Did Prince William successfully bully the BBC into editing ‘The Princes & the Press’?

Tusk Conservation Awards in London

One week ago, we were being inundated with stories about how the royal family believed The Princes and the Press was pro-Meghan propaganda, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were so mad about the BBC documentary, they were removing Kate’s Christmas Jazz Hands special from the BBC in a punitive measure. While most of that was lies and keen huffing, it was absolutely clear that William in particular was threatening all kinds of things behind-the-scenes. Everyone was waiting for Part 2 of the documentary to drop on Monday night, and I fully expected to come into work this morning and see a million headlines about how William was newly engorged with rage. Except it’s been pretty quiet on the subject of the documentary. No bleating from Kensington Palace, no condemnations from the palace. What happened? The Daily Mail suggests that the BBC may have done some last minute edits:

The royal households believe The Princes and the Press contains a slew of unsubstantiated and categorically inaccurate accusations about collusion with the media, particularly in connection with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during the tumultuous period of their decision to quit royal duties, dubbed ‘Megxit’. The households’ lawyers had been preparing to examine the final programme with a fine-tooth comb and had not ruled out a formal complaint.

But last night’s prime-time offering had seemingly been watered-down at the 11th hour, with editing going on up until the last minute. Plans for an accompanying podcast have also been postponed by the BBC.

A royal source said: ‘It is unlikely the matter will be taken further.’

The programme did, however, give significant airtime to Meghan’s personal solicitor, who went on the attack to defend the duchess against accusations of bullying, denying she had ever ‘improperly’ used her ‘power’.

Valentine Low, a reporter from The Times who reported details of the bullying allegations earlier this year, flatly denied that William had any knowledge of or colluded with the allegations being made public. But he did say those who had spoken to him were ‘very glad’ that their stories were being made public and were ‘still in tears’ two-and-a-half years later because of their experiences working for Meghan. He said: ‘Some were still psychologically traumatised. So something went badly wrong in those days.’

Mr Rajan himself suggested that unfavourable stories about Meghan were published because of a perception she didn’t ‘behave’ as a princess should. ‘There are plenty of reasons why negative stories are written about people in the press, and often that criticism is justified,’ he told the programme. ‘But some of the criticism levelled at Meghan arose from the feeling, the sense, in some quarters that this isn’t how our princesses are supposed to behave.’

[From The Daily Mail]

It looks like the BBC blinked. I have no idea why – they were in a stronger position and it felt like William was about to be hoisted by his own petard. I’m very curious about what happened behind the scenes over the last week, not only with William’s tantrum at the BBC, but what was happening within the royal family about William generally. He was trying to convince everyone to cancel their projects with the BBC, including the Queen’s Christmas speech, and I’m sure his rage attack did not go over well. Did the Queen make a call to the BBC to get this to go away? Did Charles convince William to settle down? I truly do not know.

As for Valentine Low’s statements about how “something went badly wrong in those days” and people are still crying about it two years later… lol. Meghan was like “I have a binder full of research, let’s make some calls” and those bitches are still having nightmares about it to this very day.

Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend an Anzac Day Service

Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Attend Anzac Day Services

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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97 Responses to “Did Prince William successfully bully the BBC into editing ‘The Princes & the Press’?”

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  1. Rapunzel says:

    Eh…iDK. Did the BBC edit or was this never that bad and now Will realizes that and is trying to take credit? It’s a smart move when you suspect bad PR is coming: accuse the source of the bad PR of being untrue and threaten to sue. Then, if it’s bad, you’ve preemptively denied it and can sue if you want. But if it’s not bad, you can act like you got a justified “fix”

    • Chloe says:

      One thing is for certain tho. William is none to happy that its this obvious that his finger prints are all over sussexit. Maybe if he hadn’t been so bold in 2018-2019 this wouldn’t have happened

    • MMadison says:

      Lots of complaining and explaining

  2. Slippers4life says:

    Someone at the BBC got bribed with a knighthood or cash for access to make it go away?

  3. Jaded says:

    Too little too late. If William continues down this road of trying to push everyone from Meghan and Harry to the BBC around, someone on the inside is going to push back and leak some very unflattering and damaging stuff about him. Between what the Sussexes, the tabloids and even Poor Jason have on him, he’s playing with fire.

  4. Feeshalori says:

    I was hoping to find this on YouTube like part one but it’s not there. My suspicions are in now aroused.

    • OriginalLala says:

      me too, I’ve been trying to find it all morning and nothing.

    • yokoohno says:

      I went to watch part 2 on youtube like part 1 and went into my viewing history as the fastest way to find the next video – except it was gone. Anything else I watched that day was still in my viewing history, but Part 1 has disappeared.

