The Royal Family #41

[Mark81]

I think this is now a 'publish and be damned' situation.

The thing is it might be a rough week, but it appears more and more that the RF have been blackmailed over this info for years. Now it's out there what power and leverage do H and M have. Also what can they sell now. The longer they are away from the RF the less relevant their 'intell' becomes. Omid is now basically irrelevant too.

H and M have lost Spotify, likely to lose Netflix. They've now lost their trump card on info to sell in future books. They've alienated royal fans and non royal fans dont care about them either. They have zero talent or experience in Hollywood to forge a career. After South Park and family guy (I think) mocked them, they are laughing stocks.

Short term pain for long term gain for the RF

 

[CabalofBolorneaise]

I think the first series is quite accurate but then the later series are full of absolute shite apparently

I think it’s just that the later series fall into most people’s living memory so the fact it’s absolute shite is way more obvious to most whereas the first/earlier ones didn’t and so it got away with it

 

[50sGirl]

So who was the original one?

It’s gone from: there was a racist conversation, to there were racist conversations, to none of them are racist we didn’t say that, to its King Charles, to there’s actually two racists

Fucking hell, make your mind up. It’s nearly 3 years since they did that interview

This the trouble when you tell “your truth” rather than the actual truth, you have to have a good memory to recall what you originally said!

Also Harry said he’d never repeat the conversation. Is that because if the general public actually heard what was said in context we’d all say “huh, is that it?!”

 

[Libbylulu]

I find it quite sad that Camilla and Kate wear TLQ’s personal gifts from her parents and grandparents when imo should have been given to Anne. (I’d feel slighted if my brothers wife and daughter in law were wearing my mum’s Jewelry). I don’t mean tiaras and fancy diamond necklaces but brooches and earrings given for her birthday.

 

[cee-bee]

I don’t know if it’s because she’s a little strange looking but Beatrice looked a little deranged in this photos.

years ago a comedian on a chat show said that Beatrice looked like a hamster that was being held too tight and I’ve never been able to forget it

 

[Great_Kate]

He probably hasn’t but I do always feel what chance did he have? I always remember that coffin with “mummy” on it. I don’t approve of how he behaves now but I do grieve for that little boy who lost so much so young. IMO the RF never had the tools to be able to help him with that, they don’t deal well with second sons and he was much more complex than the average “spare”.

I am sure it was hell for the boy. And the family probably didn’t help the way he might have needed (which is hard. You can only do what you think is right but in hindsight it
can still be the wrong thing). His problem is that he very obviously has not come to a place to deal with it like an adult. Hate the press? Have a hard think about what you will allow and what not. They could have released a note that they wouldn’t give intel or do a press engagement with their newborn. The backlash wouldn’t have been worse than what happened. W&K, while in a stronger position, got years of bad press because they made the rules in terms of their children and didn’t give in.
Hate the (unfair) treatment and rules on the family business? Find your own thing instead of making it a couple of years long drama rollercoaster.
Realise you and your wife need psychological help. Go and get it. It’s not as if you didn’t publicly praise your brother for getting you into therapy in 2016…
Set healthy boundaries. In your job and your private life. Healthy family relationships can mean having some distance.
H completely ignores that he is in the incredibly privileged position to get help and do almost everything he likes. And quite honestly, while he is in a pretty unique position in how much publicity went on around his mother’s death, he isn’t the only one. And there are many many adults who have endured much worse childhood trauma. His whining is plain annoying at this point. I am not playing it down, and of course someone not very resilient can have a worse outcome than others, but for the love of god- please whine at home. IN PRIVATE.

 

[elliebee27]

I was taken in by the Harry PR! Now realizing what a POS human he is.. yikes..

I really respect Camilla and her get on with it attitude, the work she has done too for domestic and sexual violence is fabulous and needs more attention but she is 'the other woman' and not young and attractive anymore so nobody pays much mind to the excellent, vital things she does to bring attention to charities, rape kits, et cetera. As well as her literacy work and encouraging reading and writing. A++++

That is an example of good royal advocacy work that's real stuff.

 

[thegirlscout]

William will also be more protected as he is the heir. That’s how the BRF sadly works.
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He probably hasn’t but I do always feel what chance did he have? I always remember that coffin with “mummy” on it. I don’t approve of how he behaves now but I do grieve for that little boy who lost so much so young. IMO the RF never had the tools to be able to help him with that, they don’t deal well with second sons and he was much more complex than the average “spare”.

Having toxic parents and them having a toxic relationship can cause a lifetime of issues - speaking from experience.
Harry (and William) are in the position that they can get the best treatment for dealing with their pasts but it seems for Harry it hasn’t worked and he’s so resentful. He can feel sympathy for his mother and how she was treated whilst also realising she didn’t always help herself. He can be angry at the way his Dad & Camilla behaved but they aren’t the enemy. Even with his position in the Royal family, he can feel put out that he doesn’t have the same treatment as William but also realise that he doesn’t have the responsibilities and pitfalls that being the heir and monarch require - two opposite things can be true at the same time. Harry seems to believe in all or nothing.

