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........

Yes. Although they didn't say for how much!

i very much doubt the full price was paid. Charles was not going to fork out a 5 figure sum for a dress, and Meghan didn't have that sort of money. I suspect it was purchased at a steep discount. That's not the normal royal way of doing things, but then royals don't normally wear dresses costing twice the average annual salary for a photo shoot.

The engagement photos and the wedding reception were at Frogmore House on the Windsor estate I bet when Meghan heard the word Frogmore in relation to accommodation for them after their marriage she envisaged Frogmore House not Frogmore Cottage must have been quite the disappointment.

Like others on this thread, I'm baffled by the ARO screw-up.

It's Marketing 101 not to launch a new set of products until the products are on the shelf ready to go. If you have a gap between the brand launch and the product launch then you lose sales and momentum.

The only exception are haute couture fashion brands where the designs are walked at the fashion shows weeks or months before the ready-to-wear products. But that is a totally different level of desirability and status than ARO.

I’ve wondered how Charles ‘gave’ the money he was funding his sons’ households with - we know from the Duchy accounts he was spending 5-6 million between William and Harry - probably weighted towards William before Archie was born and William had three kids.

The money paid for their work teams and offices and their household expenses.

I would expect that some expenses - like office staff etc just got invoiced and paid directly and then for living expenses they are given lump sums throughout the year, and ask for more if they run short. I assume they’d also have to give Charles some kind of accounting for what they were spending.

If Harry kept running out of money once Meghan was on the scene, or Charles was being given receipts for clothing that was costing a lot more than you’d expect to see within a budget like theirs then I can see him having a sit down with Harry and talk to him about being able to afford that level of spending.

Like others on this thread, I'm baffled by the ARO screw-up.

According to a YouTuber I watch she “launced” ARO at the same time as the Diana awards but that wasn’t her main motivation, the where is Kate? saga had reached worldwide fever pitch and we all know Meghan is so blinded by jealousy of Kate that she just could not resist her silly launch to try and get some attention on herself, launch in haste, repent at leisure I say.

Its actually hard when you look back at the affection and good will for this couple, to see where it has all gone. I literally cannot think of any other couple who could have so spectacularly squandered the opportunities they had. Its HARD to get things SO wrong, SO repeatedly and seem to learn nothing from your mistakes.
I feel like they are finished. Reputations only for being grifters, dishonest, disrespectful, bullying and lazy. No family on either side. No reliable source of income. What on earth can they do next ? I fear they will monetise the children .... The Prince and Princess of a country their mother despises and their father has denigrated.

Yes, I think that is what they will do, sadly.

Its actually hard when you look back at the affection and good will for this couple, to see where it has all gone. I literally cannot think of any other couple who could have so spectacularly squandered the opportunities they had. Its HARD to get things SO wrong, SO repeatedly and seem to learn nothing from your mistakes.

This unfortunately.

The ARO fiasco is just another in a long line of them. Why on earth would you not build the basic foundations required and then launch with something that you could actually sell? I can see why they get through staff at the rate of knots as people must be trying to point out the basics, them not listening and acting on impulse and the staff thinking I can't stand this I'm out of here before my own reputation is damaged by association.

They seem to literally not think ANYTHING through whatsoever. This then just opens them to continuing ridicule. One mistake or sloppy approach to something can be overlooked, but on a continuing scale it really can't.

I'm struggling to see how they can build a forward thinking and continual revenue flow that is going to maintain their hugely expensive lifestyle for years and years to come. They really are going to have to land extremely lucky based on past performance.

I have to agree with you, I think it’s past the point of no return, aro dying was that point. I think the issue is it’s not just one fuck up. It’s constant fuck ups. A drip feed of ongoing mistakes,

let’s face it, leaving and issuing that ridiculous statement about a new way of being royal and collaborating with the queen was a mistake, Oprah was a mistake, but they could have come back from it. The Netflix docu series was a huge mistake , compounding The errors before, then spare, and the awful interviews harry did to launch it, then the scobie book, then all the ludicrous pr. William needs to apologise and I will come back , going to be brand ambassadors for Dior. The Scobie book which thinly disguised Megan’s hand, the accidentally on purpose naming Kate and Charles, collecting awards that were pointless, and often embarrassing, doing tours of corrupt counties pretending to be royal, launching aro before it was aro. Or ensuring it could be, being highly litigious and losing big time regularly. Naming their kid lillibet . Saying they had to leave for their lives, they just want privacy, then doing everything possible to get as much publicity as possible. Shirking the Spotify podcasts. . It is a never ending carousel of utter disasters.

You really couldn’t make it up. The pair of them are an utter car crash.

