Harry & Meghan 18: Faux Royals

[viii]

1 hour ago, tabitha2 said:

Huge Difference: Wallis never desired to be Royal much less Queen Consort. She tried to end it but He more or less emotionally blackmailed her and pressured her for a very long time. 

And? She was a massive Nazi sympathizer. They were both trash and it says a lot about people who compare Harry and Meghan to them. 

[tabitha2]

1 hour ago, SoSoNosy said:

I am very, very glad Wallis finally caved in and married him.

One of the most fortuitous things that has happened in British history. There probably would not be a country as we know it if not or one any of us would like to live in at least. 

[QuiverFullofBooks]

1 hour ago, tabitha2 said:

One of the most fortuitous things that has happened in British history. There probably would not be a country as we know it if not or one any of us would like to live in at least. 

Eh, I think Churchill would have kept him under control, especially if we’re assuming that he wouldn’t have been with Wallis.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

Elizabeth II would have probably been queen anyway just a little later. Edward only lived 20 more years and never had kids, and who's to say he wouldn't have been stressed out and died sooner? Seems like he was a deeply flawed person but I sort of have the sense that he would have been a fairly absentee king and much less public. Elizabeth may have been brought to the front anyhow but maybe would have had a little be more time to be a human person. So who knows how all that would have worked out. Mildly interesting to ponder.

People like to hate on Meghan - I don't see it. Yeah she makes some choices but she also went from a 30 something adult,  fairly anonymous, established upper middle class/sorta rich person California style life to being chased and hounded with no freedom any more. I would not have dealt with it well so I really can't bring myself to criticize her much. Whether she knew a little or a lot about the BRF before her marriage - there's just no way you can truly comprehend how much that changed her life and in a very short period of time. Diana was raised all around that, did not have any particular established life she left (being so young) and she handled it very poorly as well. 

Now Harry- what the fuck his problem is I can't quite figure out. I still can't wrap my mind around how he genuinely seemed to think that airing all his personal problems plus family secrets in a book for profit for himself would somehow help him heal the bonds with his family. Like - is he brain damaged from drugs or drinking or tripping and hitting his head? Is he that stupid? I can't decide. Why do that oprah interview?? Hey - I was down to watch it - but it wasn't a good move for whatever he wanted.

How much did he get interested in M because she's an actress and he figured that she'd be more accepting of the attention and lack of privacy (vs all his previous g.friends who didn't want that)? How much because she did charity work and so would "fit in" more? How much because he, not so secretly, wanted a way out of his BRF life? At 30+, how many rich or aristocratic single women were there left in his circle to date any way? Seems like anybody who might have been interested 10 years before would probably have gotten married by then or thought better of it having watched out his girlfriends and Kate were treated.

I hope he's happy in CA and I hope they are happy together. I think as time goes on their odd schemes for money will die off as their relevance continues to go down. Maybe they will get smarter and start producing stuff that doesn't have anything specific to do with them. I'm sure a lot of things happen because of the network/contacts you have and between the two of them they should have plenty if they can just step away from their egos for a bit.

[Coconut Flan]

A narccissistic personality part with their ego?  I think it will devolve to making everyone around miserable.  

I do agree that Meghan was a horrible, horrible fit for Harry's wife within the BRF.  She was too "mature" with an established personality that was not going to ever mesh with the overly rule burdened royal system under QEII.  How to sit, curtsying to all those "above" you in the hierarchy, wearing hats, endless meet and greets, all the boring services, investitures, and honoring of events and people, tradition, tradition, and more tradition all while videoed and photographed and then endlessly analyzed would have seemed deadly, That doesn't even touch the hunting culture, outdoorsy country weekends, and societal rules that made no sense to Meghan or would to hardly any American woman her age.  

But she did marry Harry and the distancing between him and his family and friends began. Add in the flat out lies and family bashing that followed and we end up with our current toxic mess and no good way out.  

Edited June 1 by Coconut Flan

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I wonder what would have happened if they had been allowed to go live in S. Africa, Australia, or Canada as sort of royal ambassadors. I think somethinglike that may have been a good compromise. But...oh well. It will be very interesting to see if they buckle down and just learn how to live on the interest of whatever money (plentiful) that they have. I don't know if security is easier or harder living in CA vs some other places (NYC?, Canada?) I can't help but watch to see what will happen. Although deep in my heart of hearts I just hope we slowly never hear from them again - for the sake of their children.  Beatrice and Eugenie seem to have really dropped off the map since having kids, I never hear anything about them. I used to encounter the odd update here and there.

