The Royal Family #30

[LoopyLou47]

i think she would have tried to compete with them

I agree. I think she would have been the mother in law from hell, whoever William and Harry married. Especially as she would have been on the outside as the ex wife of the King, while William and Harry and the wives would be Royals.

 

[Em_gardener]

I must be daft because I saw the curtseying thing completely differently. I didn't see it as Meghan mocking the idea of curtseying, although she was obviously flummoxed at the concept of it being done in private but rather mocking her own inelegant way of curtseying the first time she did it. It was more of a 'I'm trying to do what is expected of me here but I'm not sure I'm doing a good job of it' sort of thing. It was all very self-deprecating from the entire context of the episode which I actually watched.

But the moment I saw it, I literally turned and told my husband that the haters and the DM would be apoplectic and positively seething about how Meghan 'disrespected the Queen'. I guess I was right about 1 thing

I think she is being self-deprecating but in an "I didn't know about their weird traditions so it's not really my fault" kind of way. Like it's just another part of her "I'm just a cute innocent American who didn't know any better and nobody would help me" act. It still makes Harry's family the butt of the joke and implies that they're in the wrong for being so weird. I know it is odd to curtsey to your family but they are royal so it's not a total shocker.
I feel like she said "I didn't know" a lot in the documentary and everytime she said it I thought a) where was your husband? and b) she was implying that she didn't know because it was all so strange and stupid.
Even the walkabout thing. Are we really expected to believe that there was no one who could give her some guidance beforehand. Would the RF really just send her off on a walkabout to represent them in public with absolutely zero guidance on what to do or what to wear. Or that it never occurred to her or Harry that they could just Google some images of other royal women on walkabouts. They had plenty of staff she could ask about things like this as well.
Why is she playing dumb all the time? It's like she thinks it's cute or endearing but it just makes her seem like an idiot and Harry seem like he just couldn't bear to tell her any kind of bad news or place any expectations on her so he let her fail instead so he could avoid any awkward conversations.

 

[Popcorn&Peanuts]

I'm not sure Kate is bland. I don't think she has a great work ethic, nor do I find her particularly talented - cooking & baking & getting along well with people are all things most of us were quite good at 20, let alone 40 with every possible advantage at our disposal - but bland, not quite.

I think Kate's public persona is curated, crafted and tweaked completely based on what the RF wants and by extension, what the public expects. After Diana, and as reiterated by Meghan, spouses who rock the boat are simply incompatible with the royal framework. If pigs could fly tomorrow and the RF decided they wanted to be fun and entertaining instead of stuffy and traditional, you bet Kate would be out by the end of the week wearing a sparkly leotaud and her tap dancing shoes.

She is what THEY want and she will always, ALWAYS comply. Partly because she is supporting William but IMO, Kate is determined to be Queen at whatever personal cost. She will never jeopardise that and William wants to be King, so they are very compatible in that sense. I actually think she's quite calculating and is disciplined enough to give up anything and everything that may compromise her position...and that's certainly not a bland person.

 

[Baby Giraffe]

That's nice. At work-related events I've often been asked where I'm from in the sense that Mc Fulani took exception to, but I don't. I have a non-local accent, so even when I've said where I live locally, I've then been asked where I'm from originally. Big deal.

I was asked where I was from at a work event last week and said the company I was representing which was relevant to the event, I wasn’t being evasive, I was simple answering the question. There was then a follow up question about location to which I told them where my office location is which again was professionally relevant. We then discussed the work I was involved with. The birth place of my ancestors (or myself for that matter) wasn’t remotely relevant though so had no reason to be discussed. To repeatedly ask anybody an irrelevant question is just rude and, when in the case of Ngozi, steeped in racial prejudice which has very rightly been called out.

 

[dopeymcdopey]

I think meghan comes from showbiz where everyone hugs and is tactile, Kate from a much more formal background. It's simply a culture clash. I hug friends and family, would def hug a brother's gf, particularly if I knew our family was intimidating. I'm British, middle-class and same age as Kate. I just think her and William are stiff and formal with people, you can see it in public appearances. It doesn't mean they're not nice but they don't have knack of making people feel at ease. Diana had it, Harry has it, Meghan has it. The rest don't really. Nothing wrong with that, but when your "job" is meeting strangers, making small talk etc it's a good skill to have.

