Prince Harry had a hilarious message to those trolling him and Meghan

[TallerSally]

So, this is a good one.

Harry, who according to some is suffering from plummeting popularity, has no friends, is an irrelevant non-entity and a 'Hollywood Loser', and is on the brink of divorce was last night sharing a platform with his fellow non-entities Bill Clinton, Jeff Bezos, Jerome Powell (Fed Chair), Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO, creators of ChatGPT), Sundar Pichai (Google CEO) and others at the New York Times DealBook Summit.

The conversation with the interviewer, Andy Sorkin, was textbook put-down to Harry's merry band of obsessive trolls around the world:

"Towards the end of the interview, Sorkin, 47, asked Prince Harry about how he grapples with the public fascination surrounding every aspect of his life — a scrutiny that not only highlights the positive causes he advocates for but also casts a harsh spotlight on his personal relationships.
"I Google Newsed you, and there were people fascinated by everything you're doing, all the time. They're fascinated by Meghan is in California right now, and you're here," Sorkin said, seemingly referencing the Duchess of Sussex's planned solo outing at the Paley Honors gala in Beverly Hills on Dec. 4. "And there's articles left and right about, you know, 'Why are you making, doing independent events? Why aren't you doing them together?' "
"Because you invited me, you should have known!" Prince Harry interjected, which made the audience laugh.
Sorkin then replied, "True. Is that normal for you? The second there's an article — she's in California, you're in New York — they say, 'Well, what is happening with these two, right?' Is that a good thing for you, in a way, that there's so much interest in you?"
"No, that's definitely not a good thing. Apparently we've bought or moved house 10, 12 times. We've apparently divorced maybe 10, 12 times as well. So it's just like, what?' " Prince Harry said with a laugh.
"It's hard to keep up with, but that's why you just sort of ignore it. The people I feel most sorry about are the trolls," he continued. "Their hopes are just built and built, and it's like, 'Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,' and then it doesn't happen. So I feel sorry for them. Genuinely, I do."

By the way, Harry also talked at length about his Archewell Foundation Parents Network initiative, to help promote mental health among kids, which is apparently well received, if donations to Archewell are anything to go by.

Enjoy!

https://people.com/prince-harry-addresses-speculation-marriage-meghan-markle-weve-apparently-divorced-10-times-8756364

He talks all the time about disinformation yet he's more than happy to contribute to it when he sees dollar signs. He's such a hypocrite.

Hilarious.

I would have thought that with all the expensive (and excellent) media training Harry's had, he would be better at answering curveball questions like this by now.

The right response would have been to look full on at the questioner with an open face and re-affirm, simply, that he and his wife are very much in love, that he's proud of her business and humanitarian endeavours and they are both proud of their children. End of.

Sputtering, laughing, focussing on the trolls and deflecting the question are ALL what PR advisers tell our clients NEVER to do because it creates more gossip. It's the equivalent of a Prime Minister refusing to say whether or not his recently disgraced Cabinet Minister has his full support: 9 times out of 10 said Cabinet Minister is delivering his resignation letter less than 24 hours later.

The fact that the interviewer felt emboldened to answer the question strongly suggests that rumours in the industry about Harry's marriage have reached fever pitch. This was Harry's golden opportunity to scotch the rumours once and for all, and proudly remind the world of the strength of his and Meghan's relationship: two trees entwined at the roots, salt & pepper. And he blew it.

I mean it’s not hilarious but that’s not surprising.

I do though find it really disturbing how many people are gleeful at the idea that the parents of young children might divorce. It’s really sick, both to be so invested in strangers you loathe, and to be so hopeful a family will fall apart.

I read that long op all the way through to the end. I'm struggling to find the hilarious quip.

I don't think the op is gloating about the possibility of a divorce, just a weird sense of humour in finding that part of his interview funny. The OP is an ardent super supporter, so it's strange she is finding it hilarious.

I suppose, if one were that invested, one could argue that Harry implying heavily in an interview that Kate Middleton is some sort of Stepford Wife, and that William only married her because she 'fit the mold', is a direct attempt to make Royal watchers wonder if there's a problem in the Wales marriage. I do recall that when the horrible "Where is Kate?" social media frenzy was on, a great many Sussex fan accounts were relating her 'disappearance' directly back to these comments of Harry's, saying that her absence proved him right.

