We’re more than a week past the publication of Finding Freedom. I think most of the royal stans or Sussex stans have already finished reading it or finished listening to the audiobook. Most of the royal commentators have finished it as well, which makes everything kind of awkward because the book really wasn’t this massively bridge-burning tell-all that they promised it would be, and that they feared it would be. Sure, FF spilled some interesting tea, but as I keep saying… what’s also interesting is the tea which went unspilt. The Duchess of Cambridge barely appears in the book, and when she does appear, she’s cold, rigid and distant. It’s clear that Meghan never even got a handle on who Kate really IS. We also learned that Kate never reached out to Meghan at all or helped her in any way, but the big show was always between William and Harry.
Anyway, I was going somewhere with the royal commentator thing – I think that the royal commentators are still trying to find some way to make the narrative about Kate and Meghan, even though the book makes it 100% clear that the conflict was between the brothers. Let’s see how Emily Andrews and Katie Nicholl spin it:
Meghan Markle had an “unrealistic expectation” of her relationship with sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge, a royal editor has claimed. While many royal watchers assumed Meghan and Kate would become close friends, especially when they lived just a few doors apart at Kensington Palace, it ended up being quite the opposite. A new book about the couple, Finding Freedom, claims that the two women didn’t have a fallout as such but admits there was tension and “awkward moments” between them.
But Emily Andrews, the Mail’s royal editor, claims that Meghan expected too much from her very busy sister-in-law. Speaking on Channel 5 documentary Meghan & Harry: The New Revelations, she explains: “I think it seems that Meghan had a very unrealistic expectation of her relationship with Kate. If you look at it from the Cambridges’ point of view, they don’t know this woman at all. From their point of view they absolutely did welcome her into the family. William and Kate invited Meghan and Harry to Apartment 1A. Kate met Meghan pretty early on in the relationship. I think from William and Kate’s point they did try and help as much as possible, but they were at a very different stage of life.”
And she’s not the only royal expert to have these thoughts, with Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl adding: “While there might have been an expectation from Meghan that Kate was going to sit down and show her the ropes, perhaps that was an unrealistic expectation. The Duchess of Cambridge is a busy woman, but Meghan clearly took that personally.”
Finding Freedom makes multiple claims about Kate and Meghan’s friendship, including saying that the Duchess of Sussex “didn’t lose sleep” over their difficult relationship.
This is a pretty forced narrative, and it goes alongside the other forced narrative I’ve seen in the past week, which is that “Meghan and Harry were too naive for the Firm.” As if Harry and Meghan, two 30-somethings with a lot of life experience, were just babes in the wood and they just kept fumbling so badly out of ignorance. The narrative about poor Meghan wanting and needing help from Top CEO Kate is just as stupid, although it “fits” with the Naive H&M thing. As for the idea that Kate was suddenly just too busy to be nice or helpful to Meghan… lol. Kate was literally too lazy to be nice. That’s what it amounts to.
Do you want my opinion, in general, on the dynamic between Meg and Kate? I think Meghan probably would have loved it if Kate did seek to mentor or befriend her, especially in the first year of dating/engagement. But I think Meghan is nobody’s fool and she realized VERY quickly that Kate saw her as competition and a rival to be vanquished. And so Meghan just shrugged and went on about her business.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN, Avalon Red.
What exactly was Kate busy with? She has a full household staff and essentially works part-time. Surely checking William’s collars for lipstick stains doesn’t take that long…
ROFLMAO!
You’re being way too generous. She barely works even part-time.
You just don’t know how many hours she has to put in checking for those lipstick stains! 😂
She is busy with colouring books for adults, choosing the right clothing brands and photographing the kids for their birthdays.
Once she is Queen, she will probably reduce that to a part-time job, too.
Don’t forget Kate has to put in time taking in her clothes so they are tight fitting, and it takes time to lift the waistline of each outfit too. Alterations on what had been perfectly fitting outfits take time ya’no.
Or is she getting her clothing alterations now done by AK47? If AK can take time out from creating poorly fitting outfits for HM? It’s one way to stay close to the throne, by “fixing” clothing for FFQ?
Queen Consort. To me though she will always be Kate Middleton. William and she will not be a proper king and queen. To be truthful like none of William’s generation of royals. Sick of him and Kate, the two Yorks and it’s got to be said Harry and Meghan.
Charles and Camilla, Anne and possibly the Wessexes and the older royals do the job the way it should be done, taking an interest in all of the people.
The woman was busy working on the survey
What happened to the Survey? is that broken britain project dead? or is britain no longer broken?
It has been abandoned so W&K can save the world from COVID-19. There was a KP release about how certain projects are being set aside to focus on the pandemic.
It really exposes just how much the Early Years project was thrown together at the last minute to make it look like Kate was doing something. There was a huge opportunity to help parents of little ones when the COVID stay-at-home mandates were at their strictest. She could have coordinated with her experts to create weekly videos on ideas of how to entertain younger kids and some basic education activities. Provide info on resources available. Yet there was nothing. You will never convince me that she has been working on this for 8 years like KP professed.
The project was literally invented the Friday before the cookbook came out and by invented I mean they came up with a name and then did nothing for almost a year before they figured out what this “project” would be.
I believe it produced around 200,000 responses. It’s way short of the number needed to be considered a national response. At least a million responses from genuine UK citizens would be needed for that. This is the minimum required for national petitions to be debated in Parliament. For example the petition against Donald Trump’s state visit invitation produced almost 2 million signatures in 2 weeks.
The survey closed on 21st February before the national lockdown so the low response can’t be blamed on that. Kate did a 24 hour ‘whirlwind tour’ to promote the survey and the Middletons came out in force trying to persuade people to take part. It was never going to work. The Cambridge/Middletons have no real point of connection with people because they don’t really care.
Covert has been dolittle and do nots saviour it has given them excuses to be be even more lazy than they normally are and to abandon these projects without having to admit they were a complete dumpster fire of failure!
Kate wasn’t too busy to befriend Meghan, she didn’t want to. B/c Kate is not even a fully developed woman at this point, she avoided Meghan because Prince William wanted her to. Anything else assigns more agency to Kate than we have seen.
“The Duchess of Cambridge is a busy woman” …sure, Jan.
She couldn’t have gone to lunch with Meghan she’s so busy?
Could even give Meghan a lift when they were going shopping to the same place.
That’s the thing….even if they have different personalities, and perhaps Kate isn’t one to befriend someone easily, you would still expect for a friendly co-worker dynamic to develop, if nothing else. Not many people could relate to what K and M have gone through entering the royal family, why not meet up here and there and give some tips and just generally be friendly?
The “they didn’t know this woman at all” quote is just weird. She’s not some random person trying to befriend them, she’s Harry’s fiance/wife. The solution to not knowing her at all would seem to be….making even a small effort to GET to know her? Honestly, if anything the quote makes it sound like they had just decided that MM was not to be trusted.
Around the time that the H+M split from the royal foundation there was a story about how Will and Kate felt that Meghan had been foisted onto them. If it is true that they felt that way, then it hints that they were extremely unwelcoming and that they def didn’t want to get to know her.
@A,
Indeed, most women find it a pleasure to have another fellow women our age by our side after 20 years being alone, and making it a priority to mentor and extend support to her, especially if we have suffered in past, but Kate is not most women.
