Meghan back on Instagram

[PrettyFlyforaMaiTai]

Looks like she’s back on Instagram

www.instagram.com/meghan/reel/DESeJO5vFSN/

It wasn't a red carpet photo though, it was on a stage in front of an audience.

I think the double handed bump holding is more a pregnancy photo shoot pose, rather than one done in public. I googled and found one or two red carpet similar poses, but definitely not a common celebrity pose.

I looked at the trailer on YouTube. I don't really like all the beige but I admire anyone who wears white to cook. Meghan obviously isn't a spiller.

What came across most to me was that she seemed uncomfortable in front of the camera. Maybe it was how it was edited? She liked far more relaxed on Suits so I wonder if she is aware of how judged she is going to be being herself on film.

It wasn't heavily marketed when it was first released either and you would think they would want to do some promoting of a second or third series since it turned out to be successful but they hardly did anything. I didn't know until I saw it on the new releases section.

Suits was an ensemble piece and she wasn't very well known then, she is carrying this show and I would imagine there is pressure to succeed considering nothing g else has really worked out well

Bump cradling seems to be quite a common pose for maternity shoots (a modern intrnet phenomenon in itself.)

It's the amount of bump cradling while at work that seemed odd with M.

Like, holding hands with your husnabd is a normal thing. But not constantly whenever together, and not while at work (if you work together.)

These things seemed jarring because of the context and frequnecy not becuase of tthe action itself.

This one is OTT. It's not about her but as usual she has to be there with the look at me.

Yes that's very true, there must be so much pressure on her. I doubt being married to Harry is easy with all his court cases and paranoia. ( don't mean that there is a problem with the marriage just that he seems to be carrying all sorts of grudge which can't be fun to live with.)

The mods must have thought you were inappropriate 🤷‍♀️

I think to be fair to Meghan she’s not pretending to be something she’s not. Pre Harry she was a mid-level influencer spewing word salad gibberish, and that’s all she’s doing now. Nothing has changed, and she’s I guess being her true self (except probably more wary and anxious about negative feedback).

Soon after she married she gave online lectures/inspirational speeches to schoolgirls about striving to meet the highest goals (which she’d done pre-Harry too, I believe) using her platform as a wife of a prince. It’s the sort of totally in-brand Meghan BS that wouldn’t (and didn’t) cut it pre-Harry. But through marriage to him people give that same nonsense air now.

She’s always lacked authenticity, always been hypocritical (do as I say, not as I do), never learned from constructive criticism, always employed the same MO. And it’s got her a $14m home (her very first time buyer home), a title, fame/infamy, a prince for a husband and son and a princess for a daughter. She’d say she’s done well, and all by blocking out the noise/ following her truth/ sitting in her knowing. She’s totally consistent in her inauthenticity, hypocrisy, garbage spiel, irrelevant fluff, style over substance. If that’s what a Prince of the British realm wants for his wife, his right and his responsibility!

This with bells on. The problem here is the tabloid press. They love to pit women against each other, royal women even more so. Anne was pitted against Diana, who turn was friend then foe with Sarah then there was Diana and Sophie only curtailed by Diana’s death(but was the subject of Daily Mail article in the past few weeks).

The media coverage of Harry and Meghan was exactly the same as Andrew and Sarah in the 80s. The exciting new modern couple who made the heir and his wife look staid. The women were besties, then they weren’t. None of this was new.

Is there an element of racism in the headlines Meghan got? Yup. Done in an almost clever way so it could be interpreted as a ‘look how far we’ve come’ or ‘yeah, she’s not white’ or ‘I see no racism here’ depending on your perspective. And there was plenty of innuendo against Kate in many of the initial articles praising Meghan.

Kate got classism instead. All the ‘doors to manual’ stuff about her mum prior to marriage. And at the time of their engagement, the Daily Mail’s James Whitaker wrote a full page opinion piece on why it was a disaster for the monarchy that William was marrying a commoner. Along with all the other stuff she had like being mobbed by paps walking along the street by herself. They’ve both been treated abominably by clickbait press at various points and (prior to H&M leaving), it was probably pretty even as to who got it worse overall.

