Any Americans on Here? What is the consensus in USA on Harry and Meghan?

[Geebee12]

In the UK the media seems mainly 'against' and aghast about H and M (as are all my friends and family - even the anti royal ones). What is the mood in America - is the media/public starting to turn against them, or do they still have strong support?

What? No. Kardashians entertain dignitaries? I’ve absolutely never heard that. Sheesh.

i wonder about opinion in europe

a laughing stock no doubt as was liz truss and boris

We’re in Canada - our news is about a new Covid variant, the weather and ice hockey. Don’t know anyone talking about anyone in the British RF.

I asked my cousin in Illinois if PH and M were big news in the US and she didn't know who I meant. She asked if he was one of QE's sons 'or something'. She's very interested in politics and current affairs generally, so maybe there's not a great deal of coverage or interest.

@AliceOlive sarcasm Alice

Of course they're like the Kardashians, gossip about what happens at 'court' has always existed and is probably the one thing that keeps the royalty going. If we never heard anything about them I think the public would quickly lose interest and have no qualms over being a republic. They are a soap opera.

I’m from NI but all my inlaws and a few friends live in Dublin/the south.

I’ve found the whole H&M interesting as I’ve grown up with the RF and I love any messy drama. But I wouldn’t bring them up with the inlaws in conversation.

Over Christmas I had multiple family members ask “OMG and what about all this shite with Harry and Meghan?!?”- the consensus being that although they’d no grá for the Royal Family, M&H came across very poorly. Even my millennial, armchair republican BIL said they seemed like “total dickheads”.

I just found that really interesting- they have much more exposure to their own media and commentary and they’re still coming away with the impression that H&M are handling things v badly.

How do you know they are feigning? Most people I know aren’t at all interested and barely know who they are. I’m vaguely interested.

I don’t think newspaper coverage alone tells you how interested Joe public is in the U.K. versus US.

At the end of 2022, ‘Spare’ was No 16 on the Amazon.co.uk bestseller list. Whereas it was No.1 on the Amazon.com bestsellers (US site)! This was before the leak and now it’s No.1 in U.K. too. But it clearly shows, the American public are interested.

I know this because I keep a close eye on book sales in different markets for my job.

It's from the early release in Spain, no way would media report on it this way .

Check your facts

Feigning disinterest

or feigning uninterest

Sorry - not meaning to be a SPAG nutjob, but there's an important difference here.

One is a shill, and the other's a bit of a dick....

Amazon Bestsellers change around frequently and Spare hasn’t been at No 1 pre leak in US consistently before anyone shouts me down, but it has been hovering in top 5 in US whereas in U.K. around top 20.

TikTok sensation Colleen Hoover dominates the top 20 and Atomic Habits is hovering in the top 3.

Its interesting to compare US and U.K. as it can be very different. Eg TikTok’s Julie Smith has been in top bestsellers for a long time in U.K.

i was in the States over Christmas visiting (U.K.) family who have a place out there. A few American friends/acquaintances raised H&M with me to get my take. They were all broadly anti H&M, see her as B list, a liar and disrespectful to the RF.

I have always been suspicious of the US best sellers list. How can a book be a best seller if it’s not yet been released? Is it from pre-release sales? When I search for this on one Amazon I only get the Audio Book. (Marked bestseller) and the Spanish version.

Clicked on the audio and got the other options. Amazon has it listed as #5

And #1 in history, biography and Royal biography.

I can promise you won’t see this on the bookshelves of any serious readers, though.

that reminds me of buying a Jilly Cooper Novel from an independent book shop, i asked for a bag, and he was so snooty and said Not for This book with such disdain.

i cancelled my transaction

Asked my American family (in Boston, California and New York) and they said it's not much of a topic of conversation other than general gossipy scandal, for older ones it reminds them of Fergie toe-sucking/Prince Charles tampon transcript and for younger ones/in general it just tends to be talked about as another example of the declining state of the UK post-Brexit

If you're happy to be led by the nose (from edited extracts) to your opinion, crack on. I'll wait and read the whole thing myself, thanks. Then I can really check the facts, can't I?

I had to look up Jilly Cooper. The titles that came up were Riders, Polo and Mount.

I’m trying to decipher if you were drawing a parallel to Harry’s book and the stallion reference and being funny?

And this "leak" is tabloids offering crazy money for a copy to be accidentally sold to them. Looks like a Spanish bookseller took the money. The end game is to release so much so that no-one buys it, so they can print that it was a flop.

I’m an American living in England. I like them both very much but I suspected from the beginning that Megan would have trouble fitting in. She wasn’t prepared for it, not just being a member of the RF, but just living in England which is a completely different country and one with a deep thread of anti Americanism.

I’m not in the US but I work for a U.S. company and my team are in NYC and DC

Very broadly, at the start of Megxit, they joked that the UK blew it and they were now the chosen ones and lucky H&M had gone to the US

Now they seem to think it’s a bit Real Housewives - engineered conflict and arguments for good viewing/reading rather than it being real life

I think their audience will get bored of them very quickly, and they will become also-ran reality TV types

I never hear anyone in my friendship or family circles mention them so I'd imagine they're like me and couldn't care less about anything they have to say.

@BlueKaftan Have you been treated poorly living there? I have had 100% positive experiences as an American in England but only traveled for work and pleasure. Mostly for work.