 

[regularvoltaire]

My flabber has been gasted today. How could Harry do this to QEII and his own father, the KING? He was obviously up to all this shit ages ago while Queen Elizabeth was dying, maybe even when Philip was dying. I can’t get over that, I just can’t. Even just thinking about the impact on his own children, and his neices and nephews.

What an utter wazzock. He will regret this for the rest of his life.

 

[hannah123]

He ( and William I think) blame the paps for her death. Probably because the alternative would be admitting she was reckless to refuse Royal protection and not wear a seat belt.


This is why I think it is mostly Harry causing the issues, despite the press and everyone else claiming Meghan has led poor Harry from the bosom of his loving family. He became resentful long before Meghan came along, after his mother's death, and his other girlfriends running for the hills, the press picking over his antics and not mentioning William was there too as well as them hacking his phone. The brothers weren't that close all the time, and reportedly had long periods of falling out. Meghan came along and listened to his tales of woe and believed him over his family and told him he was hard done by and how awful it all sounded. He is not being held hostage. He has willingly distanced himself from his family, knew the rules, knew his father wanted to slim down the working Royals, which would exclude his children, but failed to mention it, either to Meghan, or clarify or address it during Oprah.

Harry is massively to blame for overestimating his own importance in the line of the family and for not preparing Meghan. It’s always someone else’s fault that she wasn’t taught anything, no one told her how to curtesy, no one taught her the national anthem, Harry was a prince of 30 odd years, was he just sitting around twiddling his thumbs? But any good partner should challenge their spouse, so she’s to blame for that. I think a problem is she didn’t really have much of a relationship with her family, so when he’s singing woe is me she doesn’t have much of a reference to be like “hmm maybe this is just you or your fault?”. I think both didn’t want to lose the other, Harry had finally found a woman mad enough to marry him and Meghan had all the fame and fortune she wanted, he wasn’t going to tell her the truth or she’d run for the hills and she wasn’t going to challenge him because he’d run off like a child. Instead, they married and all the problems then appeared and it’s everyone’s fault but their own.

 

[Em_gardener]

It’s the most interesting thing about her and I’m saying that loosely. She’s a pretty bland individua.

I think it's smart of her to have a bland public profile. We know v little about her or her opinions on anything and I think that's kind of fitting for her role. Sure she could do a bit more charity work but she shouldn't be sharing her opinion on everything. It's part of the job to stay neutral on all but the most uncontroversial of topics. I think Kate gets a lot of unfair criticism in that regard. She's not a politician or a campaigner but she's not supposed to be. She's meant to turn up to charity events, smile and be nice to people and she does that very well. She could definitely do a bit more of it and she could do something more impactful than her early years focus but we're never going to know much about her personality or her private beliefs.

 

[Em_gardener]

Maybe Meghan is exaggerating about the curtsey thing. She is an actress after all.

Of course she's exaggerating. There's no way she did that in real life! I think it comes across really badly but maybe that's because the Queen has died since. Harry definitely looks uncomfortable during that clip though. She's using his grandmother for an easy laugh and she was ill at the time.

 

[LoopyLou47]

I mean, expecting your children and grandchidren to bow and curtsey to you in private is ridiculous, come on! I have lived here all my life and didn't realise tthat.fair enough in public, but in your grandmothers living room? I mean, she should have been told to do it by Harry and done it, but no wonder they are all so fucked up!

 

[Great_Kate]

Honestly, with all they said and alluded to it is about damn time to burn bridges. But they don’t. They kling onto their royal connections because it’s their golden ticket. If they really followed their claims to the end, the British monarchy is institution, rooted so deeply in misogyny, racism and elitism- it’s impossible to transform and save. They would drop every connection to the institution ASAP, maybe try to reconcile the private relationships if they feel the family is willing. But that’s not what they do. And while I am in favour of the monarchy, I could accept and understand their point and support it.
How often are they going to tell us their story? That’s the third or fourth time now. It’s getting old. How about a real documentary series about their charity endeavours? That would be new, interesting and a positive angle about them. They continue to ride on negative angles, it will break their back - I would even argue it already happened.
Let’s hope they edited out all inconsistencies this time because those will be out there quicker than the pictures of “I can’t sweat, Sweating Andy”.
The trailer makes it look hyper dramatic- which makes me wonder with what market in mind it was produced. Hyper dramatisation makes for good entertainment but won’t necessarily make you appear believable.

