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The royal family

Discussing the things we liked about Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary series

1000 replies

MrsMaxDeWinter · 08/12/2022 14:22

There are so many threads on things posters hated about Harry and Meghan, the Netflix series, and fair play to those posters, so I thought I would have a go at stating a thread discussing some of the things that posters liked about the series.

I'll start.

I liked that this was supposed to be this bomb detonation, but has actually been a measured, warm, and loving look at H and M's relationship, and the pressures that the press put on them, and also on other royals. I genuinely did not notice anything incendiary. Maybe that is still to come.

I enjoyed the thoughtful insights shared on the invisible contract, especially, as Harry says, having to perform for a press that you know has said hurtful things about people you love.

I loved the warm memories of Sandringham, and meeting the Queen. And Meghan's memories of growing up. I think it was a wise, though sad, that they did not include Thomas. I really loved hearing Doria: my favourite bit is when a journalist offered her money, for an interview about Meghan and she said, "That's my child!"

I also learned for the first time about Meghan's relationship with her sister Samantha's daughter Ashleigh. I had no idea that she had been raised by her grandparents who adopted her, or that she had such a warm and caring relationship with Meghan. Along with Doria's, that was my favourite interview.

I enjoyed hearing from her childhood friends, as it is often said here that she had no friends who came to the wedding etc, just celebrities. They seem a tight nit grip who have been here fr years, and I am glad she has them.

I was gobsmacked that she needed security in Toronto after the relationship was announced.

I also thought the discussion on racism, in its wider context of colonialism and imperialism, was very well done, but then again it was led by David Olusoga and Afua Hirsch, who are always great, and I love their writing.

Most of all I love that Harry confronted head on the Nazi uniform debacle, and what he learned from it. And I loved, loved, loved, the segment on his life in Lesotho where they gave him the Sesotho name, "Mahale". A wonderful name.

“It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life,” Harry said. “I felt so ashamed afterwards. All I wanted to do was make it right. I sat down and spoke to the chief rabbi in London, which had a profound effect on me. I went to Berlin and spoke to a Holocaust survivor. I could have just ignored it and made the same mistakes over again in my life. But I learned from that.”

I predicted on another thread that Harry would address this and other episodes head on in his book. I was scoffed roundly for this. I expect him to say more in is book, and I am happy to be proved right.

If only for this, I am very glad they did this.

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Coucous · 17/12/2022 13:16

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

MarshaMelrose · 17/12/2022 13:23

lollipoprainbow · 17/12/2022 13:09

@MarshaMelrose during the preacher they were sniggering and looking at each other, incredibly rude. Kate is just a stepford wife who never gives an opinion she's like a cardboard cut out which is what the institution wants. She might be strong who knows ??

But meghan laughed at the preacher too.
They were never going to accept her. The rude sniggering and side eyes during the wedding
You imply here that they were sniggering at Meghan.

Just because someone doesn't I've an opinion in public, doesn't mean they don't have one. Newsreaders,don't give public opinions. Does that mean they don't have one? That they're a,cardboard cutout, a stepford person? Or dies it just mean they're doing their job and staying neutral. The fact that you don't know what Kate thinks means she's very good at her job.

Just because some talks a lot in public, doesn't mean that they're strong or effective. Kate has taken a lot of criticism over the years, she even had naked photos splashed over magazines and the Internet but the next went out and did her job without complaining. Meghan was not able to withstand criticism, her mental health collapsed and she had to leave. Why would you think that Kate is less strong than Meghan?

Rhondaa · 17/12/2022 13:27

'Why didn't anyone ask for evidence at the time the stories were written by the same tabloid writers?'

Because they get sued if they print lies whereas Harry can say what he likes and knows the rf will not retaliate which let's face it is what he wants, an all out soap opera tit for tat slanging match.

They'll ignore him though, they'll invite them to the coronation and then we can all laugh at them curtseying and bowing with their tails between their legs scribbling notes for their next show <$$$>. It's all very sad.

MrsMaxDeWinter · 17/12/2022 13:28

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This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

Hey @Coucous you are making me cackle!