    • LaraW” says:

      Yeah I don’t understand. Why is this being scrubbed from the internet? The RF and BM act like they’re running a criminal operation. This cronyism and lack of transparency, paired with general incompetence, increasingly reminds me of the Trump years. Not to mention all those financial crimes no one is willing to investigate.

    • Demi says:

      sadly it’s copyright if you are in the UK you can watch it on the BBC website but not outside the UK I’m hoping someone or the BBC will upload it given the amount of global interest outside the UK

    • Feeshalori says:

      Part one is gone by the wayside too. The palace gremlins are busy scrubbing away but too late the damage is already done.

  5. aquarius64 says:

    Too late Willie, the damage has been done…to you. People are going to read this as you got something to hide. Like Trump trying stop the release of documents to the Congressional Jan. 6 committee.

  6. Becks1 says:

    I doubt anything got significantly watered down. Maybe they edited it to include Valentine Low’s denial of William’s involvement or something. I just don’t think they would have aired the first part of it without letting the royals see it first and then cave before the second half. I feel like if they were going to cave the time was two weeks ago, you know?

    • notasugarhere says:

      That version makes sense to me. William panicked and attacked too soon, nothing was changed, but he was made to feel he had ‘won’. Plus the BBC had already clapped back with ‘no, we rejected Kate’s silly Christmas show idea’ and the news that BBC was contracted to do the work for ITV. W&K tried too hard but the facts came out how they were all show and no substance in their threats.

    • Rapunzel says:

      Yep…said as much above. Will made threats so that he could look good either way it went.

    • Nic919 says:

      I think any edits were because of the appeal and not because of William. The second part still managed to confirm that William and Kate were cozying up to the press while that press was attacking Harry and Meghan. Emily Andrews talks about how they had the press come up to see them in the plane to Pakistan and William and Kate thanked them for coming and that it was a “sort of group hug”.
      The doc also showed the obvious fly be incident and how this was unusual for the Cambridges to do.
      And Camilla was sketchy as hell about her source for the crying story. I mean it’s obviously Carole because she could have said staff and they would be harder to identify.

      Also it is 100% false that William was unaware of Knauf assisting. Maybe Knauf didn’t literally tell him but since he didn’t get fired William still approved of it.

  7. Aud says:

    He’s right that a reason people disliked Meghan (other than racism) is because she didn’t behave like a princess should. She’s too smart, hardworking, compassionate, and glamorous. Some, aka William, viewed this as a threat and did what he had to do to get rid of her. I just genuinely think he didn’t expect Harry to go too.

    • kelleybelle says:

      None of those dim incompetent racist bastards expected that, none of them. So their reaction was to increase the attacks.

  8. Islandgirl says:

    If the BBC refused to allow the programme to be previewed how do they know what was edited out?
    I thought that their main problem was that they were not allowed to see it.
    The mere fact that all the RR gleefully outed themselves is damaging enough to them and obvious relationship that the palaces, not only William, have cultivated with them.

    • Agreatreckoning says:

      Good point. I didn’t see it. Am happy to be wrong that I thought it was going to be a hit piece on Meghan.

      O/T I can report I’ve received my order from Clevr Blends and quite like them. Love the Golden Turmeric.

  9. EMF999 says:

    I’m in the US and was surprised when I could not find much about the broadcast in Google searches. So I took to Twitter. #theprincesandthepress
    Holy Moly – the Lamebridges did not get many favorable comments with lots of “glad H&M got away”.

    • Jan90067 says:

      OMG I just did that # and Bitter Brother and the Tabs are being ROASTED over the coals! Gives me a warm feeling on a chilly morning lol!

      NO ONE seems to be buying the brand of sh!t Baldimort / Tabs are shoveling.

  10. Lady Digby says:

    It was still fairly clear from the documentary that Meghan and Harry were briefed against by palace insiders. They were having a bucket load dumped on their heads: briefed against by ” their own side” and held to a different standard than others within the family. Kate was protected over the Tatler puff peace. Meghan instead of being supported and protected as a newbie was actively thrown to the wolves. Everything they said on Oprah was true. What must hurt both of them but especially Harry is that his own father and brother must have okayed the onslaught. Harry must feel doubly wretched to feel he exposed the woman he loves to such pain because he could never have ENVISAGED 2 close relatives betraying him and his wife in such a low and cruel way. It would be one thing if a poorly paid aide leaked for cash and when discovered was sacked but quite another to have an organized and sanctioned briefing from within. Wow that has got to hurt and no wonder they left and will not return. After both have been betrayed by family they are sensible to start afresh in the US and concentrate on their new lives and beautiful children.

    • Nic919 says:

      It would pretty easy for viewers to connect Kate and William to most of the attacks against Meghan after watching that documentary. Even Camilla Tominey commented on the coincidental good PR of the flybe incident following the attacks on the private jet from Elton John.

