纽约时报双语：哈里王子夫妇与英国王室的一场“公关战”

哈里王子夫妇与英国王室的一场“公关战”
In Run-Up to Oprah’s Interview With Harry and Meghan, Royal Accusations Fly
MARK LANDLER
2021年3月5日

The big face-off isn’t until Sunday, but the pregame skirmishes have been raging on both sides of the Atlantic for days.

重大的对决要到周日才开始，但是赛前的小冲突已经在大西洋两岸激荡了好几天。

When Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, present their side of a sensational royal rupture to Oprah Winfrey, it is sure to be one of the most anticipated, and most heavily-spun, television interviews in recent memory.

哈里王子(Prince Harry)和妻子梅根(Meghan)就轰轰烈烈的与王室翻脸一事向奥普拉·温弗瑞(Oprah Winfrey)给出了他们这一方的说法，这肯定是近年来最受期待、最重磅的电视采访之一。

In tantalizing excerpts dribbled out by CBS, which is broadcasting the two-hour prime-time program, and in scalding allegations about Meghan leaked to a British newspaper, the British royal family and the self-exiled couple are maneuvering furiously before the interview airs to try to shape the narrative.

CBS将在黄金时段播出这档两个小时的节目，从电视台事先透露的一点点卖关子的片段，以及一家英国报纸得到的有关梅根的爆料来看，在采访播出之前，英国王室和这对自我流放的夫妇已经在各自施展手段，以求将叙事的主动权掌握在本方手中。

Was Meghan the victim of a cold, unwelcoming family that cruelly isolated her after she married Harry and is now defaming her? Or was she a Hollywood diva who mistreated her staff, throwing the House of Windsor into turmoil and triggering a breach between the family and one of its most beloved young princes?

梅根是这个冷漠、不欢迎她的家族的受害者吗？嫁给哈里之后，王室残忍地孤立了她，现在又来诋毁她？又或者她是个虐待下属、令温莎王室陷入混乱、引发王室与最受喜爱的年轻王子之一产生不和的好莱坞女星？

All of this is playing out against the backdrop of an ailing family patriarch, Prince Philip; a revered but aging Queen Elizabeth II; and a family that is emerging from a year of seclusion during the pandemic to find the wounds still fresh from Harry and Meghan’s abrupt departure for a new life in California.

这一切的发生还有一个背景——患病的族长菲利普亲王(Prince Philip)和受人尊敬但年事已高的伊丽莎白二世女王(Queen Elizabeth II)；以及这个大流行期间与世隔绝了一年，尚未从哈里和梅根突然去加州开始新生活所造成的创伤中恢复过来的家族。

The latest shot in this public-relations battle was fired on Thursday, when CBS released a 30-second teaser clip from the interview, in which Ms. Winfrey asked Meghan how she believed Buckingham Palace would react to her opening up about her life after her fairy-tale marriage to Harry in May 2018.

这场公关战的最新一枪是在周四打响的，当时CBS发布了一段该采访的30秒预告片段，其中温弗瑞问梅根，既然她决定公布自己从2018年5月与哈里的童话式婚姻之后的生活，她觉得白金汉宫会对此做何反应？

“I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time, we would still just be silent if there is an active role that ‘the firm’ is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us,” said Meghan, referring to the royal family by a nickname often used to evoke the less high-minded qualities of the monarchy.

“长久以来，‘公司’一直在积极编制关于我们的谎言，我不知道他们怎么还能期望这一次我们继续保持沉默，”梅根说。“公司”是王室的一个绰号，通常是在希望强调的一些王室不那么高尚的品质时使用。

“If that comes with risk of losing things,” she said to Ms. Winfrey, “I mean, there’s a lot that’s been lost already.”

“如果这是要冒着失去一些什么的风险，”她对温弗瑞说，“我的意思是，有很多东西已经失去了。”

The clip seemed calculated to respond to an explosive report in the Times of London on Tuesday that a former royal aide to Meghan filed a complaint with the palace in October 2018, accusing her of bullying her staff, reducing some junior aides to tears, and driving two personal assistants out of the royal household.

这个片段似乎是为了回应伦敦《泰晤士报》(The Times)周二的爆炸性报道，即梅根的一名前王室助手于2018年10月向白金汉宫提出申诉，指责她霸凌员工，将一些初级助手弄哭，并导致两名私人助理离开王室。

A spokeswoman for the couple called the allegations an “attack” on the character of the American former actress — all the more painful because she “has been the target of bullying herself.”

这对夫妇的发言人称，这些指控是在“攻击”这位前美国演员的名誉，因为她自己“也一直是遭受欺凌的对象”，所以这让她更加痛苦。

Buckingham Palace, however, said it was “very concerned” about the allegations, would look into them and invited former staff members of the couple to take part in the investigation “to see if lessons can be learned.”