 

[thegirlscout]

Is it written in stone she can’t get a title?

Pretty much. The optics of the royals giving out a new title to an older member of their family would look really bad. Also I don’t think she legally can as the titles are passed down from the father - Zara’s Dad is a commoner - and Anne rejected their offer from the Queen. I don’t believe Charles would be able to give his niece a title randomly.
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Zara’s just gone part time on her equestrian career to spend more time with the kids, I wonder if that means more adverts - she definitely couldn’t do those as a working member of the royal family

I think the Land Rover advert she did many years ago was well done.

 

[Great_Kate]

I am pretty sure both men have conflicting feelings around their mum. There is very probably a lot of anger around the fact that she didn’t do everything a rational person would do to stay safe. That’s fine. Just like hating the tabloid hyenas or the press in general as they were an active part in the situation. William has taken years to find a working relationship with them. In the beginning of their marriage till Louis’ birth, they were constantly fighting on how much access and in what way they were willing to give. It was ugly but they battled through it. Ever since they found a working system, they seem much more at ease and we see their family more than ever.
A big reason seems to be Kate and her family. They gave Wiliam a save heaven. Kate seems steely enough and not over sensitive but rather calm and collected. No idea how you could deal with this kind of life otherwise. HMTQ and Charles should be very thankful because from a dynastic perspective it would be bad to have the heir drifting off in an unhealthy direction as we see with H at the moment.
I really hope H gets to find a better way to handle is grief. It won’t go away, but you can learn to live with it in a healthier way.

 

[Honeystar]

I always just found it ridiculous that Kate and Meghan were expected to be best friends. How many people are best friends with their husbands brothers wives? Not to mention they were clearly very different people and each had their own lives and friends etc.

When Meghan arrived on the scene Kate was pregnant/had small children and had an awful pregnancy with HG. It was also the same time that it came out later that her brother was depressed and she was going to therapy with him. I doubt she had much time or mental bandwidth to be showing Meghan how to curtsey or taking her shopping in Kensington.
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What was she meant to do for her anyway? It sounds like they were invited to KP and Anmer and did the basics that anyone would do with a new sister in law. They're clearly polar opposites and were never going to be friends.

Harry was Williams best man. We all saw him beside him at the ceremony and I presume he signed the register as a witness. He says himself he made a speech later on and they were together the night before drinking. What else was Harry expecting from his best man role?

The fact that Harry was annoyed that rather than sleep over with him William wanted to go home to his wife and 3 children, one of which was a newborn baby, and 2 of which were playing an active role in a huge wedding that was going to be viewed worldwide, said it all.

 

[CuriousCat92]

Anne has always been a tougher more resilient character than Charles. She is also very fit - horse riding, playing with the grandchildren and I bet she walks and moves around a lot.

And she isn’t the monarch so she isn’t under constant scrutiny in the same way. Her children also seem a lot calmer and more settled than his do.

 

[Honeystar]

My understanding was always that she declined the security in large because yes, she didn’t trust that they weren’t spying on her and reporting back to whoever, a seed definitely planted if not explicitly stated by Bashir and the BBC.

I can see why William never wants the interview aired again, it’s such a manipulation of her, she wasn’t perfect and yes, no one made her do it, but the things they told her to get her to do it would have had a serious impact on her mental state at the time.

It must be a hard pill to swallow that one of the lies they told her was that Williams Watch had been bugged to spy on her and she never (I believe) found out that wasn’t true, he must have wondered at times if she died thinking he was in on it

 

[sonjabruja]

Cee-bee, I agree that Harry doesn’t realise the extent of his privilege. He has said he supports the British Monarchy. But he does realise it’s an unhealthy life for its members. He said his father doesn’t recognise how trapped he is. I think it was in the Oprah interview. Harry is contradicting himself imo. I wish someone would ask him about this contradiction. I’d like to know.

Having said that I don’t think any of the RF members recognise the extent of their privilege and I think they are all pretty bloody ‘entitled.’ The emphasis placed on their ‘good works’!

I mean, where can I sign up for a job doing charitable good works and get to live in castles and big houses, and holiday regularly overseas or hunt and ride regularly on thousands and thousands of acres of private land. And Go to bed at night never having worried about paying the rent or mortgage, or having enough money to pay for the heating, or feed their kids or themselves. And be praised for it.

I saw the most insulting news article the other day (not the RF’s fault of course, but still awful and insulting) on how to budget in our lives, using royal cost saving practices. Turn off the lights, use a two bar heater etc.. I couldn’t read the whole article. Honestly I think some media think the public are idiots. This is the rubbish we are asked to believe.

As to Harry’s drug use as a teenager, what a teenager does when they were young is none of our business. I’ve seen pictures of both Harry and and William as teenagers and young men, both looking pissed to the gills. But no one has said that the public needs to know about William’s drinking because he was an heir to the throne. Alcohol is a drug. Our society generally drinks quite a lot. It’s a socially acceptable habit. It’s a legal drug easily obtainable - you can walk into a shop and buy it. Yet alcohol does more damage to our society than drugs do, because alcohol is legal, easily available and so socially acceptable. And big alcohol companies lobby and support political parties. I’m not minimising illegal drug taking, I’m recognising how dangerous legal alcohol can be. I found that whole ‘Harry the drug taker’ stuff to be disingenuous.

