Tina Brown on Harry/Meghan

[MsAmerica]

Tina Brown Thinks the Über-Rich Have It Coming
By Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Lulu Garcia-Navarro: One of your other specialties is the royal family. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are trying to make their own way in the world. They’ve had a rocky time being entrepreneurs. Do you think they have anything to offer anymore?

Tina Brown: It’s very sad what’s happened to them. I have never seen anybody in professional life make as many mistakes as Meghan has, and unfortunately Harry is not the brightest bulb, either. He thought that Meghan would be his guide in the big wide world beyond Buckingham Palace, and it turns out that Meghan makes one terrible professional decision after another. And now they’re pariahs everywhere, it seems, which is a very difficult situation for them because America was supposed to be the place that paid the bills.

What is sad is that Harry’s very good at being a prince. He’s charming, he’s upbeat, he’s attractive, he makes people happy when he walks into a room, he’s very good with young people. You could send him around the world and he’s always going to be welcomed and appealing. And I think he has realized too late that he was born to be a prince. And now he’s essentially just some guy doing P.R. gigs while Meghan tries out her latest cooking idea or whatever.

It looks more and more as if Harry’s best decision would be to find a way to come back to England. I’d like to see a way for him to make amends with his family, but it gets harder and harder as the years go by. I think that William is going to be the decider of that, and I think William has a very tough view of the whole situation, which is that the betrayal of Harry is not something that can be remedied.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/magazine/tina-brown-interview.html

Hope he now starts paying it. Im glad the press have kept on with this. This is our money. I bet he won't be paying the Mansion tax either for his actual mansion.

Quite

This is the thing. None of us know Keanu any more than we know H&M. For all we know, his good reputation could be a masterpiece of PR and he's actually a cunt.

It just shows how gawkish and poor their PR is.

(For the record, I think he's genuine!)

That's completely fair, TheNinkyNonkyIsATardis, but we do know how Keanu's behaved publicly in the face of some very difficult circumstances and the comparison with H&M's own behaviour isn't a positive one

Edited to add does anyone actually know if Meredith's still there?
Usually the many departures make their way into the news but I've not seen anything recent about her - unless others know better?

He has a deal on the lease which means he can rent out some rather indifferent looking office space in converted stables (previously Ardent HQ). Said office space was available until relatively recently for around £100k a year which would cover his 'rent' and leave a little something over.

I'm delighted to see the press doing a bit of digging on under the radar royals .

Guess we have the arrangements round Mr MW's living quarters to thank for finally getting them off their arses.

Interestingly enough, he was charging Ardent rent on the office space too (£50k a year). That went into his pocket.

Ardent went into administration having lost over £2m and having only declared a profit (£30K) in one of its operating years. The year Ed waived the £50k rent.

Yet more shit you couldn't make up 🙄

I’ve never understood why Edward and Sophie live in such a ridiculously sized stately home, the actual heir William has just moved into Forrest Lodge which looks like a guest house of Bagshot Park, it seems completely over the top, but anyway rant over, enough derailing from me.

Yes “they’re just like us” W&K living in a small property with no live in staff you couldn’t make it up. The royalists as usual lapping it all up.

Possibly because Forest Lodge is one of their 3 or 4 ' forever homes' so they probably have more for space?

Ardent went into administration

Correction. It was voluntarily dissolved realising £40 after costs.

Have they ever claimed they're "just like us"? I don't recall that statement.
Or interview.

Yeah, although I'm going to say that I think AMW is a different league altogether than Edward.

Not in those words but the image they put out there is that they are just a couple of parents trying to juggle work with school runs and no live in staff, just trying to get the dinner on every night. For example, Williams 'George hasnt got a mobile phone' well that's fine. He has a close protection officer next to him 24 hours a day. He doesn't have to get the bus to school! To his credit Charles is far better at showing empathy without pretending to be an example to others.

Edward and Sophie's house is a hang over from the late Queen's reign. All the children were set up in large properties. Hopefully, since I do think they are fairly sensible, they will realise that remaining there at a peppercorn rent is really out of step with the public mood and modem times. They either pay more rent or move. There are other houses in Windsor they could move to.

They don’t need to put out statements/interviews they have their PR doing that for them who incidentally are also probably employed at the tax payers expense.

Right. So their PR people put out that they're "just like us"? Ok. I must have missed that announcement/statement.
What an odd thing for them to claim publicly like that.

George doesn't have a mobile phone because they're being good parents and protecting him from the worst aspects of this - we all know the dangers.
It's hardly because he's not like other kids missing the bus and needing to tell his mum and dad! 😂

That's exactly the point. They can afford to say ' Oh my kid doesnt have a mobile phone theyre so terrible' just as they can afford to say neither of them are going to do any work at all during school holidays and both of them have to be around on standby to do the school run and what amazing parents they are because that's what they are doing. They are probably the only parents in the country who can do that. Other parents have to give their kids mobile phones because they do have to get the bus to school. Most parents have tohave at least one parent working, most people have to have two, so they can do boring apparently optional tbings like pay to keep a roof over their heads. They can't say 'Oh im only working term time only and only between 10 and 2'. They are also ' good parents'. The Wales' don't seem to understand what a privileged position they are in or have any understanding of what almost everyone else has to do to also be ' good parents'.

Right. Ok.
I think they're absolutely spot on with the mobile phone. However, that's just my opinion.

I imagine they also want to protect George from seeing all the hideous stuff about his parents on the internet for as long as possible - which thankfully most of us don't have to deal with.

Edward and Sophie should live in a privately owned royal house surely?

I am also intrigued by how much money they all have - a great deal is made of the monarch passing everything down to the heir to avoid tax but clearly there are some stonking trust funds kicking about.

I’ve always thought that W&K themselves do appreciate their privilege and how lucky they are. They are certainly smart enough to indicate that in interviews that they feel lucky to have the experiences and things they have.

It’s the press that love the ‘just like us’ storyline because it gives them a chance to snark at the other royals or gossip about them.

They like the ‘school run’ story because it gives them a chance to contrast the previous heir and monarch’s parenting decisions. Also because they can sneak in a few pap shots a year of Kate and William driving.

They like the Kate buying IKEA furniture ‘just like us’ storyline because it lets them rehash her middle class background - and sometimes interfering Carol having ‘too much’ influence over house decorations. Then they can get a posh ‘friend’ of Charles and Camilla to sneer it’s all very ‘new money’.

There’s obviously a reason that they’ve chosen not to have live in staff in their Windsor homes but it’s the press who make a big deal of it - to contrast with the ways of the older royals.

But what Im saying is that they can make that decision. Other peoples kids need to a mobile phone so that they can access bus passes, school work etc and also so that they can call home in case they get into trouble. We also need to teach kids sensible use of mobile phones, which can't be uninvented. You can't do that if you never have access to one. That will never be a problem for the Wales kids. They will never be at risk of missing the bus home or get in trouble because they've missed a school notification or go out with their friends and have to ask them where they are. Because they will always have someone to do it for them.

@RainbowBagels Harry and Meghan have also spoken about protecting their children from social media. Archie and Lilibet don't have phones.
Are you similarly critical of them announcing this?

Arent they toddlers? Why would they have social media? We are talking about George. And yes I would. Of course children need to be protected from social media but its not as easy for most people as saying ' My kid wont have a phone' because for most people with secondary school aged children that is not feasible.

I didn’t read the press reports on the phone issue but saw the interview with Eugene Levy where William mentioned it.

Eugene was surprised that they were still managing to hold off a phone for George presumably because he sees similarly privileged rich celebrity kids who don’t need a phone for any of the reasons you mention getting a phone when they want one.