Is there another couple in the world like The Sussexes?

[veraswaistcoat]

I was musing last night about this aspect - they had the world at their feet. Despite what Sussex Supporters like to suggest most people in the UK nodded their heads " yes it was lovely Harry was getting married finally" . I had never heard of the bride myself as I don't watch American tv shows of that ilk. She was black or biracial? It didn't even enter my head what colour she was initially and then as coverage started it didn't make one iota of difference one way or the other. I recall the day of the wedding - it was sunny and the pubs were full of royal cheer broadcasting the wedding.

And then it all started to where we are today.

Are there any other couples in the world who have gone through such a downfall? Is this a feature of the social media arena today?
We see P Diddy and Blake Lively and others exposed now through SM.
You can't count the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in this category as they were always unpopular.

Can you think of any examples of people who have fallen so spectacularly?

I know people say " they live in California, they have money blah blah" but their reputation is one that most people would not want.

Is it purely because of their seeming complaining and sense of entitlement ? I mean you don't see the real philanthropists in this way - in fact you rarely hear about them and what they do.

Glad to see Spanakopita (and some other familiars) back on here, raising the tone and sharing their perspectives. I like what you say and the clear and measured way you say it.

@Puzzledandpissedoff - I do agree with much of what you say . I think the Oprah interview ,in the way it was done , was ill judged - perhaps by she as well as them & always had the potential to come back and bite them for untruths , and vague implications. (Oh to have seen that interview with Jeremy Paxman - but forever an unfulfilled dream - sigh 😂)

The H&M Netflix documentary was always going to be a crowd puller but again - they said things which really didn't bear scrutiny. And Spare - well - just well.

I think they just rushed into things Gadarene style for the immediate huge amounts of money whereas with a bit more thought they could have played a longer game and perhaps have built up stronger foundations.

Anyone who has a narcissist in their family will have recognised the narcissistic rage that fuelled the OW interview.

(And, racism? If the RF was racist, M would have had far more material than that convo ( that she wasn't even present at).)

It's very telling that the racism claim was not repeated in Spare, or indeed elaborated upon in the Netflix mockumentary.

MM rejected the assistance of the Queen's equerry, Lt Col Nan Kofi Twumasi-Ankrah (after having already rejected Lady Susan Hussey and Sophie Wessex), uponn the basis of what Scobie called the "optics". Basically, the colour of his skin.

I also don't think she had any idea of the role and prestige of the Queen's Equerry, it is a very impressive list!

@FromTheOfficeOfJammyTodger - yes I don't understand the "optics" comment.

@spanieleyes I agree with you . But she seemed not to want help from whatever quarter.

MM turned up in the UK with her existing agent, lawyer and PR team in tow. They were all working behind the scenes to broker deals before she arrived with the intention of returning the US where the big bucks were. For each of her advisors they would have got a cut so their gravy train had come in for them when their low grade actress hit the big time. MM was never staying and had zero interest in the direction and support from Sophie, Equerry etc. Her eyes were on the prize US Hollywood elite lifestyle.

She didnt want the help as she didnt want them getting too close to her exit strategy plans.

They brokered some incredible deals for them but the concoction of zero talent, arrogancy, grandiosity, delusion, lies, disingenousness, flaky word-salad and entitlement alongside bullying of staff has blown all of that out of the water.

@AssHats - I think you have a point there 😀(understatement )

Walked back by H. " M never said my family was racist. It was the British Press."

But then Scobie - Charles AND Catherine are racist - not one racist but two! (But this is all coming from the Britsh Press🥴...)

Even now I find it hard to believe that she told Oprah (or allowed Oprah to infer and then agreed with her) that the RF were planning to withhold Archie's titles because he would be mixed race or "too brown" as I think Oprah put it. And then they allowed that lie to percolate for 18 months before they backed off from the racism allegations, reframing it as unconscious bias, (picking up an award for their brave fight against racism in the meantime).

As far as I know they have never corrected the false link Meghan made between Archie's titles and his skin colour, nor apologised for it, nor provided any evidence of even unconscious bias in the RF, let alone racism. It's just utterly despicable really when you think about it. Absolute lowest of the low, grade A scumbag behaviour.

I think they just rushed into things Gadarene style for the immediate huge amounts of money whereas with a bit more thought they could have played a longer game and perhaps have built up stronger foundations.

I think they were panicked into chasing the filthy buck.

IMO the initial plan was to milk the after dinner circuit for cash and connections and build from there. Covid scuppered it and they emerged from lockdown as yesterday's news yet with massive overheads.

They had to find a whole new route at pace with the heavy disadvantage of having no discernible talent.

@NormaMajors1992coat 💐👏

@CathyorClaire - yes. I think they sort of overlooked the talent bit 😂 And latterly being pretty much frozen out of the RF they don't have the stories which people thought would be their stock in trade > My guess , and it is only a guess , is that M thought Harry's title would carry them through even if he were a somewhat estranged member of the RF & I think H and probably M overestimated their worth / interest in the US without a proper connection to the RF But we shall see over time.

I think Meghan must be completely deluded, I can't see any other explanation. The idea that she could decide to be a tv producer making Netflix-worthy content, or podcasting for Spotify, or writing children's books, or setting up a lifestyle/jam business, and it would just happen. I mean these occupations require skills and experience that take years to acquire, and creativity, imagination, determination, resilience, people skills. It betrays a complete lack of respect for people who actually do these jobs.