Kate can’t relate to any woman she is a male identified woman, in that she sees any other women as competition to be eliminated and to be the only one getting attention from men, NOT as an confident or a companian. This is the EXACT same thing she did to Cressida, even begging Harry to not get back with her so she could maintain being centre of attention.
She has time to keep her roots updated and botox maintained but that is more important to her than talking to her sister in law. Those are her priorities.
I wonder how she manages to go shopping or lunching with Carole or Pippa?
It would have been awesome to have seen a strong relationship and friendship between two influential women. Even if they weren’t “friends” per se (I am not close to my sisters in law either, but we are cordial and friendly and happy to see them during holidays) they could have been friendly co-workers. Alas, what could have been if the Cambridges weren’t incandescent with jealously.
First Kate have to be an influential woman, which she isn’t. She’d also have to be pro-woman, which she isn’t.
Yes and yes @notasugarhere!
“Very busy” … “a busy woman” … lol I guess the “Duchess Doolittle” narrative is in the past.
The Cambridges have damaged the monarchy. So, busy or not, introverted or not, wary of outsiders or however we’re describing Kate today, she made life harder on herself through her actions towards Meghan. They all did and trying to refute every single little detail coming out of Finding Freedom only serves to underscore how inflexible and retrograde the monarchy is.
Yes! They all seem hell bent on refuting every single thing in Finding Freedom to the point its obsessive. Like someone who simply will not let go and just has to get the last word in. It seems exhausting.
And Charles is letting them have a go at it, sitting by and doing nothing…..as usual.
“The Duchess of Cambridge is a busy woman”
doing…….what? She has no projects, she has charities she hasn’t visited in years, she doesn’t seem to have any actual friends, she has what? 2 nannies and a cook. I doubt William keeps her tied up with any thing.
Meghan had no idea who Kate was and she’s a girls girl. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to have expected niceness at the very least. Like Kaiser said, when she saw that wasn’t what Kate was about she let it go.
You can piece together her day from confirmed kp and Middleton admissions.
Kate gets up, works out, has her cook make her organic veggie juices. Then tennis lessons. Then she has her coloring book time. Then another work out.
That’s when she’s not seen. If there’s a tennis match, shopping trip, hair or cosmetic upkeep she will be there and that covers a lot as we’ve seen from Twitter papping. IF she works or has any meeting of any kind there will be pics and we will hear about it for weeks.
Tbf to Kate if she didn’t work out 6 times a day, the British press would slam her for being fat – she’s not gonna win that one.
Lisa
Kate gets praised no matter what. And she gets heavy praise for having a healthy weight to her frame. More criticism comes when her frame looks frail if any at all.
I’d like to point out there is also a difference between healthy muscle and just being tooting within certain accepted health guidelines. When you’re too thin you can work out often and still not gain muscle because your body is not taking in a healthy amount of calories or nutrition.
Lisa says: No one would slam cake for being fat I’m sure at her normal body weight she would be average slim, everyone has always thought she was way too skinny.
I’m pretty sure Meghan knew from day one what Kate was going to be about. The blind about not giving Meghan a ride to the shops has essentially been confirmed and so Meghan knew how this relationship was going to be with Kate. Which is basically none in private and bare minimum in public. Meghan is old enough to understand that Kate was massively insecure because she’s done nothing in her life but sang a rich man and so she remained polite at all time.
Besides has Kate even even said Meghan’s name in public? It’s so bizarre how both she and William barely even acknowledge Meghan in public. Even Charles and Camilla were more forthcoming, especially when the engagement was announced.
Now that you have mentioned it, it has really dawned on me how Kate has never publicly acknowledged Meghan. She was even asked a question by someone at event about Meghan’s pregnancy, while greeting fans, and her response was along the lines of “springtime is a lovely time to have a baby”, or some crap like that.
I’ve never heard Kate and William mention Meghan’s name in public. I don’t mind being corrected.
— I doubt William keeps her tied up with anything.—
Kate is obsessed with William, she does what he tells her. It’s sad b/c she’s not her own person. However, she knows that William’s favor keeps her position viable. Rose bushes or not.
Lol at the beginning, every British tabloid was out there calling them the “Fab 4” claiming Kate was helping and advising Meghan and giving her lesson etc… if anyone had “unrealistic” expectations that Kate would finally rise to an occasion and actually do something, it’s them.
Now, the disappointment they’ve had over that (trying to manufacture and champion this image of a warm, friendly, hardworking, perfect Kate) they’re trying to project onto Meghan. I agree Meghan probably saw who Kate was right away, but kept giving her chances, and like other stories have reported, kept trying to make the first move in regards to building a bond with Kate. But for any type of relationship, it’s gotta be a two way effort, and this wasn’t.
I forgot the giant PR push to make it seems like she had “taken Meghan under her wing”. Now this backtracking cause Kate looks like the cold person she is even funnier.
Don’t forget that weird credit Kate got for the Smartworks collection.
Too busy to be a decent human being…I guess that sounds about right for the middle-class Middletons.
Thank you for saying that, Merricat.
i didn’t want to believe it at the time, but i always felt like kate wore the tightest (yet appropriate) dress she could find for the wimbledon outing with a postpartum meghan. knowing what i do of her now, especially as it relates to expressing things via her clothing, im now convinced she was trying to make a pretty mean point.
i imagine the timing of meghan’s entrance was especially hard for kate. during pregnancies, in particular, she was used to the attention being centered on her, and when it wasn’t (never mind meghan’s natural adaptation to the role), that probably fostered some resentment.
I was just thinking this, exactly. That skin tight dress was deliberate.
If it was deliberate – to show how skinny she was – that’s just beyond the pale, IMO.
But also, for me personally, that was the moment I looked at Kate and thought, she’s not well. and I think many people had the same reaction. Yes we have seen her very thin before, but that dress highlighted how much weight she had lost since having Louis, and I think she looks even thinner now. So maybe it was to make herself look better than Meghan, but I think it backfired in a way.
Yeah, I thought this dress was tailored to be extremely tight to the body. In the one photo above, you can see the seam of her undergarments, which is a bit tackier than Kate normally goes (except for the flashing, which she seems to have stopped). It’s too bad, because I almost liked this dress. The green color was good on her and the shape was nice. Of course it has boob darts, a thousand buttons, and a bow tie, because those are what Kate likes and they mess up the lines for me.
Sometimes tight clothing is just plain ugly. That dress certainly is. The only thing I like about it is the color, but the design details and the tightness are awful. I thought she looked dreadful in that mess.
She wears the bow tie as she’s a patron of the tennis club, and that is their emblem.
@LadyD – I think she means the actual bow on the dress itself.
And that’s after she removed the clock from it lol.
LOL, thanks Becks 1, I actually missed the tie at the neck. I caught the pin and then got distracted by all those shiny gold buttons.
Is it bad that my brain went there too? I must say, that dress does not complement her figure at all.
To be fair, she may have just liked the dress…..I can’t imagine anyone’s mind going to “my sister in law just had a baby, I should wear a tight dress to show how thin I am compared to her!” This just seems….crazy.
