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Original poster

To feel really sorry for Prince Harry breaking down

999 replies

AviationLifystyle · 16/10/2019 09:56

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

OP posts:
Armi · 16/10/2019 12:22

It wasn’t very Royal. The event was about the children and their parents. His role is to draw attention to a worthy cause and cheer everyone up by being royalty, shaking hands and being lovely with the kids, which is his actual job (and something I’ve always felt he is really good at). It really isn’t his job to cry on stage at a public event whilst talking about his own experiences.

I feel for him if he’s struggling at the moment, but really he needs to avoid personal references in his speeches and focus on the job in hand. All this informality is refreshing and all, but maybe it might be a idea to be a bit less emotionally available and a bit more old school about public interactions. I would hope he could sit down with his brother when he gets home from Pakistan and have a good chat - surely no-one knows how he must feel as much as William must do, with their shared experiences of loss, parenthood and difficulties with the media. I’m hoping all this acrimony between the brothers is a media invention because it strikes me that that young man needs some help and support. If there has been a divide in the family then I feel sorry for Meghan as she will be having to emotionally support him, alone, with all her own issues to deal with too.

BertrandRussell · 16/10/2019 12:25

“ Sorry but am I missing something? Harry got a bit emotional during a speech for a few seconds, tops. If he'd continued to sob his way through the rest of it then you might have a point!”

And he had been Royalling like crazy for ages beforehand.

MauritiusNext · 16/10/2019 12:26

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Queenunikitty · 16/10/2019 12:27

I think they should move to the US and live a nice life over there. Somewhere in Cali and then also on the East Coast. Lovely. Their family can grow up away from all the toxic class system crap into stable, normal All American adults. There is no need for him to ‘work’ in the UK. William and Catherine can manage quite well.

BertrandRussell · 16/10/2019 12:30

@ MauritiusNext - rhe bit of my post you didn’t C&P was about the RF’s pretty grim record on animal welfare. But hey ho, you pursue your own agenda!

Andsoitisjust99 · 16/10/2019 12:30

Whilst the press are utter nutters as far as Royal’s (or anyone famous) is concerned, I like to think that most people just view him a nice man doing his bit for charity with some huge personal tragedy that helps him relate to others who have suffered. Hopefully people ignore the press, I certainly do. I feel for him as a human. Being rich is no protector from tragedy.

Horehound · 16/10/2019 12:31

Oh he has apologised for crying. I think that's a Shame and he didn't have to do that. Wow

MauritiusNext · 16/10/2019 12:33

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RoseQuartzGlow · 16/10/2019 12:33

@Armi
I totally agree. I suspect Harry feels the burden of supporting her though . She has no family except for her mother who lives in another country. I think he’s cracking and he needs help. William and he seem distanced for whatever reason.
There are some really unkind comments in here.
The fact is he really can’t just walk away from being a royal. He and William need to take up the slack from the older Royals and the Queen. Perhaps this is partly why he is struggling to cope. He may feel between a rock and a hard place. I wonder too if M encourages him to lean in his family or seek their advice. She’s an only child of divorced parents and that is not her way. She may be part of the problem in seeing them both as a tight unit against the world. I wonder how often he sees friends of his own these days too.

Cerseirys · 16/10/2019 12:35

Would they? Or would they just feel a bit sorry for her, like any normal empathic human being?

Puzzledandpissedoff · 16/10/2019 12:39

I'm another who remembers only too well the Queen managing a stiff upper lip at close family funerals but crying when her toy was taken off her ... but at least she manages not to make every appearance about her

These events are supposed to be about raising the profile of those visited or their causes, so why did Harry need to say so much about his own experiences at all? "We can empathise with you as parents and understand the need for such-and-such" would have been quite enough, without the tearjerking stuff as well

LaurieMarlow · 16/10/2019 12:40

so why did Harry need to say so much about his own experiences at all?

That’s common though, particularly among younger royals.

