The Royal Family #27

[billybudd]

I completely agree with you.

I think when Meghan says she didn’t Google the Royal Family, she is totally lying. But I think what she’s trying to say is that she didn’t go back to articles from 2010 to see the abuse Kate got.

I do agree with H&M that she shouldn’t expect to get abused, but equally I don’t agree with them that it’s the palace’s place to stop this.

I think a lot of their comments piss people in the UK off because we feel like the Royals owe us something as we fund them through taxes, where as in America they are received better because they don’t.

The idea that someone going to South Africa, on behalf of the Government, and at the expense of the tax payer, and then complaining about it, leaves a bitter taste for some people.

It’s the same with the idea she’s claims she couldn’t seek help for her mental health struggles. Harry, with William and Kate, literally founded a mental health charity, and William and Harry had already both spoken about how they had sort treatment. There are 10,000’s of people in the UK in desperate need of mental health support who can’t access it because of the state of the NHS, where as the RF can easily have a discrete private sessions, multiple times a week if they wanted!

I don’t think she really understood the role of a royal, I think she thought it was the same as being a celebrity and it isn’t.

I think though, that if the rumours she wants to run for office in America are true, she should stop slagging off the RF and the UK in general as the behaviour will just be massively used against her to show she isn’t fit for office.

This is sensible.
Tom Bower made it clear that when Meghan says she wasn't protected by the palace, what she expected and wanted was for the Kensington Palace press people -- Jason Knauf, Samantha Cohen, Sara Latham and other staff assigned to the Sussexes, all of whom were prepared to testify against her in court -- to call the newspapers and make demands, to stop "false stories" from appearing in the media, the way Hollywood PR reps do. (She never gave hers up during her royal service.)
What Markle means by false stories is, stories which challenge her long record of lying to reporters, as well as legitimate assaults, like the DM's "straight outta Compton" story. Or, possibly, Piers Morgan's comments on the Oprah interview, which I didn't see. Markle filed an official press complaint against Morgan.
The Queen had a track record for intervening with the press over intrusive coverage of Diana, but not, as far as I recall, of Markle. (Queen's press sec Michael Shea invited editors in 1981 to the palace for cocktails to ask them to stop harassing Diana. Queen made an unannounced appearance.) And Charles/Camilla/Marc Bolland have been direct sources for newspapers for 40 years, since at least 1982, when Camilla started calling royal reporter Stuart Higgins once a week.
There are PR experts here. Do you think KP should have taken on the racist press?
I wonder if the KP press staff, Jason Knauf et al, should have pushed strongly back on the racist stories, perhaps with the cocktails with the Queen strategy. The piecemeal pushback by Markle seems only to have caused the DM to double down on their anti-Markle agenda. But if the Queen, who famously, and uniquely, among world leaders talked to African and Caribbean leaders annually at Commonwealth conferences and danced with Nkrumah, had been enlisted as the anti-racism warrior she might have been, things might have turned out differently.
Or not. The press finally did hound Diana until her dying day. Markle has released that energy in the DM at least.

 

[themuffinwoman]

I honestly think the skin colour thing was no more than is he going to be a redhead with extremely pale skin or is he going to take after his mother with no sense of disparaging either outcome. Lots of families do it. A blonde parent with blue eyes and a brunette with brown eyes etc. I don’t think it was an inherently racist comment. M&H chose to interpret it as such. Obviously I don’t know the exact words used but..

I’m pregnant and my other half is Middle Eastern, we wonder what skin tone the baby will have. I find it suspicious they never said exactly what was said, speculation is fine but if they were like WOAH HOPEFULLY HE WONT BE TOO BLACK, clearly racist. I just think it’s weird they didn’t say who it was or what exactly was said, if they’re that bitter.

Also, families say crappy things to each other all the time about weddings and opinions on babies etc, it irritates me that the she said she said she made me cry stuff gets in the papers.

I think Andrew is innocent and was pretty much in the wrong place at the right time

Likewise but I think he’s a massive moron, I don’t understand how someone who is supposedly a pedalo wouldn’t say he regrets his friendship with a known pedalo.