It’s a shame no one made many things clear to Meghan before her engagement. But it’s particularly disappointing that neither she nor Harry seem to appreciate that the UK tabloids have a playbook that they rinse and repeat and that not playing their game is really the only way to go. I would have liked for Meghan to have called them out on their game as could very easily have been done with the bridesmaid story.

But, what with everything that has happened since they left the RF, Meghan isn’t going to get a fair reception from the tabloids for any endeavour. No matter what you think of what her trailer shows, The Tig did show her interest in food and hosting. She’s doing work which isn’t based on (trashing) the RF. Time to let her work stand or fall on its own merits for those of us who sit in the middle.

@MrsLeonFarrell

There is plenty of stuff that Meghan did that I'm not a fan of, but I think the negativity around bump clutching was unfair. That was the point I was making.

I think that's a different point.

Initially, you said that, although Meghan's over-and-under bump clutch looked odd in the UK, it is a really common pose in Hollywood, and actresses do it on the red carpet all the time. and suggested people Google "celebrity bump cradling" to see.

As far as "negativity" around it goes, it looked really odd and uncomfortable to me to encircle a pregnant belly with both arms like that. Is saying so all that negative? If it is, it seems pretty mild negativity to me.
I suspect you're right that it is done to make it clear they were still thin even with a bump. That's certainly what I assumed Meghan (the only person I've seen doing it) intended.
Which is a sad indictment on the Hollywood insistence on thinness.
Quite.
Let's hope that particular pose doesn't catch on.

Yes. John Diamond wrote about his cancer (he was a great columnist) and I remember the documentary where they were given very bad news while filming. Her stricken face has always stayed with me (been through similar myself since) She has a privileged life but I think she is quite aware of that, has a streak of self mocking humour and also doesn't position herself as Hapless Victim of Absolutely Everybody.

I honestly doubt many of us have the skills to be front and centre projecting our own personality on eg a lifestyle show, but then, few do so, at least successfully. It remains to be seen whether Meghan has that ability but I hold to the belief it would have been much easier without the now extensive and unhappy backstory which rather taints the whole enterprise.

I agree it looks odd and uncomfortable. I've only ever seen it on red carpets not in real life. I can see why you thought I was making a different point though. Sometimes I lose my point across threads!

To go waaay back upthread I wanted to also make it clear that I don't think commenting on it shows racism.

Do you not understand how SEO and newspaper clicks for advertising revenue works?

The paper didn’t write a negative story about Meghan because they wanted to write a negative story about Meghan.

They had a new report that week on the environmental impact of avocados and did a keyword search to see what would make the most people click on it - and AT THAT POINT IN TIME - Meghan Markle was the highest trending keyword in UK media searches connected to avocados.

(because her makeup artist friend has done a post showing a pic of avocado on toast that Meghan had apparently made for him in Kensington Palace and all the papers had picked it up and reported on it in the previous weeks)

The paper just cared about clicks - this was at the height of interest in Meghan so her name as a keyword was the most useful in elevating a dull environmental story.

Also I have posted about this before - the Meghan bump touching articles started after it became really noticeable that she was doing some weirdly excessive and performative poses around her bump during her pregnancy.

Might have been an automatic holdover from years of performing for red carpet photos but in those days people get lucky if one picture makes it into the press so it doesn’t get noticed that you’ve been posing. Meghan hadn’t made the connection that royal footage in video form is used widely and poured over.

So there are a series of videos where she is constantly flicking her coat - on the side where the flashing cameras are away from the bump so that photos taken will see the bump silhouette and not a bulky side shot.

And because she does it numerous times it’s noticeable that she switches the coat flicking from right to left hand depending on which side the cameras are on. All while she is supposed to listening and talking to whoever is hosting the engagement.

Then there are all the poses where she is doing both the two handed pose or very stiff one hand supportive pose under the bump - she holds her hand like that for nearly the entirety of the Oprah interview - it’s very performative and looks unnatural.