I found that really disturbing too. I hope that Harry spoke without thinking and wasn't given an opportunity to review the footage afterwards and request changes, because otherwise that comes quite close to malice, and I don't like to think of Harry as being actively malicious.

However, you are absolutely correct that two wrongs don't make a right and it's a sad indictment of the divisions social media has sown in our society that so many people feel compelled to 'pick a team' (Wales vs Sussexes) and engage in trolling the other side.

William never comments on the trolls and that is the right approach to take. Harry should do the same.

I know everyone here is ardent Wales fans but surely you can’t deny that the amount of hate Harry and Meghan has received is on another level wether you feel that is deserved or not?

I think him talking about trolls is a good thing. He shut down rumours. We may even have a couple of weeks without the media running stories about him wanting to come home and then divorcing.

the Wales have never commented on trolls and I don’t think that is necessarily a good thing. They allowed numerous racist and hateful comments to stay on their posts. Social media is here to stay and trolls are a huge part of that. It’s about time someone addressed it.

Harry can't keep his mouth shut, as you rightly point out he said his brother didn't marry for love, he constantly proves what an arrogant and nasty piece of work he is. Now he is throwing more fuel onto the flames about the state of his own marriage, even his superfans are having a laugh about it. It is neither dignified, loyal and least of all is it humorous.

After four years you’d think they would have learned for their own sanity not to bother and just get on with the job at hand.

Yet again and again on here, what posters say is if they don't dispute it or issue a lawsuit denying it, it must be true. So I am really not sure what they are supposed to do, keep quiet or deny.
I agree with Harry, it must be disappointing for the trolls that he and his wife haven't split up, he's not wrong there, good for him pointing that out.

I think him talking about trolls is a good thing. He shut down rumours.

Actually, he didn't.

He didn't deny any of the rumours. In fact, by going out of his way to talk about them, he has given them power.

Many people in the public eye have media speculation about their relationships. That certainly includes other royals. And when you make your 'love story' a key part of your brand, as Harry and Meghan have done, you can't really complain when people talk about it. But Harry and complaining are natural partners.

I would have thought that with all the expensive (and excellent) media training Harry's had, he would be better at answering curveball questions like this by now.

I don't for a minute think this was a 'curveball question'.

This wasn't a Jeremy Paxman style interview. These 'conferences' are basically PR for all involved. I would be very surprised if Harry did not get to preapprove all the questions. He may even have planted this question. No interviewer would ask someone about their private life in a live interview without at the very least getting approval on the line of questioning, if not the specific question.

I agree that Harry's response was lukewarm, especially as he must have known to expect it. He is just obsessed with the 'media' and his own sense of grievance.

He didn't 'shut down' the rumours. If the media had concluded that his comments had 'shut down' the rumours, this would be reflected in the headlines their sub-editors have chosen. 'Prince Harry shuts down rumours etc'. If you look across the headlines both UK and US they are mixed. 'Prince Harry addresses...' , 'Prince Harry speaks out....' . That's why I said he chose the wrong answer.

Interestingly the US headlines are slightly more inflammatory than the UK ones. This has been a growing trend over the past 12 months - the US media is now, on balance, more critical of and more derisory towards H&M than the UK media. A lot of this of course is to do with Harry's lawsuits - the Mail has been hoping to settle so are starting to play nicer. Their contracting Bryony Gordon, a close friend of Harry's reflects their new approach to H&M.

The US media on the other hand is now markedly more negative and that is a big problem for H&M because pretty much all of their forecast revenue streams are US based. They need to address this pronto.

As for talking about social media trolls: NO, NEVER, NADA. Absolute worst thing any celeb can do. It gives them power. I always tell my clients to ignore them, and ideally not to read SM comments at all. I sometimes also make them laugh by showing them this famous old tweet from the US rapper Tyler the Creator, who had the pithiest - and the wisest - response to social media trolls. It's more than a decade old, and uses rather colourful language, but it's still a goodie:

https://x.com/tylerthecreator/status/285670822264307712?lang=en

Agreed. And Shakespeare was right. There is definitely such a thing as “protesting too much”

He genuinely seemed surprised to me, hence the awkward laughter. I agree it was a softball interview; maybe the interviewer was feeling a bit mischievous and decided to throw a curveball in. If you look again at the way he asked the question, it did feel as though he went beyond the question as scripted, following a train of thought.