 

[Wynonna]

Oh, I remember this! Sadly I've forgotten who the "person" was. Doh!

It was Charles in the 1980s according to Daily Mail

 

[thegirlscout]

The amount of people defending Andrew…

 

[Blueballs]

Is it easy to visit st George's chapel for free or is there queueing, security and advance booking. I'd like to go for a service even though I'm not religious.

 

[ButterTart]

This is sensible.
Tom Bower made it clear that when Meghan says she wasn't protected by the palace, what she expected and wanted was for the Kensington Palace press people -- Jason Knauf, Samantha Cohen, Sara Latham and other staff assigned to the Sussexes, all of whom were prepared to testify against her in court -- to call the newspapers and make demands, to stop "false stories" from appearing in the media, the way Hollywood PR reps do. (She never gave hers up during her royal service.)
What Markle means by false stories is, stories which challenge her long record of lying to reporters, as well as legitimate assaults, like the DM's "straight outta Compton" story. Or, possibly, Piers Morgan's comments on the Oprah interview, which I didn't see. Markle filed an official press complaint against Morgan.
The Queen had a track record for intervening with the press over intrusive coverage of Diana, but not, as far as I recall, of Markle. (Queen's press sec Michael Shea invited editors in 1981 to the palace for cocktails to ask them to stop harassing Diana. Queen made an unannounced appearance.) And Charles/Camilla/Marc Bolland have been direct sources for newspapers for 40 years, since at least 1982, when Camilla started calling royal reporter Stuart Higgins once a week.
There are PR experts here. Do you think KP should have taken on the racist press?
I wonder if the KP press staff, Jason Knauf et al, should have pushed strongly back on the racist stories, perhaps with the cocktails with the Queen strategy. The piecemeal pushback by Markle seems only to have caused the DM to double down on their anti-Markle agenda. But if the Queen, who famously, and uniquely, among world leaders talked to African and Caribbean leaders annually at Commonwealth conferences and danced with Nkrumah, had been enlisted as the anti-racism warrior she was, things might have turned out differently.
Or not. The press finally did hound Diana until her dying day. Markle has released that energy in the DM at least.

it would be really bush league for anyone to demand that a paper or media outlet stop printing false stories. Unless they are clearly defamatory, when legal action would be a remedy, no one in PR or media relations would do that. Well, no one with any experience. It’s just not the way things work. If someone is the focus of consistent negative or false stories, you can ask for an editorial board meeting, or to speak with senior editors to discuss the issue and why it is false/harmful. You can try to create a better relationship, basically. Sometimes it’s helpful, sometimes not.

I agree with you that someone senior in the RF should have stepped in when the initial racist attacks began and certainly once it continued (the Compton reference, the gorilla cartoon about Archie, etc.) I think the fact no one appeared to do that emboldened the media that the RF didn’t care or tacitly endorsed it.

It’s not a straightforward thing at all and often, intervening means more attacks. But no one appeared to have tried, that we are aware of publicly at least.

 

[Multi-21]

The Queen had a track record for intervening with the press over intrusive coverage of Diana, but not, as far as I recall, of Markle. (Queen's press sec Michael Shea invited editors in 1981 to the palace for cocktails to ask them to stop harassing Diana. Queen made an unannounced appearance.)

This was probably to do with the massive crowds of photographers who followed Diana from her front door to her car. Yes there may have been lots of not very nice stories about Meghan but I haven’t seen any footage of a similar clamour of photographers chasing Meghan down the street.
Doesn’t mean they don’t exist just because I haven’t seen them!

 

[billybudd]

it would be really bush league for anyone to demand that a paper or media outlet stop printing false stories. Unless they are clearly defamatory, when legal action would be a remedy, no one in PR or media relations would do that. Well, no one with any experience. It’s just not the way things work. If someone is the focus of consistent negative or false stories, you can ask for an editorial board meeting, or to speak with senior editors to discuss the issue and why it is false/harmful. You can try to create a better relationship, basically. Sometimes it’s helpful, sometimes not.

