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The royal family

Queen offered Meghan a choice of tiaras

380 replies

babsanderson · 16/01/2023 13:17

Below is an extract that describes Meghan being given the tiara to wear for her wedding by the Queen. Another passage describes hoe Angela Levin would not allow Meghan to get access to the tiara before her wedding to practise it with her hairdresser.

"Next came the question of a tiara. My aunts asked if Meg would like to wear my mother’s. We were both touched. Meg then spent hours and hours with her dress designer, getting the veil to match the tiara, giving it a similar scalloped edge. Shortly before the wedding, however, Granny reached out. She offered us access to her collection of tiaras. She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. Do come over, I remember her saying.
Extraordinary morning. We walked into Granny’s private dressing room, right next to her bedroom, a space I’d never been in. Along with Granny was a jewelry expert, an eminent historian who knew the lineage of each stone in the royal collection. Also present was Granny’s dresser and confidante, Angela. Five tiaras were arrayed on a table, and Granny directed Meg to try on each one before a full-length mirror. I stood behind, watching.
One was all emeralds. One was aquamarines. Each was more dazzlingly stunning than the last. Each took my breath. I wasn’t the only one. Granny said to Meg quite tenderly: Tiaras suit you.
Meg melted. Thank you, Ma’am.
One of the five, however, stood out. Everyone agreed. It was beautiful, seemingly made for Meg. Granny said it would be placed in a safe directly and she looked forward to seeing it on Meg’s head come the Big Day. Make sure, she added, that you practice putting it on. With your hairdresser. It’s tricky and you don’t want to be doing it for the first time on the wedding day."

Spare, Harry

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OnTheBoardwalk · 16/01/2023 23:43

stories, why eugenie doesn’t mind is not seen as being another such plant? After all what could she say, she is way down the pecking order

Eugenie is a princess something that no offspring of Megan will ever be

i don’t care who is who at a family wedding. You don’t announce your pregnancy at a family wedding

Eyerollcentral · 16/01/2023 23:51

notanotheroneagain · 16/01/2023 23:39

Why do people keep rehashing this, and keep leaving out that H says, it was not about her, and he was trying to impress the other boys. That she realised and laughed as well.

Her job was to look after idiotic 8yr olds, she was hardly going to be scared for life, she knew and loved her job. Just as you won't be committing suicide because some 8yr old fool called you names or made fun of your appearance.

Get a life. Sheeesh !

Probably because 25 years later he kept going on about how unattractive she was in comparison to the other hotties. Also women don’t exist for people to make fun of to impress their mates. Finally he didn’t express any embarrassment or regret about his actions. He wasn’t 8, he was 12/13. He knew fine rightly what he was doing was wrong and he still dgaf

Eyerollcentral · 16/01/2023 23:52

OnTheBoardwalk · 16/01/2023 23:43

stories, why eugenie doesn’t mind is not seen as being another such plant? After all what could she say, she is way down the pecking order

Eugenie is a princess something that no offspring of Megan will ever be

i don’t care who is who at a family wedding. You don’t announce your pregnancy at a family wedding

Couldn’t agree more re the pregnancy. It’s incredibly poor form and a real bitchy thing to do considering that she’d already had her wedding pushed back once for this pair

Ohnonevermind · 16/01/2023 23:57

It was a misogynistic and dick move by Harry to discuss a woman in such terms without her consent.

I can’t believe posters think it’s okay.

Eyerollcentral · 17/01/2023 00:05

@Ohnonevermind the poster here is the first person I have ever seen try to defend him, didn’t expect it tbh!!!

AppleDumplingWithCustard · 17/01/2023 01:00

ShamedBySiri · 16/01/2023 22:11

There's a few details from Angela Kelly's book here, about how The Queen chose brooches from a selection offered by her dressers. I don't know how many dressers she had but obviously more than one, AK being the chief one in recent years. So I'm sure someone else could have managed the tiara request if AK was on holiday.

www.instagram.com/p/CjMeQE8PFi1/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

But Angela Kelly wasn’t just a dresser. Her official title was Personal Assistant, Adviser and Curator to Her Majesty The Queen (Jewellery, Insignias and Wardrobe). She alone was responsible for the Queen’s jewels.

londonmummy1966 · 17/01/2023 01:00

My take for what it's worth is that Harry has the same attitude to "staff" that he courtiers do - ie that they are to be looked down on. As a dresser (what would once have been a ladies maid) Harry saw AK as staff and would not expect her to say no in the same way as eg a private secretary might. So he was offended that she didn't instantly jump to attention and probably saw her as an uppity scouser who had ideas above her station.

