What next for the Sussexes?

[Casuaala]

I thought yesterday couldn't have gone better, all things considered; there was the least amount of drama or negative coverage possible regarding the Sussexes.

I'd like to hope that this marks a fresh start. Harry's got all the recriminations off his chest. The Royal Family have maintained a dignified silence and hopefully the future is rosy. The Sussexes can have the life they want in the US, with a small presence in family events back here when appropriate. (I wouldn't be surprised however if Megan never makes it back on UK soil).

For each flawed memory, he lets us know from the start : 'this is flawed, because it may have been fed to me by the rf, it's a running narrative.

Does he really say that about the Queen Mother's death? That his memory is flawed because for some reason the RF wanted him to believe that he was at school when she died and that nobody in the family bothered to tell him?

Did the RF somehow feed Harry the story that his flight instructor stalled the plane without warning him beforehand?

Didn't he say in that book that he was a descendant of Henry VI? Was that fed to him by the RF too?

I mean I could go on but the mental gymnastics here are really Olympic standard. He actually went on tv and said how important it was that history is correct 🤦‍♀️

So Harry must believe there is come kind of collusion in all these false narratives being fed to him by the RF

Having been on the other end of someone believing their own lies/recollections (after a sustained campaign of desperately trying to discredit me/get me sacked/ arrested) I have a little bit of a problem with justifying it all with a ‘my memory is hazy’.

I can see how it happens. I’ve witnessed it. What my accuser thought in their head was the truth actually became the truth for him. The difference for me is that only a few thousand people heard what he was saying.

So did Harry publish his recollections for millions of people to hear with that caveat, knowing that it may just be his memory and that maybe most would take it as ‘he said it so it must be true’? That is irresponsible at best.

I can’t say what I think of it at worst.

Suffice to say, if you don’t know for certain things happened as you remember them to happen, then you don’t try to discredit another with it. You don’t spread it to the world.

To press on regardless is not the behaviour I would expect from an officer, a gentleman or a decent human being.

Charles had a reception of some sort the night before the Coronation that Camilla had also been expected to attend

That prompted me to check, and I see Camilla failed to attend several of the pre-coronation events, including the palace lunch, an evening reception and the walkabout

Oh dear ...

That’s weird, maybe she wasn’t feeling up to it all?

He has a persecution complex and he’s paranoid.

Harry allowed people to believe that the royal family are racist, that someone was so concerned about Archie's skin tone that they wouldn't give him a title. Shocking moment in that OW interview. Fast forward to the Tom Bradby interview. Harry says that they never claimed that the RF was racist, that was the UK press that said that. Now, no doubt some of you will come on and excuse him or explain it, but for several years he was prepared to have people believe that his family acted in a racist way to that baby, and that is not an honest thing to do. If your memory is that faulty, stop making rash - and damaging - claims.

Because to some POC what he described is racist. To others it’s unconscious bias. Both are wrong. More attention has been paid to how they revealed this & the words used, than the original person and their questioning of skin tone and why it’s a problem for people to discuss biracial and mixed race people this way. That is the important discussion.

@Whaeanui

If you take his descriptive powers as accurate. Many don’t think he is a trusted narrator

It's not right, @Whaeanui . I know many of us on her

Sorry, to finish - are part of mixed heritage families. We know the speculative conversations that occur about a new child's possible appearance. He chose to tell people that someone in his family are racist and then denied it. That is problematic.

It is the important discussion.

And yes both are wrong.

It still doesn’t take away, as Maireas said, I have said, and many others have said, that it was a very sweeping and unfair accusation to make. They did not accuse the perpetrator but almost everyone.

The reaction from OW made it look so very much more alarming than just unconscious bias.

As said it is still wrong.

But so is throwing accusations in the air and letting people deal with the fall out.

I have been subject to racism and unconscious bias. And I got the baby colour thing too. I wasn’t offended. Hurt. Thinking it was meant terribly. Because it wasn’t.

And I can tell you that the unfounded accusations based on someone’s ‘hazy memory’ damaged me, my life and career far more than any racism, bias or indeed my skin.

A hazy memory disclaimer doesn’t cut it for me.

@Maireas yes I understand your points. Do you think what he described happened, he didn’t use the word racist he retold a story, do you think it’s racist? I do know people who think it’s unconscious bias. I think it depends on the context a little but if offence is caused even unintentionally people should apologise.

They did not accuse the perpetrator but almost everyone.

Well my reading from this and the palace statement is that it wasn’t dealt with appropriately within the family. Racism within a family is a family issue. My in laws didn’t deal with it well either, and we don’t speak to them.

It may not have been dealt with appropriately within the family.

Still not an reason to let almost everyone in that family sit under that particular cloud.

@Whaeanui - Harry told Meghan that someone in the family speculated on the child's possible appearance, indicating that this was negative. Meghan told Oprah that there were "concerns" about what Archie would look like. She then suggested that these concerns meant no title for the baby. Oprah then displayed a shocked countenance. Right. Like you, and others on here, I understand and have lived with racism and cut out family members because of it. I also understand elderly relatives not using appropriate terminology in all innocence and it not being an issue. I have given birth to children whose colour and hair texture has been the subject of conversation. I get it. But to share all of this publicly, to imply, to suggest, to accuse, is unfair. Then to deny it? I just think it was unnecessary. Talk to the family members, get the truth, discuss it - cut them out if you want, but don't do it via Oprah.

Absolutely. Speak to the family members concerned like an adult. Don’t use it as fodder to garner sympathy on national TV because you’re too pathetic to speak to people directly.

They were very clever on OW, implied that titles and security were being denied because of the colour of Archie's skin, but didn't come out and say it directly. So there was nothing to deny, because they hadn't made any direct accusation, but it clearly implied racism.

And then, of course, didn't challenge the assumptions, but let them run.

Then, when it's coming back to bite them, went for 'but I never said....'

I've worked with someone like that, it was a nightmare until we all wised up to what was going on. Very manipulative.

I couldn’t agree more mixedrecycling

It was, for me, a masterclass in using a few carefully chosen words/phrases coupled with shrugs and/or facial expressions to convey everything without saying anything definitive. For me it just looked like they wound OW up like a spring.

I’m not sure why. They had valid points to address.

I don’t care for the mealie of mouth. They might not have actually said anything - True.

But they let people believe it/didn’t correct it. So wrong.

Part of the problem with the racism accusation / non-accusation is that whatever they actually meant (and it's hard to believe they didn't know exactly what they were doing), they allowed the press to play hunt the royal racist for months and forced the queen to issue a statement. When one of his big complaints is that his family didn't defend him and Meghan against false press stories.

And also that they allowed Kerry Kennedy to praise them for tackling structural racism in the RF and give them an award.

yep. gross hypocrisy. what we've come to expect.

Kerry Kennedy did an interview where she spoke about them receiving the Ripple of Hope for ‘standing up to structural racism in the RF’

Not only 'allowed' people to believe it, but in my opinion deliberately created that impression.

But, like a previous colleague, was so artlessly unaware that their words could have been taken that way if challenged!

Exactly this.

Well said. What I found frustrating was MM implied all sorts of things (titles being one) on OW, even though these things would have been known by Harry as they were protocol. I think both H&M do have some valid points, but the false naivity is a bit nauseating which makes it difficult for me to fully sympathise.