Kate Hate

[MamoruHisaishi]

I came across some old threads in other forums and also articles where Catherine was being criticized for being lazy, dumb, overrated, a gold digger and called all sorts of names. There were even threads that questioned why people disliked her so much, and multiple pages of replies stating why she was so disliked. I am wondering why this seems to have now been forgotten, even if Meghan became the new media target, why is it hardly mentioned the amount of hate and vitriol that Catherine went through?

most likely because on mn most threads are H&M bashing ones. or very negative(like the one you started today)

Kate is lovely. End of story.

Meghan can stay away. Win win.

I just find it interesting that some of the criticism directed at Kate back then seems to be a repeat of the criticism that's now directed at Meghan. I wonder whether the same criticism was directed back then at diana and fergie. It seems like the royal women, especially those who marry into it, really do suffer the brunt of the attacks. Oh and it's not just the uk royals who suffer from it. Princess Mary is another popular target of criticism it seems.

Doesn’t this often happen to the newcomer?

Camilla, Fergie, Kate come to mind

I always think Meghan should have a look at the abuse Diana and Fergie went through. She’d see it just goes with the territory and not solely aimed at her

Some of the comments I've read against Catherine were brutal, calling her brain damaged and at fault for exposing herself to the photo lens because she was naked outside. Just really cruel stuff. That's why I wonder why this all seems to have been forgotten just because the media did a 180 and started being nice to her when Meghan arrived. Also, I do remember that Meghan did get positive media reception to begin with, especially when she was compared to Catherine. She was called a breath of fresh air unlike boring dowdy kate. I only remember the negative articles started coming out right around or after the wedding. And even then, most people were very positive towards her including myself.

Because pointing out that Meghan and Kate received a lot of the same criticism doesn't fit the narrative that the lovely perfect white woman has "never put a foot wrong" and the mean evil black woman deserves all the hate she has received.

It's just how royalty works, there always has to be a scapegoat so the media can get their money's worth (royals getting along, quietly doing charity work and not causing any scandal doesn't sell papers) and that scapegoat is almost always a woman, nearly always a married-in and not a blood royal, and never an heir because they're well-protected.

They did it to Diana, they did it to Fergie, they did it to Kate, and they did it to Meghan. Meghan had it worse because of the additional aspect of racism and the very real danger of stoking white supremacist groups (the fact multiple people who are members of white supremacy/neo nazi terrorist groups have been convicted and sent to prison for either plotting to kill Meghan's family or calling for them to be killed, proves how dangerous it is).

It also exposes the rank hypocrisy of the tabloid press, who so frequently praised Kate for doing the same things Meghan was demonised for. Eg Kate eats avocados, she's health-conscious. Meghan eats avocados, she's linked to war and drought. Kate wears black, she's stylish. Meghan wears black, she's breaking a non-existent protocol. Kate cradles her bump, she's a loving protective mother. Meghan cradles her bump, she's attention-whoring. If Meghan wasn't around, Kate would still be trashed for those things too. Look how viciously the press trashed Kate for wearing pink to a memorial, or for forgetting to put weights in her hems and accidentally flashing her bare arse a bunch of times. Yet now there's an Orwellian "we have always been at war with Eastasia" thing in the relentless repetition of "Kate has never put a foot wrong." (Seriously why does her PR team always use the exact same phrasing? Such a giveaway that an article comes from her team.)

Or the hypocrisy over housing and the press being selective in when they're outraged that so many royals and royal-adjacent people get free houses and spent zillions of taxpayer money doing them up. Will and Kate spent hundreds of thousands of pounds refurbishing their mansion at Kensington Palace on the grounds it would be their forever home, then decamped to Anmer, spent even more vast sums (eg having a brand new kitchen ripped out then completely re-done twice because Kate couldn't decide on a colour, had the tennis court moved a few feet so it'd have a nicer view), again on the grounds it would be their forever home, now they're moving yet again and maintain at least three homes, use helicopter frequently to travel between them. Then everyone pretended that had never happened while Harry and Meghan were being trashed for using their own money on essential maintenance for Frogmore Cottage, which should never been allowed to fall into such a bad state of repair in the first place considering the monarch has a legal obligation to and receives public money for maintain listed buildings in good conditions.

And now Harry and Meghan are gone, the press are sniffing around for new victims and Kate's being trashed for the same things she was praised for while Meghan was around.

There was a big article in Vanity Fair just a few days ago trashing Will and Kate for being so profligate in spending "insane" amounts of money refurbishing all their different houses, the article also claimed there are currently more than 100 "grace and favour" royal residences, down from more than 200 during the Queen's reign. We've seen a rise in articles trashing or making snide insinuations about Kate. The Middletons were clearly thrown under a bus over their company going bust and their failure to pay debts to small businesses, whereas a decade ago their debts would have been paid and the media controlled. There's an increase in articles trashing Charles and Camilla. It's obvious that Charles and Camilla's camp and Will and Kate's camp are briefing against each other.

It won't stop. And it's only a matter of time before they start in on Charlotte and whoever George and Louis marry, if they do marry.

