Harry and Meghan biography

[sunshinesupermum]

Hasn't Prince Harry learnt anything from his mother's experience of having someone write her biography 'to set the record straight'? Couldn't they have at least waited until after his grandmother's death, however long that might be?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8257071/Meghan-Harry-biography-bombshell-Royals.html

I will take one for the team and buy the book. I regard it as helping out the publishing industry and rewarding the editors, publicists etc who will have had to bear the burden of working with the Sussexes and their chosen ghostwriters. Don't forget the Sussexes won't get the majority of the money the book earns.
What I will then do is report back on it here. I may do chapter by chapter summaries if I can manage it.

@Butterymuffin thanks for taking one for the team.

I can't fathom how People magazine managed to wangle juicy gossip from FIVE close friends for the same article. Surely 'best friends' only become so by proving their loyalty over the years, not by feeding gossip to the press. I don't see how it can have happened without MM sanctioning it. We should find out who they are when they give evidence and that will speak volumes, if they are truly within the inner circle, etc. I'd love to know what Harry has been told about them speaking out without her permission. If it turns out she did authorise it and told him she hadn't, I'd imagine that would be hard to come back from.

People don't publish stories from anonymous sources. They always seek a statement from the subject of their articles, or that person's publicist. There's a reason People is derisively referred to as "kneepads".

^doesn't publish

@Biscuit0110

The Queen was made aware of both the problems in the marriage and Megan's wish to leave early winter last year, it is common knowledge in these part. Apparently Harry was instructed to get on with it, it was his choice to marry her. It was too early to consider anything else.

I'm sorry, I may be missing something here. Are you posting that Harry wanted to leave the marriage last year, and he was told it was your choice, so try to make it work?

The first year of marriage usually is difficult, learning to share your life with someone else. I can see being told that, but not to stay with someone who make you unhappy.

Mariposa.....Incorrect. The Queen Mother died with a very high debt.

www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos/how-did-the-queen-mother-rack-up-8-million-in-debt/57565

Excerpt:
‘ When the Queen Mother died in 2002, at the age of 101, the chatelaine of five royal residences and with a vast retinue of more than a hundred servants, the astonishing scale of her expenditure - on haute couture, millinery, jewellery, a stable of 12 racehorses, vintage champagne and lavish entertainment in the manner of a bygone era - had left behind debts of more than £7million, making her arguably the greatest royal spendthrift since the opulent Versailles heyday of Marie Antoinette.

Elizabeth's undiminished regal lifestyle and chaotic personal finances resulted in a massive overdraft at Coutts, the royal bankers, causing anxiety to her financial advisers, to the Queen, who subsidised her mother to the tune of £2million annually, and to her eldest and favourite grandchild, the Prince of Wales, who also subsidised her out of his own pocket.

As the Queen Mother never carried money, and had only the haziest notion of how much anything cost, the frantic efforts of her courtiers to control her spending resulted in failure.’

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-506198/The-Empress-Extravagance-How-Queen-Mother-left-7m-debts.html

TimeLady....his GREAT grandmother (late mother of the present Queen ElizabethII) was in debt when she died. She owed millions of pounds.
She did not leave anybody, including Harry, ANY money.

Excerpt:
‘ When the Queen Mother died in 2002, at the age of 101, the chatelaine of five royal residences and with a vast retinue of more than a hundred servants, the astonishing scale of her expenditure - on haute couture, millinery, jewellery, a stable of 12 racehorses, vintage champagne and lavish entertainment in the manner of a bygone era - had left behind debts of more than £7million, making her arguably the greatest royal spendthrift since the opulent Versailles heyday of Marie Antoinette.

Elizabeth's undiminished regal lifestyle and chaotic personal finances resulted in a massive overdraft at Coutts, the royal bankers, causing anxiety to her financial advisers, to the Queen, who subsidised her mother to the tune of £2million annually, and to her eldest and favourite grandchild, the Prince of Wales, who also subsidised her out of his own pocket.

As the Queen Mother never carried money, and had only the haziest notion of how much anything cost, the frantic efforts of her courtiers to control her spending resulted in failure.’

