Harry and Meghan 'are invited to appear on Buckingham Palace balcony at Queen's Platinum Jubilee'

[NarcissasMumintheDoghouse]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10729859/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markle-invited-make-balcony-appearance-Jubilee.html

No source cited, so could just be made up news.

How do you all feel about this? Is it another refusing-to-fly-the-flag-at-half-mast-for-Diana misreading of the public mood? Does anybody actually care? And, if not, what does that signify?

A good take on it all by the Spectator

www.spectator.co.uk/article/harry-and-meghan-s-balcony-ban-is-a-mistake

I look at articles by Julie Bindel and Suzanne Moore in the DM since they were (allegedly) bullied out of the Guardian. And?

Hmm , but the balcony line up is for working Royals . A is ( rightly) in disgrace and H and M decided to walk away .
In my opinion the bigger question is why they would want to appear on the balcony with a father whose parenting skills H has criticised, a SIL who ( allegedly) made M cry , not to mention someone who ( allegedly) made a racist remark about their child. Not to mention the triggering cameras .

In my opinion the bigger question is why they would want to appear on the balcony with a father whose parenting skills H has criticised, a SIL who ( allegedly) made M cry , not to mention someone who ( allegedly) made a racist remark about their child. Not to mention the triggering cameras

Do you know he has asked to be on the balcony?
If not, it's a hypothetical answer

@Roussette

You are right , I don’t know . Like everyone else , I am guessing the background however , on the balance of probabilities, I would imagine they would have liked to be at the centre of things . I am saying this as they were upset that they were not included in the official procession at the Commonwealth Service in 2020. They were expected to go straight to their seats while PC , C , W and C walked in HM’s procession ( as detailed in the official programme). To keep the peace W and C agreed not to walk in the procession.
There are other examples but , again, I don’t know , only surmising .

Fair enough @Chilledchablis1
I agree. We don't know

Sadly you can’t help but think that they need to demonstrate their close alliance to the royal family

But they don't have a close alliance with the royal family and are unlikely to now. The whole world knows that they have a very fractured relationship with each other. The level of game playing between them, us (yes, we collude) and the media is unbelievable.

I agree they no longer have that close alliance to the royal family, but for the American market that “brand Sussex” is based on the royal connection and it is crucial. Otherwise they would just be Meghan and Harry Windsor.

They need to drive money to live the lifestyle they want in America. That can only be achieved with the royal connection that the Americans love. Without that their value plummets to not much really. With time this is going to wane anyway with a slimmed down monarchy.

friendlycat But that's what I mean. If they do the balcony scene, which the cameras will capture, it means that the American audiences will be watching them and the royal family interacting together knowing full well that everyone is faking. They are not really royal anymore because they don't do anything royal so they will be there for no reason whatsoever. It's such an absurd situation.

There are two parts to being in the royal family. One is being royal and the other is being family.

They’ve made it clear that they want to be royal without being family, to trade off the name but have nothing to do with them.

if they’d done what they pretended they wanted which was to be in the family without being royal then we would be looking at a very different and probably much happier situation. Their egos got in the way though.

If they do the balcony scene, which the cameras will capture, it means that the American audiences will be watching them and the royal family interacting together knowing full well that everyone is faking.

@MaulPerton , there are no 'American audiences' waiting with bated breath for 'the balcony scene'.

You are hugely overestimating the level of American interest in this event. Americans 'could care less' about anything to do with the RF and the Jubilee and all the rest of the ceremonial. It's all considered quaint and archaic and British to the teeth.

I agree they no longer have that close alliance to the royal family, but for the American market that “brand Sussex” is based on the royal connection and it is crucial. Otherwise they would just be Meghan and Harry Windsor.

They need to drive money to live the lifestyle they want in America. That can only be achieved with the royal connection that the Americans love. Without that their value plummets to not much really. With time this is going to wane anyway with a slimmed down monarchy.

@friendlycat - you've got it wrong. They don't need to pretend closeness to the RF. They have a great underdog thing going, which Americans love. This is because Americans really don't like the stuffed shirt sort of Britishness the RF represents. They are curious about it, but they don't identify with it. The 'underdog' otoh is always going to find a way into American hearts.

