PR Disasters, chapter 13

[AtIusvue]

Meg and Harry and all their PR shenanigans

Trigger Warning: this thread may contain talk about sleeves.

I believe his Polo handicap is a 1. Polo handicaps go from -2 to 10 for a total novice to the top professionals.

So he has modest capability in the sport, I certainly wouldn’t class him as exceptional.

When you've been married to a narc you learn to let sleeping dogs lie. He's not gonna say anything that reminds her he's still alive because he knows that, if he does, he could be inviting her narc rage.

The wider lot actively hustle for positively charged press coverage (PR crisis managers, anyone?)

They imagine it's a major tool in positioning themselves as relevant and necessary.

What’s more, even if Harry were outstanding at polo, there’s a world of difference between knowing how to bully your pony around a polo field and proper equestrianism, which is where Anne and Zara excel.

I think Charles is a good man but had no clue how to raise his boys as a single father. William had the Middletons to show him what normal family life is like and what it means to be an adult. Harry never got that. So when Meghan appeared he was sitting about on a bean bag playing video games and smoking weed. It had clearly never occurred to him that a couch would be nice.

That's hardly Charles' fault. He had the means and the opportunity to have an incredible life.

When Harry met Meghan he was almost 32 - not a teenager.

There comes a time when you are old enough to be responsible for your own acts, not blaming how your parents brought you up.

There are plenty of people who have a much more chaotic upbringing than the Wales boys, and manage to sort things out for themselves in adulthood. While I agree that Catherine has been a huge help to William in showing him what family life can be like, I'm not convinced he would have been 'sitting on a bean bag smoking weed' in his 30s.

I guess what I mean is he was stuck as a teenager and absolutely at 32 that was his responsibility, but he seems to have missed out on something.
I think about when it was revealed that teenage Harry was spending the summer drinking and doing drugs at Highgrove one summer. Charles was off sketching in Italy. It doesn't seem to have occurred to Charles that he needed to be around, that leaving a teenager alone with servants is not providing care.
Adult Harry is awful but you can see how he got there.

The weirdest thing about that whole beanbag/no couch needing Meg's credit card to get an Ikea sofa. Then the wide-eyed visit to Kate and William's KP apartment and amazement described by Harry at how plush it all was, was that when William and Kate lived in Nott Cott (including with a baby) Harry would pop around all the time to raid their fridge or cadge a meal.

He will have seen how presumably nicely decorated it was as a family home then. And he will have visited the new apartment and seen all the decor before Meg came along. In fact, we have visual evidence of him being in there and seeing all the paintings and antiques when he helped host the Obamas when George was just a little boy.

Harry moved into Nott Cott in 2013 and he's still just lounging on one beanbag four years later when Meghan enters the scene?

Absolutely this. Harry had no money worries, fantastic opportunities, so many doors open to him, he could have travelled, done projects - so many people prepared to give him a hand.
As you say, you have to take responsibility, most people just have to get on with it.

Yes, it makes no sense at all. That's where W&K first set up home, and welcomed George.

I highly doubt that KC completely ignored Harry for an entire summer. He famously took both sons to Italy, Romania and Austria, as well as the usual visit to Balmoral. Harry was hardly a latch key kid

the wide-eyed visit to Kate and William's KP apartment and amazement described by Harry at how plush it all was

Yes, but don't you think that was dictated by Meghan?

Harry grew up in Kensington Palace, after all.

None of the furniture story makes sense.

It doesn't. He lived at that apartment in KP. Also Sandringham, Balmoral and Highgrove.
He had servants, cook, valet, driver, housekeeping and security services. It's baffling, really.
Also, didn't Eugenie live at Nott Cott after H&M moved out?

I think the depiction of Harry as a marginalised victim of his cruel family are somewhat wide of the mark.
It suits the H&M mindset though, to be perpetually aggrieved.

I think Meghan was probably appalled by the state of the place after four years of bachelor life. And made her feelings quite clear. And Harry had to shift the blame to someone so apparently it was all William's fault again.

I bet the cottage looked (and smelled) gorgeous when Kate lived there. I dread to think how it smelled when Harry lived there. Weed, food containers, rare cleaning.

Harry was getting a generous allowance from Charles, and part of that money would have been intended for his residential needs.

He would have had a housekeeping and laundry service as part of the KP compound. If he lived like that, it's his own fault.
You're right, though. It's just another attempt to blame William. Or Charles 🙄

What is it that Meghan says at the start of their docu-fiction? This is a modern fairytale or similar? Harry is Cinderella, abused by his ugly brother, SIL and evil step mother. He gets rescued by Meghan who whisks him off to a magical far away land where he can have all the sausages he can eat.

I do think that is was a strong Meghan narrative that Notts cottage wasn't "fit for a Prince" without mentioning that it was always meant to be temporary post marriage (even though William and Catherine lived there for 2 years). It was never mentioned by Meghan and Harry were expected to move into the 20 room Apartment 1 at KP - the Duke of Gloucester was moving out and renovations had started. But then H&M didn't want it so staff had to scramble to renovate a second property for them.

Clearly in all the time he lived there Harry never organised redecoration nor put his hand in his pocket to buy furniture - the stuff looks like he got them from a charity shop or perhaps he found them in the attic at KP for free.

One of the things that adds to the "dingy frat house" rhetoric is that nearly all of the inside pictures posted by Harry and Meghan are taken in the attic - which is not part of the main living space which is all, including bedrooms, on the ground floor in Notts cottage (2 beds, kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom plus cloakroom/loo). It is compact although the total size is about 120 square metres which is a decent size and they had a private walled garden. The attics are probably meant as storage - although Harry and Meghan seemed to use them as a wardrobe/dressing room/posing for photos ... but probably not the Princess fantasy palace that Meghan had in mind.

The floorplan was published in the Irish Independent just after their engagement.
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/celebrity/inside-prince-harry-and-meghan-markles-love-nest-at-nottingham-cottage/a/146469903.html

Agree that the wide-eyed at the paintings and furniture description is completely mad from Harry's perspective and must have been dictated by Meghan.

I understand this infantile complex completely, up until a few years ago I was picking my child up after work from my auntie's , she'd still be like "sit down, I'll make you a toasted cheese" having minded my son all day & I'd be like "yes please Auntie Peggy" I'd absolutely revert to the "child" she spoiled growing up, still would but she's in the throes of dementia

BUT I was holding down my teaching job AND raising my son so while the momentary relapse into being a teenager getting fed was wonderful, life beckoned & I had to rise to it so no I can't give Harry a pass here, he's an entitled, weak fool & yeah his dad was absent but as royal families go isn't this par for the course? He enrages me

Nott Cott was good enough for two future kings, William and George, but not good enough for H&M.