It's amazing what people will do when offered a huge amount of money.

[TodayIsFridayHooray]

Okaaaaay then. So in episode 3, Harry says

"It's amazing what people will do when offered a huge amount of money to sell photos and a story". This was in reference to Thomas Markle agreeing to have photos taken of himself by the papers, looking excited about and preparing for the wedding, for which he was paid.

AIBU to wonder what Thomas Markle did wrong? I thought he looked nice in the photos? The money was probably helpful for him given we are not all multimillionaires. Not sure what he did wrong? What was so bad?

Also, how is what Thomas Markle did worse than what H&M are doing by selling their life story, videos and pictures to every media outlet going for considerably more money than Thomas Markle got? Plus, H&M are managing to put down their entire family, and the UK, in the process.

Harry, when you said "It's amazing what people will do when offered a huge amount of money to sell photos and a story", did you forget that you said this while accepting $100,000 for selling your photo, and your story to netflix? And also selling family photos and stories about your family and country without their consent, for a netflix deal?

I watched the first programme: it just felt like a weird vanity project, like an extended instagram feed. Nothing particularly bad but perhaps people who are obsessed with their own image and perception and want to control what people think about them.

Although I agreed it must have been bad to have your holidays stalked by the paparazzi as a child I think he was comparing with other rich ‘anonymous’ people. All our lives have good and bad sides. It’s hard to be poor and not be able to take your kids on holidays and it can be wearying to always worry about the next bill. He doesn’t seem to realise how much the British public has funded his opportunities. I don’t think he has any idea of what normal life is like.
To moan about a £37 million pound wedding funded by the public seems tone deaf.

What TM did was wrong, if he really thought it was harmless he'd have involved H&M in it but clearly he wanted the money. Im not so blinkered by my Sussex dislike that I'd excuse it, and can absolutely see that gripe with him.

BUT their own monetizing of Harry's position, connections, family has been far more toxic than a few staged pics, so Harry is stinking of hypocrisy right now. Especially as someone who has always had shitloads of unearned money!

@Farmageddon Some of us have learned to consider that other people might have a point whether in the public eye or not.

What is it you think this black British academic and noted expert on British history and empire got so wrong about racism in Britain this particular time?

And what exactly affects you about Harry and Meghan talking about the Royal Family and their experiences here? It doesn't bother me if people think British people are horrid racists because I am not and they don't know me anyway. I don't care what they think about the Royal Family because I don't have a high opinion of the Royal Family either. I doubt the Royal Family would have a high opinion of me if they knew I existed.

"It's amazing what people will do when offered a huge amount of money to sell photos and a story"

Some poor women actually sell their bodies for money.

Oh what it is to have money!!

☝️What @KnickerlessParsons has just said has really hit home for me. Harry & Meghan need an actual education in the real world before they spout more self pitying shite.

Really have these people got any idea how the rest of us are living, many of you will be sitting under blankets and throws because we can’t afford the heating on. Many mums will tell there kids they are not hungry that’s why they are not eating tonight and giving all there food to there kids.

A lot of Mums will be devastated that there kids feet have grown and now need to find the money for new shoes before Christmas, and never mind how many will struggle to get a Santa present for there little ones this christmas.

And you thing I really care what these two twatts say or do.

But as the saying goes money talks.

I’m a bit agog at the racism stuff. M has clearly had work done to “erase her blackness” as some black scholars have put it - nose job, hair straightening, make up /skin bleaching etc. Her ethnicity showed in her younger days - now she looks more Caucasian than black. I don’t for a minute believe that H would have dated /married her if she had more of an Alek Wek or Grace Jones aesthetic. She literally wouldn’t have got a look in. I get that she may have felt she had to look more white for her career (and she may be right) but he’s just as racist as the folk he’s slagging off.

Genuine question ... you can't actually think of an acceptable way for Harry and Meghan to make a living? Is this serious?

I expect he was paid for it.