I suspect Harry and Meghan feel quite differently about going back for ‘family’ events. To M, they aren’t family, and she doesn’t like them. She isn’t interested in the history of the RF or what the Jubilee represents. She hasn’t grown up with balcony appearances and the marking of momentous occasions. So to her she is just looking at what she personally can get out of it. Publicly and attention. She isn’t British and she doesn’t care about any other aspect.

Harry probably wants to go for the sake of his grandmother. Even he probably realises that she is going to die soon and this is her last big public event. He may not enjoy these occasions, but he realises their importance.

You are hugely overestimating the level of American interest in this event. Americans 'could care less' about anything to do with the RF and the Jubilee and all the rest of the ceremonial. It's all considered quaint and archaic and British to the teeth

It's difficult to work out just how much interest there is in them. On the one hand, Netflix and Spotify gave them huge contracts so they must have thought that there was interest somewhere. On the other, they don't seem to actually do anything so who would be interested in that? I don't really follow them but do catch the occasional headline so could be wrong about that. I am surprised that they would want to come over as it would be pretty demeaning for them to appear together with the others when the whole world knows that they all fell out.

Maybe they are all building bridges and offering tentative olive branches behind the scenes? Showing some warmth, compassion and tenderness of a family coming back together would be nice to see.

Do you think that any of them are in that mindset?

Can't see any of them building bridges and proffering olive branches. Judging from past history, the whole family seems to bear grudges. Other families do as well, of course, but the royals have the added layer of having to take public sentiment into account. Since any transgressions are made public, they must be much harder to overcome than if they had remained private.

Eh? Harry marries Meghan and suddenly the USA is not racist?

OK ...

I read a lot of Royal gossip sites. Americans seem to like Harry and Meghan and do not want them to be friendly with the Royal Family.

Americans in general, or Americans who post on certain sites?

This poll suggests that they rank behind Diana, HMTQ and the Cambridges in the royal popularity stakes in the US.

today.yougov.com/topics/international/articles-reports/2022/02/24/queen-remains-americans-favorite-living-british-ro

They see Harry and Meghan as a US Royal Family standing against the racist UK Royal Family.

But this makes no sense.

There is no such thing as a 'US Royal Family'. America is a republic.

The only reason Americans know or care, insofar as they do, about these two is because of their links to the British royal family. Harry has few if any achievements outside that status. Meghan was just another minor TV actress before she married into the royal family. Most Americans didn't have a clue that she even existed.

As for "standing against the racist UK Royal Family", well that's all been blown out of the water by their being 'excited and honoured' to publicly celebrate that same 'racist royal family' next month, hasn't it?

As for "standing against the racist UK Royal Family", well that's all been blown out of the water by their being 'excited and honoured' to publicly celebrate that same 'racist royal family' next month, hasn't it?

Maybe they have resolved this? Maybe apologies have been made behind closed doors? Was it supposed to be Charles who said it? Harry met with him last month - maybe he apologised and they cleared the air?

I don’t even think many know of them in their own base in California, not that they are unpopular, they have many online fans dotted all over due to Meghan being Biracial and all the rest ,
but contrary to popular believe the US , is so difficult to crack, They got incredible help from so many powerful people but I think it still fell flat .

Yes, I hope Harry apologised to his father for whining in front of the world about being 'financially cut off' as a middle aged man seeking 'independence'.

And supposedly their meeting lasted about 15 minutes. Didn't Harry refuse to say he missed his brother and father in his silly interview?

As for "standing against the racist UK Royal Family", well that's all been blown out of the water by their being 'excited and honoured' to publicly celebrate that same 'racist royal family' next month, hasn't it?

Did they really say that? That's very telling. Sounds like they are wanting back into the fold. Is life on the outside proving too harsh, I wonder?

Did they have any other option though if their experiences and complaints of racism was falling on deaf ears within the RF system? If they were being ignored, invalidated and racially abused then they needed to shine a light on it. What else could they have done?

You seem to believe everything they said without question, despite all the 'inconsistencies', shall we say.

And again, why, barely a year later, are they telling the world about how 'excited and honoured' they are to publicly celebrate the same 'system' which you claim 'ignored, invalidated and racially abused them'?

Not forgetting that their original plan was to remain a part of that same 'system', only getting to pick and choose the 'sexy' bits.