Is it true that there was a framed photo of Diana on the bedside table when Meghan gave birth ?

[unkake]

To Archie? I have just read this for the first time as I didn't read Sparse and I found it hard to believe. Isn't that a bit weird? Can you imagine having a photo of your MIL to look at when giving birth ?

Diana’s last summer actually wasn’t typical of her usual holidays, but also it was the first in a while where she wasn’t in a relationship with Haznat Khan, and she was likely (and understandably) taking advantage of the various invitations made to her.

She spent time with her sons art the start of the holidays, and took up Mohammed Al Fayed’s offer for them all to stay at his villa. They the boys went to stay with their Dad at Balmoral for his allotted share of the holidays. Diana was in turn going to get time with them again at the end of August before they went back to school in mid-September.

And then, utterly tragically, a holiday she had planned to take with a friend in the US was cancelled at the last minute when the friend’s brother died suddenly. Dodi Al Fayed said that if she was at a loose end, why not join him on the Al Fayed yacht once again. And as a result of that, they both lost their lives. It’s awful looking back at all the “Sliding Doors” moments like that.

Clearly Diana had no idea what was going to happen. If she had known it was to be her last summer, she doubtless would have prioritised spending time with her sons. But, like all of us, she didn’t know what was coming and so enjoyed what with hindsight can be painted as a hedonistic few months hanging out on yachts in the Mediterranean (aside form the family trip to Al Fayed’s villa she had two trips with Dodi on his yacht, and another week with Rosa Monckton on hers). That is unfortunate, as it wasn’t the whole picture - she also attended Gianni Versace’s funeral, went to Sarajevo with her landline charity and New York for charity events - it definitely wasn’t all holidays.

I think William probably has a more measured view of his mother (while he loves and misses her obviously).

William grew up with Diana (just barely past her teens herself) constantly confiding very inappropriate things in him – about her relationship with Daddy, her new boyfriends, the fact that she tried to kill herself when pregnant with him (William), and the list goes on...

I can't remember the exact quote but I remember being struck by him saying that he and Harry had different experiences of Diana because they were different ages. William also said Diana was paranoid (for context, he was blaming the media for stoking her delusions), and Harry then lashed out at all those who labelled Diana paranoid.

Yes, Serenster - but in all that - she did not spend time with her sons.

She's either nuts or a psycho or both.

Harry seems v impressionable & co-dependent. He used to hero worship William (and also Kate) – there are clips of young adult him gushing about how William is the only person who can understand him, etc.

Given his impressionability, if only he'd met a better "mother figure", to put it a bit grossly, his life could have been much happier and better.

I don't think it's just bad luck that he met Meghan though. Some of the Meghan haters are crazy with the conspiracy theorists, but I think it's reasonable to say she deliberately engineered her way into his life, once he happened to be in her orbit.

She got her friend to set them up and up till now still pretends she didn't know who Prince Harry was (had to ask "who's that?") because she was American, had never Googled Harry, etc.

This was despite her blogging about Kate and Wills' wedding before that – specifically talking about how she dreamt of being a Royal Rebel rather than a Princess.

Also, before she and Harry met, she had an interview before they met where she was asked to choose between marrying Harry and William, and she chose Harry.

It was actually quite normal back then among the upper class with boarding school children. Tbf, Diana made much more of an effort to spend time with the boys than Charles (or most British upper class parents). I think it was more the holiday with boyfriend bit that the press were going after viciously.

That said, love doesn't always present itself in a straightforward way, and she definitely had her toxic traits (eg firing any nannies the boys got too close too, her parentification of Wills, her rages) – as did Charles, having equally been brought up in upper class dysfunction, although with the benefit of being over a decade older than barely grown Diana.

That poster was claiming it was "normal" not to see your kids for a month.
I don't care if she was a posho, she hardly saw them - her choice and imo, poor parenting.
I genuinely don't know why people make excuses for some of her selfish behaviour.
She was not a saint.

You can make whatever value judgments you want, but it's really not relevant, is it?

Someone in 3000 could say you (IsoldeWagner) and your DH are piss poor parents. Maybe by 3000 societal structure and values have changed, and people in the 3000s might feel it's a poor parenting choice to have a job instead of both parents caring for your children 24/7.

It's not an excuse, just reality, just as I wouldn't be making an excuse for you and your DH by saying that was the norm in 2024. You'll see that above I did write about some awful things Diana did as a parent, especially to William.

I don’t think it’s weird.

