The Royal Family #41

[Multi-21]

I can’t imagine getting in a car and not putting on a seat belt. It’s automatic to immediately reach for it

 

[PurvyPanda]

The welsh minister not signing God Save the King. He should have stayed at home. When he was laying his wreath, he swaggered over to the cenotaph like he was taking his empties back to the bar.

 

[Honeystar]

The problem the crown has (much like Harry’s book funnily enough) is that once you know one thing is totally made up (eg the Big issue meeting between William and Kate) you then question everything.

It’s hard to imagine Carole, a miners daughter, would be a Maggie Thatcher fan (and how on earth would they know?!) for example.

The fact that people watch it and use it to form their opinions on the royals and historical events is worrying to say the least

 

[Honeystar]

The fact is that whoever Harry married, the press were always going to pit her against Kate. When Meghan first came on the scene there were plenty of articles referencing her glamour in comparison to Kate’s more conservative style. The pendulum was swinging in Kates favour for the 18 months Meghan was a working royal but I’ve no doubt it would have swung both ways over the years had all the drama not gone down.

Even just writing that it’s crazy to realise she was only a married working member of the family for 18 months. I mean, that’s no time at all considering she was off on maternity leave in that too. It’s hard to accept that they really did make a go of it and feels much more like they ran at the first hurdle

 

[Honeystar]

I think the impact on charities is more individual than any report can really show. For example the CEO at the baby banks said after Kate visited publicly they had an influx of people coming to actually use the service as they didn’t know about it until they saw it in the press off the back of her visit, so there was impact just not necessarily in financial donations

 

[Mrs Fluff]

seems like the Windsor men aren’t especially clever or emotionally intelligent, which in turn makes them susceptible to controlling/manipulative/assertive women.

George VI relied heavily on his wife, who supposedly preferred his older brother, and married him as second choice after turning him down multiple times. Apparently that’s why there was so much resentment towards Wallace Simpson and Edward.

then Charles was obsessed with Camila PB, who for all her qualities was ultimately pretty conniving. Happy to play games to make APB jealous, happy to conspire to cheat behind Diana’s back and so on.

Andrew married Fergie who lets face it, has been an ongoing embarrassment and would be to any family let alone one in the public eye as much as the royal family. I like Sophie, but she comes across very much as the stronger decision maker in her marriage. I get the sense she’s the real backbone.

Harry has been played like a fiddle by Meghan Markle and has almost certainly been fed a bunch of fibs to get his interest.

and last but not least, I think it’s generally accepted that Kate played a few strategic games herself to get Wills attention. And when he broke up with her, was very quick to make sure she was papped out partying with his friends.

nothing wrong with being a strong and assertive woman of course, but I think it’s very telling about how dysfunctional the royal family is, that the men all seem pretty weak and easily manipulated and out of touch of their own emotions.

I still find it hard to believe that Kate was so confident she'd bag a Prince (future British King at that) and decided her path accordingly but its not like I know her personally so who knows. I still maintain her sister got the much better deal.

 

[jkroche95]

Didn’t one of them marry a 60 year old? I wouldn’t blame him for not wanting to go.

Charles Spencer has 7 children by 3 different women, it would be a bit rich for him to judge someone's marriage lol

 

[hannah123]

I don’t think there’s hatred there… just a lot of sibling rivalry. Plus they seem like very different people. I get the sense Harry has gravitated towards them a lot more than William.

The current earl Spencer is weirdly down to earth. I remember watching a documentary on Diana and he said something along the lines of “the Spencer family are basically sheep farmers who got lucky”.

In total contrast to the RF who believe they are special and appointed by god. I wonder if that’s why Harry aligns with them more?

Interestingly, in Spare, Harry mentions how William threw him under the bus in an interview… they were living together at the time and William started telling the interview how messy Harry was etc. Harry couldn’t really understand why William did that, and attributes a lot of the blame for that rivalry on William.

I went and had a look at the interview he mentioned in YT, and you can see that actually, Harry was goading William too. It kinda confirmed the underlying feeling of lack of accountability Harry has for himself in the book.

The royal family centres on the belief that the position of monarch is special and holy. But only one person can be the monarch, and it’s not based on capability or talent, just sheer chance of birth. So it’s an environment that fosters rivalry and competition at its core. Small wonder siblings don’t get on.

Interview is here



Looking back, I don’t know how the press didn’t pick up on the tenseness between them. Looking back, it feels so obvious.

Towards the end of the interview William starts sticking up for him telling the interviewer he wasn’t being fair to Harry. There was nothing wrong with the interaction between them as siblings and they were just being playful. Tbh I think things like this show there’s probably no way back for their relationship. It was a relatively playful conversation with no visible malice, but all Harry remembers is William laughing at him for being messy. When it gets to a point where you have so much resentment that all you see is the negativity and disregard any positives that came from an interaction it’s difficult to mend a relationship.

 

[FenellaTheWitch]

Part of me would love it to come out that this all started over a careless statement like “I wonder if he’ll have more of his Mum’s or Dad’s colouring.” The idea that an older person used words that can be misconstrued and it became international news would just be so in line with royal gossip.

I'd bet my house it's along these lines.

Is there any family out there that hasn't speculated on what a baby will look like and whose genes it will inherit? My husband and I are very different and we'd often talk about whose eyes the baby would have. Would they be dark like their father or or pale and pasty like me. For the record, he's genes were far stronger than mine and my daughter is his double. ) I reckon they've also discussed if George will go as bald as William.

As for Catherine, Scabby can't say enough bad about her. It's quite the infatuation he has.

