Vanity Fair podcast

[Atlasvue]

Carrying on.

Employee feels Harry is happy doing charity work and is happy for meghan to do all the work to make money so he doesn’t need to

These allegations almost make me feel a bit sorry for Harry.

The section on Harry's idea about sociopaths is excrutiating.

“I have very bad childhood trauma. Obviously. My mother was essentially murdered. What is it about me that didn’t make me one of these bad guys?”

I suspect it is a mistake to include the divorce book snippet. They seems a little unlikely at the stage they are claiming it happened

That depend on how much attention that bit gets in the US. It seems jaw-droppingly awful to a readership in UK, as so many of us were genuinely wishing them well and celebrating (and paying for) their wedding. But might be a minor detail in US.

Just as something @Atlasvue mentioned on a previous thread, about Harry seemingly saying his mother had been murdered might stir up conspiracy theorists in US but will be seen as a load of old bollocks/Harry's faulty memory acting up again here in UK

I suspect you are correct

Oh, and the bit about them trying not to upset the Queen while weighing up ideas. Blimey, what was rejected on those grounds given the projects they did go ahead with?!

This is the sort of thing that gives me the ick with Harry. How dare he say that people with trauma become sociopaths and he is somehow the exception (always needs to be the special little sunflower). It's so insulting to the millions of people in the world who have gone through trauma, and then done the hard work needed to process it, heal as far as they can and create a good life for themselves.

He does come across as a bit pathetic

they say- no friends, bit lazy, uninterested, parented by Meghan, doesn’t realise the magnitude of what he’s done to his family and that his wife was touting a divorce book.

So it is true that the article isn’t totally unsympathetic. It says what I (as an Anglophile American but originally from a Commonwealth country) would say. That she was treated badly by the British press and potentially the Royal family. That they seem to be in love. That they have good intentions and good ideas. BUT.

And then it shreds them. He appears to be not very clever. He wanted to make a show about sociopaths? He is charming but vacant. She is hard working and intelligent and a bully. And is fame hungry.

That (and I have said this on MN before) that they are not remotely anti monarchist or have any critical view of the institution. They just wanted to be at the centre of it. Even their anti racism is a veneer. They just wanted people to be nicer to Meghan.

In a way I think the article is totally devastating publicity because it isn’t completely negative. Assuming that this would have been published 2 days after her show released you can see its impact. But even otherwise this is another blow to what remains of their reputation in the US, which is after all their prime market.

There really seems to be a concerted move in the American press against them. I'm not why that is though.

The writer takes it for granted that M was treated badly by the RF:

Is it any surprise that a sense of victimhood and righteousness could continue to exist in a person who had been treated so horribly by the press and her husband’s family?

Edit: made it clearer it's a quote

Yes, the balancing is merely performative.

It in the podcast, it doesn’t come across like that at all. In the podcast, its like a hammy excuse.

For example. They lead with the bullying stories but speed up very quickly when talking about staff that said they’re lovely. Almost just to get it over with.

Agree that the balancing is performative (I'm hearing the sarcasm while listening now). But also with @MangshorJhol that the fact there is that attempt at balancing makes it worse for them. There are digs at the RF and Catherine so it's not slavishly devoted to the other side.

Meghan was treated horribly by the press. The fact that every royal bride is treated terribly doesn't take away from how awful it is for the individual.

I've yet to see evidence she was treated horribly by the Royal family (the sole thing I have seen was Princess Michael of Kent wearing "that" brooch and even in that case I've never heard that Meghan sajd anything about it, just the outcry in the press).

Yes re the balancing…..they say she was mistreated by the RF etc

But they spend the podcast telling you she lies, she bullies etc. So to me, it’s like they are inviting you to question……., well was she even telling you the truth about her treatment from the RF.

The press criticism she received between 2017-2019, was absolutely nothing in comparison to articles like this from VF

I suspect most of the RF (and W&C specifically) really didn't like her, and that probably hurt. So even if they didn't do anything wrong, she would still be feeling very, very rejected.

Evidence the RF tried to sincerely welcome her:

• Sandringham invite pre-wedding (and to stay at W&C's home while there)
• very high profile patronages
• 1:1 engagement with the Queen soon after the wedding
• royal train journey for M very quickly

Maybe. I don't think i can judge how someone else is affected by press articles about them. It was pretty relentless for her at that time. They were petty complaints but still I would imagine hard to deal with

I don’t know if there’s a concerted effort in the press. Like I have said before they actually don’t get that much air time in the US. Till the LA fires and they clearly struck a wrong note there with a few too many people. It was clear that they had a PR team there and it was very raw and there was a backlash.

But the fire and this PR failure couldn’t have been predicted. Presumably this article was in the making long before that.

In a way the start of 2025 was looking positive- a fresh foray into Instagram, a new show (we are only 2 weeks into 2025 after all). But given how quickly things have fallen apart suggests either that they are unpopular enough and this is widely known, that their PR team is useless or has given up on them or someone very very powerful in the US is out to destroy them. Now Harry does have a case against Rupert Murdoch but I suspect in the world of Murdoch Harry and Meghan are small fry.

This is much more of a character assassination. The British tabloids were sensational nonsense (or they would have been if they had been ignored).

I would pay good money to see Harry attempt to interview Poutine and Trump

There's been a bit of that already, plus a really strange post about Catherine's "complicated cancer narrative", whatever that meant.
I suppose we'll be told when the poster works out a way to make it sound less unpleasant than it was.
It's taking them a while though.

It must be well known in Hollywood what meghan is like- that’s why they’ve had two well respected industry magazines publish stories on her bullying behaviour. She’s been labelled a bully twice now by US outlets

Nothing about bullying from him, just that he seems a bit surly and spoiled at times but not yelling and making the staffs lives hell.

Even if this isn’t picked up in the rest of the US, their Hollywood career is over. Everyone in town will know.

15 celebs are named as people who have 'peacefully coexisted with other locals in Montecito'.

'The prince and "the starlet"...have become local villains.'

Edit: typo

But most of those British tabloid articles turned out to be true. Even Harry confirmed in his book that a lot of what they wrote was accurate.

How do you make friends when you isolate yourself and are known for selling stories on those you have been close to?