One of my best friends from childhood lost his mum when he was 11. He and his wife had a photo of his mum at their wedding and birth of both of their children. He also has a piece of jewellery with some of his mums ashes in that he wears on important days.

I think the issue is that she was always painted as the 'better' parent, more loving, more in tune with her children, whereas Charles is painted as cold, unemotional etc. I don't think it's quite that clear cut.

No I think it's far more complex than that.

Harry has just returned to honour the Invictus Games anniversary so this smear is on point. Too bad for the haters and those who read the DM that he’s happy, successful and much beloved.

No need to read the DM.
You can get a full picture of his personality and behaviour in everything he has written and spoken of in the last 4 years. If that's a happy and successful life, I'd hate to see one which isn't.

@unkake @NoSmallThing M wanted and suggested MIL photo, not H. H tells us this . Why not her own loved Granny too, etc? She’d never met MIL.

The thing is not so much whether it’s “weird” or not, it’s that it is Diana and that it was his wife that suggested it. It seems performative and insincere

The focus has been taken off the games because his spokesperson said KC was too busy to see him.
Harry got a warm welcome at St Paul’s. Invictus is very much Harry’s. It’s good he did it without his wife. Puts the focus back on the participants and of course Harry.

Yes, I stopped reading Spare at the point where he wrote of his posting to RAF Leeming. He described it like he was sent to the wilds of North Yorkshire, barren, middle of nowhere…

RAF Leeming is 3 minutes off the A1 - the main motorway north. It is about 10 minutes from a market town with an East Coast mainline station.

If he can ‘spin’ this, he can spin anything.

I feel like he was on such a healthy path during that particular period when he was given Invictus to focus on and Kate & Wills as role models

I don’t know but my opinion is that Harry was the golden boy of Britain and when he got with Meghan the public were genuinely pleased.
It was going to be the fab 4 and it was exciting to hear.
Unfortunately Meghan was not able to adjust to a life in an institution. That’s fine, they left and yes people were upset.
It’s the constant tell all and put downs that have made people turn against him. No need to do an OW interview when you know PP was dying and not think about the damage it would cause

The OP suggested having a photo was weird. My answer to that is no, it’s not weird. I really don’t think it’s for anyone else to judge. It was my friends wife's suggestion to have a photo of his mum there. She knows him well and knew it would help him.
If people judge that, like OP did, I think they’re deeply unpleasant.

Quite. All the anecdotes mentioned here are of people having a momento of someone they actually knew and had a direct connection with, a blood tie and/or a deep love. Not anywhere near the same as deciding they can randomly communicate with a complete stranger they never met and who died 20 years before she met their son. Having a picture present in H&M’s case was not at the behest of the person with the personal connection, Harry, but off the bat of a stranger, Meghan, because she has convinced him that she has a channel of communication with his long dead mother she never knew. And as for telling the son of the deceased they need to bugger off while she convenes with his mother’s gravestone? Can’t people see how downright strange, manipulative and cruel this is? How is she any different to a charlatan medium?

Did your friend’s wife claim she could communicate with his dead mother?

Also Meghan's friend, Lainey Liu (Laineygossip), for years wrote about William, Catherine and Harry, her nickname for Harry was 'Hot Harry on a Horse', she wrote about him constantly.

It is beyond the realms of any belief that Meghan knew nothing about Harry before she met him, . Meghan was a blogger in Canada, you really think she didn't follow the more famous gossip blog of her friend 🤔

From 2014
https://www.laineygossip.com/Prince-Harry-and-Cressida-Bonas-attend-WE-Day-first-public-outing-and-affection/29645

From 2012
https://www.laineygossip.com/Prince-Harry-will-always-love-Chelsy-Davy-and-might-be-back-together-again/23069

Once Meghan started dating Harry, she leaked stories to Lainey Liu, the one that is regularly traced back to her is the one where Catherine didn't offer to take Meghan shopping., i.e. how unfriendly Catherine was to MM

No, but that’s not what the OP was saying was weird. Op suggested it was weird to have a photo there, which is judgemental and nasty.

If OP thought other things were weird, she should have said that in her OP. She didn’t.

The thread is a developing conversation which has gone beyond the OP. And you take no account of context. What you friend’s wife did as a one off act of kindness towards her husband isn’t remotely the same as a woman who has systematically conned her husband from the beginning of their relationship that she is channelling and communicating with his long dead mother, with whom she had absolutely no relationship.