Orrrr maybe Harry was sent the questions in advance and didn't bother to read them and prepare answers. That would be in character, by all accounts.

I have never felt compelled to ‘pick a team’ because I simply don’t see it in those terms,

I don’t think anyone who’s been chatting away about the RF since the 1970s, and been posting in this topic since it was started over a dozen years ago, has ever thought in terms of teams. I don’t divide people into forelock tuggers and haterz, because opinions change depending on who is newsworthy at the time and what they’ve just done and said.

The tabloids in the UK have been doing same for even longer, and they don’t have settled sides (except for the duration of Al Fayed’s ownership of The Express). I think this longevity and lack of even the thought of a ‘team’ is often misunderstood especially by US commentators

It's generational thing I think. Gen Z stan culture. Enabled by and further entrenching social media algos which reward inflammatory and emotive content over reasoned conversation.

The US media on the other hand is now markedly more negative and that is a big problem for H&M because pretty much all of their forecast revenue streams are US based. They need to address this pronto.

Murdoch owns quite a bit of the US media. Amongst other things he owns the NY Post, the WSJ, and Fox and Australia’s sky & the wholly internet news outlet news. com. Probably other US news outlets also for all I know. Harry is currently suing Murdoch’s NGN. Quite a bit of the negative press Harry and Meghan are getting in the US is coming from Murdoch interests. It’s been heating up for some time. It’s a problem for Harry and Meghan for sure, but Harry has said he anticipated this. He wants to hold Murdoch’s NGN to account (he’ll be in court in Jan 2025) and then do the same with the Daily Mail in 2026.

I’m not sure how he addresses this negative press onslaught, other than by giving out good news stories about themselves for balance, to preferred news outlets other than NGN, MGN and Daily Mail.

What have I missed? Where's the hilarious bit?

No, this idea that Murdoch influences the editorial staff at the newspapers he owns is an urban myth that really needs to be laid to rest. Editors place very great store by their editorial values of independence - ESPECIALLY at the Times and WSJ stables - I know this for a fact. Murdoch is well known to support that editorial independence; and in any case, his US papers make him so little money (and the Times/STimes stable is loss making) - that he neither has the time nor the inclination to sit in on editorial meetings.

The one time he DID try to influence the Times/STimes stable was when he tried to make them come out in support of Brexit, which both editors summarily refused to do.

The idea that Murdoch is sat there calling up editors every day and telling them what to write is really only believed by people who have zero understanding of how the media works.

The US media has gotten more hostile to H&M across the board. The Cut, Puck, New York Post, Hollywood Reporter, Newsweek. All very different publications different readerships different ownership structures. In this they're just giving the US public what they want - as seen by the Newsweek polling showing precipitous drops in popularity ratings for both H&M (Harry down 48 points Meghan down 40).

The legacy media increasingly has to serve the public what the public wants in order to survive. The days of the legacy media leading the public are long over APART from the financial & investment press which has a completely different readership profile. Broadcast and podcast increasingly sets the agenda for opinion forming; the legacy print press follows.

I believe the OP is doing her job.

I'm not an ardent fan of anything (except Pedro Pascal but that's another subject), but enough with the juvenile insults, please.

Anything negative I've said about H&M has been based directly on their own words and actions. If celebs chose to put themselves in the public sphere then they are all subject to that being discussed (positively & negatively).

If Harry really wants to take on the trolls then he needs to start with his own supporters. The "Sussex Squad" are some of the most viscous and nasty trolls out there. And H&M have publicly associated with them and thanked them.

I criticise H&M for that - regularly, it's appalling.

(except Pedro Pascal but that's another subject)

Oh my goddess yes!! Thought I was beyond crushes so long post meno but after seeing Gladiator 2 I realised that there's still some residual oestrogen left in the old cells lol :-)

Perhaps he should write a book about it, or a Netflix series, or an Oprah Interview.