然而，白金汉宫表示，它“非常关注”这些指控，将对其进行调查，并邀请这对夫妇的前工作人员参与调查，“看看是否能从中吸取教训”。

The spectacle of the royal family conducting a human-resources investigation of one of its most famous in-laws left longtime observers of the monarchy slack-jawed. They predicted it would lead to further embarrassing disclosures, since the palace did not act on the complaint at the time, and other people who worked in the palace might take it as an invitation to lodge their own charges of mistreatment.

王室对其最著名的姻亲之一进行人力资源调查的场面，让王室动态的长期观察者目瞪口呆。他们预计这将导致更多尴尬的披露，因为王室当时没有对这一投诉采取行动，其他在王室工作的人可能会把它当作一个鼓励，从而提出自己遭受虐待的指控。

“They have opened an unbelievable can of worms,” said Peter Hunt, a former royal correspondent for the BBC. “Are they really going to find her guilty of bullying? Will it be in the form of a #MeToo investigation? It really feels like the anarchists have taken over the institution.”

“他们开启了一堆难以置信的麻烦，”BBC前王室记者彼得·亨特(Peter Hunt)说：“他们真的要给她扣霸凌的罪名吗？会以‘#我也是’(#MeToo)的形式展开调查吗？感觉真像是无政府主义者接管了这个机构。”

To some extent, the charges and countercharges represent a clash of cultures: the old-fashioned press leaks of the British media — long used by members of the royal family or their allies to settle scores — versus the publicity machine of an American television network and one of the nation’s most powerful media personalities.

某种程度上，这些指控和反指控代表了文化冲突：英国老式的媒体新闻泄露——长期以来，王室成员或其盟友用这一工具进行报复——对抗美国电视网的宣传机器和全国最强大的媒体人物之一。

CBS and Ms. Winfrey’s company, Harpo Productions, have stoked expectations for the interview, which will be broadcast in Britain on Monday by the ITV network, with peekaboo excerpts that show her seated with Harry and Meghan in a relaxed outdoor setting, but offer only glimpses of what they are talking about.

CBS和温弗瑞的公司哈珀制片(Harpo Productions) 激起了人们对这次采访的期待，它将于周一由ITV台在英国播出，预告片段显示她与哈里和梅根坐在一个轻松的户外环境中，但只提供了他们谈话内容的一小段。

“Were you silent or were you silenced?” Ms. Winfrey asks at one point, as Meghan looks at her but says nothing. “You’ve said some pretty shocking things here,” she says at another, as dramatic music wells up.

“你是保持沉默还是被人封口了？”温弗瑞问道，梅根看着她，但什么也没说。“你说了一些非常令人震惊的事情，”在另一段里，温弗瑞说，这时背景响起了戏剧性的音乐。

Harry, who will join Meghan for the second half of the interview, appears briefly in an excerpt to say, “My biggest concern was history repeating itself.” That is an apparent reference to the fate of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car accident in Paris in 1997 after a high-speed pursuit involving photographers.

哈里王子在采访的后半段和梅根一起接受采访，他在一段预告中说：“我最担心的是历史会重演。”这显然是指他的母亲戴安娜王妃(Princess Diana)的命运。戴安娜王妃1997年在巴黎遭遇摄影师驱车高速追逐，在随后的车祸中丧生。

That experience left Harry with an abiding animus toward the British press. He and Meghan have both filed privacy lawsuits against the tabloids, and in a recent interview with the late-night talk-show host James Corden, Harry cited the relentless intrusiveness of the press as a major reason for the couple’s decision to relocate to Montecito, Calif.

那次经历使哈里对英国新闻界产生了持久的敌意。他和梅根都曾对这些小报提出过隐私诉讼。在前不久接受深夜脱口秀主持人詹姆斯·柯登(James Corden)采访时，哈里王子称媒体的无情侵扰是他们决定搬到加州蒙特西托的主要原因。

Ms. Winfrey, however, is promising more than a mere recitation of the couple’s familiar press grievances. She is promising dirt.

然而，温弗瑞承诺，节目中不只会重复夫妇二人对媒体常说的抱怨。她承诺的是黑料。

“I just want to make it clear to everybody that there is no subject that is off limits,” she said. Her friend, Gayle King, a host of “CBS This Morning,” said this week, “I’ve heard from reliable sources, this is Oprah talking, that it’s the best interview she’s ever done.”

“我只是想让大家明白，没有什么话题是禁区，”她说。她的朋友、CBS《今晨》(This Morning)节目主持人盖尔·金(Gayle King)本周表示：“我从可靠消息来源得知，这是奥普拉式的访谈，这是她做过的最好的一次采访。”

George F. Schweitzer, a former head of CBS Marketing, said he expected the network would spare little to promote the interview, given its combination of “three magic words: ‘Oprah. Harry. Meghan.’”

CBS前营销主管乔治·F·施韦策(George F. Schweitzer)说，他预计电视台会不遗余力地宣传这次访谈，因为它结合了“三个神奇的词：奥普拉、哈里、梅根。”

The timing of the interview, following the flagship CBS News program “60 Minutes,” would boost its ratings, he said, as will the theme, which will appeal to viewers yearning for an escape after a year of living with the coronavirus.