  11. WithTheAmerican says:

    So wait. To deny they colluded with the press, the interfered with the press in order to force them to collude with the palace.

    Got it. Looking good, Will! Very non problematic.

  12. Jais says:

    Someone live streamed the audio on Twitter so I listened to maybe the last half. I think I missed the first 20 minutes maybe. The best part to me was when he interviewed the woman who wrote the Kate the Great story for Tatler. That really gave some insight into the behind the scenes stuff. If I understood correctly, Ana Pasternak essentially said that KP went to the daily mail and leaked about how they were unhappy with the article. Sounds like she went through months of hell from the palace about that article. My audio cut off for a moment so I didn’t hear everything she said and would really like to. That’s the part that I would like to rehear because she spoke for a good amount of time actually, more than the 40 sec excerpt I’ve seen circulating.
    It also ended strangely, clips of journalists saying Meghan was untruthful in the court case, amol then saying everyone is trying to control the narrative, and then it abruptly ended. I can believe there were last minute revisions for sure. It had strange unfocused vibes, unlike the first ep.

    • Amy Bee says:

      @Jais: Anna Pasternak said that Tatler had agreed to edit their article to KP’s liking and that she was told not talk about it anymore then two days later the MoS had a story that KP got the article changed. She said both sides had agreed not talk about it but it appeared in the press anyway. That means that KP leaked to the MoS about the editorial changes when they promised to keep it confidential.

      • Jais says:

        Thank you Amy Bee! Wow, that’s interesting.

      • Becks1 says:

        Oooh that is interesting and kind of makes sense, right? Tatler agrees to make the edits, probably figuring by that point anyone who was interested had read the article, and thinking it meant they were staying in KP’s good graces by playing along and editing the online article, and since no one was going to know about it specifically unless they compared the versions, Tatler wouldn’t lose face.

        But then having KP leaking about the changes being made is……interesting. Bet Tatler won’t play so nice next time.

    • ABritGuest says:

      I haven’t watched it yet but may do on BBC iPlayer. But what I saw online about the Tatler article was interesting. Suggests that the palace& Tatler agreed a friendly profile & then they got upset about the classism against the Middletons. So it was all agreed to edit it to keep friendly relationship but then after the palace leaked to the press being upset about the profile & how getting lawyers involved resulted in Tatler backing down and editing it etc. All seems very duplicitous (especially when you consider that they kept in story about Meghan making Kate cry).

      And you can be in no doubt that the nasty Meghan profiles in Tatler etc or Piers Morgan rants on GMB were done with the palace’s approval or a wink/nod that they had no objection to it.

    • Beach Dreams says:

      Heh, we probably listened to the same livestream. I also missed the first 20 minutes (I think I tuned in when they were talking about the Frogmore Cottage renovation debacle.) I feel like if anything, that last bit about the trial might’ve been pushed for by KP. It didn’t fit in with the rest of the documentary at all. It felt like a pretty blatant and lazy attempt to “both sides” the leaking issue when everything up that point showed that only one side did the leaking. I’m not too bothered about it because I expected them to pull some kind of nonsense.

      • Jais says:

        @beachdreams- I think you actually heard more than me bc I didn’t hear the part about flybe or the renovations. I do think you are right about the court case part being stuck in. Obviously, it had to be because it was so recent but did the bbc initially add it on or was it highly suggested that it be added by a certain KP palace. I’m leaning towards the latter. I really think KP wants the narrative that Meghan is a liar reiterated in every media piece everywhere. They want this to reverberate so that they can refute all of her previous claims about racism, mental health, or anything else she says in the future. Regardless of whether it’s true, they want this statement repeated over and over so it will seep into the mind of the public and leave a “niggling” doubt in their minds about Meghan. Ew, I felt dirty just writing that in quotations and cannot believe Sarah Vine wrote that for a front page. When the racist media met the racist family…jeez.

      • equality says:

        There’s a thread going on Twitter about how the Frogmore renovations were much less than many of the other renovations that nobody whined about.

      • Beach Dreams says:

        @equality What surprised me about the documentary’s discussion was that they admitted that 1) FrogCott was seriously dilapidated already, so the “taxpayers’ money” was actually going to repairs, 2) any fixtures were actually paid for by Harry and Meghan (and there was in fact no yoga studio), and 3) the renovation story was used to constantly attack them. It’s the admission of the last point that was the most surprising to me.

      • equality says:

        @Beach Dreams I’m glad they admitted that much.

      • Sarah says:

        @Beachdreams: I am glad that I am not the only person who thought the last bit of information did not make any sense and did not fit in. I also did not like how it was framed to make it look like Meghan and Harry leaked information to the authors of Finding Freedom without it being noted that Jason basically told them that it was a good thing to do.

