Inconsistencies in Spare over hearing about Queen Mother's death

[Ridemeginger]

Harry writes that he found out about the Queen Mother's passing away (in March 2002):

"At Eton, while studying, I took the call. I wish I could remember whose voice was on the other end. A courtiers I believe. I recall that is was just before Easter, the weather bright and warm, light slanting through my window, filled with vivid colours. "Your Royal Highness. The Queen Mother has died." "

News reports at the time reported he was skiing in Switzerland with Charles and William. The Queen Mother died on 30 March 2002. Easter Saturday. He wouldn't have been at school.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/622457.stm

Recollections may vary, indeed! I doubt very much Harry would have taken the call if he's been with his father.

Didn't the editors do any fact checking?

To be fair on Harry, if you only went into TK Max once a year you could be forgiven for thinking there was an annual sale on as it always looks like there's a sale on in there! Among all the falsehoods I think it's possible he did go there as there's a TK Max a couple of minutes walk from Kensington Palace.

As one American commented, “For a man who says he wants privacy, he won’t even allow his privates to be private!”

I agree he probably went. But the articles quote him going into detail about what stock they would have during the ‘yearly sale’ and how he had a system for it and would go particularly for the sale.

I think he probably shopped there and added on some nonsense, that he thought would make him more relatable and like he shopped there a lot.

But again it asks the question. Is his memory so unreliable he remembers (on multiple occasions) planning his clothes shopping with a friend based on a non existent sale, not just because there a sale but because that’s when they had the brands he liked, when it didn’t happen like that?

Or he is over embellishing (lying) and genuinely believes anyone who reads it won’t question anything?

Harry said that Meghan paid for her father to fly Air New Zealand first class from Mexico to London. ANZ have come out and said not only do they not have first class, only business, they don't and never have flown between Mexico and the UK.

^ yes, another one
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11622293/Prince-Harry-Spare-Air-New-Zealand-exposes-two-holes-claims-Meghan-Markles-father-Thomas.html

The point is the whole thing is a load of unreliable fiction made up by a ghost writer. The ghostwriter has more or less admitted it. He has teased out of the idiotic Harry juicy pieces of gossip which he knows will sell and now - true or now - gullible members of the public with no brains are falling for it and buying the tripe.

I expect they’d have booked Thomas Markle on a flight from LAX to LHR & because MM booked it H didn’t know the details so just made them up/guessed not realising fact checking is important.

I think he’s proved he isn’t detail oriented and why he didn’t progress in the army.

Attributing the ‘No mercy’ quote to ex private secretary to the queen when it was actually Sir Trevor Philips. Obviously to Harry the optics look better if it’s attributed to a palace aide (pale and stale) to demonstrate that the palace are out to get them.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11630209/Dickie-Arbiter-demands-apology-Prince-Harry-quote-apparently-misattributed-him.html

The point is that no one would be bothered particularly about the details and inaccuracies if Harry had not launched such a vicious attack on his family. However because of that attack we must question the credibility of the whole book and it appears that the whole book is just not credible. So we wonder just how credible the attack on the RF and the press is. It has been shown already that his paranoia with the press coverage of MM in the early days is largely unfounded so probably his paranoia with the RF is too. It’s very sad to me because if he has married the right woman he would’ve been the most popular member of the royal family. As it is he is likely to come the spare when MM is finished with him and discards him in favour of some other rich guy

I believe he has always been like this. This is why he hates the press so much as they are the only ones who hold him to account. He has clearly had a lifetime of never taking responsibility which was enabled by the palace. Just now, that he’s gone rogue that we are finding out that he doesn’t live in reality like the rest of us. He lives in a world where even if you lie, there’s no consequences and negative impact. He’s just made millions from from this book that can’t be trusted, reinforcing his behaviour.

Harry just doesn't seem to think about the fact that these are real people on the end of his attacks - which is bad enough when they are accurate, but really serious when they are not because he can't be bothered to check. It's all "Poor me" and "Poor Meghan" but everyone else just has to suck it up.