Sadly that's the sum of it. To date.

It also the fact it's either not a mistake despite the car crash everyone else can see or its someone else's fault somehow.

If they'd said oh dear we fuck up on our learning curve - or used humour and humility to show some growth - but instead it all poor us/me everyone against us.

All the headlines lately just suggest desperation to get back with RF or to use people to get somewhere. PR wise clearly there's a lot going on behind scenes but don't think it's having a huge effect on public perception.

Totally agree.

And I cannot imagine, in Meghan's position, asking for such an amount to be spent on my dress! The vulgarity is off the scale.

I haven't 'read' Spare, in the sense that I haven't read the actual book page-by-page, partly on principle and partly because i think I'd throw up. But I have read 'highlights' on line, such as the bit you quote. And everything I've read or heard, to my mind, shows Harry in an appalling light. How can anyone not see that? It was ultimately public money that Pa had to shell out - money from the peasants, Meghan and Harry!

Yet their supporters pop up on here telling us that if we only read Spare we'd understand what a nice person Harry is and what he's had to go through.

That, for me, was a red flag. I thought, she's in this for what she can get. So tone deaf to spunk that obscene amount on one frock. Something like double the UK annual salary on something that as far as I know she's worn once.

Second red flag was changing the engagement ring Harry designed to add more diamonds - again seemed completely pointless and greedy.

After the ARO fiasco I don't think any US celebs will be flooding their instas with photos of themselves with their wares, I think they will be giving them a wide berth.

Even if the dress was loaned, it just smacked of "look what I have access to now!". Kate has her flaws but she did her engagement interview in a dress that could be picked up in House of Fraser for about £150.

But how does it end?

I mean, there are endless fuck ups but still they stagger on. They fall over themselves with embarrassing incidents one after the other….and still they stick around. It’s either masochistic or pure delusion. Can’t figure out which one

But how will it stop?

When they hit their 50s and no one cares anymore? When the Wales kids are teens and taking the headlines? When Netflix isn’t renewed? When ARO never materialises? When the millions run out and Harry has to appear on I’m A Celebrity? When one on their staff go on record and speak out and they’re cancelled? When Archie and Lili grow up and beg for their parents to step out of the spotlight?

I honestly can’t see them ending this self induced humiliation. It’s going to be a very very very slow death spiral ….luckily the mumsnet threads are here for it!

I think they must be pretty well out of options. There can't be any reputable, high profile organisations or individuals left who want anything to do with them.

Get rid of the Montecito money pit, find somewhere less expensive with a nice school for Archie and Lili and live quietly for a few years, then hope for a private reconciliation with Charles is probably the best thing they could do. But I doubt that's in Meghan's game plan. And Charles might turn out not to be a pushover, given how H has behaved towards his darling wife.

That couple will never, ever live quietly.
Publicity is oxygen to them.

What allegations has Harry made against Kate and Camilla ? Other than the (unlikely) racism one against Kate?

I haven’t read any of the books and am unlikely to.

I quite enjoyed Suits though ! 😳

Lemonada is seemingly looking for a buyer

I wonder if getting in Meghan was designed to bring in buyers. It’s obvious that Meg ain’t gonna do anymore podcasts….this delaying thing until the cooking show etc so there’s no overlap is nonsense! We don’t even know if the cooking show will ever air.

H&M can only survive a few more years spending at this level. The only real income they’ve had is from selling info on their families, even that isn’t worth as much now because they’ve already had the docu and the book. Imaging they can create a a business (regardless of what it is) that brings in 10s of millions a year, is crazy. It won’t happen.

Does anyone remember the scene in As Good As It Gets, where the crying PA has to tell Greg Kinnears character that there’s no money left, that he’s out of options and the only thing left is to go back and beg his parents for money? ………I imagine someone at some point will have to have that same conversation with H&M

I remember when they departed BP the morning after their wedding, Kate was wearing a Zara dress. I really admired her for having the confidence to not feel she had to impress with expensive designer dresses.

But how does it end?

Probably when it’s the Coronation of King William Meghan will announce her divorce from Harry, Harry will be of no use from that point and she will be able to relaunch herself on the world stage, books, talk shows you name it, the divorce will be Charles and Diana x10.

Back in 2020 Business Insider said (quote) “Actually, it would be pretty easy for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to build a billion dollar brand”.

This was before they realised the duo were going to trash the RF and the UK or that they were a clueless, talentless pair of numpties. I daresay they could have had a very successful brand if they’d had more sense and played the long game rather than the knee jerk, instant gratification shenanigans they chose.

As someone said earlier today they "shit the bed " and are having a hard time getting rid of the smell now.