As Ever #3 As If

[PrettyFlyforaMaiTai]

Another thread to discuss the rebranding of ARO and the merchandising of With Love, Meghan

Part 2: www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/5278062-as-ever-2-whatever

I'd like to see them interviewed (together or separately) by Emily Maitliss.

Absolutely spot on! Esp on jealousy on cruelty when outshone! Which sounds counter intuitive but I get it. Weight & hair particular flash points. My Granny was fab too :)

The part of the interview that set alarm bells ringing for me was when Meghan changed abruptly from bring buttoned-up and bitter-sounding to saying, about her children, in a tone that was bright but deeply insincere: 'They're amazing'.

Her children are always going to have to be more amazing than The Wales’ . That’s never going to change .She will find some way to make unfavourable comparisons.

I don’t think that’s likely, going from her first birthday photo. She follows the Markle side if anything.

I have a friend who, on the announcement of the birth of her niece, immediately launched into a rant about how her daughter was being brought up better, and how her daughter was always going to be compared to her niece unfavourably.

The thing is, what she wanted was not to be equal but to be acknowledged as better.

Certain personality types mistake the two... "All things being equal, you should see clearly that I'm best".

My mum is like this, very competitive with her sisters and we always had to be better than the cousins, never allowed to just be us. She does it with the grandchildren too.

I feel for any kids in that position, let alone if you're competing with the second in line to the British throne. My DC thought it was rough being compared to their cousin who got a first from Cambridge, but the royal children will have every advantage, highly curated images and endless opportunities to be photographed doing good works (unless they're dumb enough to do a Harry of course). And they're probably going to continue to be very photogenic. Archie and Lili have no chance. I expect Meghan will try to make it about how they are free to be their authentic selves without family expectations, but still.. I don't envy them.

Could you imagine?!

PA was too stupid to realise how he was coming across which is what made that interview such a gem.

I can really see the narcissistic rage coming out if they are questioned probingly about the many and varied inconsistencies in their stories.

I think many of us are fascinated by how this plays out because of RL experience of similar dynamics.

In my case not my mother but my SIL who has separated my brother from all his siblings & his parents, and he in his weakness is enthralled to her powerful persona. Some men love the opportunity to abdicate responsibility for the narrative of relationships to a women and some women relish the power this gives them.
Relationships going back to childhood get rewritten and people get frozen out.
This then creates a strong bond between the couple.

Of course we are therefore all projecting our own experiences into them to some degree.

But patterns can be observed.

As an aside why is PA so stupid? The late Queen & DofE, not so.

It does make me laugh at the responsibility of the closure of what happened between then and the royal family over the last six or seven years is the responsibility of the audience. Harry and Meghan told their stories but decided to bottle the ending and especially Harry with his now retracted demands of an apology. Everything they do is as self exiled royals, it's who they are and why that is will continue to define them. It didn't have to be that way it was a choice, personally I'd have a lot more belief in Harry's version if he'd denounced them and his title. But they wanted the money, the sob story and the titles. Then we have this birth right shit, it's bizarre that this is deemed important but the allegiance to the monarchy and to the country on the "birth right" title is optional. Harry and Meghan and their supporters do not get to draw the line in the sand because Harry believed his family would just suck it up. Meghan has a Netflix show because she had a big fancy wedding to a Prince, there is nothing wrong with that but it's who she is and who the Duchess of Sussex will always be.

I have the same with my brother. He’s enthralled with all the ‘stuff’ his partner owns. All inherited wealth. She dangles it in front of him & then snatches it away.

I’m sweet as pie to her. She tries hard to isolate him from his family & friends. It’s you & me against the world, they’re all so jealous of us .

There were rumours of a Narc rage incident by MM after the Jane Pauley interview. The interview was ostensibly to launch an initiative to support parents bereaved by the suicide of their children due to online harm - but MM kicked off after on set because she was surprised by a Q. How atrocious to behave so appallingly in the company of parents who have suffered the worst loss.

From what we have seen of their faux Spanish McMansion there have been no significant changes from when they purchased it, I’m amazed with their so called 200 million they haven’t at least changed the kitchen, I would have thought Meghan particularly would have wanted to gut the place.

By contrast I love Gwyneth’s home & style, she has great taste.

There's an illusion by Harry in The Cut interview that they needed to do lots of work of the "pipes" variety. Which could have been really fucking expensive.

It's quite possible that the "bargain" price was due to significant and expensive work needed.

But I expect she sounds deeply insincere even when she is being sincere, its a fascinating handicap she has there.

She probably genuinely thinks they are amazing, we all think that about our children to a degree. But most of us have the self awareness and perspective to realise that yes our children are amazing to us, the loving parent. But it should be perfectly obvious that viewed dispassionately, they are no more amazing than the average child out in the world. I honestly think Harry and Meghan think their children are amazing because they have inherited their divine, superior DNA - which is a very twisted, narcissistic way of thinking and no good will come of raising children when you have ideas like that in your head. Bound to end in tears of disillusionment and its the children who will suffer.

I get the feeling neither of them want to actually pay for anything out of their own pocket. If a design company offered their services for free, I'm sure she would bite their hand off.

Harry was used to getting everything paid for when in the Royal Family and Meghan's dad paid for everything in her youth, then she had freebies from The Tig. Handing over their own cash must seem particularly unappealing to them both.

I was always surprised by the fact Tyler Perry had to lend them a home when they came to the US. They clearly have their own money but they just don't want to spend it.

Grandiose and delusional - As Ever.

I will have to look into this, I hadn't seen anything about that interview until this thread. If true, that is appalling.

I went to look at Gwyneths house:

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/step-inside-gwyneth-paltrows-tranquil-montecito-home

It's not to my taste. Too formal and styled. The dining room is awful!

She does talk in a grandiose style though obviously v American to our taste like M.

If I was super rich I'd go for a relaxed new englandy/ Hampton look. Lots of light, white painted wood and not too matchy styled. Homey but high quality.

More like the house in M's tv show!

M and Hs house looks dark and dated.

@CesarSoubreyon you’re right. Why was Tyler Perry so generous, how well did he know either of them?

I’ve seen another I think (?)

I wonder if she's struggled to 'find joy' in her home due to having very few people to share it with? They seem to live such an isolated existence with very few (any?) genuine long- term friends and no family other than Doria - and we don't even know how much they see of Doria. If they don't entertain at all then perhaps they feel apathetic about home improvements.
We all have different tastes but their house couldn't be more different than what I would purchase with that budget. I struggle to believe that Harry can be that enamoured of it when he has lived in and spent time at so many beautiful, tasteful properties in his life.

I was always surprised by the fact Tyler Perry had to lend them a home when they came to the US. They clearly have their own money but they just don't want to spend it.

I saw him interviewed about this. He didn't know them. Had never met them. He wrote to MM when she married to give his support to her as a black woman. She didn't reply. She contacted him out of the blue a couple of years later when they were in Canada, and he let her have use of his house.

There was an incident which H&M, of course, filmed for their Netflix docusoap, of drones flying over Perry's mansion. Radar online ran an interesting piece about this event, and their FOI findings from the LA police about H&M leaking this event to the press, allegedly to needle the RF over security. Leaked to none other than Tom Sykes, who has now written the book, Yes Ma'am.