If she’d just put a hand on her bump occasionally or reacted to a twitch/pain like all the millions of other women who’ve been pregnant it wouldn’t have been noticeable.

Is Meghan perfect? No.

But does she try her best to be a decent person and use her enviable platform to make change for the good or produce something solid and worthwhile? Also No.

wordler if you say so. There are plenty more examples like that.

I think Nigella's filming kitchen is pretty much a straight copy of her own kitchen. And I agree, the things she cooks are things she makes and eats regularly - her love for food and eating shine through. Similar for Nadiya Hussein.

Mary Berry and Delia (when she did shows) do film in their own - massive - kitchens.

Obviously Meghan is absolutely entitled to her privacy and no one has any right to see their home, but Meghan IS the selling point (& who she's married to). Viewers forgive Nigella etc al for not filming at home because we know their bone fides and have an already established relationship with them and their cooking. The only reason Meghan was able to make this show was because of who her husband's family is. The viewers curiosity is on her and her life - not her cooking attempts.

Also with who she spends time with - that's why who appears with her on the show will also be important. A not unsubstantial number of viewers will solely be tuning in for a glimpse of celebrity. A bunch of minor celebs who are all heavily rumoured to be on ozempic pretending to eat what looks like pretty basic food (hummus & crudités/salad, victoria sponge, oily fish and veg, breaded something in sauce, iced donuts, ice cubes with fruit) are not California elite.

I hope it all goes really well, I hope this sets up an ongoing business for her - I've just not seen anything inspiring yet.

Im pretty sure i didn't see Margot Robbie do that recently. I didn't like some of Margo’s pregnancy attire. Thankfully at least Meghan didn’t wear cropped tops.

I actually hope these endeavours do go well for her because then maybe she’ll stop acting like a desperate arse.

No matter what you think of what her trailer shows, The Tig did show her interest in food and hosting. She’s doing work which isn’t based on (trashing) the RF. Time to let her work stand or fall on its own merits for those of us who sit in the middle.
Totally agree. Someone upthread said there is a grey area where a lot of us sit re Meghan, we're neither superfans nor 'haters' (horrible word but it seems to be used quite a bit) and those of us in this grey zone want her to do well at this venture without necessarily wanting to watch the series. I think it's time to give the woman a break.

It’s not if I say so - it’s clear in the articles you mentioned. A big part of the narrative around Meghan being treated differently in the press than Kate started with that Buzzfeed article which was very flawed in that it wasn’t comparing like for like in terms of timelines of reporting on the royal women. And it didn’t take into account the issue of current clickbait use of Meghan’s name at the height of her fame in the UK.

Which is ironic as Buzzfeed’s whole business model was clickbait.

In the main stream press there were a small handful - 3-4 clear racist headlines/copy/mentions. All unacceptable.

From memory - the Straight Outta Compton headline (USA copywriter for UK tab) Danny Baker’s deplorable monkey photo comment and I think a couple of ‘exotic bloodline’ for the royals mentions.

And of course a LOT of racism in the comments sections which they should have clamped down on.

But actual mainstream articles and reporting was almost all positive when it was reporting directly on Meghan - not just mentioning her in vague connection to another story for clickbait.

The negative tone only really took off after the Oprah interview.

Celebrities have been doing the two hand cradle pregnant bump look on various red carpet events like the oscars before and after Meghan did it. It's hardly weird or odd. It's just one more pose they can do from all the other usual ones where its one hand on top of bump or one hand on bottom of bump or one hand over the bump. Celebrities usually do several poses.

Meghan was at an awards event but still it's just a pose for a photo. And if you see other photos from that night she has different poses

But that’s the point -it’s a pregnancy pose.

You aren’t supposed to be posing for the cameras when you are presenting an award to someone else.

It looks performative and weird off the red carpet / photoshoot situation.

It looks out of place - hence people commenting on it.

I think some people just don't like her and aren't going to change their minds. I don't know why some people get so ANGRY though.

She is criticised because she is horrible.