AK seems to have been on holiday when the request was made. The Queen had other dressers even if AK was chief dresser and so she probably had made all the arrangements with the team she thought necessary before going on holiday in terms of planning the Queen's personal wardrobe and jewels for the engagements that would take place whilst she was away.

Megan being lastminute.com/overwhelmed about wedding planning sent a message to AK asking for the tiara (probably on advice from the Queen to have a practice run with it as they are heavy and you need to design the hairstyle with a small braid across the head it can be sewn into). AK didn't respond immediately as she was away and so Megan panicked and ran to Harry. The numpty being his usual self didn't explain to her that there would be other dressers if AK wasn't around but instead threw his toys in the corner to AK that Megan wasn't getting what she wanted. (It might also be the case that the duty dressers weren't in London as they'd be with the Queen and she might well be elsewhere on royal duties etc etc.) AK came back to deal with the situation despite being on holiday and may well have said that more notice was necessary to get the tiara out/organise security etc. (It might even have been out for cleaning and checking over before the wedding.) Harry treated her with disrespect as "staff" who shouldn't stand up to him and AK was pretty P'd off about this, probably let Harry know that in no uncertain terms, and then told the Queen - hence the story/rumour that either Harry or Meghan or both were taken aside and told their behaviour wasn't acceptable. Harry's grudge against AK (clear from calling her AK-47) may well stem from his feeling that as a member of "staff" AK was acing above his perception of her station in reporting his bad behaviour to the Queen.

Ohnonevermind · 17/01/2023 08:02

The ‘Pat’ anecdote is just like something the misogynistic Jeremy Clarkson would have written.

Enko · 17/01/2023 08:32

Eyerollcentral · 16/01/2023 23:33

@TrashyPanda thats my view too. They are ok if he can fancy them - like the ‘hot’ matrons at school. But he HATES the older, unattractive buzz kill who won’t let him do whatever he wants. He clearly has a vendetta against Camilla, derides princess Anne, is downright offensive against princess Margaret. He has to respect the queen because she is the boss. The vitriol for Angela Kelly is something else though and there is no way it can be explained by his description of what happened with the tiara.

To be fair with regards to Margaret even in the queen's biography it is made clear Margaret disliked Diana intently and was rude about her. Including comments such as "can we just get this over wirh" and " you really need to install more bathrooms here (B Palace) as they were waiting to go to Diana's funeral.

I will actually give Harry a free pass here. I would dispise someone who was that rude about my mother around her funeral. Margaret knew better she just deemed Diana beneath her and resented she had to show for the funeral.

Coronateachingagain · 17/01/2023 08:53

OnTheBoardwalk · 16/01/2023 23:43

stories, why eugenie doesn’t mind is not seen as being another such plant? After all what could she say, she is way down the pecking order

Eugenie is a princess something that no offspring of Megan will ever be

i don’t care who is who at a family wedding. You don’t announce your pregnancy at a family wedding

The announcement of pregnancy on a big occasion is just Hollywood tactics, so everyone is rumouring and passing the news in the event that everyone is attending. Just stealing top of mind, which is quite common in showbizz but quite selfish in a family occasion obviously. Just lacking in taste and also a sign of being not very well educated as to manners.

bakalava · 17/01/2023 09:47

lljkk · 16/01/2023 20:42

H&M didn’t know they it would probably take more than 12 hours to arrange to have a priceless piece of Jewellery moved, didn’t give much notice.

Hold it right there.
Google says MM's wedding planner was a gal called Jessica Mulroney, also said JM was MM's "secret wedding planner."

MM didn't appoint a wedding planner, did she? Literally all this crap happened because she didn't hire/trust professionals to delegate to?

Jess is a professional wedding planner and dresser. She presented a series on Canadian TV in which she planned weddings for different couples. She was also a trusted friend at the time which made it twice as likely to run smoothly

StatisticallyChallenged · 17/01/2023 09:54

bakalava · 17/01/2023 09:47

Jess is a professional wedding planner and dresser. She presented a series on Canadian TV in which she planned weddings for different couples. She was also a trusted friend at the time which made it twice as likely to run smoothly

Funny how her kid had the best fitting dress...

If she was the official wedding planner it sounds like she may have been out of her depth, or H/M/both weren't letting her do her job?

