Harry and Meghan and the coronation.

[purpledalmation]

If King Charles asked people not to boo the couple and did a deal with newspapers and TV to not print pictures of them or comment on their appearance, do you think they would come.

If there was a total news blackout where they were concerned (which I would just love!) so we didn't have to even see them, (apart from a passing glimpse), i think I could bear them coming. Daddy clearly want them there. Fatted calf and all that.

Would this get around the problem of them taking the spotlight away from the actual ceremony?

@Cam22 I find you disingenuous and unpleasant and would appreciate it if you could refrain from quoting me further. Thanking you in advance.

Why take photographers or inform other photographers or get a lackey to issue a press release? She is not important - and in no way does she represent the British RF.

She walked away from that when she realised there was a pecking order and she was not in the top tier. She’d have had to bag William to be front the and he would never have been allowed to marry a C lister with a bit of a past.

@skullbabe Sigh - now you change tack. So she didn’t
take photographers - I think you accept that.
Sigh...I wish you'd learn to read what people actually say. I didn't say she didnt take her own photographer, I said 'even' if she didn't, she knew what the outcome would be. No one knows for sure, except her. She knew there would be cameras. Shes an actress, she loves cameras.

…to be front row…

Sounds like you think you’re on the losing side. Tough.

Then Daily Mail and Buzzfeed are lying because they asked for statements

They are indulging in common journalistic puff, which those kind of publications all do. “A Sussex Representative confirmed to Buzzfeed News”; “The Duchess of Sussex told Town and Country” “A spokesperson shared with Hello!”…all the various formulations make the publication sound like they are in the know, with exclusive links to the source, when in reality they are just quoting a press release.

Better publications - the Times, the BBC the Guardian etc will generally say when something comes from a statement and when it’s
something they have genuinely been told directly, but not always.

(On PR tactics - did you never wonder where the “What’s Hot?”/“Editors Picks”/“What We Love Right Now?” columns in women’s magazines come from? Press releases, from the companies pushing their products, mostly 😀)

Good point.

IF (huge if) she had wanted to carry out this visit anonymously, she would have ignored the bank of photographers

You'd think so wouldn't you?
Nobody's suggesting she should have given them a swift kick in passing, but just to lay the flowers and leave would have done the job if it had to be done at all

However being snapped actually with them tells a story in itself. We may never know whether the cameramen were "hers", but with their history of taking their own along it's hardly surprising if people wonder

Indeed. Not many are naïve enough to think otherwise.

Please for the love of god, stop flogging this dead horse. It was crass and innapropriate for her to drop in like lady bountiful to a hoard of photographers and a media circus. In fact every one of them should have gone and left those poor families to grieve in peace. Does anyone seriously think a load of crass celebrities will make one parent feel in the slightest bit better?

Did Harry not just 'write' a book bemoaning (amongst other things) the system of privilege which left him the spare rather than the heir? If he's anti the system, why would he want to attend a symbol of that system of privilege? It's all baffling to me.

I clearly remember Roya Nikkhah stating on the telly that she had rang up Sussex team to ask what would be done for Archie's birthday. This was the time he turned 1 and MM was reading to him. H&M team, said A will be seen, but did not give details. They then put out a statement about the reading and everyone took it up. Sounded natural to me that they would put out a statement if the phones are ringing asking the same question.

Ofcourse MM was seen at the school, why not publicise and make the school gain a playground at the back of that.

According to MN, all these people who came far and wide to pay respects were 'attention seeking' and 'playing for the cameras'. Oh, and they brought their own photographers too seeing as they feature prominently.

Sounded natural to me that they would put out a statement if the phones are ringing asking the same question.

“We have seen a photo on our news wire that Meghan made a special trip to Uvalde to lay flowers on a public memorial following a tragic massacre there, and look sad and thoughtful. Can you please tell us why she did this? Because we can’t possibly write up what we’re seeing in this picture without you giving us a saccharine quote too that centres her. Thanks!”

She absolutely should not have taken a private jet to Uvlade for what was basically a publicity shot. And she absolutely should not have gone on the day she did.

It was just two days after the shooting, the memorials in the town square had only just been set up. Many of the PARENTS and families and friends of the victims hadn't even had the chance to go and lay flowers at their child's cross.

