Grifters indeed! Can we have a lift Joe?

[ThePoshUns]

H&M asked if they could have a lift home on AF1 after HMQs funeral.
Environmentally friendly sure, but makes them look grabby and entitled again. Makes for a good story though.

Is it any of our business? her father clearly had health problems, who knows why or how they become less close if that is true. I think this is just fishing for something else to take a pop at Meghan about.

You really need to stop the fatuous nonsense about trashing the royal family. Particularly as Harry and Meghan were at such pains to make, in my view, a loving distinction between the institution qua institution, and the family qua family. The trashing nonsense is a tired tabloid narrative that makes the royal family sound like a mafia organisation against which insiders cannot speak without retribution, insiders cannot leave, bound in some sort of servitude with a menacing omertà. But perhaps that is how you see it.

Basically, what you mean is that Harry and Meghan are supposed to just take the abuse of the family, aided by the tabloid media, because they left, but are trashing the family if they defend themselves or explain in any way.

Unless you mean it's okay for them to be hounded as relentlessly as they were without ever defending themselves.

Why is it not "trashing" for Meghan to be accused of making Kate cry, but when Meghan and Harry explain what happens, it's trashing?

Why is it not trashing to smear Meghan with anonymous bullying complaints, announce a big investigation just before the Oprah interview, then not release the results, but when Harry talks about William assaulting him it's trashing?

Why is not trashing when press releases are issued in Harry's name without his knowledge, but when Harry points out that the press is working hand in glove with the Palace it's trashing.

Why is it trashing for them to push back against the sexist narrative of "Megxit", or for Harry to explain that it was his decision. Should they just accept that narrative, without pushing back and explaining what it was that led to their departure?

I could go on, but you get the drift.

The whole reason Victoria pulled out is because of Meghan. You couldn't make it up

What did he actually say? I can't find a trace of it online, and I would have expected to find a lot of chuntering about something so far-fetched

Such a good clear post, once again @MrsMaxDeWinter

I live in Victoria and the decision to cancel the Comm Games was because we didn't want to spend $7billion on 10 days of sport.

Exactly, who knows?

It's simply an unexplained issue that I wonder about.

If she hadn't been so very fulsome about him, repeatedly and publicly, so the change was sharp and obvious, I'd probably not have given it a second thought. I'm not demanding answers or anything silly like that. Just musing on a big change.

(Please don't ascribe invented motivations to me)

@EdithWeston

It is difficult to remember the huge press interest there was around Meghan and her family, friends and her past. As they explained in the docu-series, you had reporters taking over three flats next to Mr Markle, offering him money, gifts, anything, just to get him to talk.

At the same time, Samantha was popping up EVERYWHERE with her two cents' worth.

Obviously, Meghan was terrified that any report of a meeting would be passed to Samantha and sold to the press.

Imagine how distasteful it would have been if Kate Middleton's uncle had sold a story about William meeting Kate's family for the first time, and you can understand why this was not an option.

Meghan introduced Harry to the one person in her family she could trust not to feed the media beast, her mother.

I do get the drift indeed MrsMaxDeWinter. We clearly have quite different opinions. And that’s okay! I am quite happy to know that I’m not an outlier in terms of the eyebrows I have raised over their actions and outputs since they left in 2020.

To be fair to Bower, he also blamed Charles too, saying he's not engaged enough with the Commonwealth. It was interesting to hear Bower not speak that highly of C&C... hmmm....

On the host city pulling out...

His words "But the whole problem of why this has happened starts with Meghan and her accusations that the royal family are racist... "

How this would affect a momentous decision like a host city pulling out of this I do not know. They would hardly base their decision on what Meghan said a year or two ago!
And as a pp said "I live in Victoria and the decision to cancel the Comm Games was because we didn't want to spend $7billion on 10 days of sport."

Nothing to do with Meghan!

He managed to shoehorn Meghan into the conversation about the Commonwealth Games I think it was three times.

Imagine how distasteful it would have been if Kate Middleton's uncle had sold a story about William meeting Kate's family for the first time, and you can understand why this was not an option.