Is it considered impolite to wear something fitted around a friend who has recently had a baby? It wouldn’t even occur to me to modify my way of dressing around a friend who had a baby.
When we see Kate’s style around literally any other royal, it’s school teacher dresses. Looking back at this photo, I think Kate wanted body-con school mom dress so that she could show off her body.
If she always dressed like that, I would think nothing of it, but her sister wife cosplay leads me to think the worst.
I liked the dress’ color but it’s too fussy for me.
@A
“I can’t imagine anyone’s mind going to “my sister in law just had a baby, I should wear a tight dress to show how thin I am compared to her!” This just seems….crazy.”
Well I’m not calling Kate crazy, but now that you mention it…..
I thought this too. It seemed like she was deliberately showcasing how emaciated she was while Meghan was still carrying pregnancy weight. If that’s the case, then Kate is literally the worst
These are all great points and I think spot on. I think MM still looked sooo much better than KM did at Wimbledon. That green dress is awful and highlights a shockingly frail figure attained probably through disordered eating and excessive working out.
In the book I’m fairly sure it said that Kate and Meghan were put together at Wimbledon only last minute, because someone realized they both had plans to be there that day. So, I don’t think Kate would have had a tight dress made in that time. Yes, she could have had the seams taken in I suppose, but I think Kate likes to dress like this all the time. She looks quite unwell in this dress, it really doesn’t suit her.
Sorry, that dress is grotesque, I feel like I’ve unwillingly seen her naked 🥴🥴. If Meghan would’ve have worn something like that where you could LITERALLY see her pelvic muscles, bones and organs people would’ve been enraged. It makes her look like a skeleton. I don’t know how anyone can see those pictures and the one where she is holding the plant pot and so she doesn’t have an eating disorder. I don’t know why they have never helped her, this has been going on since the wedding.
Yeah, Kate was WAY too busy throwing (pregnant) Meghan under a double decker, while preaching about the importance of mental health for pregnant women to be welcoming. Priorities people!
“From their point of view they absolutely did welcome her into the family. William and Kate invited Meghan and Harry to Apartment 1A. Kate met Meghan pretty early on in the relationship.”
But last week they said that Kate didn’t meet Meghan until they were sure Harry was serious about Meghan. WHICH IS IT YOU LYING LIARS WHO LIE??
Yeah – I thought I saw that they only met in Dec 2016? That was after it had become public, after Harry’s love shield, and william’s statement to the press. Doesn’t seem that early.
The other thing I always remember is Meghan talking warmly about Kate in their post-engagement interview. Maybe she was trying to will a better relationship? It also marked me because Harry added quickly “and William”. “Oh yes, and William” Meghan added. I still wonder what that was about.
Unrealistic expectations = Kate lifting a finger to support her. But yeah, ‘busy’. Sure.
All Kate needed to do was be kind to her. That’s actually all there is to it. She didn’t have to be her mentor or her best friend. She just had to be kind, maybe tell Meghan about her own experience in the early days of being with William, give her some pointers…that’s it.
Sounds easy, but when you’re a jealous vindictive male identified women, channeling niceness doesn’t come easy.
She wasn’t too busy, but being completely unmotivated to help someone is trademark Cambridge. We’ve all known this for years, Meghan should have read some royal blogs so she wouldn’t have been so disappointed.
She’s not busy let’s be honest. And even if she was, I’m sure she could have made some time to get lunch with Meghan or swing down to Nottingham Cottage (while they were there) and say “hey, if you need anything let me know.” A lot of people who work 40 hours a week manage to make time for their families so Kate with a lot less hours and much more help than those people, could have managed it too.
Kate didn’t need to like Meghan. But Meghan was not just her SIL but also her co-worker. If Kate didn’t want to get along with Meghan as a member of the family, she could have and should have made the effort to get along with her as a co-worker.
I mean haven’t we all had at least one co-worker we don’t like personally but have to work with?
The coldness the Top CEO and early years champion displayed towards her new to motherhood sister-in-law, and her children’s 3 month old cousin, at that polo match, plus the fact that her kids weren’t acting as you’d expect for children that age, excited to see the baby, told me all I needed to know about the real Kate and what kind of welcome she extended to Meghan.
Well, Kate has never had a real job in her life – she probably doesn’t know that a normal, healthy work life means getting along with co-workers you don’t like personally.
I’m not trying to excuse her but I think that it simply never occurred to her to be nice to Meghan because they had to work together in some kind of capacity.
Honestly, I think this explains a lot of Kate’s shortcomings as a royal and why I think her parents did her a huge disservice in supporting her through her 20s the way they did.* We see her struggles with her clothes, where she often looks like she’s playing dress-up, as opposed to the other royal women in Europe, who look more professional. We see her struggles with engaging with people and asking intelligent questions – she’s never had to prepare for work and it shows. We see her overall lack of work – she never had to work before if she didn’t want to, and again, it shows.
*I have a lot of friends whose parents gave them financial support in their 20s and honestly probably still do, but those friends all still work. The financial support doesn’t mean they don’t work, it means they can afford to fly to a different country for vacation every month.
A lot of this makes sense. I’m curious though, why Carole at least hasn’t worked with/advised/pushed her to get some help and guidance at a point in her life when she’ll soon be on a bigger stage (assuming no divorce). Kate’s shortcomings when interacting with people are quite obvious, and one only has to look at other royals elsewhere to get clues about style. Yet she’s as bad with the public as she ever was, and the only impetus we saw for style changes was when Meghan was there for direct comparison.
I mean it doesn’t matter what jobs she did or didn’t have because by the time Meghan joined, Kate had been part of the family aka The Firm for 7 years. That’s plenty of time to learn decent co-worker relationships.
@sofia – you would think, but as we have seen over the past few months, the Firm is an incredibly dysfunctional workplace, and I imagine if anything, Kate would have learned more about bad co-worker relationships than decent ones.
While I understand the comparison of a co worker, the reality is that Meghan is her sister in law and that’s family and something she should understand. The problem is that Carole and mike in his silence, raised the girls to compete with all other women for attention, even if family. Since Meghan was not someone Kate could control or throw her social status over, like whatever two women we see getting trotted out as “proof” that Kate has female friends, Kate did not know any way to deal with Meghan except to compete. She is jealous that Meghan is better at doing the royal work than she ever will, she is jealous of the media attention Meghan gets, she is jealous that Meghan is the same age and looks way younger without effort, and she is jealous that Meghan married someone who respects her. There was never a real chance that Kate would help Meghan unless she could control Meghan and since that wasn’t happening the only way she would deal with her would be to ignore her and assist with the smear campaign. The bitchface at the commonwealth service told us all we needed to know about Kate. She is someone who lives a shallow existence and is miserable in her current relationship and anyone who tries to strive for happiness that she cannot have is a danger to her perceived social power.
Kate needs to stop running to these reporters to try and help her “look better”. Everything they say contradicts their earlier stories. It was just a few months ago they were selling the idea that “Kate is the one who can bring the family together, the one the queen can count on (besides Sophie) and the jewel in the family crown!” Now we read that she was too “busy” to help her sister-in-law adjust to a completely foreign way of life. A life Kate has been around for the past 10-15 years. And she and the Rota wonder why people don’t like her.
Nice spin you two! Yep, blame Meghan for expecting Kate to see her as an ally, not a competitor.
