Tom Bower's "Betrayal" Book discussion thread

[BasiliskStare]

My copy of Tom Bower's new book "Betrayal" has transported itself on to my Kindle . Just started it.
A thread for those reading for discussion if anyone is interested.
All opinions welcome , but no spitting , no fighting 😂

I remember just before the Queen died Harry was calling himself "Prince Harry of Wales" at California polo events. It is unusual as it is usual to use the Duke title - but perhaps it suited them (and Netflix) to have the "Diana connection"

I think that’s a really strange thing to do. There’s no prestige or royal association in having Sussex as a surname (without the Duke and Duchess part).

I'm not sure Spencer could have stopped him if he'd been hell bent on doing it. All he'd have needed was a deed poll which is presumably what they used to become 'Sussex now'.

Maybe H is keeping it up his sleeve in case the Sussex titles go and he'd rather not be reminded of it every time someone sends him a credit card or loan offer 😁

Okay, now I'm really confused. So earlier in the book TB says they changed their name to Sussex, but then later on he says that in reality their name is Mountbatten-Windsor (when he addresses MM's chastisement of Mindy Kaling in WLM), so now I'm wondering if his wording was just a bit misleading earlier on? Frustratingly, I now can't find the bit I want to re-read, but if anyone else knows what I'm talking about, it's about halfway through the book and in the same section (I think) as the bit about Lilibet's christening.

I've now finished the book. It didn't offer much that was new, IMO, but as a PP says, it was good to see everything written in chronological order and to be reminded of the dizzying sequence of events and see all the claims and contradictions listed next to each other. Particularly vexing is how Harry is prepared to say one thing one day and contradict it another day with seemingly no thought to how everything he says and does is there for people to refer back to. In January of this year he lied in court and contradicted things that he claimed in 'Spare'. He knows that whatever he says is going to be checked and cross-referenced. Is he really that stupid? No, don't answer that, but I sincerely hope that he loses his court case against the DM, because it seems to be built on nothing, as far as I can see.

My final takeaways are:

1. That H&M are done. Their inexorable slide from worldwide fame and adulation to irrelevance is almost complete.

2. The future of the RF is far more precarious and the King's health far worse than I had realised. The combination of the sustained attacks by H&M, the terrible revelations regarding Andrew and how long it took the King to act decisively, and the dwindling numbers of family members willing and able to take on the mantle of royalty in future just makes it all seem rather sad and sparse. The truth is that William and Kate could really do with some more support and people their own age to share the burden when the time comes. Not from the Harry and Meghan that we actually have, but from some fictional, other version of them, where they are cheerful and committed to helping W&K keep the show on the road for another generation. But that's not the reality and it's a shame.

One other thought - Meghan reminds me a gambler who constantly thinks that the next roll of the dice will be the one that gives her the big win that she just knows is coming. Apparently (in the DM today), her next plan is to be a 'mom influencer'. It's the only thing that's left isn't it? To sell out her kids.

I remember being confused on this point, too i would have thought that there would be a protocol in place to stop people in the line of succession from changing their surname on a whim.

@zurigo there's loads of new stuff in it for me. Maybe I was late to the party.

Exploiting the kids is now her only option unfortunately. Re-style herself as a Momager. Surely Harry cannot continue to "campaign" or whatever he was doing about the dangers of children and social media ??

He would have to join the dots. I don’t think he will. If he does his world comes crashing down.

It depends what she defines as a big win.

Career wise she overachieved for her talent in a cut throat industry by landing 7 series of suits.

She bagged a Prince and became a Duchess.

Together they secured huge deals with NF, PRH, Spotify.

So to that point they made the $$$ and secured the deals with the top global media companies.

So they must have cash? What they have lost / revealed is reputation and that they are talentless.

But to be fair the grifter done well. Everything she banked on came thru with the deal and the cash.

Their mistake is not quitting whilst ahead.

Sadly we all know that AMW continued to repeatedly rape vulnerable trafficked teenagers after the law was passed in 2003.

His behaviour prior to 2003 in the early 2000s when this law was being reviewed and reformed was exactly the same - as per the Virginia Roberts (trafficked at 1) photo from 2001.

In this one incident he may have squeaked past the letter of the law from a timing perspective but in the spirit of the law whilst the law was being reviewed and reformed he was raping trafficked teenagers.

The future of the RF is far more precarious and the King's health far worse than I had realised. The combination of the sustained attacks by H&M, the terrible revelations regarding Andrew and how long it took the King to act decisively, and the dwindling numbers of family members willing and able to take on the mantle of royalty in future just makes it all seem rather sad and sparse. The truth is that William and Kate could really do with some more support and people their own age to share the burden when the time comes.

Are these the conclusions Tom Bower has drawn too?

Seems quite accurate to me. I think C3 will go down in history as the hand-wringing, dithering, self-pitying caretaker monarch whose lack of action fatally undermined the institution's standing although I also think W will go down as a monarch too lazy and too disinterested to make any effort to reverse things.

Always the possibility she could clean up with kids' hairbrushes and shoes I suppose.

I remember a couple years ago he referred to himself in a bio as "One of the world's foremost thought leaders on mental health." Lol.

Well he’s not that much of a leader in the subject as they’ve slashed to ticket prices of his upcoming talk in Australia due to poor sales.

Are these the conclusions Tom Bower has drawn too?

Tom Bower doesn't draw conclusions, as such. He just presents information and arguments and it's up to the reader to draw their own conclusions. These are the ones I came to.

As in take drugs and ignore your wife's alleged mental state?

They're still an eye watering £500 or so 🤑

Wonder if his $50k fee will be slashed accordingly?

Any case it's quite the comedown from the day (just the one) he managed to screw £750k out of a bunch of gullible bankers.

There seems to be the idea that Meghan is earning a bit more for her stint in Oz. They are also going to do some charitable work which they're keeping a surprise 🙄 .

I imagine any charities are considering very carefully if having M & H associated with their cause is actually a benefit or a liability. They will be making no donations (or only tiny ones) as Archwell has no donors and no money , and their brand is pretty toxic now. Perhaps we don’t know which charities because they are scrabbling around trying to find one that wants them.

Hopefully a sky dive!

Yeah, if they're hoping for any big donations, I can direct them towards the chapters in Tom Bower's book that detail how much they donated to charities in Nigeria and Colombia off the back of their trips there (clue for anyone who hasn't read the book yet - it was a trifling amount and nowhere near what those countries spent on flying M&H in, putting them up in 5* hotels, providing round the clock security, etc).

I think it depends on each individual charity’s existing public profile and aims. “All publicity is good publicity” holds to increase visibility and reach which could well increase support and funds from the general public (if not from H&M’s pockets) - but it would have to be appropriate not to backfire - I would put H&M on an NDA and provide a tight script!!!

Didn't Harold trumpet a personal donation of £1.1m to Children In Need not so long ago? And much further back a substantial donation to Sentebale from his Waaagh rakings?

Will be interesting to see if he's minded to dig deep in the personal coffers this time round.