Are Netflix secretly playing Harry and Meghan?

[username8888]

H&M think they are dictating the Netflix narrative, but I wonder if Netflix are actually playing a longer game? This was billed as their story, but they are so tone deaf and are exposing themselves to ridicule with their ham fisted attempts to justify their behaviour. It's so full of ridiculous unsubstantiated statements and generalisations with no evidence to back it up. It's using stock photographs of photographers that have nothing to do with them. Why not show real photographers? A ridiculous car chase with a lone photographer on a moped provoking panic and faux fear in the couple is laughable. And as for Harry's face as Meghan takes the piss out of the queen? This was definitely seen by the editors who chose to leave it in.

Will Netflix get a double helping from this series with the candy-floss fluff that's the first airing, with a second being the dissection of this sad and deluded pair?

They were horrible about Sarah and she got negative comparisons with Diana, always pitting one again the other. I remember one of the papers saying she looked like a barmaid who’d won the pools. Not at all subtle.

If you look at the images they even changed their hair colour to make them look like B & E, they really went all out!

Fwiw I quite liked Beatrice’s hat .

She traded on her connection with the queen and made quite a bit of money in the US.

and this unfortunately is the position H&M are in. I like Sarah Ferguson, she is a bit mad but has a good heart and was a true breath of fresh air. I can see why she and Philip never saw eye to eye. Yes, she got constant criticism but I don't think she cared. She just did her thing. She certainly did not find life easy in the RF and did struggle but kept it more or less under wraps to ensure her daughters were not adversely impacted.

H&M are relying on their connection to the RF and right now this is by selling them down the river.

“never complain, never explain” is wise for people pleasing. But it also jars with me because it comes across as a mask and a performance, so we never know the truth. And I like the truth.

I think from day 1 of dating Harry Meghan was aware of the value of 'content'. This is why the endless selfies and the recording of the proposal. In the early days she insisted he put a out a statement about her. All of this meant that even if they didn't make it to the altar she would have huge name recognition and pictures to sell for the rest of her life.

I think she’s a very hollow human being. All style and no content.

I like the truth too HardRock

I doubt much of that will be forthcoming courtesy of Netflix though.

My comment was about the “never complain, never explain” thing that the Queen did and other royals follow. I can see it’s wise from a people pleasing viewpoint. But it’s also not their truth.

I haven’t watched the M&H Netflix documentary yet. But I can’t avoid seeing articles about them. Would they be better off doing the “never complain, never explain” thing?

I don’t know if I agree with “never complain, never explain” because it’s inherently fake and inhuman.

I think I remember their look's being slated too?

Yes, and not just their faces.

The Daily Mail (who else) bought and published pictures of Beatrice jumping off a yacht moored a few hundred entries offshore (taken with a huge telephoto lens - sound familiar) and published them, along with text like this:

Princess Beatrice emerges beaming from the Caribbean Sea beside her boyfriend, Dave Clark, and the first impression is how in love they seem.

The second thought is how comfortable this comely 19-year-old is in her own skin so at ease with her curves that she's happy to be photographed in a skimpy blue bikini.

Thirdly, it hits you that a young woman can run, she can hide, but there's no escaping The Curse Of The Mummy Gene.

From all accounts, this bubbly, loyal, fun-loving Princess is a chip off the old block. And as she was growing up, the sensible Beatrice no doubt admired her mum's tenacity, her Titian tresses and her ability to light up a room.

But like most teenage daughters with big mums, she might, without being disloyal, have preferred not to inherit the well-upholstered limbs and classic English pear shape of her mum.

Doria has played a blinder, maintaining a dignified silence

She has a lot to hide, by all accounts. Only time will tell if anything ever comes of it.

"Never complain, never explain"

I take that as acknowledging their privilege but thinking that they are above owing an explanation to anyone

No, it’s somewhere between ‘give them enough rope and they’ll hang themselves all by themselves’ and ‘don’t dignify their nonsense with a reply’.

She has a lot to hide, by all accounts. Only time will tell if anything ever comes of it.

Is it actually any of our business though?