Also, I do remember that Meghan did get positive media reception to begin with, especially when she was compared to Catherine. She was called a breath of fresh air unlike boring dowdy kate. I only remember the negative articles started coming out right around or after the wedding. And even then, most people were very positive towards her including myself.

There were racially loaded headlines with racist dog whistles from basically the first moment they started dating, and the press were awful to her. Remember the abuse was so bad, Harry had to release a public statement about it, that specifically mentioned racism? The idea that Meghan had a positive reception at first is revisionist history.

Here on MN the hate and racism was off the charts right from day one. During their engagement there were perhaps half a dozen Meghan bash threads being started per day. Every single thing about her was trashed, there were non-stop lies and conspiracy theories being invented and spread about Meghan, her career, her history, and her family. Racist conspiracy theories about her mum. One specific conspiracy theory so vile I won't repeat it, which originated on a Neo Nazi forum. We've had at least half a dozen posters pop up claiming to have a friend in Hollywood/Buckingham Palace who worked with Meghan and had told the poster terrible things about Meghan, one poster even claimed their "friend who works in Buckingham Palace" had witnessed her hit Charlotte. Many many threads deleted for racism. Non-stop dog whistles, and even one swiftly deleted posted who used the N word in full. Hell so many Mumsnetters got banned for how extreme and racist their Meghan hate was that they went off and created their own rival forum where they talked about the best way to create new accounts to get around the ban, discussed plans to mass-attack pro-Meghan posters to try to get them banned (eg by abusing the report feature, or following pro-Meghan posters around making nasty comments on anything they said outside of royal threads), even tried to dox pro-Meghan posters.

Just absolute unhinged non-stop hatred.

Kate had a really hard time and she continues to have an unfairly hard time but nothing like the obsessive hatred Meghan received, and the racism aspect plays a big part too. Kate got called a gold digger and workshy, she didn't have Neo Nazi terrorists calling for her children to be killed, or 50 threads a week from people who spent 24/7 fixating on how much they hated her.

Kate is a bit boring. I dont mean as a person but her public persona doesnt give folk much talk about. She conducts herself as befitting her rank and doesnt rock the boat.

There were loads of articles that insinuated that Diana was thick. All mentioned her lack of qualifications.

Fergie was a horsey posh girl yuppy in the press.

Sophie was a commoner ...

Sophie is an interesting example. She had some bad press but the Queen personally interceded and asked the press directly to leave her alone during the fake sheik scandal. Since Sophie was always said to have cultivated a particularly close friendship with the Queen and to ride horses with her, and Edward was always reported as her favourite child.

Just goes to show that some people are protected and some are not. Sophie seems pretty bland and inoffensive now but the sheik thing really was worse than anything Kate has ever done, and worse than anything Meghan did prior to leaving. Sophie gossiped about and made personal comments about the Queen, Charles and Camilla to a stranger, and was actively trying to make money by commercialising and selling her royal status, years before Meghan and Kate were wrongly accused of the same thing. Yet the message came out: Sophie is protected at the highest level, leave her alone. Why did Kate and Meghan not receive the same protection when they were being roundly attacked by the press just for being black and for having middle class parents?

I think there are activists who want to drag literally every single situation that occurs anywhere in the world into the whole weird US race thing that’s going on, and it doesn’t matter whether it fits perfectly or not. You could have a million counter examples but it really makes no difference. You see it on MN when a poster, out of seemingly nowhere, calls someone racist and at first pass it makes no sense until you remember they’re not really talking about the royal family at all.

Re the ‘good press’ vs ‘bad press’ stories like the avocados - a lot of that is down to how journalists and editors aim to ‘spice’ up a story using whatever current popular keyword will get them more hits at a particular time.

So a science/environmental report comes out about the negative impact of eating avocados and is written up based on the science report / press release but ‘yawn’ - that’s not going to grab people’s attention - copy editor searches for the most popular keywords (what’s getting the most clicks on the internet at a particular time)

Oh - last month Meghan Markle was mentioned by her friend on IG serving avocado toast. Boom!

You’ve suddenly got a prime keyword to work into your article plus you can take the SM screenshot of the Meghan prepared avocado toast PLUS you can throw in a selection of lovely Meghan photos alongside your obligatory avocado image and suddenly the story is a lot sexier at first glance.

Lots of people start clicking because of Meghan’s name - so what if they click away as soon as they they realize the story isn’t about Meghan at all - they’ve got the clicks - advertisers are happy.

Bonus some people on social media are outraged that Meghan is being besmirched in this way - story is shared - discussed - clicked on more. Etc etc

Re the previous Kate avocado story - was probably a boring press release from an avocado producer trying to flog the health benefits of eating them - another dull promo piece - unless… could it be linked to the most popular keyword of that year? Kate Middleton? Get some great photos of Kate - that will get people clicking etc.

The newspapers do like a hero/villain story arch but a lot of the time they are just going with what gets them the most clicks at a particular time. A lot of those anti-Meghan stories were just using the popularity of her name in internet searches - not one coordinated attack

I think there are activists who want to drag literally every single situation that occurs anywhere in the world into the whole weird US race thing that’s going on

Don’t you hate it when actual black people on this site bring their perspective as black people as they navigate the world as black people? It’s such a pain because as we all know only the US has that whole weird race thing.

