Little surprise that “Meghan’s Anguish” covers the latest issue of People Magazine. Even if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interviews in the ITV documentary hadn’t dominated headlines for days, People likely would have put Meghan on the cover as some kind of cross-promotion for ABC airing the documentary tonight. Mostly, the cover story excerpt online is just a rehash of quotes from the doc, but there are some insidery quotes too:
Prince Harry is taking a stand to protect wife Meghan Markle. After the 35-year-old royal dad announced he was taking legal action against the British tabloids, Harry spoke out about how negative press attention has hurt their family in the new documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, which debuted in the U.K. on Sunday.
“He sees the pain of his wife and the attacks she faces, and he wants to try to sort it out,” a source close to the royal household tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.
Prince Harry’s distrust of the media stems back to the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was relentlessly hounded by paparazzi.
“Look, part of this job and part of any job, like everybody, means putting on a brave face and turning a cheek to a lot of the stuff. But again, for me and for my wife, of course, there’s a lot of stuff that hurts — especially when the majority of it is untrue,” he told ITV’s Tom Bradby in the documentary. But all we need to do is focus on being real, focus on being the people we are and standing up for what we believe in. I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my mum,” he added, referencing the 1997 death of Princess Diana.
Says of friend of Princess Diana’s: “There is an element of [the press] being ingrained as the enemy. He is trying to protect them all. He is doing what he can.”
We talked about the lessons from Diana’s life and her death last week, when that one clip of Harry came out. I said what I wanted to say back then – I think Diana’s life and death carried many lessons, and it was never as cut-and-dry as “the media killed Diana.” Many of you said that Harry is speaking from the trauma he feels, and I get that. But he’s applying his trauma like it’s a logical argument in defense of Meghan. Do you know what I mean? He’s not JUST speaking about the trauma he feels and has felt for many years. His words weren’t merely a description of his pain. He was also trying to apply that to an argument about whether or not the press treats Meghan fairly. And as I said, there was more nuance to Diana’s life and death, just as there should be more nuance to what is happening to Meghan now. It’s simplistic and ultimately a bad strategy to say that it’s all the media’s fault, and to make the argument about “media bullying.” A lot more is happening here.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, cover courtesy of People Magazine.
She looks amazing on the cover.
But even when we look at the other things going on, like William throwing them under the bus, or the discourse around the Sussexes relocating- it’s all happening through the press. Were it not for the relentless negative media reports on these issues, we’d know nothing about it, if its true at all. I think Harry is right.
The tabloids will NEVER leave Meghan & Harry alone as the Sussexes generate so much money between the hate-clicks and defend-the-Sussex clicks. The tabloids have no alternative stream of revenue at this time if they chose to boycott reporting on the Meghan & Harry.
Posh & Becks are not selling newspaper the way they use to and no cares anymore for what Katie Price is doing.
Agreed. Imagine losing the most beloved person in your life to a paparazzi stunt, then having the subsequent most beloved person in the world threatened (mentally, for now), by constant smearing of the press. He is protecting his wife and the mother of his child, which is the right thing to do.
I agree. Racism is the main source of bigotry directed against Meghan. The press profits off feeding that racism by relying salicious gossip instead of analysing racism.
I hope that more commentators publicly acknowledge the racist backlash against Meghan. I can’t imagine the emotional toll it has had on her & her loved ones.
white people often act like being called a racist is worse than actually being racist, so I think Harry is having to talk around the obvious racist elements of the bullying. Imagine the reaction from the BRF or the tabloids if they breathed a word about how differently Kate and Meg are treated and WHY that is. I feel for Harry and Meg because they can’t fully address it
This! To me they need to have a frank admission of British racism. The RF needs to openly acknowledge their racist past and how it continues today and most importantly talk about how you can identify it and what to do when you encounter it. Harry should be the one to start this discussion and stop pussyfooting around it.
Harry has had that discussion. Look at the Jane Goodall interview when he talked about people having a racist bias, even unconsiously, see the statement he made about the racism in the press when they were dating. So he has put it out there and gotten ridiculed for doing it. Much more than William with his “I’m over it” statement about racism, whatever that meant.
MSIam William was bored of it. 🙄🙄
And I think Harry needs to headline the topic, not mix it in another conversation. He needs an IG post signed by himself about starting the conversation.
