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.

Oh lord, the Diana biography again. This keeps happening.
Exactly the same phrases.
Anyone else want to feel old? That engagement was 43 years ago!

Her father was an equerry to QEII, both her grandmothers were ladies in waiting to the Queen Mother.

She lived on the Sandringham estate as a child and played with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.

Her family were an established part of the aristocracy and she would have been brought up with a clear idea about how everything worked within society.

She dropped out of school at 16 because she failed her O levels - she went to finishing school like many girls of her social class.

Then she came and lived as a trust fund baby with a similar group of women doing the same thing - having fun in London, taking odd jobs like cleaning her sister's flat or working as a baby sitter - it was what a lot of the 'Sloan Ranger' set did - they didn't need to work to live because everything was paid for by their family or trustfunds.

She played tennis, took dance lessons, went on regular skiing holidays.

She might not have had any serious boyfriends but she certainly was surrounded by plenty of women who were dating.

Stop infantilising her. She was a 19-year-old woman living a fun and privileged life of the upper classes.

Oh my lord, it's that magic number 43 again!! I tell you, it's some kind of Da Vinci code.

The engagement was 43 years ago.
Meghan is 43 years old, and '43% Nigerian'.
There are 43 unacknowledged jars of strawberry jam.

It is surely the End of Times.

Stop infantilising her. She was a 19-year-old woman living a fun and privileged life of the upper classes.

Also worth noting her older sister Jane got married just two months after her 20th birthday to a man 16 years older than her. He was already one of Queen Elizabeth’s private secretaries at the time. Diana was one of Jane’s bridesmaids, in fact. So meeting and marrying the older Charles was entirely within Diana’s expectations…

(My own speculation, but given her older sister had dated Charles and Jane had married a senior courtier it’s quite possible Diana felt she had trumped both her sisters in her marriage!)

Oh my god, @AutumnCrow - that's spooky! 😱
Did she have 43 changes of clothes in Colombia?

Diana had not had any boyfriends before Charles. She had never dated. In an interview she said at the time she did not see an issue with the age gap. Many young women who marry older men say this when young.

Diana lived on Sandringham Estate when a child. At nine years old she was sent to Boarding School. By 14 years old she was living at Althorp. She failed her exams at 16 and was sent to a Swiss finishing school which she hated.

Diana worked at Young England Kindergarten in Pimlico, London. As Diana once said, she got the job through friends.

Diana went on skiing holidays since childhood, common amongst the aristocracy. Diana attended Charles 30th party with her older sister Sarah.

I knew that there were 12 years between their parents but I didn't know until now that Jane's husband was 16 years her senior.

I used the Charles and Diana mug yesterday - not the one that I've had for 43 years, but the white pyrex one that came from a charity shop later on.

It’s so tedious, what on earth has Diana got to do with the price of cod?

Oh it's just some script to distract from any criticism of H&M. Talking of cod - have you seen the price of that, now?

You’re right @Nadeed it is well known that both of them briefed the press. It played out in the newspapers for years. One of the reasons Prince Charles was unpopular was because he was blamed by the public for everything. His popularity has slowly increased through the years but in the USA he is still not that well liked. There is also evidence of the press manipulation online if people bothered to google. Including this little gem.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-13-mn-1372-story.html

Exactly - you are proving my point - she was living the full life of a rich privileged aristocratic woman - with the freedom
of not having to really work for a living while sharing a flat with her friends in a lovely part of London - spending her time socializing and going to parties, events and vacations with her social set.

@LimeBiscuit Even the tabloids talked about the Wars of the Waleses. Everyone knew both Charles and Diana were both briefing the press. And yes most people took Diana's side.
Now Diana is dead, history is being rewritten. For example, outright denial that Charles was briefing Diana was a crazy ex-wife.
Charles was painting Diana as a crazy ex-wife. Diana was painting Charles as an uncaring husband who had an affair with Camilla all through his marriage.

Queen Elizabeth eventually had enough of the public war and told them they had to divorce.

You've been asked where Charles painted Diana as crazy and have yet to provide instances. In his interview with Dimbleby there was no hint of this at all.

Haven’t looked at it since Seaspiracy.
Regarding the Channel 5 documentary- is it worth watching? Or is it as boring as the discussion about Diana?

@wordler No you are putting your own twist on her life. Diana pre marriage lived the very protected life of an upper class teenager. Boarding school, finishing school, flat with friends and some part time work found through friends.
You are painting her as a wordly 19 year old going on holidays and partying. That is not the life she was living.

She went to Charles 30th birthday party with her older sister. She went on holiday with her family. The flat she was living in was owned by her parents. The flat mates were said to have a strict cleaning rota. The flatmates talked about them playing ABBA and dancing in the house. It all sounds very innocent.

And that is the point I was making. She was a shy 19 year old with very limited life experience. It would be very different now with an aristocratic 19 year old. The chances are now days a similar girl would have attended festivals, parties and had a gap year travelling about the world, or at the least carried out voluntary work abroad as Catherine did.

Nowhere does anything claim that Charles was briefing that Diana was a crazy wife. Where is your source?

It was in leaks to the press. But you can't find media articles from that time online for free.

• "The heart of the men's disagreement was reportedly about the role Prince William and Prince Harry, then 15 and 12, respectively, should play in the funeral. Diana's brother believed she wouldn't have wanted them to have to walk behind her coffin in the funeral procession, but their father apparently wouldn't sway on the issue.

https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/a34335427/prince-charles-offensive-comments-about-princess-diana-after-her-death/

Found an article that talks about how Charles saw Diana as crazy.

"Prince Charles sought a second opinion on troubled Princess Diana after the Queen’s doctor believed she had a “dangerous” mental disorder that could be passed on to her children, a letter revealed."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/queen-doctor-help-letter-princess-diana-dangerous-mental-disorder-prince-charles-sir-john-batten-alan-mcglashan-a7964551.html

So Charles did a good thing.

Spot on. ☺️

Will the Royals ever learn?

https://www.celebitchy.com/885881/prince_william_will_not_be_foolish_enough_to_exclude_harry_from_his_coronation/

Ah, I thought it was Meghan you were a fan of but I see your obsession is with Diana. What do you think of Meghan cosplaying Diana and making out Diana speaks to her?

Many in the Royal Family trt to cosplay Diana. Meghan, Catherine and Sophie. None of them are like Diana.
And I am not obsessed.