie, countess of Wessex – but not Prince Andrew, who was released from royal duties amid the scandal over his friendship with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Although the company survived Megxit’s turmoil, it potentially faces its biggest challenge, as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex threaten to expose secrets from their previously hidden world.