Meghan and Harry 2: Now with Archie

[WiseGirl]

I think this "documentary" did nothing to help them or their image.

On 10/20/2019 at 12:27 AM, acheronbeach said:

He definitely didn't flinch at the clicks when they were focused on Hero Harry, the army vet, the champion of Sentebale and Invictus. 

Truth he used to be okay with clicks because he was the 

1 hour ago, just_ordinary said:

He was the golden boy for years

And this is where they are right now.

1 hour ago, just_ordinary said:

the fall goes a long way down

Here's an idea quit courting all the attention (so into green and sustainable but we take private jets, "documentary" that is really just more press, ....) Take the 6 weeks but for goodness sakes don't go places where you know paparazzi will be. You can do it other celebrities have.

[acheronbeach]

1 hour ago, WiseGirl said:

You can do it other celebrities have.

Look at Gosling And Mendes.  We didn't even know she was pregnant until she was nearly due with the third one.    Those are people who court privacy.  

And Royals! Anyone know what Peter and Autumn Phillips think of sustainability?  Anyone know whether Kate serves her friends avocado toast, and if so, does the china come from Soho House (TM) (on sale now!)?   Did Sophie's friends from her publicist days give interviews to the press about how unfair the media criticism of her was?  Nope, nope and nope. 

Have paparazzi unwillingly chased Meghan as she visits the grocery or drives to her various events?  Nope. Did a single pap snap her in her first three days in NYC, before the baby shower with the conveniently setup media area to snap the arriving guests, and the conspicuously branded delivery of gift suitcases through the front door?  I think the only one was Ralph Lauren's restaurant that's known for giving free meals to celebs in exchange for publicity.  Has there been a single article in the mainstream British press since they were married that they've been able point to as being racist toward Meghan? Nope.

But sure.  Privacy.  Media much unfair, much hate. 

[viii]

3 hours ago, just_ordinary said:

Meghan said she thought it would be hard but fair.... I don’t get that. What gossip is fair? Why didn’t she pick up some of those tabloids or locked online and paid attention to the smear articles about Kate, Camilla, Fergie (who is still mocked and hated) or the York girls? The articles and the comment sections would have provided a very good idea about what was coming her way.

I think she's saying that she expected similar treatment to what Kate received, but didn't think in 2019 so much of her backlash would be race-driven. 

However, she needs to find a different narrative than the naive, young girl taken by surprise - Diana has already owned that attitude. Meghan was a divorced 36 year old celebrity when she married Harry - it's not like she's a blushing school girl that is unaware of the dangers of the world. She needs to find a different way to voice her struggles that feels more believable to the listener, otherwise it comes across as fake. 

[Coconut Flan]

I found it interesting to act as if the US doesn't have tabloid gossip.  She said something like she hadn't been in the tabloids before.  Well darling you just weren't important or interesting enough.  Now Angelina Jolie could tell her about being in US tabloids. 

[tabitha2]

As @acheronbeach and others have said The mainstream Press and Serious print Media has never been racist against her. If anything the adoration of her was almost bathetic... Modern, relatable, a great love story, just what they needed! Kate was similar. The difference is Meghan has fallen hard because of Her and Harry’s actions, behavior and Attitude   while Kate aside from a few blips is practically perfect in every way  as a Royal Lady and Wife.    She feeds the press pretty clothes and adorable children and Royal outings enough to sate  them. 

The Racist ugliness comes from Internet and it’s trolls  and that’s never going to change. They simply have to toughen  up and learn to disregard Yahoo comments sections and the like are ignorable Trash. 

Edited October 22, 2019 by tabitha2

[louisa05]

1 hour ago, tabitha2 said:

As @acheronbeach and others have said The mainstream Press and Serious print Media has never been racist against her. If anything the adoration of her was almost bathetic... Modern, relatable, a great love story, just what they needed! Kate was similar. The difference is Meghan has fallen hard because of Her and Harry’s actions, behavior and Attitude   while Kate aside from a few blips is practically perfect in every way  as a Royal Lady and Wife.    She feeds the press pretty clothes and adorable children and Royal outings enough to sate  them. 

The Racist ugliness comes from Internet and it’s trolls  and that’s never going to change. They simply have to toughen  up and learn to disregard Yahoo comments sections and the like are ignorable Trash. 

Except they chose to eschew the press and use Instagram—going straight to the source of the racism and nastiness.  Terrible move. 

 

[tabitha2]

Hmm.. you know what they say about young kids who act out? About How bad attention is better than no attention?  Most likely after Meghan’s novelty would have worn off and she could (or should) have become just another Royal Lady like Sophie or Anne. Hardworking, gracious and  protocol abiding  mostly ignored but generally positive attention in the press. Their Day to day duties are not particularly glamorous or camera worthy . The Duchess of Sussex could not, would not abide that. So She seeks Drama, either intentionally or not. Then she can get sympathy as the innocent victim. Harry can’t the person who is said to always get what she wants.