Do we deserve to know just because her daughter is married to a Royal?

But how does that work when they didn’t want to be ‘cut off’ from the bank of Daddy?

All I have is what my mother left me etc. Erm, yes, when you’re financially independent you no longer get an allowance.

Nothing they say makes sense tbh

Are you aware that you’ve described how ignorance and injustice works?!

I’m not exactly a Meghan and Harry fan but I do recognise that they are doing this to be heard. Ignoring them won’t achieve much because they are being heard now by quite a few people who are willing to listen.

The “never complain, never explain” thing also means you never address a problem and it persists in being a problematic cycle as a result. That too is a rope, but it’s more dangerous because it’s silent and subtle.

I think never complain never explain is a better media strategy than complain and explain.

Meghan and Harry haven't sued over things like Tom Bowers book, I therefore believe it is 100% true which I wouldn't do for a book written about Charles because he doesn't seem to be similarly litigious and into correcting untruths.

When you see the amount of articles the Mail, Express etc publish a day on the Royals complaining whenever one of them isn''t true just isn't possible.

Howard Stern called them "Whiny Bitches", I think they're turning more people by complaining variety.com/2022/tv/news/howard-stern-slams-harry-meghan-whiny-bitches-netflix-series-1235458055/

What I think they won't address is whether or not Harry and Meghan treated Palace staff in a way that made them want to go out of their way to help them. From reading how they treated Angela Kelly (even in the Omid Scobie book) they don't seem like people you would go out of your way to help. I've never heard about William treating the staff poorly or abusing his position.

We wouldn’t have deserved to know anything about her just because her daughter is married to a royal, but I think she inevitably exposes herself to scrutiny by getting directly involved and making accusations.

What does she have to hide?

but I think she inevitably exposes herself to scrutiny by getting directly involved and making accusations.

What accusations has she made?

I think never complain never explain is a better media strategy than complain and explain.

I agree. If you explain or complain about one thing, if you don't do that for everything people will assume that those other things are true (because you didn't complain/explain about them). You could spend your whole life refuting allegations. Far better to do a blanket 'we do not comment on stories' like MI5 or 6. The Queen's statement after OW was good because it was affectionate but vague with a deceptively mild sting in the tail ('recollections may vary').

Do we deserve to know just because her daughter is married to a Royal?

Well we know fuck all about the parents of Mark Phillips, very little about those of Sophie Rhys-Jones (other than her father is widowed and is sometimes included in family Christmases) or Sarah Ferguson (beyond that he was polo manager).

We know a little more about the PoWess's family (though they rarely speak to the press they are reported on, but do not seem to be intruded upon) and we knew more about previous PoWess family than that of the 'spare' siblings.

Obviously all had some coverage at the actual time of the weddings. But for all the spares it faded.

I don't see any likely intrusion arising from the British public. Easy to live abroad without attention. OK, one generation further from the throne, and no full-on spectacle wedding, but many people even remember Autumn Phillips birth surname, let alone anything about her parents

I am sure the Netflix team are having a lot of fun with these two (at their expense). Haitch and Meghan are completely clueless about the power of the royals to strike back with precision and subtlety. The Royals are better prepared for wargames than they are and the house always wins. By the end of her life, the Queen was a little old lady but by delivering three little words 'Recollections may wary' she delivered a blow which surpassed the hours and hours of vague cable TV drivel. Now, that is powerful.

We have absolutely no idea what explanations were given and conversations were had behind closed doors - but airing your dirty laundry in public and getting into tit for tat ‘he said she said’ on SM simply feeds the drama. Far better to let them have their say and expose their own inconsistencies, and simply get on with your own life.

I didn't find it powerful. I found it the words of a woman so enmeshed in her own power & seeped in a life of such unearned abject privilege that she found it simply impossible to imagine a life lived differently.
She seemed either to be too stupid to see or to unwilling to notice
her dainty little foot resting on the foot of another's face.

The Commonwealth/The Empire = structural racism, bias and unearned wealth & privilege.

Far better to let them have their say and expose their own inconsistencies, and simply get on with your own life.

That.