The press has been weaponized by various forces to harm Meghan. From her father to the courtiers. No one can explain what exactly she’s done to warrant these attacks other than exist. I think Harry knows he has to fight this battle by disarming the press or they’ll never have any peace.
Diana made the mistake of thinking she could manipulate the press to leave her alone when she wanted privacy, but utilize them when she needed to fight her divorce war. They thought they owned her because they knew her secrets. And she was too afraid of the fact they did know her secrets and could destroy her. William uses the press to hide his affairs and his laziness, but they own him because they have the receipts of his affairs and his complicity in using the press against Charles and the Sussexes. Harry is simply saying I’m not doing a quid pro quo with the very people who want to destroy his wife.
Very insightful and encompassing take!
Very interesting take, TheOriginalMia, and it definitely has the ring of truth about it.
I hope to never hear, read or see “quid pro quo” again.
This is true.
“The press has been weaponized by various forces to harm Meghan. From her father to the courtiers. No one can explain what exactly she’s done to warrant these attacks other than exist. “
There’s a difference between being treated fairly/unfairly (ie: criticism), and hate filled, racist diatribe that is the undertone of most of those articles. Wasn’t a white powder sent in an envelop to KP not long after their engagement?? And right after Archie was born someone printed a pic comparing him to…well…you remember. Sadly, we live in a time when there are a LOT of unhinged nuts that see/hear “messages” in what is printed. And they ACT on these thoughts!
Harry must take any and all steps he sees fit to protect his family. Period.
It’s more than just Diana.
Fergie wrote in her biography, how the relentless press attacks – also fed from palace courtiers😶😶 – killed her spirit.
What did Andrew do? He buried his head in the sand. (That’s the usual Windsor way)
When Pandy Andy decided to stand up to the ‘Palace Grey Men’, the marriage was already in tatters.
Harry has rightly decided not to sit on his hands, while palace aides collude with the press to destroy his wife.
Kaiser, I always look forward to your Royals posts. They are always so insightful.
I hope Meghan and Harry continue living their own lives and making decisions that are best for themselves and Archie. That’s it. My husband and I always say, it’s wonderful when our families are getting along and helpful..but ultimately it’s us and the kids. So we lean on each other and lower our expectations of others’ behavior.
They may at some point have to decide if continuing on as royals makes the most sense for their family. I don’t think being royal automatically means you will end up like Diana, although I can understand why Harry is projecting some of that trauma on to his situation with Meghan. It’s scary. But, Kaiser, I agree with you 100%. A lot more is happening here and we are doing everyone a disservice if we overlook the nuance. Thank you!
Uhhh no.It’s not simplistic. It’s a strategy because they can’t call it what it REALLY is – racism. Because white folks are fragile and the moment that word is brought up people stop listening and start defending and explaining “why they aren’t racist”. And it IS bullying. Bullying is a HUGE part of racism. It’s intimidation, threats, gaslighting. All of that falls under bullying.
Exactly this. It’s utterly pathetic but the second Harry starts talking about the racism angle of all this outright — the sh*t will hit the fan and the ensuing uproar will assure that everything else is either twisted into oblivion or forgotten and never addressed. Bullying is a “safer” way to tread into these waters…as its on-trend for everyone to “see” bullying right now and acknowledge how it’s bad. As badly as we all need to tackle race and address it head on — we just can’t get to a place where that can happen in a calm and rational way. We’re all living in a powder keg right now.
EXACTLY. Why is this post faulting their strategy? It isn’t stupidity that is making them avoid the subject. It is absolutely white fragility. I’m sure Normal Bill himself is made only of spun glass.
I tell you, I am having trouble keeping all these narratives straight. Its clear that Harry’s statement and the lawsuit against the MoS set something off, then add the documentary on top of that and we just have a mess.
But it seems to me that what is happening is that people are losing sight of the main problem – the relentless smear campaign against Meghan. So to the extent that this kind of article helps to reset that, I think its good.
Now there is so much quibbling over who said what, and who leaked, and did William call Harry and if so, when, what did they say – that the main problem is getting buried. And I’m sure that’s not an accident.
I think the leaks matter. William and Kate have weaponized the media against the Sussexes and until that stops the Sussexes will never get a break with the media.
I firmly the Queen is “sacrificing” H&M to bury the Andrew/Epstein story (and it’s working) and Prince Charles is watching from the side-lines doing nothing because he is coming out of all of this smelling like roses.