As for Kate being busy..lol!
Better have stayed with ” they were simply too different to become friends” but nope…must blame Meghan and give Kate a pass for being lame.
PS: how many times do we need to hear “who does she think she is” or ” they don’t know her” when it comes to Meghan? We got it: you did not want to work for or gang out with biracial former hollywood actress. Dully noted.
The whole narrative of “Kate couldn’t be nice to Meghan because she didn’t know her” is ridiculous. Meghan was her goddamn SIL, not some random woman! And of course you don’t know a new person brought into the familiy initially – but then you make an effort. Not knowing Meghan isn’t an excuse for Kate’s coldness, rather it serves to highlight that she didn’t bother to get to know her SIL.
https://www.etonline.com/where-meghan-markle-and-kate-middletons-relationship-stands-now-128795
“There seemed to be a genuine warmth between the two of them in that carriage ride for Trooping the Coluor,” she mentioned at the time. “And I hear that Kate has made herself available to Meghan if she needs advice, if she needs any help. And Kate said to her, ‘I’m here. I’m here for you.'”
~ Katie Nichol etonline July 17, 2019
I’m sure Emily wrote some of the dozens of stories Over the years of how Kate showed Meghan the ropes. But I’m not wading through the Sun to find out.
Lol.
Katie Nichols is the worst! Those Middletond checks must be paying her bills…
Lol! Katie and Kate need to have a Zoom meeting so they can get their “facts” straight. But I guess Katie is on autopilot by now churning out these Kate stories. Can’t blame her forgetting what she wrote last time.
The funny thing though pre feud rumours is the same experts especially Katie Nicholls and Phil Dampier were claiming that Kate WAS mentoring Meghan and then when the feud rumours between the brothers emerged, they claimed Kate was the peacemaker and reaching out to Meghan and Harry.
Meghan seems to have lots of girlfriends so if she made an effort with Kate like that Tatler CTG piece suggested, she might have expected a little reciprocal energy. I don’t think there should be expectation that they be BFFs.
But certainly not cool to use press to elevate you and tear Meghan down eg with Meghan making her cry story. That was low
Meghan has actual female friends and could spot that Kate was never going to be nice to her from day one. I am sure she was always polite to Kate but she knew that Kate was not to be fully trusted.
I keep going back to that shopping blind because it encapsulates in an instant how Kate was going to be and there was no way Meghan didn’t realize that Kate was deeply insecure and wasn’t going to be an ally. Meghan wasn’t a random fling when this happened and yet Kate still didn’t treat her with respect. This from someone who had her overnight bag ready to go for years because William didn’t want her staying over. Meghan was smart enough to not say anything and be polite in public, but clearly Kate wanted to be queen bee and it bothered her that Meghan was getting so famous in a way that she would never be. The commonwealth service was Kate’s facade cracking because she knew that Meghan and Harry weren’t going to be controlled by silly UK tabloid media anymore and she didn’t know how to handle it.
I would say that Meghan and Kate seem to have in common that they don’t seem to have a lot of close friends around them (though I’m not saying this as a critique of either, to be honest). Meghan seemed to have Jessica Mulroney as her close friend, but the other celebrities we’ve seen around MM seem to be more casual friends.
@A: where do you put her friends she went to Wimbledon with? or maybe those do not exist……….
@A There are plenty of photos around her more “regular” friends from college. Meghan has had a really solid core group of friends her entire adult life.
Meghan naively expected friendship and kindness, and instead she was met with snobbery and jealousy. Doesn’t reflect well on Kate.
Take being royalty out of it…if you were married to an older brother, even already having had children and being in a “different phase” of life than the newlyweds, the nice thing to do is show your new sister-in-law the ropes. Let her know who the crazy relatives are, what subjects to avoid at the dinner table, impart a few humorous anecdotes about what life is like in the family. You don’t have to be besties, just show a decent sense of camaraderie since you’ve been through what she is about to go through.
Now add being royalty back in: the global audience, the hyperfocus on every interaction and relationship. It boggles my freaking mind that Kate could not have seen that she’d come out looking like Saintly Big Sis-in-Law has she played the part even 20%.
But no, she had to be cold, snobby, and rude.
Only a nice person would do those helpful and kind things. And Kate is not nice.
Imagine if Kate had taken Meghan to lunch. The press coverage would’ve been everywhere and she would’ve come off as generous and thoughtful, as Camilla did when she took Keen Kate out to lunch. She could’ve given Meghan a small gift, a bracelet with a charm or something. Lost opportunity for Duchess Doolittle to look like a decent human being.
LMAO at the “very busy sister-in-law.” They could have said ANYTHING else – “Kate was newly pregnant around the time Meghan was moving to London and was very sick” or “when they were dating Kate was mostly in Norfolk because of George’s school” or something. but no. “she’s a busy woman!” No she’s not. Don’t lie to us.
Basically, if Kate had wanted to reach out to Meghan and been supportive and welcoming, even if they weren’t going to be BFFs, she could have done so. She didn’t. I think she comes off in the book like a cold bitch who couldn’t be bothered with “this girl.”
I do think that probably in the beginning Meghan expected that support from Kate, just because I think that’s who Meghan is. I cant imagine someone walking into a situation like that and Meghan not going out of her way to be as welcoming as possible. but I imagine by the end, Meghan was over it. We saw how Kate treated her at the commonwealth service. How do you think she treated her with no cameras around??
The lying is absolutely ridiculous. If KP is going to sell false narratives to the press, you think they could at least make those narratives somewhat realistic. *eye roll*
Becks, if we go back to all their appearances on the balcony, you can clearly see how smug Kate was. She enjoyed lording her status over Harry & Meghan. Just as she did with the York sisters during the dating years. She enjoys being the Alpha woman when she can.
YES. I just found the first two balcony appearances – the trooping in 2018, and the RAF centennial flyover that July – and in the Trooping, Kate made sure she was the first one out on the balcony after the Queen (even ahead of William) and she stood very near the front, blocking Charles until she shifted a bit, in front of William, etc.
In the second, that was the time William had to tell her to move down -in one of the times when he was surprisingly considerate to Meghan – he looks behind, sees Meghan and Harry, gestures Kate to move down the balcony – FOUR times he tells/gestures at her to shift down. She clearly did not want to be that far out of the “money shot” (i.e. close to the queen) and looked a little put out over it. So clearly she valued her role in the hierarchy, and I guess that’s the bonus of being the future future queen – your role in the hierarchy – but it also puts into perspective her behavior at the commonwealth service. she really resented having something “taken away” from her because of Meghan – balcony position, walking in with the queen, etc.
I recall when some of us pointed out Kate’s behaviour during those balcony scenes and were told we were just making things up. Because people stand where they want and according to them Kate even pushing Camilla out of the way was somehow normal. Kate only moved when William told her to.
I’m glad to know I was not the only one who viewed those balcony moments that way. Kate was there in the middle like a cement statue, not budging for a second in her gigantic fascinator. Those moments always rubbed me the wrong way.
@Nic919 – I remember many of us who pointed that out got yelled at for being anti-tall people (!?) and for being necessarily mean to Kate, but here we are, a few years later, and Kate has certainly shown her petty, jealous side hasn’t she.
