I 100% agree that history will be a little kinder on these two. I'm not taking sides. I believe no side is 100% innocent.
I also believe both Meghan and Kate are being used as scapegoat in this whole family feud.
I 100% believe Harry when he says that there's been planting of stories about him and Meghan by the Palace (though most of these stories turned out to be true). I don’t know about William or BP but looking at his history, Charles is definitely guilty of this. Let’s not forget that, the year his divorce from Diana was finalised, he hired Mark Bolland to rehabilitate his and Camilla’s image and make her more acceptable to the public and his office had no problem throwing other family members under the bus, including his sons. We know his office leaked Camilla’s first meeting with William to the Sun, less than a year after Diana died. The article was so detailed that only a person who was in the room could’ve known all of this. Of course, 16 year old William didn’t say this to the press. We know he also planted stories about Harry in the 2000s.
Now, I wonder if Charles was behind Kate getting bad press when she was dating William. Looking at the timeline, it was when C&C were getting engaged and eventually married.
There’s a great documentary on Youtube called « reinventing the royals » talking about Charles’ PR operations in the 90s-00s.
You’d think Charles matured and learned from this but no, still today, nothing has changed. I’ve noticed recently that everytime Charles gets a little bit of heat, an article about the Waleses or W&K v H&M pops up in the media a few hours later. Just recently :
-Charles gets criticised for kicking H&M out of Frogmore Cottage and giving it to Andrew. A couple hours later, articles came out saying that W&K wanted Royal Lodge.
-« Harry and Charles are open reconciliation but William isn’t » articles, painting William as the villain who’s in the way of the father-son reunion
-Tom Bower just alleged, yesterday, that the reason Meghan is not going to the coronation is because Kate doesn’t want her there. Now, suddenly today, we’re getting « Charles is saddened he can’t see his grandchildren » articles, painting Charles as the poor grandfather who just wants to see his grandkids and Kate, the villain preventing it from happening.
-This week, we got stories that Charles refused to financially support Meghan and Harry while they were working royals. A few hours later, «Kate said that the walkabout with Meghan was the hardest thing she’s ever done », paining her as someone who just had it easy her entire life. Well, it worked. That story overshadowed the Charles money story.
-Charles was getting backlash for allowing Andrew to attend and walk with him to church. A few hours later, « Kate broke protocol by wearing red nails polish » articles popped up.
Maybe, I’m crazy but this theory makes sense, I think. Charles has the top job. He needs to let go of this idea of being beloved by the people. He lost the popularity battle after the Panorama interview and the war after Diana died. His heir is more popular than him and that’s not gonna change.
I also believe that Harry and Meghan also planted stories to the press. Let’s not forget that Meghan collaborated with Omid Scobie on « Finding Freedom ».
These two are a weird case because I totally felt sympathy for them when they decided to leave. I’m also 100% team Meghan when it comes to her feud with her paternal side of the family. I used to feel sorry for Tom Sr. I thought that he was just a regular guy who was manipulated by the media into taking some photos to look presentable to his daughter’s future in-laws but the way he’s been treating her since then is horrible. I’m not even going to comment on Samantha and Tom Jr, just pure trash.
Then, the Oprah interview happened and this is what tells me that a lot of people didn’t watch the full interview. The couple made explosive claims regarding mental health and racism. On the mental health part, a lot of people started blaming the royals, accusing them of denying Meghan help when she felt suicidal but Meghan clearly said that they went to ask for help and it was denied. Later on, Harry said that he didn’t tell his family of Meghan’s issues because he was « ashamed of admitting it to them ». This is where, I think, a lot of people didn’t make the difference between the family and the Firm. So, Meghan went to the Firm but they never told the family what was going on.
Then there were a lot of crazy claims that were debunked, like accusing the palace of taking her car keys and passport, basically saying she was a prisoner for months when she was traveling to NY (twice, Italy, South of France,…)
Finally, the racism allegation, gaslighting the public, implying to the whole world that one royal was being racist and had « concerns » about Archie’s skin tone only for him to backtrack 2 years later, after his family was bashed for 2 years, and say that he doesn’t believe his family are racist. Meghan said that Harry is the one that heard the comment so it looks like he completely gaslighted his wife into thinking that it was a racist comment and ended up, eventually, throwing her under the bus.
It’s after the Oprah interview that the couple started losing credibility, to me.
I think the British press is absolute trash and the way they’ve been obsessing over Meghan and hating on her is ridiculous but I also believe that they also can be manipulative with the media and play victim a lot.
I also think Harry still has a lot of trauma and definitely needs professional help. The whole situation is sad