As Ever #2 Whatever

[PrettyFlyforaMaiTai]

I noticed the old thread is almost full so thought we could start a new one to carry on the discussion about the rebrand and merching.

Are you an ‘As Ever’ or ‘Whatever’?

link to the old thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/5277002-as-ever

She did, she said as much in an email revealed in court to Jason Knauf, the KP adviser.

And frankly, the judge in that case allowing her to keep her 5 friends' identities (the likely letter leakers) a secret was absolutely baffling.

@PrettyFlyforaMaiTai My advice would have been pretty much the same! They should have hired us!

Keep it positive with Harry's family, even if only through gritted teeth. Attend Trooping and Sandringham Christmas. Talk about how you were so grateful the the Queen and the British people for the opportunities they gave you, but it was all a little too much to combine with raising a young family. Most people would have wished them well.

Meghan could have spent the Covid days building up her 'lifestye' persona on social media. Instead, she's springing it on us now and we're supposed to forget all the bitterness of the past 5 years and buy her 'down to earth' domestic goddess image. I just don't see how it can work, even without all the unnecessary shenanigans over the trademark.

I don’t think they are salvageable to be honest. There are three things that I think they could do to save themselves but they’re not going to be popular with them.

1. Divorce and completely separate their brands. They would really have to trash each other publicly though and it would be a popularity contest. Meghan would have to claim he was paranoid, an addict and controlling. He would have to claim she was manipulative, high strung and a bully. Meghan would win the liberal, republican and feminists over but Harry is more likely to win public favour due to pure misogyny, plus his previous jack the lad personae.

Whoever wins the popularity contest can save their reputation on the back of the other. Harry would probably be welcomed back into the royal family with conditions and continue where he left off. Meghan would be able to advocate for women’s rights again (with her own personal victim story) and start up a new brand or become a brand ambassador.

I don’t think any of us want this to happen though.

2. They start from scratch. They move out of California and go somewhere remote (maybe back to Canada) and live quietly for about 10 years, doing lots of charity behind the scenes without making a big fan fare. During this time they come up with new ideas and perfect execution. No last minute changes, surprise launches to beat the media and make sure they have all trademarks finalised. This also means no giving interviews, attending award shows and no faux royal tours. They should also refrain from making big political statements. Once they’ve given enough time for public opinion to settle and reset, they could launch a new brand and path for themselves.

The only problem with this is that Meghan clearly likes the attention and glamour of being a celebrity, so she’s not likely to give that up. Plus, unfortunately time isn’t on their side. She would probably be in her very late forties, early fifties when they set about rebranding and they won’t be considered as glamorous or relevant any more.

3. They both completely change their personaes. They shrug off the quiet luxury/tradwife/clean holistic California life style and adopt new personaes and aesthetics.

I think Meghan is already trying to do this with how she is presenting herself as an ingénue, but the problem is she is a forty odd year old mother who has had a lot to say about herself. She needs to rebrand herself as someone who is fun and can take the piss out of herself.

I would love for her to do the podcast I described above and call it “Me Again”, where in the introduction she would take the piss out of herself and say “we’re here to talk about my favourite subject, me!” and, “you bring the jam, I’ll bring the tea”. Just acknowledging what people say about her and owning it.

She also need to stop being a control freak and embrace the chaos. She should show her failures as well as successes in the kitchen. Something like hosting a kid’s birthday party and she opens a smoky oven and shouts “shit, I burnt the cake, but that’s alright” and she sends out Harry to grab chocolate rolls and smarties and makes her own version of a Catepillar cake to save the day.

Harry just needs to revert back to his fun ‘jack the lad’ personae, quit his whinging and stop being such a victim. He was once one of best loved royals so he is capable of doing it again. He needs to stop looking so grumpy, focus on his charities and find a fun hobby (matte surfing).

The problem is Meghan is too controlling and too much of a perfectionist to want to do that. And Harry seems so uninterested and so unhappy with all of this commercial stuff that I don’t think you could make it work for him.

If they had maintained good relationships and proximity with the RF, I think the A list of Hollywood and elsewhere would have had more open arms for them.

The very worst thing both of them have done is trashing them and IMO all the other bad stuff leads from that. Had they had a perfectly brilliant business plan, it would still have been tainted and compromised by Oprah, Spare, the Netflix series. They did this by themselves with no help from the media, UK or otherwise.

She thought she'd hit the jackpot that summer of 2016. Forget Made in Chelsea, Ashley Cole, cooking shows or Piers Morgan. She found Harry! She thought she'd be a multimillionaire with no barriers - a mixture of Jackie Kennedy, Princess Diana and Michelle Obama. Harry found someone who could indulge his sense of injustice and paranoia.
I can't think there is a way forward that would suit either of them.

