Royal family should consider paying H & M off by way of an NDA?

[ilovemoney]

Harry and Meghan had difficult childhoods. I liked Diana but she was unstable, didn't see much of them and they witnessed her being unstable or with a recent boyfriend during the rare times in the holidays they saw her. They grew up in a lot of tension and under the spotlight. Not saying it was all bad but it clearly affected Harry and i think he was troubled by the time she sadly died.

He then had issues with drink and drugs which seem quite entrenched. He was sent to Africa to get him away and off drink and drugs to no avail. Then years of therapy to no avail. I suspect he may have a personality disorder which are near impossible to treat.

The palace over the years have covered up for him and done a fabulous if a little dishonest, PR job, which i think Harry owes them for, but also the palace and family situation were in many ways had some culpability for the state he was in. They kept him well under the wing of William and Kate for example.
I also feel like they sort of should have protected him more from meeting someone with not great intentions who was also damaged.

Meghan has a really strange family who don't seem that nice and Doria was apparently in prison for many years which must have been so hard. I saw a clip of her when she was about 11 and i see a child so very unhappy.
She also owes the palace who scrubbed her internet past and no doubt organised some NDS to give her a fresh start but again some blame here on the palace as this sort of now feels a bit of a cover up as i think there was rather a lot to cover up and its one thing deleting a few pictures but another to blank this woman's past completely.

Anyway the palace knew and tried their best to manage the pair of them.
They now have both of them using their titles to tour the world and take part in charity work which is really questionable.
Harry in particular is an embarrassing wrecking ball who has the publics interest.
Apparently the palace are worried about Spare 2 and God knows what else when they run out of money.
I think they are right to be worried. At the moment it is an embarrassing car crash after car crash, Africa parks, new York taxis, cringe trip to Nigeria and on and on.

I have no doubt the RF are hurt and angry with them and a NDA would be a very hard pill to swallow but if they want them to go and live quietly and stop embarrassing the royal family i think they are going to have to pay for it to the tune of a few million a year in exchange for some clear rules.

Harry did choose to leave because he failed the exams required to get promoted to higher rank.

He would have been shuffled sideways at the same rank in a series of desk jobs. He didn't find that an attractive future so chose to leave.

The media has nothing to do with his decision to leave.

Do those Americans then go to Kenya etc and tell them not to kill wild animals? If they did, they would also be White Savioyr hypocrites.

The main thing I think if I ever think about Harry these days is thank god he was born second. The idea of him as King is not a happy one for me. He is utterly flaky and self obsessed.
As for the poor harry he had a hard upbringing stuff, well I am sorry but even my tiniest violin is not tiny enough.
As someone who genuinely genuinely had a crap childhood (mum died when I was 7, sent to live with father and grandmother I barely knew who were abusive in every possible way, no money, bullied at school) I don’t use my past as an excuse for the rest of my life and I don’t go on telly or write a book trashing those who did their very best by me.

Harry has indeed been dealt a tough life 🙄

Excellent points, @Blackcats7 . I'm sorry for your experiences, and it does make me cross how much victimhood both Harry and Meghan keep promoting.

The main thing I think if I ever think about Harry these days is thank god he was born second.

He and Andrew make excellent poster boys for abolishing the hereditary monarchy.

Just wanted to add thanks to @smilesy, @mpsw and others who've been kind enough to explain how things work in the military

The whole thing's so far out of my experience that it might as well be Mars, but it's good to have actual information rather than invented, partisan nonsense

I think they're 2 publicity-crazy, self-promoting, bitter narcissists who are utterly incapable of just 'living their lives'. They need fuel.

They've made dramatic choices which haven't worked out for them and things seem to be falling apart. Chickens are coming home to roost in vast numbers. They've put many people in both their families through a lot, and are still doing so.

Whatever Meghan's 'veiled threat' that she's 'barely scraped the surface of what happened' with the RF, I think the RF should tell both of them to 'publish and be damned'.

When they made their allegations against the RF some years ago they were both popular and able to sustain the victim narrative to some degree. Since then their true character and motivations have become all too apparent (through their own actions and words) so it would be a much more difficult job to turn public opinion in their favour by spilling more 'secrets' and scandals.

Their best hope of a happy life is to focus, focus, focus on one or two serious projects and work quietly away at them to regain a bit of respect. Instead, they launch one half-baked initiative after another, very little seems to come to fruition and they're forever off on foreign jaunts which are bafflingly pointless to most observers. Oh, unless a fashion show is enough for you - in which case, crack on with the admiration!

