We had to buy our Notts Cott furniture from Ikea on M's credit card- boo hoo

[OhMonDieux]

Really?
Another statement probably way off the truth.

H is reported as saying they were amazed when they visited W&C in Kensington Palace and saw the art work, the furniture etc etc.

Whereas HE had to kit out Notts Cott with Ikea stuff that M bought using her CC. (Harrods is just down the road as is John Lewis .)

Has he forgotten the £millions of tax payers' money that was used to tart up Nott Cott?

And that he's now had to pay back as they buggered off the US soon afterwards?

Yet another warped statement, oozing with unfounded jealousy.

They should be grateful to us, for ruling over them and settling America with all our shared white ancestors.

I’d check with the United States First Nations Peoples before telling them they should be grateful to Britain.

are currently having a meltdown over electing a new speaker.

3 Prime Ministers in the space of about 2 months in the UK.

The idea that we should still be on bended knee for events decades before I was born and before my parents were born is rather bizarre.

But you still are on blended knee - to certain members of your own Royal Family. They are the only ones who expect it.

But Jeez, there’s a lot of resentment towards the Americans on mn.

Yes there is resentment of the US on mn.

It doesn't help the argument to put up bollocks about how we owe them though. It totally counter productive and liable to feed that resentment.

I think the poster was pointing out the irony of being grateful to America is that we could go further back and turn it around, rather than an expectation of said gratitude. I note that the sacred lands were wholesale pillaged after American independence so I don’t think that can be laid at the Brit’s door. We also weren’t the only nationality to emigrate in numbers to ‘the new world’.

I never said Britain owed the US.

As an Australian, I am grateful the US entered the war. Many of our military were away fighting with the British. Our govt was glad to have the Americans as allies, especially their fighting presence in our region of the world. And it’s v possible that the Americans helped save our asses. To this day we have v strong military alliance with the US. It’s not about Australia owing the US.

Dont talk to us about nazis - Harold literally dressed up as one!

I’m absolutely stunned at the resentment some mn posters have towards the Americans. I’m beginning to see that Meghan being American could be more than enough for some Posters on mn to hate her. I always dismissed this as a cause. I won’t be so quick to dismiss it in future.

“Don’t talk to” me about Harry and the Nazi costume. It was an ignorant and dreadful choice. He has, however, apologised for it.

Do you really think we (as a collective nation) hate Americans? 😂😂 bless your heart - as they say in the south I believe.

I wrote ‘some mn posters’ and ‘some posters on Mn - so twice I said ‘some’. I did not use ‘y’all hate Americans or ‘y’all resent Americans.’

Earl of Dumbarton- it was claimed in various stories that they don't want Archie to use it because of the "dumb" element

I think Balmoral and Sandringham are actually owned by the monarch and passed to the next via inheritance- George VI had to pay signifucant sums to buy them back from Edward VIII when he abdicated as they were Edward's at that point

Even if they decided against using the Earldom, then the Barony of Kalkeel was also available

Or just 'Lord'

Really enjoying reading about their awful time in the tiny Notts Cotts from my 3 bed semi with the same floor space 🤣 where we’ve been living in horror with our two children and dog - and had to buy all our own furniture too. We even have tough jobs working long hours to pay for the luxury of this hovel over our heads. So much sympathy for those poor loves., completely understand! Can’t wait for my second born to grow up and realise she’s a spare and turn on us all 🤣🤣🤣

Yeah sorry the Nott Cott thing is fucking ridiculous. He was a ‘single’ man at that time, it was more than adequate for one person. When they married they got given a 10 bedroom house, renovated to the tune of millions of pounds. It’s utterly tone deaf given how most of us live that actually pay for it!

Do you think she got over excited about being a Princess and living in a Palace/Castle? Maybe disappointed that despite the name KP doesn't actually look like a palace, and I know they wanted to live in Windsor Castle but that got vetoed.
Nott Cott prob did not live up to her expectations, and then neither did Frogmore. I'd what she had in mind was on the scale of their place in Montecito you can see why. The British equivalent for her would have been eg Anmer Hall-esque, They would prob have ended up with something like that eventually but needed to stick around for a bit, which they weren't prepared to do.

As far as I can see the appeal of a ‘cottage’ on a bigger royal estate is usually one of privacy (hence the current tend towards assigning them to newlyweds).
Of course there are plenty of palatial palace bedrooms they could occupy (in London there is Buckingham Palace and Clarence House/St James’ Palace as well as Kensington P) but there are footmen, ladies maids and other flunkies all over the big gaffs and by occupying a cottage/house with minimal bedrooms you have a more normal existence, your own lockable front door for starters! Perfect if you are going to be shagging lots 🤣

Presume that the staff still swing by daily but in a way that is more akin to hired cleaners/gardeners in normie land, rather than live-in servants (who being humans, gossip amongst themselves)!