Gary Middleton did do exactly this though. He was caught in a tabloid sting operation in 2010 where he spoke about his first ever meeting with Prince William and offered the “Fake Sheikh” cocaine. He was invited to their wedding in 2011 the next year though, and the world did not stop turning.

Probably because there wasn't 48 threads on it on Mumsnet lol

Also @EdithWeston

Reading between the lines, the Markle family was very far from being a happy blended family.

They were all at one point estranged from each other.

The older two don't talk to their own mother, or any of their own children.

Thomas Snr is not in touch with his older grandchildren who are estranged from their parents, his oldest children.

I suspect Meghan's blog posts were her trying to curate a happier childhood than she had. It happens a lot with people who had unhappy childhoods but front by papering over the cracks, especially if they are in the public eye.

There is something clearly off about Thomas, my reading is that he is a recovered alcoholic who had significant financial upheavals. Thomas Junior in an early interview also said that he and Doria split up in part because he used to travel to Thailand for sex with prostituted women.

If that's true, that's hardly something Meghan will put in The Tig. So she focused on the happier memories, which would be as real as any unhappy ones.

Yes, I remember all that.

But it still does not explain why it was never done at any point (or indeed at that point, they needn't have said anything other than what they didn't mind being public, and depending on what he did or did not do, it might have made it possible to offer him more support before he make very public mistakes)

Nor does it shed light what had happened (which is the point I was idly musing on) to have broken the relationship which she had been so fulsome about until such a short time beforehand.

It'll remain one of those unexplained things, unless MM chooses to address it (which I suspect she won't - and yes of course I know she doesn't have to, this is curiosity not any form of justified interest)

The timing is very interesting. This sort of story seems to emerge when there's a new book coming out

Or when H&M have been relatively quiet for a bit and the wretched Fail need some more clicks ...

It's probably one of those where we'll never know; after all Biden's staff are unlikely to say anything officially, and on past form I find it best to take anything H&M say with a pinch of salt, so there doesn't seem much point in arguing endlessly on the basis of so little

You were critical of Meghan way before 2020, but you mostly kept your opinions to expressing how much you disliked the things she wore, as I recall. I remember you on quite a few She broke Protocol threads.

Funny that since she left, we are told now that protocol is not all that big a deal.

But I digress. It's okay that we don't agree.

Imagine deciding to marry someone and spend your life with them and not getting around to meeting their father. When you have all the money and time in the world to travel to do so.

I don't know whether the story is true but reading about it taught me something. I had no idea that Biden has to pay if his children hitch a lift on AF and the list of who pays was so interesting, politicians, journalists etc. I had always assumed that the plane was flying anyway so everyone rode for free whereas really Biden is one of the few not paying.

The only way I could see truth in the story is if Harry thought it would be an efficient way to get back to the US without realising that timings wouldn't work. I don't think the spin that is being put on it connecting a lift with supposed political ambitions is particularly convincing. Harry knows both the Bidens through Invictus and the Warrior Games which to me makes it more like getting a lift from a friend than a political master plan.

I suggest you stay off the Relationships board of this forum.

You will be shocked to see how many people are not in contact with their parents, many of whom have never met their grandchildren.

Meghan's story played out in public, But she is by no means the only person in the world who is estranged from one parent.

See also: Angelina Jolie and her father, Jennifer Aniston and her mother.

If it's not true I'm sure it won't be long before H&M sue the papers that reported the story. We shall see.

Given there are countless stories daily about them, why should they waste money and headspace sueing every bit of nonsense printed?

Yes I read all this too and hadn’t realised the rules . Fascinating.
If it is true ( and none of us know for sure) it seems a bit strange given that M and H were travelling back to LA and I assume AF1 was going to Washington.

I’m afraid your photographic memory has left you down MrsMaxDeWinter, as I didn’t start posting on MN until mid-2020 and I’ve only ever posted under one name. Sorry!

One doesn't ask the president of the United States for a lift!

To do so is gauche, inappropriate and a major lapse in judgment.

I used to be very pro H&M but my goodness, "grifters" certainly fits.

Unfortunately, once you start down the line of suing the press, then inferences are drawn about the stories where you do not act.

They are not fools. They will have considered that aspect, and be ready to act accordingly.

Yes this is what I find staggering. It’s just so incredibly rude.