Times article today

[MrsLeonFarrell]

This is a blatant being request for an archive link for The Times article about Catherine and Meghan called an insiders view.

Can anyone help?

I feel the same.

This has always mystified me @MrsFinkelstein . Why was Harry couchless? Could he not have purchased one? Is there a Serious Sofa Shortage in the royal palaces? Should the shades of KP be thus polluted by Ikea lamps?

I'm hazarding a guess that Nott Cott was a bit of a scuzzy bachelor pad during Harry's single occupancy and interior design was not high on his list of priorities. Like millions of moving in partners before her, Meghan quite reasonably didn't want to live on the set of Men Behaving Badly or the Young Ones. So far, so normal, even relatable.

The problem arose when it was used to somehow demonstrate (non existent) cruelty and slighting of poor little H, especially when that gaff was only ever intended to be a starter home.

Indeed. And it never seems to get mentioned that a large, and by all accounts very grand, apartment was being renovated and made available for them at Kensington Palace

Thank you, this is such a great point. When you are in a position where your private life/inner circle has to be completely private, then you will be more circumspect about welcoming someone new in who isn't already known to your friends/family. Especially when that person is known to be a blogger/blabber of their own private life to the outside world (via The Tig, for example). This is exactly the sort of situation where someone like Catherine can afford to be more open with people she meets via her royal duties than she can be with someone having potential insight into her private life.

@smilesy yes, an absolutely huge apartment the (working) Gloucesters vacated so they could have it.

I've never understood that story. Why didn't Harry have a sofa? Why didn't he pay for one, it was his house?

When you look at photos of the Kensington Apartment it's obvious that William and Catherine have partly decorated using family art, and I would bet furniture too. Why didn't Harry ask for something?

It does seem to be an example of the meniscus mentioned in the article whereby Harry didn't feel particularly hard done by until Meghan pointed it out. I don't think she was helpful to him in this regard, and I feel sorry for her living with the consequences of awakening an endless pit of self pity, whining and grudges.

Ok so meniscus is problem!

Whereas I would expect a first greeting to be friendly but not tactile. I would expect a hug at the end of the visit but not at the start. And we don’t know that Catherine didn’t do that.

Edited to say I wouldn’t expect a hug at all, but I’d think it more normal at the end of the visit when we were no longer strangers.

I cant imagine hosting bare foot - I can't recall ever turning up at someones house for a dinner party and the host or hostess greeting me with their manky trotters out! Just grim - enough to make anyone flich.

I don’t think it suits the narrative as poor hard done by Harry and Meghan.

Come to think of it they both seem to have a thing about bare feet. Harry was photographed with his bare feet foremost for one of their cards wasn't he? I think she believes this makes them appear so relaxed, informal and approachable.
A bit like wearing shorts and flip flops to lead the Invictus parade.

Doesn’t Meghan have an issue with her feet though? I thought she was self conscious about them as she has a bunion or something? I’m personally not bothered about someone having bare feet (although I don’t think I’d host dinner like that and the feet need to be clean), but I would have thought that if Meghan is not happy about the appearance of her feet, she wouldn’t want to flaunt them. So maybe it didn’t actually happen and it’s yet another metaphor for “warmth” 🤷‍♀️

I can't imagine any social circle more tightly locked to new acquaintances than Kate's. Especially to someone known as a blogger. I expect she is totally polite and pleasant until a lot of trust is built up. That trust was never earned by Meghan.

That trust was never earned by Meghan.

Worse was that MM took every opportunity to go on to betray and attempt to subtly belittle and smear Catherine's character at arms length. Classic Narc duplicitous move - tho very transparent to those watching closely.

She did have bunions, but had surgery to remove them.

I think that when two damaged people end up together, it's a bit of a recipe for disaster.

Her childhood certainly wasn't the solid, stable (and possibly slightly dull) childhood that Catherine had.

In all the press there are considerable gaps in Meghan's story that just don't add up. Blended families are difficult at the best of times, but clearly there was never any love lost between Meghan and her half siblings. Her mother is around now but she grew up with her father.

The press would be all over that for a celebrity, but seems to have stepped around those issues for a former member of the royal family.

She may be intelligent but she cannot read a room. The things that come out of her mouth sometimes are mindblowing.

Then you have Harry, who despite the intense therapy he says he had, has never been able to put his mother's death and the notion of being the spare to bed.

I think they brought the worst bits out in each other and couldn't see that the moves they were making had disaster written all over it.

Prince Phillip hit the nail on the head when he said the crowds show up for the job title and not the person who holds it.

I think if you can't see that, then it quickly becomes a very heady thing.

Yes but I thought she was still not keen on the appearance of her feet 🤷‍♀️

This whole Kate-Meghan issue reminds me of myself and my sister.

I'm the oldest but I'm very shy. I'm introverted. I used to suffer from social anxiety. It takes time for me to fully connect with someone. I'm not a hugger at all, except with very close friends and family.

My little sister is the complete opposite. She's very extroverted, has a fun personality. She has no problems making new friends.

For years, people have labelled me cold. My two nicknames are Duchess and the Ice Queen. I'm not a mean person but it just takes me a while to bond compared to other people.

I would think it a bit odd if I was meeting a future SIL and they backed away from initiating a hug, when it's obvious that they hug random strangers as part of their 'job'. I would've expected Kate to initiate the hug as a warm thing to do and being an established part of the royal family, welcoming someone new into it. Just my opinion.

Catherine was pregnant and suffering from hyperemesis. I think it's quite understandable that she didn't feel like hugging.

Younger siblings have the luxury of being the fun ones, it’s their older siblings who have to be sensible, which often means reserved and guarded. You never hear of a younger sibling having an old head on their shoulders.

Her childhood certainly wasn't the solid, stable (and possibly slightly dull) childhood that Catherine had.

Personally I wouldn’t consider living in Jordan for a few years and experiencing another culture a dull childhood, let alone having parents wealthy enough to send me to the best private schools and all the extra curricular events and trips that would entail, all within a loving supportive family, sounds quite an idyllic childhood to me!

I’m exactly the same. I’ll hug if someone comes to hug me but I won’t initiate. And as a pp said W&K have to be so on guard when they socialise until they know they can trust someone. And hey ho, it turns out their intuition was right.

@Uricon2 Still think Harry has much to answer for in not preparing her for what to expect and what was expected.

I totally agree. I do sometimes wonder if Harry had prepared Megan if they would still be here. I do lay a lot of blame at Harry's door

I wonder though if he had prepared her properly whether she would have decided it wasn't what she wanted to marry into. That is what seems to have happened with his previous girlfriends.

I don’t think so. She had her idea of what being royal was and she wasn’t going to listen to anyone who told her otherwise. She wasn’t looking for ways to be royal but always intended go back to Cali and monetise her status from the word go. She was, and still is, so utterly convinced of her own superiority that she could not possible have accepted that what she wanted to happen would not happen. She just thought that the Royal Family would bend to her will, regardless of the way that the institution has always operated and what royal life actually entailed

edited for sense