[SoSoNosy]

Beatrice shows up sometimes when they need somebody to fill in; I think she was at the garden party.

 

[viii]

Both York girls have stepped up lately for various events. 

[treehugger]

I think dropping Harry and Megan in one of the old colonies would not have gone over well.  It seems like the BRF is trying not to look as colonialist as the past, and nothing is more colonialist than dropping members of the BRF over the globe to be ambassadors.  Canada is lukewarm towards the monarchy at best, I really don't think it would go over well here. I can't imagine South Africa would be any better.  

[louisa05]

On 6/1/2024 at 12:56 PM, Coconut Flan said:

A narccissistic personality part with their ego?  I think it will devolve to making everyone around miserable.  

I do agree that Meghan was a horrible, horrible fit for Harry's wife within the BRF.  She was too "mature" with an established personality that was not going to ever mesh with the overly rule burdened royal system under QEII.  How to sit, curtsying to all those "above" you in the hierarchy, wearing hats, endless meet and greets, all the boring services, investitures, and honoring of events and people, tradition, tradition, and more tradition all while videoed and photographed and then endlessly analyzed would have seemed deadly, That doesn't even touch the hunting culture, outdoorsy country weekends, and societal rules that made no sense to Meghan or would to hardly any American woman her age.  

But she did marry Harry and the distancing between him and his family and friends began. Add in the flat out lies and family bashing that followed and we end up with our current toxic mess and no good way out.  

Multiple sources—reliable ones—have reported that the late Queen and now King gave Meghan the option to continue as a working actress and not be a working Royal. So she had a choice to not do any of those things. 

[SoSoNosy]

I am truly speechless.  Didn't she say she lost her passport, and was almost held prisoner, and nobody supported her?  Wasn't there a big list in the Oprah interview of terrible things done to her?

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I think it was in his book that Harry was surprised when his dad asked if M would keep on acting and Harry was like no she's joining up with us......Seems like both sides were dum dums here. 

1. king or queen saying sure M can keep acting but expecting at some level that Harry would keep doing royal work:

Royal work - mostly in England area

Acting - canada.

Royal work - requires a not normal 9-5 work schedule, rigid dates you can't change (you must attend XYZ event and have no say on the dates, etc)

Acting - not a normal 9-5 schedule, very rigid( long days, busy times/slow times, no flexibility to reschedule that to next month)

2.  Harry saying she's joining with them - Why would he say this unless none of them had ever sat down and had a serious talk about what happens after QE2. Which seems preposterous, why wouldn't they sit down and talk about it? But everything I've found out seems to indicate that they did NOT sit down and plan for what Harry should do in life and what would happen if he married and what happens as W's kids get bigger. It seems logical, if you assume they didn't have this talk, that Harry would just assume that M would join him doing what he's been doing his whole life. You can't really make the argument that Harry saw Andrew or Edward or even Anne taking on normal people jobs---- So it makes sense to me that he'd have thet expectation that continuing doing royal duties was what they would do when he got married.

====

The King or QE2 giving M permission to keep working is like giving me permission to be a big movie star or fly to the moon - Thanks I guess? I can't actually do those things but I'm glad you're ok with it.

Once M joined up with Harry, how would she be married to him and continue acting in Canada? How would she with all the paparazzi drama(which should have surprised none of them)? What about when producers wanted her to do R rated movies - ok with the the crown??  When they want everybody present for some Royal balcony situation but she's filming - Was she going to get ripped apart for not showing up??

If Harry was getting paid sovereign grant money that helped support M but M didn't attend all these things because she had to work in Canada....Would people get mad that she was mooching off Harry??

They made her close down her instagram and her lifestyle blog/site - She's not allowed to have opinions, or an instagram or her own website ---but she was going to be an actress? How? An actress is inherently a self-promotional thing.

As a royal she couldn't do sponsored posts and endorsement stuff. A lot of movie stars make money doing their own tequila, commercials in Japan, being paid spokesperson for XYZ brand. I don't think they'd "let " her do that part, ya know the lucrative part.

