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.

Yes. I think it's excusable with public transport!
True, if an unavoidable delay is dealt with properly, with courtesy.

I think celebs being dicks is more accepted even if frowned on because they are selling their talent

I don't think Meghan ever understood there's a difference between being a celebrity and being a Royal. Like, lots of differences actually, big ones.

I still don't think she understands it, tbh.

I don't blame her for this because the British Royal Family, despite its global fame, is very culturally bound to Britain in terms of expectations of behaviour, the 'done thing' etc. All bound up with cultural and class nuances that other countries don't have.

They are celebrities now, not Royals. I have no doubt that Megahn will fulfil this role very well, Harry not so sure if he wants it.

To be fair, Meghan should have done her homework. Or listened to advice.

I don't think Meghan ever understood there's a difference between being a celebrity and being a Royal. Like, lots of differences actually, big ones.

I agree - though also agree she was offered a huge amount of potential support and help from RF which she dismissed as unnecessary - the dossier she supposedly binned, Sophie - mentorships and that experienced equerry.

Even her staff who would have wanted her to succeed for their own careers seem to have been alienated with bullying. Post exit they still can't hold seem to hold on to staff.

Things like not knowing royal protocol or even the national anthem - google could have helped with if Harry couldn't.

One of the biggest clangers imo and most telling of her personality was getting Harry to ring David Beckham with accusations of Victoria leaking stories.
I mean why did Harry then not say as if they would.
How embarrassing for Harry and that was that the end of that connection.

I think is an astute and interesting idea. Harry thinks 'the platform' is being a Prince.

If the King takes the 'Prince' title away, then Harry will simply switch to believing that 'the platform' is being the son of the King. And then, eventually, being the brother of the King. And eventually, as he enters old age, being the uncle of the King.

He is wedded not just to Meghan, but to words like 'birthright' and 'global' that have taken up residence in his head. If he actually believes this stuff, there's no helping him. He's like an addict - he'll have to hit rock bottom before he realises he needs help.

Kate seems lovely, but she's about as interesting as cardboard

This sentence is interesting because it strikes right at the heart of the difference between royals and celebrities, which I was talking about upthread.

I don't WANT my royals to be especially interesting. I want them, by their presence and patronage, to shine a light on interesting things done and experienced by ORDINARY PEOPLE.

See when Camilla goes to visit a DV charity or Kate does a thing on mental health, I don't want to hear their experiences and thoughts on these issues. I want them to shine a light on the work being done by the people they're visiting.

Same with the Queen, I knew eff all about her really but she visited places and people and charities that it was useful for me as a citizen to know about.

That is the function of the royal family, they are vessels and platforms for other people. That is the point of them and that is what Meghan doesn't understand, imho. She thought everyone wanted to hear all about HER and her issues and whether SHE was all right and how SHE was feeling. They didn't, because they don't. They wanted to hear about the causes she was espousing.

As Queen Mary apparently once said to a relative “You are a member of the British Royal family. We are never tired, and we all love hospitals.” 🤣

It all sounds a bit Lion King!

How hypocritical. They're the ones leaking stories.

Brilliant. She was a character!

I don't think Meghan ever understood there's a difference between being a celebrity and being a Royal. Like, lots of differences actually, big ones.

Meghan and her VP 'fan' don't think much of Harrys' royal presence either, hard to believe he was relegated to the butt-end of a table at a luncheon supposedly in their honour. Even the VP's boyfriend got a place at the top table.

Ah, no, don't worry - it's not that much of a shame. I struggle on without them.

It's definitely not the trait of a Scorpio which of course is King Charles' star sign!
Mine too. So I'm not sure what that tells us.
The "!" at the end of your sentence suggests you think you've made a good point or a joke. Or both, maybe.
I'm afraid I'm missing it/them.

I was thinking exactly that when I read @GiveMeSpanakopita 's post before yours.

Oh not at al, no good point or joke.

She was probably on the floor sobbing about it so Harry had no choice but to call. She really has him in her pocket. You know he reallyist not have thought much of his family to have so quickly turned against them though.

She had to fit his high chair in

Hehe, you know one thing that stood out to me from Harry's book (yes I did read it - stood in Waterstones for a couple of hours and speed read) was Meghan's odd habit of always 'crumpling to the floor in tears', 'sliding down the wall with a wail' or being found 'slumped on the floor crying'.

I never knew there was such a strong physical correlation between emotion and the exertion of gravity, outside of bad edwardian melodramas that is.

I've had my fair share of terrible news and terrifying moments of high emotion but I've never crumpled to the floor to cry. Sat on the sofa or gone to lay on my bed, yes. Slid down the wall wailing, no.

I suppose I'm not as sensitive a soul as Meghan is.

What did Harry want? He wanted to get away from the 'toxic' press. He felt he must get away so he could keep his family safe - is that what he told Oprah or Tom Bradby or Someone?

What else did he want for his future life? I wonder what he envisaged. Maybe he didn't think far ahead at the time. I don't suppose he's the first person to 'run away' without thinking too much about what would happen when he got 'there'.

Of course Meghan is a Leo.

He wanted "half in, half out"

When that was roundly rejected, he was painted in to a corner because it was all played out semi-publicly
(remember they announced it because they feared a leak - I wonder if "publish and be damned" would have served them better at that stage because a) it might not have come out at all, b) it might not have come out for a while, allowing for their opening shot to have been rejected in private, giving them different options, c) assuming it did come out, they could have made a statement about how disappointed they were to find their private and personal plans and the confidential Palace negotiations had found their way into the public domain)

And so they had no time to regroup, and were disinclined to alter the framework they had pre-emptively made public, and I think they did have to wing it. Then were completely shafted by a factor beyond anyone's control (arrival of the pandemic) which meant everything public facing lost momentum. By the time they could go out in California, they weren't the new hot ticket, they were old news.

And very uninterstingly Meghan shares her birthday with the Late Queen Mum. Born 81 years after Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. That surely would have sealed her love in the RF.

Why is there all this astrology shite being mentioned on this thread? Catherine is a nice person because she has been properly brought up. Meghan is unpleasant because she wasn't properly brought up. It's got bugger all to do with whether you were born on a Tuesday in February when the porridge is stirred widdershins with a goat's leg and the moon is waxing in Neptune, or whatever.

I apologise.

Picking up on the idea that Meghan always spurns advice - and comes to grief as a result - I think she also fails to either understand or acknowledge how much of a leg-up she's had in her life, especially from her estranged father.

Meghan clearly thinks she's very special, but so much of her success in life came about due to 'who she knew', usually male family members. The much-retold washing-up liquid story isn't what it seems. Her whole class were shown the ad and given the task of critiquing it and writing to P & G. Meghan's father (a film industry professional) latched on to this and made a film in the classroom, getting his darling daughter to speak and showing/reading her letter. In her mind this has become quite a different story.

He also gave her an important entree into the acting world, and it was through her uncle (not sure on which side of the family) that she got her much-vaunted internship in Argentina.

But either Meghan didn't understand that she'd been given nepotistic help here, or she's conveniently forgotten it. I expect this is partly why these family members have been cut off - they know too much!