I wonder if reconciliation is possible?

[sunnyblackwidow]

With Prince Philip now gone, the queen not as robust as she once was and grieving her loss, Prince Charles looked distraught today, Harry with a new baby on the way, memories of Diana's funeral today....I wonder if now isn't the perfect time for them to just all get together show their love for each other and clear the air (perhaps without Meghan's presence as she seems to inflame things).

I think it'll be telling how long Harry chooses to stay in the UK before he returns to the US (a clear indication of whether he's willing to hang around for a little while to mend fences or rush back home to Meghan and Oprah and Gail) I really wish the best for them all, family is everything but I'm not holding my breath.

I think MM was misguided too. It was a different culture, a different upbringing, a different work environment, everything was loaded against it working to be honest. I'm sure she tried but it wasn't meant to be. Throw in some snooty courtiers (they were bad enough with Sarah and she came from a good family) and it just wasn't really going to work.

To go back to the thread title, I think in time there will be a reconciliation of sorts. I think it will mean covid permitting, they will come over and in years to come it will be better. If the press allows it.

@Roussette

I might be biased as I am also a freckled red head, although not fat or loud and with a much smaller house

I'll take on the fat and loud bit

At one point my 7 year old son (at the time he's grown up now) told me he didn't want me to go swimming with them anymore as he'd people speculating that I was anorexic so I think I'm on safe ground with the fat bit, I don't think I'm loud but then lots of loud people probably think the same.

You're probably better off being fat and loud, my DH is black, he didn't believe me about the abuse you can get for being ginger and freckled. He was quite shocked the first time he heard it and apologised.

Hence me feeling sympathetic to a fellow freckled red head.

We could be a family of royal lookalikes, I have a cousin who was a deadringer for Princess Diana, I obviously share features with Fergie and my DD is very like MM. Maybe that's why I don't generally follow much about them, I can just look at the family.

That's awful! Red hair is magnificent I think.

@Pyewackect

He slagged off his own family to the world. How would you feel ?.

Yeh id be surprised if they can ever set that aside.

I have very dark hair but in my twenties longed for red hair to be like Dana Scully

I dyed it, loved it but my then small niece said I looked like a tiger as my black roots grew back. I've remained a non red head for the years since

What would have really helped was if MM was treated like Sophie. They left her alone to get on with it

Sophie was criticised for trying to continue her career, was caught in a targeted and malicious sting, the press had a field day and she was forced to give up her career.

In terms of life consequences, I think she was treated worst of all.

I remember it well. It was awful. The gloating!

All forgotten now.

@Roussette

That's awful! Red hair is magnificent I think.

For some reason there are quite alot of people who get fixated on how unattractive red pubic hair is. I'm not sure why anyone looks at someone else who is fully dressed and feels the need to comment on how they think their pubic hair would put anyone off, I mean they'd have to be desperate wouldn't they.

I realise that people without that fixation probably don't realise it happens. Well maybe the world has moved on but I found it upsetting as a teenager in the 60s. In reality it wasn't an issue but that is a story for some other time.

@HeddaGarbled

What would have really helped was if MM was treated like Sophie. They left her alone to get on with it

Sophie was criticised for trying to continue her career, was caught in a targeted and malicious sting, the press had a field day and she was forced to give up her career.

In terms of life consequences, I think she was treated worst of all.

I remember it well. It was awful. The gloating!

All forgotten now.

I vaguely remember it but not the details. They set her up and secretly filmed it didn't they?

@Rupertbeartrousers

It’s a bit like the Truman show isn’t it. Having your life broadcast to the world, and the world’s view of you polished or tarnished by the media and ‘sources’ depending on their own agendas, largely out of your hands. I suppose you make an enemy in the royal household and all sorts of things will leak, not necessarily by the family members themselves. And yet they all have to be prim and perfect and stiff upper lip about it to keep the criticism away from them. Perhaps this is what Harry means about being ‘trapped’ and maybe he sees it more clearly as the media scapegoat to William’s golden child?

It occurred to me watching and reading bits from the funeral, how every tear brushed away, every bit of eye contact, even lip reading private conversations... how intrusive this is. At a normal funeral, the only people there are known to the person, everyone looks forwards, not studying faces for every sign of emotion, not eves dropping on conversations. It’s like celebrity gossip magazines on steroids and I’m as guilty as anyone of being drawn in, but I do think it’s gone too far. This weird trade off between extreme privilege and having your real life serialised. You can’t blame H&M for rejecting that, even if I disagree with some of the decisions they’ve made since.

Yes it would send any normal person mad. I would absolutely hate it.

Yes, Mazher Mahmood for the News of the World.

Yes back to reconciliation....

I'm not sure there's a way back if I'm honest.

Of course time can heal and also allow a distance that allows people to look back a bit more dispassionately at their actions and that of others...

I think before the interview (and the disclosure or conversations via Gayle King) I'd have been more optimistic but once grievances (legitimate or not) have been aired in public it's a much harder situation to resolve for all involved.

My guess it that yes there will be a "thawing" in time and perhaps the resumption of a civil relationship, but I sadly doubt that there will be a "reset" to the closeness of the past - not just because of "water under the bridge" but also because their lives will take very different directions and they will have less and less in common (and even potentially more to divide them further in terms of values and lifestyle).

@DeRigueurMortis

Yes back to reconciliation....

