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

[BluntPinkNewt]

From the moment Harry and Meghan got together, the media attention was huge. Meghan was glamorous, charismatic, and had a strong public presence - something the royal family hadn’t seen before from an outsider. For a while, it felt like they were the most exciting and modern part of the monarchy.

Kate and William have always been the “stable” and “traditional” royals but suddenly, Harry and Meghan were drawing attention in a way that might have made them seem more relatable and interesting in comparison. The shift in public perception (and maybe even palace dynamics) must have been unsettling.

Obviously things have played out the way they have but AIBU to think that, at least at the time, William and Kate felt genuinely threatened by how much attention and influence Harry and Meghan were gaining?

Not even First World problems for any of them. 1 couple have a glorious future ahead of them and their family and the other couple has a lovely future ahead of them in eg California with their family. Everyone is a winner imo. Just wish there was a GoFundMe for all these people. Might be shocked at how little the public care

I’m doubly thankful for your reply! 🤣

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Not even First World problems for any of them. 1 couple have a glorious future ahead of them and their family and the other couple has a lovely future ahead of them in eg California with their family. Everyone is a winner imo.

Fair point!

Is that you Meghan?

I am long past caring about the royal shit show.

So unsuitable that they've been together for 8 years, have two little children, and are settled somewhere else.
That sort of unsuitable?!
Who would have suited Harry in your eyes?

My parents probably thought my DH was 'unsuitable'... a lot of decades later, here we still are.

I think its a ridiculous assumption to make unless you're in their inner circle and privy to that info. None of us know the dynamics which played out initially. I liked Meghan at the time. Thought she was a breath of fresh air. But I could like both couples the same, for different reasons.

YABU for posting in AIBU. There's a royal board just sitting there

You have very old school views, possibly from coming from another culture, comes across as old fashioned views, the type that keep people down, Usual this side of Europe.

I agree but do notice Meghan gets a lot of ridicule compared to the others considering she has said next to nothing since the Oprah interview in 2021. She went back to the things she was doing before she met Harry and people still have an issue. Pretty juvenile and unsurprising for the British tabloid media to trash her products before they were even released and trying to stir up controversy against her with other women like Gwyneth Paltrow and the Brook Shields things was just weird.

Reminds me of when she was pregnant with Archie and the negative tabloid crap they did. Ok for Kate to touch her belly and eat avocados but not Meghan.

Of course she got a lot of media attention. She was an attractive American actress who had come almost out of nowhere to marry the most high profile 'eligible' royal. Of course the media were going to be all over her, as they would with any vaguely glamorous woman marrying into the royal family.

Her post-royal trajectory, however has shown that, absent the royal mystique, Meghan is really nothing special. That's why she's flogging white-labelled 'spread' and wiggling her bum for likes on Instagram. Kate and William, by contrast, may seem 'dull', but 'dull' isn't necessarily a bad thing when you're a future King and Queen.

What does it mean to keep people down? You mean to tell it as it is and have clear moral compass? Of course the ones who are morally down prefer being there. Their actions have nothing to do with our opinion of them. I also have seen what you guys teach our grandkids in your schools. That is another topic altogether

It is true. Katherine is tall, extremely elegant and always perfectly dressed. Meghan is a lot shorter, dumpier and not so well dressed

@jumpingthehighjump , So unsuitable that he has fallen out with his father and brother, packed in his job and moved to a different continent.

At her first outing as Harry's girlfriend she wore ripped jeans.

Willian and Kate are both extremely dull. Both Harry and Meghan are better at public speaking and sound less scripted and more articulate. It's also obvious that a lot of the venom directed at Meghan was due to barely concealed racism.

Lots of people tolerated the monarchy while the Queen was alive, but Charles doesn't have the same respect. William seems as elitist and as tetchy as his father.

I do not believe that the Windsors are genuinely popular now in the UK
Yes with the 65+ age group perhaps - but popularity is clearly time limited .

But people below that age not a chance .

And no, the ‘polls’ do not convince me .

Add a question to the next ballot paper . No need to act on it so you can relax re Brexit type upheaval .
Just ask us .

If we live in democracy as we are told we do - let us have our say about the Windsors .

Well there’s an awful lot of unsuitable couples on MN who fit similar criteria. Heck I was part of one once.

I think it is quite likely. The brothers have always been compared. Catherine has been compared to members of the royal film including Beatrice and Eugenie but shes always come off better eg. taller, thinner, more beautiful, dresses better according to the press. She has been compared to her own sister and still in the media at least has always come off better. When Meghan came on the scene it was the first time she had been on the other end of comparisons. Meghan does dress in a more fashion forward way, previously Catherine had played it a lot more safe. Just because she is royal doesn't make her immune to human emotions and she may well have felt surprised, jealous, fed up but that's speculation on our part. Who really knows?

Meghan had no 'profile' to speak of in Britain before she met Harry. Nor was she ever any sort of 'activist'. Come on.

You can't compare her to Diana. Not only was Diana Princess of Wales and future Queen - as opposed to the wife of the 5th in line - she lived in a completely different era. Diana now would not be the global superstar she was back then, for many reasons. The media, the role of the royal family, and society in general have changed massively since Diana's day.

I’m bored with the lot of them really. I was only ever ‘here’ for the weddings so I’ll probably watch George get married if I’m still around. I don’t really care if we have royals or not, I’m not invested either way, I certainly don’t have the energy or care to protest against them or support them. It’s a case of ‘wake me up when George or the other two get married’.

How shocking! Ripped jeans! Did people just faint in the street at such a sight?!

Welcome back the 1950s!

And to add... are you saying that Harry has fallen out with his brother and father all because you didn't like the look of Meghan to start with, and deemed her 'unsuitable'?
Gosh!!

Actual LOL.

Hear hear!

I am in your 65+ age group and I am heartily sick of the lot of them. They are going nowhere unfortunately.
Just downsize, stop taking millions and millions from us for less and less royals doing miniscule amounts of work, and let the wider family go and earn their own money. Let's just pay for King to sign his red boxes, and Queen to support him. I don't want to see the rest of them.

It is criminal that the Sovereign Grant is going up next year 2025/6 by 53% to £132million. I'm amazed they've got the nerve to show their faces at all !

This.

That said, I think a lot of people are over all of them. It's all a bit silly with people struggling to make a living.