How can you be an actress these days without social media, without free for all interviews?  If she had continued acting ALL her interviews/ red carpet appearances etc would be open for questions about the royal family....and I feel certain *they* would not have liked her being out on her own talking to literal streams of reporters every time there was a movie opening or press thing....Whatever is or isn't true about Meghan and what the palace would/would not let her do ---I feel very confident that the palace would not have found that level of unrestricted public/press interaction acceptable......It shows a complete lack of realistic thinking from the BRF side that M could keep on acting in anything but something like short run local theatre or movie cameos

And all of this ignores the fact that she was no an A list actress.....Do you, as the royal family, want a C list actress to continue acting and representing your family - SECOND to her her C list acting job?? that's a bad look.

Look it's Meghan Markle in "Love Royally" (direct to TV hallmark mov), Sham-WOW spokesperson, and Duchess of Sussex. Seriously??

-----------------------

I'm still bamboozled why they wouldn't have had discussions with Harry when he left the army - "Ok one day your brother's kids will supplant you in royal duties. What is your life going to be? What will your "career" be? You need to do something, right now you're a top royal but it's not going to stay that way, your father is planning on reducing expenses, let's see how that will affect you and come up with some ideas"

But it doesn't seem like they had such conversations. I mean maybe they did. But the way Andrew And Edward floundered around and even when you look at Fergie - none of them seem to know what to do with themselves. Honestly, Charles has seen all this happen with his siblings, he really should have just sucked it up and laid it out for Harry a decade+ ago. Did none of them think "what if harry has kids"  - even normal non-royal parents have conversations with their kids about their future, making money, supporting a family.

I think it was Anne who refused royal titles for her kids right? Anne was thinking about it. I don't know what her kids did professionally but she seems to have at least thought about what their life would be and how they would fit in it.

I feel sorry for them all....but not like a lot....cuz they're millionaires and what not, and probably all fat ticks sucking off society...but ya know, they seem to be extraordinarily bad at thinking things through.

 

[Coconut Flan]

Who knows where or if Meghan would have been able to continue acting.  Her role in Suits was ending as her love interest was leaving the show and she'd been told she was being written out also.  Yes, her PR put it out that she was leaving to marry Harry, but the Mike character departing was already in process.  

It does seem that what most parents consider the basics of life were never explained to many in the BRF.  Anne seems to be an exception to the drift plan as she seems to have thought through her role and her children's roles.  She's very practical though.

Edited June 4 by Coconut Flan

[tabitha2]

Granted she is a good bit  lower in pecking order then Meghan but Sophie Winkleman manages to be both Royal and a fairly prolific character actress with a much bigger and busier resume than than the former.  

[viii]

2 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

I think it was Anne who refused royal titles for her kids right? Anne was thinking about it. I don't know what her kids did professionally but she seems to have at least thought about what their life would be and how they would fit in it.

She didn’t prepare her children too much, considering Peter now tries to sell milk in China using his royal connections 🤣

15 minutes ago, tabitha2 said:

Granted she is a good bit  lower in pecking order then Meghan but Sophie Winkleman manages to be both Royal and a fairly prolific character actress with a much bigger and busier resume than than the former.  

The two aren’t even comparable. One is married to the fifth in line and one of Diana’s sons. The other is married to the fifty-third in line. Nobody but the extreme diehards know or care who her husband is. 

[DalmatianCat]

2 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

-----------------------

I'm still bamboozled why they wouldn't have had discussions with Harry when he left the army - "Ok one day your brother's kids will supplant you in royal duties. What is your life going to be? What will your "career" be? You need to do something, right now you're a top royal but it's not going to stay that way, your father is planning on reducing expenses, let's see how that will affect you and come up with some ideas"

But it doesn't seem like they had such conversations. I mean maybe they did. But the way Andrew And Edward floundered around and even when you look at Fergie - none of them seem to know what to do with themselves. Honestly, Charles has seen all this happen with his siblings, he really should have just sucked it up and laid it out for Harry a decade+ ago. Did none of them think "what if harry has kids"  - even normal non-royal parents have conversations with their kids about their future, making money, supporting a family.

 

To be honest, I think the “what to do with Harry” question bamboozled both the queen and Charles as well. He wasn’t a great student, didn’t do well in school, (and really doesn’t come off as particularly brilliant) so any type of “career” that sounded good on paper but involved a lot of study (lawyer, doctor, accountant, architect, etc) was out of the question. If he’d had the grades or desire for any of those it might have made everyone’s life easier. He’s not terribly introspective, and until the Netflix special deal came about never seemed to have a burning desire to create, make art, music, write, or paint.