Influencers are supposed to make us want what they have so we can have the life they have. Hmm don't think I would like Meghan's life. Married to scowling Harry won't be a bundle of laughs for a start.

Ha no, I can almost feel sorry for her being lumbered with that manbaby for a husband. She can’t even compensate by thinking, oh well at least he's a looker!

Her public and private personas could be very different (possibly) but Meghan perpetually comes across as taking herself far, far too seriously and not in possession of a real sense of humour. In a way, we know far too much about what she apparently thinks and feels (unlike Kate, who is much more circumspect, if only for obvious reasons) and it's a disadvantage, because it doesn't seem to be leavened by anything genuinely relatable.

Even William and Kate allowed it to be known they enjoyed Game of Thrones with a curry. Maybe they are really eating peacock off silver platters while listening to harp recitals😂, but I'm inclined to believe them and its those sorts of small things, like the late Queen and her Tupperware, that make people fond of those they don't know and will probably never meet.

I'm not getting that from the carefully curated Cali lifestyle that tries to be a bit too perfect and "elevated".

If they had maintained good relationships and proximity with the RF, I think the A list of Hollywood and elsewhere would have had more open arms for them.

Agree. It's been made worse by airing dirty laundry, the A list value their privacy.

Surely Gwyneth is much wealthier. She's recently had a huge house built to her own design and Goop! is a success.

Gwyneth comes from a wealthy family, has had a very successful acting career and also made a ton of money from Goop. Her first husband has a net worth well into the 9 figures, and her current husband is a successful producer.

I would say she's worth way more than Meghan. No comparison.

Gwyneth Paltrow is the perfect example of taking the piss out of herself, like the ‘this candle smells like my vagina’ and joking about the random stuff Goop sells saying “Sometimes I look at a product and think, ‘What the hell do we sell?’”

Montecito is almost 100 miles away from the fires. That's why people were so outraged about her and Harry's tourist trip through the fire-ravaged area. It had nothing to do with them.

When I separate myself from the irresistible gossip and think seriously about what I would advise them to do if I were their PR, I worry it's too late for them to rescue themselves because their star has fallen so low. It think I would tell them to downsize to a less high-profile neighbourhood; cut out the private-jet trappings; focus properly on Archewell; select/create a small number of international women, children, conservation and tech/social media projects and regularly report on their impact; come off social media (Meghan); cut the quasi-royal tours; stop calling Backgrid (Meghan); and no more slagging off books (Harry). I would expect to be ignored.

With Love Meghan won't do very well. As Ever won't get off the ground. They will have to cut back and just be rich, not very rich.

If you look at the middle of the mood board, there’s a note from someone saying ‘love you’. But they’ve spelt her name wrong and she’s tried to cover it up with a post-it.

Can’t be someone that knows her well or a good friend if they don’t even know how to spell her name. It looks like it’s been spelt Megan.

But that sounds about right, no real close friendships. Only passing acquaintances on her way up climbing up the ladder.

She paid great attention to Harry's sausage and he opened his big stupid mouth and let all the whining vomit out. It was a perfect storm!

'Knife me' would happily complete the cutlery trio.

Maybe there will be a more positive reception to the Netflix show and the as ever launch, but I honestly do not see what PR can do as everything is just so toxic, even her support is from a point of defense and attack there is little "with love". There is no honey (or jam) just lots of sticks. Instead of promotion it's just name calling. I don't engage on X in the hope of it not appearing on my timeline and have blocked all mentions of Meghan on TikTok, I haven't had to do this with Harry as he's never turned up on my for you. It's pretty quiet on here which is usually a sign of firefighting on other sites.

I think their fundamental problem is they don't seem to appreciate how much they DO have, and that their choices have played a part in some of the things they complain about.

Of course that doesn't mean their lives were plain sailing and had no challenges. But they have talked endlessly about the problems (in their opinion) without acknowledging the flip side, and the extent to which their challenges were the result of some of their own choices.

They didn't have to e.g. 'hit the ground running' as working royals. And once the reality wasn't matching up to their expectations they could have simply stepped back for a bit to focus on being a family. They have had so many options and choices, but seem to blame other people for the consequences of their choices.

I think Meghan is stuck emotionally at adolescent level and Harry is stuck as a 12 year old. Therein lies the problem.

I bet she has kept a diary since their first date, noting every joint and line of coke (irresponsible, self-centred father), cross word and row (aggressive, controlling husband), and withheld expenditure (H rich but soo mean and people don't realise I lived a modest life and was constantly looking for ways to make money). Preceding The Harry Years in her post-divorce book will be Shedding A Light On Daddy (apparently, and I think Lady C is the source, when her father dies she's going to say she was sexually abused as a child. I really hope this isn't true ie both that she was sexually abused and that she hasn't had this truly dreadful idea).

That was Harry's Valentines card.

😂