"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.

The past 5 years have shown us that they seem to do everything on impulse.

I don't think Covid put a spanner in the works of any great plans. If anything I think it could have helped them, if only they knew how to make the most of an opportunity. They seemed to flounce off from their royal roles in a huff, slamming the door behind them with no real idea of what to do next. Covid might have given them the chance to 'build a brand' when the world was on hold. Meghan could have started putting out cooking videos if that was what she wanted. After all, nobody had anything better to do than watch YouTube and faff around the house.

They could also have used the downtime to reflect on what they really wanted and plan their post royal life. But we now know that reflection and introspection aren't really their 'thing'. So here we are, 5 years on, with Harry still thinking he's a working royal and Meghan toying with the same lifestyle fluff which went out of vogue a decade ago.

Harry did one corporate speaking gig before the lockdown. I suspect that part of the plan was to do more things like that. If they had taken time to really think about what they wanted to focus on whilst in lockdown it might have been different.

Their main problem was that covid stopped any momentum they had and they didn't seem to have a plan beyond being paid for who they thought they were. Their decision to restart with the Oprah interview just made things worse. You can only dish dirt for so long. A positive start might have rebuilt momentum.

If I remember correctly, H and M went off to Canada for a 6/8 week break after their African tour and it was there that the Grand Plan was hatched . I think H then contacted HMTLQ who told him to speak to his father and put proposals in writing .
Clearly this wasn’t going quickly enough for H and M . H said ( Spare?) that he tried to get a meeting with The Queen but was told she had no availability.
They then arrived back on the U.K. and went to the Canadian Embassy to thank the country for looking after them !?
I think it was the next day they released their statement ( which I have posted several times) despite The Queen telling them not to .

I honestly think that they believed they were so popular that they would be allowed HIHO so Sandringham must have been a huge shock.

Harry did one corporate speaking gig before the lockdown. I suspect that part of the plan was to do more things like that.

I seem to recall there was a thread on here at that time. His corporate speech was mainly around 'my mum'. Some of us on here could see there wouldn't be much longevity in that subject to bring in the speaking gigs beyond the first half dozen, if that.

Oh i agree that he has limited subject matter but it's lasted for a few years which is impressive in a way.

I wonder if the 30 year documentary will go ahead ?

I think the American PR teams advised them very badly on the Canadian break, believing that everything they were seeing with crowds turning up for the tours and engagements were because of Harry and Meghan’s personal star power rather than it being the shine of being the newest part of the monarchy.

It must have been a heady experience for her agent going from having to ‘sell’ their client hard for several years to get even a tiny bit of press to having people like Oprah falling over themselves to try to get an interview.

I think the bitterness came from not just being denied HIHO but the security and money being taken away.

Yes I think you are right! I remember the comments about why a load of bankers would pay to sit and listen to Harry droning on about his mum !
whats that got to do with finance or banking or even business? 🤔

I doubt they paid anything. Bankers don't care about Harry or Diana. I suspect someone got Harry the gig to 'put him in the shop window' as an after dinner speaker, and the supposed massive fee was put out there to promote the idea that Harry was a much sought after speaker. But my guess is that while they got a luxury all expenses paid trip, he wasn't paid anything like the half million $ or whatever it was supposed to be. That's the sort of fee the likes of Clinton or Obama commands. Not the exiled 5th in line to the British throne.

You are probably correct iced but I remember certain posters harping on about his big fee and gloating about his success! 🙄

Did they not originally claim that they were IPPs therefore were entitled to 24/7 paid for security ?

Yes they did !! But it was quickly deleted.

I should add @Mylovelygreendress, someone on here actually took a screenshot before it was deleted and posted it here!
unfortunately I can’t remember who it was or when they posted it! 😳

Actually , ( & I know Detective Hindsight solves all crimes ) , when you look back on it they did seem to make an unholy mess of the exit. Trying to bounce HLMTQ into IPP status and collaboration with her , stepping back as "senior" royals - (it may just be me but I thought those quotation marks were a bit of a dig - just one opinion ) . Apparently and more than one source has said this M still had Sunshine Sachs and others advising them. If so , those people (SS et al ) are just going to concentrate on the $$$ . If not then it looks like an impetuous move to go straight to "their truths" on Oprah and NF . But I suppose at the time the money came so easily it was hard to turn down. It would now appear Spotify & NF weren't interested in the likes of Polo or Harry having a hot chocolate with Putin or the pope. Done properly from the start I think WLM could have gained some traction , but it came too late, as @IcedPurple (I think said) she could have built this up over Covid if it were a genuine idea & garnered a genuine following. Last I heard H was giving a speech to a conference of Estate Agents ( realtors in US parlance ?) . There was a DM comment from a friend from Eton being bemused at H talking to business people.

I think it was originally one big house - built for Queen Charlotte (married to George III) to use as a retreat in the early 1800s. The Grand Duchess Xenia lived there after escaping the Russian Revolution. But in the 20th century it was converted into 5 residences and then converted back to a single house for Harry and Meghan.

It’s been stated ( I have no idea of the veracity of the source) that Meghan had been in talks with Oprah before the wedding.

Actually it reminds me of sleepover breakfasts when my kids were around 8-13.

Used to stick all of the cereals, yoghurts, jams, cheese, marmite, peanut butter, Nutella, bread etc etc - plus a big jug of pancake batter on the counters and just let them help themselves and get on with it.

The most popular option was Nutella with/without banana pancakes

One of the problems is that their speaking events failed to hit the mark. I think many organisations thought they were getting a Prince with insight on world events and were originally prepared to pay big bucks .... but they just seem to have repeated the same stories for 5 years - Harry talks about his mother and Meghan recycles her washing-up liquid anecdote.

IIRC Harry is due to give the keynote speech at an estate agent conference soon - how the mighty have fallen....

Did you mean a load of wankers? 😂

OMG I didn’t know about this. I think this is dumbo Hazza at his most thick assuming he’s got the same status as the queen et al … he’s such a bozo … I’ll bet Megain was furious!!

If they are under a certain age they wouldn’t give a shit about Diana. I’m 50 and I remember the wedding etc.
My teenager has no idea who she is.

I wish I had screenshotted that little gem .

Also - wasn't apartment 1 at KP originally renovated for Harry and Meghan at a cost of £1½ million but by the time it was finished they didn't want to live there?

However Meghan did make me laugh over the weekend complaining about the "rural obscurity" of living in Windsor 😂- in that well known "rural" location next door to Heathrow Airport, close to Slough and 20 miles from London....

.... given that her current home in Montecito is almost 100 miles from LA

https://www.skynews.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity-life/meghan-markles-final-straw-before-fleeing-uk-as-she-fumed-about-rural-obscurity-of-lavish-home-gifted-by-late-queen/news-story/9aa73eee12c9d247bc16b65b1b803acc

That whole period leading up to the freedom flight was quite amazing really - I remember first of all Meghan, now one of the most privileged people in the world, giving that interview complaining about her life against a backdrop of poverty in South Africa. It was clear then that she had no interest in the usual values of the RF, none of whom would have been so openly crass and entitled. And then the second big moment for me was when they tried to slap down the actual Queen, in public, with the “service is universal” remark - I thought then that things were about to get pretty ugly.