I agree with you that someone senior in the RF should have stepped in when the initial racist attacks began and certainly once it continued (the Compton reference, the gorilla cartoon about Archie, etc.) I think the fact no one appeared to do that emboldened the media that the RF didn’t care or tacitly endorsed it.

It’s not a straightforward thing at all and often, intervening means more attacks. But no one appeared to have tried, that we are aware of publicly at least.

I realize it's super tricky, but the sense that no one responded to the gorilla stuff is overwhelming. It was a chance to keep the Caribbean countries as part of the kingdom and Commonwealth, truly advance anti-racism, diversity etc. in the UK, and set a role model for world leaders. Markle I think may not be manageable, but gorilla stories are.

 

[themuffinwoman]

The amount of people defending Andrew…

Do you have evidence either way proving him innocent or guilty?

 

[billybudd]

This was probably to do with the massive crowds of photographers who followed Diana from her front door to her car. Yes there may have been lots of not very nice stories about Meghan but I haven’t seen any footage of a similar clamour of photographers chasing Meghan down the street.
Doesn’t mean they don’t exist just because I haven’t seen them!

I thought of that too.
One reason, Markle has the Hollywood thing that being surrounded by an entourage of security ups your status.
Diana most regrettably ditched her PPOs, or didn't have them prior to marriage. I think she ditched them after Martin Bashir told her they (and William, and private sec Jephson and others) were spying on her. Former PPO Wharfe says she would not have died the way she did if PPOs had been driving, as they would have been.

 

[I'veloveditforyears]

Here we go, slaughter time again, Kate knew she had as good a chance as any, she is very attractive, but when WIlliam didn't make a move on her quickly enough she took part in a charity modelling event wearing a transparent, revealing frock, that got him going!!! She got him!!

Kate had a boyfriend when she was in the fashion show. William made a move on her after the show and she turned him down.

 

[LoopyLou47]

I’m pregnant and my other half is Middle Eastern, we wonder what skin tone the baby will have. I find it suspicious they never said exactly what was said, speculation is fine but if they were like WOAH HOPEFULLY HE WONT BE TOO BLACK, clearly racist. I just think it’s weird they didn’t say who it was or what exactly was said, if they’re that bitter.

Also, families say crappy things to each other all the time about weddings and opinions on babies etc, it irritates me that the she said she said she made me cry stuff gets in the papers.



Likewise but I think he’s a massive moron, I don’t understand how someone who is supposedly a pedalo wouldn’t say he regrets his friendship with a known pedalo.

I dont know if he had sex with Guiffre or not, but he definitely hung out a lot with Epstein, over a long period of time, inviting them to horse around in the thrones at Buckingham Palace and to Balmoral. And Epstein hardly kept his proclivities a secret. His plane was called the Lolita express, he had pictures of naked teens all over the place and he'd already been convicted of being a sex offender. Andrew either didn't care or was actively participating. He didn't, even when Emily Maitliss gave him several chances to, show remorse or apologise until he was forced to by an out of court settlement.

 

[MidnightAura]

I dont know if he had sex with Guiffre or not, but he definitely hung out a lot with Epstein, over a long period of time, inviting them to horse around in the thrones at Buckingham Palace and to Balmoral. And Epstein hardly kept his proclivities a secret. His plane was called the Lolita express, he had pictures of naked teens all over the place and he'd already been convicted of being a sex offender. Andrew either didn't care or was actively participating. He didn't, even when Emily Maitliss gave him several chances to, show remorse or apologise until he was forced to by an out of court settlement.

Judge a man by the company he keeps. It also applies to Charles with Saville.

 

[billybudd]

A bit ot, but Australia is already replacing QE2 with their own iconic people . From private eye, no offense ment to our friends over there!
View attachment 1596985

Hello possums!

 

[Curly Top]

The Royals seem to be taken in by powerful, rich sycophants.

