PR Disasters….Part 8

[AtIusvue]

PR Disasters of the The Duke and Duchess of Sussex continued :

• So far we have Meg using charity events/sick children/vulnerable adults to merch her fashion, with the launch of her new fashion platform
• She will be appearing on MasterChef Australia
• Harry claiming to have had therapy when Archie was born, even though he never sought MH help for his ill wife a few short months earlier.

I noticed a tactic H&M’s PR used throughout was ‘donutting’, where the few people present gather tightly round the principals to make the ‘crowd’ look bigger for photos.

MPs do it in the UK’s parliament (they don’t have assigned seats) to make speakers from their own Party look good on camera in a mostly empty chamber.

Tom Bower said H&M did it at Invictus.

In Sydney, the ‘crowd’ were predominantly H&M’s own people crowding round them in the photos and footage - camera crew, photographers, PR staff, secoority people, stylists, general assistants, Markus, and possibly hired extras. Plus they shrewdly asked to meet large groups of people, and had them already donutted together, like the sick children and the bereaved family members.

Like AI models, they’re learning - but the outputs are moral slop.

I hope one day (in the not to distant future) this pair get their comeuppance.

I miss her contributions and have thought of the poster often. I hope everything is well in her life.

They will. They have neither the wit nor the intelligence to manage the lifestyle of their choosing.

I too must be missing something re W and C being complicit .
Interesting theory about the PR poster . Would make perfect sense .

It’s really hard to reconcile the Harry & Meghan who are loving the press coverage with the Harry who said this just a few years ago:

"History was repeating itself," Harry added. "My mother was chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone who wasn't white, and now look what's happened. You want to talk about history repeating itself? They're not gonna stop until she [Meghan] dies."

(Interview: The Me You Can’t See.)

https://news.sky.com/video/is-meghan-markles-wardrobe-causing-anger-13533137

She made her claims nearly a year ago and although I have
no more inside knowledge than anyone else here , I cannot see any thaw in relationships .
No plans for H to catch up with KC later this month .
No announcements about invitations to the upcoming Royal weddings , Sandringham or Balmoral .
On the other hand H has ( or should have) a few worries to deal with ; Sentabale , DM court case , security issue and Invictus .

Also sounds like every parent on every skiing holiday who is fed up of their kids ignoring advice and taking the wrong clothes/not wearing enough layers and then whingeing all day. Makes KC ultra human in my eyes!

Not just skiing trips 😂

Doesn't it just! He gets told to wear a woolly hat, doesn't, then moans about being cold!
Harry got taken every year to top ski resorts, tutored by the most expensive instructors.
It's a bit like the moaning in Spare about having a smaller bedroom than William.
He lived in castles and palaces, but that's his take on it.

You're absolutely right.

ooooh….finally!!!……its starting to bite. Their spokesman has responded to the criticism of her flogging her trauma closet! …by saying nothing that makes any sense!
They know how shitty it looks:

‘A spokesperson for Markle tells us: “Meghan wore that outfit all day during daytime hours yesterday, including times when she was enjoying Sydney and on [a] boating trip. OneOff does sometimes pull [images of stars] from Getty, but Meghan’s team has been working closely with them to make sure they’re using approved photography and correcting as needed.”

https://pagesix.com/2026/04/17/royal-family/queen-would-be-upset-over-meghan-markles-outfit-promotion/?utm_source=twitter&utmcampaign=nypost&utmmedium=social

• I didn’t know that the stripey shirt pic that was on the one off website, was at first a pic that included the survivors of the attacks!!!! The one I seen she is walking in crowds. This must be what the spokesman was referring to. Jesus Christ…she actually had victims in the promotion.

‘On Friday, an image of the fleeting royal smiling while meeting with survivors of the antisemitic terror attack on Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead was posted on the site promoting her outfit, according to royal reporter. “I find this sickening,” Sykes wrote.’

• There seems to be a precedent now of her removing pictures

I'm sure they will but I don't think the Royal Family should take any action against H&M because they are doing such a grand job of devaluing themselves. To date the RF's grey rock strategy has been both wise & effective. To change it now would cause a completely unnecessary ruckus.

It's only a few short years since crowds lined the streets of Windsor to celebrate their £30m wedding. Then, as much loved senior royals, they were appearing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace alongside QEII.

Nowadays they are reduced to grubbing about selling dubious looking jam on the internet and cashing in on the sale of clothes worn during their Disaster Tourism escapades – a tactic that would make even Del Boy Trotter blush.

I suspect that H&M's self-propelled nosedive will continue. And at some point Meghan's hubris will come up against the wrong person; when she meets her version of Sophie Chandauka things could get very interesting.

I can’t remember her user name now to reread that post, possibly I am misremembering it.

But I do recall thinking at that time, when the photos of the secret meeting were released, that she was somehow in the know. The photos came out after she had predicted there were negotiations going on to bring a public reconciliation, but then it was totally scuppered by the leak of the photos and Harry throwing accusations of leaks at the RF, and Meredith unceremoniously quitting a few weeks / months later, her feet were barely under the table when she quit.

I do still think she knew something and it was not just a calculated PR guess on her part.

I realise there has been no thaw, but the rumours around that meeting at the time, was it was the first step in facilitating a reconciliation.

Good points, @MrsGusset , especially about the "trauma closet".
Meghan claims to be "whip smart", but the pair of them will run into serious problems soon enough.

I don’t even understand what point they are making. Surely Meghan/her people and they alone control what images are uploaded to her page of the site, irrespective of the source of the photo? This is just some lame way of saying it’s someone else’s fault, like they always do.

👏

Was it @givemespanakopita?

edited as misremembered name

look at the place settings and number of chairs. These tables sit ten, but looks like they are only placed for 6. We also know that Harry had a table too.
It looks like to me numbers would be 150-200 max at this event. If even that.

I would have zero issues with Meghan's trauma closet, or them doing the sleb tours for PR and money - if they dropped the titles. (Though have some class and don't highlight outfits worn when visiting children with cancer or victims of a shooting).

Call themselves Harry & Meghan Sussex if they want, but don't use Duke, Duchess or Prince.

Earn all the money you are capable of, but don't use the Royal titles bestowed on you to do so.

You're right, @MrsFinkelstein , but the titles are all important to them. What are they without them?
I suppose, as you say, they could just do the celebrity circuit. Maybe cruises.

Interesting to see her promoting her friends charity by wearing her merch, but hasn’t been seen in Invictus merch for years.

It isn’t the titles. It’s that they are cosplaying royalty. They are turning up at hospitals and massacre sites and being protected by tax payer funded security. Who on earth thought that was acceptable?

Then on top of that they’re using these engagements for personal gain. If BP and HM Government are not concerned about this, they are idiots. I despair, I really do.

Apparently tables had 4 place settings each and tables very spread out, reports that 85 tickets were ‘sold’ , free tickets handed out at the last minute (how did security screen those attendees LinkedIn pages) 3 tables were made up of her entourage, no more than 130 people there total.