    • Sofia says:

      Some of the Tatler stuff was a surprise for me. I didn’t know that KP/Tatler agreed not to mention the edits only for them to leak to the DM. I’m sure that didn’t make Dennen and the aristos happy.

  13. Amy Bee says:

    I think the threat made by KP to withdraw shows from the BBC worked but at least the documentary served to confirm what most of us already knew and what Meghan and Harry told us in the Oprah interview. The Royal Rota didn’t paint themselves in a good light and it will be interesting to see how the relationship between the Palace and the press changes going forward. The press can’t be happy that the Palace said that all the leaks they gave to them were false. And the good thing is that Harry and Meghan are out of there so the Palace can no longer leak stories or brief against them.

    • notasugarhere says:

      I doubt there was any threat to remove anything. William’s documentary on BBC failed so badly, they moved the other episodes to late night. The BBC made clear they passed on showing Kate’s last minute Brand New Kind of Keen Christmas Show. BBC also made clear that her struggle show, if it is made, is still being made by their constract group and shown on ITV. Any threats W&K made were hollow, because they still need the BBC to make their struggle shows happen.

      William and Kate didn’t ‘win’ anything here; they ended up showing how foolish they are. And were publicly called out and corrected by the BBC for their efforts.

      • Demi says:

        Yeah the BBC didn’t change their plan because of KP threats they never wanted to air keens Christmas concert in the first place because they already got their own concert royal shows don’t get the BBC more viewership than their other programs so they aren’t bothered by KP tantrums

    • A says:

      I mean, does the BBC need anything William and Kate produce to get ratings though? They really don’t. William can’t bar the BBC from airing royal weddings, funerals and coronations. Those are arguably the three major events that people ever bother to tune in for. People don’t watch any of that on ITV or any other channel, particularly if they don’t live in the UK. They immediately tune into the BBC. None of the other British channels have the type of reach or global impact the BBC does either, so for William to refuse to let them air any of his stuff is just shooting himself in the foot for a grand gesture that I sincerely don’t think he can really manage to do in the long run. He’s an unelected public figure refusing to work with the public broadcaster of his country, when as any fule kno, you don’t exactly do that when you want the most coverage and reach as a public figure.

  14. Blujfly says:

    Frankly, whoever was responsible for leaving Meghan unprotected in a crowded public market in Tonga should have been crying. And it’s on that trip that Rebecca English claims she saw a staffer crying in the car and looked up and made eye contact totally humiliated. Ask yourself if you’ve ever seen the Cambridges in such a position, completely unprotected from the public. Never. Always a huge security perimeter and always a huge buffer from inverted members of the public. It was pure, unadulterated incompetence.

  15. Cessily says:

    It can be watched on Brit box if you use a vpn location where it is approved for broadcast. I watched it live streamed on Twitter yesterday by someone who had access, but this morning videos and clips are not available which is telling.
    I have wondered if the silence (which is almost eerie) has something to do with the appeal decision being released this Thursday?

  16. Beach Dreams says:

    If he did, he didn’t get much payoff because the documentary still made him and Kate look bad. I was listening to an audio-only stream of it yesterday, and:

    1) The Flybe stunt was noted for its timing (a couple of days after Harry and Meghan were criticized for taking Elton John’s private jet) and Camila Tominey was questioned about her article crediting Simon Case for the move. She flailed a bit and claimed that she was just admiring how aware KP was of optics.

    2) The SA and Pakistan tours were discussed and a couple of royal reporters (I think Rhiannon was one of them) said that William and Kate treated the royal rota much differently (aka friendlier) than they had on past tours. She said he invited them to the front of the plane for a “group hug” (I think she was speaking figuratively there).

    3) Anna Pasternak (writer of the infamous “Catherine the Great” Tatler article) had a LOT to say about how the fallout around her article went down. She maintained that it was overall a balanced piece and that Kate was probably most bothered about the unflattering comments about Carole. She also said that her comment about Kate being “perilously thin” was “considered to be a compliment, especially in my circle”.

    Anna said that after the article was forcibly edited, she was told that it was best to remain quiet on the matter. Two days after that conversation, the Fail had a big headline about Kate shutting down the Tatler article and flexing her power. Anna was notably annoyed when she talked about this, saying that the Fail could’ve only run that story if *someone* leaked to them. She pointedly stated that neither she nor Tatler leaked anything.

    This isn’t to say that the BBC was necessarily hard-hitting with part 2, but it certainly wasn’t flattering to William and Kate. The implications were there.

    • BothSidesNow says:

      @ Beach Dreams, thank you for the lovely details. It’s been apparent how involved TOBB has been with regards to leaks, as they seemed to immediately drop off considerably once they both split their offices. If anyone had brought staff to tears and are still suffering from these traumatic events, it’s TOBB. His inability to keep his anger and temper tantrums in check are well known throughout his entire adult life.