And we all know that if Harry was single she would plant herself right next to him and give him googly eyes. She wouldn’t care about being in the front and center.
Here’s my 2 cents: As talked about here, Kate has always wanted to fit in with the toffs. It’s something she and Carole have been striving for since Kate first entered school. I’m sure the toffs started snickering about Meghan, the actress (or “showgirl” to use a toff derogatory), as soon as she started dating Harry. Kate didn’t want to be seen by the toffs as helping Meghan because that would hurt Kate’s standing among them (Kate seems incapable of realizing they will never accept her either). So, she mean-girled Meghan and was as aloof to her as possible. I agree that Meghan sniffed this out pretty quickly and was like, that’s okay, I’ll go hang out with Amal and George, Serena, Michelle, Oprah, Beyoncé . . . . It’s pretty sad for Kate really.
It is sad for Kate. Her insecurity and desperation are so obvious.
HA. If there is any truth to that theory, it just makes the Tatler article from the spring even shadier. “oh, just because we didn’t like Meghan, doesn’t mean we accept you sweetie.”
I think that’s why she freaked out so hard after the article. She thought she had a good standing with the toffs after Meghan’s arrival, but discovered that no matter what, she would always be an outsider.
@Lila, I said something similar to this yesterday in connection with the Rose rumor. When Meghan came on the scene, Kate was riding a high from all the good press she was suddenly getting. I think she believed every butt-kissing word of it and really thought she had finally achieved that Queen Bee status among the toffs that she’d been chasing. Which is why I think she attempted the coup with Rose and tried to knock her off her pedastal. She believed she was finally in a position to do so, but it backfired on her. Many people were speculating yesterday why Kate attempted to phase out Rose when she did–I believe it was all in the timing. The arrival of Meghan elevated Kate to another level (thanks to the BM), but she never elevated with the Toffs, as they so clearly spelled out for her…
Great catch, L84Tea- I think you’re right and the embiggening timing played into this immensely.
I think you are right, Leanne.
I think this is absolutely on target.
Being too busy to help, advise or be nice is just a pathetic excuse for not wanting to do those things. Duchess Dolittle has nothing but time. After all, she isn’t the only assistant William has!
Diana did have some redeeming qualities, despite all her struggles, through her charity work. She helped a good number of people and raised money for many causes for which we all admired her.
These four? It just sounds so high school. They are shallow and self serving, with the slight exception of Harry. I’ve had my fill of these kids. They all need to get over themselves and retire to secret locations, never to be heard from again. Oy vey!!!
And how exactly is Meghan “shallow and self serving”? What a poorly disguised attempt to get a dig on her while half-heartedly and vaguely including the Cambridges.
Wasn’t Meghan an activist from the age of 10 and did she not go to soup kitchens on Skid row with her mom? Diana was a sweetheart but most of her charity work started after she became a royal. Compared to all of them, Meghan has the most redeeming qualities (I hate to do this as everyone has their good and bad side)
I agree that Meghan seems interested in charity work now, but…..an activist from the age of 10…..because she wrote a letter about a commercial on TV that she found to be sexist?
Well, she wrote the letter, sent it to the company and a few political leaders (I think including Hillary Clinton), she got the company to change their advertisement, and I think she appeared on Nick News to talk about it. Then you factor in her volunteer work through HS and college and then beyond, and I think its fair to say she’s been interested in charity work/activism for most of her life.
I assume she only continued from there and not everything is documented. I saw an interview from a teacher who said she encouraged her to continue with her work even if she was afraid after visiting soup kitchens, so clearly it did not stop with writing letters to a company.
Um. Ok. This is a really bad take.
Meghan was a kid when she started her activism by changing sexist soap commercial, protesting hr friend’s brother going to war, volunteering on Skid Row in LA and numerous charity work while in college, after college, while working on Suits (UN, One Young World, World Vision etc) and when she moved to London.
Yes, Diana was into charity work , but she was an Adult versus Meghan who started doing charity as a child! Harry and Meghan both do a lot of charity work.
Diana was influenced by her paternal great grandmother who was involved in charities. Diana had fond memories of her.
Well, we all know how Kate feels about people having expectations of her. Just ask the Irish Guard….
Every thing about that institution and the ecosystem surrounding it is so ass backwards, antiquated, oppressive and TOXIC. Not to mention the lack of boundaries across the board. I’m just relieved Harry and Meghan are out of it.
They are free to create their own work environment and establish a much healthier work culture that includes BOUNDARIES when it comes to their family and personal life.
So, I thinks it’s true that Meghan may have had unrealistic expectations on Kate, but not for the reasons that KP is insisting on. I think Kate’s got a lot of mental health issues that impact her more than KP is willing to say. Princess Anne commented on it recently. Sometimes anxiety and low self esteem can make a person more empathetic. However, it can also make them judgy and mean. The judgyness often comes from rules that they *think* are universal and other people not following these rules. It’s left over from childhood and meant to keep them out of trouble. That’s why I fully believe that Kate cried over tights. It makes too much sense given the other signs of anxiety and rigid adherence to her royal wardrobe rules.
I think Kate has tried to work on some of her issues, but she always reverts back to her unhealthy ways of coping. I feel sorry for her. She’s responsible for her behavior because she’s an adult, but there’s also a reason that ages 1-5 are called the formative years. She’ll likely always be miserable unless she gets professional help. William and her mother won’t actually like her get real help though because they’ll lose control over her. It’s a sad situation because there is potential in Kate. Her behavior sucks, but I can empathize with the reasons behind it. I have personal experience with needing therapy to get past bad coping mechanisms.
Or maybe she’s just a self-serving @sshole. Doesn’t take two paragraphs to say that. I get it you want to give her the benefit of the doubt. But every day the “doubt” is slowly disappearing. Whatever game that William and Kris Middleton are playing, Kate is suited up and ready to go.
I do feel for Kate if she’s insecure and I don’t think she should be getting the lion’s share of shade in press around FF because it plays well with tabloids to pitch women against each other and because she isn’t a blood royal. I’m not sure she was that integral to the Sussexes leaving royal duties.
But it sounds like she IS complicit in the smear campaign. That Meghan made Kate cry story didn’t come out of the blue and with that Tatler piece and then the clean up pieces after her camp were clearly still trying to throw Meghan under the bus. So she’s not innocent in all of this.
Ainsley- Your first paragraph has excellent analysis and insight, and I think it’s a highly believable interpretation of Kate’s character. I can completely envision her crying tears of frustration and anger over the tights now. Interestingly, many of these feelings and symptoms, such as overall rigidity of character, can be found in young girls with eating disorders.
I still cannot excuse her behavior, nor do I think that public empathy is precisely the appropriate response to it. If anything, this should be a come-to-Jesus moment for her- but it won’t be.
I really doubt that Kate is the devious and jealous mastermind she’s made out to be here. I suspect the two women would have been fine if it hadn’t been for the craziness between the brothers. As for her not actually being busy… I don’t have kids. I work around 40 hrs a week. I’m still often quite busy. I guess it depends on your definition of busy.
Agreed. Everyone blames Kate (or Meghan) for their relationship but really it’s about their spouses. Brothers who can’t get along but the women are always to blame. I have 2 SIL’s. I can’t stand them. I see them at holidays and that’s it. They live 5 minutes from me. I suspect Meghan and Kate have nothing in common other than marrying into royalty.
