Duke of Sussex : "potentially initiate a partial return to the royal fold"

[ThatAvidViewer]

Duke of Sussex asks former aides to help plot RETURN from his US exile in first stage of 'rehabilitation' strategy: Prince's friends vow to help smooth path back and dub it 'Operation Bring Harry In From The Cold' | Daily Mail Online

After everything he has said and done........

From memory, Sophie had all the "New Diana" guff to cope with when she married Edward, which was only a couple of years after Diana's death. I really, really like her and think she is an exemplary royal now, but I can imagine that was a big burden starting out.

Diana had the kind of quality Marilyn Monroe had on film, a sort of glow. Very, very few human beings possess it in that quantity. The only non film star I can think of is oddly, Oskar Schindler. One of my lecturers knew him slightly and said he was the most charismatic person he'd ever met and "the air changed" when he walked into a room, even if he said or did nothing to draw attention to himself.

It's a literal gift that can be used for good or ill and it is not a failing to be lacking it, in fact hard working, well informed and responsible are probably better royal attributes in the long run.

It's revenge - all of it is revenge for not only the petty slights that dear old H has stored up in his bag of resentments throughout his life, but mostly it's for thwarting his and Meghan's plan to leave and earn loadsa dosh from monetising their RF connections. They had a whole plan. It hinged on getting permission from the Queen to be working royals while living in CA and simultaneously becoming Hollywood royalty and being feted and adored everywhere they went. But evil Charles and William and the 'men in grey suits' thwarted them.

Not only that, but Harry never dreamed that his taxpayer funded security would be cut off. Not in a million years did he think that Charles would cut him off from Met Police protection he'd end up having to pay for private security. The depths of his anger and bitterness about those things have given us all the bile he's spewed out in the past four years - not only Oprah, Netflix, Spare and all the TV interviews that accompanied them - but this battle with the UK government to reinstate his security and give him IPP status. It all stems from that.

I agree and I also think that Meghan’s lack of charisma is demonstrated by the fact that she always needs to draw attention to herself, inserts herself in to the foreground all the time and over shares. Charismatic people are often also enigmatic. Diana had charisma but she was in danger of losing it with her self publicising antics toward the end of her life

Not only that, but Harry never dreamed that his taxpayer funded security would be cut off. Not in a million years did he think that Charles would cut him off from Met Police protection he'd end up having to pay for private security.

Charles did not 'cut him off'. Harrry chose to give up his official role and move to another continent. In any case, Charles doesn't have the power to tell the authorities what to do,

And Harry should have know that his taxpayer funded security was not guaranteed for life. After all, his uncles and aunts had theirs cut back over the years. Not to mention that he was explicitly warned about this at the 'Sandringham Summit'. But he chose to ignore it, and is now living with the consequences.

I don't think Catherine has "charisma" as such, and she's clearly not a born public speaker, but she does have a natural way about her and a clear, mischievous sense of humour, plus she seems happy to get stuck into a physical challenge, even if it makes her look a bit silly. I do think that what you see is very much what you get, no artifice, no great seismic personality being suppressed, but no malevolent intent either. And I think she's coming into her own as a strong personality willing to take the lead if required, as demonstrated at the funeral walkabout. Hopefully her illness will be a temporary blip in her development. Thinking you have to arrive on the world stage, in this extremely unusual position for any human being, as fully formed from the get go was (and remains) a great deal of MM's problem; and why Catherine's critics like Scobie sound so shallow and detached from the reality of how humans learn, sometimes fail, and grow with time and experience.

I also think Megan isn’t naturally charismatic. You can see it in her interviews or when she’s on panels. She’s very self focused and lacks empathy , she can’t seem to learn it so it’s a huge issue for her. I’m not even sure she recognises it.

harry I do think has some empathy, and has the ability to be charismatic when he tries, but he’s so lost , wounded , scared , right now it impacts his whole persona.

i think he is deeply wounded by where he’s ended up , that everything has back fired on them so much and they’ve failed so badly, the fall from grace has been spectacular and I think it’s caused him a lot of pain.

I don't think Catherine has "charisma" as such

no neither do I, what Catherine has is mystery around her, she’s clearly very private and plays a public part. Seldom to never puts a foot wrong, she does the right charites, dresses right, never makes it about her, she does her job and goes home. She is far from an attention seeker. And doesn’t appear impressed by money or fame. She’s the soul of discretion.

she’s the opposite to Megan who is a life long grifter. Who is impressed by money and fame, and who appears grabby and materialistic, loves a freebie, designer clothes and a private jet. And who is as indiscreet as one can possibly be.

Yes Diana had charisma in spades. I’ve nothing against Kate (or Catherine, I prefer her as Kate) but as nice as she appears to be she doesn’t really have charisma either. The difference though is she is personable and seems genuinely nice, whereas Meghan 🤔

I'm not sure charisma is always a good thing - in some roles it can be a bit dubious. I wouldn't want my doctor to have charisma, for example. And Boris Johnson undoubtedly had it and look where that got us! But some people of substance have it - David Attenborough, for eg - and that's when it's really powerful and a positive thing.