The grunt work aspect of military life seemed to suit him, but maybe that didn’t translate well to the civilian world? Maybe they couldn’t find an appropriate place that fit his station? He doesn’t seem great at heading up huge programs, but is more content to just show up and do what he’s told (he seemed to enjoy the manual labor he did while he was in Africa helping out on the preserves). His other most lasting interest has seemed to be veterans, so maybe just being the face of a charity for veterans would have worked for him…but not having to do actually any administrative work.

I imagine in other life, Harry would have a fine, happy, and fulfilled life as either career military, construction worker, law enforcement, or just a white water rafting or trail guide. I think he does best with manual work that he can be “hands on.” I think charity work is what he’s currently defaulted too because it’s “safe” and he honestly doesn’t know what else to do.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I know he had to leave the active army due to paparazzi and what not during war - but I never understood why he couldn't have moved into some administrative role in either the army or navy or some sort of rescue squad - coast guard??? Something less adventuresome but just a solid military or military adjacent career. How long was Andy in the military ....oh shit 22 years!...ok andy - your an ass but can work harder than harry - so that's...a tiny something.

I can't think what if anything has been said about that. Did he just quit out of spite when he couldn't be active duty?

Again - why didn't somebody say "dude -seriously? get some kind of job... -consulting? whatever that is - let's look into it"

I didn't know that about Anne's son - although to be honest - if some chinese company approached me with a was of cash to use my D level celebrity and it meant I could pay for some fancy house or trip...I mean...*would* I say no??  Hell if some chinese company wanted to pay off my student loans  - I kinda feel like my personal bar might not be as high as I'd like to think.

But could you imagine harry's wife - whoever Meghan or otherwise - THE HARRY - his wife selling out for scrub daddy?

"Oh hi guys, welcome to frogmore cottage on the grand Windsor estate....today I'm going to show you my kitchen clean up routine. I just happened to get this whole box of different scrub daddy products and I want to show you all the ways I use them! And stay tuned to the end to get your special Duchess Discount Code for 25% off your 1st order"

god I wish the satire show "the windsors" was still ongoing. I feel like there's so much left unsaid here. They ripped up fergie and it was awesome. (poor real life fergie. I hope she's getting righy royal medical care)

[Coconut Flan]

It's been reported that Harry left the military because next up was an admin/desk job and he couldn't do it.  He isn't even mentally equiped for that kind of work. As said above he's good or at least adequate at hands on work.  Taking him out to greet people was actually a good fit for Harry's skills.

[louisa05]

14 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

I think it was in his book that Harry was surprised when his dad asked if M would keep on acting and Harry was like no she's joining up with us......Seems like both sides were dum dums here. 

1. king or queen saying sure M can keep acting but expecting at some level that Harry would keep doing royal work:

Royal work - mostly in England area

Acting - canada.

Royal work - requires a not normal 9-5 work schedule, rigid dates you can't change (you must attend XYZ event and have no say on the dates, etc)

Acting - not a normal 9-5 schedule, very rigid( long days, busy times/slow times, no flexibility to reschedule that to next month)

2.  Harry saying she's joining with them - Why would he say this unless none of them had ever sat down and had a serious talk about what happens after QE2. Which seems preposterous, why wouldn't they sit down and talk about it? But everything I've found out seems to indicate that they did NOT sit down and plan for what Harry should do in life and what would happen if he married and what happens as W's kids get bigger. It seems logical, if you assume they didn't have this talk, that Harry would just assume that M would join him doing what he's been doing his whole life. You can't really make the argument that Harry saw Andrew or Edward or even Anne taking on normal people jobs---- So it makes sense to me that he'd have thet expectation that continuing doing royal duties was what they would do when he got married.

====

The King or QE2 giving M permission to keep working is like giving me permission to be a big movie star or fly to the moon - Thanks I guess? I can't actually do those things but I'm glad you're ok with it.

Once M joined up with Harry, how would she be married to him and continue acting in Canada? How would she with all the paparazzi drama(which should have surprised none of them)? What about when producers wanted her to do R rated movies - ok with the the crown??  When they want everybody present for some Royal balcony situation but she's filming - Was she going to get ripped apart for not showing up??

If Harry was getting paid sovereign grant money that helped support M but M didn't attend all these things because she had to work in Canada....Would people get mad that she was mooching off Harry??