Nah. FF pretty much blows that theory up. William met Meghan and was very cordial and polite to her. Kate didn’t meet her for a few months after and only seemed to warm up to her when Meghan gave her a present and made a big deal over Charlotte.
Maybe later you can say that Kate and Meghan didn’t have a relationship because of the brothers, but at least initially, there was zero reason for Kate not to reach out to Meghan.
I work full time and have two small kids and I can still make time for friends and family. Kate does not work FT and has way more help than I have. She could have done so if she had wanted.
I mean, I know people here take that book as gospel but it’s not Exhibit A in a court case.
Anyway, if someone wants to believe a certain narrative, that’s their prerogative.
I take the bit about Kate and Meghan’s relationship to be fairly accurate because look how fast the story changed. We heard initially (back during the engagement and immediately post wedding of H&M) that Kate was taking Meghan under her wing, showing her the ropes, they were going to be the “Fab four,” etc etc.
now we’re hearing from Katie Nicholl and Emily Andrews – two people who have pretty direct lines to the palace, even if EA never had any reliable Sussex sources – that Kate could not be bothered to reach out to Meghan because she was just “so busy.” They’re not pushing back and saying that Kate did reach out. They’re saying she was too busy to do so.
but your original comment is right, in that it does depend on someone’s definition of “busy.” I can be really busy when I want to avoid doing something. When I want to do something, I find the time.
But Kate doesn’t work 40hrs a week. At most she does 2 hour long engagements a week. Two of her kids go to school and she has a full time nanny, chef and housekeeper. She’s not busy. She just didn’t want anything to do with Meghan. It’s her right, but now reporters are trying to pretend Kate has a 9 to 5 job with zero help.
Nah, she’s in it to win it. Do you honestly think it just popped into William’s head to join up with Angela Kelly to deny Meghan any access to the royal jewelry? You think William really cares about earrings and necklaces? I don’t, but his lovely wife and her mother care big time. And notice no denial from KP about that story either even though it makes William look petty af. Hmm…..
Heck maybe it wasn’t William at all. Maybe Kate went to AK and the tabs just decided it sounded better if it was the royal making the demand, not Kate. Remember those articles about how smart Kate was to cultivate a friendship with Angela Kelly??
@Becks1 I wouldn’t doubt it if it was Kate but I’m surprised William would be cool with her throwing him under the bus like that if he wasn’t involved in some way. But yeah Kate’s grubby hands are all over that one, especially since she and Angela are “friends”.
Great theory! I definitely buy it.
Sometimes the vitriol and fanfiction is really taken too far here.
I think it’s very likely Kate is not that nice a person and is in fact quite arrogant and full of herself. That’s an opinion, not fanfiction. The budget plane stunt would not have been done by nice people.
A nice person would not have blatantly snubbed her SIL in Westminster Abbey with cameras rolling.
Video evidence of Kate being a bitch at a church service is not fan fiction. It is fact and confirms that Kate is a pathetic petty woman. She needs to be condemned for acting like a child at church but so many refuse to accept the evidence before their eyes, similar to the cultists who defend the orange menace.
I guess you didn’t read that Tatler article, huh? Kate got read like a book!
No, it’s not just the issues between the brothers. Kate has given us more than enough examples that she is complicit in this mess with her own behavior. And she doesn’t work anywhere near 40 hours a week, has a full staff of cooks, cleaners, and nannies, and doesn’t perform any outside charity work so what exactly is there to keep her so busy that she can’t spare maybe 20 minutes here and there to answer questions or give advice about the dysfunctional circus that calls itself a royal family?
The Ciara-level backbends being done to make excuses for Kate’s behavior are interesting.
Anyone behaving like this would be called out as well so why should Kate be exempt? Seeing is believing, especially after that CW display. And I include William in this too since his behavior is detestable and she’s in collusion with him i.e. that budget flight photo.
Always from new names as well.
Really that childish behaviour at the commonwealth service was a gift to us because it’s concrete proof of all that many of us have been saying for years. Kate is a pathetic petty woman and deserves the scorn for that behaviour in church.
Agree with Emmy – I’ve been saying that too much of the focus is on the dueling duchess narrative and not enough about the relationship between the brothers, namely Will’s lack of support for Harry and Megan.
I’d love to discuss the brothers’ feud more.
Kate was complicit in the Commercial Jet photo op. She is not innocent.
Meghan did have unrealistic expectations of Kate. She probably though kate would be a nice, pleasant woman, who would probably give her advice and instead she was a jealous and insecure woman who took part in a smear campaign to ruin her life.
If Harry and Beatrice were supposedly so close and Kate was mean to Beatrice, I’m surprised Harry didn’t give her the 411 upfront. Or that Bea didn’t. Plus wasn’t she cold to Harrys other girlfriends? I know men can be clueless about this stuff (sorry to sound sexist but hey…) but it seems he could have given her a heads up. Maybe he didn’t want to poison the well.
I’m sure he did, but I don’t even think he was expecting Willie and Kate to be quite so awful.
Exactly, how difficult could it be to just be ..nice and welcoming. You dont have to be bestie
Saying that H&M were too “naive” for the Firm is just code for courtiers to say that they wanted to change the status quo, something the so-called gray men (stuck in the past) would snobbishly think is an ignorant thing to want to do.
What happened to never explain? Ever since FF came out there sure is a lot of defending and explaining? I guess never defend only applies to black duchesses…
“But Emily Andrews, the Mail’s royal editor, claims that Meghan expected too much from her very busy sister-in-law.”
What a load of swill. Ya, the CEO is very busy avoiding work, letting her patronages run out of money and close. She’s too busy freezing out the Toffs and keeping a keen eye on Wandering Willy.
She’s a petty, jealous ice queen who couldn’t stand the fact that Meghan ran circles around her work-wise and had a deliriously happy marriage to a warm, loving guy.
Where is Kate right now anyway? She hasn’t been seen in weeks and not since the book came out. Shouldn’t the top CEO be working?
on vacay with the kids.
Recharging her batteries for her next CEO takeover?
The darts on Kate’s green dress look like nipples.
Not the first time she’s worn dresses like that either. She seems to have a really bad seamstress.
The point about Kate being busy is simply ridiculous. As soon as she found out Harry and Meghan were serious and likely headed to engagement, she got pregnant (my thoughts were it was intentional to push Harry further down the line. I picture her in coitus lying beneath William with her eyes staring blankly to the ceiling telling herself, this is “For England”). While pregnant she slowed down her schedule tremendously and announced she would be on a break for around 6 months post partum. She lived right next door to them for some time. She also had a huge staff helping her with every aspect of her life. she literally does not have to write a speech or think about what to wear, or how to school her children. She is not busy. Elocution lessons do not take all day. She could have made an hour a week for Meghan and chose to remain distant.
I would think Kate could have done lunch, at the least, with Meghan. Who doesn’t love going out to lunch? And they are in London, for gawd’s sake; there must have been so many fun, hip places to go for an appetizer and a salad. And you know Meghan would have done more than her share of carrying the conversation with the tongue-tied Kate because Meghan is that cool. So yeah, Kate is weird for not reaching out, IMO.