The same posters who spent threads and threads delighting in Tom Bower's inaccurate book, which he wrote because, as he said, "it's Meghan I'm after" and which was sourced from people that he admitted himself had grudges against her was lapped up uncritically, even as it contained glaring errors.

But it's evidence they want now. Yeah right. Because they are so very fair minded that if presented with evidence they will consider it fairly. It's a fool's errand as these are people who willingly express their doubts about her suicidal thoughts, her mental fragility, her miscarriage, or the racism she experienced.

PS, how brilliant is Lorren Khumalo, Archie's nanny. She's from Zim, a country in which I spent time as I have family there, and she has become a bit of a star there! She's actually a NICU nurse at the Portland. Loved her, loved her.

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Rhondaa · 17/12/2022 13:44

'Because they are so very fair minded that if presented with evidence they will consider it fairly'

I absolutely would. If we saw just one WhatsApp or email to a journalist saying 'please push this story on H&M as were keen to make them unpopular' or anything remotely similar I'd be all for the conspiracy theory. As it stands we have a bitter couple, refused their demands and now want to cause as much damage as poss. What happened to #BeKind?

They should follow the example of W&K, rise above it and move on.

SequinsandStilettos · 17/12/2022 13:55

Will RTFT from where I was up to when I have finished bingeing but episode 4 so far...
I liked the wedding photos/insight into Land of a thousand dances.
I like Meg's laugh (she laughs at herself a lot and even if laughing at the over-the-topness/surrealism of it all, I am not using that as ammunition against her because she is right, as a republican(!) I think a lot of the pomp and ceremony is ridiculous and any royal figurehead should be open to change and diversity.
I like the fact that they were a normal couple in a low-ceilinged cottage.
I like that Meghan did the work with Grenfell women. I had forgotten that.
I had also forgotten the Australian tour - 76 engagements, good on her. Can you imagine the headlines had she had to cancel/had hyperemesis?
I liked the side-by-side headline comparison - have seen it on MN before and other articles - the mental gymnastics that you go through to defend them and the rank hypocrisy of the headlines always bemuses me - Harry was right, if you really can't see it, there's no helping you.
Hurricane Meghan, Duchess Difficult/Diva, Monster Markle etc We do do that a lot in the UK: build up and then knock down, tall poppy syndrome. It did seem like an orchestrated attack to bring her down when she was popular, doing good work, had the potential to do even greater work and must have wondered what the hell had hit her.
As for the royals now - all wearing burgundy ffs, Keep Ma'am headlines and talking about dignity...nope, not buying it.

Xenia · 17/12/2022 14:04

Tom Bower is one of the most thorough biographers there is and his book has masses of footnotes/checked sources. I don't think it is fair to say it is inaccurate.
Also someone say the royal family must be reformed - not all of us think so. They do really well as they are. I wouldn't want it reformed. We are lucky to have them.

M&H chose to leave so there we are. Some people support them. I try to keep an open mind. I wish them both well.

MarshaMelrose · 17/12/2022 14:04

As for the royals now - all wearing burgundy ffs,

I loved that. Subtle and clever. And it's such a Christmassy colour that everyone looked good in. Kate looked absoutely fab.

MrsMaxDeWinter · 17/12/2022 14:04

I absolutely would. If we saw just one WhatsApp or email to a journalist saying 'please push this story on H&M as were keen to make them unpopular' or anything remotely similar I'd be all for the conspiracy theory.

And if you saw just one WhatsApp or email, @Janiie you would accuse them of releasing private communications, in the same way Meghan is being attacked for saying WOW to a text from William that is not even shown on screen. And you are assuming there is a written record of this, whereas someone with a tad more imagination would know that, as the journalists themselves have said, it's phone calls, a word here and there at coffee, lunch etc.

They have said enough, and other journalists have said enough, and the more fair-minded have seen enough, to conclude that they are right.

You don't believe them about anything, not even when Harry categorically denies that he put his name to a statement that was meant to protect William. You have also been unable to answer my question about why the Telegraph would put only her picture on the front page after an event involving the whole family and why it may have troubled some of the family members and their aides, so no, I have no expectation of fair mindedness from you.

But it's fine because you don't believe them about anything. So take it easy.