 

[Miss Begotten]

Could black women be perceived as privileged to have their own DV charity which caters exclusively for them?

No. Don’t be silly.

 

[Miss Begotten]

Andrew, aside from being loathed by almost everyone he's come in contact with, is said to be the most boring royal of them all! His interests extend to golf and watching golf on TV.

I think that’s unfair. He’s also very interested in pizza, money and 17 year old girls.

 

[getawaywithit]

I must be daft because I saw the curtseying thing completely differently. I didn't see it as Meghan mocking the idea of curtseying, although she was obviously flummoxed at the concept of it being done in private but rather mocking her own inelegant way of curtseying the first time she did it. It was more of a 'I'm trying to do what is expected of me here but I'm not sure I'm doing a good job of it' sort of thing. It was all very self-deprecating from the entire context of the episode which I actually watched.

But the moment I saw it, I literally turned and told my husband that the haters and the DM would be apoplectic and positively seething about how Meghan 'disrespected the Queen'. I guess I was right about 1 thing

Same. I don’t even like Meghan much but that was literally the first time I’ve found her genuinely funny lol and I agree it was self-deprecating. She was basically saying that her idea of a curtsy was some dumb idea of a big ‘your Majesty’ flourish that you’d see in a film or something fake like Medieval Times. She is saying that her first attempt at a curtsy was this stupid elaborate curtsy just trying to mimic some image she had.

It was an actual funny moment for once, idk why Harry’s face was like that— maybe he misunderstood what she was saying or he just wasn’t listening lol and was thinking of something else, but he definitely ruined the moment.

 

[hannah123]

She said when they first met it was quite formal? Those photos were taken a time after.

Is it formal to not want to hug someone you’ve just met? Bearing in mind how guarded they must be to new people. Maybe I’m one of those stuffy Brits but if I turned up to meet my brothers girlfriend for the first time and she’s stood there barefoot leaning in for a hug it wouldn’t be a great first impression and I’d wonder what on earth she’s doing.

 

[Great_Kate]

I will be surprised if they actually tell names. Because in that case those people will lawyer up and they sound better have proof. They can’t afford another court case where it’s going on record that they lied.
I find those trailers hilarious to be honest. The storytelling? The music? You would think it’s the biggest scandal revealed. Instead it just another step into their dramatisation of their exit.
The BRF would do good to ignore them. Professionally. Not necessarily in private. Like, really ignore them. No birthday posts on SM. They can always send a card. No balcony. Maybe even strike a deal with the newspapers. Some nice engagements. Some glitz. In exchange for 3 months completely ignoring California. Publicity is H&Ms currency. They actually need it. The RF could carry on without it. After Oprah, the RF came out on top. Let’s see if H&M will be able to land a punch this time.

 

[Popcorn&Peanuts]

Ok- I have been reading the last discussion over several days with longer beaks and English is not my native language- is there a second meaning to niggling?

Sorry for the derail but can I just say that you speak English very well. I always admire people who are fully bi/multilingual.

 

[thegirlscout]

Is she wearing this as a dig at megan?

Where did they find out Meghan wanted those stones? Seems a bit unbelievable

 

[hannah123]

Hasn't Harry been seen actively filming the paps on his phone on various occasions? His footage can't have been that damning if they've had to sex it up by using clips of unrelated paparazzi mobbings.

The video of someone following the Wales family on a bike ride and William getting angry is worse than anything that happened to Harry or Meghan.

I don’t have any sympathy for someone who’s complaints are about some paparazzi outside a nightclub in their 20s when they were going home to a palace after a night out paid for by their dad. Boohoo

 

[Em_gardener]

How much more can they possibly have left to say? If I did a job for 10 weeks that I left three and a half years ago but kept going on and on about how awful it was, then I'd fully expect people to tell me to STFU

I'm still going to watch the first episode at least. They need to move on though - this has to be the last TV programme where they can talk about this. Who is going to buy Harry's book if it's all in this documentary anyway? I think they're actually driving more people to quietly support the RF at this stage!

"reveals more bombshell claims from the couple, including Harry claiming there is a 'hierarchy' within the Royal Family."

This is a quote from the daily mail! A hierarchy within the family imagine!!!