Gotta go jut that jaw at the paps and flash the knickers at monuments, after all. Then gotta wrestle the hosepipe off Billy when he wants to go and water the rose bush. So BUSY! Top CEO!
Also lol, that picture of Kate looking at Meghan. Trying to figure out how to leech the youth out of her?
Kate’s mind still cannot compute that Meghan did not follow Harry around for 10 years waiting for a engagement ring.
That is what this all boils down too. Everything was too quick and in her mind, outside the norm.
Oh, I have no doubt that Kate was SEETHING over the fact that Harry was smitten immediately and did the chasing. Where as she desperately positioned herself to be near William and essentially wore him down after her realized there were no other takers.
My cynical theory is that Kate didn’t bother to try with Meghan early on because “this girl” & Harry were never supposed to make it down the aisle.
After the wedding, the popularity of the Sussexes, plus the pregnancy, caused KP & others to start the smear campaign in earnest. So it probably was “unrealistic” to expect better of Kate lol.
I agree with this. But I also feel that even if Harry had married the “right” (white) girl, Kate would have made her life a living hell anyway unless she would have been willing to roll over and play doormat. But Meghan being a woman of color, beautiful AND popular? Oh no on that one for sure.
I agree that Kate would have mean-girled a white woman, too. In an alternate world, I’d have been fascinated to see what would have happened if Harry had married an aristo girl with a pedigree like the Spencers (or Rose Who? for that matter). That would have been extremely threatening to Kate in a totally different way than Meghan was. I figure she’d have pulled similar “protocol” & “tiaragate” nonsense, but would have less active support from the courtiers, the RR, racists, etc. It would have been interesting to see.
But of course, we know all the aristos steer clear of marrying Windsors. And for Harry’s sake, I’m glad he found the love of his life & got away from the whole mess.
Kate was never nice to Chelsy or Cressida and both were rich and white.
Haven’t we also been sold a story about how Will and Harry were incredibly close because of the unique circumstances they were born under and the added drama of their parents’ marriage and tragedy of losing their mother at a young age? So, taking out the royal part…if the brother that you love and are so close with gets married, you should encourage your wife to be nice to her. To go out of her way to make friends. Maybe you still won’t be friends, but at least you tried and no one would have a reason to point the finger at you. That’s before you add it being royal, working together, racist press headlines, etc. But Kate’s (and William’s, by extension) response is she didn’t even try. She knew how difficult it was, knew how serious Harry was about her early on, and all she could be bothered to do was have her over a couple times. That does not make Kate or William look good, or obsolve her or him of any of the fall out.
Wow, the Cambridges welcomed Meghan to apartment 1A, how GRACIOUS and HOSPITABLE of them! I wonder, did they bother to take down their slave painting, or even hastily hide the placard like they did for the Obamas? I’m guessing no. What an authentic experience for Meghan to enjoy!
Between the painting and that infamous brooch, Meghan must have instantly felt SO WELCOMED! How lovely!
The British media and Cambridge stans can delude themselves all they want, any WoC would have INSTANTLY picked up on these racist air-raid sirens (because they sure as hell aren’t dog whistles) and adjusted expectations and interactions accordingly.
I’m sure Meghan was shocked, initially; not because she’d never experienced racism before, obviously she had, but shock that this family was not even bothering to hide it. In the case of the brooch, it’s a deliberately racist choice, and in the case of the painting and placard, it might be intentional or it might be that their racism runs so deep that they don’t even know to be self conscious about it. Either way, we see you, and so do Meghan and Harry!
They keep saying that they didn’t have much in common but they had a pretty big thing in common. Both being commoners in the royal family. They could have bonded over that, and I think Meghan was hoping for that. But Kate has to show how mean she really is.
Harry and Kate didn’t have much in common but he took time to show her the ropes. I guess he was expecting her to do the same for Meghan. I wonder how he feels about that?
Laughing at the “busy” narrative they are now pushing. She is the laziest human being .
If she was actually good at her job and didn’t have nannies and housekeepers, I would buy it.
Let’s say she was busy, she couldn’t make the time to pop by and cheer her SIL up after a particular nasty article? Take one afternoon to be seen at lunch with her? Be seen wearing one of the outfits from the capsule collection Meghan organized? If DOC is too busy for any of those things, then us women working in the real world and juggling all we have to juggle without help, must not be able to ever do anything social with anyone outside our household.
I read Finding Freedom and whatever they wrote about Kate’s coldness and lack of warmth toward Meghan was already out there, and was obvious in their public interactions. That Tatler puff piece that ended up embarrassing her already outlined her attitude. The book just fleshed it out more. I think Kate did the bare minimum, didn’t want Meghan there and felt she, like William, had some say in Harry’s personal life. They didn’t click, and then her and Will got jealous, so they stopped even pretending to try. The palace and press are on their side so why even bother. What I find weird is that all the people act like no one has ever seen this side of Kate before, like her coldness, insecurity ,competitiveness, is some big revelation. I’m not even a royal watcher but you see this in her. This book was fairly easy on the Royals but they really can’t stop from running their mouths and revealing so much more.
Meghan was a PR tool to uplift Kate. When Meghan failed to follow the script then was no use for continuing a PR relationship. Also, Kate was never going to be genuinely interested in befriending Meghan. Kate’s “tribe” is the aristocrats not Hollywood actresses. The are two extremely different women.
Naw, don’t buy that.
Kate couldn’t get to LA to meet those celebs fast enough.
Kate benefits the most from the smeared campaign against Meghan Kate went for being called lazy to suddenly over night being the most perfect royal married in to ever existed. I do believe that kate didn’t want to be friend with Meghan because she saw her as direct competition Kate was the only young married in she didn’t have to competition with Sophie for attention for the press . How many articles did the British press written about how amazing English rose kate was you can’t tell me she wasn’t involved in the campaign I do think willam was involved but all of the Meghan stories about making kate cry or Kate putting Meghan in her place its all come back to kate benefited looking good . Kate went on that podcast saying how all woman especially pregnant woman should be supporting was her showing her true self she is a passive aggressive mean spirited woman her behavior at the church show she was all about status she wanted to lord over Meghan and Harry her status she wanted to walk in the line after the queen but was told to sit down . Kate lackeys are Changing the narrative because kate is looking bad for the first time since the dating days the Tatler article finding freedom is showing her true character not the one her and her mother turn her into . I don’t understand how anyone can defending kate behavior toward Meghan how she treated Meghan was unforgivable she cruel and she helped abused this woman daily for years with the press so she could looked better kate a awful person I can’t fathom why people are always giving her pass or making excuse for her or blaming William as if she this innocent woman who follows William leads . Kate is just as petty jealous as William is she And her mother participated in everything when it came to smearing Meghan Kate was probably hoping that all the negative press would drive Meghan away from Harry .
A bit off topic, but Kate isn’t the only one who didn’t help Meghan. The Royals all stood back while Meghan was attacked daily (and still is!) and didn’t do a thing. In July 2019 in the midst of all this, Kensington Palace issued a public statement to deny that Kate had botox! It’s really unbelievable that they would comment on botox when Meghan was dragged through the dirt and said absolutely nothing. So much for their motto ‘don’t complain, don’t explain’ – so they only come forward for Kate?
