Ham pr disasters 48! …a masterclass in grief grifting…

[jeffgoldblum]

Still interested, still not bored….a small request please 🙏…can we try to keep criticism to actions and behaviour and rather than getting personal.😁

Time has solidified public opinion. For one, being far away and participating in Z list events like Legends of Aviation has taken the royal sheen off them. Also the public have watched two members of the RF go through serious health issues and come back to work with gratitude and appreciation for their recovery while H and M whine endlessly. People can’t be bothered with them.

And pissing off William too , he won't forget anything once he's King

I found it interesting that they didn’t get an invite to the Clooney’s ‘albie’ awards on Friday, consider the meaning of the awards, the fact Meghan invited them to the wedding and they stayed at the Clooney’s house.

And meeting Malala just before it, was she offering to be Malala’s plus one ? That seems to be her modus operandi

If rival courts consisted of jesters then yes.

I’m not sure that has ever been the case though.

I will add that H&Ms shenanigans destroyed the Queen & Prince Phillip's final years, the public haven't forgotten that.. no amout of spin or damage control can undo what they've done to the royal family & to their own reputations.

Thank you for the link - absolutely fascinating. Will return to discuss in a bit.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/20/rival-courts-prince-harry-meghan-surprise-uk-return-king-charles-prince-william

I googled it & there was an article from a month ago with" Rival Court" in the headline😂
They are definitely trying to present themselves as some type of court, alternative, royal who knows what their game plan is

Apologies in advance in this has already been discussed but is there any chance they could set up a rival court or does that even happen nowadays?

My thoughts exactly, and they know they have to be embedded here before PW ascends the throne. I hope charities etc that they visit are aware they are being used, I hope Malala doesn't get dumped further down the line when she has served her purpose of a useful pap shot.

It certainly seems that they are posturing that way, they are steamrolling ahead paying no heed to KCs reminder of their private citizen status..

are they going to pay to run a rival court?! They don’t even own a property of their own. This kind of mentality demonstrates to me that they must have been really difficult to deal with in the RF, thinking they should be equal to W and C.

It seems to me they've got the half in/half out they wanted. If they have "engagements" then charities etc must want to deal with them and Megan has As Ever still on the go. They're basically getting away with it.

Personally I think they need stripping of their titles because they're taking the piss now.

What's that rival court going to do? they'll have no access to politicians, policy makers or overseas leaders, they can't influence anything and as the Wales children grow up and interest in them intensifies the Sussexes will become more and more irrelevant. They can't even claim connection to the RF because the RF is ignoring them.

Pretty much all they can do is flit around charity engagements and rugby matches and the odd lecture where PH poses as a global expert on something or the other while referencing his DM.

I don't think they realised the effects of their behaviour during Megzit. While people might not be out and out monarchists revering them as saints, there was a lot of respect for HMTLQ and Prince Philip, and their behaviour to elderly grandparents and the HOS when her husband was clearly dying was enough to turn people off them.

Just because someone announces they are a rival court doesn’t make it so.

I thought that not long after they returned they said that they would be going to Cali for Christmas.

Maybe that was to save face or in the hop of cries of "oh no, please stay" who knows.

Don't know if KC has changed the format but if what has been in the papers in the past is correct, Christmas at Sandringham sounds a bit of a chore!

These appearances are never going to be working royal appearances and they will never be representatives of the King. Not sure how they can force a half-in/half-out situation when they do not represent the King in any way.

Seems more like Harry is trying to do a post-divorce Diana humanitarian act, while Meghan still doesn't understand what a royal is and believes that, because she's married to Harry, who is a prince, what she does has some kind of importance.

Are all 3 joint visits happening on Thursday? It's not particularly clear - it mentions the 1st visit being on Thursday then immediately moves on to discuss the other 2 events as if they'll be going from one to the other.

Not particularly in-depth then, almost like flying visits just for personal pr and photo ops. Absolutely nothing like the newer Royal template.

Also it seems to fit the recent pattern - the day she met Malala for tea, she also had lunch with friends in Hammersmith. Sounds like barely any time was spent with either (or maybe that's just me whose lunch with friends ends up taking all afternoon).

From a PR perspective it all seems a bit overwhelming - surely you'd want to spread things out a bit, rather than cram things into a few hours?

It means a flurry of headlines (hopefully positive), but then nothing, surely you'd aim for consistency and longevity?

I see the SS script on TwiX re Harry getting booked is - video with sound or it didn't happen, also it wasn't Harry getting booked but the refs decision. Interesting the Mail have specifically pushed back on that.

I had a little exchange with a Squaddie on TwiX yesterday who was insisting Harry wasn't copying William and it was the other way around. I asked which rugby team did Harry support them, him being an absolute lifelong fan whom William was copying (just with football). They answered back with him being patron of
RFU and going to all the England games. I pointed out, supporting the national team is the bare minimum but it's not the same as supporting an actual team. Still waiting on an answer.

Absolutely but H&M do seem to be posturing in that direction 8

Looks like they are forcing the 'half in half out' that the Queen expressly said she did not want.

They are not forcing 'half in half out'.

They are not representing the UK, government or people, in any way.

They are, as the King expressly stated to the relevant officials 'akin to private citizens'. They are free to attend events, become patrons of charities, or do other things that celebrities or business people might do. They are not doing so as members of the working Royal Family and will not be facilitated in that way.

Wouldn't they have to be at least vaguely popular to try and set up a rival court? From what I can tell, they're both intensely disliked by the majority of the UK.

Whatever they are attempting to do is completely at odds with their status of private citizens as per KCs letter..

I could stand like a teapot on the high street.

It doesn’t make me a teapot 🤷🏽‍♂️

'Rival court' is a handy soundbite headline, in the same way as 'Balmoral summit' was.

Neither is remotely accurate.

They should have just done what Edward and Sophie did - both of whom were treated horrendously by the media back in the day - and had some kind of career or followed their own interests first, before jumping head first into the life of a working royal couple. Even William and Catherine spent some years before becoming full-time working royals working (in William's case) or focusing on their babies (in Catherine's case). Even the late Queen spent time as a navy wife. Yes, Meghan had had a whole other working life and Harry had been in the military, but Meghan knew nothing about being a royal and very little about Britain.

After having that important personal and family time, they could have gradually started taking on more royal duties. This would have been especially helpful for Meghan. The late Queen was right to suggest Meghan could have continued acting. It's actually odd, thinking about it now, that they jumped so quickly into trying to be working royals. I'm sure they insisted on it and Harry was trying to make Meghan a new Diana.

You or I could do a shift in our local charity shop and call it an 'engagement' if we liked! That doesn't make it 'royal'. They still don't have security, can't use HRH, aren't representing the monarch, aren't getting public funding and so on. Not even close to 'half in half out'.

I think they’re hoping for a full return to royal duties along with whatever stipend / allowance that brings.