他说，这次采访选在CBS主打新闻节目《60分钟》(60 Minutes)之后播出会提高收视率，这个主题也很诱人，因为它能吸引那些在新冠病毒肆虐一年后渴望逃避的观众。

With that kind of advance hype, Buckingham Palace is steeling itself for a difficult evening. The royal family has a long history of warts-and-all interviews that have reverberated for years afterward.

面对如此热烈的造势，白金汉宫正在为一个艰难的夜晚做准备。像这种接下来几年都会成为谈资的爆料采访，王室早有经历。

In 1994, Prince Charles confessed he had cheated on Diana. A year later, Diana told an interviewer, “there were three of us in this marriage.” In 2019, Prince Andrew’s ham-handed defense of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sexual predator, helped send Andrew into exile from public life.

1994年，查尔斯王子承认他对戴安娜不忠。一年后，戴安娜在采访中说，“这场婚姻有三个人。”2019年，安德鲁王子为自己与被定罪的性掠夺者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦(Jeffrey Epstein)的友谊做了笨拙的辩解，导致他告别公众生活。

This time, however, Meghan’s reputation in Britain has suffered even before she has uttered a word. The prospect of the interview with Ms. Winfrey, which could cement a narrative about her suffering at the hands of the royal family, prompted former members of her staff to speak to the Times of London about their treatment while working for the couple, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

然而这一次，梅根还没张嘴说话，在英国的名声就已经受到严重损害。这场温弗瑞的访谈有望巩固她深受王室之害的叙事，据两名了解内情的人士透露，正是这种可能性促使两名前助手向《泰晤士报》讲述了他们的遭遇。

In October 2018, their communications secretary, Jason Knauf, notified the private secretary of Prince William, Harry’s brother, about incidents in which he said the duchess had manipulated and humiliated staff members, the Times of London said. The private secretary, Simon Case, is now the cabinet secretary, one of the most powerful posts in the British government.

《泰晤士报》说，2018年10月，两夫妇的通联秘书杰森·克瑙夫(Jason Knauf)知会哈里的兄长威廉王子的私人秘书，称公爵夫人操纵和侮辱下属。那位私人秘书就是现任内阁秘书的西蒙·凯斯(Simon Case)，当今英国政府内最有权势的人之一。

Staff members were also dismayed, the newspaper said, when Meghan wore a pair of earrings to a formal dinner in Fiji that had been given to her as a wedding gift by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, three weeks after the killing of the dissident Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. An American intelligence report released this week concluded that the prince had approved the assassination.

报道还提到一件令下属感到沮丧的事，在斐济的一场正式晚宴上，梅根佩戴了沙特王储穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼(Mohammed bin Salman)送给她的一对耳环，而当时距离沙特异议记者贾迈勒·卡舒吉(Jamal Khashoggi)被杀才只过去三周。本周公布的一份美国情报机构报告得出结论，卡舒吉是在王储授意下被暗杀的。

A spokeswoman for the couple said Meghan was “deeply committed to supporting those who have experienced pain and trauma.” She did not address questions about the earrings.

两夫妇的一位发言人表示，梅根“十分在意对那些经历痛苦和创伤的人给予支持”。她没有就耳环一事置评。

In its statement on the bullying claims, Buckingham Palace said, “The Royal Household has had a Dignity at Work policy in place for a number of years and does not, and will not, tolerate bullying or harassment in the workplace.”

在有关霸凌指控的声明中，白金汉宫说，“王室多年前就已订立有关工作尊严的政策，任何时候都不会容忍工作场所的霸凌或骚扰。”

For Buckingham Palace to be dragged into a dispute like this is exceedingly awkward. That has sown doubts that the queen or Prince Charles are behind efforts to discredit Meghan. They are more likely to be preoccupied by Prince Philip, 99, who is recovering from a heart procedure in a London hospital.

被卷入这样的纷争对白金汉宫来说是极其难堪的。这让人怀疑诋毁梅根的行动是受女王或查尔斯王子的指使。他们更关心的可能是99岁的菲利普亲王，他不久前刚刚在伦敦一家医院做了心脏手术。

But relations between William and Harry continue to be deeply strained, according to people with ties to the palace. Longtime observers of the royal family said that when disputes like this erupt into the open, it usually suggests that someone — either senior palace officials or a family member — did nothing to stop it.

而据了解宫中事务的人说，威廉和哈里的关系依然紧张。常年观察王室的人说，这样的纷争被曝光出来，通常意味着有人——可能是宫中的高级官员，或者某位王室成员——没有出手制止。

“This tap could be turned off,” Mr. Hunt said. “The Buckingham Palace bit of it could be turned off in a nanosecond.”

“这个水龙头是可以拧上的，”亨特说。“有关白金汉宫的那部分，想压住随时可以压住。”

网址：纽约时报双语：哈里王子夫妇与英国王室的一场“公关战” https://mxgxt.com/news/view/365563

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