To feel really sorry for Prince Harry breaking down

[AviationLifystyle]

At the awards show. I have been a little skeptical about him recently but my heart really went out to him when I saw the footage.

I have a feeling that having a child has triggered a huge amount of unresolved grief and anxiety. Now he has this dear little boy who is at the mercy of the tabloid press, as is his wife and there is little he can do to protect him.

It's time the press laid off. This is a human being breaking in front of us.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/prince-harry-wellchild-awards-speech-emotional-meghan-pregnant-tears-a9157751.html

I think it’s a shame, by the way, that nobody has picked up on her saying that she expected scrutiny- but expected it to be fair...

But a lot of the scrutiny has been pretty fair.
And if such dreadful lies have been printed about them, why are they suing over that, rather than over the publication of a letter which Meghan had written with a view to it being leaked

I feel some sympathy for Harry having watched that programme. He is under tremendous pressure from Meghan to fix things by the look of it. I'm surprised no-one is commenting on what Meghan seemed to be saying in response to TB's question about whether she could stick it out.

I didn't hear "I married for life".

I'm surprised no-one is commenting on what Meghan seemed to be saying in response to TB's question about whether she could stick it out

Me too. She said she was taking each day as it comes. She's just got married! She didn't say she was married for life or that she would stay with Harry because she loved him. It sounds as though she's checking out already.

She said she had a lovely husband and baby and the implication was she could count her blessings in that sense. So I think she was saying she loved her family and Harry.

I agree MarathonMo.

Reading these posts it's almost as if people were watching a different programme to the one I saw - and I watched it twice.

It was mainly about their trip to Africa with a few personal questions thrown in, which they answered perfectly well. It was good.

The scrutiny has been fair. No it hasn't.

I hoped to watch a documentary about the places they visited but found it a bit thin on content. I found the "personal struggle" interviews distracting and uncomfortable. I can't work out whether TB decided to take the documentary in that direction because of what he observed or whether it was always the brief.

If I were them I would stop reading the tabloids. Let a PR team with that and issue libel cases every time there is a lie, as Meghan claims.
Close the Instagram down, or keep it only for work. Commenting on trips, charities etc, no personal stuff at all.
Get some really good therapeutic help.
Ask other members of the RF how they coped, what worked for them etc. As someone upthread said nearly all of them have faced unpleasant media scrutiny at some point.
Work on mending bridges - turn to family members who love and support them. It seems William and Kate are not people they turn to for whatever reason.
Concentrate on what they do have , which is a lot, and stop focusing on unfairness, lack of freedom etc.

The problem is that M has spent her whole adult life courting public opinion. She is used to being lauded, people telling her how wonderful she is I suspect. Being in the RF is the reverse in all senses to what she is used to. It's a thankless job in terms of public opinion, you have to develop a lot of inner resilience and draw on reserves that you create through good friends and family. She has only one member of her family who provides this, but there are many members of the RF who can help them if they put aside their pride to ask.

I don't think they should take press intrusion lying down, but they also need to learn to keep their private thoughts and feelings to themselves and focus on their 'work'. Of course a stiff upper lip isn't particularly healthy, they need to speak to therapists friends and family, not go on TV to complain about how hard things are, and how 'unfair'. I also don't believe the media in the US are fair. They may not be as bad as they are here, but all the press are the same, they want to sell papers and enjoy digging for dirt. I think a lot of the criticism they have received has been fair.

I see Harry under huge, unbearable pressure trying to keep Meghan happy. I see it causing rifts in his own family and a lot of stress and strain. He is going to be forced to choose between his wife and his country in the end, i have no doubt. They will probably move abroad, and somehow I can't see him living in Canada very happily.
What are they going to do there? She can't go back to acting, and he will be isolated from his family and all he knows.

Of course it's not as simple as suing the press for libel. Are people honestly this naive? (Don't worry, I know the answer).

The press are very smart, make lots of money out of this stuff and have shit hot lawyers. They don't print outright lies but insinuate to beat the band.

Take the story about Meghan making Kate cry at Charlotte's dress fitting. All that was ever reported as 'fact' was that a) there was a dress fitting, b) Kate cried at it. And given she was extremely pregnant at the time, that probably shouldn't be terribly surprising.

But with press insinuation, suggestion, off the record comments from 'insiders', everyone comes away with 'Meghan was a terrible bitch and made Kate cry'. That's tarnishing her public image, but in a way that's very difficult to tackle.

Equally difficult to tackle is the constant bringing up of the 2.5 million refurb on Frogmore, while never mentioning the Cambridges 4.5 million refurb of their Kensington Palace apartments. It's factual reporting, but focusing on one without the added context of the other puts the Sussexes in a very negative light.

