A positive and non-bashing thread about Meghan and Harry

[MrsMaxDeWinter]

I have rejoined Mumsnet after leaving a few times. The first time I left was because I was concerned about the coverage and uncomfortable undertone of the commentary on Meghan Markle after the engagement was announced, before she had said a word, and before she had married into the Royal Family.

I came back around the time she and Harry left the UK, to be stunned by the pages and pages upon pages of virulent threads. At that time Mumsnet actually banned all threads about Meghan, it had become so toxic.

They have now made their lives in Montecito, but still the virulence continues. Yes, she speaks in a mix of therapy plus corporate gobbledegook, yes, she is occasionally vapid and irritating.

But who is she actually harming that she deserves all this virulence?

Yesterday, when the new UK Prime Minister was elected, the coverage in the Super Tory Daily Mail was all about a seven minute speech to a bunch of young people. Article after article after article. Body language experts. Counting the number of times she said "I" in a speech in which she sought to inspire young people by attempting to relate to them. Before that, 18 articles were devoted to the first podcast by the Daily Mail alone. 18!

Same with her podcasts. The series is about HER and HER take on labels, and she discusses HER take with HER guests.

It's all very anodyne, even vanilla. It does not deserve any of the vitriol sent her way.

SO:

As the next twelve weeks are going to be wall to wall Meghan, and the Meghan haters and detractors have several threads here that fill up rapidly with bile, scorn and mockery, I have started this thread, reminiscent of previous " positive" threads, to talk about what some of us like, enjoy, find amusing and even (gasp) admire, in the next few Meghan rich weeks.

If you don't have anything positive to say, that's okay, you can keep to the existing threads.

Looking forward to a bile-free discussion of everything Meghan!

Some of it was truly sickening. In fact some was so awful it broke Talk Guidlines and was deleted, but there's still stuff on those threads that's incredibly 'victim blaming'.

And?

But then went on to talk about posters. You have not commented on that

Wow - 2 pronged attack ! Ok , I will make it simple . I said that virtually everyone thought Andrew was a despicable shit . Poster replied saying , not everyone and named his Mum and daughters . Very clever .
Yes she went onto talk about posters and yes I have seen some comments speculating about the women involved but I have never seen anyone say that Andrew is a great guy
I will leave this “ discussion” there as I have better things to do.

And I'm sorry @Readinginthesun if that was rude of me ^^. I'm not on here to start yet another bunfight. But @Roussette is right tbh.

@Readinginthesun

By saying ' no one said he was a great guy' you are twisting and deflecting .

No they didn't say he was a great guy but they search for every nitpicking defence they can .
They also don't start numerous threads about the many many issues that deserve examination re the royals - not just Andrew .
Fair enough you are royalists you refuse to see the truth ( you can't really be a royalist any other way).

I apologise too. I was concentrating on the posters defending A

Take this how it's meant..a joke (but true). I've had a 5-10 pronged attack more times than I care to remember and I'm still standing! It's the norm on detractor threads for disagreeing voices.

Do feel you can still come on here please

Not RTFT and I imagine it may have descended into more Meghan-bashing but just wanted to say I'm with you OP.

Of course neither Harry nor Meghan are perfect but they don't deserve the obsessive weirdness aimed at them - frankly even if they are taking potshots, they are a) not directly against the Queen who of course is above criticism** b) not the first from the royal fold to do so and c) probably fairly justified in doing so.

I also think they have an undeniable star power and I'm always interested in what they do. Not had a chance to listen to the podcast yet but I love Mindy Kaling so definitely going to work my way through it starting with that one.

** sarcasm obviously but I do love the Queen and don't think anyone wishes to see her in distress; I think she's pretty philosophical about the whole situation though TBH.

"One thing that slightly amused me yesterday was the way their visit went - walkabout, photos, handshakes, chit chat . Almost as if they have realised that the royal style is actually a good way of engaging with people "

You know who else does this? Actors. Politicians. Anyone in the public eye.

Meghan did this long before she met Harry. It is not something they "stole" from Royal life in order to raise awareness to themselves.

Despite the negative press we all see, people love them in person and want to get selfies and shake hands.

You know who else does this? Actors. Politicians. Anyone in the public eye

Yes, think of the Oscars, actors walking down a line showing themselves to the public

It's not unique to the RF!

I was quite taken with her revelation that she was an 'ugly ducking' and sat on her own at lunch. That's sad for any girl or boy to experience.

twitter.com/XoxoLeigh1/status/1567138563837362177?t=PwQtKoLUybvHM4hkrPwlHw&s=19

There's a lot of love for them in Germany, nice to see

It takes skill and patience to .......shoot a gun

Then use it to kill defenceless wildlife and go on to liken killing people on the ground to playing a video game?

There's a lot of love for them in Germany, nice to see

Actually, looking at the German media coverage and social media comments, the majority of people were either indifferent to their visit, irritated by them, or angry that a taxpayer-funded yet was used to transport them.

That's the problem with integrity - once it's gone, everything has a price

Nail on head ...

I rather think of integrity as standing up for oneself no matter who I am having to stand up against.

Despite the negative press we all see, people love them in person and want to get selfies and shake hands.

Yes - here’s a lovely selfie of Meghan and Stephanie Heckl, editor of Bunte magazine, while they were in Germany. Bunte magazine knows the Sussexes well of course, having published of photos of Harry, Doria and Archie taken by drone while they were staying at Tyler Perry’s house in LA.

I have listened to all 3 podcasts and absolutely love it. I am starting to question whether there are paid members to keep the threads going. The hate is just weird.

@debbrianna I have this week's episode in my queue for tonight. The first two were very good. I can't wait.

@Serenster so? Maybe Meghan didn't realize who she was? Maybe Meghan did and she didn't want to make a scene? We do not know because we were not there.

Strange

I saw different but I suppose it's what you want to engage with

It's reported that Meghan didn't know who she was posing with but the same obviously can't be said of Stephanie Heckl.

I wonder if there's an agenda there?

I can only be complimentary about her looks as I can’t think of any other positives
she has a great figure if she dresses to suit it

Strange I saw different but I suppose it's what you want to engage with

Your comment makes no sense. I 'engaged' with the main news websites (Zeit, Welt, FAZ etc). I'm fluent in German & follow plenty of high-profile German accounts on social media. Where were you looking?

Different places to you. Quite obviously. Do you want links? I did one further upthread?

It’s really nice to see H&M rising above (literally!) the predictable criticism they usually face about their environmental credentials and travelling by private jet to and from Germany anyway. I love that they don’t bow to pressure but instead stick to their own principles - they are an example to all of us. I hope we see more of this on the rest of their trip. I admire both of them so much.