      Thank goodness these staff members never had to fight in WWII otherwise Britain would have been taken over by the Nazis.

    • LaraW” says:

      What I’m gathering is that the BBC series was a lot of “here are the breadcrumbs that make an interesting trail” rather than “EXPLOSIVE EXPOSURE OF KP’S COZY RELATIONSHIP WITH TABLOID PRESS.” Is that right?

      • ML says:

        This is a good way of summarizing the show.

      • Beach Dreams says:

        Pretty much. It was enough for people to realize how entangled Will and Kate have become with the press. I know some folks were disappointed after listening to/watching it yesterday, but I never expected the BBC to do a full-on exposure in the first place, especially considering how they’ve aligned with the rest of the UK media’s anti-Sussex campaign numerous times beforehand. If anything, it was a bit surprising that they were as even-handed as they were. Again, it wasn’t a great documentary but it did more than expected IMO.

      • Sofia says:

        That’s what I’m getting from it. It’s not pointing fingers at the Cambridges but rather “here’s some interesting things to hear about” and lets the viewer come to their own conclusions.

    • ML says:

      I stayed up last night to watch it and got the feeling that it might have been reluctantly edited a bit, but tbh, I’m not sure. For instance, Amol Rajan paid attention to the Flybe stunt, occurring directly after H&M were accused of taking private jets a number (4?) Of times just before. However, what makes the Flybe stunt truly reprehensible is that the airline was not expecting the Cambridges and had to freaking fly an empty plane down to accommodate them. That last part was left out of the BBC narrative, and I would assume that it would have been an excellent example of how the Cambridge’s use the press as their personal advertising agency/ attack dog.
      Rhiannon had, according to her, informally tried to speak to Harry on camera and was shocked at how he refused to engage. She later realized that she had “kicked the hornet’s nest” by trying to circumvent the official protocol, though she said that the royal reporters often try to do that and aren’t rebuffed. Then she mentioned how the Cambridge’s Pakistan tour began on a very warm, friendly note: the rest of the reporters interviewed here over agreed with her. However, during the Pakistan tour, Tom Brady’s SA interview came out, and the mood among the Cambridges turned somewhat sour.
      The Anna Pasternak (her last name means parsnip in Dutch) interview was brilliant! She was very clearly very unhappy with how she had been treated. The BBC blurred the original printed article in a way that you could still read parts of it and they showed that during this episode. She also was clear that Kate was the force behind the article having to be changed and it happened.
      After episode 1, I had expected 2 to be a bit stronger than it turned out to be. And again, essentially everything in the episode is already known to us: I only learned that the British apparently have something called “American wife syndrome,” which I had never heard before. But, yeah, even watered down this did not flatter the royal family.

      • LBB says:

        Thank you ML. I appreciate everyone who watched it giving input to the content!! I do have to ask, what is “American wife syndrome”?

      • Beach Dreams says:

        I think they probably did edit part 2 a little bit, but not enough to stem the damaging implications for the RF (well, KP more specifically). If anything, I think the incongruous mention of the MOS trial was a last-minute addition (especially since it came right at the end of the documentary) and it was probably demanded by KP. It was just so out of place with what I’ve heard of the rest of the documentary, and it was a very lazy way of trying to imply both sides leak to the media. Like…everything they’ve discussed in these documentaries show that it’s just one side leaking, and it’s not the Sussexes’ side. I think at best, the Cambridges come out of this looking pretty suspicious and at worst, completely guilty.

      • Jaded says:

        @LBB – American Wife Syndrome refers to women who come to the UK from the US, buy a “quaint cottage”, then either completely renovate it thereby removing all its charm, or raze it to the ground and build a monster house on the property.

      • ML says:

        @ LBB, Unfortunately, I’m not sure what American wife syndrome is, only that it’s not good. I believe it was associated with the part of the program that dealt with the Frogmore cottage renovations? A bunch of tabloids had the phrase slathered in their headlines saying that Meghan suffered from it. Any British people care to define it for the rest of us?

    • A says:

      That stuff with Anna Pasternak though is actually quite eyebrow raising, at least for me. I got the impression that she was salty about what had gone down, but to have it confirmed in this way is something else. Good for her for speaking out, and I hope she doesn’t suffer any negative repercussions career wise or otherwise tbh!!! Of all the stuff the Cambs have managed to pull, the Tatler fiasco is what I always find the most censorious, and it blows my mind that literally NO ONE gives a sh-t about it or what its implications could be.