If it had been her home town (not even State) her birth place - like Matthew Mcconaughey - then visiting in person after the families, teachers and notable locals had had their time at the memorial wouldn't have been seen as inappropriate.

When politicians and royals go to visit disaster areas etc they liaise with the people at the scene and find out when it is okay for them to turn up because individuals who bring teams with them are intrusive in situations like this - she had at least a team of four with her. And the reason people think she had a camera and a film crew with her is that as she leaves that memorial at least one cameraman and a small film crew are rushing after her, get in a car behind her car and follow them.

Now that might not have been a crew she brought but it looks like her presence was distracting enough that she attracted press attention and it meant she ended up being part of the story of that day which was again, totally inappropriate.

She donated a couple of boxes of sandwiches to the blood donation center, sure that's nice but she CHARTED A PRIVATE JET to fly 1000 miles to do so.

If she was moved by the situation all she had to do was make a public statement of sympathy, make an anonymous donation to the town, and possibly follow up with a strong statement about gun violence in the following weeks - from California. That's what you do when you are doing something FOR the person affected by a tragedy and not for yourself.

I don't hate Meghan and Harry. I'm alternately mildly irritated, amused or shocked by things they have done but this stunt makes me so mad.

It's performative grief for publicity - it's so inappropriate.

She donated a couple of boxes of sandwiches to the blood donation center, sure that's nice but she CHARTED A PRIVATE JET to fly 1000 miles to do so

So what was wrong with calling the local H-E-B supermarket and ordering the sandwiches through them - maybe with a lovely message included?

And why a private jet when, last time I loooked, there were nonstop flights from LAX to San Antonio and Uvalde's only about 80 miles from there?

@wordler Well said. Sums up what a 101 people here have said but still people come back trying to excuse the inexcusable.

Yeah - I know I was being a bit repetitive and it ended up long but I could feel myself getting worked up about it. I remember being shocked at the time.

I'm in the USA too and have a DD in a school here and it terrifies me that something like this could happen to her - mass shootings and school shootings are a weekly reality for those of us living here. My DD's school has a police office stationed at the school - how weird and horrible is that?

It infuriates me that MM made that tragedy a publicity opportunity for herself.

I’m not sure that the argument that she’s is an actress ergo she loves cameras is a valid one.

I suggest you take a step back and review this conversation- my whole point to start off is that regardless of what she does she will be criticised as some sort of affront to the RF. You especially were upset with Uvalde and with some others asserted many things which happened which simply didn’t. You feel that she shouldn’t have been there at all - there is absolute space for that argument and it’s a fair comment - you don’t seem to acknowledge or give space for anything but the worst interpretation of why she did it.

I will be camping over the coronation but have no doubt that when I come back there will thread after thread devoted to them. It will be a shame if some grown adults are reduced to booing or throwing missiles in the streets - hopefully they will be dealt with in the same manner as the plain paper protesters.

@wordler It would terrify any parent. I know it's a very contentious issue around guns and I feel it's a genie that will never be put back in the bottle, so you have to learn to live with it. I can still remember the horror of the Dunblane school shooting, but gun laws were tightened up massively and it's very difficult to own a gun now. I know because DH has shotguns simply for shooting pigeons and occasionally pheasants. He is inspected annually. School shootings are rare though in any country and it's something you can only pray will never happen. I know that thing about aeroplanes rarely crashing, but it still terrifies me to get on one.

What a gross thing to do, posting those photos of people grieving in Uvalde here. These are not actresses, nor princesses, nor celebrities. They did not fly on private jets to be there. They are likely grieving residents of Uvalde and family members.

That's what I thought. I believe the residents are of Mexican origin mainly, and the people look like this, so I don't think they flew in randomly (if that was the point of the post). I wonder if any gave consent?

Where is everyone reading this private jet story, because none of the coverage say this.

It says that she had one bodyguard and came with food/drinks/snacks etc and spoke to everyone and no one even knew who she was till after, they thought she was just one of the neighbours or locals.

Erm, they are splashed all over the internet, shared all over the GLOBE !

If they had issues, I think those pics would be down by now? FFS.

Naughty South Park. Naughty, naughty, naughty.