But maybe maybe I’m wrong and the next event will be done by H&M and Charles & Camilla together, who knows?
I agree with Harry…
Put the bloody press on notice IMMEDIATELY to let them know his DEFINITIVE stance regarding their treatment of his Wife…Which is WHOLLY appropriate!
He can NEVER control the putrid narratives that’s being pushed…but he CAN let everybody and they Mama know that they WILL fight back when and where they can!
I agree. By putting the press on notice he has also put the “palace sources” and BRF on notice that he will protect Meghan and Archie. To me, he’s telling everyone, not just the press, to back the eff off.
EXACTLY Lala. Instead of shadow-boxing racism as a whole he is going after the SOURCE of the racist vitriol. Which IS the press. THeY are the one stoking their reader’s hatred and racism with every story they publish.
I think Harry has PTSD. And I mean that in the kindest way. Walking behind his mom’s coffin in front of the world probably made the entire thing 10x worse.
Unfortunately, his family are useless and lack empathy. They have, and continue to feed him (and now his family) to the U.K. tabloids.
I don’t think it’s wrong to say it’s possible he has PTSD given what he went through with his mother, but I don’t think his reaction right now is solely a result of past trauma. Is it influenced by it? Absolutely. However, what is happening to Meghan IS HAPPENING and no one can argue that.
I think they need a very serious break. And I would t be remotely surprised if at the end of everything, once QEII is gone, he leaves BRF for good.
I agree, not that it makes what is happening ok but I think it limits his ability to deal with it. I was sexually abused when I was a kid, I went to therapy and thought I was feeling solid but when I had my own baby the terror I felt was so overwhelming. I was suddenly terrified of anything happening to my child and also, in a way, mad at myself for bringing a child into what I saw as a crazy out of control world. Therapy and other healing tools helped me gain some perspective. I know Im not dealing with relentless pressure but I hope they are both getting support.
Nope, sorry, not buying that PTSD angle. Harry is pissed and he’s tired of the b.s. And folks are not used to the RF speaking up directly like this, other than Diana. It’s always through these veiled “sources say” articles like W&K do. Even Diana’s book with Andrew Morton was initially told as if through a third party. He is taking the bull by the horns and coming out and saying “This is not ok to do this to my wife and family!” rather than being silent and letting the press and his family sh!t all over them.
Harry’s family didn’t force him to walk behind his mother’s coffin. THEY gave him a choice.
Tony Blair, the British media and the British PEOPLE forced those boys to do it, with their uncontrollable hysteria. Blair saw political points to be made and went for it. The press wanted to pretend they hadn’t been attacking Diana HOURS before she was killed and the British people lost their fucking minds. It was disgusting.
Thank you, Kerwood. I remember watching in horror as the public demanded that the Queen and Prince Charles parade their grief and her boys out in front of everyone. The absolute mass hysteria from the public was more like a Beatles concert in the 60’s than any real expression of grief, and the media were very quick to point everyone’s lasers of blame on the family rather than where it belonged.
They didn’t start a nationwide campaign against drunk drivers and wearing seatbelts. They didn’t allow the conversation about invasive media killing that lovely human being go on for more than a week before it was all about why the Queen wasn’t crying in front of the public on television and why the boys were being hidden.
It was disgusting. I remember it well.
A lot of this is to be blamed on the Palace and the Royals. Not ONCE did any of them put their foot down (even with Diana) and not once did Kensington issue an sort of statement in either situation. They are feeding this machine more than anyone. The media and people are feeding off the negativity William and Co. are putting out there. Harry may be suffering from trauma from his mother’s death because his family is basically useless and cold but he’s not wrong. His wife and his nuclear family are being attacked daily for literally nothing or merely the color of his wife’s skin. It’s shameful and disgusting but since Harry won’t be King it’s somehow okay to smear them.
It’s sickening the amount of ridiculous articles the DM writes about Meghan all day, everyday, yet barely a word about Andrew. It’s absolutely horrible. Harry can’t even defend his own wife without the UK press attacking him now. Meghan couldn’t even put her hand on her OWN STOMACH when she was pregnant without people losing their minds. I am starting to worry that maybe their marriage won’t be able to endure all the toxicity that the UK press throws at them, especially Meghan.
