But his wanting to marry her did give a convenient excuse to the court insiders who thought (and had thought for some time) that he would be a disaster.
I don’t think it was so much a calculated matter of his wanting extra power as simply being too vain to accept the constraints of the job - or, for that matter, the constraints and disciplines involved in actually holding and exercising real power. He might have tried occasionally to intervene in political matters, but he was never going to stick with it, rather just make some inappropriate remarks to the wrong people at the wrong time and leave someone else to clear up any resulting mess.
It remains an open question whether he really wanted to go, or whether he wrongly assumed that threatening to to so would get what he wanted.
Sorry, you’re going to have to explain this to me - what is (I assume) blatant “Kardashianism”?
Did Markle parlay a sex tape into a reality TV career? Is Markle secretly Armenian? Is her dad a famous lawyer and her mom the worst stage mom ever? What?
As far as I can tell, Markle was a successful B-list actress, with a university education and strong feminist leanings. None of that screams “Kardashian” at me. The only thing that comes close is that she ran a successful lifestyle blog for a while, but even that wasn’t like the Kardashians’ toxic social media presence.
This idea that there’s something off about Meghan is entirely made up by the tabloid press - I’ve heard nothing but well wishing from actual British people - those that can be bothered to pay any attention at all.
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that god-awful baby shower, that was so heavily papped, and in such poor taste.
Then there is the fact that she has spent significantly more than any other royal on clothing primarily on non-British brands, and looks fairly terrible in all of it. In particular her maternity wardrobe was so poorly-fitting and garish (for a working royal)
Then there is her bananas for sex workers incident . . .
What exactly constitutes “strong feminist leanings?” Two visits to developing countries and a speech? And various tweets? How feminist could someone be who marries into the most conservative, patriarchal institution in the Western world?
Oh, and the bizarre pregnancy padding. There is no way that woman was wearing her biological “bump” for all 18 months of that pregnancy. This is her at four months.
I don’t believe she faked her pregnancy, but her bump changed sizes in an unusual manner throughout her pregnancy (like shrinking in size from one month to another).
Oh, and the fact that she and Harry are almost always holding hands when they appear in public.
And that her wedding had minimal family members from her side, but many celebrities with whom her friendship was previously unknown (such as Oprah, or George and Amal Clooney).
None of this is particularly bothering for your average celebrity, but she holds the title of HRH and represents the Queen. Compare her behavior to Kate’s, or even Camilla’s (recently).
There’s a very vocal online grouping that absolutely despises her for reasons I haven’t quite figured out. One of the weirder things I came across was an obsession over the size of her stomach, and whether or not she was faking or otherwise enhancing the pregnancy. Edit: LOL, or just scroll up one post from this.
That can be caused just by the baby changing position. The uterus is not a rigid sphere and the baby doesn’t just kick: it kicks, rotates, elbows, headbutts, butt-butts and variously buggers about.
As a middle England Brit, with a modest circle of friends, I can honestly say that no acquaintance of mine, either in person or on social media, has ever expressed any if the unpleasant opinions mentioned above. Like most countries, we have a small minority of white supremacist types who think that letting someone with a black ancestry into the royal family is the beginning of the end, but they truly are a small minority. Her American antecedents hardly register. In fact, Meghan has been welcomed by the vast majority here despite what you might read in the media.
Someone upthread asked that what we say in pubs or at dinner parties among friends about Americans. Here the general attitude is much coloured by the present incumbent of the White House, who is almost universally despised. Most of us recognise that the America that we see in films and in the news, does not really represent the whole population, or even a large part of it. News and other media are only interested in sensation - dog bites man is not news; man bites dog on the other hand…
The problem is that we tend to read the items that we agree with. The contributors to this forum are largely liberal and well educated, so it attracts liberal and well educated readers.
I suspect that if you stopped a load of people in the street and asked them, they would have no idea that most of N America was ever under British rule.
I watch some quiz shows here and only last week, a contestant, who seemed reasonably knowledgable and educated, was asked a question which referred to the Boston Tea Party. He had no idea what the question was even about.