You see it on MN when a poster, out of seemingly nowhere, calls someone racist and at first pass it makes no sense until you remember they’re not really talking about the royal family at all.

But there is, objectively, a lot of racism on Mumsnet, and a history of racism on Mumsnet.

There's also a lot of posters who seem to have an agenda to deny that racism exists at all, or who want to shorhorn black people pushing back against racism into their "anti-woke" ranting, or who want to discredit black Brits from speaking about their personal experiences of suffering racist abuse by randomly bringing up Critical Race Theory in America in weird and inappropriate places.

There are unfortunately a lot of posters who think racism begins and ends with black people being lynched, and that anything less than that doesn't count as racism and is just "wokesters" trying to "virtue signal" by "playing the race card." (All accusations that are constantly thrown about here towards black posters).

Black posters are far better attuned to recognising racist microaggressions, dog whistles, and coded racism.

But I understand that to a white person on a forum where blackface and golliwogs are excused as innocent fun, BLM protestors are called thugs (while white supremacist protests are met with dozens of "I don't agree with their principles but I support their right to protest due to free speech"), George Floyd was called a thug and had his whole personality and life trashed, Ahmaud Arbery's murderers was defended, posters share hilarious anecdotes about their children asking why a black man looks like chocolate, threads expressing outrage whenever a black actor is cast in a white role, comments like "why are black people allowed to say n***r but we're not", black female celebrities consistently being trashed and demonised, black posters were attacked for wanting a Black Mumsnetter section, just the constant drip drip drip of barely disguised racism that unfortunately has permeates this forum in the past.

Yeah, I can see why a white person in a culture of systemic coded racism would be confused by black people being able to recognise racism that they personally cannot see.

Anyway - the thing that really opened my eyes to the sheer mindlessness and glee that people have from ganging up on their favourite royal target was how Kate was absolutely slated by actual women on this site for having Hypermesis Gravidarum. It was so callous and made me realise that many don’t think of these women as being real people.

Exactly. They are all dehumanised and used as objects, not real people. Even the people who claim to be fans (especially Kate fans who hate Meghan, and Meghan fans who hate Kate) talk about them like they're dolls and not real people with feelings.

No idea.

Kate got both barrels. People have short memories.

This goes to show though that it’s a completely oversimplified worldview: firstly that you can guess my race from what I think or write (I believe you think I’m caucasian? If so you’ve guessed wrong). Secondly that the world is divided into white or not white (again I don’t really agree, I have a Mizrahi/Sephardic background so my skin is dark compared to actual white people, I get mistaken for a lot of different places!). Thirdly that experiencing racism gives you the ability to mind read and detect that someone has secretly racist motivations for an otherwise completely innocuous post - this is what I am talking about, not actual direct racism, which I agree MNers are fine with (experiencing racism has not given me any telepathic abilities anyway). And lastly that racism is only based on skin colour - it may be the case in the USA, but here in Europe most people like me who were persecuted by racist white supremacists themselves had light skin. As I say though, this conversation really has nothing to do with Meghan Markle or the royal family, it’s trying to apply an over-simplistic Americanised view of race and racism to imperfect real world scenarios.

I thought people said Andrew,was her favourite child? Or does the favourite title move according to who people want to criticise?

Sophie definitely made a big mistake so I guess she's learned more than anyone how to deal with things. The queen offered Meghan Sophie's experience but Meghan declined. She said she had Harry, who, they both said in the documentary, knew nothing.

And the Queen invited Meghan for Christmas which she didnt do Sophie and Kate. And she did a royal visit with Meghan straight after their marriage, again something she didn't do with Sophie or Kate.

I don't understand all this favouritism nonsense.

I do like Kate but she changed universities to meet William (same course initially) and waited with minor job (part time job) in order to bag her man.

Megan doesn’t seem to have loyalty to people really but at least she had her own career and views. She was never going to walk behind Kate though !!!

Skeptical that the Queen really did have a favourite at all, I think that was a tabloid thing. Modern equivalent is I guess the claims that Harry was Diana’s favourite, which seems all the more cruel since she died.

Great posts @AcesBaseballbat and @skullbabe
I have read and re-read them.

Brilliant post

See there you have it. Haters spread that story about Kate changing universities and now people believe it. How does that saying go "If you repeat it often enough it becomes truth".

Truth is Kate had accepted her place before she knew that William went there. She accepted before the deadline. William made his choice public after the deadline...

Kate also had a boyfriend (Rupert Finch). Her entire first year of university she was with him.

Also when she went to London after university (23 years old) to live and work. She she was stalked everywhere she went. Media even began to stalk her work mates. She had to stop working there because of that.

That's why she began working for her parents in Berkshire. They still stalked her every morning outside her flat in London when she went to work.

Kate had no choice with the media following her everywhere.

Also Meghan started Suits at age Kate married William. So if Meghan had met Harry at the same age she wouldn't have had a career either. You can't compare the two situations.