Exactly, the way he treats people is appalling.

I think people need to start discussing the class element in all this. Harry being upper class, treating others that actually work for a living with distain. Be it people who work in the palace, on the news desk, those on his Sussex team. These are real people, who have mortgages to pay etc and live in the real world.

He doesn’t believe he has to be accountable to ordinary people. He is an odious snob

I am reminded of the movie Shine which was about the pianist David Helffgott and was based around the character assassination of his father. Everyone who knew the father said it was completely untrue - he was not like that -but of course Hollywood with the big bucks had made the movie based on what a mentally ill man had recalled.

The TKMaxx stuff just adds to the poor and hard done by narrative. It's known as TJMaxx in the States, and everyone knows it's a place to find discount clothing. So the inference is, not only is did Harry not get much money from his Dad for clothes, but he only got enough to go to a discount shop when they were discounting their discount.

There is something about reading a book/film that adds truth. Throughout my life I’ve met people who exaggerate/lie or minimise, and those who rarely take anything personally to those who see everything as personal (I’m slightly guilty of the latter). Memoirs are from people who are as flawed (or more so) than the rest of us but their word gains weight through being published

Another daft inaccuracy is the first date outfit. Meghan said a blue dress - and is on film showing a reporter her wedding dress, where a bit of the blue dress is woven in as her "something blue" (which I thought was just such a lovely thing to do).

In the book, Harry's rushing to this first date post wetting himself on a boat and is late. He says she's wearing black sweater, blue jeans and boots and points out that she looked very chic.

C'mon fact checkers and editors! How hard could this be to get right?

I would say about first dates is they can vary by interpretation. To some it would be the first meeting but for others the first time they were officially asked. As an example a blind date would be up for interpretation

This is coming through as a strong theme for me too. There was an anecdote about how much of the book was put together over zoom during various lockdowns. The child of someone walked into shot and Harry got the person removed from the project. Not ideal agreed, but it was a time when people's children were walking in on news interviews. It shows how much distain Harry has got people who don't have multiple rooms and staff to help out.

I mean surely he had clothes enough to take with him?

KC may have bought his "working" clothes but he must have owned casual stuff as well?

And so what if he bought eg shorts/tshirts from a discount place as he needed a few of each?

Does he think that he should wear designer all the time & people will care if he doesn't?

How much was "Pa" giving them a month when they first left?

Yes I had seen that too. This was source from the his publishing company wasn’t it? So they arguably never had an axe to grind.

I genuinely can’t believe that a posh toff has managed to convince so many people how he has had it so bad, when time and time again there are hideous examples of his own behaviour. There was a story that an attractive blonde invited to a balmoral shoot, was mocked by Harry for her northern working class accent when he realised he wasn’t getting anywhere with her.
I can’t believe people can’t see him for what he is

And partly explains why America has taken to him because the class system there isn’t as pronounced as it here, so they just wouldn’t interpret things that way.

This does seem to be happening.

I pointed out an massive inconsistency that had upset a poster - then there's post saying Harry should be able to tell his truth - his truth to an event he wasn't present for versus an actual formal record from an eye witness.

People know the crown is fiction inspire by true events yet still struggle to remember this.

I am really starting to hate this post truth world - I know it's always existed propaganda /PR and history written by the winners it's just how blatant the inconsistence get these days and how little it seems to matter.

It also just so happens that the papers that he has the most venom for are the red tops. The main demographic of these papers are working class. The broadsheets? not so much hate from Harry. Funny that isn’t it?

I think people need to start discussing the class element in all this. Harry being upper class, treating others that actually work for a living with distain.

Looking at the TK Maxx story made me wonder what the staff thought about him coming in fifteen minutes before closing time and carting gigantic bags full of stuff to the tills.

Bet they loved him.

I think people need to start discussing the class element in all this. Harry being upper class, treating others that actually work for a living with distain.

I think that would be missed in USA - their main market - but I've seen a few things highlighted that make me think of pulp's common people song - the you'll never get it right - anecdotes that I suspect are meant to make him sound relatable and ordinary.