@BalloonSlayer
" Well I do, but generally I compare myself with my peers, people who have had the same upbringing and education. So I compare my lot in life with that of my siblings, cousins and friends from school."
Interesting, but this happens in ALL aristocratic families; that the eldest son gets the lot.
Earl Spencer, I think, is the youngest child of his parents, but he has the title, plus the etstate. It used to be the way, that the daughters would be given something/ trust or whatever, when they married. Obviously with the circles they mix in, then the daughters would be expected to marry another rich person. (simply because they don't generally mix with others)
With the sons, the second and third son would go into the church or military (cant remember which way round). Obviously this is dated and applies to over a hundred years ago.
Yes, the RF have to make sure that ALL of the younger members have some skills/careers they can use if they leave the RF, and they are ALL entitled to make their own way in the world, if they wish.
I have most respect for the Duke of Gloucester who was also a spare, until his father and brother died withing a couple of years of each other. Until that time he was a qualified architect and had a proper job somewhere.
Sadly, I personally think being the spare is the better role, and if I were in the RF or married into the RF, being the spare or the spare to the spare, would in my opinion, be better, as you do not have the responsibility.
People seem to forget that whether we like it or not, the monarch is the Head of State and therefore there are constraints on what they can do or not.

Meghan would be better off doing adverts. She’s perfectly suited to something like that. As for Harry, he’s really not fit for any sort of purpose.

Harry didn’t choose to leave, he was forced out because his presence in the Army was compromising other soldiers . His location was given away by the media .

That's why he left Afghanistan, not why he left the whole army.

I would put money on there being another book at some point and I believe the RF are braced for it. It’s risky for Meghan because it’s the nuclear option and clearly Harry isn’t ready to go there yet, but I think desperation will be the driver.

Superficially they look like they’re living the perfect life but there’s no depth or longevity in anything they do. As influencers they are failing badly, the summer of love initiative is not taking, and their fan base is increasingly little more than a lunatic fringe. None of the awards, public appearances or faux royal tours are turning public opinion in their favour.

Where I do have sympathy is that I don’t think there is anything they could do now which wouldn’t be picked apart and ridiculed, so they really have an uphill task ahead of them if they want to win back support. But then again I think of all they’ve said and done to others, and conclude they’re laying in a bed of their own making.

I don't think they've had enough time to demonstrate longevity - they've not been in US for that long and covid disrupted the first year or so.

The word I'd go for (if it's a word) is "stickability"

And what I think would show that (just my own musings)

• ARO to start selling stuff - asap, but definitely in time for Christmas
• the new section of their website to be clearer about partners, and how far posters bona fides will be checked and what the moderation policies are (they are dealing with very sensitive subjects, and it would be irresponsible to just wang up a platform; so I'm assuming they have a robust safeguarding policy and they've just not communicated it very well)
• resumption of podcasts - she said she was passionate about them and missed doing them. So for heavens sake do some, there's a platform all lined up
• do something with the book they optioned (timing of writer's strikes took the momentum, but they've had plenty of time to get it back in action)
• work on improving Travelyst - it's on no-one's horizon when they're planning travel and he needs to make it so

I don't think they've had enough time to demonstrate longevity - they've not been in US for that long and covid disrupted the first year or so.

I disagree. If you can't get a 'brand' up and running in 4 years, then you never will. The world isn't hanging around waiting for these two to get their act together. Their USP was their royal connections, and they've royally squandered those. They are in their 40s now, no longer the exciting young couple they once were, and that doesn't help either.

I think it's blindingly obvious now that they really have very little to offer other than 'woe is us' stories. And they're boring now. The low ratings for Harry's latest interview about the meeja is the latest example of that. It's diminishing returns from now on in.

All good points @EdithWeston and I agree about stickability.

I don’t agree that they haven’t had time to demonstrate longevity though. Covid was disruptive, but also offered opportunities. It was the perfect time to hunker down and finesse their business plan. They didn’t do it. There’s no cohesion in their activities, no central mission, no clear brand. Four years on, it’s even less clear what they’re about.

Anyone else think why the King should pay off Hennes?

Covid launched a million podcasts. It would have been a great opportunity to hone their craft if this is their passion.

The only consistent brand they have just now is trauma, which isn’t very marketable.
I think going forward as a luxury brand is also a bit questionable as frankly they need much better stylists. They don’t look well put together.

This is true. All the crumpled, ill fitting over
long outfits don’t exactly scream luxe aspirational brand 🤷‍♀️

grammar fail

I think her style might be ok for California. I wouldn’t want to judge her on her personal appearance.

I don’t think she has bad taste actually but neither is it particularly classy, so it depends where her brand is pitched. I think she might struggle to get a high end brand going, but if she aimed lower and went for a mid range volume market, who knows?

"Celebrity" brands fail as often as they succeed.

The ones that succeed require hard work, patience, dedication and a clearly defined market niche. Not to mention a product range that people actually want to buy. I don't see any of that happening with ARO, if it ever materialises at all.

Like Reitmans? That ended well 😂

I don't know, she wears some bizarre clothes, that shorts suit at IG, that weird gold dress, the red dress with the weird top, the strange holey dress in Nigeria, the strapping tee shirt with big skirt at the Bob Marley cinema ... that's just off the top of my head

All the massive trousers. I don’t necessarily like everything Catherine wears but it all fits so well, even her casual stuff.
I think the shorts and slip on shoes were a particularly low point.