Unroyal

Three Women Who Shook the Monarchy

By: Sarah Lyall

Narrated by: Sarah Lyall

Wallis, Diana and Meghan: Three Wives, One Narrative

One was a married American socialite who embarked on a scandalous affair with the future king of England. Another was an aristocratic ingenue whose winsome charm captured the world’s imagination. And the third was a thirty-something actress whose outspokenness put her on a collision course with the British public. The marriages of Wallis Simpson, Diana Spencer, and Meghan Markle into the British royal family sparked a series of crises that at times seemed to threaten the future of the monarchy itself. In Unroyal, veteran New York Times reporter and former London correspondent Sarah Lyall revisits how each royal wife threatened the stability of—and was ultimately rejected by—this most ancient and opaque of institutions.

Using archival material and interviews with experts like the bestselling author Tina Brown, the royal biographer Andrew Morton, and the social commentator and broadcaster Afua Hirsch, Lyall’s audio documentary examines three pivotal TV interviews in which each woman pushed up against the official royal narrative: Wallis in 1970, Diana in 1995, and Meghan in 2021. Lyall describes the differences and highlights the similarities between the women at these three flexion points to examine the endless codependent dance between the monarchy, the public, and the news media and to shed fresh light on the fraught intersection of power, fame, and family politics in an institution torn between tradition and modernization.

Narrated by the author against a beguiling soundscape of contemporaneous news footage and a spectral score, Unroyal blends the probing inquisition of You’re Wrong About with the historical intrigue of The Crown, serving both neophytes and obsessives a delectable royal feast for the ears.

©2023 Pushkin Industries and Sarah Lyall (P)2023 Pushkin Industries and Sarah Lyall

Reader!

I loved how Lyall made the subject so moving - I felt how much she understood both the absurdity and unavoidable humanity of the people.

Brisk and engaging

A deft recap/exploration of familiar stories. I especially appreciated Lyall’s use of interviews and broadcast excerpts and her ability to see how these three different stories are part of a larger one.

The Author doesn’t understand Royalty at all.

I’m American and I understand why the Royal Family/Monarchy has the rules it has. Meghan went into the Family, guns blazing planning to break protocol every time and not expect push back. I think the late Queen was very forgiving of Meghan until she stole $250,000 of jewelry. I wouldn’t put up with that either.

This Author needs to research her subjects more thoroughly and she can start with Tom Bower’s books. He has never been sued. His research of his subjects is impeccable.

Harry has always been protected and the Palace always used their PR machine to make him appear to be the happy go lucky Prince when he is a spoilt man child. Did the author know he beat up a woman during his service in the Army while she was “servicing” him?

Not happy with this book at all.

Nothing New Here

If one has read anything about the British royal family in the Twentieth Century, then there is absolutely no reason to listen to this book. No great insights, no revelatory insights. Waste of time.