What gives me hope for H&M is that they are in control of their own narrative since they opened their successful Instagram page and have their own professional household team. This documentary is the next step, their personal statement to the world that they will continue to do things their way, not how the press or the royal firm dictates. And they will take no crap from them anymore. Their plans are much bigger than the tiny box in which the UK press and royal firm are trying to squeeze their image. They are creating their own space, their Sussex universe. The global interest in their documentary is huge and confirms their global status. (I hope they made a good deal with ITV about the copyrights to let royalties flow richly into the Sussex foundation). The African documentary was also a brilliant move against William’s (if true) push to ban them to Africa for a few years because they were overshadowing him in popularity. No matter where the Sussexes are in the world huge interest will be there because this dreamteam has an authentic, inspirational story to tell. That is potential stuff for legends and fairytales.
Please Harry and Meghan leave that soulless country. I never knew England was so goddamn ugly. It’s rhesus factor, and pedophilia. These people are ratchet as hell.
The press is one part of the problem. The viper courtiers (and senior royals!) cooperating with the press, feeding them negative stories, is the other major part of the problem. These two factions, the press and the courtiers, are working together. Harry absolutely should take the press to task for what happened to his mother and what is currently happening to his wife. But he should also be calling out the vipers in the system. The Clarence House/KP/BP people who are feeding the Daily Mail these stories. Who are standing silent and letting Meghan suffer. Calling them out might be something of a nuclear option, though. But they bear responsibility.
In Diana’s case, she, too, was hounded by the press and faced alienation within the royal system. But her situation was dramatically different because there was not a hateful, racist element, which of course is inherently threatening to Meghan. The press was threatening to her in a different way. Within the last three years of her life, her relationship with the press grew more codependent, toxic, and dangerous. There was also a physical element of pursuit and intimidation that doesn’t exist for Meghan because she has palace security around her, and after the divorce, Diana did not. By 1997 she’d lost the control she’d had in her dealings with the press. The fact that she died while paparazzi chased her seems somewhat inevitable, given the tenor of the relationship between her and the press. Why did she even date Dodi in the first place? Because she believed he could offer her protection from the press. Diana had long had premonitions that she’d die in a car crash, she told one of her lawyers about it all the way back in 1991, and also confided the same fears to a friend around the same time. Diana was suspicious and paranoid–not without reason, given her experiences–but she was also uncommonly perceptive. If the driver had been sober that night in Paris, probably she would have survived. But there would have been more car chases. Of that I am totally certain.
If the monarchy wanted to stop this public trashing they could! To harass a woman while pregnant and on maternity leave is a damn shame. I don’t know what the RR have over the monarchy. Their always threatening Meghan with some BS tradition. I’m sure the Hater Gators will blame Meghan for the 39 corpses found today.
We don’t really know if the driver was drunk. My parents were British subjects. When Diana die my mother said “Dem kill dat gal.” My mother had all kinds of unpleasant things to say about the monarchy. She was very upset and she stopped talking about the monarchy.
There’s Merovingian churches in the Caribbean! That empire was evil as hell!
I know the Cambridge throw the Sussex under the bus. I see Kate as a backstabbing witch. Kate wanted Harry to marry someone who would do little to nothing. The job is presented a certain way. If you have a soul and care about your subjects you’ll work for them. They have everything at their fingertips why do less when you can do more. Why rely on old mothball money, why you can have new money that was actually worked for.
The money is done. The Sussex got the world interest in the monarchy. The snobby attitude toward outsiders is rude. The treatment of Diana’s younger son has a lot of us saying wtf. One has to question did the brits love Diana. I think Diana wasn’t appreciate until her death. All those affairs and dating an Arab. William stayed the press would spit at Diana. Look at Arthur Edwards picture of a 19 year old Diana. This jerk takes pride in a picture that exposes Diana. I hope the Sussex leave. William is on some power kick. I would get out before the bridge falls. The Cambridge aren’t bright. They bring nothing to the but boring and dull. They will never change. Williams is miserable. Kate would bounce if the well ran dry. I wouldn’t be surprise if their in separate homes. There’s something terrible off with this s couple. Just like something’s off with Andrew and Fergie!
During the Sussex courtship, whenever Meghan flew back home. If Harry had an engagement with will the Cambridge, he looked sad. Whenever Harry’s around certain brits he has that same look. The media and that monarchy doesn’t make sense