I don’t think anyone doubts that the royal family failed to provide adequate emotional support to him after Diana’s death. But that was 25 years ago, and doesn’t excuse his actions as an adult. He could have remained in the military, like his cousin Prince Michael. He could have devoted himself to veterans’ charities. He could have moved outside the UK and lived quietly on his $50 million inheritance as a philanthropist or charitable activist. There were plenty of ways to forge an identity besides selling salacious stories.
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He’s a monarchist, he didn’t want to stop working to support the Queen. His beef is the way he was treated by his family and tabloids and how it ruined his life to a certain point.
He even said he was Infantilized by the world he was in. Couldn’t get a real job as a Royal Prince, learn how to support himself. Sure, he could have broken away early, but that was what he grew up in and all he knew. He was hunted by the paps, death threats to him and his wife…,some extremely serious…then when he moves away they completely him off. How severe and frightening.
I don’t care what he says, the book is part revenge part therapeutic. He is like an abused child in that he loves the abuser because it’s his parent…very confusing.
But I do agree with the article that he’s pretty much severed his ties. Charles, as his father, loves him and would welcome him back…I think. William never will.
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I think he would be welcomed back, but he doesn’t get to set the terms. He doesn’t get to go back and still write the second book, have Meghan get equal status to Kate, have his pay and housing back without working. The Prodigal Son didn’t get to make demands for his family to take him back.
Easter is April 9. Maybe H&M will go back for Easter and work it all out. I doubt it, but maybe.
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Interesting to read all the vitriol directed at H&M, but not at Andrew (both on this thread and in the British media) when what Andrew has done is a billion times worse. Andrew, however, does get the Royal Family’s protection.
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Andrew didn’t write a book. In his disastrous media interview, he only threw shade on himself. He left royal service voluntarily, and I think the Queen paid for his living expenses (not sure what is happening now). He’s told to stay in the background of official stuff and he does. No whining about his not getting to wear military uniforms, not being in the front row, not getting to go on the balcony.
I was watching the Harry interview on Paramount+ and after it ended a documentary on the Windsors came on. It explored both Andrew and Edward and how they tried different careers but nothing worked, so the Queen gave them residences at Windsor and that seemed to work. Andrew plays golf, Edward got more involved in royal duties a la Anne.
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I think Andrew “settled the lawsuit” and the details of his atrocious behavior was not made so public. Once he was removed from official duties… out of sight out of mind. H and M have embraced trashing his family… for money… which is uncomfortable for some and angering for others. In my opinion, many of H and M detractors probably can relate to “bad family situations/behaviors/ and complete misses.” People and families are human and make mistakes but to lay it all out there…
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Off the top of my head I’d say it’s twofold:
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None of the people involved with Epstein have received much media attention which I think is attributable to the fact that most if not all of them are high profile people with lots of connections in and out of the media as well as armies of PR and legal teams.
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Andrew has kept a very low profile, accepted his punishment and didn’t write a book, continually participate in televised interviews and star in a Netflix docudrama all aimed at trashing his family, while raking in over a hundred of million of dollars for doing it.
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Andrew hasn’t been discussed in this thread because, per the title, this thread is about H&M, and specifically the first post invited discussion of their Netflix program. I’m pretty sure if someone creates a thread about Andrew there will be plenty of vitriol directed at him.
I myself don’t follow the British media, particularly the tabloids, so am not in a position to comment on their coverage of Andrew.
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That would work for me, too! 
And it’s obvious that a lot of people commenting haven’t watched the program 
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I think this is fair, with some questions I’d like answered.
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Those are great questions!
A good rep would never allow them to be asked during an interview but they are the questions that I would love the answers to.
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Fair enough. I guess some of us are relying on the reports here from those who did watch it. 
I’ve been critical of some things Harry is doing, and I’ve made judgements based on snippets. I do try to rely on reasonable sources, and stay away from the ones that scream bias right in the headline. So while the snippets may be out of context, I haven’t read any that are intentionally twisting his words, or appear to have an agenda. (For example, I never saw anything accusing Harry of “boasting” about his Afghanistan kills, which evidently some British tabloids did. The reports I saw were quotes from his book–incomplete to be sure, but didn’t come across as boasting–and the reactions of other military people to them.)
I did watch the most recent interview with Harry, and plan to read his book. I’m more than willing to change my mind if the complete story gives me a different impression.
This is exactly what I’ve been thinking…for all we know Harry has agreed to interviews on the condition that he won’t discuss X or they can only ask Y and so on. I don’t know a lot about the behind the scenes workings of PR people, but I get the impression that’s pretty common.
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Andrew had a much longer military career than Harry did. According to Wikipedia, He served in the military from 1979 to 2001. (This included service in the Falklands, where he alleges he developed his supposed “unable to sweat” syndrome.) After he was retired from the active list in 2001, for a period of 10 years, he had a job as a special envoy for international trade. He appears to have used his position as a personal piggy bank, using government funds for personal expenses. It has been alleged that it went beyond that and he used that job to his private financial advantage–i.e., he was accused of graft. Please note these allegations weren’t limited to the tabloids. Some of the best reporting on his financial shenanigans came from Bloomberg News. Of particular interest is his relationship with Banque Haviland and his sale of “his” home to the billionaire son in law of Kazakhstan’s president, for substantially more than the asking price with the funds being deposited into off-shore accounts. It is also alleged that the American ambassador to Kazakhastan reported Andrew’s behavior to the US State Department as part of her reporting on corruption in Kazakhastan.
He did not “voluntarily” resign his military commissions; after receiving a petition signed by many military personnel, the Queen stripped him of MOST of his titles.
He took out a loan to pay for the civil suit settlement from Banque Havilland—the same bank he was accused of using his influence to benefit–and it was repaid by a principal shareholder of Banque Haviland who is a prominent donor to the Tory party. Bloomberg - Are you a robot? see also Prince Andrew's $2M Loan Repaid by Banker, Triggering Calls for Investigation see also Prince Andrew's $2M Loan Repaid by Banker, Triggering Calls for Investigation
As for the settlement keeping us from knowing any details about Andrew’s sordid behavior, lets not forget that he has claimed some version of diplomatic immunity to refuse to answer the FBI’s questions about his “friendship” with Jeffrey Epstein.
But yeah he didn’t write a book about his family. So he still gets security. I think he still gets his pension as a vice-admiral–a rank he obtained long after he had ceased to serve on active duty.
I did watch the infamous interview with Andrew and he made my flesh crawl.
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He still has security, but it’s private, and supposedly paid for by Charles
His pension is based off his rank at retirement, which was Commander. His subsequent promotions were honorary. And the annual pension amount is supposedly about £20,000. Not that I’m shedding tears on his having to live on 27k USD
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I apologize- that wasn’t meant to be directed at you, it was just a generalized comment about the entire thread.
Did Meghan retire? I’m sure she can have her pick of movie projects with her new found fame. She is beautiful and has done at least one successful serial.
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Awesome questions!
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No need to apologize; no offense taken (at least not by me).
I guess my generalized comment would be that people who put themselves out there the way H&M have are subject to judgement by the public, including by those who haven’t seen/read their full side of the story.
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