Having money or privilege doesn’t make one immune from troubles and hardships. Most single mothers or others struggling to make it work at least don’t have their every move scrutinized and criticized, with many other transgressions simply made up in order to profit others. For example, the Will infidelity rumors. Could be totally untrue and nothing to do with Kate’s frosty reception of his touch, or maybe another example of a long history of Royal philandering that she is expected to put up with in exchange for being so “lucky” to have wealth and privilege. Again, who knows.
The financial rewards of being in the Royal Family are certainly significant, but I don’t see why Meghan should be “grateful” for any of the rest of that nonsense. The day Diana signed up to be a Royal (and by all accounts she did so out of love or at least infatuation) was basically the day she signed herself up for a lifetime of misery and a premature end.
While having unlimited resources won’t shield one from all the tribulations of motherhood, it can help purchase the assistance to make it far less stressful. Meghan was a mature professional in her mid to late 30s with prior marriage and relationships; I would have expected she understood what she was getting into by marrying into royalty. Some would find the trade-off worth it, some do not.
They really are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. If they stay in the family with current requirements/rewards, they are privileged freeloaders who aren’t allowed to acknowledge problems or challenges like every other human being without being called “ungrateful.” If they separate and try to make their own way, it’s all called “laughable.”
There really is no amount of money or privilege that would make it worth it to me to be part of all that nonsense. It seems that many Royal spouses come to that same conclusion eventually, usually after it’s too late.
I don’t think having previous relationships would prepare anyone for what it’s like to marry into royalty. I believe she sincerely THOUGHT she knew what she was getting into and then was shocked at the reality.
Serious question-why was she shocked? There is a vast trove of information about royal life available publicly. Other spouses do not appear to have been shocked. It is a substantial trade off, but clearly many are willing to make it. It is her choice to enter into, and remain in, the royal family.
It’s called idealism. The divorce rate is pretty high, but that doesn’t stop people who marry from believing that their relationship will last until death.
I also don’t agree that other spouses were not necessarily shocked at the reality. It’s hard to know what someone is feeling based on how they “appear.” Some are just better at keeping it hidden from public view.
I’m not really a “royal” watcher, but just what I see elsewhere, and here, makes it clear to me that none of us really KNOW what it would be like to become part of this institution.
I’m always surprised when people look at innocuous, not in any way evil-seeming others and predict bad ends for them. It makes me wonder, will they be happy if it turns out they were wrong, or gratified if it turns out they were right (and the bad end happens).
I’m going to stick to recognizing others as humans with the same capacity to feel hurt, and to try to mitigate hurt in others, and wish them well. I’ll even extend that hope to the negative naysayers here. (I’ll add that I’m quite willing to suspend that well-wishing to folks we seek to hurt others, but that’s not what I see here.)
Of course the Sussex couple will be fine, with a net worth of 40 million dollars, and few personal expenses in England. We do not need to worry about them at all.
Disclosure that I am a novice royal watcher - not an avid royal watcher as some are.
I started thinking that I recalled seeing some very favorable coverage/comments of Trudeau towards/with Harry and Megan. I did a search and found this article which if you read the content, really sort of foreshadows the announcement yesterday.
I actually think Charles is partly at fault here, because this is something he could have anticipated and planned for. Charles has been working for quite some time toward creating a “streamlined” royal family, which would include Harry and Harry’s spouse as full-time working royals but would not include any of their children. While it’s understandable Charles would want to keep Harry and Meghan in the fold, since Charles only has the two children and he, and William, could use Harry and Meghan’s support, that does create a difficult situation for Harry and Meghan. They are expected to raise Archie as a normal kid, who will eventually get a normal job and be self-supporting, while not being able to set an example themselves of how that would work. That sets them, and Archie, up for failure. I think plans for some sort of new role for Harry should have been set in motion years ago.
She’s also the first non-white person to marry into the family at this level. I don’t think anyone predicted the volume and viciousness of the racist attacks both in the press and online in general.
If you were the spouse, you’d want to protect your partner from that. If you were a parent, you’d want to protect your children from that.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t recall people comparing Will and Kate’s first baby to a chimpanzee? I’m not a royal watcher but I don’t think Kate has experienced the same amount and type of attacks that Meghan has.
" …the Daily Mail’s headline announced “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s sister Rachel described Harry’s then-girlfriend as the daughter of a “dreadlocked African American woman”…When the royal baby, Archie, was born, BBC presenter Danny Baker tweeted a photo of a posh man and woman with a chimpanzee, captioned “royal baby leaves hospital.”"
upthread - LOL! 'mental midget"! Fun aside, he may be / seem / act immature, but Harry did command two tours of Afghanistan; I’m not sure how many mental midgets could do that!
As for the press hounding Diana to her death; Diana courted much of the press attention, and, if memory serves me, she declined Royal protection. The only survivor that fateful night was Dodi’s bodyguard, the only one wearing a seatbelt.
Regardless of strong feelings everywhere, I think it’s a tragedy that the Queen, who has, by all appearances, lived and served her life flawelssly, selflessly and in service, should see the end of her days with her family dragged through the mud across the world.
My first reaction and that of a friend with republican leanings is that they are behaving like spoiled brats. They have been well provided for by their family and the public, have privacy in Frogmore cottage and will be able to rear Archie with a normal amount of privacy. The other royal children appear in public rarely, with the family providing photos as they choose. In some senses they teased the press when Archie was born, announcing his birth as being at a different time to the real event and hiding the place of birth until his birth certificate was published. Many of the photos of Archie, though sweet, are unclear.
Diana also courted the press and was then hounded by them, which was truly horrible. I viewed her behaviour with the media as sometimes grossly inappropriate. Her life and death obviously affected both her sons profoundly, but I think that they should have learned that frank personal comments to the media and tabloids are best avoided.
I have only read and heard comments which were favourable to Meghan, speculating that she and Harry will help rejuvenate the family. I have not come across racist comments. ( I do not read the right wing or tabloid press). The reaction to her mother has been one of admiration. Her half siblings have behaved disgracefully and her father seems ill advised. I feel for him.
I wish all of them well but cannot see how they can be financially independent without trading on their royal status or relying on the state to protect them.
No, not possible. No one lives their life flawlessly. Everyone has a skeleton of one kind or another in their closet. There has been plenty written and reported about the Queen to suggest she is nowhere close to being perfect. Perhaps she is a fine human being, but there is no cause to put her on a pedestal. She is as flawed as any normal human being.
The Royals have been “dragged through the mud across the world” for generations. This isn’t anything new.