The Queen reportedly loved her two years as a young navy wife in Malta, cut short by inheriting the throne at 25.
By putting her young adult grandchildren in the outlying buildings (traditionally designated for staff) on the main estates, she has recreated that temporary feeling of normalcy whilst still ensuring their security/safety (I’m crediting the decision making to the Queen based on nothing more than my own imagination).

if true that Meghan was disappointed at finding Harry lived in a 2 bed cottage rather than a palace I don’t blame her (or Oprah!) for not immediately ‘getting it’ but it was Harry’s job to help her get it (along with staff of the royal household) and Meghan clearly isn’t stupid so presumably only needed a decent explanation and a bit of encouragement to enjoy the relative privacy when it was available to them?
Instead, her surprise/disappointment seems to have fed into Harry’s childhood resentment. I don’t know much about relationship psychology but it does seem that their two sets of emotional baggage aren’t a good fit, despite the attraction.

Royal life (especially for the popular ones/top of the succession ones) means living in a goldfish bowl and royals can’t demand privacy in from the (British) public the same way celebs can. A bit of time in Nott Cott or a similar modest property is meant to provide a retreat from prying eyes.

Which is presumably why W&K picked a relatively modest Windsor estate property? There is plenty of room in the private part of the castle as well as multiple other Windsor estate residences, so it must’ve be a deliberate ‘last chance at our own front door/private family life before duty takes over entirely’ decision?

According to Hello, there isn’t even room at Adelaide Cottage for the nanny, so it’s just the five of them at night.

www.hellomagazine.com/homes/20220903150024/kate-middleton-prince-william-move-to-windsor/?

For outsiders, especially celeb outsiders, I can imagine it does seem a bit weird to live in a smaller property without constant staff attention, when there is a palace or castle and hundreds of servants right next door.

For those who are born into The Firm, a little private cottage with a locking door probably seems like the height of luxury (unless you are Harry, bitterly jealous of big brother).

Personally I imagine I would much rather have lived Princess Margaret’s life than her sisters (all the luxury, only a fraction of the duty) and Harry got to marry his divorced lover, so it feels like all this ‘spare’ whinging is a lot of unnecessary whinging!

I wonder how he is with Prince George? After all, it’s Williams’ kids who have displaced him, not William.

Also: the ‘similar threads to this one’ list is cracking me up

Well quite, @TheClogLady. I always think that these cottages sprinkled around the various estates are the grown-up versions of the Queen's wee playhouse - a place where royals can 'play' at being 'normal' grown-ups. It's cosplaying normality, complete with a trip to Ikea.

Instead, her surprise/disappointment seems to have fed into Harry’s childhood resentment.

Absolutely. I think Harry was pretty desperate for a wife at that point and probably sold it as a glitzier lifestyle than he knew it really would be. And when his requests to get them ‘upgraded’ constantly were rebuffed, got more and more angry.

It’s been a bit like this with my dad and stepmum. They met in a big flurry of romance when he was a very wealthy man, and desperate to impress her he spent an awful lot on fancy stuff for her and holidays. After 10 years or so the money started to dwindle and they’ve been at war with everyone else ever since. I think the only thing that united them was their flashy lifestyle and now that’s not there, feeling like it’s ‘them against the world’.

As they say nothing brings 2 people together like the mutual dislike of someone else…

😂

She probably thought she was going to get Downton Abbey!

I think posters on here can be a bit snobby about Americans. Equally I’m sure some Americans think the Brits are stuffy and tradition obsessed.

The thing is you can’t ‘modernise’ the RF, it literally defeats the point of the whole thing - like modernising a stately home. It just cannot be done without ruining the ‘mystique’ and charm that it has only because it’s a very old and outdated institution.

I can sort of see why Meghan thought ‘It’s only air fresheners ffs’, and I can also see why senior royals were a bit offended that she was given this gorgeous old building to marry in but was effectively saying it stank. I’m not sure if churches in the USA are similar but most here are very old and have a certain ‘smell’ (dust, incense and damp stone) which is actually kind of part of the experience and what people expect when they go inside.

The crux of the matter is that she just wasn’t a good fit for it.

Combined with the 'hugging on first meeting' anecdote, I agree. Both seem designed to domineer, forcing her into a position of discomfort.

Inconsequential but I'm sure I read that she wanted those Diptyque hourglass diffuser things (currently £138/75ml a pop in Liberty, won't let me copy a pic) I don't think this would have been much different to Kate's Jo Malone candles in the Abbey TBH, I doubt she wanted someone wandering around with a can of Febreeze but prepared to be corrected if I've misremembered this.

I think it was report as some sort of spray atomiser to begin with which was refused and they then settled on the diptyque as a mid ground