I agree that Diana had it eventually, but not at first. She was a very shy young girl, but developed huge confidence both physically and in terms of her character as she matured. I think Catherine does a great job - I'm really glad she's not a gushing, gurning, grinning actressy type like Meghan. I think she has enough charisma for now, and I bet it will grow as she ages too and becomes more and more comfortable in her role.

I really do think the last few years must have taken a massive toll on her. She had all that mean, snobbish stuff about her background to deal with early on and then, just as she was finding her feet, along comes Meghan with Catherine in her sights and tries her best to destroy her reputation and image. Nice. I'm afraid I hope that Meghan will be truly paid back for her spite.

I'm afraid I hope that Meghan will be truly paid back for her spite

actually it’s Harry I take more issue with here, he is guilty of going after Kate, either as collateral damage (didn’t marry for love but who fit thr mould nonsense )or allowed Megan to go after her, and arguably Kate and him were friends, for a long time, and the issues he had over being envious of William were not something Kate could do anything about.

for me. Harry has a bigger price to pay here.

Wow he really did marry his mother. Those boys grew up in a household full of drama. As did I and my siblings. It takes guts to escape once the penny drops. He's slipped right back down that hole.

American shrinks perhaps.

I think Meghan thought she was being funny with her curtsey story, but it just made her look stupid.

And rude.

Re Harry at Eton, I read somewhere, don't recall where, that there was some discussion of whether he should go there, but it was just after Diana had died and it was thought better to keep the boys together - and close to family.

from what H wrote in Spare, he didn't make the most of his time there.

And if he had been sent somewhere else, no doubt that would be another grievance - that the Spare wasn't considered worthy of the top school.

Interesting posts, folks, for the last several.Edit to say it took quite long to type so really I'm going back a page, not just the last few posts. Odd musings as a result:

I can't remember whether I've heard a film pundit talking about Schindler but I remember thinking that in the film the camera was angled so that we had to look up at Schindler -Liam Neeson- sometimes. Interesting - the charisma thing.

Yes, Diana developed it. She was a very shy girl at the start. Of course, she had the sort of face and figure to give any woman a good deal of confidence. What a mixture she was. Are we all just such a mixture, I wonder.

I'm not exactly sure how to express this. It's something to do with height, possibly. Queen Mary was tall and straight and probably held so by corsets. Catherine has done some of the serious stuff, probably most seriously at Prince Philip's funeral, and I can't help being a bit reminded of Queen Mary. C often wears her hair up and with elegant coils at those things. I don't think she's stand-offish, as shown in the other sorts of things she does, but she knows when to be reserved and serious and elegant and dignified and it's attractive to see.

It's always good to see someone start something in life and move through the early wobbles and develop confidence. I'm not just talking RF.

The Catherine/Kate thing always reminds me of Shakespeare's Henry V. Yes, I know he married because of political reasons but the wooing scene is lovely and I think he says' "Sweet Kate,....." No, I'm not checking with Google. I'll check with the Bard himself.

Interesting, considering people have told me that none of the royals are in a position to correct the narrative. There seems to be a memory lapse on Andrew speaking out, as to did Diana and Charles in the 90s. Charles also stated in his biography that his parents were cold and he felt unloved.
it would appear that only certain people have the right to speak about their feelings and situations.

And look how that turned out. Lessons have been learned thankfully. The polls show that a dignified stance is working. Harry’s popularity says it all.
Charles was nowhere near as intrusive in his biography.
You are right about only certain people have the luxury of speaking about whatever they like and it’s not the Royal Family. Harry and Meghan maybe need to learn how to shut up.

They have the right to speak out. Of course they do. But look at the examples you have quoted. None of those episodes are particularly well regarded with hindsight and haven’t aged well. I think many members of the family (including those that may have spoke out on the past) have learned that a dignified silence is better in the long run. Otherwise you get stuck in a spiral of constantly explaining and justifying your position. Which is exactly what the Sussexes are doing and after a while it just sounds like noise

eta x post @MummyJ12

I'm not exactly sure how to express this. It's something to do with height, possibly. Queen Mary was tall and straight and probably held so by corsets.

I think the combination of being tall and good-looking is a winner! Also, women still largely seem to like a partner who's at least as tall, and Catherine is in that position - which Diana wasn't. Diana did a lot of wearing flat shoes and slightly stooping in her early days, since Charles wasn't particularly tall. Later I think she wore heels with a sort of defiance, reared up to her full height and thoroughly enjoyed being so statuesque.

He left the Army in 2015.

He was in a relationship with Meghan by late 2016, and they were engaged in late 2017 and married in spring 2018.

He barely made any speeches whilst still in the Army, and hardly any in his first months out. So I don't think we'd really know how often he would have mentioned his mother, as the the number of speeches before is so much smaller than after he coupled up with her (even allowing for hiatus during covid restrictions)

It’s quite ironic when you think about Harry and Meghan insisting on everyone with whom they visit and speak signing NDAs, they talk about “finding their voice” but want to limit everyone else’s freedom of speech.

Great minds @smilesy 😁

Charles never wrote a biography.

He did make comments about his parents in an interview, which wasn't a very nice thing to do, but given that he is 75 years old and has been famous since the day he was born, one lapse in judgement doesn't seem so bad.

By contrast, Harry has made a career out of whining about his life and family. You really can't compare the two, however often some might try.