C5 Documentary: Harry and Meghan, Rise and Fall

[IsoldeWagner]

Anyone watching this? It's on My5. I thought the first episode was interesting. I was reminded of how popular they were and how much support they got.

The worst of that, @Luddite26 is Meghan claiming that as a result of his colour, the baby wouldn't get a title. He and his sister are now Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. So that's never been explained.

Maybe all the lies in the Oprah interview will be explained!
Maybe Oprah herself will add her opinion!
Mine is that she was well and truly duped by the grifters.

I don’t think Oprah was duped. I just think she didn’t question them as she was the cat that got the cream analogy. Oprah accepted what they said without question. Would she do that now is an interesting thing to think about.

I have no idea, @BehindTheSequinsandStilettos . Nothing on this programme so far, unless it's on episode 2?There are other Royal threads where maybe people could answer?

I will be watching both episodes at some point. Hopefully later.

I do think that although tall poppy syndrome is often evident in the media, it was not the case with Harry and Meghan.

They were popular. People did care. The departure had so much support. Yes it was a surprise but there was still support.

What did for them was the lies, half truths and nasty insinuations and allegations. Both with OW and Spare.

The public will put up with an awful lot. They won’t thole pish.

Their fall from grace was not down to the media.

They cut their own stems.

I waded through 40 pages of one, please don't make me do that again!
It won't be in any doc. I can't find further reference to it. Christian resigned (denying any allegations of leaks) went off to Bridgepoint and still works there.
I don't follow the threads as vigorously as so wondered whether royalists knew more.

@WhatALoadOfOldTenure you're right. They were supported and helped, no "tall poppy syndrome" in evidence, and people were contributing with differing viewpoints.

The departure had so much support. Yes, it was a surprise but there was still support.
Ooh, now this I find interesting cos my recollection varies! I vaguely remember there being some sympathy/empathy on here but thought the press were gunning for them as soon as it was announced they wanted to step back.
And I still think the half-in half-out was doable. I do. To have let them go to New Zealand or Canada or Australia or South Africa, or a quarter of a year in each, do the charity stuff, do the commonwealth visits. I wouldn't even have begrudged Sussex Royal merch to help them achieve that, I'm not the target market. Would have been a neater solution which meant going LC rather than NC, and no need to air grievances/make £ through memoirs later.
I'm watching the documentary now.

Oprah was greedy and she was gung ho for any racist accusation.

I couldn't get over how different Meghan looked back then. The wedding scenes were lovely, it was a very happy time.

Half in half out doesn't work, Sophie and Edward had already tried it and it was a disaster. The problem is that the working members of the Royal family are more than people who visit charities, they represent the Head of State and what the Head of State does affects the country politically. It doesn't really matter that Harry and Meghan seem to have a knack for hanging out with dubious political figures because they are celebrities. If they represented the Queen that would be a political headache. It doesn't matter that Harry came the First Amendment bonkers because he did so as a private citizen but it would matter if he was still representing the monarchy.

I think that half in half out would have been problematic merch wise Sequins.

As for ‘tours’ and the like? This may have been manageable with guidance from the establishment but they’ve never really wanted to be told what to do. Problematic too I suppose.

A quiet life in Canada or Montecito would have been supported I think. A properly organised appearance here or there might well have worked.

Then OW and Spare happened.

I think that either NC or VLC is the only way forward for the RF. H&M seem to me to be a slave to the dollar (or more dollars) and everything is for sale.

Families can be tricky and even the Waltons had their crosses to bear but most do not fuck over their families on the world stage.

I don’t know why but I expected better of H&M.

I don’t care for liars. I don’t care for spurious allegations. I don’t care for those who do their best to hurt others. I don’t care for those who serve only themselves, yet purport to be all about others.

I’m disappointed that they’ve turned out to be such wrong’uns when they had so much potential to be so much more.

I think "Some recollections may vary" will be a great quote in our culture for some time to come!

Harry lost my sympathy when Sussex Royal released that grandiose statement when they got back from Canada. It was so entitled and tone deaf and plain rude to see that he felt he could dictate to the Monarch.

The fact that the Queen shot it down gave me a lot of respect for her. She always put the country ahead of everything.

Good points, @MrsLeonFarrell and @WhatALoadOfOldTenure .
As it's panned out, it's very clear what their approach was.

That was just incredibly damaging to all mrsLeon

So mis-judged. So hurtful. So entitled.

The late Queen was never that way inclined.

He believed his own hype as the popular happy cheeky chappy prince. I am very much of the opinion that the establishment carefully disguised the true chappy.

We are seeing what was always there - just managed.

It was quite obvious that the Palace protected Harry from the press, and effectively presented a good side of him.

Yes @WWhatALoadOfOldTenure and @IsoldeWagner , if this whole story saga has shown one thing, it's the effectiveness of the palace PR system.

I think that there was genuinely a lot of good will towards both of them. I also think that many people did understand why they wanted to withdraw from the royal circus - fair enough.

I could never quite understand why they couldn’t live quietly in Scotland, on the Balmoral estate. There are other houses in the grounds. I have been there and it’s pretty remote. It’s one road, in and out. Plus I met someone in-the-know who said that the locals give pretty short shrift to any press found hanging around up there.

But they lost a huge amount of good will by doing the Oprah interview and then the Netflix documentary. To find out that they had been ‘documenting’ everything from the outset (perhaps with half a mind to this?) was pretty galling. And as for the book…!

I am sorry to say it but I suspect that Meghan is simply waiting it out for a few more years and then will leverage herself into the Hollywood or political A-list marriage that she really wanted.

I think that OW must look at that interview with a sense of shame.

All props to her for getting the interview. The interview that many would have wanted. She should be happy with that at least.

The rest? I’d have been affronted to have been associated with it. I wonder if OW is?

Most of us who were watching clocked the varying recollections instantly. I don’t know why or how OW could have missed it.

It is possible the questioning was limited. It is possible that the recollections overtook sense. It is possible that she was just smitten. It is even possible she just got it wrong.

I thought she was smart - I still think she is.

But crikey, that interview was an error of judgement.

I could never quite understand why they couldn’t live quietly in Scotland, on the Balmoral estate.

Bloody help, I can. There's no way on earth Meghan would ever, ever live in some nice but 'secondary' residence. She wanted an apartment in Windsor Castle, not Frogmore Cottage. She wouldn't be happy with the estate Charles offered them in Shropshire. She is a STAR, dont you know, and therefore must live in rhe biggest fuck-off enormo-mansion possible. I would have loved to see her face when she realised that breakfast cereal is kept in a Tupperware box, lights are turned off and you are given a hot water bottle to take to bed with you.

I think so too. I succumbed and am now watching.

I think they were hugely popular at the start. The crowds and reaction tell you that.

Ultimately, the problem has always been about being second billing. They believed their own hype and were arrogant enough to believe they could call the shots and effectively usurp his brother and his wife.

They were wrong.

You're absolutely right. Everything for them was so good, they had so much. Second billing nails the problem.

@PigglyWigglyOhYeah 😁