It is also quite possible the government of South Africa wanted nothing to do with the Sussexes. They are not particularly popular there and may have been unwelcome.
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I don’t agree with that statement either. I also think it’s weird to stop all talks about South Africa once the press knew- like why? Doesn’t even make sense, we knew when they were going to move to LA. But we know with Meghan’s stories that she hated going to Africa (she offended the entire country) and probably was the one who was against the idea.
They’d already moved to Canada in November, 2019.
I don’t have an issue with Harry and Meghan leaving royal life and them making more money independently than they could have made being working royals. Don’t like the position, the rules, the way you are treated? Move on. Which they did. They just can’t seem to get over it.
Well, it’s very common for victims of abuse to be traumatized and to need time to process the abuse. I wouldn’t ever tell any victim of abuse to shut up and get over it.
I know that most on this thread would loudly and vehemently deny that they were “victims” of abuse but if you actually watch the documentary, it’s obvious that the royal establishment did a real number on them. Why shouldn’t people who have been constantly lied about and vilified to the point that one of them was suicidal, and that there were credible death threats against them and their children, go public to defend themselves from the lies told about them and explain their side of the story?
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Perhaps because it serves no purpose other than petty revenge and ensures they and their children will not have a relationship with their cousins? Even assuming they were wronged, the answer is to work thru it in therapy not on television. It isnt healthy for them or the others to keep rehashing this to the point of obsession.
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They make more money by keep talking about it and making sure media attention stays on them. They know they only have a limited time to milk all the attention for profits since people will stop being interested. Once they are older - no one will care. People will be more fascinated with the next gen of royal kids when they become teens and young adults so the spotlight and money will not come as easy once they are older.
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They were still talking to the family. Harry was trying to talk to The Queen in the first week of Jan 2020, when she said that she’d meet with him but then her people said she was busy.
" On 8 January 2020, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussexand Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, announced on [Instagram] their decision to “step back as ‘senior’ members” of the British royal family split their time between the United Kingdom and North America, and become financially independent This was dubbed Megxit, a portmanteau of the words “Meghan” and “exit” and a play on the term [Brexit] and adopted globally on mainstream and social media, spawning various Internet memes and “Megxit” merchandising.
The announcement of their decision led to a meeting of the royal family on 13 January, dubbed the “Sandringham Summit” and described as “unprecedented” Queen Elizabeth II issued a rare personal statement on her family, and was praised for her rapid handling of the matter. On 18 January, an agreement was announced whereby the couple would “no longer be working members of Britain’s royal family”, and would not use their “Royal Highness” styles.
(I removed the many Wikipedia notations because it was impossible to read with them in there, but you can read the Wikipedia article if you like Megxit - Wikipedia)
I’m guessing that in order to have their other, less juicy, documentaries paid for and hosted, Netflix insisted that this documentary be released first - in order to create the buzz that they hope will carry over to the subsequent documentaries.
Not that their charities and world goals aren’t important, but I doubt they’ll get the viewership numbers that they’re getting now.
Regarding Meghan’s mental health - she does say that she reached out for help while still in the UK and didn’t get any because the family didn’t want the press coverage of a high-profile member needing mental health assistance. I tend to believe her because we have the footage of Diana making the same claim.
I also thought I recalled hearing that Will & Kate were taking on mental health as one of their “causes”, shortly after they married. If that is true, and they didn’t battle on Meghan’s behalf, that speaks volumes as to what they think of Meghan.
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I have not watched the documentary… have followed this thread and have one episode left of The Crown. So my expert opinion (lol)…
I do not think anyone really knows what happens(ed) in any household. The press for a time was very positive about Meghan and Harry, so many pics of her sitting next to the queen and headlines about “the queen taking Meghan under her wing…” etc.
Perhaps because of the initial popularity, Meghan and Harry thought they could demand more than others in the royal family… I am not talking about the stress/mental aspect. Harry has been somewhat of a wild child within the institution way before he met Meghan so I am sure there were aspects of royal life he was eager to end. I can really understand them wanting a different life. However, monetizing the dysfunction of his family to me is just bad form. Harry knew that the palace would not be able to respond but went ahead anyway.
I think I am just tired of so many people “blaming” everyone for issues under the guise they are trying to bring light to the problem. My grandfather grew up in the depression and 2 world wars… he was not famous… but would never have talked about his family in a disparaging way publicly.
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Regarding mental health, William, Catherine and Harry founded Heads Together in 2016.
I would certainly have thought Harry would have been able to get Meghan mental health help, if needed. He founded an organization! Harry, himself, had been in therapy while in the RF. If Meghan said she was suicidal during her pregnancy, why was she not speaking with her gyno? That would certainly be the place to bring up any mental and/or physical issues. The gyno could have referred her to appropriate dr. Doctor confidentiality would have prevented anything getting into the press. Not buying that she could not get help. Didn’t Harry battle on his wife’s behalf? Why was it William and Catherine’s responsibility? At some point, you have to take responsibility for your own life and own situation. You can’t keep expecting someone else to step in and solve your problems.