They made her close down her instagram and her lifestyle blog/site - She's not allowed to have opinions, or an instagram or her own website ---but she was going to be an actress? How? An actress is inherently a self-promotional thing.

As a royal she couldn't do sponsored posts and endorsement stuff. A lot of movie stars make money doing their own tequila, commercials in Japan, being paid spokesperson for XYZ brand. I don't think they'd "let " her do that part, ya know the lucrative part.

How can you be an actress these days without social media, without free for all interviews?  If she had continued acting ALL her interviews/ red carpet appearances etc would be open for questions about the royal family....and I feel certain *they* would not have liked her being out on her own talking to literal streams of reporters every time there was a movie opening or press thing....Whatever is or isn't true about Meghan and what the palace would/would not let her do ---I feel very confident that the palace would not have found that level of unrestricted public/press interaction acceptable......It shows a complete lack of realistic thinking from the BRF side that M could keep on acting in anything but something like short run local theatre or movie cameos

And all of this ignores the fact that she was no an A list actress.....Do you, as the royal family, want a C list actress to continue acting and representing your family - SECOND to her her C list acting job?? that's a bad look.

Look it's Meghan Markle in "Love Royally" (direct to TV hallmark mov), Sham-WOW spokesperson, and Duchess of Sussex. Seriously??

-----------------------

I'm still bamboozled why they wouldn't have had discussions with Harry when he left the army - "Ok one day your brother's kids will supplant you in royal duties. What is your life going to be? What will your "career" be? You need to do something, right now you're a top royal but it's not going to stay that way, your father is planning on reducing expenses, let's see how that will affect you and come up with some ideas"

But it doesn't seem like they had such conversations. I mean maybe they did. But the way Andrew And Edward floundered around and even when you look at Fergie - none of them seem to know what to do with themselves. Honestly, Charles has seen all this happen with his siblings, he really should have just sucked it up and laid it out for Harry a decade+ ago. Did none of them think "what if harry has kids"  - even normal non-royal parents have conversations with their kids about their future, making money, supporting a family.

I think it was Anne who refused royal titles for her kids right? Anne was thinking about it. I don't know what her kids did professionally but she seems to have at least thought about what their life would be and how they would fit in it.

I feel sorry for them all....but not like a lot....cuz they're millionaires and what not, and probably all fat ticks sucking off society...but ya know, they seem to be extraordinarily bad at thinking things through.

 

You’re assuming Harry is a reliable source. That’s a big assumption 

[viii]

3 minutes ago, louisa05 said:

You’re assuming Harry is a reliable source. That’s a big assumption 

I think Harry is a lot more of a reliable source than people posting here or "palace insiders".

[tabitha2]

Harry makes up his own real person Fan Fiction, (revised regularly of course)  and is quite invested in his own “truth” 

[VGL]

Peter Phillips attended Exeter University, worked for Jaguar racing and the Bank of Scotland and currently is a managing director of SEL UK, a sports management company.

Zara also attended Exeter University and is a competitive equestrian.

I remember reading that Harry left the military as any further promotions in rank would require him to have a university degree.

 

[DalmatianCat]

3 hours ago, VGL said:

I remember reading that Harry left the military as any further promotions in rank would require him to have a university degree.

 

I wonder if he’d ever consider (or has ever considered) going back to school. Obviously, not everyone needs a college degree, and he’ll never actually need one, but it does seem a bit odd in this day and age that with all the resources at his disposal and the advantages he had, it seemed to be pretty well understood in his inner circle that he wouldn’t be able to make it in college.

Maybe if he tried again (online perhaps?) he’d find himself in a better place to learn and grow and get some sense of accomplishment from pursuing it.

[VGL]

9 hours ago, DalmatianCat said:

I wonder if he’d ever consider (or has ever considered) going back to school. Obviously, not everyone needs a college degree, and he’ll never actually need one, but it does seem a bit odd in this day and age that with all the resources at his disposal and the advantages he had, it seemed to be pretty well understood in his inner circle that he wouldn’t be able to make it in college.

Maybe if he tried again (online perhaps?) he’d find himself in a better place to learn and grow and get some sense of accomplishment from pursuing it.

I don't think Harry is overly academically inclined.

[viii]

Harry has (reportedly) struggled with school all his life, and apparently only got into Eton based on who he is, and not because he earned his spot. I doubt he'd ever go back to school.