      • Beach Dreams says:

        It was quite eyebrow raising for me too. In addition to highlighting the power trip of the Cambridges, Anna’s commentary establishes a clear pattern with these two. The pre-wedding incident between Kate and Meghan was resolved and only known by the few people present, but somehow the story was leaked and turned into a lie to make Kate the victim. This type of “let’s not talk about this/keep this quiet” agreement, only for the situation to be leaked and twisted, seems to be Kate’s MO.

      • February-Pisces says:

        In the program it was claimed that the 5 month legal battle with Tatler over the article was because they called Carole middleton ‘middle class’? I mean REALLY? Of all the negative sh*t Meghan has gone through and poor Kate couldn’t cope with her mother being called middle class? Poor Kate it must have been awful for her.

        But in all seriousness it was because it mentioned Willie being close with his neighbour as that was the first line that was cut from it, and everything else was just an excuse to divert from that. Their first reason for faux rage was because they said Kate was ‘exhausted’.

        But to use the “they called Kate’s mum middle class” as a reason is pitiful and completely tone deaf, especially since the middletons use being ‘middle class and a normal family’ as a USP for the public to like them.

  17. Eurydice says:

    I don’t understand the point of this BBC series in the first place. It all looks like colossal stupidity from both the BBC and William’s camp.

    And the idea that people have PTSD from having worked a couple of months for Meghan is ludicrous – between traveling and pregnancy and moving the household, when did she have time to bully anyone into PTSD? And what does it mean that she didn’t behave like a princess? Not dead drunk all the time? Not sleeping around? Not having her toes sucked? Not taking bribes? No screaming fights, secret assignations with married men? What exactly did she do that wasn’t princess-like?

    • equality says:

      Well, Anne is the one who is a “real” princess and there have been plenty of horror stories about her behavior.

      • Eurydice says:

        Margaret was a real princess and the princesses by marriage, Diana and Sarah, were no picnic, either. So, are they saying Meghan should have been more like Kate? (Or Sophie, but no one ever remembers her).

      • equality says:

        Sophie had her big scandal in 2001. Afterward she no longer worked and started being a “working” royal.

    • Sarah says:

      @Eurydice What they meant is that she wasn’t like Kate who dresses pretty and shuts up. The media and the public aka folks that are older wanted her to sit down and shut up and not have an opinion.

  18. Mslove says:

    I don’t see how the BBC, or anyone else, can stand to work with such unprofessional amateurs. It seems like William is out of control, throwing tantrums, blaming others. If he’s this bad now, what will he be like when he becomes Prince of Wales?

    • BothSidesNow says:

      I see the entire Monarchy destroyed within the first five years. In addition to the fact that once TQ passes there will be an onslaught of countries removing themselves. Add to the fact that Chaz will reign for possibly 2 decades, or less. The CW countries are paying attention to the whims/tantrums combined with lack of maturity, refusal of learning to carry off the of simplest of duties, with regards to TOBB.

      The unforgivable comments uttered by TOBB in a matter of speaking for only a few minutes regarding African countries is a glimpse into what we will see when he becomes king. TOBB was mercilessly condemned worldwide for his racists comments, as he should have been, is his true character.

  19. A says:

    Once again, I’ll bring up the fact that if it’s true that William, as the future future monarch of the UK, used legal threats to force the PUBLIC BROADCASTING NETWORK of the country of which he’s supposed to be future future monarch, to basically CENSOR any coverage that might have the potential to reflect negatively on him, bc….?????? it makes him look bad???? …then that is an incredibly alarming prospect for all parties involved. Including the MoS, who are not exempt from his legal threats, whose protective cover from his ire will only last up until the moment they also manage to piss him off.

    And again, for the millionth time, if this is true, WHY isn’t this being referred to as censorship, which it is!?? How is it okay for a member of the royal family to go around censoring unfavourable press about themselves and their actions!?! If this were a Labour party politician, the Fail would be screaming the house down on how this is straight up KGB level censorship. But for this, there’s just absolutely nothing. How interesting.

    People speculate on what it’ll be that ultimately brings William down. It’s not going to be his marriage, or a potential divorce, or anything. It’s going to be sh-t like this. This is a person who does not know, let alone understand, what his limits are in his position, and he doesn’t care to respect them, bc he doesn’t care about democracy or upholding democratic institutions or freedom of speech. William has a pattern of not going after absolutely egregious, slanderous bs, but only ever things that are the MILDEST critiques of himself and his actions. That should tell people that his intention is not to protest against tabloid excess, but only to hit back when it affects or concerns him. To try and go around telling a free press what they can and can’t print or put on the TV bc it might make him, and only him, look bad, is not a good thing. I really really hope that the British people wake up to this sh-t bc by the time Willy gets to the throne, it’s not going to be pretty or fun for anyone who dares to stand up against him.

