Harry - what next?

[TrashyPanda]

Continuation thread for all things Harry, Meghan and all things Archewell.

welcome back everyone!

The Spotify exec has rightly noticed that due to his widespread unpopularity, crriticising Harry makes for good publicity.

He'll probably be getting death threats and snark from the Sussex Squad loons on Twitter and elsewhere tho

Harry has never had to work in the sense any of us understand . Earning money is alien to him. He did work in the Army but didn’t need to support himself and it was a hierarchy where he was told what to do and didn’t have to think for himself . He’s used to being idle and having everything handed to him on a plate. I can’t imagine he likes being questioned or pressed to do things either.

@MadamWhiteleigh
Can I ask a question, a genuine one?

What do people think they should do to support themselves financially? What kind of work should they do from here in on, that will provide an income?

I think they could work in the sewers, I mean the amount of crap that they keep spouting out.

Unfortunately??
Is there a requirement for royals to look a certain way?
Surely what’s in the inside is far more important?

HTH.

I think people generally and Harry in particular underestimates the work that goes into podcasts. Look at joe Rohan’s one, each one goes on for 3-4 hours! And he has literally hundreds of them. It must be mentally and physically demanding to chat chat chat for that long multiple times a week every week. I couldn’t do it.
all successful podcasts are successful because they are regular and consistent and interesting and people incorporate them into their daily activities. I know I do. So I listen to one daily on my walk to the station and it’s the same one for each day of the week. so on Thursdays it’s a history podcast I like. Tuesday a political one etc etc. It’s a habit.No way could Harry have maintained that level of work and consistency.
I think he thought his name was enough and actually someone else would do the hard work and he could just pop in and says few things ( which is probably more or less how it works in the royal family)

@sashagabadon can you mention some of your favorites? I'm always looking for good podcast recommendations!

I think Joe Rogan is at times kind of a crank but he’s undoubtedly successful… I vaguely remember H&M were trying to get his show cancelled at one point?

Princess Anne was slim and had good skin so was an attractive young woman.

But she wasn't conventionally beautiful. And she didn't play it up and make it her thing. She didn't keep us eager to see what she wore or wondering how she maintained such high beauty standards.
Like Kate and Meghan do.

She just turned up looking appropriately dressed and did a good job.

It's not really about the fact she was/wasn't attractive she just never made it a central thing about her.

It's not surprising Harry and William married beautiful women because men do if they have that choice, and obviously their beauty is central to their image, has to be maintained, and packaged for the audience.

The world loves beautiful women and fashion, and Kate and Meghan are commodities in that market.
Ann never was. Didn't need to be, and didn't want to be.

I like Rest is History for example, it comes twice a week I think Tuesdays Thursdays . I actually look forward to my walk to the tube now as I enjoy what I listening to.
I also listen to sone finance podcasts and a couple of political ones but not the Alastair Campbell one as I am not a fan.
i do get sick of hearing some people though even ones I have liked it past and so just stop listening and bin them off my download list!
but there’s literally loads out there.

It’s pretty damning that it’s cancelled due to lack of content, not numbers (although they weren’t great after the first few). It will give pause to others as it’s unprofessional that they didn’t fulfil their contract despite offers of help to get going. They are coming across as hard work, and I wonder if once there’s no money in attacking the RF they will find it hard to sign deals.

im going to use an old fashioned description for Ann - a handsome woman. She’s not Hollywood pretty - I think they’re all dull looking esp following surgery. Ann is great.

I also think Anne is a good looking woman, and was in her younger years. I understand it’s subjective, but I think most folks would think Anne was attractive, not conventionally so, but absolutely she was attractive.

In comparison to some of the well-subscribed podcasts on Spotify, where 10-15 a month is commonplace, releasing H+M's total offering of 12 episodes is dismal. And obviously they didn't attract the volume of subscriptions expected. No wonder Spotify chose to part company with them. They just can't seem to sustain any level of commitment to any one project.

if Harry had his head screwed on, he could have become a patron of SSAFA the Armed Forces Charity that would have been highly compatible with his military background. He could have been a force for good, promoting the good work it does alongside all the associated military charities. Instead he'd sooner waste his time navel-gazing woe-is-me in a court room fighting battles he can't hope to win. He has really lost his way, and squandered his privileged background.

My take on it H&M wanted the half in / half out HMQ said no. Well have a meeting at x date in 2/3 months time.

H&M had a strop and issued the press statement they were going without really thinking through how they would earn a living.

Charles agreed to support for a year, they kept the door open for the year too.

H&M did so much damage during the Oprah interview. They kept referring to the Royal Family but really he was talking about his Dad and Gran.