@SequinsandStilettos build her up and then knock her down is exactly what it was. The Burgundy "power play" from Kate made me laugh. First we are told Kate and Wills will not watch it. Then we are told Kate is sending a coded message to Meghan. Make up your minds, fellas, how is she sending a coded message over a series she hasn't watched?

The Royals' comms policy is a joke because they choose not to drive the narrative through transparency, but prefer to work in backroom deals with the Press. So it is a comms policy based on dishonesty and hypocrisy. A dirty game.

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MarshaMelrose · 17/12/2022 14:09

The Burgundy "power play" from Kate made me laugh. First we are told Kate and Wills will not watch it. Then we are told Kate is sending a coded message to Meghan. Make up your minds, fellas, how is she sending a coded message over a series she hasn't watched?

I never watched the show but I understood what the RF were doing. You can't miss the clips on telly, etc. And it will have been summarised to them what the main gripes were.

Elisabetty · 17/12/2022 14:18

I am starting to wonder if they'll make Kate have another baby just to gaslight all this...

Aspiringmatriarch · 17/12/2022 14:21

MarshaMelrose · 17/12/2022 14:04

As for the royals now - all wearing burgundy ffs,

I loved that. Subtle and clever. And it's such a Christmassy colour that everyone looked good in. Kate looked absoutely fab.

It was neither subtle nor clever. They did look nice though.

Ohnonevermind · 17/12/2022 14:24

I think some of the posters on here are letting their imaginations run away slightly with themselves

From ‘burgundy power plays’ to ‘they’ll make Kate have a baby’ comments

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ohnonevermind · 17/12/2022 14:25

I’ve some burgundy baubles this year, is my tree in on the power play too ?

Rhondaa · 17/12/2022 14:29

'you would accuse them of releasing private communications, in the same way Meghan is being attacked for saying WOW to a text from William that is not even shown on screen. And you are assuming there is a written record of this, whereas someone with a tad more imagination would know that, as the journalists themselves have said, it's phone calls, a word here and there at coffee, lunch etc.'

Any journalist worth their salt would have recorded snippets of such damaging and corrupt request as 'make shit up to make them look bad they're too glossy and popular' 🙄.

'I loved that. Subtle and clever. And it's such a Christmassy colour that everyone looked good in. Kate looked absoutely fab'

Yes, strong, supportive and loyal. Bet Harry was apoplectic. Maybe a text from a rich celebrity they hardly know will have cheered him up.

Ohnonevermind · 17/12/2022 14:29

But - I want Harry and Meghan to be happy and importantly move forward with their lives.

I want the same for William and Kate too.

Rhondaa · 17/12/2022 14:33

Ohnonevermind · 17/12/2022 14:29

But - I want Harry and Meghan to be happy and importantly move forward with their lives.

I want the same for William and Kate too.

Yes think most people do. These misery memoirs are just so cringeworthy and unnecessary.

Work for Netflix, do podcasts. Great. Just without the PA crap attacking the UK and the rf.

fallfallfall · 17/12/2022 14:35

i think the family needs to be left alone, and I extend that to the entire clan. I enjoy the fashion and think the causes they support WERE helped by the publicity but the media frenzy for the whole needs to end. They will always remain a wealthy family with an interesting heritage.
how can people believe that they (the RF) can grow to have normal relationships when there’s this weird obsession over every sneeze.
the toxic petry dish they grow up in simply doesn’t lead to a normal view on anything.

Ohnonevermind · 17/12/2022 14:51

We left our house (sale just went through this week) and moved during the summer We had a difficult time with our old neighbours, whose bullying behaviour was horrible but circumstances in their lives meant I could understand their behaviour (severe projection)

Life is too short and precious so we are so happy we moved. We could have bitched about them to people, but we have just moved on. you can think there is unfinished business but the relief when you just let it go is immense. We’ve a positive story about why we moved but sometimes I imagine conversations with them but I quickly distract myself and move on.

i say this as Meghan and Harry will be much happier moving on. Hopefully they can earn a living from something else besides their RF relationship.

in some ways I should empathise with H&M and I do but I’ve had to deal with so many lies and gaslighting that reduced my sympathy for them. My neighbour have rubbished my name too, but you’ve just got to keep moving forward and I don’t want to continue the drama by responding. If some people want to believe their lies it’s on them.

