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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think Harry/Meghan are coming out of this worse than the Royal Family?

1000 replies

Bassarid · 23/05/2021 06:01

Is it just me?

OP posts:
Cinclus · 23/05/2021 16:15

@amusedtodeath1

Jeesh! 5M a year, I could do an awful lot with that.
Me too, but it's not enough for a 16 bathroom house in Montecito.
RubyViolet · 23/05/2021 16:15

What do people think will make them happy ?
I want Harry and Meghan to be content. To live a peaceful family life.
What can happen that will bring this about for them.
I am hopeful that this drama can be put behind them and not escalate.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 23/05/2021 16:15

High time he stopped whining IMO - it’s very unattractive. I dare say he’s being encouraged to make the most of it, celebrity-victim style, rather than enjoying the relative privacy they were supposed to have been desperate for, in their 17* bathroom mansion.
*or whatever the number is.

amusedtodeath1 · 23/05/2021 16:16

True, but I could live with say 5 or 6 bathrooms, so wouldn't bother me lol.

amusedtodeath1 · 23/05/2021 16:18

What would make them happy? At this point nothing short of total capitulation by the RF IMO.

LakieLady · 23/05/2021 16:18

@StoneofDestiny

What confuses me is that people thoroughly buy into it!

Yes, bizarre.
A 72 year old Charles has no job, just an apprenticeship to take over his mums role. The Queen had an unemployed husband for 73 years whose 'job' was to support her (as was countless staff employed to do that). William has no job and is apparently understudying his dad, who is understudying the Queen. Kate's sole function is to support her husband, who has a barrage of staff to do that, as has she. Meanwhile brothers, sisters, cousins, second cousins etc get to live in abject luxury to drop a wave now and again, parade their wealth and get us to pay for their weddings etc.

The only 'qualification' needed for all this luxurious unemployment paid for by the working public, is 'right of birth'.

It's galling to imagine this has gone in for so long, a whole ever expanding family leeching off the state. Benefits street has nothing on this lot.

I agree with every word of this.

The whole Harry & Meghan saga just demonstrates what an utterly archaic institution the monarchy is. For there to be such a massive outcry about someone who is really no different to any other "celebrity" gives me a perverse delight.

I very much hope that the more their antics demonstrate the inherent dysfunctional nature of growing up in a role where your sole function is to be a spare in case your sibling carks it, the sooner people will realise that these people are as flawed as anyone, and more flawed than most.

Gradually, support for getting rid of this ludicrous nonsense may grow to the point where it will be the end of the monarchy for ever.

Proudboomer · 23/05/2021 16:19

Didn’t Harry say on radio 4 after he and Meghan had spent Christmas with the Queen and family what a wonderful Christmas they have just had and that the royals were the family she had never had and how much his family loved having her there.

Funny how less than 4 years later he is telling the world a completely different narrative.

Cinclus · 23/05/2021 16:19

@RubyViolet

What do people think will make them happy ? I want Harry and Meghan to be content. To live a peaceful family life. What can happen that will bring this about for them. I am hopeful that this drama can be put behind them and not escalate.
The problem might be that what would make one of them happy is not the same as what would make the other one happy. Harry always seemed to be interested in wildlife conservation and Africa, but he's not said much about any of that lately. Maybe he has always secretly longed to be on the celeb circuit in LA and will find what he needs there. (I doubt it though, when you think about his views on the press, cameras etc)
ohforarainyday · 23/05/2021 16:20

Harry was not brought up to have any 'real' kind of job. William was a helicopter pilot and worked for Air Sea Rescue

Oh come on. Harry was a decorated Military Captain who served in the Army for ten years and did two tours of Afghanistan. Harry is a fully qualified Apache helicopter commander who actually flew helicopters in active combat and shot at the Taliban. William was a co-pilot who flew part-time for a couple of years. In addition Harry started Invictus Games and Sentebale.

eddiemairswife · 23/05/2021 16:20

I wouldn't want to clean 6 bathrooms. How many people live in the house with them?

diddl · 23/05/2021 16:20

@amusedtodeath1

True, but I could live with say 5 or 6 bathrooms, so wouldn't bother me lol.
Well that's just it isn't it?

I think that they will struggle to finanace the lifestyle that they want.

Happy to be proved wrong though!

Wasn't the allowance from Charles always meant to be temporary anyway?

Did he stop it in fit of pique or was time up?

goldierocks · 23/05/2021 16:21

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amusedtodeath1 · 23/05/2021 16:23

I agree the RF needs a total overhaul, but that is coming, little has changed since the queen came to the throne, when Charles is in the hotseat he will change it up a bit.

But I'd really like to keep a RF, it's a legacy that spans millennia and is historically very important. I know we could keep the history without them, but I really feel we would be losing something so unique.

Puttingouthefirewithgasoline · 23/05/2021 16:25

I wonder if there is jealousy on Williams part, musing out loud... Kate is of course lovely, beautiful and has the added bonus of her incredible family and stability, I wonder if William isn't a little jealous of Harry though, Megan is stunning and has this typically looser American approach to some things but she's also a self starter and totally dynamic.

I can just see in the early days, ideas spewing out of her in front of up tight William and Kate Grin

ohforarainyday · 23/05/2021 16:26

It's honestly beyond belief how much royalists will lie, abuse, and change their stories. Just crazy.

