With Love, Meghan - criticisms and genuine concern for her mental health

[Lavenderfarmcottage]

I am probably going to be flogged for posting this and chased down the dark laneways of Mumsnet as bystanders yell “Shame Shame Shame”.

I weighed in yesterday about a thread on Meghan and her new Netflix show. I made some criticisms about the trailer and certain cliche’s in the way it was produced. Hypocritical of me to be posting this but I feel guilty and have reflected. I am actually looking forward to watching it on Netflix and my criticisms were pretty minor and not exclusive to her show - it’s a common issue I have.

Meghan has struggled with mental health because of criticism. The reaction to ‘With Love… Meghan’ has been fairly brutal.

I think it would be really good if we refrained from saying anything negative about the series or Meghan Markle. That’s not the point of this thread.

I want to know if you think the criticisms have gone too far. The Princess of Wales is not on the scene and we are protective of her rightly so. That leaves Meghan as media fodder though.

Do you think it’s time Meghan and Harry were given a break ? I do. I think we’ve been far too harsh and the criticisms have gotten out of hand.

I think we also forget the cultural relevance. If we went into the homes or Gwyneth, Julia Roberts etc and I would probably feel the divide too. American culture doesn’t apologise for wealth and hollywoood is highly competitive.

Having a confident demeanour, throwing your head back Julia Roberts style when you laugh and unapologetically selling $$$ vagina products like Gwyneth Paltrow is how it over there. People talk loudly and confidently and are polished and rehearsed especially in the
Competitive world of Hollywood…

Are we all being too hard ?

The media were questionable at the least weren't they in the way in which her race was used against her. They certainly stirred things up. The way she behaves seems to trigger people as she's very different in her behaviour to say Kate. Yet her race was a factor in her treatment by the press.

She felt race was very much an issue for the RF. How do we know if we aren't a person of colour how it is for someone who is. I believe her. I might think she's rather unlikeable but I believe her and feel her treatment has been horrendous and race was part of that, for the media at least.

If a newspaper is printing lies about you the obvious course is to sue for libel.

How do you think 5 years of telling 'their truth' has worked out for them? Has it gained them new fans? Raised the general opinion of them? Made them attractive to potential employers?

Maybe a better course of action is to not become so emotionally invested in what strangers might think of you.

It must hurt you that Netflix keeps on endorsing them and they are relevant.

@ThatRareUmberJoker yes and Kate and William had plenty of shit thrown at them over the cancer silence.
They still haven't garnered sympathy by saying which cancer she had/ has. The role and the public face comes before " the truth" or whatever tosh people want to write. They are professional, the job is being a Royal.
Meghan could revert back to being an actress promoting her causes through the arts. An ironic Lady Macbeth anyone? But guess what ..it's a show about ...her...quelle surprise!

That's actually quite funny - that you're bothered about racism enough to report if someone says gammon.
Hope you are as bothered about actual racism too.
It's not a "derogatory term for a white person with a red face" - it's more of an attitude.

Plenty of choice available to them - the world was their oyster! BUT they wanted to have their cake and eat it. Thankfully the late Queen put a haste to their gallop.

They could have remained as working royals, living a life of immense privilege, doing charity work. They could have done what Harry's cousins have, and stepped down as working royals, and made their own living quietly and privately.

But no, they had to leave with fanfare and shafting the family he left behind (the family he once said Meghan had always wanted!!) for dollars.

Disgusting.

NF has done almost nothing to promote either the flop 'Polo' and has released this one at the worst possible time of year. They are highly unlikely to renew the contract after a string of flops.

I'm not sure what I'm meant to be 'hurt' by or why you're trying to make this personal.

The late DofE was picked up on comments he made but to say he was a racist as if that was his defining quality is unfair.
Apologies, he wasn’t just a racist. He was also a sexist and a xenophobe. A real all-rounder!

He jabbed the pony’s sides with spurs so they bled, and jabbed a pony hard in the mouth with a gag bit in temper, causing pony to rear.

Harry had a temper on him with animals looking at this, and that’s not a good thing.
A polo pony ( pregnant) also collapsed and died after a match.

I’d bet there were a lot of micro aggressions behind palace walls from some family members and from some staff - Kate will have had years of that too because of her class and upbringing - Meghan will have faced it because of her class, race and probably more than race, her nationality. British people can be very snobby about Americans.

The mainstream media didn’t go negative with those stories because of race though (they didn’t do much to clamp down on the racism in the comment section admittedly) - they went negative because drama sells papers and for that period of time Meghan’s name was SEO clickbait gold.

The editorial process goes - how can we get people to read this dull environmental story about the effect of avocado farming? Not ‘what story can we write about Meghan today’

It’s why they still call Kate Middleton by her maiden name - it’s more searchable - it’s why they went all in on the photoshop mystery and ‘where’s Kate’ nonsense.

They want to sell papers and drama sells papers.

If Meghan had stayed she’d have been up in the papers and Kate would have been down and then viceversa.

Netflix don't need to do a thing. The flops are a win for them.
Everything is a click win when it comes to Haz and Megz.

Programmes which nobody watches are a 'win' for Netflix?

Please explain.

I think she mistook snobbery for racism. Britain definitely has a problem with the class system but less with racism and as an American (America is divided by race) she probably thought people were racist when actually I bet quite a few of the people she met will have thought she was "common" or pushy or whatever. She won't know the hidden class defining rules that all the aristocracy know and I bet that was very uncomfortable for her. However I bet the RF were absolutely charming to her. But I can imagine she will have felt some people thought that she was not good enough for Harry and they probably showed it. I can believe that. But I doubt it was racism.

Why are you writing that like a pasted ransom note?

Hard disagree on both counts.

I think racism was a very small part of the criticism she fuelled.

Exactly @Nordione1

When you look online and in the media,the treatment Kate gets is completely non comparable to what MM gets. I wouldn't want to be either. Yet, the impact the treatment MM gets is enough to send anyone over the edge. Kate is overwhelmingly adored and praised; the press really do manipulate that quite alot.

Why choices would have been available to them?

Nobody is watching that crap?

Regardless, it generates all the advertising they want.

Evidence??

Possibly. I think both can be true.

Wha'????

What do you mean?

NF doesn't currently have advertising. They make their money from viewer subscriptions. Nobody is going to subscribe on the strength of Archewell content.

So you don't have an idea either. What a surprise.

Do you work for the RF PR team by any chance?

Netflix don't need to do a thing. The flops are a win for them.
Everything is a click win when it comes to Haz and Megz.

This exactly. Even if the series us a flop people will still play it endlessly to confirm that it's shit.
So much money is needlessly spunked in TV production. If either of them were genuinely concerned about the state of the world making naff programmes us NOT the way forward.