I see m&H are proxies for many peoples real life issues and I’m sorry that some people have clearly had racist experiences based on their postings.

MarshaMelrose · 17/12/2022 14:54

It was neither subtle nor clever.

I think it was. Most people won't have had the faintest idea why so many wore burgundy. It was only if you were interested in the whole hoohaa, would you have got it.

I think on MN we can get carried away with how important this documentary was. I include myself in that too. But I went out with 3 friends last week and asked them what they thought. One friend has Netflix, one has access to Netflix, the other has, like me, no netflix. None of them were interested. Didn't know much about it. No intention of watching it. And not really interested in me talking about it. I was very surprised because i thought everyone was talking about it.
But, on thinking about it, during the Queens funeral 10 days, I never thought of H&M once. In fact when they were on, I found I just wasn't interested in them. (I think that's weird because I enjoy the cut and thrust of talking about them n here but in real life I found I was interested in the queens children and the pomp and memories.) So maybe other people have just moved past them and I'm just behind in catching up.

Roussette · 17/12/2022 15:01

I absolutely would. If we saw just one WhatsApp or email to a journalist saying 'please push this story on H&M as were keen to make them unpopular' or anything remotely similar I'd be all for the conspiracy theory

They're hardly going to spell it out in a whatsapp by saying 'let's make H&M look bad, here's a story for you'. They would just give them a story that will make H&M look bad with no explanation needed. The press are always desperate for anything to knock H&M with for their clickbait, so they'd just run it.

Any journalist worth their salt would have recorded snippets of such damaging and corrupt request as 'make shit up to make them look bad they're too glossy and popular'

See above.

It's amazing that posters are demanding evidence when stories are posted ad nauseum with no back up evidence whatsoever. OK, it enters the realms of opinion sometimes, but not always. It's stated as fact.

Ohnonevermind · 17/12/2022 15:07

@Roussette

The fact that omid scobie was prepared to lie under oath about Meghan’s collaboration means who knows what to believe any more.

If we are polarised on this thread, many journalists are the same ?

Rhondaa · 17/12/2022 15:10

'They're hardly going to spell it out in a whatsapp by saying 'let's make H&M look bad, here's a story for you'.

Somebody, somewhere would have a 'receipt'. Yet we just have Harry's wails and delusions.

MrsMaxDeWinter · 17/12/2022 15:17

@Xenia.

There is a long list of errors in the Tom Bower book. Various sources have listed the errors. I have linked two articles below.

www.newsweek.com/meghan-markle-prince-harry-book-revenge-biggest-mistakes-gayle-king-omar-scobie-tom-bower-1728203

www.newsweek.com/prince-harry-meghan-markle-author-tom-bower-says-i-dont-publish-lies-despite-errors-revenge-1755710

www.insider.com/tom-bower-meghan-markle-revenge-book-faces-criticism-2022-7

In one of the links above, Tessa Dunlop also corrects his mispronunciation of Oprah Winfrey's first name. He still mispronounces it even after that correction.

And he mispronounces Doria Ragland's first name too. When someone can't even be bothered to pronounce correctly the names of two of the people he writes about, and as it happens, the names he is mangling are those of black women who have short names that are easy to pronounce, then I know the contempt is deliberate.

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SequinsandStilettos · 17/12/2022 15:18

Back to rerailing the thread (clue is in the title) things we liked
Have just come to end of episode 4
I liked the former nanny - I also had one of my babies on my back like that
I liked the South African tour footage and reference to Maya Angelou -I do not want to slow down the thread but footage of Maya performing Still I rise always make me smile. Showed it to my daughter the other week.
I continue to like Doria.
I liked that Meghan's friends were steadfast.
I liked that Meghan did talk about depression - I could barely stand after my kids' births, let alone pose for official photos or do tours. Kudos.
I liked that Danny Baker was called out for that chimp tweet, even if not mentioned by name. It was a shitty tweet and I said so at the time.
Above all. I like that Piers Morgan is still frothing - best thing for that clown would be if everyone unfollows the wanker.

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