 

[Honeystar]

I think this has been the big change between the two monarchs, the late Queen was from a different time, Charles seems much more “modern” despite being 75 he seems to be somewhat with the times. It’s the small things, the selfies, the hugging, nail polish etc they were never strictly protocol more just preference of the monarch that they all aligned with out of respect for HMQ, Charles seems to have loosened the rule book

 

[cee-bee]

I thought it was that he questioned whether his mother had bought it for him before her death? I borrowed Spare from the library, found some of it very interesting, some of it a bit of a yawn. But I wasn’t looking out for lies and I wasn’t reading it forensically. It’s a memoir. It’s not a statement of fact. it’s how he remembers things.

His life is mostly public record: mainly written about by tabloids and hacks whose first concern is making a profit. His whole life. Who among us could stand up to the insane amount of scrutiny that Harry (and now Meghan) has been subjected to and emerge blemish free? we all make mistakes in our lives. We aren’t always 100% kind. And we all seek to present ourselves in our best light. There is not a person in the world that could detail exactly everything that happened in their life.

oh yeh totally. They have an insane amount of scrutiny.. for no reason other than their situation of birth.

Harry doesn’t question this element though. He doesn’t criticise this institution which has forced him, by birth, to be up for public consumption. He doesn’t ask if the monarchy is inherently harmful to the family who keep up the tradition… when there is ample evidence it is very harmful.

he’s just pissed off that he can’t enjoy the privilege and influence and wealth of the institution, without being 1. Higher up the ladder and 2. Without having to feel accountable.

he was born with his privilege; so he sees the problem that people question it. Not the fact he was born with it.

his interview promoting the book was interesting - the ITV one. The interviewer (tom Bradby?) asks Harry, who complained about stories being written about his drug use - if him being second in line at that time, made his drug use a matter of public interest. I mean, realistically, it does.

Harry just cut him off and prattled on about the papers manipulating what the public felt they needed to hear blah blah blah. But Tom was spot on. And Harry’s word salad just kinda exposed his utter entitlement (that entitlement is a recurring theme with this family). He was happy to be a prince and enjoy all those trappings, which included access to drugs. But he didn’t feel he should be exposed to public scrutiny.

 

[50sGirl]

Did anyone see him on This Morning today? He seemed quite fragile….he did say he didn’t write those names but they couldn’t just appear ! That bit doesn’t make sense

He is a proven liar. He denied Meghan had anything to do with his first book until emails were shown in court that showed otherwise.
I think this may well backfire on him. Who wants to buy a book that is written by someone who struggles to tell the truth?

Translator insists names of 'royal racists' were in Endgame manuscript

The Dutch translator (pictured) who worked on Omid Scobie 's controversial book has insisted the names of two royals at the centre of racism scandal were in the manuscript she was sent.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[elliebee27]

Then Harry told Tom Bradby nobody ever said anyone in the family was racist!

Even Bradby, their cheerleader, looked confused.

 

[Suzesnooze]

They look happy to me!

 

[stardust21]

Imagine driving past and just spotting William hugging some random woman with a fake horse

(also this is such a good cause)

 

[bubbadabut]

This is so stupid it’s infuriating. Even if she stretched the seat belt over them it’s still wrong, he should be in a car seat.

You think they'd be even more safety conscious after their, ahem...car chase ordeal through the streets of NYC.

 

[cee-bee]

I feel the older generations have been indoctrinated to accept the monarchy, and Queen Elizabeth enjoyed huge goodwill.

I can’t see gen z or beyond standing for this nonsense though.

I think the family are on borrowed time and know it, hence the inner fighting, insecurity etc

 

[Don'tlookEthel]

I've been vehemently anti royal my whole life until recently, then I realised "hmm if we swap this for a president are we going to make her/him live in a flat and walk to the office? Will we provide no ceremony for their swearing in? Will no costs be incurred providing their security, expenses etc? And if we're voting them in is it OK for them to be purely a figurehead with no powers? Seems unlikely, so we'll pay huge sums to elect and keep a president who we then give some powers to like usa/France, and hope it goes well and costs less than what we have now?" I've settled on the gilded cage approach we have now, an alternative won't be cheaper and there's a danger of a nut job running the show

 

[neroli]

don’t we? Don’t you wana know if the people representing the country on an international stage, are awful? Shouldn’t there be some sort of standard?

I don’t think it’s any big PR move on Kate’s part. I think she’s just a very bland person. She’s never done anything exciting in her life, including before she married William. Even in spare, the main thing of note Harry had to say about her was that she “liked fashion”.

the woman likes shopping for pretty clothes and getting blowouts and chilling at home. It’s what she did the entire time she was dating William. It’s what she does mostly now. She’s shown us her personality, it’s bland and insipid. White bread. Unassuming, Inoffensive and palatable to the masses.

it’s not that she’s taking this approach as a reaction to her role, but rather she was chosen by William precisely because a bland Unassuming personality is the only type that works for the archaic role of Princess of wales.

I've no idea what she's like away from the cameras but she's not an embarrassment to the RF and sometimes "bland" is preferable to being outspoken and divisive. What's so bad about being "palatable"? She's not a reality TV star.

 

[bubbadabut]

Didn't Harry backtrack on the whole racism thing during the Tom Bradby interview? I can still picture Bradby's face when he realised he was being gaslit.

I can't believe this is still being debated, almost 2 years on. Either name them (directly, not via their mouthpiece) or shut up about it. How many more books/interviews/documentaries can they squeeze out of it? 🥱