 

[Wynonna]

This was probably to do with the massive crowds of photographers who followed Diana from her front door to her car. Yes there may have been lots of not very nice stories about Meghan but I haven’t seen any footage of a similar clamour of photographers chasing Meghan down the street.
Doesn’t mean they don’t exist just because I haven’t seen them!

I saw a clip from Harry & Meghan's documentary, "The Me You Can't See". There was a part where Harry spoke about Meghan being harassed by paparazzi in the same way that Diana was. The examples they used of Meghan being "harassed" were just normal clips of her sat in the audience at Invictus Games, and a photo of her standing with a group of people at a polo match. They then showed a video of a group of paparazzi chasing Diana as she tried to drive away in her car. The comparison was stupid.

 

[Em_gardener]

I realize it's super tricky, but the sense that no one responded to the gorilla stuff is overwhelming. It was a chance to keep the Caribbean countries as part of the kingdom and Commonwealth, truly advance anti-racism, diversity etc. in the UK, and set a role model for world leaders. Markle I think may not be manageable, but gorilla stories are.

The guy who did the gorilla cartoon got sacked. It was a stupid thing to do but I think he'd been drawing loads of celebrities as gorillas and he paid for it with his job. What more could have been done??
I think the commonwealth would have naturally dropped in numbers over time anyway regardless of whether Meghan had stayed in the royal family or not. She's not important enough or high up enough in the rankings to influence a country's decision in that way. If you were in Jamaica voting on whether or not to keep the monarch as head of state would your decision really be influenced by Harry having married Meghan?? I'm Irish and I wouldn't choose to join the commonwealth even if the whole of the royal family married Irish people.

I don't fully believe the racism allegations on Oprah. Meghan and Harry gave 2 very different accounts of what happened. Meghan said it was conversations plural while she was pregnant and Harry said it was one conversation before they were even married. You wouldn't get that mixed up about the timeline of a conversation like that. I believe someone must have said something but it could have been exaggerated the same way she exaggerated the fire in Archie's room. She's lied too much and now she's not credible.

I saw a clip from Harry & Meghan's documentary, "The Me You Can't See". There was a part where Harry spoke about Meghan being harassed by paparazzi in the same way that Diana was. The examples they used of Meghan being "harassed" were just normal clips of her sat in the audience at Invictus Games, and a photo of her standing with a group of people at a polo match. They then showed a video of a group of paparazzi chasing Diana as she tried to drive away in her car. The comparison was stupid.

They are constantly exaggerating and dramatising things.

 

[billybudd]

Hush money? Somewhere for Andy to live in case Charles kicks him out? Wouldn't surprise me if HM did something to protect her little darling after she was gone.

Again, why can't keeping the spares from rogering underage girls be a MI5 priority? They reportedly did provide Harry with a shrink (why not Meghan when she asked?). There's precedent. Andrew could do a Profumo, start by humbly washing dishes at a well-run charity, Toynbee Hall. And graduate to fund raising for said charity. Thence after decades of service to an honor from the Queen.

 

[thegirlscout]

Do you have evidence either way proving him innocent or guilty?

He admitted to being friends with a pedophile and sex trafficker, didn’t apologise for such friendship because of the opportunities it gave him, went to see him after he was convicted for such crimes and paid off a woman who accused him of having sexual whilst she was trafficked.

 

[Amelia99]

Meghan was not harassed like Diana. In fact there was relatively little press coverage of her in comparison and it was more positive than negative. . If she and Harry had just rode it out and went about their work, the press would have moved on. But the pair of them totally overreacted and made the situation exponentially worse by going into battle with the media. The only thing suing the media achieves is that you make them an enemy forever who will seek out every possible bit of negative info on you. Likewise attacking the RF in public when Prince Philip was dying and the Queen’s health declining was just a massively stupid thing to do. They really are a textbook case of how not to manage your PR. They have needlessly left so much flaming wreckage behind them I’m not sure if it will ever be possible for them to be fully welcomed back into the RF, reconciled with the media and regain their previous levels of popularity with the public.