Having said all that, what they did as teenagers is none of our business anyway. William was granted a privacy that Harry wasn’t.

 

[hannah123]

What I suspect happened was a general conversation about the babies looks (like most families across the world),*maybe* some out dated language was used at most. And meghan being meghan saw her chance to twist it and dramatise itinto her victim narrative. We have seen this happen many times now (e.g. the 'car chase'). She just isn't a reliable witness and has a pattern of behaviour. Harry is just an idiot who can't think for himself.

Another big point for me is Meghan wasn’t even there, it was Harry. A guy who prefaced his book by basically saying “some of this isn’t true but it’s how my brain has remembered it so I now take it to be the truth”. Meghan didn’t hear the actual words spoken, the tone of voice or delivery, the fact Harry thought it was okay to go repeat says that he didn’t think it was bad (or he’s awful at protecting his wife). It’s just Chinese whispers started by a guy that admits his memory for detail isn’t great.

 

[Nopatience]

The Queen never showed her personality in public, I imagine Kate is mirroring this.

 

[cee-bee]

Not like Meghan has any idea either considering the fact she was raised as a privileged white girl. Making a comment about what a child could potentially look like is not racist. It was pretty obvious that was all made up to stir up hatred, which worked, and to try to get the upper hand of the situation where these two grifters wanted more and more money, which was the entire basis of why they left. They didn’t get what they wanted, so they tried to go nuclear by making up all kinds of accusations when in reality, the red carpet was rolled out for them, and they were given almost anything and everything they could’ve ever wanted.

It is pretty funny, considering she is the one who married the actual racist with a history of racist behavior.

None of this has actually anything to do with the issue of diversity in royal households.

I agree. The racism with Meghan is difficult to navigate.. I don’t doubt she has experienced it, that there were undertones of it in the press. But she’s also massively ignored the huge goodwill she did enjoy.. and she has used any racism in a manipulative way. It’s difficult to discuss Meghan Markle in the context of racism because I don’t want to perpetuate the myth of the “perfect victim” but equally it’s hard to deny just how much she has I used race as a way to dodge any valid criticism.

like I mentioned before, she hasn’t ever challenged the institutionally racism and lack of diversity in the RF households.

what stood out to me was that she claimed sisterhood with African women when she was doing a tour with Harry of Malawi, Angola, South Africa, and Botswana. They were enjoying great press coverage which plummeted when she decided to do the “no one has asked me if I’m ok” and talked about her own “struggles” while touring a continent that knows all about “struggle”, especially where race is concerned.

it was an ample opportunity to maybe shed light in racism in the midst of good press coverage. But she saw it, apparently felt emboldened by it and used her platform to discuss her own problems. Not to highlight problems in Africa, violence and sexism again women in Africa, poverty in post-colonial Africa. No no, she made it the Meghan Markle show. Who else remembers what was said on that your? Other than the “no one has asked if I’m ok” comment? Cos I sure don’t.

not a great example of sisterhood, and definitely not the right time or place to air grievances. The press coverage of them plummeted after that, and Harry can’t see the wood from the trees and insists it was racism because a headline called Meghan “exotic”. No Harry, it was the joint behaviour of you both that made everyone sour.

 

[Blurp]

I remember that years ago (20-25?) that it was reported that Charles had commented on how white the Guards regiments and Household Cavalry were and that he felt that they were being institutionally racist in their recruitment. Certainly you never saw a black face at Trooping the Colour etc then whereas now you do as well as Sikh in their turbans. The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery (the ones that do the gun salutes in Hyde Park) are no longer totally white either.

The late Queen Elizabeth had at least one black officer as an equerry. The Royal Household staff that you see in uniform are also now racially mixed. It may take time for people to rise through the ranks and gain the knowledge and experience to run the Households.

There was a story reported about Prince Philip at the time of his death told by a former member of White House staff. Apparently, when he was a butler at the WH, Philip was there on a visit, whether with QE or not. He and another butler went to do something in Philip's room and unexpectedly found him there. They went to leave but he asked them to sit down, poured them a drink each from the drinks tray, and sat talking to them for a while, asking them about their work and their lives. At least one of them was black and they said that Philip treated them far better than other guests and certainly better than they were used to in a still largely segregated USA.

Like Philip, I can see Charles maybe saying something that would now be considered racist or politically correct but without being racist in thought or action. There were some pretty racist words going around when they were growing up.

 

[elliebee27]

This entire book is basically Harkle 2.0 with more assistance from Harry and Meghan as it drips with their own bizarre vitriol and misogyny. Pretty funny Scobie worships them and complains about everyone else when it's Harry the drug addled moron who calls people insults, dresses up as a Nazi, talks about the US First Amendment being 'bonkers,' and writes how he put Mummy's face cream on his dick.

 

[thegirlscout]

She reminds me of Zorro.