    • BothSidesNow says:

      @ A, they also need to wake up to the fact that TOBB doesn’t care about learning what will be expected of him. He doesn’t care about the peasants that live within Britain OR the CW countries. The ONLY thing that TOBB cares about is himself. TOBB can see and smell HIS day becoming king!!! TOBB cares ONLY about power, money and control! Nothing more, nothing less. TOBB has spent the last 39+ years cultivating a mentality that HE is the only one that matters. Everything else and everyone else is merely collateral damage.

    • Lady Digby says:

      In the I newspaper they printed a letter from a man that the BBC were right to resist pressure from RF about documentary and that W and K retaliation by withholding carol service was spiteful. This newspaper is owned by ANL who also publish DF and MoS so I never expected to see such a critical letter published by it.

  20. equality says:

    So a lawyer defending Meghan is “going on the attack”? Are the lawyers complaining for Will “going on the attack”?

    • Amy Too says:

      That was my favorite part of the article! And by favorite I mean it was so stupid and bad that I had to laugh at it.

      “…Meghan’s personal solicitor, who went on the attack to defend the duchess against accusations of bullying, denying she had ever ‘improperly’ used her ‘power’.”

      She went on the attack to defend Meghan by denying false claims. Where was the attack? Where is the offense here? This sounds purely like defense. It’s just such a blatantly obvious bit of bad writing meant to frame Meghan as an angry black woman, out here attacking everyone and hurling insults, and yet the only thing they can actually say about her—in the exact same sentence!—is that her lawyer defended her against accusations (which are actually attacks *from others against Meghan*) by denying them.

      • BeanieBean says:

        Oh my goodness. The pretzel knots these people twist themselves into in order to denigrate Meghan. Her lawyer went on the attack to defend their client? That literally makes no sense! This is such offensively stupid writing!

  21. Over it says:

    To be fair if you work for Kp, then you don’t work so Meghan actually asking these people to you know work, must have been a shock to the system. They were like work? Is that code for something fun like let’s go shopping for buttons and wigllets? And Meghan said ammmm nooo. I mean let’s get some things done. People are depending on us and there is so much to do with so little time. This is when all the white women in the palaces and the white men too broke into rivers of salty tears.

    • BothSidesNow says:

      @ Over It, exactly! Oh my, a bi-racial American woman is telling US what to do? Are we supposed to work? For HER? Oh my!! The nerve of this woman!! How can we survive such brutal work conditions?!?!? I am in such an utter state of PTSD that I will never be able to work again!!

    • Amy Too says:

      I can also imagine that it would leave me fearful, with a constant pit in my stomach, always on edge, looking for any signs of offense and magnifying them, if my job was literally to pretend nice to someone’s face while at the same time trying to secretly sabotage them every step of the way by spying on them, purposely acting as incompetently as possible, and lying to their face about what I plan to do and what my intentions are. I would constantly be nervous that they were on to me, would catch on that I was a lying two faced jerk, and might fire me, or confront me. And that’s just if my job was to pretend to work for them, to be nice or whatever, but to sabotage everything through pretend incompetence and purposeful slowness.

      I can also see myself feeling anxious and just really bad and weird about myself and the situation if my job was to be openly snotty and cruel to a nice, new, hard working, biracial woman’s face who didn’t deserve it and had been nothing but kind to me. If I was being encouraged to roll my eyes when she spoke, to give her backhanded complimented that we’re actually insults, to flat out refuse to do my job, to make sure she always felt out of place and uncomfortable, to do something bad to her newborn son in the night(!!), to act in such a way that would make her feel like she will never be accepted, to be insubordinate and complain about her in front of her. If I did all those things while this woman was newly in the country, newly in a highly public facing role, newly pregnant, obviously struggling, and under constant attack from the press, I would have PTSD about how I acted.

      I wonder how much of this “people are still in tears about what happened more than 2 years ago, people still have PTSD from their time working with Meghan, is guilt. William and Kate asked them to act horrifically, they made KP a war zone, a toxic pit, an “it’s us against them, and they’re going down, and you’re going to help because I’m the future king” sort of place. I can’t imagine that anyone who made it their job to bring down a suicidal, pregnant, newlywed, new Princess from a foreign country would be 100% clear conscienced about it. That’s a lot of having to justify your bad behavior and lie to yourself about why this is supposedly okay. I would be a wreck.

  22. Izzy says:

    Yes, of course they were traumatized. They were expected to actually WORK.

  23. Keri says:

    To think they could have avoided all this if only someone had reined William in say, 5, 10, even 20 yrs ago because this isn’t just happening. It’s been simmering for decades. Go William go. We are all rooting for you in this regard. Burn it all to the ground 😂

  24. February-Pisces says:

    I was quite disappointed with part 2, it just reiterated Meghans negative headlines over the last 3 years. I feel like they still wanted to ‘say it, without saying it’ but it was watered down compared to the first part. But it’s point was still there in the fact negative press and positive press only depends on how much you kiss the media’s ass.

