Harry & Meghan - what does the future hold?

[Bluejumperdog]

I’m not really sure whether I can articulate this very well, but I’ll give it my best shot.

I think I support a route for Harry and Meghan to find a route back into the fold of the royal family, and find that odd and conflicting given everything that has happened.

I found the Oprah interview, the freedom flight, the Spare revelations awful. It felt really unpleasant the way Meghan came into the royal family, was active for so little time and then criticised it all so publicly and in a way that seemed a bit of a cultural miss (I’m not referring to the racism allegations here). I think that her American mindset perhaps did not fully understand the tacit consent nature of the royal family and the constitutional delicacies with which the titles are held. This is why it makes commercialisation and speaking at round tables about ‘power’, jarring.

However, despite ALL of this this, I see two human beings. One man who has grown up, without any consent, in a strange institution, in the glare of the spotless, completely traumatised by the death of his mother in horrendous circumstances when he was a young boy. A veteran too. Although not comparable to this, Meghan clearly has also had a dysfunctional childhood too. These latest revelations around her father mean that from the outside, none of us really know what’s going on.

I would like them all to just be happy. I feel like collectively it would be awesome as a nation if we could give the family the framework to sort it all out by just saying ‘look, H&M, you did some crazy shit, it was hugely damaging and cruel. But we understand that you guys have gone through crap too. Let’s look forward- try and sort it out’.

I’d honestly like to be done with the drama and for everyone to just get on. Does anyone else feel like this? I know it doesn’t really work like this in practice, I’m just trying to get across how I’m feeling.

Please also try and be a bit kind in your responses. I think this is coming from a place where everything just feels really negative/heavy in life at the moment and the need for some positivity,

I don't think they can be fully integrated back into the Royal family, but I do think recent events help explain why Meghan is like she is and why she and Harry are together. It would be good to stop another generation being messed up if they are able to live a calm life here.

Meghan can’t help her horrible family.

But the shenanigans over the last8 years, when it just seemed they were trashy, squabbling blabbermouths, and now the revelations of possible criminal sexual behaviour does explain a lot. She comes from a ghastly background and didn’t have the care of her mother for many years.

I don’t like her but I see a little more clearly why she is such a mess and where her consuming jealousy of Catherine comes from.

Harry and MM are a real problem for the RF. One I don't know how they will solve. Their antics distract from the good works of the RF and take publicity away from things like the Earth shot prize or Aberfan or diplomacy which will benefit the UK like the Omani visit. Things that actually matter to and affect the people of the UK.

Exactly this. It's actually been a significant and positive week for the RF, and meanwhile we have the bizarre Nottingham 'royal' visit, Harry's GQ interview and his tone-deaf waffling about people who 'don't want a reconciliation'.
Then this horrific and upsetting story, which is not Meghan's fault and makes me feel horrible for her, and really underlines what a difficult and damaging background she's emerged from and why she probably is the way she is. But then it gets even murkier as we discover she had knowledge for years but did nothing beyond sending a letter telling him to get help?! And now the collaboration we've all been waiting for, Duchess of Sussex, As Ever, sponsored by The Sun. It's relentless, and will only continue, as they lack all insight and judgement. They will grab any opportunity for money, attention, victimhood and to take shots at the Royal Family. All of which completely overshadows the work of the RF, leaves William with a mess to clean up when he comes to the throne, and just creates so much negativity. And Harry is still fifth in line to the throne!

I don't know what the solution is; I think grey rocking has served them well by and large, but at some point they need to hash out some kind of agreement behind the scenes, because it's gone beyond that now.

I think the RF are going to need to act sooner rather than later on this. It's just all so tawdry, and damaging. The headlines since H & M came back to the UK are just now over shadowing all the good efforts from the good work that the RF focus on doing. And it's only going to get worse as they get more desperate for money/attention.

I personally think that the titles will end up being retired rather than removed, and there will be a huge financial handshake that H & M just can't afford to say no to.

But that could be why they are behaving the way they are. Making the most awful spectacle they can so that the royals are forced to do a big cash bribe, maybe a royal estate to boot so that H&M will agree to go off and live a quiet life.

🤷‍♀️

MM now is fully exposed and under the worldwide media spotlight for the subject of her father's sexual abuse potentially of children without the PR protection of the RF. Presumably the RF and Harry knew that her family were pretty dodgy before Harry married her and as we know William tried to get him to slow down, as they would know what the repercussions would be for her when all her family's secrets eventually came out. We don't know what else will be revealed.

The irony is she has exposed RF members to a horrendous media spotlight herself over the years and put the sort of negative focus on Katherine for example that she will now have to face herself. At the hand of her own father rather than any RF member. Live by the sword die by the sword is unfortunately very apt here.

Its well out of MM and Harry's control now.

i doubt they would be stupid enough to do anything with titles now.
that would look like they are blaming M for her odious father. they didn't do that to the york women.

It's the only way forward. Titles in abeyance. Removed from line of succession and given a gigantic payout to go back to the USA and keep their mouths shut. Anything else will lead to decades more of similar headlines, pseudo royal visits and tours and interviews from Prince Whiner going over all his grievances to anybody who will listen.

I agree. Although they might be forced into it if M and H carry on with their "engagements". They would be extremely stupid to carry on.

