Anyone starting to feel sorry for them?

[Aspargar]

https://archive.ph/vV0f9

No matter how preeningly narcissistic the couple may seem, surely even they must now have realised what the source of their woes is? The fact is: people were only interested in hearing what Harry and Meghan had to say when they were dishing the dirt on the royal family.Hence, in January last year, the record-breakingly vast sales of Harrys memoir Spare. with all its eye-popping claims about his brother, father and stepmother. But every time he, and Meghan, start talking about any other topic – be it sport, jam or social justice – the world turns off. No one cares. Now that the Sussexes have finished flogging all the family secrets, they’ve got nothing that anyone wants.

There is part of me that does feelsorry for them too. I mean 2024 has been a disaster, off the back of 2023 which was another disaster. It’s not going to get any better. Reap what you sow, so we knew it was coming their way but it’s all a bit sad and pathetic now. The faux tours, cards from ‘the office of’, as time goes on, the more pathetic that will look because they have lost all connection to the Royals

This must be their year of reckoning. He won’t win his cases, they will lose Netflix, the brand will face further set backs, they realise that their kids will never have a royal Christmas at Sandringham or summer at Balmoral, ever. In fact they are unlikely to ever meet the King again.

Its all came off the rails. We all knew it would happen. Many could even see the disaster impending from the engagement announcement. But it’s still hard to watch and that’s what makes me feel a bit sorry for them.

Prepared to be flamed! 😬

If he were genuinely worried about his safety, he would have worn a seatbelt, hired competent security, and stayed in his own car.

It's so strange that those were the circumstances of his mother's death, as if he's deliberately trying to mimic them.

Diana was only 2 months into the keeping of Mohamed Al Fayed's 'security' when she died.

And has Harry managed to say anything about the serial rapist Fayed and the whole disgusting Fayed apparatus, of which his mother was under the protection when she died?

I think the world affairs also worked against them. They couldn't have chosen a worse time to make it all about them. Trump, Covid, Ukraine, Gaza, rampant inflation, Trump again. People are consumed with real worries. I mean flogging luxury jam when Trump is talking about lowering the price of eggs isn't going to endear them to the non celebrity crowd. They seem to be tone deaf to the mood of nations and can't read a room. They lack any real talent, and can't see their own hypocricy in a lot of areas. H&M were a distraction for a while, but no one is really interested in them beyond the entertainment value of insider RF gossip. As for those saying they left the RF, they didn't really, did they? They wanted on foot in and one foot out, but the queen said no. I don't think they saw that coming either. If they truly want to stay out of the RF, why do they still want to identify with them and want to be recognized as royalty in the US? It is all so weird. They really don't come across as being happy to me. Their constant attention seeking behaviour is a far cry from happiness. That's how it seems to me at least, and I'm neither from the UK, nor US. I don't particularly feel sorry for them, except perhaps for their inability to see themselves clearly.

As for those saying they left the RF, they didn't really, did they? They wanted one foot in and one foot out, but the queen said no. I don't think they saw that coming either.

I think this is right. You can tell how shocked and pissed off they were by their subsequent self-aggrandising and bitter-sounding statements about being 'Internationally Protected Persons' and disputing the meanings of 'royal' and 'service'. In fact that's when I first thought 'what the fuck?!' about the pair of them. It was very cringey, like a teenage debating society gone wrong.

I don't think Harry thinks "someone might have bumped off his mother", because, being who he is, he's had personal experience of how the secret services work, since he's had close protection from them. Including two SAS minders constantly at his side when he was sitting in the mess at Camp Bastion playing computer games killing Taliban in Afghanistan (and then boasting about it in Spare, helpfully putting those same SAS minders in mortal danger of retaliation). So he knows that the secret services never saw Diana as a threat to the UK.

In addition, Harry did not think "hmm, not sure I want to hang around here - I'm off." If you will recall, he and Meghan specifically wanted a half-in-half-out option, by which they remained part time working royals and part time celebs and sellers of Sussex-branded merch in Cali (remember their early attempt, when still part of the RF, to sell Sussex-branded merch? That went down like a bag of sick in Buck House). But the Queen said no way, see you laddie, come back in a year if you change your mind, we'll have you back with open arms. And then H&M spent that year implying that the Queen was some half witted feeble old bat who couldn't think for herself and surrounded herself with sinister people in gilded cages. So they kind of burned their bridges there.

None of which are the actions of a dude who thinks the men in grey bumped off his mum, and might bump off him next.

If Harry NOW believes that the men in grey bumped Diana off, then he's even more mentally disturbed than I thought, and probably requires in-patient treatment.

The secret services of UK (MI5, MI6, GCHQ) do not provide close protection.

That is done by the Met police (the royal and diplomatic protection squad, which might have a different name these days) and in some military circumstances, the SAS

I don't think any couple who's been that needlessly horrible to both their families in public could be happy. Especially since two of those members have since died without H&M being able to make amends, and three (Thomas Markle, Charles, Kate) are seriously ill. Sure you might have the superficial trappings of a 'very nice life'. But me, the guilt would eat me up. I'd hate to be such a figure of public ridicule too.

Of course, it's possible that they feel no guilt at all, in which case they both may have Cluster B type personality disorders. It's hard for Cluster B people to have nice lives, because these disorders tend to wreak havoc in one's personal relationships. It's possible to keep them under control if one does a lot of therapy and works hard. Two untreated Cluster B types in a relationship, though, tends to have unpleasant outcomes.

So in conclusion, I don't think that superficial trappings of wealth and privilege are by themselves sufficient to create a 'very nice life', if one is spiritually at odds with oneself and one's family & friends.