    I do think Willie and KP cut a deal with the BBC and they will once again embiggen his fragile ego. But William is a dictator and tyrant, there is no such thing as a ‘free press’ or democracy where he is concerned.

    Not one person on British TV is allowed to say anything bad about him. I’m pretty sure every broadcaster or public figure is well aware of the fact that if they dare criticise him, he will attack and try to ruin them. Just like Tom bradby or omid scobie, who have never actually said anything bad about him, but support harry and Meghan. There seems to be a genuine fear over challenging William.

  25. Sam says:

    These people have had royals who have choked, poured tea on them, shouted at them and other documented horrid behaviour but Meghans “behaviour” gave them PTSD that they are still recovering from…

  26. Slippers4life says:

    There are 8 Criteria that need to be observed before receiving a diagnosis of PTSD. Do these staff’s symptoms all pass through these criteria? Or are they just stigmitizing people who suffer from PTSD again by flippantly using the term for dramatic effect?

  27. nina says:

    Dammit man fix that tooth already. You have more than enough money for a very good orthodontist

  28. rea says:

    No I doubt the BBC is getting blackmailed. Rather they want the exclusives coming up like the Jubilee so they are pretending to be nice for now. But William does not own the BBC, it’s the other way around. Make no mistake the BBC is Godzilla. 😬

  29. phlyfiremama says:

    Not surprised in the least, sadly. Despite the generous public finding, the BBC is very biased in favor of maintaining the same ole status quo. Sadly, the days of even the pretense of impartiality are long gone from the BBC. 🤷‍♀️

  30. Fascinating Fascinator says:

    Did we watch the same documentary? I felt like this clearly stated that royals briefed against Meghan – that’s how the lawsuit appeal was won by the Fail. Part 2 was more subtle in many ways but the level of detail of how it all happens made it crystal clear to me that the households briefed against each other. What is it that everyone was expecting? Genuine question – I really enjoyed this. I also thought the final closing thoughts about how the media gets content and the monarchy gets consent was important and insightful.

  31. Over it says:

    Okay, I watched part 2, and I think it’s incredible how all Camilla got told was have you heard about Meghan making Kate cry? Camilla said no tell me details. The person response was they have no details. Yet. Camilla a person who pretends to be a journalist doesn’t fact check. She goes ahead and writes this completely racist character destroying hit peace on Meghan. I wish that man had asked her why she didn’t fact check. These people are vile. Meghan never stood a chance. She is nothing more to them than a cash cow.

  32. Over it says:

    Furthermore I find it absolutely unforgivable that the queen could issue a statement after that interview saying the family was sad to learn of the extent of the issues the couple faced. Like are these people seriously trying to tell me that even though they pretend to be a loving supportive family that not one of them could see what all this negativity and smear was doing to a pregnant woman? Like really? See this is why Barbados left. You can’t claim to want to be their head of state while at the same time not giving a damm about the welfare of people of color. Barbados is a predominantly Black Country. How could they possibly love themselves and their people if they sat quietly by and continue to allow a very much racist family to be their head of state? I support and respect Barbados and it’s incredible prime minister the queen of all queens Ms. Mia Motley.

  33. Over it says:

    I resent the fact that the bbc took the time to leave in that Jason the ass brief the press that Meghan talked to him about FF , but the same bbc couldn’t be ass about also including the fact that Jason didn’t tell the complete truth and that if William didn’t 💯 authorize that leak, then Kate certainly did. I mean they said the point of this series was to show just how the royals brief against each other. Well Jason helping the mail on line with its case against Meghan is literally what this program is. They continue to protect william even when the jackass is clearly guilty. God don’t like ugly and one day Willy the leaking liar and his equally leaking lying wife will get what’s coming to both of them

  34. Em says:

    I don’t trust any British documentary on Meghan and Harry tbh because no matter how well researched they seem, you find people still trying to both sides the argument or still subtly repeat the lies. Also the addition of the part where Meghan apologized to the court was done in Favor of KP. That’s their smoking gun, to paint her a liar, to bad people don’t care Atleast in the US even though they had a whole segment basically calling her a liar on CNN, NBC and MSNBC and other international outlets (that’s how you know a smear campaign is palace approved). William is too concerned with Meghan and Harry to pay attention to what’s going on around him, Meghan isn’t his problem, William will fall on his own sword. As for Harry and Meghan they should get this bullying issue resolved ASAP or it will keep hanging over their heads. The only royal expose I’m waiting for is from Ronan farrow, he isn’t scared of that bald rat