I tend to believe She has some Crazymaker tendencies and with Harry being not well himself it’s just a bad situation getting worse. 

 
 

[louisa05]

@tabitha2 I tend to agree with you. The lack of very many family relationships and the number of people that say they were friends one day and out the next can't all have an explanation that is only their fault. At some point, you have to look at the common denominator in those relationships which was Meghan. 

Harry seems to be having a very public breakdown at this point, though. I thought that before this documentary. He looks like a mess--unkempt wrinkled clothes, zoned out half the time--then there was the lashing out at the reporter for a perfectly appropriate question during the tour. His whole thing about how he is so worried about the world that sometimes he can't get out of bed.  And the whole documentary interview--none of that is stuff you hear from someone who is mentally healthy. I suspect that he was going to project what he believes about his mother's situation and death onto whoever he married and this was all inevitable. And it can't be easy to live with for her. 

[Blahblah]

The pair of them need to take a giant step away from public life. Prince Edward manages very well as do Zara and Peter Phillips. But I suspect that Meghan's ego wouldn't allow that. 

[louisa05]

1 hour ago, Blahblah said:

The pair of them need to take a giant step away from public life. Prince Edward manages very well as do Zara and Peter Phillips. But I suspect that Meghan's ego wouldn't allow that. 

Edward and Sophie are full time working royals 

[WiseGirl]

And now they have the cover of People. Are they sure they don't want a lot of attention?

[tabitha2]

Do you suppose it maybe that they want only absolutely adoring attention on their terms and in their time. If that does not happen as they demand they need privacy!1! And the Media is evil and unfair l!! 

 

[viii]

I'm starting to think that Harry and Meghan don't know what they want. 

[adidas]

The point remains the same, but @acheronbeach did you mean Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively? Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes only have two children, not three. Both couples keep their private lives under wraps.

[Blahblah]

6 hours ago, louisa05 said:

Edward and Sophie are full time working royals 

Yes but they don't have endless drama, negative publicity etc. They manage to do what Haz & Meg endlessly bleat on about - balance privacy and a public life very nicely.

[acheronbeach]

1 hour ago, adidas said:

The point remains the same, but @acheronbeach did you mean Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively? Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes only have two children, not three. Both couples keep their private lives under wraps.

No, I meant Gosling and Mendes but I got all mixed up and thought they'd had a third, when in fact it was their second little girl they debuted when Eva was extremely.  I'm not a huge fan of Blake Lively and her "Great Father and Leader and Patriarch" Ryan Reynolds.  Fundie dogwhistle much?  

[Screamapillar]

23 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

Do you suppose it maybe that they want only absolutely adoring attention on their terms and in their time. If that does not happen as they demand they need privacy!1! And the Media is evil and unfair l!! 

 

This, 100%, is my perception of them.

Haven't watched the documentary but read a bit about it. Meghan's Pollyanna routine of "I didn't know anything about British tabloids!" "I had no idea it would be difficult living in the British Royal family!" is slightly ridiculous, IMO. Girl, you are not some naïve bumpkin fresh off the turnip truck. Harry's mother was the most famous woman in the world and I, being 2 years younger than Meghan, knew at least the basic story of her problems with the media just by glimpsing magazines in the check-out aisle while at the grocery store with my Mom in the 90s.

[Coconut Flan]

This is a problem with marrying a known actress:  how much is truth and how much is acting.  There are times when she seems natural to me and times when she seems totally fake.  I'm never sure how much of the middle is an act, but I'm beginning to think most of it.   The aw gee shucks I was blindsided has to be a complete put on job.  The US is not a land devoid of tabloids.  She didn't grow up sheltered.  Her father was a lighting director and she was regularly on the set.  

[louisa05]

20 hours ago, Blahblah said:

Yes but they don't have endless drama, negative publicity etc. They manage to do what Haz & Meg endlessly bleat on about - balance privacy and a public life very nicely.

Your post just confused me a bit as Zara and Peter are private citizens with day jobs. 

What is going to surprise Harry is that eventually he will be more in Edward's shoes. Once William's kids grow up, his role and the attention he gets will diminish. And I'm not sure he'll like that in spite of all of his going on about privacy. 

