No, the opposite. Meghan has no class, but that’s expected, Harry is an idiot, and that’s not a surprise, sorry CC, that’s my opinion whether you like it or not.
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I’ve seen several cases of happy families becoming estranged when a spouse comes along. It’s sad.
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Edit to add: I don’t mean to say it’s all Meghan’s fault. I think Harry truly wanted a different life but couldn’t really know what that meant. Grass is greener effect. Now he has a different life but I imagine he watched the closeness of the family at the carol event with some sadness
One last thing and then I’ll be quiet, Meghan lost me several times like with the Beyoncé name drop and more so with her statement that she thought the Oprah interview would highlight her depression and she was shocked that the buzz the next day was about the baby’s skin color. Come on, she told us over and over that she is the smart one and yet she expects us to believe that she didn’t think the skin color comment would be the next day’s headline? Not buying it.
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Especially when one inherits 1.5 billion dollars and the other gets 7 million for no reason other than birth order.
In normal people terms that would be like one getting $150,000 and the other getting $700. So much inequality financially and with public perception manipulated by the media. One is a favored son and a media darling and the other is the spare whose wife is the media’s punching bag. How could everyone be a normal happy family in a situation like that?
I don’t think it’s strictly jealousy. I would think that would cause a lot of sadness and feelings of being considered less than within the family also. It would be a lot to deal with IMO.
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I think there needs to be a distinction made between the royal family (what we all think of as the definition of family) and the ROYAL FAMILY as an institution or business. The institution of the ROYAL FAMILY’s primary concern is the continuation of the monarchy, which relies on the British people’s support. So their being popular and well-liked is critical to the continuation of the monarchy, and the only people in the royal family that really matter from this perspective are those in the direct line of succession.
I absolutely believe that there was and is some kind of agreement between the British press and the ROYAL FAMILY to ensure that the people in the institution that matter the most (namely, Charles, Camilla, William and Kate) are protected from bad press, and if it means keeping the press preoccupied by throwing them negative tidbits about other members of the family that aren’t as important, that is considered a good deal.
Factor in the additional fact that Harry and Meghan were eclipsing William and Kate in popularity, which is a definite no-no, in the same way that it wasn’t appreciated that Diana was more popular than Charles. So I totally believe that William’s staff was feeding or planting things to the press (with or without William’s express knowledge) in a jockeying attempt to help their guy look better and come out on top. And that Harry and Meghan, from the family (not FAMILY) perspective, felt betrayed because the family wasn’t protecting them and were throwing them under the bus in the name of protecting the institution of the monarchy (or the FAMILY).
It’s like when your company expects you to take one for the team, when you aren’t guilty. Do you do it? Or do you step back and say ‘No way’. I don’t blame H and M for doing the latter.
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I wonder who planted the bad press about Meghan Markle’s father? Who done it really, the National Enquirer wants to know?
They whine about security but then fully broadcast on Oprah where they live and even take millions of viewers on a walking tour of their property 
Like I said above, I just don’t think Americans care that much about them. Most of us had no idea who Meghan Markle was when the engagement announcement was made. It’s not like he married Taylor Swift. If things like the Oprah interview and the Netflix doc aren’t in the news, probably no one (in the U.S.) has H&M on their minds. While the British press is laser focused on every move the Royal family makes, the American press is fickle, and after a couple of days of boredom in covering H&M, they will inevitably move on to the next ridiculous celebrity tidbit.
This is nothing more than they made a deal with Netflix and dishing on the dirty family laundry was part of the deal. If they wanted to live a quiet life, they could - period. There are tons of actual A-list celebrities dotted in low-key cities and small towns all over the U.S. who aren’t bothered on a regular basis by the press because they are just living their lives and not airing dirty laundry.
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Excellent post.
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People keep saying that H&M claimed they wanted to live the quiet life. That was not my takeaway. They wanted to get away from London and the “rota” and they wanted the palace comms people to intervene to push back on the negative Meghan stories. All their proposals were rejected. Then they wanted to be able to pursue their own ventures and become financially independent. The part about becoming financially independent was always integral to their exit plans and that necessarily involved commercial ventures and leveraging their best asset, their celebrity. They wanted privacy in the sense that they wanted to stop the harassment from paparazzi stalking them, intercepting their mail, interviewing everyone from Meghan’s past digging for dirt, etc. That’s not the same as saying you want to live the quiet life totally away from the public.
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And they got what they wanted but destroyed their family relationships. Some of the other cousins have left without the turmoil. The Queen said they could leave.
