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.

I have no doubt that the RF can and do brief the press.

I equally have no doubt that despite despising them, the Temu Two do exactly the same.

Nobody can answer that.
They seemingly also wanted to be part of an institution which "briefed against them" 😂

I should add that I don’t think the RF brief against one of their own.

The same cannot be said for the Temu ones.

Exactly, @WhatALoadOfOldTenure !
To quote Cher: "as if!"
Although H&M don't just brief, do they?!

Do you have any examples of the palace briefing the press on Harry and Meghan? I can’t recall any 🤷‍♀️

There is no evidence of a golden child/ scapegoat dynamic going on. There is evidence that William, as future King, had tea with the Queen, to learn about matters of State that Harry was not invited to

That isn't scapegoating, that is preparing the Heir.

Harry provides no evidence of the Royal family leaking stories. The one example in his book was dealt with at the time and turned out to be Secretary who told her husband something who told a friend who was a journalist. The secretary had to resign.

Harry on the other hand is happy to report private conversations with his father and brother, release pictures of his children in the bath, tell everyone how he lost his virginity, privacy is being breached but only one way.

Harry isn't a victim he is someone who has a massive sense of entitlement and who expects the world to approve his every move.

@MrsLeonFarrell - quite.
The level of hypocrisy from Harry is quite astounding.

I don’t think she feels shame. Awful as the H&M interview was, it’s not the worst thing Oprah has done by a long way.

I get quite cross with him, which is silly I know. But I think he was so scared that Meghan would do a runner that he failed to prepare her and told her lies about what to expect. He set her up to fail and then didn't help her when she was struggling I find that really bad in someone who is supposed to be her loving husband.

I'm not a fan of the visits but you can see Meghan is trying hard to be positive and smile and be lovely to everyone whereas he is dragging along behind her for the most part. Does he not realise that he needs to earn a living?

Yes I would agree. Meghan definitely makes an effort with engagements, always has.

I said all three houses had the capacity (Clarence House/Kensington Palace and Frogmore). All of them had press secretaries/communications teams who, despite NDAs in place, could leak to partners/bedfellows/freelance publicists/journalist contacts with knowledge from above (turning a blind eye) or without consent (plausible deniability). We'll never know.

As to wanting to be part of a family you think hasn't protected you/has actively thrown you under the bus - again, blood ties and dysfunction is complicated. Whether it's trauma bonding, seeking approval, wanting an idea of family, any family, for your own children or because as humans we're all trained to love our parents to a certain degree, many on MN will tell you of how complex it can be.

Once again - who "threw them under a bus"?
What about the invasion of the RF's privacy - repeatedly - from Harry... for money?

I have read the Tom Bower book about Meghan. Much of it is already in the public domain and you have to neutralise his tone of course, but it is very interesting on the period of her life between leaving Trevor and meeting Harry i.e. the Suits years. The account of how she managed to build up The Tig and actively tried to pitch herself for other work and opportunities is quite interesting - nothing wrong with that, she was self-employed and a free woman after all.

He also describes how she gradually moved up the Suits ‘ranks’ e.g becoming a cast member who was invited on the publicity tours; higher up the call sheets etc. Perhaps she was under the illusion that this would also happen in the Royal Family? She probably felt that she had more ‘star quality’ than Kate and so assumed that she would rapidly be brought to the forefront!

@BehindTheSequinsandStilettos - have a look at @MrsLeonFarrell 20:29.
Harry is the culprit. Not the RF.

I said all three houses had the capacity

So what? Having the capacity to do something in no way implies or proves that it was done as you say. Your earlier posts implied that they were definitely briefing against Harry 🤷‍♀️

Which part/which ones?

Harry wanted every single story he didn't like in the press responded to. That is madness, it just keeps the stories going endlessly. Never complain, never explain stops them dead.

Just because Harry thinks something doesn't make it true. He has chosen to live his life treating his feelings as facts, that doesn't mean they are facts it just makes him impossible to deal with or help.

No one threw him under the bus, no one refused to protect him, he chose to leave his life as a working royal and make money selling stories about his family.

It hasn't helped him heal and that is very sad but that is not his family's fault.

Thanks for the alternative views. Am watching part 2 now.

Does anyone believe that MM had not really heard of Princess Diana when her father worked in Hollywood? One of the most iconic people of the 20th century and her death one of the most shocking events that happened when MM was 16 years old.
She never looked Harry up online. Hmmm sure.

No. I really don’t.

Looking at the funeral just now, she can’t possibly have been unaware.

I am sorry for any child losing their mother. It is damaging. It is unfair. It is of course devastating.

But most do not act like Harry.

And he was everywhere in the press.

As for the racist allegations? Colour, like it or not is discussed. I don’t believe for a moment that there was anything malicious behind it. Or racist.

Unless of course her husband piled it on thick.

Like the bronzer. Except it wasn’t on this occasion.

I haven’t watched the programme yet but I think it is interesting that until Meghan came on the scene, negative stories about Harry were managed very effectively.

My opinion is that Harry is of well below average intelligence and this plays a significant part in what has happened. I am not sure he deliberately kept anything from Meghan about how the RF works. I think there’s a lot he doesn’t understand, and she fed his existing sense of grievance by pointing out things that were ‘unfair’ and telling him things that weren’t really true (eg the story about her being photographed in Whole Foods that appeared in Spare). No longer manageable by the staff who had hitherto protected him, and with a voice in his ear saying how they were being unfairly treated, he started to reveal his true self and it hasn’t been pleasant to watch.

Bullying allegations from Oct 2018 tour (dubious timing released to smear her)

The reason I think there may be some truth to the bullying allegations is Harry in Spare didn’t deny there was friction between Meghan and some staff. The visit by William to Harry at his cottage which resulted in fisticuffs was to complain about Meghan’s behaviour to staff. Harry shares their conversation:

“Meg's difficult, he said
Oh, really?
She's rude. She's abrasive. She's alienated half the staff.”

Harry’s response was William should cut Meghan some slack as she was adapting to her new life, different culture. He asked couldn’t William just be there for her? Help her?

But they told So Many Lies.

In the OW interview, and since.