It maybe why they never did it in the first place.

This was always going to come out.

Is this why they came back? For protection due to the link with the royal family?

Who knows. But it’s shocking this has taken 8 years to come out.

I'm reserving judgement. Thomas Markle is facing accusations but has not been charged. Few people know if he is guilty. Lots doesn't add up. Wife 1 is conveniently dead. TM junior has had access to TM senior's computers for two years. The Met may have taken no action in 2019 because the accusations were vague snd flimsy. It's not clear why TM senior potentially being a paedophile would pose a risk to Meghan. Why hadn't this threat been mentioned in Harry's submissions to RAVEC arguing for 34-hour security.

There are, as ever with Meghan, unanswered questions. Why didn't she cut her father off in 2019, when she was pregnant, rather than wait until 2025, when her father was in hospital and had just had a major operation? Why didn't she follow up with the Met to see what action had been taken? Why did she praise her father in the Netflix show? Why did she allow Harry's claim that Meghan had lost her father because of him to remain in the Netflix show?

It would be in the interests of the Royal family and the Sussexes for them to remain out of sight, although that may not be how the Sussexes see it that way. We also need to remember that the king is head of state, do this sordid tale besmirches thecUK by association. Did the security services probe Thomas Markle's visits to the Phillipines before the wedding, I wonder?

There's a deal to be done, and it's obvious what it is. A country estate and an income for life from the monarch's private wealth for the Sussexes, the titles stripped, and a contractual agreement to stop public appearances.

blah these same royals especially William bleat on about homelessness and pretend to do a shift at a hostel then go back to their plush homes after virtue signaling. I've worked with homeless rough sleepers 20 years in Westminster and Kensington where the royals reside and I've never seen any thing or funding from them, all our funding comes from local government

It would be in the interests of the Royal family and the Sussexes for them to remain out of sight, although that may not be how the Sussexes see it that way. We also need to remember that the king is head of state, do this sordid tale besmirches thecUK by association. Did the security services probe Thomas Markle's visits to the Phillipines before the wedding, I wonder?
There's a deal to be done, and it's obvious what it is. A country estate and an income for life from the monarch's private wealth for the Sussexes, the titles stripped, and a contractual agreement to stop public appearances.

I agree with all of this. The HaMs reputation is too tarnished now - not necessarily M's fault, but that's how it works in public life - for them to make a career of being major public figures, speechifying about things. I emphasise I'm not blaming her for this mess but it sometimes is just a hard fact that you become associated with unpleasant things.

I've said upthread that I think they should settle down to enjoy the wealth they have, either in the States or here, focus on their children and keep out of the public eye. But can they do that, and would the press allow them to? Also - I just don't thin M is going to think of the UK as her forever home - she must surely be here under some kind of sufferance, and while they may stay together if H agreed to go back to the US, I can't see her settling down here permanently.

I hope this nightmare for them will result in a sober re-assessment and a more sensible road map for their future, and NOT an impulse to do more tacky interviews and more cringey appearances which upstage and distract from what the RF is doing. The next few weeks will tell.

It looks like it's already too late as Oprah is coming to the UK to interview Meghan, according to TMZ. It is to be broadcast tomorrow evening Eastern Time on CBS.

That attitude doesn’t really wash, though. I mean, Meghan’s engagement outfit could have funded help for a a huge number of needy people. Super rich people all over the world spend more on a restaurant meal than it would cost to feed a homeless person for months. It’s Just the way things are. I always roll my eyes at celebrity charity balls where, if they’d just donated the ticket price and the cost of their designer dresses to the cause and stayed at home, it would work better for everyone.

I think it’s been noted that was fake info posted on X. I fell for it last night 😂

The RF managed to rehabilitate Charles and Camilla, after their affair, the embarassing tape, his biography and Diana’s death. People hated Camilla! I think if they can come back to the extent that Camilla was able to marry him and become Queen and gain some respect, that H&M can come back from this too. I don’t have any objection to them myself - I wouldn’t have aired all the dirty laundry like Harry has but I can understand why he felt the need to have his say. I’m sure given enough time that most people won’t care about all this.

Phew. I did think Oprah was more sensible than to involve herself with a person who had lied to her. Also bad fir Meghsn but when has that ever stopped her?

I don’t think there’s any wish or interest from KC, Camilla, W or C to put time and trouble into rehabilitating the HaMs. I think the would prefer them to fade into obscurity.

And quite honestly, I think that’s what they should do. It’s not so bad a fate with the money they have - they can live comfortably if not quite like A listers.

Whether they’re willing to retire from public life with dignity is another question!

Do we really think that MM will be persuaded to stop competing with the RF by a payout, however large? Or H, for that matter?

They get their allowance for life, their estate in the country on the understanding that they will stop making trouble. If they then continue to make sources-say trouble and stir up press sympathy because they're not invited to stuff, what are the RF going to be able to do about it?

It's the "keep their mouths shut" bit that will be the problem.

Narcissists will agree to promise anything they're asked in order to get what they want. Once they've got what they want, the promise means nothing.

This is a core aspect of NPD behaviour - promises do not mean the same to them as to other folk. Promises are simply a mechanism for manipulating people into giving you what you want.