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(This isn’t directed towards the poster quoted above, just using the post as a reference for the topic. )
I don’t have any particular insight into the specific situation, but I’ll just point out that when someone is clinically depressed to the point of having suicidal thoughts they’re not thinking clearly and can’t really be expected to advocate for themselves or even seek out resources for help.
We don’t expect someone suffering a heart attack to drive themselves to the hospital, and we shouldn’t always expect someone who’s clinically depressed to simply call up a therapist or psychiatrist.
Again this isn’t specific to Meghan’s situation, but let’s all be aware that if we think someone is suffering from untreated depression then they very likely do need either your help or some external help.
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In addition to the comments of @anomander I’ll add that it certainly seems like the palace disapproved and resisted when H&M didn’t go through official channels. An example is when H&M wanted to sue the Mail for publishing her letter to her father. H&M said they tried to go through channels and got endlessly stalled, so they finally hired their own lawyer and filed it themselves, which made the palace very unhappy. Obviously the “powers that be” also didn’t like it that Meghan wanted to use her own ob/gyn and have her baby at a different hospital than the RF traditionally used. And as @CollegeNerd67 said, Diana also reported that the RF impeded her efforts to get mental health help. So I tend to believe that H&M found it difficult to navigate the process of getting her help without the support of the RF.
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Thank you for this. I wanted to reply but couldn’t formulate a response - you’ve said it perfectly.
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I really want to see Meghan curtsy to Kate! Kate for the win!
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It’s not a soccer match, it’s real people’s lives. I find it strange that somebody can seem gleeful as you do.
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Does she have to curtesy to Kate? If she does, I highly doubt she will ever go back to the UK.
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Yes
Only when Kate is with William? But aren’t the brothers “equal” right now?
In theory, people bow/curtsy to those higher in the order of precedence. In practice, it seems, they only bow/curtsy to the king and queen consort. So HRH’s don’t curtsy to other HRH’s. But Meghan is also no longer HRH.
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I definitely went down the rabbit hole on this topic. I’ve been watching a lot of youtube on the royals. Some of it is eye opening. Even more than The Crown! I wasn’t really a Prince Philip fan before but I rather am now. He fought for a lot of changes, some good, some not so good.
IMO, Meghan and Harry were treated just like the prior ‘romance of the century’ royals. Lots of love and hype at first from the family and the press, lots of press saying good and bad things about the newbie at first, then pouncing on the smallest mistake. Prince Philip wasn’t a favorite of the Queen Mother, of Churchhill, of the press. His sisters married Nazis. His mother was considered insane. He was arrogant. What’s to like? Well the Queen liked him.
I really think Meghan had it made at first. The Queen liked her, took her to a theater opening for her first event because she (Q) felt Meghan would be comfortable (and M did great), etc. Q wanted Sophie to be M’s mentor but M didn’t want that.
Anyway, M&H weren’t treated nearly as harshly as Fergie and Andrew (and much of that was deserved). M didn’t want to follow the rules like no PDA and she could do what she wanted, but then she was going to be criticized. She wanted to do it her way and not be criticized.
M&H had every right to leave the royal life if they didn’t like it. Other royals have chosen that for themselves or their kids. Princess Anne stayed in the working royal life but chose not to involve her kids. Fair enough. Princess Margaret’s kids are around but not center stage.
I think Meghan got a lot of praise in her early days especially for her fashion choices and how beautiful she is, but I don’t think Harry helped her very much. For example, the tiara thing. Someone, and I have to assume it was Harry (because she didn’t know anything about the royals and clearly didn’t have Netflix to watch any documentaries on Diana or Harry or even the Queen), led her to believe she could pick any tiara and the Queen would fork it over. Nope, the Queen is picky about who gets to wear what (and I think the new controversy is she may not have left any to Camilla as she doesn’t want C to own any and leave them to her own daughter, who is not royal). If I were Meghan, I would have asked “How does this tiara thing work, Harry? Can I just ask to wear the X, or the Z, or for a certain style?” I think then I’d be told “No, the Queen decides, but why don’t you ask her opinion and let her know what kind of style you’d like?” Or Harry could have asked if she could wear the Spenser tiara. It seems the one M wanted has diamonds that can’t be cleared to have come from a ‘clean’ source, and I’d think M wouldn’t want to wear Blood Diamonds, but as Harry said, ‘M wants what she wants.’ But it didn’t have to be a big deal as all the tiaras are gorgeous.
The press is going to pounce on things, and that happens to everyone in the public eye. Even Diana. Even Obama. Even Oprah. Good and bad, that’s the press.
I wonder if they had waited 6 months, and then not done any events during covid, if things would have been different. They could have stayed in Windsor, had that year alone with their son, not even had to see the family, if they would have made a different decision about leaving. I do not remember reading much about Charles or William or their families during that time. The Queen stayed in. They didn’t do a lot of events even for Christmas. Very private lives.
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