A million red flags went up for me when Meghan said "nobody asks" if she's okay. To a member of the media. It is not the role of the media to look after her mental and emotional health. That's for her friends, family and spouse to be doing. I think it's possible that both of them have a need for public praise and approval. And that's something they need help to get past. The public and the media never approve of anyone in the public eye nonstop. And it seems that Meghan (and possibly Harry--which is baffling for someone 35 years old that grew up in the royal family) fails to understand that their position is different than their Hollywood friends. When Elton John spends lavish amounts of money on every possible luxury, people will roll their eyes and go on. When someone who is partially living on the taxpayer's dime does it, the eye roll for those taxpayers isn't the end of it. No one forces anyone to buy Elton John albums or concert tickets. But the citizens of the UK have to pay the taxes that partially funded their wedding and the renovation of their home and their personal security and their travels on official business. 

[nokidsmom]

Initially I was pretty sympathetic to Meghan and Harry, especially with regards to the horrible racist stuff posted from commenters on tabloids like the Daily Fail (yeah I know it's not serious media, but boy there's some really awful comments)  However, I was starting to lose sympathy around the time Archie was born, with this "wanting privacy" yet still courting attention in various ways.  Either you want privacy or you don't, you can't have it both ways especially when you are member of the RF.   And some media attention is just going to be expected no matter what you do, so if privacy is your big concern, then do the things that will help preserve that as much as possible which btw should be obvious to not be courting more media attention.  

49 minutes ago, Coconut Flan said:

The aw gee shucks I was blindsided has to be a complete put on job.  The US is not a land devoid of tabloids.  She didn't grow up sheltered.  Her father was a lighting director and she was regularly on the set.  

Right.  I can't imagine given her upbringing that she can be this naive about it.   And she certainly had to know about her late mother in law's problems with the the media, not just via Harry, but she certainly couldn't have been living under a rock when Diana died and all the media hype that went with that.    Maybe she underestimated it all but the "aw shucks" assertion doesn't seem plausible to me.  

On 10/22/2019 at 6:19 PM, louisa05 said:

I suspect that he was going to project what he believes about his mother's situation and death onto whoever he married and this was all inevitable. And it can't be easy to live with for her. 

Agreed about Harry.  I am glad that he got help eventually, after his mother's death, and I respect him for being up front about it but yeah, it seems that getting married has triggered some issues over his mother.  It's understandable really but I sure hope he's getting some help for that.   I still have sympathy over that he lost his mother suddenly and when he was at an impressionable age, but continuing to whine about media coverage, especially when you are courting it, come on dude, can you be that clueless?

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by nokidsmom

[VGL]

I read something recently that Meghan was a big fan of Diana and had some books about her and watched her funeral.

 

Back when Meghan was on Suits and had her blog, she was interviewed by a Toronto business website about how she wanted to turn it into a lifestyle brand.  https://www.baystbull.com/say-hello-to-meghan-markle/

Both Harry and Meghan use PR so much that I don't really know what to believe.

[hoipolloi]

1 hour ago, VGL said:

Both Harry and Meghan use PR so much that I don't really know what to believe.

This, and thank you for that link, @VGL.

Someone who said stuff like this in 2015 cannot, in 2019, claim to be ignorant about how either traditional or social media work in the UK:

[Blahblah]

I'll just leave this here. Seems plausible. They are out of control.

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/royals/prince-charles-is-reportedly-absolutely-furious-about-the-growing-distance-between-prince-harry-and-prince-william/news-story/6189a9609d8b28862bdff05cd29b4324

 

[acheronbeach]

6 hours ago, Coconut Flan said:

[snip] The US is not a land devoid of tabloids.  She didn't grow up sheltered.  

I don't know why Meghan said something that's such an easily-proven lie.  It's contrary to everything we know about her.  There are so many examples, but I'll just go with this picture: 

Yes, that's Meghan holding up a copy of Us Weekly.  She was featured in that particular issue - where the cover proclaimed that Kate Middleton would have twins.  This is the same classy magazine that's  featured such recent titles as "Jana Kramer Married to a Sex Addict!" and "Melania's Secret: Sleeping in Separate Bedrooms!"  

[just_ordinary]

I think one of the biggest faults was to throw the racism card at every criticism they received. Calling out racism was important but they (and their fans) weakened it by calling people racist even if they are normally quite sympathetic. That turned many off additionally (hello wedding hair discussion - it should be clear by now, that she has no problem styling her hair as she likes. They just underestimated the pull of the tiara and the veil). 

It will be interesting to see what happens after their „break“. 

Her wearing a dress that she wore pregnant to an engagement is definitely not helping in not creating headlines. Funny enough, most ignored it or claimed she wore it for pregnancy speculation.

What does annoys be though is when people act as if this is all her fault. I think they are both equally to blame. And people, acting as if William and Kate are the perfect, spotless royals. They are not and they had their turn in the media as well. Same for bad press being created by their PR teams for the other couple. I think it’s bullshit. Rumours of Will cheating have been around since their breakup. And the bad press for the Sussexes isn’t fuelled by KP either. I mean I am all for a good conspiracy theory but please get your facts straight hon.