Of course there could be benefits for her in opening up, in a safe environment with support. I'm struggling to see the benefits in opening up so publicly

Exactly this, though with the proviso that it applies to both of them. It's really not a choice of buttoning everything up or spilling their guts all over the media at every turn; there's a middle way, but that requires judgment and I feel theirs is deeply faulty

FWIW Meghan's point about unfair coverage was a valid one, but I suspect this pampered pair's idea of fairness might raise questions of its own. Nobody denies that the media can be filthy, but the answer to that isn't to whine - it's to stop handing them such obvious opportunities

I'm surprised no-one is commenting on what Meghan seemed to be saying in response to TB's question about whether she could stick it out. I didn't hear "I married for life"

I wasn't going to bring this up myeslf, but yes, I most certainly did notice ... in fact I thought it was glaring. Sadly, however, it didn't surprise me

Someone needs to help Harry to challenge his thinking about his mother. Obviously the press made her life a misery, but they also printed a lot of very positive supportive stuff about her. In the main she was very loved. The reason she died was partly due to her own poor choices - drawing attention to herself on that holiday with Dodi, not wearing a seat belt, dispensing with protection, which I presume was her choice. If it wasn't her choice she could have made it a condition of the divorce. She also courted and used the media for her own ends. It's not a black and white situation. Charles was the one mostly responsible for her her life turned out, not the media, but that's probably a very difficult thing for him to confront. In many ways he seems to be stuck emotionally at the 12 year old level, which is par for the course for victims of trauma.

Frankly, from an outsider’s point of view his relationship with his dead mother seems positively straightforward compared with his relationship with his living father.....

that's because she's dead.

Do you think relationships become easier if one of the people involved is dead?

I wonder who on earth has been advising them.

Lots of Royal women before have had a hard time in the press; Kate, Camilla, Princess Margaret. However I don't think the strategy of 'opening up' and complaining about it was ever going to work. It smacks of biting the hand that feeds you and doesn't feel very 'professional'. Kate and Camilla have come through the other side to be generally very well regarded. Can you imagine if either had complained about press intrusion? They would have been crucified.

Rightly or wrongly, the correct strategy for introducing Meghan into the Royal family would have been for her to keep her head down, do some select appearances with local charities, share candid pictures of them looking smiley with Archie; then after a few years gradually step up the humanitarian focus and do the stuff like Vogue. They've gone very full on with their 'brand' very quickly.

I also don't believe the media in the US are fair. They may not be as bad as they are here ...

Actually they can be a darned sight worse, as anyone who's seen their store checkout rags can attest, but what they are keen on is puff pieces about the "agony" so-and-so's enduring

From what we've seen of the endless emoting this may well suit; it's the more incisive reporting - and yes, there's been plenty among the silly spite - which seems less welcome, and might cause more problems if they were able to dictate what's "fair" and what isn't

Frankly, from an outsider’s point of view his relationship with his dead mother seems positively straightforward compared with his relationship with his living father ...

Actually, that seems a fair (that word again!!) point. In Harry's many comments about his life, I hardly recall hearing Charles mentioned - not in terms of his work, his example, his support or anything at all

The difference is that in the US, the rags are exactly that. No one takes them seriously, everyone laughs at them and just assumes it's all time killing fluff.
In the UK, they seem to be taken as legitimate news - as demonstrated by most on this thread. Reason why the The Sun has such a high circulation.

Bertrand -The point is it isn't a relationship if the person is dead. It is a memory of a relationship he had with his mother who died when he was a child. Always nitpicking, aren't you?

“Always nitpicking, aren't you?“

On this occasion it wasn’t me that nit picked!

@Mummy195: anyone who looks in the Daily Heil hoping to find something "fair" is on a fool's errand, I'm afraid.

The reason she died was partly due to her own poor choices - drawing attention to herself on that holiday with Dodi, not wearing a seat belt, dispensing with protection, which I presume was her choice.

When you factor in getting into a car with a driver who was pissed as a fart, I'd say entirely due to her own poor choices. Not getting in that car would have definitely have prevented her dying in that crash, and wearing a seatbelt might well have done.

And Diana was happy to court the press when it suited her. You can't run with the fox and hunt with the hounds, as my old mum used to say.

She didn't know the driver was drunk though to be fair.

I expect others have seen this but it just popped up on my page - the Hate Mail of course. Honestly, you couldn't make it up (though the Mail seems able to):

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7595725/Duchess-Meghans-emotional-interview-damaging-royals-claims-royal-expert.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

“ drawing attention to herself on that holiday with Dodi”
They were in a relationship....