...but do they know/accept that they're figures of public ridicule? Isn't half the problem that H thinks he's the Messiah? (Nearly added a Monty Python quote there)

Thank you for the clarification, hopefully you get what I'm trying to say anyway :-)

Oh I think they know, they seem to spend a lot of time reading about themselves (as opposed to the global affairs they claim to be so passionate about solving)

In the Dealbook interview, I can't remember exactly the context, but the interviewer brought up about Harry claiming he didn't read social media (maybe when Harry mentioned about all the divorces he supposedly read about) and Harry stumbled a bit, said that no he doesn't read about himself, then said sometimes he does, then said his team bring him things and will say 'oh you gotta read this thing that has been written about you'. So it looks like he follows things very, very closely,

I think the half-in half-out request links in with MM reported comment that she ‘couldn’t believe’ they weren’t ‘getting paid’ to do their royal glad-handing. It wasn’t that they wanted to be half-in/out; it was that they wanted to make money, lots of it, and wanted the freedom to do this by exploiting the RF. Of course this goes completely against the whole ‘contract’ between the RF and the people - that they are there to serve and in exchange they are supported to live in privilege through civil list, tax benefits, and other financial arrangements.

I don’t think they feel any guilt at all. When Charles dies it might hit home for Harry, but I honestly don’t think either of them think about the damage they’ve done.

Just thought I would add this for the posters who insisted they were hounded out.

A Personal Message from The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.
It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment.
We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages.
This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.
We look forward to sharing the full details of this exciting next step in due course, as we continue to collaborate with Her Majesty The Queen, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cambridge and all relevant parties. Until then, please accept our deepest thanks for your continued support.

Not exactly the words of 2 people who chose to leave ?

They 'chose to leave' when they were told that this vision was deemed unworkable and their options changed to in or out. They chose out.

Yes I take your point . I was more responding to posters who insist they were hounded out because of racism/ jealousy/ whatever.
In my opinion they flounced off maybe thinking The Queen would change her mind ?
It was such a messy situation .

I think they thought they could blackmail the Queen into letting them have what they wanted . Hence the OW interview and all the barbs and books. It failed.

Yes, Meghan and Harry wanted to earn money from their positions - they told us so themselves. The first draft of the Sussex Royal manifesto setting out their “progressive new role” made that very, very clear - they set out how they wanted to earn a private income, something which the arrangements as they stood at the time prohibited them from doing. They told us how they intended to change that (giving up the 5% of their funding that came from the Sovereign Grant) in order to free them up to pursue commercial activities.

Yes, I don't think this can really be emphasised enough. H&M's stated antipathy towards the RF isn't because the RF is racist, or because it's colonialist, or because MM wanted to end her life at the Royal Albert Hall. It isn't because the men in grey briefed against her, or because they failed to protect her, or because Archie nearly died in a tiny fire, or because they took her passport, or because William's in a gilded cage, or because Kate's a Stepford wife.

All of that rubbish is just the constantly changing smokescreen that H&M desperately throw out to hide the REAL reason for their antipathy: they were in an extended fit of pique because they couldn't make shedloads of cash by flogging stuff when they were part of the RF.

They were told no, and flounced to their bedroom (represented in this case by Montecito) like a petulant teen in high dudgeon.

But now that teen's bored in his bedroom, and he can hear inviting sounds of his family having a great time downstairs without him. He'd love to go down to join them, but he knows he probably can't do that without eating a lot of humble pie, and he can't bring himself to do that just yet. So he's going to stay sitting in his bedroom, occasionally stamping his feet and making huffing noises, even though he's not got any food or drink up there or nice things to do and see, because all of that's downstairs with the rest of his family whom he insulted.

Erm, the Met Police? Which is a wholly corrupt organisation? I'm not sure that would offer much reassurance, I mean Wayne Couzins, murderer of Sarah Everard, was pretty high up the ranks in that particular field, wasn't he.

@WinterCrow questions why Harry was silent about Diana's 'protector' Al Fayed. Well, I doubt he would have known about what he got up to, he wasn't even with them during her final stint in Paris, but given that the Met ignored allegations made against Al Fayed for years, I'm not sure it would have got him anywhere. This may be because the Met were on Al Fayed's payroll or according to this month's Private Eye, because they'd had a legal run in with Al Fayed that had gone badly and expensively wrong for them, so they decided not to pursue this.

I wonder if there are any regrets

That’s a perfect description!

IIRC, Wayne Couzens did armed protection of critical buildings, not close protection of VVIPs.

I've just googled: It's now known as Protection Command (belongs to the Specialist Directorate) and has two branches

• RaSP - Royalty and Specialist Protection (all royal protection, and close protection ie bodyguarding VVIPs)
• PaDP - Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (uniformed security to Parliament, government buildings and diplomatic premises, and sometimes officials and diplomats - this branch is uniformed)

Both branches are armed. Wayne Couzens was a major vetting failure - I really can't see how he got into a Command like this, or even if he looked OK at that point, why alarm bells weren't sounded as his appalling and unsafe attitudes became ever clearer. I hope the massive failure there has led to a serious review of what went so wrong, and that everyone has by now ben re-vetted to new standards.

Most coppers are fine; but I don't think people yet have confidence that the Met has put its house in order

Based on the recent investigations, very sudden retirements, etc. that we've just had in the NYPD, NYC isn't much better than the Met. Unfortunately people are people.

So Al Fayed paid the Met to kill his own son? Wayne in the dining room with a lead pipe?