They just didn’t leave quietly.
i’m watching a documentary about the remaining Kennedys right now. Caroline’s kids had stalkers. People have broken into their homes, some with bad intentions, others just confused. It’s interesting that they are sort of doing what H&M say they want to do - raise money for charities, balance fame with private life, run for office if they want to, keep their children out of the spotlight until the children decide to come out.
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A Vogue article summed up the situation this way:
"The sense of a missed opportunity—how good Meghan was at making speeches, at dazzling crowds—lingers even now. Harry and Meghan laid their story out over six hours; the Palace will not. Still, it’s hard not to notice how deafening the royals’ silence on Meghan was, back when she needed their support most. The monarchy wanted the benefit of Meghan—the sheen and glow of appearing more modern and instantly diverse—without having to embrace her as one of its own. "
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Maybe I’m on this side of the pond, I don’t get it that Harry and Meghan are more popular, maybe the interest was peeking up to the before wedding day.
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British tabloid media suffers from Ooh, Shiny Syndrome.
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Their whining on Netflix, after everything that’s happened globally during the last 2 years thanks to the pandemic & all that, just seems tone deaf. It’s like a more hoity toity version of a “Real Housewives of ___” show on the Bravo network.
There are a LOT of big time celebrities who have moved out of Hollywood over the years and are living in other parts of the world in a low key sort of lifestyle. Their names pop up in the news occasionally when they do a good deed or something like that (I’m thinking of you, Harrison Ford, and all of the helicopter air lifts you’ve done in Wyoming, or Nicole Kidman commenting once about how she’s been able to go to the grocery store in TN where she lives and everybody pretty much ignores her).
You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. They want a lot of attention. And money. But then they don’t want the attention. Yet they do. And oh, it’s been so hard for them, boo hoo, blah blah blah.
America is an enormous and wide open free country. If you want to get away from it all and truly live a quiet life out of the spotlight, you know what? THEY CAN DO THAT RIGHT NOW! But they don’t.
They’re acting like a pair of whiny spoiled little girls. Totally out of touch. They can both go suck my big toe as far as I’m concerned.
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Here it is.
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Obama and his wife are also distancing themselves from this couple. They are not keen on spoiled brats dissing their families either, they love their family. I also think they liked the Queen a lot.
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They were very popular especially during their commonwealth tours, as they explained the majority of the citizens in those countries are black and brown. It really seemed the monarchy was embracing change and a new way of life. William, Kate and Anne’s visits were disastrous. Anne even cut one of her’s short.
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They don’t want to live out of the spotlight, they want to quit being harassed by the UK paparrazi 24/7, then writing lies about them. They never had any intention of living quietly and away from it all. They need to make $$$, so they knew they needed to be public figures, just not to that horrid degree.
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I think that the documentary, as it played out, is basically what Meghan and Harry have to offer. I haven’t watched - I don’t have Netflix - but would have enjoyed the pictures of the couple and the how-they-met part. However, the public attack on family makes me uncomfortable. So, why did that happen? In my opinion, money. A documentary on the Invictus Games won’t have the same public interest as behind the scenes look at what happened. Netflix knew and so did Meghan and Harry. Truthfully, it’s what they have to offer at this point, which is why it keeps getting offered again and again. (And probably the reason most here watched the documentary, right? No matter who you believe.)
Can you even imagine the Netflix ratings should the Royal Family agree to a documentary detailing their recollections on what happened?
I think Meghan is beautiful and Harry truly loves her. I don’t like the public airing of unhappiness as it pertains to family. Yes, go after the media and get angry with in-laws, but at some point realize that you lose more than you gain. Once the couple quits trashing family, they truly need to have something more solid in place to support the life they want to have. I don’t see that happening at the moment.
I remember seeing Michelle Obama’s advice to Meghan in a Good Housekeeping Q&A:
Michelle Obama has some words of wisdom for Meghan Markle —and, honestly, she might be one of the few people in the world who can actually relate to how the Duchess of Sussex might be feeling in her new, very public life. They have a lot in common: Both are highly accomplished American women of color who have been thrust into the spotlight in part because of the jobs of their husbands—and then scrutinized for everything from their fashion choices to their work.
“Like me, Meghan probably never dreamt that she’d have a life like this, and the pressure you feel—from yourself and from others—can sometimes feel like a lot,” Obama said in a new interview with Good Housekeeping.
“So my biggest piece of advice would be to take some time and don’t be in a hurry to do anything. I spent the first few months in the White House mainly worrying about my daughters, making sure they were off to a good start at school, and making new friends before I launched into any more ambitious work. I think it’s OK—it’s good, even—to do that."
Advice not followed.
I have Harry’s book on hold at the library. I’m not sure I want to read it anymore.
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