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.

I CAN MOO R(iiigghhhht?)

NARCO, MOI (?)

Exactly!

O, I AM CORN!

COIN AMOR

The site looks all at rest now but I can't resist.

I C(an) R(ight) MOAN

😎

@IAmATorturedPoet -Very NORTY but amusing 😂

It's still all weird 😂😂😂

And now she's released herself showing off some t shirts she blagged for a young girl who lost her house in the LA fires and her new big fish lips 🐟

"As ever" no comments allowed 😂. It's a big too much like " what everrrrrrrrrr"

The video highlights the difficulties they are having trying to straddle two different worlds. The instagram video is a bit tacky but that's sort of the point and why influencers get so many followers, the route Meghans seems to be following. How that fits in with the trips and the charity work is more problematic.

It’s amazing to me to look back and recall that Harry was given a bloody knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for ‘services to the Royal Family’. This was a decade ago in 2015 when he was leaving the army and supposedly dedicating his life to charity endeavours full-time.

So granny acknowledged this and rewarded Harry with a gong. He wears it, too, to this day, when he thinks the occasion requires it. (It’s the one he wears round his neck on the ribbon.)

Plus points- I like that the video is more authentic and homemade rather than some wafty black and white montage with a drivelly caption. It's much more of a normal Instagram style post that feels more personal and less curated.

Once again though, it's all about her. She's talking about a family who lost everything in the fires, and the whole story is about what she did, how she used her celebrity connections to get the merchandise for the girl. It's still all "look at me, look how wonderful and caring I am".

Of course, getting the merchandise for the girl is a nice thing to do, but then using it so deliberately for positive personal PR feels cynical. Meghan is famous enough that she (or one of her representatives) could have reached out directly to Billie Eilish or her agent, given the girl's details - and I'm positive that they would have directly arranged to send signed merchandise (and who knows, quite possibly also a handwritten note from Billie, or an invitation to a future concert or something. And then good deed done - and every chance it would leak out that she'd been involved by the girl herself posting something on social media, but it would come across as much more sincere.

There would be no need for her to be voice noting "everyone she knows" and going round the houses in the way she describes to get hold of a T-shirt.

But I think she's deliberately done it this way both to make a meal out of her involvement and make it seem like she put in loads of effort - but also to make herself the centre of the story. The risk of contacting Billie directly and having her (or her people) send the merch, is that it might not get publicised, or if it did, that Meghan might be left out of the story.

And the problem is it comes completely in isolation. She and Harry have still not announced any sort of donation amount they've given towards these fires. We had the grief tourism photoshoot in Altadena, then the visit donating clothes to the girls relief fund. Then complete silence - until this. I realise sometimes the small things can make a big difference when you've lost everything, but it's hard not to feel like Meghan is cherry picking small things that are easy to do and make a big PR splash, rather than actually putting her money where her mouth is to try and make a difference.

She also needs to start using her Instagram more if she doesn't want this type of thing to stand out and look so obviously like PR - if she was posting every few days with different types of content then it would seem a lot more genuine than nearly a month of silence and then this out of the blue.

Exactly @elessar this could have all been done with no fuss but as always it has to be about Meghan.

It's nice that she got a tshirt for a teenager. I tend to think these things are received better in our cynical age if the recipient posts rather than the donor but fair play to her for doing it. I bet there is a lot of celeb branded stuff being sent to people who lost everything and good for them.

The bit that was weird was her pretending not to know what a lunchbox is. I'm much older than Meghan and I recognised it. Maybe she is trying to rebrand as ditsy, casual? I think at this point though she would do better to embrace being a perfectionist because it is more natural for her. The calligraphy, the individual flower petals on cakes, everything in that trailer really just screams perfectionist to me and I think if she embraced it it would help her in this re brand.

But what do I know?!

Meghan has young children. She was wearing a top with their names embroidered on it “coincidentally ” when the T-shirt and gifts arrived. How on earth can she not know that lunchboxes are still a thing?

Anyway, it was a lovely gesture - and also nice that she named checked Adam and Behati for getting in touch with Billie.

Good spot! Is this the start of new merch?

What parent doesn't know what a lunchbox is? So weird.

Great post @elessar

I do wonder if Billie Eilish was informed, I have a feeling Billie would have by passed Meghan if she had known there would have been a video.

This is what she does though. Elevate herself off the back of others

Omg I can't believe she made a video about that. I am sure Billie Eilish hasn't put a video on her social media about it! Moreover referring to her visit to Altadena is arrogant given the amount of criticism they received.

Really? I'm quite well disposed towards the royals overall and the late queen but this is the epitome of self serving pointlessness. To be given a knighthood a) when you're already a prince b) for just doing the job you're already well rewarded for, and c) when you're about to start your full time charity work, rather than after years of work and achievements, is ridiculous.

Didn't she do an interview in which she was talking about making breakfast and preparing Archie's lunchbox at the same time?
She can't have forgotten so quickly, surely?
If you posted that you couldn't remember what a lunchbox was on MN everyone would diagnose you as perimenopausal (over 50 and it would be dementia!).

The breathy, super detailed. fidgety story she tells in that video reminds me of the thing she was doing at the bookshop/Godmother's event, when Oprah's arrival interrupted her. And the cuts make it look rehearsed. It looks like an exercise you would do at an acting class.

It's also bragging about her connections and who she's been able to call up. That's not A list behaviour. If an ordinary Joe had been able to get hold of the stuff, fair enough, brag away on your efforts. But this makes her look like a D list hanger on bragging about who she hung out with at a party.

Whenever I see this sort of thing, I always think of the much missed (and taken way too soon) George Michael. And all the stories that came out after he died from people he had quietly helped because he had seen/heard their stories on the news.

Just absolutely tone deaf as always. The gushing, the rictus grinning.

I've no idea how the pair of them get it so wrong every singe time.

Nice of Billie to contribute but H's wife's attention seeking is to a nauseating degree even by their standards.