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-506198/The-Empress-Extravagance-How-Queen-Mother-left-7m-debts.html

And from the Smithsonian Channel:

www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos/how-did-the-queen-mother-rack-up-8-million-in-debt/57565

*I'm sorry, I may be missing something here. Are you posting that Harry wanted to leave the marriage last year, and he was told it was your choice, so try to make it work?

The first year of marriage usually is difficult, learning to share your life with someone else. I can see being told that, but not to stay with someone who make you unhappy*

Yes pretty much - however I can not agree with you on the first year of marriage being generally difficult. I would imagine a honeymoon phase for at least eighteen months, and then reality...

I read that part of the reason the QM was in debt was because she'd put all her assets in trust years earlier.

There have been rumours that she left money to William and Harry, but I assume she would have left money to all her great grandchildren, not just them.

Harry was told to 'try and make it work' and it is not terrible advice, until you consider his predicament.

I'm not usually one to shriek for sources, but I'm interested in the whole 'Harry was told to try and make it work' thing. When? By whom? Was it part of the whole thing about give us a proposal about how leaving would work?

Because if he was claiming unhappiness that early on in his marriage and then all this has happened, that's terribly sad.

@Biscuit0110

How do you knownHM was told the marriage was in trouble and Meghan wanted to leave?

Harry has hinted strongly that he had no choice but to leave the UK. I think M had reached breaking point and wanted out. It was ‘come with me or its over’. I think she hated living here and hated being part of the RF. Harry has tried to do what he believed would make her happy. Unfortunately she is so greedy for fame and glory she will never be happy. Just my view. She’s a hollow vessel which nothing will fill.

I too would like a source for that.
I'm wondering if, by "in trouble," it means that she was very unhappy with press intrusion and wanted to leave. Harry was therefore faced with an ultimatum: "I'm going, I'm taking Archie - come with us or stay and we're over."

Nightrains

The Queen Mother has left her entire estate to her only surviving daughter, the Queen, it was announced on Friday. The estimated £70m fortune includes works of art and house contents, the most important of which will go on public view. It comes largely from investments including paintings, a valuable Faberge egg collection, china, jewellery and horses.

...

In 1994, the Queen Mother reportedly put aside two-thirds of her money into a trust fund for her great grandchildren. William and Harry will reportedly share about £14m from the estate of their late great grandmother. The bulk of the cash will go to the younger brother, since William will benefit financially by becoming king.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1993665.stm

I see the DM has photos of Charlotte delivering pasta to the needy in Norfolk. I always think she has a look of the Queen. Bound to be more self promotion from M and H tomorrow.

The Queen Mother has left her entire estate to her only surviving daughter, the Queen, it was announced on Friday.

Didn't she leave Birkhall and Castle of Mey to Charles?

yy roses! I do wonder though how many of the 'needy in Norfolk' actually want a bag of fresh pasta allegedly made by a grubby 5 year old?!

Yolo - Why would she be a "grubby 5 year old"?

From the BBC article:

There will also be a shuffle of royal residences following the Queen Mother's death.

The Prince of Wales is expected to move from St James's Palace to Clarence House, the Queen Mother's former London home.

It will become his office and official residence in the capital.

The ground floor of Clarence House will be opened to the public during August and September in future years once refurbishment is complete.

The Duke of York could leave Sunninghill Park and move to Royal Lodge, the Queen Mother's former Windsor residence.

The Prince of Wales will continue to use Birkhall, a residence on the Queen's private Balmoral estate, which had also been made available to the Queen Mother.

Mamamia because ALL 5 year olds are grubby, especially when cooking! They cant help it. I wasnt criticising Charlotte.

Not specifically a comment about Charlotte, but I always find it distasteful in the extreme when a wealthy child provides charity to an adult in need. Anyone I’ve said this to has said I’m bonkers!

biscuit that is an interesting perspective. I imagine every time Meghan saw a negative report about herself, she yelled at Haz that he had made her life a misery and she wanted to escape. I think she finds critism very hard to take and didn't see her role as any kind of civil service with accountability.

Has anyone seen the photos of princess Charlotte for her birthday? Well played W & K

Kensington Palace doesn't say it was home made pasta, just that Charlotte was helping to pack up and deliver food parcels to 'isolated pensioners' - presumably those who can't get out to the shops, not who are necessarily in need of charity.