It did happen before and it was crazy. King Edward VII married an American and they gave him so much shit he abdicated.
I’m sorry to tell you that plenty of people are horrible to people they don’t like. Sad but true.
You are unlikely to find out anything of provable substance from the Harry and Meghan program. It is all from their side of the argument and neither the palace nor people with other views are represented.
It is a puff piece on the behalf of Harry and Meghan, very one-sided.
That’s fine if you are a fan of theirs and are inclined to be on their side no matter what but as a source of factual information it is pretty much useless.
Personally I’m too long in the tooth to imagine that either side is in possession of the full facts, is willing to dispassionately assess their own failings or is free of bias in what they tell us about the situation.
There is a vanishly small probability that Harry and Meghan are as virtuous as they’d want us to be believe. Nor that they are as bad as some of the more lurid stories suggest.
Well, the fact that she was American was less of an issue than that Wallis Simpson was divorced from her first husband, cheating on her second husband with Edward, and possibly cheating on Edward with a German diplomat. In the 1930s, that kind of marital history was a Big Deal, particularly since she could not remarry in the Church of England (which did not marry divorcees until 2002), and Edward was head of the C of E.
It is so much more acceptable to kill your spouse than to divorce them, That way you can get married in the church again. Easy Peasy!
The two people who tried to conspire with Hitler? The poor dears.
Well, it wasn’t all bad! Good thing he jetted before the war started.
All I know about Meghan Markle is she claimed when she got married to Harry that black people in South Africa were dancing in the streets exactly like how they did when Nelson Mandela got freed from prison.
There are several magnitudes of delusion you have to go through to legitimately believe that and then repeat it openly like it’s a fact. The fact Nelson Mandelas family had to come out and debunk it immediately afterwards is hilarious.
I don’t agree. It’s possible to listen to both sides, not believe either one is the full truth, and try to figure out what actually happened. If you’ve already heard all the people against them, it makes sense to listen to their defense, sorta like you were a juror in a court room.
You don’t need every source to cover a wide variety of views. You can seek them out yourself. And, if you do that, you need to get all sides.
I agree, the problem is that we don’t have all sides. The royal family simply don’t comment on it and whatever our gut feeling may be we should probably reserve judgement on that basis alone.
As a British, somewhat elderly male and a moderate royalist, when the engagement was announced, I voiced my opinion that the addition of a strong, attractive, mixed-race female into the Firm would be A Good Thing. No one I know thought that her race was in any way a problem.
I automatically discount anything I read in the RedTops so whatever they reported did not change my opinion. The whole sorry business with her father and their subsequent defection to the USA changed my view of them. I think that Meghan wears the pants in that family and Harry just goes along with whatever bee she has in her bonnet.
I have not and will not view any part of this latest display, but what I have read does nothing to change my opinion.
My view as a British, female, moderate royalist:
If you are in the States you may have only seen the mildest criticisms of Megan and Harry, but in the UK there is quite a feeling of disappointment in him and resentment of the way he is seen to have cut and run. And unfortunately Meghan is seen as the reason. My feeling about Meghan is ambivalent, l had thought she would be a fantastic addition to the family, but it seems to me that she didn’t realise that being a member of the Royal Family was very far from bring the sort of Hollywood celebrity she had been before.
I think it may be difficult for Americans to appreciate the exact role of the Monarch and the complicated relationship we British have with the Royals.
Firstly, the Monarch is Head of State. What they do is a job, their work. This applies to all the Royals. They are working for us, the British people. You could say they are employed by us. They are not just celebrities.
I think this may be something that Meghan did not fully understand when she joined “the Firm” as Prince Philip aptly described it. And a large amount of Press attention, whether they want it or not, is part of that job. It’s part of the bargain, what they are expected to put up with in return for their privileged position. Remember that someone born into the family has NO choice. People who marry into the family need to understand that and be prepared to stick to the bargain.*
And this bargain is partly why many of us are annoyed with Harry when he left. He appears to want to continue to benefit from his position but isn’t prepared to fulfil his part of the bargain.
