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 Queen, who only has the position because of an accident of birth, or in the current case marriage, seems to be the only person that you think has a right to say how she wants other people to refer to her.

The Queen, as UK Monarch (we were discussing QEII, I understood) held her role pursuant to the UK Constitution, actually. Same way the US president does.

And you have no idea what I think, thank you.

@Serenster Okay [laugh}

Seriously? You think Americans go around asking to be addressed as Ma’am?

So, if staff asked them how they should be addressed, why did they say "Sir" and "Ma'am"? Why not just Meghan and Harry?

If servers in the US routinely call people Sir and Ma’am why would there be any need to specify this form of address? And if they’re doing so because they’ve been asked what they would prefer, why have they opted for this and not Harry and Meghan as they used to?

typo

Has @AliceOlive left MN? Haven't seen her on here for a while.

It is not convention across the whole of the US, but large parts.
I have no idea why Meghan wants staff to call her by the convention she is obviously used to. Why can't she be more British?

I'm old-fashioned, I admit, but surely in most environments now you'd call your boss by their first name, wouldn't you? I've worked in some pretty traditional settings but I always called my boss by their forename.

Surely her staff would just call her Meghan?? I cannot believe that even Meghan would ask to be addressed more formally! If so, I'm speechless at her grandiosity.

No cousins, no uncles no aunts. Sounds like she was determined none of her family would meet the royals. Only Doria. Big red flag. Thomas Markle wasn't even invited to tne wedding.

I read that Meghan expects staff to curtsy to her .

I'm old-fashioned, I admit, but surely in most environments now you'd call your boss by their first name, wouldn't you? I've worked in some pretty traditional settings but I always called my boss by their forename.

Totally. I have worked with some very high-status people in my time, some titled, but they have all gone by their first name in one to one interactions with their colleagues.

Save for one, who had been knighted (let’s call him Humphrey) and insisted everyone in the office address him as “Sir Humphrey” all of the time. We all thought he was a total pillock… 🤣

Probably so she can learn how to curtesy, what with her not knowing and all...

I worked for Experian. You did NOT call the senior managers by their first names. Mr or Mrs to you pleb.

Oh I see (I think). You mean the thing where people reply to someone, even someone that they know by saying “yes ma’am” or “yes sir”, even when they know their person’s name? That’s more the equivalent of saying “yes love” or “yes mate” though. Not the same as someone instructing people to call them ma’am

I have never called senior management by anything other than their first name 🤔 maybe UK workplaces are less formal than US workplaces?

Distinguished visitors (e.g. the PM at the time) were Mr Blair initially but even then I don't remember any of them not immediately asking us (junior admin staff) to use their first name.

My brief experience of working in the US was that it was first names for everyone, but that was a couple of decades ago so maybe things have changed.

I went to the Foreign Office when David Miliband was the Foreign Secretary. The first thing he said "call me David". This was more than 20 years ago!
I understand that Tony Blair always insisted on first name use as well. I think it's been a UK convention for some time.

Why would Meghan expect to be called Ma’am, Your Royal Highness or Princess Meghan? She’s an American citizen who despises the RF. ‘The Institution’ as she so rudely calls them . She doesn’t visit, hates the Uk, thinks we are all racists and thinks she isn’t safe here. It’s beyond ridiculous that she insists on being treated like she’s something special in view of all that.

I might be wrong but I think it's more of a Southern states thing as a general part of speech rather than touchy feely New Age California.

@Nadeed given Meghans mockery of expected convention (like curtseying) don't you find her insisting on ma'am a little tiny bit hypocritical and pretentious, if that's what's happening?

(I wonder if it's ma'am to rhyme with smarm rather than Mam to rhyme with ham, the first is more general and the second Royal)

Aye, it's a conundrum right enough. Almost as if she's being hypocritical!

Surely she would only be Princess Meghan in Nigeria ? (where she was created some sort of Princess in her own right, but I thought the honorific was different)

They've agreed to drop the HRH, so it won't be that.

I thought she only said to call her ma'am in response to being asked what form of address should be used (rather than making anew demand for it)

Is a non HRH royal duchess "Your Grace" then "ma'am"?

See hereInterestingly @Uricon2 , it’s pronounced with a short “a” when addressing royalty apparently (I always thought it was a long a and only relatively recently discovered my mistake while watching something on tv)
See here 😆

I really messed up my post and misunderstood what you had written @Uricon2 😂😂

Oh yes - that's entirely different, isn't it? It's an American courtesy form - used much more widely than 'sir' or 'madam' in the UK - by any retail assistant or waiter etc?

It's not status-based, as in the case of addressing the Queen as 'ma'am'.

As Mylovelygreendress says, Meghan clearly intends it to be used in the second context!

Definitely all about the status, isn't it?

Perhaps the next book will be a joint endeavour?
I do hope so! 🙏