I thought I'd read at the time that there was someone responsible for organising from the royal side, but I think it was one of the "men in grey suits" so perhaps he was limited to organising certain elements

babsanderson · 17/01/2023 09:55

Or maybe some people were determined to make life difficult for the black woman marrying into the Royal Family?

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Ohnonevermind · 17/01/2023 09:58

@babsanderson

She was welcomed with open arms, given accommodations no other girlfriend was given.

Meghan too busy thinking which A-listers she was going to invite to be her besties at the wedding to make timely decisions

ancientgran · 17/01/2023 10:00

notanotheroneagain · 16/01/2023 23:39

Why do people keep rehashing this, and keep leaving out that H says, it was not about her, and he was trying to impress the other boys. That she realised and laughed as well.

Her job was to look after idiotic 8yr olds, she was hardly going to be scared for life, she knew and loved her job. Just as you won't be committing suicide because some 8yr old fool called you names or made fun of your appearance.

Get a life. Sheeesh !

I don't know the woman, I don't know if she is alive but if she is and she has read that description of herself, not just the disability but the greasy hair etc, I feel sorry for her. It is a horrible description and it is not by an 8 year old it is by a 38 year old. He has said something offensive and has no insight to how the disabled Pat might feel.

Ohnonevermind · 17/01/2023 10:04

Harry is incapable of understanding anyone else’s view but his own, so your point @notanotheroneagain that Pat would understand according to Harry carries no weight.

StatisticallyChallenged · 17/01/2023 10:05

Oh look, more accusations of racism with no evidence. At least this time it's not a specific named person I guess

According to the Telegraph the ceremonial aspects are dealt with by the Lord Chamberlain's office, under guidance of Harry's then private secretary Edward Lane Fox

babsanderson · 17/01/2023 10:14

And the Queen reportedly told Meghan and Harry to liaise with Angela over the tiara. You know it is usual to have a management line? You do not always go yourself directly to the person who does a task.

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Ohnonevermind · 17/01/2023 10:17

If I ask for something at the last minute and it’s not possible I accept the fault lies with me for not making a timely request

i don’t have a tantrum or blame racism like a poster here.

babsanderson · 17/01/2023 10:19

@Ohnonevermind If I make a request of a staff member as I was advised to do so, I expect a reply or at a minimum an out of office reply. Not radio silence.

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Ohnonevermind · 17/01/2023 10:31

@babsanderson

we will have to wait for Angela’s side of the story as anyone would be a fool to take Harry’s word on anything

trucklebrunch · 17/01/2023 10:36

There a lot about the tiara-gate story that doesn't really make sense - I'd like to hear someone else's account apart from Harold's.

Thesealsknowsheismagic · 17/01/2023 10:44

babsanderson · 17/01/2023 10:19

@Ohnonevermind If I make a request of a staff member as I was advised to do so, I expect a reply or at a minimum an out of office reply. Not radio silence.

That’s your expectations. Not everyone else’s. If someone isn’t working to your expectations, that doesn’t mean they are wrong. It could equally be that your expectations are off.

It maybe how your employers works. It’s not how every employer works. It’s not process or best practice for everyone. Which has been explained to you in great length, on this thread.

You are taking your expectations and deciding that must apply to everyone in all situations in all jobs.

You haven’t read the book. Only part of it. Which part says that AKs actions had anything to do with Meghans skin colour or that anyone wanted to ruin her wedding, because of her skin colour?

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 17/01/2023 10:47

babsanderson · 17/01/2023 09:55

Or maybe some people were determined to make life difficult for the black woman marrying into the Royal Family?

Yep, that was why they had to have that cheap no frills wedding with no fuss or hoo-haa and it was ignored by the public and the RF.

notanotheroneagain · 17/01/2023 10:50

I don't know the woman, I don't know if she is alive but if she is and she has read

You are right, you don't know the woman.
I tell you who does know her though, Harry.
He even says, he was 'being a perfect ass' and that 'she'd laugh too. This was the best part'. And also says he loved watching 'Pat bust a gut'.

Also she was not disabled, just had a dodgy back and knee (presumably with age).

This is the thing about not reading a book and listening to hateful media take things out of context.
Just like the Taliban 'boast' which was not a boast at all.
Just like the 'xbox lie'. Where the next line says exactly that this was a narrative told to him and running through his life, but he does not even remember this taking place, was it true?