I expect he was paid too. But I guess he'd have got his appearance fee whatever he said and whether they used him or not so the views he expressed were probably his own. I doubt if he has to work on spec or for the exposure.

The Thomas Markle incident is shrouded in mystery. One thing I do know is that one of Harry's texts to Thomas was so offensive that it couldn't be read out in court. Meghan was so ashamed of her father she never introduced Harry to him after they were engaged.
Diana's father was an awful man who hit her mother. Nevertheless, despite him being incapacitated by a stroke he walked her up the aisle.

then. So in episode 3, Harry says
"It's amazing what people will do when offered a huge amount of money to sell photos and a story". This was in reference to Thomas Markle agreeing to have photos taken of himself by the papers, looking excited about and preparing for the wedding, for which he was paid

When I heard him say that, it wasn't Thomas Markle I thought of, it was the fact that H&M have done the Netflix deal for £100million, people in glass houses sprung to mind

I think there is a clear difference between T.M selling a story about someone and that person choosing to sell their own story.
It wasn't his story to sell. It was H+M's, they chose to sell it, thats up to them.

I would be seriously pissed off at any family member who spoke on my behalf, without my consent, to the worlds media for sure, regardless of if I later decide to do it myself or not!

The vibe I got from it is that Meghan is desperate to be liked and Harry is desperate for people to like Meghan. Its like when you tell someone about a book/film/album you love and they're ambivalent about it or dislike it and you feel defensive and angry because you think its great.

From watching the Oprah interview I suspect that the next few eps will be about how amazing Meghan was at Royal duties and that made people want to sabotage her. It will have to be that she was the best at everything and nobody could handle just how amazing she was.

I think you are right about M wanting to be liked and H wanting people to like her. I think they will say that the RF planted stories because they didn’t like how popular she was.

I watched 15 minutes of it and had to turn it off. I couldn't take any more of her posing in her towel for her video diary or them simpering at each other. Also PH sounds exactly like Gordon Ramsey if you close your eyes.

Eh, what? I didn't say he was wrong, I said nothing of the sort - and I don't care that he's black or british - my point is that anybody who puts themselves out there in a public capacity will have people who may disagree or form an opinion of them, positive or negative. That's life when you put yourself in the media, welcome to the real world. He is no different, I don't know why you're throwing a hissy fit.

Also, he may be exceptionally well credentialed but he has aligned himself with H & M's vanity project, which is not exactly high brow. His choice, but again people will form an opinion, as is their right.

FTY765
I would be seriously pissed off at any family member who spoke on my behalf, without my consent, to the worlds media for sure, regardless of if I later decide to do it myself or not!

But surely this is what H&M are also doing about W&K and everyone else they spill the beans on.
Why is it ok for them, but not anyone else?

Thing is money pays the bills, I can be bought, £250,000 for me

Harry said he’d never sell his story for money?

On a documentary where he’s been paid to tell his story?

I always felt sorry for Meghan as how her family sold stories or spoke of her to the press etc
But now they are doing practically the same

I don’t think she has had any work done. There is a photo of her as a child with her mother and her nose looks the same as it does now. She’s straightened her hair and wears a lot of makeup, but that seems to be it. The shots of her with no makeup and her hair in a towel from the documentary are very similar to how she looked as a child, quite a difference to her usual look with makeup.

You mean when he had had a heart attack and was in hospital? After that he tried repeatedly to contact her for months before he did his first interview saying he couldn’t contact her and she wouldn’t contact him.

He had a heart attack and couldn’t go. After that he was ghosted for months which is why he went to the press.

It wasn't just the photos though was it? They were still trying to contact him after the photos and he was still meant to be at the wedding. He ignored all contact and then did an interview with TMZ. Why are people pretending that didn't happen?

Why are people pretending that he didn’t just decide not to go to the wedding, he had a heart attack and couldn’t go? And it depends who you believe about who was trying to contact who and being ignored. From the texts shown between them he was in hospital when they were trying to contact him immediately after the photo saga. After that, he said he had tried repeatedly to contact them for months after the wedding and was ignored.