Beatrice and Eugenie both live in the UK on Royal property where security is already operating which cuts down costs.
Please read what I have actually said. A poster upthread claimed that none of the Yorks receive a single penny and that they don't profit from their royal status in any way. I simply pointed out that it's not true. I didn't say they don't deserve to live in royal residences, I simply pointed out that they do. Anyway the £2 million taxpayer bill had nothing to do with extant security, it was a one-off cost because Andrew demanded a big splashy royal wedding with carriage.

The only great grandchildren to get security is those in direct line to the throne. There's no bias there, all the children have security when at home.
Not true. Security is based on need, not proximity to the throne. Archie was a target of Neo Nazi terrorists. Of course he needed security. It's completely indefensible that he was denied it.

He's a baby who lived in a secure royal residence with parents who got security.
But he himself was denied security, which meant he wouldn't have been allowed to go to school, or even go to the park with his nanny or his grandmother. All the Cambridge children have their own individual security separate from William and Kate's security (both George and Charlotte have a security detail in school with them every day), because the threat risk to them is considered to be high. High profile royal children need security, period.

Except nobody said that, you were corrected when you said members of the royal family aren’t ALLOWED to work, it was then pointed out to you that four of the Queen’s grandchildren earn their own living.
Stop lying. I said WORKING royals are not allowed to do outside work, which is true. None of the other grandchildren are working royals, they are non-working royals.

Puttingouthefirewithgasoline · 23/05/2021 16:27

Europe didn't loose the it royals inspite of many forebears loosing their thrones, or heads, they still have them.
We wouldn't loose ours, just down size them.

Cinclus · 23/05/2021 16:28

he wouldn't have been allowed to go to school

Ridiculous.

ncgy · 23/05/2021 16:29

It became very apparent during lockdown that a huge swathe of the population don't really do much. Apart from key workers we’ve had 14 months of incredible idleness.

Well despite the fact that's not true how is that even relevant to my point?

The RF only really exist in the current form because of the grace & favour of the public. It's a really outdated & archaic thing which has died out in loads of other countries. They have to be seen to be doing stuff like opening things & raising awareness. The majority of the public like & respect the Queen however when she is no longer around Im not sure there will certainly be questions about keeping the system the same. Hence why they're in PR overdrive,

Proudboomer · 23/05/2021 16:29

@ohforarainyday

Harry was not brought up to have any 'real' kind of job. William was a helicopter pilot and worked for Air Sea Rescue

Oh come on. Harry was a decorated Military Captain who served in the Army for ten years and did two tours of Afghanistan. Harry is a fully qualified Apache helicopter commander who actually flew helicopters in active combat and shot at the Taliban. William was a co-pilot who flew part-time for a couple of years. In addition Harry started Invictus Games and Sentebale.

No he wasn’t. He didn’t receive his pilot licence until after Afghanistan. When in Afghanistan he was a gunner so yes he shot at the taliban but he never flew the helicopter in active combat. Whilst in Afghanistan he was guarded by the sas. He was even taken by them to a place of safety when camp bastion came under attack. It is all well documented and the datails online should you wish to google. Then maybe ask yourself how he got to even be ina position to do officer training with his a level results? Favour to the Queen springs to mind.
IrmaFayLear · 23/05/2021 16:30

I am not one for conspiracy theories - they are all ridiculous BUT I can’t help thinking that mysterious forces are trying to take the rf down for whatever reason. A hand arranged placing Meghan in Harry’s path (her wearing Diana’s perfume and all), then the working on Harry and now using him to lob missiles at them such that when the Queen goes they will not be popular or respected.

The rf doubtless are a strange lot, but it is an institution and as long as they do their duty I can’t say that I care if they’re not an ordinary normal family. I certainly don’t want a poxy republican alternative who could be a political appointee. We have a long history in this country and we have had periods of grotty monarchs. The Queen is great compared with a fair few of ‘em. Some people clearly would like Oliver Cromwell back. In fact they’d love him, what with his intolerance and banning of things left,right and centre.

ohforarainyday · 23/05/2021 16:30

Whether you like her or not stuff like that shouldn't be repeated.

Then blame the posters who brought it to Mumsnet in the first place. It's disgusting that posters who I know for a fact engaged in threads where those vile lies were first posted (gleefully commenting and spreading them) are now turning around and pretending to be shocked at me simply for mentioning the existence of lies they themselves started or helped spread.

Cinclus · 23/05/2021 16:32

It's disgusting that posters who I know for a fact engaged in threads where those vile lies were first posted (gleefully commenting and spreading them) are now turning around and pretending to be shocked at me simply for mentioning the existence of lies they themselves started or helped spread.

Who are these posters then, who started or spread those stories and are now pretending to be shocked?

amusedtodeath1 · 23/05/2021 16:33

Archie is a great-grandchild of the current monarch. None of the great grandchildren get their security paid for by the state. If the family lives on royal property they have security when they are at home or in the grounds. Any other security is to be paid by the parents of the children. So i.e. out of the 5M a year that Charles gave them. I repeat GAVE them

BronwenFrideswide · 23/05/2021 16:33

They don’t seem to be happy or content though.

No they don't, if that's happy and content they sure aren't selling it well they both, but more particularly Harry, look miserable as sin.

IrmaFayLear · 23/05/2021 16:34

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