"He loves me so boldly...." - Haarpers Interview with Meghan

[Phase42]

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a69289143/meghan-markle-cover-story-interview-2025/

She's a beautiful woman but i can't understand why she just doesn't drop the titles and be herself. And it's odd how she talks about how much 'H' loves her but not how much she loves him.

So much for the "I'm Meghan days". It's a wonder she doesn't go around with a team of heralds in full livery to announce her presence.

Spotify podcasts were a prime example (of squandering opportunities). Not even bothering to do the interviews herself other than the two a listers and having her voice dubbed over to pretend she did

I honestly thought that story was made up when I first read it, @Wickedlittledancer, and can still hardly believe it was true

You'd think, offered a contract like that, they'd do everything possible to deliver, and sending the message that they're not important enough to interview in person really isn't it

I think the monogrammed notepaper with the coronet is only one example. I suspect that a coronet and title decorates more than just her notepaper and envelopes! 😂
👑

They both just seem a bit lazy, really.

Didn't Meghan introduce the Archetypes podcast as her being able to have "her voice". Maybe the reason she's bleating about only now having "her voice" is because she was too lazy to use her voice when she got a multi million dollar deal all those years ago, instead leaving it to a producer to use her (the producer's) voice, talent and concept, and then just stealing the results. Poor Meghan. Ever the victim. Those nasty people doing all the work to try to make her look good.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QxTKvMpUoP8

I read this totally the opposite to everyone else, understanding that Harry loved her more than anyone else loved her. So he loved her more than her parents do, more than her exes, more than her friends - which really wouldn't be a surprise.
I now see that I misread it. It's rather a spiteful, playground-esque comment, isn't it? He likes me more than he likes anyone else. Nut nur nu nur nur.

She’s obsessed with her bloody voice isn’t she?

She was obsessed with it before she married Harry. Remember the one and only "Fab 4" panel interview? Where she went on a not sequitur about women using their voices? Funny how she claims she wasn't able to use hers for a whole 7 years up until around yesterday. I suspect that it's part of her victim/disassociation/blame game narrative every time one of her projects goes wrong or gets slammed. "That wasn't my voice, this next project, this one is my voice." She already lined up the narrative with As Ever/With Love, claiming it was a Netflix exec who told her to do it.

IIRC HMQ only had a few minutes notice before that announcement came out. A key word in that statement is ‘collaborate’. They hated where they were in the hierarchy and this was a way of taking control.

I think another factor that cheesed people off, us normies who watch podcasts, see the effort the creators put in. They buy their kit, build their studios, script, present, edit, upload. They do it all, and they work really hard to build it.

She done none of that. She was paid millions, had pro workers doing it all, and then she claims to be a podcaster.

I know! I remember watching that on TV thinking WTF is she going on about?! I really wanted to like her at that point but she was so cringeworthy.

Me too! Made a lot of effort celebrating that wedding. Why did they call it? "The Spectacle."

They sent a copy of their statement ( which I posted earlier) to Charles and William 10 minutes before they released it . HMTLQ knew they were unhappy but had insisted that Harry speak to his father and told him not to release the statement .
The rest , as they say, is history.

I think the thing about the archetypes podcasts was when you interview someone it’s about them. Their voice. Not you, the interviewer. So she did the famous two, because there was something in it for her, she wanted to ingratiate herself. With the others, it was about giving them a voice. Ans she had no reason to ingratiate herself, so didn’t bother even turning up.

her wanting a voice is it is about her, giving her a platform. She has no desire to give anyone else a voice.

Someone on another thread mentioned that in some circles she is derided as a modern day Undine Spragg. Although I have previously read some Edith Wharton I hadn’t read this book and was prompted to address the omission. Thank you to whoever it was that pointed the way. I am enjoying it very much, about half way through now.

The parallels with Undine are so numerous and so similar that if anyone told me the book had been written within the last couple of years as a stealth revenge parody by an ex staff member I would have believed it. Early on, when she is newly engaged and cheerfully regales her soon to be in-laws with her view that a friend is likely to divorce a husband who isn’t up to scratch is so excruciating I cringed to read it. Whilst I doubt Meghan was tactless enough to chatter on about the matter of divorce, I can easily picture her seated next to Prince Phillip and expounding on her plans to shake up the Royal family with her much improved way of doing things. Then there is her excitement at the attention and admiration and her portrait brings - so very relevant today. I also find it amusing that her son is generally referred to as “the boy” - although possibly this was common at the time as she isn’t the only person who prefers this expression to his actual name, but it does bear comparison to her refusal to name Harry, preferring to refer to her husband or H or “that man”.

Of course there have always been gold digging social climbers. As a child, attending a pony club event on the Vestey estate, my mother overheard the then Lady Vestey telling friends she only married his Lordship for the alimony. Mum was shocked and outraged. I had no idea what allymunny was but was intrigued by the reaction this had provoked. Funnily enough, (we really aren’t a family of eavesdroppers 😅) my sister had a similar experience years later, at Ascot, which she attended regularly due to her husband’s work in the bloodstock trade. Friends of the then Susan Lilley chattered that poor Susan really needed a new husband as Peter (Lilley) was so boring. She went on to become the second Mrs Susan Sangster, marrying the wealthy racehorse owner Robert Sangster. She eventually got her comeuppance being branded a career divorcee by a judge after trying to overturn the pre-nuptial agreement made with her fourth husband.

_https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/ps18m-susan-sangster-is-a-career-divorcee-says-husband-no4-6643861.html_it

What makes Meghan stand out is her exceptional perseverance, tenacity and self belief which vastly exceed her abilities or talents. She has been much helped by living in the age of the internet. In a more deferential time I very much doubt the press and other outlets would have given her the opportunity to air her grievances, let alone profit from them.

Back to Undine Spragg “The Custom of the Country” - we should really have a read along thread…so much material for entertaining discussion - anyone?

Back to Undine Spragg “The Custom of the Country” - we should really have a read along thread…so much material for entertaining discussion - anyone?

I ordered it yesterday - I'd be happy to join in!

Oooh. Let's. Any other takers? I know there are other posters already familiar with the book.

Can M have read it too?

Yep.

A word of warning @Indianrollerbird my copy has a long introduction dissecting the book. If you don't like spoilers you might want to give that a miss. I read it, as it's not like a murder mystery big reveal, and it offers a wider overview although at the same time I was impatient to move on to the actual book rather than read twenty pages of pre-discussion.

I'm seriously considering wrapping up a copy and sending it to her for Christmas. 🤣

But surely Prince Philip wouldn't have got the message as he'd have been wading through her word salad ("What on earth is the gal saying?")

Ah, noted, thank you! I'll get straight to the good stuff!

What makes Meghan stand out is her exceptional perseverance, tenacity and self belief which vastly exceed her abilities or talents.

Again, I don't think she has perseverance or tenacity at all.

Perseverance, to me, suggests sticking at something despite difficulties and challenges. Meghan is the opposite of that. She gave up on royal life, with all its unique opportunities, after less than two years. Since then, she has jettisoned all her 'projects' once they got boring or didn't yield instant results. "As Ever" is probably next in the firing line.

As for 'self belief' I think, as I said earlier, that it's more a lack of introspection or self awareness. She seems to think that now she's a Duchess, the world owes her deference. But to me, that's not so much 'self belief' as an obsession with external validation. Not at all the same thing imo.

Perfect description of the pair