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Thoughts on Prince William's speech?

550 replies

Aspiringmatriarch · 22/05/2021 12:12

I've been musing on this, I'm not sure I agree with the idea that the Bashir interview created a 'false narrative'. Obviously Diana was lied to, which is appalling, and I'm sure that fueled some of her paranoia but isn't it true that she was spied on at times e.g. with the squidgygate tapes? And she'd already collaborated with Andrew Morton saying many of the same things, and apparently wanted to do an interview after Charles gave his.

I don't know... it just feels odd to me that William is essentially asking for it to be struck from the record. He was apparently angry with her after the Bashir interview and was teased about it at school, which must have been horrible. Is he trying to protect her memory or is there an element of trying to tidy it all away?

OP posts:
itsgettingwierd · 22/05/2021 22:28

@Roussette

I don't love any of the RF. I don't hate them either.

They are just part of the British psyche (is that the right word?!) Part of the furniture maybe.
My views on them have changed enormously over the last few years, I used to be quite the royalist but not any more.

From the threads I manage to read in here (they move fast and I often fall off them!) I think we have a very similar view.

I feel it's becoming outdated and it's actually not a privileged lifestyle but a damaging one and one that we should review and maybe reform or risk birthing more and more people into a toxic environment without a care about how Davao has it is because they have the privilege of wealth.

No amount of money is worth living a lifestyle designed for you without any autonomy IMO.

pinkmagnolias · 22/05/2021 22:36

I'm sure he's made his peace with Charles and Camilla

I don’t believe this is the case at all. It was reported they use different entrances to avoid meeting Charles or Camilla!

Roussette · 22/05/2021 22:46

@itsgettingwierd

Yes. I've surprised myself at how my views have changed over the years. I used to defend the RF and I remember about 15 years ago on another forum writing a post defending them hugely. I suppose I've been influenced too by my adult DCs and their views.

But lots of things have made me feel differently. I've said this before but a real turning point for me was HMQ defending PA by taking him to church the day after the Maitlis interview and I thought WTAF... you did not have to do that. Let him lie low.

And I have felt strongly about other things too which I don't want to bring to this thread.

Blossomtoes · 22/05/2021 22:49

@pinkmagnolias

I'm sure he's made his peace with Charles and Camilla

I don’t believe this is the case at all. It was reported they use different entrances to avoid meeting Charles or Camilla!

Different entrances to where? They live in different places. Even if they all lived in Kensington Palace, it’s huge, there must be several entrances.
AnnunciataZ · 22/05/2021 22:51

That does bring to mind William trying to sneak into Buckingham palace via the kitchens while avoiding his father and stepmother who use the front door 😆

NiceGerbil · 22/05/2021 22:56

Not rtft sorry.

It's his mum. She died when he was young and the pursuit by the press was instrumental in her death.

Whether you 'like' her or not she was clearly vulnerable and fabricating docs to indicate she was being spied on by people she trusted was awful.

The BBC covered it all up.

Him and his brother understandably hate the press.

So IMO as it's his mum who he loved and has found out was treated by that by the press... Who he already hated... He can say what he wants as far as I'm concerned.

pinkmagnolias · 22/05/2021 23:01

Blossomtoes

Not sure what building it referred to - one they all used presumably - St James Palace maybe?
The interview was given by an employee as far as I remember. The sons used a different entrance specifically to avoid meeting Charles and Camilla.
The meeting between William and Camilla at the beginning was a PR stunt for the public to accept Camilla.
William does not allow his kids to call her Grandma etc.
Now William, as heir to the throne, is rewriting history regarding his mother. Bad form IMO. No mention of the damage Charles’s relationship with Camilla did.

PicsInRed · 22/05/2021 23:05

Not sure what building it referred to - one they all used presumably - St James Palace maybe?

Probably Clarence House?

SunshiningBetty · 22/05/2021 23:05

@moose62

Agreed Charles was no Saint and should not have embarked on his affair with Camiila a few years after Harry's birth, but Diana also admitted to a five year affair which doesn't paint her in the best light either. Bashir was very wrong to have faked evidence to add to Diana's paranoia and he should answer for that as should the BBC for not investigating it properly. I can understand William wanting to address it which he now has but I do wish that Harry would stop trying to rubbish his entire family. I feel sorry for him but you would think no other child has lost a parent in tragic circumstances by the way he carries on.
No other child has had to walk behind his mother’s coffin with orders of not to cry while millions of people watched Confused Harry is in pain and lashing out and I don’t blame him.
AnnunciataZ · 22/05/2021 23:07

He can say what he wants as far as I'm concerned.

He doesn't, however, get to demand that history be rewritten. That's a slippery slope.

And the tabloids using this as a stick with which to beat the BBC are beyond hypocritical. Look at their own behaviour over the years!

