I feel that H&M have been hoisted by their own petard.
From the get-go they’ve been open about thoughts and feelings: statements to the press, counter-briefings, official announcements, Instagram statements, more Instagram statements, TV interview, maybe now a book, he said-she said tittle tattle in the tabloids. It all speaks to a desire (or need?) to speak or be heard and then, obviously, a desire to control that narrative and defend yourself if it doesn’t go sympathetically.
How much better their life could have been if they’d just kept schtum. I’m not saying they should have, they’re free to do whatever they want. I’m saying that they themselves wouldn’t have had to deal with so much backlash if they hadn’t put so much fodder out there to begin with. If they’d quietly given up their RF roles, as they have, and moved to LA, as they have, the story would have been “he loves her so much he’s given everything up for her - Harry Finds True Love at Last”. Sure there would have been raised eyebrows and cries of his selfishness (putting a woman before duty etc), and the racist bilge would have been there anyway because racist people exist anyway. But it could have been less messy and noisy than this.
For the avoidance of doubt, in my book they’ve been 100% right being vocal about the racist abuse MM has received. Actually, not vocal enough in my book but it’s not my life. I just feel they could have avoided a lot of the noise, because nothing they’ve done has come close to what Andrew has gotten away with and yet he’s slinking off into an early retirement without half as much attention.