Then there is the relationship with the British people. For us they have always been there. I think of it like this. In a way they are like a distant branch of your own family. You may hardly ever see them. You may not like them or approve of what they do. Or you may see them often and love them. But even if you don’t approve of them, they are family, there is a connection, and it is hurtful when strangers criticise them. You feel protective of them and want to stick up for them even if you think they are wrong.
*please don’t infer from the above that I am anti Meghan, I’m not. I was very pleased and excited that she was joining the Firm, I thought she was exactly what we needed. But I think it is ironic that Harry of all people did not ensure that she was better prepared, given what happened to Diana.
I saw a report a few days ago which alleges something Meghan is supposed to have said on a walkabout, she is supposed to have complained “I should be getting paid for this”. Now I am fully prepared to accept that this may be just gossip or completely untrue, but if there is any truth in it, then she is mistaken, she WAS getting paid for it. The working Royals get paid for the job they do, I don’t know what the Sussexes were getting from the Civil List before they left but it would have been a substantial sum.
My understanding is that Meghan’s father sold her out. He collected money from the sociopathic tabloids for doing interviews complaining about her. And he published her private correspondence to him, again for money. Meghan’s father sounds to me like the quintessential toxic relative who leaves you no choice but to cut off contact. I’m curious, where do you find fault with Meghan in all this?
No, the Civil List ended in 2012, before Meghan joined the family, replaced by the Sovereign Grant; neither is/was “pay” or salary but rather reimbursement for official expenses. However, your larger point holds: Harry and Meghan had their living expenses paid by Charles out of the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, and Charles had access to those revenues solely because he was the Prince of Wales, the heir to the throne. They lived in a palace and had servants and assistants and traveled on private aircraft and bought expensive clothes as part of a deal with the British nation: I serve and you give me money and tax breaks.
I’m not sure exactly how I feel about her relationship with her father, and @bob_2 doubtless has his own reasons, but most of the interviews and the sale of her private correspondence occurred AFTER she’d cut him off. He participated (apparently at his other daughter’s behest) in a series of staged photographs in the week or so immediately before H & M’s wedding that was the cause of the final break between them; according to his version of events, he had several cardiac stents put in and while he was in hospital recovering, Harry texted him, “If you had listened to me, this wouldn’t have happened to you.”
Also possibly worth noting: Harry and Meghan jetted around the world in the year or more before their wedding, but somehow they never managed to jet to the part of the world where her father lived; Harry has still never met his father-in-law in person, although Meghan had wanted this man to walk her down the aisle.
I thought Harry wasn’t getting any more money from the royal family and has to make his own way financially. Is that not correct? If it is correct, what position is he benefiting from?
He is benefiting from being his father’s son, and trading on it - his very modest educational attainments and career achievements would not otherwise merit the amount of attention people pay to what he says and does.
Following the latest episodes, I am puzzled by his comment that he was “terrified” by William shouting at him. Until the last couple of years the brothers apparently had a warm and close relationship. The best of family members yell at each other!
And this is a grown man approaching 40, a former serving soldier who undertook two active tours of duty in Afghanistan. And he’s terrified? Sorry, that doesn’t wash!
But he has no control over that. If people want to hire him because he’s a member of the royal family, what else can he do? It’s not like he’s running a “Meet the King’s son for $1000” business or selling NFT trading cards with his likeness. Or is he?
Isn’t that pretty much what he’s doing? “Watch this documentary I made about being the King’s son.” “Read this book I had ghostwritten about my life as the King’s son.” “Hear me give a speech about my life as the King’s son.”
It doesn’t wash, what the bloody hell is Harry on about?
Harry don’t be daft that was an emotional outburst of someone extremely frustrated by your vexing idiotic behavior. What you witnessed was probably terrifying to behold, take notice you pushed a loved to the brink of his patience and now you’re acting ignorant as to why. Wills yelled at me. Snerk.
Had he not been his father’s son, he probably would have had a very successful career as a military officer, something that he loved. The tabloids reporting on his whereabouts destroyed that. What the fuck is he supposed to do?