Kate has frequently referred to her own experiences of being a mum.

escapade1234 · 16/10/2019 12:43

They are just insufferable. Did Harry used to be like this? Why can’t they be happy to cut ribbons, shake hands and read out worthy speeches written by lackeys? That’s all people want from the royals, that and nice clothes I guess.

All this lecturing and emoting and feeling our pain. Beam me up!

LonginesPrime · 16/10/2019 12:43

I also felt it was in bad taste. Surrounded by very sick children, he is crying at the memory of becoming a father, to a healthy child. It was greatly lacking in self awareness. If his child was sick he would have every resource to help him. He should have focused on the children there last night.

I do agree with all of this, but I felt that he was moved because he's been to the event for 10 years and it's only this year that it's really hit home how devastating and difficult life must be for the families given he's a parent himself now.

I think in that moment, he just realised that he never quite 'got it' before and the emotion was genuine. I don't think he necessarily meant to dwell on his own situation and rub that in people's faces - I think as a parent, he's more empathetic to the cause despite having thought he understood for ten years previously.

BertrandRussell · 16/10/2019 12:47

I don’t suppose anyone’s looked at all the other pictures of H&M chatting to the children and their parents, listening to them, laughing with them which happened before the 20 seconds we’re talking about?

CatherineOfAragonsPrayerBook · 16/10/2019 12:48

but it seems like it's only Harry who gets criticised for it these days.

This is a misnomer. H&M are the new focus of attention so criticism is about their actions. When W&K were in the spotlight the conversation was about them. As a pp poster said, how many times are we going to cite previous examples in an attempt to divert criticism away from their actions? Must we go back to Victoria next?

Armi · 16/10/2019 12:48

With regards to unkind comments about the Queen being upset over the Royal Yacht - I don’t feel sneery about that. The royal yacht held memories of her late father, her childhood, young married life, her own children etc. She had every right to be upset at seeing that being taken away from her, as a human being with actual feelings, and it’s not like she was weeping despairingly on the podium and howling at the moon.

(The word ‘yacht’ smacks of Monte Carlo and playboys and Trump-esque interiors. In fact, if you go and have a look round, it’s more like a 1970s three star hotel, afloat. Sorry to disappoint.)

Armi · 16/10/2019 12:50

@ BertrandRussell of course we have. But that’s not the newsworthy bit now, is it? Because of how he behaved.

CatherineOfAragonsPrayerBook · 16/10/2019 12:51

I don’t suppose anyone’s looked at all the other pictures of H&M chatting to the children and their parents, listening to them, laughing with them which happened before the 20 seconds we’re talking about?

What does that have to do with anything? We're talking about a specific incident that has distracted from that. Should we look at photographs of Andrew shaking hands with locals and forget the moments of notoriety for him too?

Cerseirys · 16/10/2019 12:51

To be fair to the Queen, I've seen pictures of her looking distraught when she visited Aberfan after the disaster in the 1960s.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 16/10/2019 12:53

Kate has frequently referred to her own experiences of being a mum

This is true, but I'm not sure this particular thing is another example of them "all doing the same"

Kate talks a lot about empowering children and speaks of her own experience in this context, but I've never yet heard her cry over some slushy anecdote about clutching her hubby's hand ... and as a PP said, it was a deeply unfortunate thing to do when surrounded by parents with real cause to weep

BertrandRussell · 16/10/2019 12:54

@armi- so you’re saying that an awards ceremony at a small charity would have been on the news otherwise?

LaurieMarlow · 16/10/2019 12:54

When W&K were in the spotlight the conversation was about them.

W&K are not not in the spotlight though. He’s heir to the throne. They’re off on a high profile tour.

Yet very few threads are started on them, compared to the endless picking apart of everything H&M do.

Armi · 16/10/2019 12:56

@BertrandRussell No. That’s not what I’m saying, but it won’t stop you from pretending it is.

Drabarni · 16/10/2019 12:57

My heart bleeds. If he's that unhappy it's simple, he can walk away.
There's absolutely nothing to stop him, even future Kings have done it.