I agree they

They could have done so much as full-time Royals, invictus, ethnic minorities, support for bereaved children (1 in 20 will loose a parent or sibling before they are 16), Mental health issues.

Where do they go from here?
Very difficult for them to turn the whole thing round and get people behind them again. Fade away into the background would probably suit H but not M. But that doesn't bring them an income.

The whole nonsense about the car chase and people seeing right through it is nuts too.

Harry just never seems to look happy. I almost think H would want the US to withdraw his visa that gives him a reason to leave. He is absolutely stuck between a rock and a hard place. He has alienated his family and friends too.

Harry could have partnered with eminent historians and done a series of historic podcasts about his royal ancestry, perhaps a bit humorous/ lighthearted and geared towards the young student, to bring history to life and make it more relatable.

He could have used his royal status to work with people who the average person wouldn't gain access to, but he is frustratingly turgid in his lack of creative thinking. What would we do to have his open door to pretty much anyone he'd care to work with!

@sashagabadon if you enjoy self-improvement/modern psychology, a good one is The 10% Happier podcast, which is ad-free and really varied and has the host Dan Harris discussing everything from Buddhist meditation through everyday psychology such as Impostor Syndrome, working with challenging personality types, recognising the attributes of our emotions (that's Brene Brown who is my favourite researcher, author of Atlas of the Heart).

I love the rest is history podcast too.

Actually that’s a great idea for Harry. People love Royal History and find it endlessly interesting and it has hundreds of years to plunder so you would literally never run out of content.
and he famously never showed any interest in history at school and clearly does not understand monarchy now so he could be taught it ( as well as us listeners) by experts in Tudor History or the war of the roses or the creation of England with Alfred the Great and the Anglo Saxon chronicles and the Magna Carter and King John and 1066 and Richard 3rd etc etc etc.
you could call it Harry learns History 😁
once completed you could move on to the Romans!

Tbf I think Anne has managed to stay out of the press because A. She was a Royal and not married in, and B. she's not at all attractive so no one was particularly interested in her

if interest is driven by how one looks, I’m wondering how so many perfectly ordinary looking people become household names? Or is it only Royals who have to be “attractive”?

Anne has always generated headlines. From the day she was born. And she has always risen above them. Because that is who she is. And that is why admire her - because she is the genuine article. What you see is what you get - an intelligent, committed, loyal woman.

Harry could learn so much from her

Anne could easily have capitalised in the interest in her as a young woman, particularly after her first marriage. She could easily have courted the press in a particular way, and provided material. Even now, she could have an Instagram account, or Twitter. She chooses not to. She's had a private life. Also, a fruitful public one.

What is “unfortunate” about anybody having a family resemblance?

being “attractive” is a superficial, external characteristic. It tells us nothing about the person, other than that they look a certain way.

@daisychain01 the ancestry podcast would kind of be the same route as Princess Mako whom someone mentioned upthread. She's now an Asian history / art intern at the Met Museum – imagine her going "oh yes we have that lying around the house".

If you've read Spare though, his rambling narratives about even ancient family history all come back to Mummy... So I imagine for Harry, going down that path will be laden with baggage. I also imagine he might not want to be pigeonholed as having a 1 dimensional existence (living off his Windsor-ness) even though that's the extent of his talent.

(Then again, the family skeletons & resistance to pigeonholing is probably the same for Mako, based on years of reporting. I do think they have very different cultural conditioning/ideals though – visible even in Mako's abdication when she returned the customary abdication gift out of duty/a sense of debt towards the Japanese people, whether misplaced or justified – which feeds into their post-migration choices as well.)

I think Princess Anne’s trajectory follows pretty much every woman in the public eye. She was loved when she was young and beautiful. Then as she began to age she was ruthlessly attacked throughout middle age (how dare she get older instead of stay young and beautiful forever). Now as she gets older, she moves into grandmother territory so she’s unthreatening to the patriarchy, so she’s admired for her actual achievements. Pretty much the same for all royal women.

Nooo. Not the Romans. Why are the British obsessed with the Romans? I mean, what did they ever do for us?

Standards of beauty/attractiveness are unique to each of us.

it tends to be mainly women who are judged by their looks. But we have seen Charles and William critiqued on their looks; judged and found wanting.

looks do not reflect who a person is.

Harry looks like Harry. He doesn’t look like a male model.

Kate is lucky enough to have won the genetic lottery - beautiful face, fabulous hair, amazing figure.

Meghan chose a career where looks are everything.

william had an incredible resemblance to Diana as a youngster. He was probably mortified about being made into a pin-up by teenage magazines!

He could learn about British history, not just English history.