Almost as deluded were the fans on here. I wish I had a pound for every time I suggested that making tv is actually quite difficult, especially with no production experience, only to have someone suggest that Meghan would be great because look at Reese Witherspoon (the A-list Oscar winner with years of production experience who has not spent time away from the industry titting about and bullying people).

Almost as deluded were the fans on here.

Agree. Its very telling that whenever either of them (ie of the fans as I think there are only the two of them still banging the drum on here)are asked to comment on the multiple,separate and independent reports of workplace bullying over the years - they go silent.....

I think they both have pretty distorted ideas of how the world works, partly from their backgrounds (royal family; and LA life / ‘always know where your light and the lens are, Meg, until it’s second nature!’), but also, now they’re in their forties, their own internal drivers are revving up and affecting their perspectives.

They need money, but they seem to absolutely crave recognition and acknowledgement more than anything else. Hence all this ‘global thought leaders’ bollocks. Invent a grandiose club and pretend you’re already in it. Ffs.

Meanwhile, nobody really cares. People sometimes have a laugh at the talent-lite duo and their supine interviewers, and watch the weird reality show continue, and from time to time wonder what the King and his heir will do.

Great point.

It's easy sometimes to forget or downplay the awful things they've done as they get lost in the mists of time but you're absolutely right - not once, even when they were announcing their kids should be known as Prince and princess, did they ever once acknowledge they were wrong in their assertions and sorry for the harm they caused. But they were still happy to take take take every ounce of royal association they could, even for their kids who know nothing of British life and culture.

They're both just despicable human beings.

One remark of Harry's that astonished me was when he said they didn't know what to do for money then a friend suggested 'go to the streamers'. Like anyone needing a cool 100 mil can just rock up to Netflix and sign up. Just thinking of his arrogance towards the pool of people in Hollywood who have such huge skill and creativity and have worked so hard to make it.

This is the actual quote taken from the full transcript of the interview published by The Sun, Google it, it’s still there

Oprah: Because they were concerned that if he were too brown, that that would be a problem? Are you saying that?
Meghan: I wasn’t able to follow up with why, but that — if that’s the assumption you’re making, I think that feels like a pretty safe one, which was really hard to understand, right?

So pretty clear what she was saying I think.

Yes, despicable people is right.

Yes, pretty clear what she was saying, and no doubt a lie. She was not a party to this alleged conversation, which allegedly occurred pre marriage; and it is not at all clear whether the "concerns" were of the "we don't want brown royals" variety or of the "we don't want you to come to any harm from hostile people when you have children" variety. And they let their bullshit hang in the air for 18 months, let it hang over the Queen and Prince Philip when they were dying, and picked up a Ripple of Hope award for tackling racism in the RF. A few months later, Harry tried to walk it back Meghan's allegations in his Tom Bradby interview during his Spare press junket, and tried to make out it was the tabloids making something up about racism. They really are a despicable pair, and their supporters are, frankly, not much better.

Also, that transcript has been archived on archive.ph permanently, so if the Sun page ever does get taken down the transcript won’t disappear from the internet.

That's before we get on to your characterisation of the media coverage of Meghan as 'unfair'. Newspapers have never ever had a remit of 'fairness'. The BBC has a remit of 'balance'. But no media outlet has a remit of 'fairness', because fairness is deeply subjective.

You need to go back and reread my post. It was not my characterization of the media coverage. It was the ‘characterization’ of over half the 700 British journalists polled about it.

I suspect the reason that most of the people who have now left this board, but who have spoken on here in defense of Harry and Meghan in the past is because of the stream of posts following mine, all confidently asserting that there was no racism involved.

**
To be clear, I’m not ‘characterizing’ anyone who posted in the British media’s defence, as a racist. **

They just agree with the group of the less than 50% of British journalists polled who disagree that the British media was both racist and unfair.

Re: the Straight Outta Compton headline and article because you brought it up. The media that printed that article weren’t praising Meghan’s Cultural heritage, despite devoting a couple of short paragraphs in a round about way, in a rather long article, to the Rap culture. Well down in the body of the article, I should mention. Ive provided the link.

Prince Harry’s girl is (almost) Straight Outta Compton.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3896180/Prince-Harry-s-girlfriend-actress-Meghan-Markles.html

The article was written by a British born and educated journalist, and at one point was a royal/lifestyle journalist, who is (or was when she wrote the article) residing in Los Angeles, writing for a UK newspaper.

Meghan was getting death threats from racist white supremacists (some now incarcerated for it). White powder that looked like a deadly toxin was sent to her palace office. Some Newspapers and media were dog whistling away merrily. She was frightened for the lives of herself, her child and Harry - she told us and so did Neil Basu Assistant Commission Metropolitan Police. He also said he understood her terror.

@Ohpleeeease you have a very different interpretation of what someone was SAYING .

She was fed that supposition by Oprah and M suggested that might be the case DESPITE HER NOT HAVING THE CHANCE TO FOLLOW IT UP. In other words she didn't know.

I suspect the reason that most of the people who have now left this board, but who have spoken on here in defense of Harry and Meghan in the past is because of the stream of posts following mine, all confidently asserting that there was no racism involved

Nah, they were pulled overnight when the POW revealed her cancer diagnosis. Once the POW was given the all clear they attempted a comeback but I think the comments section on the Netflix trailer and the Vanity Fair exposé has seen most of them off. Just you and Spectre working the shifts now.