I'm not sure there's a way back if I'm honest.

Of course time can heal and also allow a distance that allows people to look back a bit more dispassionately at their actions and that of others...

I think before the interview (and the disclosure or conversations via Gayle King) I'd have been more optimistic but once grievances (legitimate or not) have been aired in public it's a much harder situation to resolve for all involved.

My guess it that yes there will be a "thawing" in time and perhaps the resumption of a civil relationship, but I sadly doubt that there will be a "reset" to the closeness of the past - not just because of "water under the bridge" but also because their lives will take very different directions and they will have less and less in common (and even potentially more to divide them further in terms of values and lifestyle).

I agree

I think Fergie really got the worst of it. I will never forget the Duchess of Pork headline. It must be hard enough have a beautiful SIL like Diana but having the nation’s media rub it in must have been bloody soul destroying. It didn’t help that she was apparently not allowed to live with Andrew in quarters while he was on duty so didn’t have his moral support.

Back to the question of reconciliation. I had a major falling out with my db. Trust me, he was largely to blame and the final straw was him giving me a huge bollocking in my own home, in front of my dcs. After a couple of years, I made contact again for the sake of my parents. Not seeing him over lockdown has made me realise he really did treat me like shit and I didn’t deserve me making the effort. I think some wounds just can’t heal and some RF members may feel the Oprah interview was just too much. I really don’t know what H and M think they would gain doing it compared to what they would lose.

It’s misogyny behind it all, IMO. Women who want careers, to express their own opinions, who don’t meet some sleazy male journalists’ idea of what a woman should look like and dress like and behave like, need taking down a peg or two.

I think before the interview (and the disclosure or conversations via Gayle King) I'd have been more optimistic but once grievances (legitimate or not) have been aired in public it's a much harder situation to resolve for all involved.

This is just clearly assuming that H&M are in the wrong here. All of this, the interview and GK are consequences of what KP has done. Almost 4yrs of abuse and negative leaking from the palace, and GK an answer to Roya Nikkah Sunday times article.

What you are assuming is that H&M should somehow forgive all those years of abuse, but hey, when they answer back, somehow, they should be the ones who wait for forgiveness. I don't think it works like that.

I feel that H&M felt that they were not getting any headway, and the only way to make the false leaking stop would be to expose it publicly, not that it helped much because even today while they are away, the henchmen are still hounding them down. When all that stops, then the forgiveness starts.

I have no problem with W&K's media people telling us what great stateman and future queen they are. I massively object to vilifying others to get that PR purpose.

I wanted to like MM I really did but I just dont think M and Harry put enough time into allowing the British public to buy into them and see their uniqueness as people. With diana we really got to know her so when she divorced Charles we were invested and wanted to know what happened next.

The fact that MM and harry have publicly spoken to the press- oprah - and privately collaborated and pretended they didnt with the finding freedom book as well as the fact they didnt put the time in and get their hands dirty carrying out royal duties for 5-10 years means that we are not invested in them as a couple and we dont really care they have tottered off. Some people in the country will have taken it personally but I think it's more that the bond between the couple and the public had barely developed and then the criticism of our royal family has come across as rude to many.

I hope MM and harry get the hint and stop feeding stories to the British media because each one just seems to dig a bigger grave.

As people who say they want to do good in the world and help community I hope they can feel free to do that without feeling the need to feed the press stories to keep themselves in the media to stay famous. It is possible to do good work without it being publicised every time!!

Agreed that anyone who marries into the royal family gets a lot of nasty bullying and hatred and is made to feel undeserving. A quick google search would tell you this. Its universal for everyone marrying into the rf. I personally think anyone who wants to marry into the rf needs their head read.

Greenshoots321

Well said.

I feel gutted for Harry. I think he's broken their trust forever and I suspect it won't be long until he realises that there aren't enough hoops in the world for him to jump through to keep M happy. Why didn't they just sink a bottle of wine and moan to their friends like the rest of us?

And I hope the press will leave them alone if they don't feed stories. But they've been the biggest clickbait in decades so I'm not sure that will happen.

I hope MM and harry get the hint and stop feeding stories to the British media because each one just seems to dig a bigger grave.

You have to be joking right?
Do you actually think the BM would let go of a chance to inform us that H&M have actually leaked to them ? They will show us the emails, tape the voice or video if anything like that happened. That would be their dream come true.

Try again.

I think it will really sink in in a few years time. His cousins children playing with his nephews nieces. W and K very close to Zara and her family. His father elderly and in poor health perhaps. His grandmother dead . Then he’ll realise what he’s thrown away. She doesn’t have a large , loving family, so cant understand how he feels. The losses are on all on his side.

Fergie had a terrible time especially as it's not on to criticise someone for how they look - more especially as Fergie never to my knowledge had a go at someone else's looks.

Sophie was actually praised as a career woman at the beginning till some devious reporter tricked her, and ended her career basically.

Did they have a daily round of about 20 articles in a newspaper a day for all these things? No, they did not. In MM's case it was not letting up, it still is not. So, no they are not the same.

I think there are two sides to every story and only one side is being used as nasty click bait, so who could blame anyone for getting away from the circus.

Fergie did bring a lot of it on herself though. She really had no awareness of how she was coming across. The toe sucking incident was just awful. Her young kids were watching her and her boyfriend at the time too.