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!

Meghan is a human with good and bad,
Unfortunately they wanted and needed someone she couldn’t be to join the royal family. I can understand your disappointment.

It’s not the RF’s fault, it’s not Meghan’s fault, what she wanted and what the RF need to survive are too different. Some might say this could have been discovered in time, but understandably starting a family was a priority for both and they didn’t have the luxury of time that Kate and William had.

But the ‘divorce’ has been handled very badly and Meghan and Harry but take a fair share of the blame too for post divorce relations.

time would have healed these wounds, but the funeral is too close to the rancorous split

I agree 100% @Ohnonevermind

IMO Harry wanted out and Meghan gave him the opportunity.

I do think that she tried to be what everyone needed her to be, but the scrutiny and rasicm from the press was to much for one person to handle.

What baffles me, in general, is how many people take what the tabloids say as absolute truth.

She and Harry are people. Just like every other person in the planet. So is the royal family. The amount of projection that happens towards and the specualtion around them is rather unfair to them.

Nice to see Harry, William, Catherine and Megan on walkabout all together.

It’s nice to see both the Sussexes and the new Prince and Princess of Wales looking at the flowers outside Windsor castle together - that must bring back tough memories for the two brothers

Agreed & interacting

William is a class act, so graceful accommodating such a difficult situation

There's some lovely posts on this thread and thank you @MrsMaxDeWinter for starting it and your kind words

@Ohnonevermind I know we don't see eye to eye but that's a great post from you at 17.08, I agree with all of it.
They've behaved like a couple of tits at times but I just don't believe they're bad people. Misguided, yes but not awful

@onlylarkin yes to your post. We are all flawed human beings, H&M definitely are, so are most of the RF.
I would just love to think the MSM would just let up a bit and stop feeding this channel of vitriol that some people take as gospel

This thread has shown me there is hope on MN with the subject of Harry and Meghan and I thank the OP for showing us that

Oh, that’s such good news. Whatever the reasons, being estranged from both sides of the family ( except for Doria) must be lonely. I really hope there can be some healing, the Queen would certainly want that.

Lovely to see the walk about

I do hope this is the beginning of a new chapter.
Talking of chapters , I also hope that Harry ditches his book .

I doubt he has that kind of agency. He will have signed a contract.

What? The Royal Family did not cancel it. Meghans people did. The Royal Family did not allow anything to begin with.

no sorry, my post wasn’t very clear. She cancelled the show nothing to do with the RF having a say in that. However, you can see why the RF are reluctant to involve them in things.

Ooh I pop out for a couple of hours, come back and I’ve just heard the two couples have been on a walkabout in Windsor - that sounds positive and the Queen would be so pleased. Going to check out the coverage now.

Fabulous post MrsMax. Thank you so much for sharing this.

You actually posted this? Without offending your capacity to think, maybe you should think about why the show would not go ahead instead of trying to spout hate.

Good to see them together on the walkabout. Apparently The Prince of Wales invited the Duke and Duchess to join him and the Princess of Wales earlier. The Prince of Wales thought it was an important show of unity at an incredibly difficult time for the family. So that was an important step I think and one which the Queen would’ve wanted. She was all about unity. Well done Prince William

I also hope that Harry ditches his book

It's wholly unlikely that that's within his control. I'm going with the rumoured Thanksgiving/ Christmas window.

she was this ordinary girl who was not meant to be Queen

Given Edward VIII had no children she'd have got the gig eventually regardless.

Where is the hate in my post? That's a very strong word, I don't hate anyone (well there is one person but it's not MM). Her behaviour is questionable and I will call that out but hate, no.

I loved when they got married. I hated the LA departure. Hated the media whinging/funky hating they did.
But if this is the change then great.
I do have a niggle that maybe it won't :(

Surely Meghan can’t go back to continually airing her grievances about the royal family to the media after this? Talking about the RF in a negative light is going to look even more distasteful now the Queen is no longer with us. They need to find a brand new direction and fast.

Agreed.

There is no other direction though. Their royal status is the only interesting thing about them. Meghan isn’t a big screen actress and Harry’s an ex soldier. What else is there?

Give them a break, just for once

Let it be what it is.

I think they will either need to focus fully on philanthropic projects with a few respectful references to the RF thrown in to keep the media interested, OR just fade into the background and live a quiet, very wealthy life with their kids (which quite frankly, sounds like bliss to me).

From all the lucrative deals they’ve done, it sounds like they’ve already paid the mortgage off and then some! So they can do as they please really.