GyozaPoser · 22/05/2021 23:07

@itsgettingwierd I think you bring up a good point about it being a damaging environment to grow up in. George has never looked comfortable with the press or the attention. I'm not really sure how you explain to the other two children that their brother is the chosen one but not them. But should anything happen to him then Charlotte needs to be prepared to step in. Just how to make that ok for all of them. How do you prep two of your kids to have jobs etc and one not. If anyone can pull it off it's Kate. If this generations of Royals end up as dysfunctional as previous generations then it's clearly not in their best interests really.

Blossomtoes · 22/05/2021 23:10

No other child has had to walk behind his mother’s coffin with orders of not to cry while millions of people watched Harry is in pain and lashing out and I don’t blame him

William had to do it too and has managed not throw his family under the bus. Yes, it was dreadful and traumatic but it was over 23 years ago. It’s getting a bit old now.

ShamedBySiri · 22/05/2021 23:11

William does not allow his kids to call her Grandma

Why would they call Camilla Grandma? She isn't their grandmother. I expect they have another pet name for her. My FiL married again soon after the death of MiL when the children were small and she suggested they call her Nanny. As they got older they called her by her first name. I think this is the normal form in blended families. (Though I don't suppose they call her Nanny as that might cause confusion...Grin).

Roussette · 22/05/2021 23:15

William had to do it too and has managed not throw his family under the bus. Yes, it was dreadful and traumatic but it was over 23 years ago. It’s getting a bit old now

Now I really have to disagree. Two people in the same family can have so so much of a different experience.
And how their mother died was traumatic. It never leaves you.

Port1aCastis · 22/05/2021 23:17

I would rather be broke than live life in a goldfish bowl with all and sundry salivating over my Mother's death, the media are grim fuckers as are a lot of online sites populated by ghouls who should be ashamed of themselves.
It's all very sad

PurpleRainDancer · 22/05/2021 23:17

@CathyorClaire

Diana had form for giving her protection officers the slip to do her own thing years before she dismissed them formally.

Just sayin'

How do you know this? @CathyorClaire
StormzyinaTCup · 22/05/2021 23:20

I didn’t watch the funeral and couldn’t quite understand the public outpouring of grief I was seeing, people were just besides themselves.

I can quite understand people moaning, wailing, crying out her name and throwing flowers at them was as disturbing if not more so than the actual act of walking behind their mums coffin and I’m very glad I wasn’t part of that circus.

I’m with PH on this one (a first for me recently!)

I believe the Queen and PP wanted to keep the boys in Balmoral and then have a much quieter, and more importantly for the boys, a private funeral with a burial at Frogmore (although that probably wouldn’t have happened because her brother wanted the eventual resting place at Althorp) but such was the public’s outpouring of grief and demands for more that it snowballed.

Both PW and PH (and only them) were entitled to speak out on the Panorama outcome and they both spoke very differently but from the heart. On this occasion I'm not buying that PW has ‘just done it for PR’.

They seem unable/prevented from being able to get closure and move on. I expect Netflix will still release their new Diana documentary though.

Blossomtoes · 22/05/2021 23:24

I know it never leaves you @Roussette but how much time and therapy does it take to make some kind of peace with it? The continuing rawness after more than 20 years is really unhealthy.

StartupRepair · 22/05/2021 23:27

The European royals are not as down to earth as people seem to believe. They live in palaces and castles, have glittering tiara occasions and are subject to mad tabloid gossip.

Taketheredpill · 22/05/2021 23:40

@longwayoff

Will somebody please join me in noting that the RF should not nab the right to rewrite their history as they see fit. Let them complain about the interview as much as they like but removing it from the record, as with the earlier RF at home film, is not on. Let it stand.
Yes!! This manipulation of the narrative and high handed attempts to censor is really unsettling. Wasn’t there that BBC programme on the Royals made in the 1960s and the queen decided it was never to be shown again? It wasn’t. Based on what? Would that happen for any citizen ?? And royalists claim they are mere figureheads. What else is going on?
Taketheredpill · 22/05/2021 23:42

Sorry I see you also mentioned the at home film

It’s very revealing that these things are happening .
People ( sorry, subjects!) need to wake up and pay attention

Nat6999 · 22/05/2021 23:46

If the interview had been with someone like the Beckhams, would there have been all this uproar? No we would all have been saying how stupid they were to have been manipulated by the press.

TruelyStruttingHotpants · 22/05/2021 23:47

Just seem this. I don't think I have ever wanted a newspaper article to be fake as much as I hope this one will be ☹

Source said: ‘Harry’s grandmother has taken this very personally and is deeply upset by what Harry has said, in particular his comments about Charles’s parenting and suggesting his father knows no better because of how he was brought up. It has been a very upsetting time.’

colouringindoors · 22/05/2021 23:52

I think the RF just want people to forget that PC has an affair and married the OW. getting ready for him being King

this. 110%. Don't quite understand how William seems ok with this.

colouringindoors · 22/05/2021 23:55

The parenting in the RF has been seriously dysfunctional. Charles at 5 shaking hands blank faced with his mother after she'd been away for 6 months.

William and Harry walking behind the coffin of their mother, for ages, in front of crowds. What loving parent in their right mind thinks that is a good idea???!!!