PR Disasters part 11

[HoldMyWine]

The ongoing dramas from Montecito courtesy of H&M.

I can’t see another thread but I made the same mistake last time …

I don’t understand why the monarch ever went along with the marriage / big wedding farce in the first place, faking her ‘delight’.

QE2 spoke to Harry over the permission to marry malarkey (which he needed in order stay in the line of succession), and he said something to which QE2 allegedly replied (paraphrasing ), ‘well I suppose I’ll have to say yes’.

What did he tell her? Presumably something that meant he got his ‘Yes’ to marrying, yes to the ‘spectacle’ £32m wedding, yes to the royal dukedom, and yes to a joint gig from the get-go as ‘working royals’ & £££ from the coffers.

Did QE2 have no agency in the situation? She must have had ‘intelligence’ on M from shortly after she entered H’s life and they went to Botswana together, and especially when Harry got BP to issue the ‘girlfriend’ statement and the engagement was on the horizon.

I don’t get the apparent monarchical helplessness in the face of what must have been a clear risk.

Because (and we now see the terrible consequences of this) William and Harry have been linked together as a package deal since Diana died and they kind of became even more public property than the average royal in popular culture.

So while everyone knew that William was always going to get 'more' as the heir, the concept of the two of them as a happy package - and as the Queen's children all had televised huge weddings - it became the expected thing by the public.

If the Queen/Charles had insisted on a lower key option (knowing what they knew at the time, that we didn't, of all the inside drama and issues) they would have been hit with a "how come Harry doesn't get a nice big wedding like William did?" Is it because Meghan isn't a white British woman?

That is a good point @MyAutumnCrow had there not been a massive wedding, no one would have known about her.

Also, the royal wedding events are big, happy occasions that get an awful lot of positive coverage. If Harry and Meghan had settled happily into Royal life, ridden the usual waves of up and down tabloid coverage and kept calm and smiled on, we wouldn't be questioning the wedding now.

Yes, and let's face it, an attractive, young(ish) couple getting married on a beautiful May morning in Windsor is excellent PR for the royals. The wedding was wtched all over the world. Especially as it was the last major royal wedding of that generation. There won't be another until George or one of his siblings marry, which could be decades from now.

Gosh, Harry is so insignificant, it makes his ‘tribute’ appear even more toe-curling than it already was. 😳😳

I don’t think there was parity.

It’s the dropping M straight into f/t ‘working royal’ life when she wasn’t ready that I don’t get. C had 18 months or so to get used to it before her first pregnancy. M and H had other plans, that were very different. The other royals including the monarch just seem to have been passengers in all this.

I do remember a lot of excitement when H got engaged and I think the public did expect a big wedding. However I also think the bride and groom did too, despite the bride being divorced and having got married on a beach the first time.

I agree that she shouldn't have become a working royal straight away.

She wasn't British, and had no experience of British life, let alone royal life. She'd only been in the country for a few months! And it was always likely, given her age, that she'd be looking to start a family soon, and indeed she went on to have a baby within a year of marriage.

Maybe the Queen should have insisted that she take a few years to settle into royal life, get to know the country and the role, and of course focus on her baby, before taking on royal duties? She could have attended events unofficially and got to know what was expected of her without taking on a formal role herself. After all, it was expected to be a lifetime role, so why rush things? But instead she got major Royal patronages, big international tours and high profile engagements, right off the bat.

That was an obvious mistake in retrospect, but surely the Queen or her advisors must have been aware of the potential risks at the time, even if they had no clue just how unsuitable she would turn out to be?

I wonder if William will make a speech tonight?

Do you really think he is realising that though? He seems to be permanently affronted and feels she is being trolled for no reason. He’s been had big time. If he allows himself to acknowledge that I’m not sure what state he’d be in.

Yes, he's on TV now!

Harry genuinely believes he is still a working royal, he sees no change in his status at all since they moved away. He thinks wandering ain't the globe talking about himself and shaking hands with sick people and talking to them about himself, is the same as his former role representing the Crown.

We all know he is delusional and that no one expects, or wants, the fifth in line to the throne to make statements all the time. But he still thinks that the public want to hear his views on everything, he thinks his views matter.

It's extremely odd.

I think the Palace suspected that Meghan was not here to stay for long and the massive privileges were a deliberate strategy to deprive her of her credibility. We know that the Queen suggested that Meghan continue to act and Meghan didn't want to. If the Queen had insisted then we would have ended up with the same set of racism/bullying allegations, and they would have looked much more plausible. Giving Harry & Meghan the big wedding/major patronages/high profile international roles demonstrated that she was welcomed into the RF and has made their complaints look a bit ridiculous.

Yep! I knew it!

"Please welcome His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales."

Toys from pram in Montecito round about now.

There is an Invictus representative getting a hammering on X.

He opened up an ‘ask me anything’ thread, obviously Invictus getting worried about their image going down the toilet and trying to get some input into the current SM narrative, ….. bad move, very bad move. . It’s a crazy thread, Meghan in her baggy nappy shorts leading the veterans parade, keeps getting brought up as an example of them allowing her to take center stage, after he denied that was the case. Of course, all the questions about the opaque finances and who pays for what keep getting thrown at him.

Big bad, very bad PR move😳

What is he saying in response to the criticism?

Referring to their friendship and Sir David's help in guiding William to establish Earthshot. Sir David, looked very touched, standing up for William, and the audience standing for Sir David. A lovely moment.

William looked very distinguished and his public speaking is getting better and better.

Runny spread flying through the air 😂

He is not offering any credible answers at all, he is totally out of his depth, I think he has given up. I will try to screenshot some of his responses.

For the same reason I doubt Meghan has much to write a tell all on. She would have stuff on Harry but i think the rest will have been wary. It seems that most royals learn early on to let people in slowly. Anything she writes that she claims comes from Harry has a credibility problem after the Spare fictions. All in all I think any waves a potential book makes will be ripples at worst.

Yes, William is really maturing into his role, and I must say he looked great in that blue suit!

You can tell that he and DA have a genuine affection and respect for one another. And I liked how William said 'that applause is for Sir David' when he got to the podium. That's a man totally secure and at ease with himself. The exact opposite of Harry.

Some of the questions and his answers

sadly has no-one who is prepared to properly tell him otherwise
I'm wondering if the allegedly bullied staff HAVE told him otherwise, and this explains the "Sussex family" recruitment problem.
"Being told" and "listening" are very different.

"Ask them yourself"??

Some more