Is this really true? The Cambridges did not help Meghan but the rest of the senior royals did. Charles seems to have gone out of his way to be ok. Giving Meghan away at her wedding, taking Doria’s arm. At the Commonwealth service Meghan was meant to have curtsied to him with a huge smile. Camilla took Meghan, as she did Kate, out for pre-wedding lunches to give her hints about dealing with the press. We had the Queen taking her on an early engagement, giving her a hint to wear a hat. The Queen and Philip looked delighted in that early photos with Archie. The Cambridges are simply ghastly but, taking into account the strangeness and formality of the family, I think HM and Philip and Charlescand Camilla were kind to Meghan.
Remember too, that it was not until Meghan came on the scene that Kate and William decided to treat Charles and Camilla with any respect. From what I saw before they just ignored Charles and Camilla at public occasions and pushed past them on balconies.
This is mainly for those keen karen stans . They will believe everything related to their white savior. I recently saw one karen fan praising prince anne documentary and how good it was. Princess anne is boring as fuck and these karen prasing it says a lot about them.
Same. They’re all complicit. I just saw 10 comments on Anne’s birthday on BBC FB page and stopped reading. Praising her for being hardworking and giving credit to the Queen blabla. Sure. But she’s just another complicit royal living in an expensive house and buying expensive horses and pretending they’re with the common man. I can’t look at any royal the same anymore.
people are brainwashed. why on earth are Anne’s children and grandchildren (I thought she didn’t want them to grow up royal) standing on the balcony for Trooping, waving to the public and the adoring public waving back in awe and admiration. This is all crazy, but Stockholm Syndrome is a real thing.
I think Kate looks ill. She is so thin. Maybe that is just how these type of people are. Never too rich or too thin. But if someone in my life was that painfully thin, I would be worried.
This is also off topic…I am the president of the itty bitty tittie committee and I absolutely love kelly green, but that dress is so unflattering.
I don’t think Kate even has a handle on who Kate really is. Her whole existence since she was a teen was focused on chasing and marrying William. What else is there to her identity? It’s sad.
Nah it’s clear that her identity is to be Queen and finally lord over the Palace. Charity work is secondary.
I don’t think Kate actually thought it all through, this becoming Queen thing. As it’s looking now, she will be Queen only with 60 and will have to ‘work’ into her 90s! LOL. While Meghan is retired and chilling in a hammock 🙂 The last laugh will be on Kate.
that is why she started soon to fail to important events, as not to be expected every year.
The KP rebuttal on the botox is due to someone trying to make money off the Royal’s, because that matters so much more than calling out racism aimed at Meghan and Archie.
Mrs Very Busy Top CEO did not have time to appear at a long militar traditional ceremony because??
she did not want people to have such big expectations/touch up her roots. How can this lowly accomplished new SIL expect the FFQC to deign take a look at the new baby nephew at a public event? Did she call and made an appointment ?
What crazy statements that only make the keens look worse
Pitting two royal women against each other (if only in the media) is the best distraction from Prince Andrew, & Roving Willy. I trust Meghan knows her self worth and discards rubbish as needed. The public saw first hand who Ms. Kate really is at CW service. No amount of hair flips, tooth grins, Diana cosplay, photos of their children will EVER alter this. The aristos have abandoned her. All she has left is her Barbie Fun House while Ken fertilizes various gardens.
If we look at this in the context of a job, Kate is aware she does not perform well so I don’t see her helping out someone new. Tatler told us Kate new she would be compared unfavorably to Meghan. Plus she is just naturally not nice and resentful of attractive women.
Just shows Kate is dim. She should have met Meghan at a restaurant for lunch and shopping at least once a month. No matter her intentions she would have appeared to have reached out to Meghan and could have claimed to have taken her under her wing. But no, Kate Littledone had to make sure Meghan understood she was not on Kate’s level. ‘We don’t even know these people’ is world wide snob talk for why would these peasants even try to talk to me.
“Meghan had a very unrealistic expectation of her relationship with Kate” This is such a weird way to put it. Because this doesn’t capture what actually happened. Meghan is a friendly person, who reaches out and tries to connect with everyone. Kate is more reserved in her approach to friendships. She doesn’t connect as easily with other people as Meghan does. This is a perfectly normal, ordinary dynamic in the real world. It is not an “unrealistic expectation”, it’s just two different people who have different ways of making friends.
The way this is written by the royal reporters here is very intentional, and very sly in what it’s implying. Meghan had an “expectation” of Kate, which was “unrealistic.” It’s basically like they’re trying to say that Meghan was demanding that Kate be friends with her, which of course, they can’t say outright. But what do you think of when you hear that someone “expected” a friendship or someone “expected” empathy from another person, if you don’t have additional context? You think, “Well, you shouldn’t expect anything from anyone.” Which is what the RRs want people to take away from this headline. They want people to think that Meghan assuming she was worthy of decent treatment from the people in the royal family was her biggest failing. It’s their new way of calling her a selfish, demanding diva, without actually saying it, because they’ve finally figured out that saying that gets them too much criticism for being overly racist.
The unintended effect of all this, of course, is the fact that this just makes Kate and the royals look bad. They’re so cold and closed off, and no one should expect anything from them. Ever. Not sympathy, not kindness, nothing. You are fully on your own, and you will deal with it, or else.
I don’t think Meghan had an unrealistic idea on how Kate should have been to her. I feel some of the writing in Finding Freedom is a bit over the top. To me I get the feeling Meghan would have liked Kate to show her the ropes and be a bit friendlier. It didn’t happen and she wasn’t really upset about it. They even say that in the book, but then say things a bit backhanded about how Kate wasn’t showing empathy and Meghan wanted calls versus gift, etc. That is one of the things I don’t like about the book. I think Meghan is smart and realized early she didn’t have a lot in common with Kate and Kate for obvious reasons is a bit guarded. I think Meghan may have said oh it would have been nice to have a call and it gets interpreted this way along with other things. Cause I don’t like how this relationship or interactions was portrayed it seems sexist girl fight a bit.
Are we supposed to think that yeah, it’s all because Meghan too naive?
All these articles trying to make H&M are the bad people,but these articles actually make me see very clear what kind of human beings William and kate are.
To be fair when they became engaged wasn’t Kate trying to survive morning sickness. That certainly wouldn’t make you feel like entertaining.
My Jaw dropped to the floor when I read that.. ” The Duchess of Cambridge is a busy woman, but Meghan clearly took that personally.””.
Well Well. That’s something you clip out put on the bulletin board motivation at the next match…
Kate has live in help at her castle. If True, Okay you want to play that game. Meghan and Harry can be too busy to be involved as well..
Yes, because the Duchess of Do-little was very, very BUSY coming up with plausible excuses on why her early childhood initiatives have been dragging on for years with no progress or even a survey. And something about gardening, something something school runs, just far too busy being Top CEO at Keen Inc.
Anybody with any sense must have known that when one woman became two, there was going to be trouble from that particular first woman.
About the Wimbledon appearance, surprised no-one has said that Meghan could not have been comfortable stuck in between the two Middletons. Really, Pippa should not have been there or if she had to be Kate should have sat in the middle and given Meghan breathing space.