On reflection, the person who IS “like Diana”, and who is repeating history, is Harry.
He knows what the press is like, he knows what the firm is like.
Yet he’s playing all of that out exactly the way Diana did, in her latter dealings with the royal family and press.

The bombshell interview full of every manipulative gambit,what did it actually achieve for Diana ?
I’m not wholly sure – because ask a hundred and you’ll get a hundred.
But for every sympathy point it gained it also gained as much in antipathy. A great many people sympathetic, up to that point , were awoken to the carefully curated(and you’ll see that word repeated for good reason ) image, to “the game”. And many were like “see?”
And Diana must’ve realised it, as she tried to make amends.

We all know how Diana was treated as a naive teen, but naive teens join the military and purport themselves with more aplomb, in their thousands. Maybe because they’re more circumspect? I don’t know.

I’m not about to diagnose the cluster as it’s now become – thanks to its scattergun use against women – devalued. But behaviours are behaviours , traits are traits. And this time , it’s a man displaying them.
Now , you can point to childhood trauma – and I’d agree it’s a factor(and I shouldn’t have to say I sympathise, but it seems I do have to) – but I also ask the interlocutor this, is that being carefully curated, and to what end?

For someone SO terrified of history repeating itself , he couldn’t do a better job of making sure it does, if he tried.
His aversion to press intrusion and pursuit get played out before us in a never ending circle of courting that, then wheeling out his carefully curated role of “the hunted and haunted”, again and again.

If he’d have chosen someone truly different from himself, I’d say it was a sadistic and self indulgent game.
One can only speculate why the relationships with Chelsey Davey, and Cressida Bonas – both of whom were well liked by the firm – didn’t result in marriage , given they were both considered suitable, and clearly loved him ?
Davey in particular is said to have been very publicity averse, and – in retrospect- maybe both were conflict averse as well?

And it’s NOT a matter of unavoidability, or being royal. It’s a matter of playing a part, versus living a life.
We can see examples of “civilians” and royals of equal profile, just living their lives.

Wherever your sympathies lie – however you cast others not as “kind” – and as much as history is repeating itself , this is NOT a naive and damaged teenager with no precedent, but two adults – who entered this in their late thirties, having seen how this plays out – both WELL aware of the price of courting attention. Both well versed in courting attention.

But of the two of them, who do I feel more sorry for – co dependency aside?
My answer might surprise you …it’s Meghan.
Because he allowed her to carry on burning all her bridges , knowing full well that – unlike every other time she’s Markled someone – there’s no going upwards and onwards, just an almighty fall.
Just so – even if subconsciously- he could have a proxy.

She may walk away – if she walks away, if she can walk away -bathed in riches, but she may never be loved or trusted, for herself, again.
Neither might he, but he’ll always be a prince.