To think Kate and William saw Harry and Meghan as a real threat to their image?

Key phrase was monarchs

I'm pretty sure the Queen wasn't sucking toes and having threesomes!

We like our monarchs dutiful and pleasant.

We like our adjacent royal family members to provide the gossip and tabloid tales.

That's what caused Charles' popularity blip - he chose unwisely for his marriage and ended up in the realms of gossip, affairs, tell all interviews and biographies.

Now he's in his dutiful grandfather King phase he is popular and considered to be doing a good job.

William and Kate are keeping the drama quotiant low and the cheerful public appearances on point.

Andrew and Harry are providing the gossip fodder - all by themselves - no need for any leaking.

I love a bit of history in the form of the Anglo-Afghan wars in the 19th century, personally!

Are you looking for things that only people who are really interested would know?

We like our monarchs to be dull. Surely you’ve noticed?

Do we? I don't remember dull before Diana died? It was all sucking toes, 3 in a marriage etc, very seedy & all over the tabloids.

Re posts above regarding the constant holidays - we certainly were never told about these holidays . Yes W and K completely disappeared for long periods but we are led to believe they were enduring rainy walks in Norfolk
We have the current bitchfest between Willaim and Charles to thank for the new details
We had Kate skiing and William waving a bottle on their skiing holiday ( that must have been a Charles leak )
Then a leak about Charles mistreatment of staff ( yawn - we already knew that Charles and W are spoilt hysterical tyrants )

Then a leak about William and Kate on their borrowed ( but from whom?) multi million pound yacht ( that was Charles hitting back)
And now Camilla staggering around on a yacht ( Willaim kicking back)

These holidays aren’t new - they were just covered up before

Well worth the half a billion they cost us aren’t they ? ( royalists - Im being sarcastic )

my pleasure, ha ha ha !

I like a post that makes me Google!

Zonder, you are coming in like Elphinstone’s Army …

I know that I've kind of given tragedy a bit of the burlesque treatment in my previous post but here's a wikipedia of the, "Willy and Nicky" correspondence. Wilhelm II and Nicholas II of Russia.)

It would be wonderful to read the full transcripts. I'm sure that they are out there somewhere.

Willy–Nicky correspondence - Wikipedia share.google/2XsTI7n9KsBLlHkVx

Who knew until recently that Charles has a favourite holiday home on Romania that he goes to loads. That's never reported on.

It's not reported on in that his privacy is respected when he's there, but it's been known for a long while that he has a holiday home there. Honey from there is sold in the Highgrove shop and you can rent the property when he isn't there.

Where?

If you are referring to the to-and-fro between the media and communications team (press releases issued by the latter, questions and enquiries from the former), that is 100% normal and replicated in offices government departments across the world all day every day.

Well documented perhaps for people who follow them closely. The rest of us meanwhile...

@Serenster
No need to take Harry’s word for it

The journalists themselves have confirmed that they have stories fed to them ( and no , not the laughable ‘court circular )

Transyvania, had it for years, well documented, on his walking holiday

They're 'boring' in the same way the Queen was 'boring', presenting a carefully maintained front of dignified duty with enough warmth that people will feel affection for them - not at all easy to carry off.

I don't think they've quite 'got it' like QE2 has or had. She benefited from longevity, and excuse the phrase,, but kate and william should have hit the ground running (despite having young children). I think they just coast and hope for the best. To me, and just my opinion, but that is just not working.

dreadful punctuation!

I think Harry has confirmed that stories against them were fed to the press by the palace to sacrifice Megan and protect Kate.

Harry has said this, but conveniently never suggested which actual stories he’s talking about.

Remember this is the same Harry who maintained in an email that he and Meghan had to be able to say they had nothing to do with Finding Freedom at the same time as they were arranging for Meghan’s notes to be delivered to the author; and who was emailing People magazine directly to give them his point of view. And who was criticised by a judge for filing lawsuits against the press when they reported the truth rather than Harry’s spin. His recent stories about the Sentabale fall-out also give a good indication of the press games he plays.

The boot looks more like it’s on the other foot.

They're 'boring' in the same way the Queen was 'boring', presenting a carefully maintained front of dignified duty with enough warmth that people will feel affection for them - not at all easy to carry off.

As to the OP question I'd be surprised if there wasn't a twinge of jealousy early on but that would quickly have evaporated when they realised what a pita Meghan was going to be.

Again - this is how the British tabloids work for royals and most celebrities too - it’s how a story cycle gets the most sales/hits.

Build them up, knock them down, build them up, knock them down on repeat.

So yes Meghan’s wave of positive stories was always going to be followed by a wave of negative ones - and Kate vice versa.

The tabs are a bit stuck at the moment with Kate because they were burned by the ‘where’s Kate’ narrative turning into brave Mum of three has cancer.

So she’s quite bullet proof right now. Give it a few years though.

If Meghan had stayed in the role she’d have had waves of popularity again across the years followed by dips. Not some Royal PR conspiracy just the business of news papers making their money with drama and gossip.

Thats an unexpected post at this point in time! I think William and Kate are it for the long game - they're not really in the same league. They probably don't put the same amount of importance on the tabloids that Megan does and probably didn't have much change in the amount of love and fandom they received during that time.

It’s also mentioned in articles in the Guardian and the Independent in the same time frame…

Yes, and Camilla and her India retreat where she regularly goes

Yes! I think this too. It was so clear, one minute all the articles were about how Kate should be more modern, dress more like Megan, how educated and glamourous Megan was. Then all of a sudden it turned and the stories became about Megan’s extravagance, flying to America on her friend’s private jet, wearing expensive clothes, eating avocados ffs - all things Kate was doing too (I mean when have the royals ever not been extravagant lol!).

Definitely made sense that Kate and William’s PR machines was working against Harry and Megan. I think Harry has confirmed that stories against them were fed to the press by the palace to sacrifice Megan and protect Kate. The future King and Queen couldn’t risk being considered second best by the public, they are supposed to be the saviours of the monarchy. If the public start thinking they’re not so special after all, then what?

They are also a family and they have done each other great harm over the past century.

I don't read the Mail. It wasn't widely reported on.

Harry and Meghan are narcissists, they might have had public opinion for 15 minutes, however as he moans about were always the spare...